My Happy Marriage (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter Aft

  AFTERWORD  

Greetings! I’m Akumi Agitogi. Thank you so much for reading my debut novel!

This is the first time I’m writing an afterword, so I’m not sure what to write about. I suppose I should start by telling you a little about myself, though there isn’t much to say… But if I really need to come up with some personal trivia to share, then this will have to do: I was kind of worried that people would mock me for my pen name, since one of the characters, ago, means “jaw” in Japanese. I just chose it because I liked the look of the Japanese character for that word and thought it would make my name memorable—that’s all!

Okay, with that out of the way, let me tell you about the book. My inspiration for the title came from my love of Japanese aesthetics—I really wanted to write a story set in a world of Japanese traditions! Next, I had to pick a historical period to loosely ground my narrative in, and the Meiji and Taisho eras appealed to me the most. It goes without saying that life back then was far less convenient, and I’m not what you’d call a history buff, so that presented an additional challenge for me. Nonetheless, it was a unique time in history when Japanese and Western influences began to mix but hadn’t quite blended together yet. In this era, people and things had this peculiar vibrancy to them. I knew immediately that this would be the setting to my novel.

But I didn’t want to just write a Meiji/Taisho romance. I also wanted to add some fantasy elements to it, since I’m a huge fan of that genre… That’s why I put supernatural abilities—the Gift—into the narrative and came up with the characters of Kiyoka, a Gift-user, and Miyo, a powerless girl from a bloodline blessed with the Gift. While I struggled somewhat in creating the period-appropriate world where they live, writing these characters was hugely enjoyable.

This book is 100 percent my interests. And thanks to the encouragement of many different people, I actually managed to get it published. Publishing at least one novel was kind of on my bucket list, but I never imagined my dream would come true so quickly. I still can’t quite believe it! It took me a lot of time and effort to write it, so I hope somebody out there likes reading it!

By the way, Square Enix is releasing a manga version of my story on the Gangan Online app (as of January 2019). It’s drawn by Rito Kousaka, whose illustrations are exquisite and very expressive. Be sure to check it out!

I would like to conclude with sincere thanks to my editor, without whom this book would never have been published. Thank you so much for guiding me on my first clumsy venture into writing!

I would also like to thank Tsukiho Tsukioka for the wonderful cover illustration. Your beautiful drawing helped me flesh out the world of the story!

Another big thank-you goes to my online readers who have been cheering me on, along with everyone who’s read this far! I couldn’t have done this without you all! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my very first book all the way through to the end!

I hope we’ll meet again!

Akumi Agitogi