I wrote a short story called "Hagurosan" many years ago for the War Child anthology, "Kids' Night In". It used to be on my site, to read for free, but several years later, the publishers Barrington Stoke, who produce books for children with dyslexia or other reading problems, asked me if I would work with them to tweak it, so that they could publish it as a short book. When that was released, I removed the story from my site, in order not to take away sales from the print edition.

A few days ago, a fan called Niki was looking for the story online and asked me if it was available on Kindle. I didn't think it was, but checked to be certain, and while I was checking I saw that as well as not being on sale as an eBook, the physical book was now out of print, and although you could get a copy second-hand through Amazon, it wasn't listed on the Barrington Stoke site any longer. So it seemed like the perfect time to restore it to my site!

When I tweaked the story for Barrington Stoke, I broke it down into chapters and added some new material. That version is now available on my site, for the first time ever, and you can read it by clicking here: https://darrenshan.com/extras/feature/hagurosan-barrington-stoke-version

If you would rather read the original version, that's on my site as well, and you can check it out here: https://darrenshan.com/extras/feature/hagurosan

There's not a huge difference between the two versions, but I think I probably prefer the revised Barrington Stoke version, so if pushed, I'd recommend that over the other -- but hey, if you have the time, you can maybe read both versions and decide for yourself! :-)

I'll just quickly add that if you enjoy "Hagurosan," which was inspired by something that happened to me on a trip to Japan, you might also like a longer story I wrote called "Koyasan," which was also dreamt up on another visit to Japan. It's on sale as a low-cost eBook through Amazon stores worldwide: https://www.amazon.com/Koyasan-Darren-Shan-ebook/dp/B01LQI2HXC/

My latest book, Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt, wasn't inspired by a trip to Japan, but I think it's a pretty good read regardless! :-) You can find out more about it in the July issue of my monthly newsletter, where there's also a cool little competition still running: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly