Fantasy, Fear and the Fog
From the dragon-filled Celenic Earth Chronicles to the Silent Hill-inspired Sacred Valley novels, the South African author talks fear, creative freedom, bonsai trees, and why the next generation of writers should never stop loving the craft.
By Olive Stevens and Justine Castellon | For Just Reading Nook
Some writers find horror. Others realize it was there all along. South African author Shaun M. Jooste belongs firmly in the second group. He made his name building sprawling fantasy worlds of elves, dragons and dark lords, yet readers kept noticing a shadow running underneath it all. Today he writes full-blooded supernatural horror through his Sacred Valley novels, books that wear their Silent Hill influence proudly while staking out territory entirely their own.
Jooste is also a publisher, a game writer, a bonsai grower, a martial artist and, by his own admission, a father whose deepest fears come from real life rather than the supernatural. Just Reading Nook spoke with him to talk about the leap from fantasy to horror, the day a licensing door closed and a better one opened, what genuinely scares him, and the reality of carrying the South African flag into a global indie market.
What came through most clearly in the conversation is a writer who plans carefully, scares in all the right places, and simply refuses to stop.
Where It Started: The Celenic Earth Chronicles
Before the fog of Sacred Valley rolled in, there was Celenic Earth. Jooste’s epic fantasy trilogy, the Celenic Earth Chronicles, opens with Windfarer, set in a world of might, magic and mystical creatures where foul beasts attack the villages and a shadow spreads across the land. The series follows the hero Shadowolf against the dark lord Le’Mar. It continues with DragonRider, in which dragons arrive to end a war that has raged for centuries, and closes with Sadgi, where Shadowolf finally takes the war to Le’Mar himself.
The books are pitched squarely at readers who love Tolkien, Skyrim and The Witcher. One early reader, lecturer Ellen Hotchkiss, wrote that fans of Tolkien, Terry Brooks or David Eddings would be “well pleased” with the series.
This is where Jooste cut his teeth as a worldbuilder, and where his love of dark material first started showing.
“I have loved the horror genre since my teens, but most of the books I read was fantasy,” he says. “I loved building my own world with magic and combat systems, but even then, my series could have been considered dark fantasy.”
At least one reader noticed. “One reader had said some of the combat scenes have plenty of gore and could pass as horror,” Jooste recalls. “So I guess I always had a bit of horror in me.”
It’s a lovely detail, because it suggests the move into horror wasn’t a reinvention so much as a door finally swinging open. Fantasy gave him whole worlds to build, with their own magic and combat systems. Horror, he says, lets him explore darker concepts his fantasy books couldn’t hold.
“The Sacred Valley series allows me to delve into full supernatural horror like the Silent Hill games, which inspired the horror novels,” he explains. “There, I can play around with darker concepts that wouldn’t suit my fantasy novels.”
Welcome to Sacred Valley
If Celenic Earth is Jooste’s sweeping epic, Sacred Valley is its fog-drenched shadow self. Sacred Valley: Betrayal, Book 1 of the Boatman Saga, follows Trevor, whose life takes a nightmarish turn when he wakes up haunted by visions of a town called Sacred Valley. Then the police come knocking about his wife Caroline’s apparent suicide. As Trevor is pulled into the mist, the town’s grotesque inhabitants and cryptic clues point to something worse: Sacred Valley is a malevolent force in its own right, summoning everyone who played a part in Caroline’s suffering to pay the price.
This is an adults-only read, and the book’s own description says so plainly: it is unsuitable for readers under 18. The follow-up, Sacred Valley: Obversion, is a standalone sequel that continues the Boatman Saga with a new protagonist, a woman drawn so deep into the town that her sense of reality begins to twist, and who must face her own sins before she can move forward. Guilt, penance and the price of the past sit at the beating heart of the whole series.
The Silent Hill Story
Longtime fans may remember that Betrayal first appeared as Silent Hill: Betrayal, an original tale set inside Konami’s famous horror franchise. That changed when the permission went away.
“Once Konami removed the permission for me to write Silent Hill novels, I had to rebrand it to Sacred Valley,” Jooste says. For plenty of writers, that would have been a blow. For him, it turned out to be liberating.
“I found I actually had more freedom to write as I wish. When you write in someone else’s universe, you have to make sure you don’t upset the fans by changing things they like,” he explains. “When I could write my own original horror, all that is taken away, and what I write is canon for my own worlds. I actually prefer it, and it makes the writing process easier.”
It’s a refreshing way to look at it. Writing in a beloved franchise comes with a built-in audience, but also a built-in rulebook. Sacred Valley keeps the atmosphere that made Jooste fall for Silent Hill in the first place, while letting him decide exactly what the fog hides.
What Actually Scares Him
Here’s the surprising part: a man who writes demonic towns and grotesque creatures for a living doesn’t scare all that easily on screen.
“There are few horror movies and games that scare me these days,” he admits. What really gets under his skin is much closer to home. “I feel thrillers that deal with real life scenarios, such as kids being kidnapped (being a father myself), those elements actually terrify me more than horror.”
Still, the supernatural has its hooks in him. “If I had to choose, demonic and supernatural horror really creep me out, but I love writing and watching it despite that,” he says. His personal test is wonderfully simple: “If it gives me chills, then I love it.”
That instinct finds its way onto the page. Jooste names physical suffering as another major fear, and one he deliberately uses. “Bodily afflictions and pain is another major fear, which I press on a lot in my Sacred Valley novels, but I don’t think this is region specific,” he says.
Inside the Planning (and the cut chapter)
So does Jooste map out every scare, or let the dark find him as he goes? “A bit of both, but more towards a massive planner,” he says.
His process is thorough. “I first develop the overall, characters, relationships, lore, and any specific items or notes needed in OneNote with different tabs. Then I break it down to scenes and then chapters.”
The plan isn’t a cage, though. “Sometimes I find a better way to write something, or a different path to get to the overall ending, and the story changes,” he says. “So, while I have everything plotted down, there is still flexibility for change if something better comes to mind.”
And here’s a treat for Sacred Valley fans: that flexibility once cost an entire chapter. “I actually deleted one massive chapter in Sacred Valley: Betrayal that I felt was unnecessary,” he reveals, adding that he may release it as a free extra on his author site. Readers, consider this your cue to keep watching.
Who Is Shaun When He Isn’t Writing?
Jooste wears a lot of hats. In 2016 he founded Celenic Earth Publications to publish his novels under his own label, and it has grown into a publishing house in its own right. He has worked as a game writer, contributed to the fantasy game novel Heroes of Antreya: The Journey, and even had his sci-fi screenplay The Space Drifter recommended by the 2015 Cinequest Screenwriting Festival. So what does he do when he puts all of that down?
Quite a lot, as it turns out, and much of it is wonderfully grounded.
“I grow bonsai trees at home, which is one of my favourite hobbies,” he says. “I also have a small vegetable farm in my backyard with some fruit trees on the side.”
There’s a quiet discipline running through his downtime too. “With 10 years of martial arts combat training in Tai Chi and Shaolin Wu Shu, I sometimes use my spare time to meditate or do some light exercise.”
People keep him steady. “My family and close friends serve as an anchor in the real world, while the Dark Veil Society keeps me on my toes when working on my dark novels,” he says. Jooste is a member of the Dark Veil Society, an indie horror collective.
And then there’s the fun stuff. “I also do game streaming on Twitch when I can, but this isn’t as often as I would like,” he admits. “Finally, cooking and baking is something I definitely enjoy, especially trying new recipes.”
Bonsai, Tai Chi and fresh vegetables by day; cursed towns and penitent sinners by night. Honestly, it’s a balance a lot of us could learn from.
Fear, South African Style
South Africa has no shortage of folklore and dramatic landscapes, but when asked how home shaped his sense of fear, Jooste went somewhere far more immediate. Crime is a real part of life where he lives, he explains, and the night carries its own kind of tension.
“Sometimes this leads to fear at night, especially when you hear noises in the street or the dogs start barking,” he says. “I suppose that has helped me build suspense in my novels, especially when the main character is listening out for something around the corner.”
It’s easy to see how that translates. The most effective horror often lives in the moment before anything appears: the sound you can’t place, the bark that stops too suddenly, the corner you have to turn anyway.
Going Global From the Southern Tip of Africa
Here’s the irony: Jooste’s hardest market is home. “It’s actually harder to get readership in my own country than overseas,” he says. “My main audience is in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia. I barely get sales here in South Africa, but that’s because print on demand like Amazon isn’t such a big thing here yet. So I have to set up different retail methods to get them sold here.”
Genre adds another hurdle. “SA is big on political, racial, and sports issues, so when it comes to selling fantasy and horror, it doesn’t do that well,” he explains. “For those genres, readers here tend to look at popular overseas names, and I don’t feel the indie market has hit as well here yet.”
Then there are the bookshops. “Finally, bookstores here have high demands when it comes to stocking your books, and the little guy almost has no chance.”
Indie authors everywhere will recognize that story. What sets Jooste apart is that he built his readership where the online market already was, while working out his own ways to reach readers at home.
Carrying the Flag
Asked what makes him proud, Jooste points to exactly that reach. “I think that I am so well received overseas and have experience with how to get into the online market,” he says.
He’s candid about what he sees among fellow South African writers. “Many SA writers only focus on local production, a quick print to get their name on a book, but there’s so much more to it than that.”
His advice is the kind every indie author should tape above their desk. “I would also highlight that writing is only the beginning. Marketing is what they will spend most of their time on, and then there’s possible disappointment when the book doesn’t sell so well the first year.”
And then, the line that sums him up best: “Just keep writing and publishing. Don’t stop loving the craft!”
Where to Start With Shaun M. Jooste
Fantasy readers who crave dragons, prophecies and big battles should begin with Windfarer and work through the Celenic Earth Chronicles. Horror readers, especially anyone who has ever wandered the fog of Silent Hill, should head straight for Sacred Valley: Betrayal, then follow the Boatman Saga into Sacred Valley: Obversion. Just maybe leave a light on.
Olive Stevens is an agency copywriter and managing editor of Just Reading Nook. She also writes book features and news articles.
You can follow her at x /@olivesstevens
Justine Castellon is a brand strategist with an innate ability to weave compelling narratives. She seamlessly blends her professional insight with her passion for literature. Her literary works include romantic drama novels—Four Seasons, The Last Snowfall, Gnight Sara / ‘Night Heck, I Love You, Sunday Sunset.and The Runaway Prince. With her ability to tell stories that linger long after the last word, Justine leaves a mark not only in the world of branding but also in the hearts of her readers.
www.justcastellon.com
