Jamieson Wolf
Number-one bestselling author
A Winter Walk – A Poem
I was walking in the snow.
my every movement
was focused only on
putting one foot
in front of the other.
My cane was making
star patterns in the
white crust on the earth.
A man approached me,
his face full of concern.
He said something
that I did not hear.
I asked him to repeat
himself. It didn’t help
that the wind was blowing
and I had gone temporarily deaf.
He spoke again and I just nodded,
still not able to make out his words.
I walked on, thinking on him
and what he said came into me
loud and clear:
“Watch where you’re going.
It’s dangerous out! You have
to be careful.”
I wish I had responded
with a thank you or
a smile, but I didn’t hear him.
I heard him now
and his words kept me safe
on the long walk home.
This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink
Claire Kincaid has never believed.
Growing up in New Orleans, she has been surrounded by voodoo all of her life. What’s more, she is the great granddaughter of Marie Laveau, the most powerful voodoo priestess in history. As if that wasn’t enough, her parents hold high ranking positions in the Guild, the body of power in the voodoo community.
Still she doesn’t believe. Claire has always believed in what she can see and touch, what is explainable. She has never had any patience for voodoo magic and hexes. However, something happens to change her mind and put her in danger.
A woman comes to her shop looking for a black listed substance. They are not the only shop to be visited, though, and this puts everyone on high alert. When several of the shops are broken into and whispers of the Cold Blood spell start circulating, Clare knows something has to be done.
She joins forces with Sasha and Allegra and her boyfriend Xander and they must fight magic with magic, if they have a hope of surviving. Clare must fight an unfamiliar magic, whether she believes or not, if they have any hope of surviving…
I absolutely loved every page of this book! Michelle Zink always writes an amazing story with characters you will grow to love, but there are things that stand out in This Wicked Game that help the book stand out.
It’s the first of Zink’s novels to be held in modern times. Her previous four novels have all involved places and times from the past. Though This Wicked Game doesn’t have the flowery Victorian dialogue, the book doesn’t suffer from this.
Far from it. There’s something that makes the story in This Wicked Game more frightening and more real having it told in modern times and modern language. It also features Voodoo, something at once instantly fascinating and alluring. Zink does a magnificent job bring voodoo and New Orleans to life. It’s as if we’re right there with Claire, fighting alongside her.
The other thing that works so well for This Wicked Game is a dark mystery of the novel. Her other books have featured a paranormal mystery of sorts, but this is the first time Zink has delved into full on mystery and it works so well for the novel. There are fantasy elements within the book, but they don’t over power it. The mystery is all consuming and you will want to read to the very end to find out what happens.
Claire is another reason why this novel succeeds. She makes a believable progression from non-belief to believer though out the book and every emotion she goes through is pitch perfect. Her transition is so well done, so well crafted, that by the time Claire believes, we will too.
Zink has outdone herself with This Wicked Game. It involves mystery, suspense, secrets from the past, betrayals and young love. It has everything you could want in a novel.
I can’t wait to read it all over again.
The Mirror Through the Trees – A Poem
When I glance in the mirror,
I see him.
He is a darker version of me,
one that is still unbeautiful
even though he’s made
from silver glass and light.
He is the twin that I used to know,
never far from me,
hiding inside of me.
He starts speaking to me
in a soft, salient hiss
filled with loathing and
a subtle kind of sadness.
I imagine his hiss is the
soft rustle of leaves,
sprouting from trees that
I have conjured behind the glass.
Soon, the mirror looks out at
a sea of green, trees as far
as the eye can see,
each branch holding a wish
of possibilities undiscovered.
A lone bird, yellow feathers
that are streaked with white,
flies out of the mirror towards me,
his song bright like the sunshine.
He flies merrily around me,
his merry tune mixing
with the rustle of the leaves.
When I turn back to the mirror,
I see the dark twin is gone.
So is my bedroom.
All there is to be seen
is a sea of green leaves,
bending this way and that
in a breeze that almost seems
to be talking to me.
The Winds of Change – A Poem
The winds of change
are a constant presence.
We do not know where
they will take us
or what they will bring.
The only thing we can do
is to embrace the wind
and learn from what
it shows us, what it teaches.
Though it seems like
we are leaving something behind,
we are actually taking
everything we learned with us.
So that when the next wind arrives,
when the winds embrace us again,
we will be ready.
12 Days of Christmas! Free ebooks!
It’s that time of year again! Christmas and Yule are fast approaching and it’s started to snow!
Every year, I give away a novella for the Holiday Season. In 2012 I gave away my novella 12. I had figured that it would be a one shot deal about a serial killer who took twelve victims during the 12 days of Christmas. Then I started thinking: what happened next? I left the novella open ended and wanted to find out what happened.
So in 2012, I gave away my novella 12 + 1, following Oliver as he came face to face with his daughter. I left that novella open ended as well, never planning to continue to a third novella. But here we are!
In December of 2013, I’ll be giving away my novella 12 + 2 and it’s the final novella in the trilogy about Oliver, the joy he brings to the Holiday Season and what happens to him this Christmas. You can now read the first two novellas for free in preparation for 12 + 2!
They’re my gift to you this Holiday Season. I hope you have all the joy you could want (without the blood) this Holiday Season!
How awesome is that?
Here are the blurbs to get you going:
12:
Oliver hates Christmas. He hates the fakery of it, the false joy that lifts everyone’s spirits. But only momentarily, only until the next box is opened, until the next piece of paper is torn away. But he is a true bringer of joy. In taking their lives, he is the giver of ultimate pleasure; and what better gift could there be for the Holidays than eternal bliss?
But this year is special. This year is 12.
Every year, for eleven years, Oliver has chosen twelve people, one person for each of the twelve days of Christmas. This year is 12. The final year. This year is personal. This is the year of the 12, payment for all of Oliver’s hard work. And he intends to collect. Eleven victims have already fallen-and Oliver has saved the best for last.
Merry Freaking Christmas. This year, there will be blood.
12 + 1:
Lenore hates Christmas.
It was the season where her lust for blood began, where father Oliver led her on a path of killing and taking life-except he called it giving joy for the Holidays.
She has achieved some renown as a performance artist. What the art going public don’t know is that all of her “canvasses” die. She takes them all, the blood hunger Oliver woke in her all those years ago far too strong to ignore.
Hoping to fool Oliver, she intercepts him in the street and leads him back to her apartment, hoping to once and for all give her father the ultimate Christmas gift and end his reign of terror forever.
Lenore plans to kill her father and take back her life this Christmas Eve. However, Christmas has a few gifts planned for her that Lenore doesn’t count on and red, after all, is a colour of the Holidays…
And what’s 12 + 2 about?
Well, you’ll just have to wait and see! Some gifts are worth waiting for after all…
Download and read 12 and 12 + 1 at www.jamiesonwolf.com
Enjoy!
Buy Little Yellow Magnet from Amazon and Kobo!
Jamieson Wolf has written a compelling story about navigating multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy. His story will touch your heart, make you cry, then laugh, and inspire you. A touching memoir with a bit of magic…and tarot! ~ Theresa Reed, author of The Tarot Coloring Book
Jamieson Wolf 