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I write and I draw. My repertoire is eclectic – it includes children’s books, short stories and YA novels, sequential art and film. Please message me if you’d like to connect.

kajablackley

A wonderful #yabookreview from @_thatgirlwiththebo

A wonderful #yabookreview from @_thatgirlwiththebook_ Maggie McCormack and the Witches’ Wheel by @kajablackley⁣
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🌟 : 5/5⁣
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'Patience’ I hate that word almost as much as I hate this darkness.”⁣
“And yet, patience helps us quietly and intently wait for the light.”⁣
“And darkness? What’s the good of darkness?” asked Maggie.⁣
“That we must temper our desire to see everything all laid out at once before us.”⁣
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A brilliant start to a new female-centered YA Fantasy series with a bewitching ⁣magical setting and a mesmerizing tale of good and evil. I couldn’t stop reading this book. It has some of my fav tropes: the chosen one, found families, the secret heir, ⁣dark magic, dying world and lots of tea making (and I mean it literally). One really ⁣just gets sucked in as our protagonist’s adventures start. The world building and ⁣the theories surrounding it are so legit cool (my favorite one was about the possessing spirits one), the storyline is twisted but it unfolds rather beautifully as the mysteries and secrets reveal. ⁣
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I loved the characters, specially Fiona and Angus. The incredible storytelling keeps ⁣you hooked. It majorly takes place in the woods and forest so there’s a lot of forest talk, nature theories and adorable talking animals: a fire breathing dragon, talking ⁣trees, dogs, mice, rabbits, frogs (not so adorable), spiders, giants and the greenmen. I thoroughly enjoyed the forest folk part. It was so unique and captivating. The only turn off for me in this book was whenever Maggie acted older than her age and like all-knowing. ⁣
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Synopsis: In this action packed fantasy novel, we meet 12-year-old Maggie who goes from one foster home to the other, thinking that’s her destiny but little does she know that her life, as she knows it, is about to take a 360 degrees turn and she’ll have to unlearn lots of things to make sense of her new world. She has to take the inheritance she was meant to take all along, fight the great dark threat looming over the mother earth and all of the forest folk and take responsibility of keeping the earth and its inhabitants safe and breathing. But for all of that to happen, she will have to reborn. ⁣
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#freckledmagic

Another lovely review. Thank you @reading_is_my_yo

Another lovely review. Thank you @reading_is_my_yoga #freckledmagic Believe in it. “Nurture. Nature. Respect Mother Earth.”
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Some time ago I won a giveaway hosted by @maggiemaccormack and @readwithangie and received this wonderful book. It took some time to finally pick it up and it was absolutely amazing! I loved every single page and now I can't wait to read the next part.
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Maggie is a twelve-year-old orphan who has seen more foster families than any other kid. After her last guardian suffered a fatal heart attack she is brought to a new family. This one is decidedly different from any other family she has lived with. She feels welcome and accepted from the start but soon weird and magical things happen around her.
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I absolutely loved all the characters. They were cute and loveable. I would have loved to sit in Fiona's kitchen and have a cuppa with them. Maggie is a great character. She's tough and self confident but sometimes she acts like an older girl. But I think growing up as an orphan will definitely make a person grow up faster.
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The story is full of magical creatures: dragons, shifters, greenmen, and talking animals. The villains are definitely scary and threatening. The world building is wonderful. It's set somewhere in Scotland at the coast which is always a great setting for a book.
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The thing I loved most about the story was the message: take care of nature. There's only one and if it's gone everyone is screwed. A graffiti by the people opposed to Maggie says: "Burn the Woods!" The books explains why burning the woods is a very bad idea. In the light of current slash-and-burn methods going on in the Amazonas and wildfires at the West Coast this topic is very relevant.
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So, thank you again @maggiemaccormack and @readwithangie . This book was beautiful inside and out. I absolutely recommend it to everyone who loves stories about white witches, love for nature and great characters.
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QOTD: If you were a witch, what kind of magic would you wield?"
AOTD: I'd definitely be a wood witch. Being connected with all things nature would be wonderful.
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#yafantasyseries #ireadyalit #yabookreview #canlit #fantasybooks

The Book Fairies have brought Maggie to Sweden. Wh

The Book Fairies have brought Maggie to Sweden. Who will discover the Witches’ Wheel first?
#freckledmagic #yafantasyauthor #read #magic #ireadyalit
#Posted @withregram • @bookfairies_sweden Ska du åka tåg i Lund men glömde läsningen? Det löser vi! Någonstans på centralstationen finns Maggie McCormack and the Whitches' Wheel av Kaja Blackley, med en present, att hitta! 🧚
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Going by train from Lund and forgot to bring your read? Not to worry! Somewhere at the central station, a copy of Maggie McCormack and the Whitches' Wheel, and a small treasure, by Kaja Blackley is waiting to be picked up! 🧚

#bookfairytreasure
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About the book:

Maggie is a ginger-haired, twelve-year-old orphan who has been passed from one foster family to the next all her life. She never knows where she’ll end up so she’s become suspicious and independent, scrappy and resourceful.

As the story begins, Maggie is placed yet again into foster care – this time into a much more welcoming family. But Maggie can’t shake the feeling that something is a bit irregular about her new home and its charming, yet eccentric, inhabitants. She slowly ends up having to toss everything she understood about herself and her life out the window. But by that time, things have gone pear-shaped – it’s too late for her to run from the approaching danger.
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#ibelieveinbookfairies #bookfairiessweden #bookfairy #bookfairies #bokfe #bookdrop #booksofinstagram #bookcommunity #bookshelf #bokälskare #bokhylla #maggiemaccormack #maggiemaccormackandthewitcheswheel #kajablackley #lund #lundscentralstation

My father was a world-respected jazz drummer and t

My father was a world-respected jazz drummer and teacher. My world has always been filled with music and my work has always been inspired by it. Music is with me on my walks, especially now – on my daily COVID-constitutionals – and often acts as my bridge to cross over to the ether.
When I was 10, my father gifted me my first stereo and with it he gave me two albums that changed my creative life and still inform it today: Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Both albums – each in its very distinctive way – demonstrated to me the heights of artistry one can reach and the limitless possibilities available to a storyteller willing to reach beyond the conventional norms so conveniently employed in the mass market. Other artists, in other genres –– like Kurosawa, Klimt, Keats and Kirby –– have inspired me, and they too braved a unique path, but Jarrett and The Beatles remain dear to my heart. And today, as I walked on concrete sidewalks, then soil paths, under dried leaves strewn like so many dead bats crunching under my feet, trees desperate for the spark of spring to call forth and cover their bare branches with a robust green canopy, it was again Keith Jarrett’s music that cleared the way for a new, emerging project to take root. More to follow.
Stay safe, everyone. Be well.

#inspiration #keithjarrett #thebeatles #jazz #music #authorofinstagram #fictionwriter #indieauthor #magic #authors
#writerscommunity
#writersofig
#reading
#author
#write
#imagination
#klimt
#kirby
#Keats
#Kurosawa
#canadian

@mabelsfablesbookstore Mabel's Fables, one of Tor

#edwardgorey There are many artists, writers and f

#edwardgorey
There are many artists, writers and film directors who owe a debt to Edward Gorey. He was a true original.

Edward Gorey was a master of macabre storytelling, setting his work in either the Victorian or Edwardian period. Some of his books were wordless; others were deliciously morbid, exercising great economy of prose. Often his stories involve one or more people meeting a gruesome end. There’s mystery, drama, humour and a touch of the surreal in almost all of his works. Some people will know of Edward Gorey not by name but by the intros he made for PBS Mystery!
Gorey was said to be a rather solitary man, who lived in a house on Cape Cod, in the company of cats. Yet, he was open to meeting fans of his work, even people who showed up at his front door uninvited (Gorey was listed in the phone book). He was eccentric, and could be seen walking around town in a fur coat, his fingers cupped with rings. He liked watching soap operas, movies and attending the theatre.

Gorey’s illustrations are wonderfully distinctive. His compositions are masterful. Usually in black and white, textured with crosshatched lines, he evokes the mood of dread, despair and loneliness; his characters exude a sense of emotional detachment. The viewer becomes a voyeur or accomplice to the many dreadful acts Gorey’s characters commit on other cast members. His illustrations have inspired many illustrators to emulate his style, but no one does Gorey better than Gorey.

If I had to pick a favourite among his work, it would be the Ghastly Crumb Tinies. How could you not love a book using an alphabet that starts off with, “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs; B is for Basil assaulted by bears.” I could describe Gorey’s work as an acquired taste, though I ‘m sure those who cannot separate the humour of the stories from their gruesome elements might never acquire it. What I will say is that Gorey’s work has brought me a lot of pleasure over the years. I list him among those special artists who, even after death, continue to have a lasting impact on new and old fans alike. #blogpost #folkloreandfairytales #fictionwriter #freckledmagic #gothichorror #bookworm_insta #booksaremagic

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