Tale of Jack

What to do with Jack? He delights in fighting and causing havoc. He won't listen to anyone, especially his parents. But one day he goes too far. He sneaks into a wizard's room to steal a look at a magic book. When the wizard catches him in the act, Jack refuses to surrender and fights even harder! Exasperated, the wizard places a curse on young Jack: if he thinks he's such a great warrior, let him be cursed to fight a dragon. And not just any dragon: the dragon Doom.

But Jack was such a reckless boy, a hopeless quest filled him with joy.

"Hooray!" he cried. "I'll leave tonight. The sooner there, the sooner to fight!"

Off Jack goes on his quest. He soon realises that being on his own in the Wild isn't quite the same as causing mayhem in a peaceful village. But he rediscovers his fortitude when he is joined by Tark, a talking raven on a quest of his own. They strike a pact, and together they climb into the mountains in search of glory and gold.

Mountain paths are fraught with peril, the likes of which Jack has never encountered: goblins, ghosts, and, of course, the dragon. Even if the weather doesn't kill him, his ignorance might. The Raven, the Goblin, and even the Dragon, all have tales that could help Jack survive - if he'll listen. But in these mountains, nothing is as it seems. And though Jack doesn't succeed in quite the way he thought he would, he succeeds in doing his best. And sometimes that's enough, when put to test.

The Tale of Jack, told in a mixture of rhyme and prose, makes even the lengthiest quest fly by. A timeless tale, for readers of all ages everywhere.

L.J.M. Wadsworth grew up in West Yorkshire, where anyone with an interest in legends, ghosts, UFOs and all things 'strange' could take a walk on the moors and expect not be disappointed. She moved to Canada on her own at the age of 25 and joined a children's writing course. It was there she came across the hard-hitting novels of American writer, Robert Cormier. In fact, although she most naturally wrote in the genre of supernatural suspense, Wadsworth's first-ever published piece was not a fantasy story, but an entry in The Toronto Star Short Story Competition, where she was a runner-up with a story about a Nicaraguan child refugee in Canada.

However, she knew her heart would always belong to sci-fi and fantasy, and the unsolved mysteries that seep through from invisible 'other worlds'. Her short story 'The Boy Who Saw' (Thistledown Press) was listed on the curriculum of the Saskatchewan School Board in the category 'The Unknown' alongside one of her writing heroes, John Wyndham. Her supernatural tale 'The Drummer' appeared in the second anthology of The Horrors, Terrifying Tales (Red Deer Press). And in the UK, her short story 'The Gardener' was selected by Costa Book Award winner A.L. Kennedy as one of the runners-up in the Mslexia Short Story Competition 2021.

Wadsworth's novel, Kenji, was published in 2024 (by Hawkwood Books), a YA supernatural thriller that the author sometimes describes as 'X-Files for kids', but which she was very pleased the publisher described as 'magical realism'. The Tale of Jack isn't a bit like it (other than being magical), but harks back to the epic quests of Tolkien - just moving along a bit quicker in rhyme! - and the fairytales that have sunk into our human mythology, retold over and over in a changing world.

Wadsworth would say her major influences are Alan Garner, Robert Cormier, Susan Hill and John Wyndham. She currently lives in the East Midlands, and often finds herself looking for all things 'strange' again.