Synopsis

1858. Magic and danger surround Twilight Wild Adams, but she doesn’t really notice—until her 16th birthday. Upon reading her special birthday letter filled with secrets from her beloved GrandMama—abolitionist and champion of a covert mystical sisterhood—everything changes.

Opening her eyes, Twilight speaks out against slavery. But almost everyone around her wants her to keep her beliefs to herself.

Doing what she knows is right and believing her emerging powers will guide her, she rushes in with wild conviction to stop the enslavement of children at a wicked plantation, only to discover what the captives know all too well—survival isn’t freedom.

Richly historical, low fantasy, high tension—Wild Conviction is a coming-of-age, socially conscious, epic adventure with touches of magic and love.

• Sprinkled with Magical Realism.
• Laced with Southern Gothic.
• Steeped in the heated tensions of antebellum America.

Note: For this novel, the author created a scenario within a historical setting in which the terms Rich-tone and Pale are used for skin tone—and without historical and contemporary derogatory terms.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

New Realm ~ And An Exchange

Wednesday, June 16, 1858

Late Afternoon Memphis

From her shrine honoring beloved GrandMama, Twilight Adams lifted a book of poetry by Phillis Wheatley, pressed it to her chest, and whispered, “It’s time.”

Gingerly, she opened the book and removed her patient gift: a letter that GrandMama, four years ago and near death, had tucked inside.

This was Twilight’s birthday—another one her mother and sisters celebrated by ignoring it.

“By the full moon, I wish they cared.” She sighed, then kissed the letter. “Doesn’t matter. All that matters is this gift, full of love, waiting for me.”

As she’d done countless times, she traced her forefinger along the swooping blue inscription on the back of the folded paper:

Open On Your Sixteenth, Not Before, My Darling Twilight

She took a breath, turned over the tidy dense package of overlapping pages, then slid a letter opener under the rose wax seal embossed with the image of a doe beneath the sweeping branches of a tree. Carefully unfolding the letter, she was surprised to find small gifts: three tiny gems—rose quartz, black obsidian, lapis lazuli—and a thin ring. The gems she recognized as GrandMama’s. The ring was unfamiliar. Positioning the gems and the ring next to GrandMama’s Bible on the small bedside table she had made into a shrine, she, excited, began reading the long-awaited words.

As she read, she could feel GrandMama’s maternal caress. She could hear her soothing voice. But the words jarred her to her very core. After reading twice to be sure, she pressed the letter to her heart, then sank to the floor.

If another Earth realm exists, I’m certain I’ve left the place I know and entered that new world.

She read aloud GrandMama’s final words to her:

Burn this letter.

Instead, she buried it in her left pocket, patted another secret in her right pocket, and strode from the bedroom to the yard. Her electrified mind worked to untangle the letter’s words and how they stitched together her identity.

Who am I?

GrandMama, you told me a lot in my birthday letter, but not nearly enough. It’s time I see what I’ve purposely avoided.

In one swift move, she leaped onto her palomino mare, Spirit. With gliding strides, Spirit nearly flew along the streets—expertly weaving through the relentless march of wagons, gigs, pedestrians, and riders—to the despicable marketplace Twilight called Atrocity Square.

On the auction block, muscles taut, a young man stood. Though Twilight was seated atop Spirit on the far edge of the crowd, she sensed the youth’s quiet defiance, the restraint of his fever to break free, to know for once his life, unowned. Witnessing a person being auctioned caused her to shudder with fury. Raised until age twelve by her abolitionist GrandMama, Twilight wondered how it could be that in America people were sold, bought, owned. She’d always hated slavery. Now, ignited by her birthday secrets, she hated it to the gates of hell.

Two stinky men stood near her. She’d been ignoring the one who first yelled abuse at the enslaved youth on the block then turned to yap lewdly at her. Relentlessly he spewed his wretched breath and words through his missing front teeth. She reached inside her right pocket where, waiting and loaded, a pistol hid. She’d never shot any living thing, not even a heckler. And she didn’t plan to. But if her life, or her virginity, depended on it, she could. Gallatin had taught her well. A sharpshooter, she’d aim to wound. Regardless, being female, she’d probably be noosed for shooting any man, even a predatory breathing manure heap like this one.

Review

This coming-of-age story has a lot of intricate details woven into the story. It is set in the 1850s when times were much different from what we know today. Twilight has just turned 16, and a letter left to her by her grandmother tells of powers and a secret that could jeopardize her whole life.

Twilight is idealistic and wants better for everyone, regardless of race. She is against slavery and seeks to educate and free all those that she can. Her plans are thwarted when she marries Jackson. He is a slick operator and says all the right things but then does the opposite. His father is a piece of work, too. He believes that all pale men are superior to everyone else. He doesn’t even consider anyone else human other than pale men. Not even women!

This book covers about three to four years. It does jump forward, and not every single day is reflected, but if it were, this book would be even longer than it is already. The story moves steadily, not fast, but not too slow. I did feel like there were some parts that were superfluous, such as detailing when different states seceded from the Union during the Civil War. I skimmed those parts. But I do appreciate the author’s attention to detail and to be historically accurate.

I felt like the story picked up at the end as it was all coming to a head. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t go into much detail. I think the book has a happy ending for Twilight, especially when she was at such a low point due to various events.

We give the book 4 paws up.

About the Author

An author of stories and poetry as portals to possibilities, Mary Dezember writes to inspire champions to find their magic for a new and better day.

Mary believes it helps to make life magical, even if that means simply cuddling a cat, donning a tiara, talking with a unicorn, channeling the muse, or reading a good book. She lives in the Land of Enchantment.

A lover of the beauty and power of language, she states: “We spell words and, arranged well, words can put a spell on us.”

Her debut novel, Wild Conviction: Sixteen is Power (Brilliant Moon Press), and her two books of poetry—Earth-Marked Like You (Sunstone Press) and Still Howling (CreateSpace Independent Publishing)—explore the rite of passage to identity, including the hero’s emotional and intellectual quest.

She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in Comparative Arts from Indiana University. Professor Emeritus of English at New Mexico Tech (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology), she is a scholar of the arts, literature, and writing.

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