Brixton’s Round Table Books is hosting award-winning author Jasmine Richards in an event talking about her new novel The Unmorrow Curse.
As well as being a novelist, Jasmine is also the founder of Storymix, a unique “story production studio”.
While Jasmine has conceived, written and edited hundreds of stories, The Unmorrow Curse is her first full-length novel.
For nine-plus readers, it’s a story of time standing still, Black kids Buzz and Mari dodging dragons, and gods misbehaving.
The two friends awaken a world of myth and magic whebn they find a famous weather woman bound by magic to a tree deep in the woods. The weather woman is, in fact, Sunna, the Norse Goddess of the Sun, and one of the seven day guardians who keep time in order.
And that’s only the start of the adventure. Humanity is forced into a lockdown called the Unmorrow Curse and is forced to repeat the same Saturday over and over again.
Buzz and Mari must journey to collect the Runes of Valhalla and awaken the other day guardians, before vengeful god Loki can get to them first.
Full of adventure and suspense and with themes touching on the real lockdown, it’s a gentle way to help children come to terms with the ramifications of the lost years.
It creates original and high-concept series with inclusive casts of characters and provides a platform for authors of colour to springboard to create and write in a very different way to the norm for publishers.
Jasmine writes under several pen names, including Lola Morayo and Adam Blade. She is also a screenwriter for the popular children’s TV series PJ Masks.
She got her start in publishing on the Penguin graduate training scheme and went on to found Book Bound, a team of industry experts organising events to help aspiring writers find pathways to publication.
Last year, Storymix won the Precious Awards creative business of the year award.
Since its launch, Storymix has produced 29 books and sold all of them to UK publishers – a rare success rate.
Jasmine will be talking to Patrice Lawrence MBE, an award-winning writer and journalist, in Round Table Books at 97 Granville Arcade in Brixton Village at 6pm on Thursday 5 May.
Patrice is an ambassador for First Story, a charity promoting creative writing for young people, with a focus on those in low-income communities.
