Welcome to Wicked Conjuring series, a fast-paced urban fantasy adventure featuring a found family of magical misfits in a quest to restore the balance of magic in the world. This multi-pov series features several characters across different magical species, all finding their way through grief as they come together for a shared purpose.
There are currently three books in the series, and two more on the way. Each story builds on the other and adds a new member to the group, and with the release of Book 4, "The Eye of the Lion" in 2025, the crew will be complete. So in anticipation of the new release I would like to introduce you to my magical misfits, along with some hypothetical live-action casting inspiration for each character.
So, now it's time to meet the team!
Book 1: Demons at the Doorstep
Welcome to the first book in the Wicked Conjuring series, an upper YA urban fantasy series where a sharp-tongued witch must team up with her greatest enemy in order to stop mutated demons from rising up in the city of Toronto.
Jessica Williams
When her parents were killed by witch hunters in her infancy, Jessica was raised by her mother's mentor, Adrianna Willians. Adrianna taught Jessica everything she knows about magic, the magical world, and most importantly, her responsibility as a Beata. With extraordinary ability at her fingertips, Jessica is both honoured and terrified by her potential; especially since she carries the scar from a bloody night when her magic rampaged out of control. With the mysterious dark legacy of a mother she never knew weighing on her shoulders, Jessica takes her duty of maintaining the balance of magic in the human world very seriously.
Jessica is known to be pragmatic. disciplined and never rushes into danger without a plan. This can, however, be her downfall as she tends to get in her own way. When she is forced to team up with Damien Crowe, she is pushed to the limit of her comfort zone. Jessica struggles to think with her head, when she may be better off following her instincts.
Live-Action Inspiration: I love this photo because it highlights the girl's eyes so well, and the sparkles add a magic quality. Unfortunately, I'm not able to find the model's name. Other actresses I think look the part include Lily Reinhart and Alycia Debnam-Carey.
Damien Crowe
After losing his parents at a young age, Damien and his brother Connor were raised by their fanatical witch hunter uncle. Desperate to escape from his predestined path, Damien got his uncle's permission to join the military at sixteen. After his career was cut short by a horrific mission gone wrong, Damien returned home to Toronto to join his brother, now the leader of the city's band of witch hunters.
Damien is highly intelligent, with a touch of arrogance, and always composed. When unnatural demons begin targeting his fellow hunters, Damien makes a choice no other witch hunter would, and teams up with a witch that his group has been hunting. While Damien is surprised to find he enjoys Jessica's sharp wit, it is soon clear the uptight witch is more than she seems, and Damien's risky choice brings about far more than he bargained for.
Live-Action Inspiration: I imagine Damien as a 21-year-old Vicky Kaushal.
Book 2: The Lupatus Stone
On the verge of losing himself in isolation, a conflicted werewolf embarks on a quest with his estranged sister, a witch, and a witch hunter, to find a dangerous werewolf artefact. When his inability to control his inner wolf puts them in danger he must learn to embrace his true identity or lose his chance at family forever.
Nathan Duncan
The only thing Nathan is really good at, in his eyes, is running away. At twelve years old he was cursed by a malicious werewolf eager to create a prodigy. After refusing his would-be mentor and surviving a deadly fire that stole the lives of his parents, Nathan fled his small hometown to spare his younger sister from the danger he had become.
Living on the run hasn't been easy and despite teaching himself how to use his new-found skills, Nathan and his inner wolf have never gotten along. Nathan is blunt, honest, protective, and temperamental. When the demons of his past show up in his forest, along with very real demons being chased down by a witch and her stoic friend, Nathan has the chance to use his abilities to right his wrongs - if he can overcome his fear. Because if Nathan can't learn to work with his inner wolf he could lose his last chance at family, forever.
Live-Action Inspiration: Initially I pictured Nathan looking like Rhett McLoughlin from Rhett & Link, while one of my beta readers said they pictured him like Greyston Holt. I also think a shaggier-haired Froy Gutierrez would be a good fit given his mixed Mexican-American heritage and experience on Teen Wolf. Although it could be a tricky casting regardless, given that Nathan is 6'4" and all these actors are a little too pretty for the rough-around-the-edges werewolf.
Abigail Duncan
Abigail always preferred reading books to being outside. When her family died in a tragic hospital fire when she was ten years old, stories became her safe haven. Dedicating her life to study, Abby excelled in school and found her passion in history. When the opportunity came to study in Northern British Columbia, focusing on the mysterious dark ages, she thought her hard work was finally paying off. That is until her interest in the mythical stories of Camelot puts her in very real danger.
Magic exists, a deadly werewolf is after her, and her supposedly dead brother may not be dead after all. Abigail is intelligent, resilient, and proud of the life she has made for herself. She's managed to hold onto her empathy through all she's been through, and she will need every ounce of courage and confidence as her world is flipped upside down. Especially when she realizes her dead brother may not be so dead after all.
Live-Action Inspiration: it has been very difficult to find photos to represent Abigail. The short, curvy, curly-haired girl isn't very well represented in popular media and I haven't found an actress that quite fits the image in my head, although Isabella Gomez is close with the magic of movie makeup adding freckles and dirty-blonde hair. I chose this photo, however, because it represents who Abby is, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find the model's name.
Book 3: The Goblin Deception
When a shadowy evil threatens to tear her people apart, dutiful goblin Isla must rely on the help of a witch and her strange friends to protect her village, while trying to hide the curse she bears. Trapped between tradition and change, Isla's world is on the brink of crumbling unless she can find the courage to forge her own path forward.
Isla Calchlan
Growing up as a mountain goblin in the remote peaks of the French Alps is not an easy life, but it is one that Isla is extremely proud of. As the daughter of the village chief Galhad she does everything she can to be the ideal goblin, even though her serious-nature doesn’t quite fit the mold. Despite her station, Isla has grown up on the periphery of her people. While most young goblins go roaming, a rite of passage where they leave the village to explore the world and bring back knowledge and stories, Isla is kept within the safety of her father’s care for fear that the secret curse she carries could become known. An ability that, if her people found out, would have her ostracized from her village.
Isla is dutiful, courageous, and stubborn. When mysterious accidents start plaguing her village she sees the opportunity to prove to her father that she is capable. But there is more to Isla’s ability, and to her village, then she once thought and as strangers arrive carrying stories of shadow demons Isla is forced to face truths she may not be ready for.
Live-Action Inspiration: as goblins are not human, really anyone could play them, with their features changed through CGI or prosthetics depending on whether they're mountain, lowland, cave, or forest goblin. Personally, I’ve always pictured the dad from How to Train Your Dragon as Galhad, and in early drafts I came across this beautiful model Sijia Kang who I’ve since pictured as a basis for Isla. You may imagine the goblins however you like.
Book 4: The Eye of the Lion
Join Damien, Jessica, and their friends in the fourth instalment in the Wicked Conjuring series where they must survive a clash of fates in an urban adventure where alliances are tested, new legends are forged, and series-long secrets are revealed.
Tobias "Tobi" Musa
Tobi Musa is an expert at avoiding responsibility. While his father and brothers waste their lives being boring proper elves going to events and pursuing excellence in everything, Tobi prefers to spend his job practising his hobbies like street magic. Anything to avoid dealing with his failure as an elf and as a son, since his father won’t let him forget that his rare ability of clairvoyance should be used for the betterment of elven kind. Even though Tobi and his inability to understand his visions led to his mother’s death.
Despite his best efforts to run from fate, Tobi’s path crashes with Jessica and her friends as they seek out the Elven Council for help with their quest. Intrigued by the opportunity for some excitement Tobi agrees to help. But as dark secrets from Jessica’s path puts the group at odds with the elves, Tobi is forced to choose sides. He may finally have found something worth fighting for, but it will take losing everything he knows to find it.
Live-Action Inspiration: As Tobi’s parents came from Kenyan and Chinese backgrounds, a young man with a black-asian heritage and good ear prosthetics could be cast as the rambunctious elf. Someone like Roshon Fegan or model Tyrone Smithers could be good.
I love my magical misfit crew and especially how, while each of them has to go through their own kind of grief throughout the series, they've really found family in each other. To stay up to date with all things Wicked Conjuring, subscribe to my author newsletter to never miss an update and be the first to hear all about release of The Eye of the Lion.
For more Wicked Conjuring visuals you can check out my pinterest boards (though my boards for Book 4 and 5 are hidden right now to avoid spoilers)
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