In GrimWood, every young witch is raised to master dark magic. It's the expectation, the culture, the only way to survive. But Winnie has never felt at home in the shadows. Her magic wants to heal, not harm - a dangerous difference in a realm where kindness is treated as weakness.
When her parents enroll her in Darkspire Academy, Winnie hopes she might finally learn where she belongs. Instead, she finds herself even more alone. Her only real companion is Jynx, her feline familiar, who behaves nothing like the others - because Winnie has always treated her with love, not command.
Alone in her new room, she unwraps a simple gift from her parents to find an ancient, leather-bound diary with no note, no explanation, and no hint of its purpose. But the moment her fingers brush the worn pages, the writing begins to shift - transforming from an old, forgotten language into modern text before fading back again. Winnie has no idea the book will not only rewrite its own pages, but also her role in the world she was destined to fulfill.
As she struggles to understand the diary's shifting language, Jynx accidentally uncovers a hidden ritual buried deep within its pages - a ritual older than GrimWood itself. The spell demands six beings to complete it: Winnie, and five others she has yet to meet.
Each new companion carries their own secrets, their own wounds, and their own sense of not belonging. Together, they begin to unravel the diary's purpose - and the truth that the magic inside it was never meant for a single witch, but for a bond strong enough to challenge the darkness they were raised in.
When the final piece of the ritual falls into place, the spell tears open a portal to a realm beyond waking - a world shaped by dreams, shadows, and forgotten truths. Something on the other side has been waiting for them... and it knows exactly who Winnie is, even if she doesn't yet.
Comer, David T.: - David T. Comer grew up in the small Appalachian town of Bluefield, Virginia, spending much of his childhood wondering who would ever accept him for who he was. He knew he was different long before he understood why, and reading was never easy for him; struggles with comprehension made books feel like a world he wasn't meant to enter. Yet those same challenges planted the seeds of imagination that would one day lead him to create a world of his own.After leaving home in search of the acceptance he wasn't sure he'd ever find in the place he grew up, David eventually returned to Bluefield-and discovered a community that embraced him in ways his younger self never believed possible. That homecoming shaped both his life and his storytelling.David earned his degree in Interior Design in Nashville, a foundation that now influences his immersive approach to world-building. As the third generation to shape his family's historic building, he is preparing to bring Sweet Screams to life beginning in Spring 2026-an evolving, multi-zone candy shop and creative experience designed to bring families together through wonder, imagination, and play.Through both his debut novel and the world he's building in real life, David strives to create spaces-on the page and in person-where outsiders feel seen, welcomed, and embraced with safety and love.
