Cassandra's Curse »

Jason Willis is an English teacher at Maple River High School in Mapleton, MN. He grew up on a farm near Lyons, South Dakota. He studied creative writing at Minnesota State University-Mankato, and has taught English in both Iowa and Minnesota. He is currently marketing two other novels and working on the fourth novel in the Kanaranzi Creek Chronicles. He is also working on the first two novels in a supernatural/thriller series. Influenced by the tone of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the plot structure of Michael Ondaatje and Quentin Tarantino, and the small town character development of William Faulkner, Willis sheds light on the idyllic life of small towns and reveals a world far more sinister than possibly imagined. Combining elements of mystery, the supernatural, and classic themes from mythology, the Kanaranzi Creek Chronicles gives the reader a world that is quite familiar yet never imagined.

When Summer Lentz vanishes from a high school party in the fall of 1999, the town of Kanaranzi Creek is thrown into chaos once the trail runs cold. As the new girl in town, Becca Thompson is cursed by her dreams of the dead, including the ghost of Summer Lentz. Unable to control or understand her dreams, Becca tries to discover how Summer died while also trying to avoid becoming the next victim of Summer's killer. But with only dreams as her guide, will anyone believe Becca?

Cassandra's Curse introduces the readers to two important characters in the Kanaranzi Creek Chronicles: Summer Lentz and Becca Thompson. While these two kindred spirits never meet in life, their destinies are tied together by the darkness that surrounds Lake Kanaranzi. As an allegorical retelling of the myth of Cassandra, both Summer and Becca play the part of the prophetess that could see the future but was cursed by having no one believe her.