Jimmy Wiggle
Meet Jimmy Wiggle. Twelve years old. TV addicted. Desperate for a trophy. Jimmy wants to be a hero. There's just one problem: he'd rather watch one than become one.
Jimmy and the Wolf — a completed middle-grade novel by Paul Lorei.
Ordinary
Jimmy wants proof that he counts. A trophy. A victory. Something that says: You did it.
Except Jimmy's life has mostly consisted of: almost.
Almost winning. Almost succeeding. Almost becoming the person he imagines himself to be.
Watching heroes is easy. Becoming one costs something.
Strange / deeper
An impossibly large world.
From the outside, the woods look ordinary enough. From within, the lines keep going after they should have stopped.
larger on the inside
Dangerous evidence
Meaningful
Comfort
the recliner, the screen, the safe distance
Courage
the first costly step toward what is hard
Self-gift
the discovery no trophy can manufacture
Jimmy believes a trophy will prove that he counts. What he needs cannot be earned by watching someone else's adventures. It requires responsibility, risk, courage, giving himself for others.
We cannot fully know ourselves until we give ourselves away.
Provenance
Jimmy began at bedtime. The finished manuscript arrived three decades later.
The storyteller behind Jimmy
Paul Lorei is a writer, photographer, visual storyteller and father of five from Erie, Pennsylvania.
Jimmy Wiggle began as bedtime stories for his children. What Paul expected might take two months became a thirty-year creative odyssey.
“The files gathered pixel dust for a decade.”
From the archive
Long before the final manuscript, Paul Lorei was reading Jimmy aloud—to his children, to families, and to gathered audiences willing to follow him into the woods.
Click to hear Paul read
Some stories begin finding their audience before they're finished.
Now you're early too.
Invitation
Become a Founding Reader.
Jimmy Wiggle has been thirty years in the making. Join the first readers following the journey toward publication—and be ready when Jimmy finally reaches the shelf.
Occasional story notes, first looks and publication news. No spam.
