Welcome to WOLF NOTES, where interview questions stray from the rest of the pack. It’s nice to know the usual stuff like where an author gets their inspiration and why they write, but sometimes we need a little fun in our lives.
Wolf: This week we have Catherine Lundoff.
Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher from Minneapolis. She is the author of Silver Moon and Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories and editor of the fantastical pirate anthology, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space), as well as a number of published short stories in different genres. She is also the publisher at Queen of Swords Press, a genre fiction publisher specializing in fiction from out of this world.
Wolf: If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?
Catherine: I love swords, but I also have long term damage to the tendons in my arms, so it depends on how realistic I’m being. Fantasy Me would love to wield a rapier with finesse and panache because they look cool and elegant. They’re also the kind of sword you can use to disarm or disable, rather than necessarily kill. Real Me recognizes that I don’t have the arms, hands or, based on my brief flirtation with fencing, the physical coordination to pull off using a nice sword properly. Real Me probably just needs a small maneuverable tank.
Wolf: That sound very familiar. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Catherine: Make my characters fall in love. Falling in love is new and glorious and exciting. It can happen on so many different levels, emotional and physical. It’s a big motivator for change, and change makes for interesting stories.
Wolf: It certainly does. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Catherine: Make my characters try to stay in love despite the obstacles. I mean, I could say turning them into werewolves and sundry other monsters, but they generally want some version of that. Falling in love is hard. Staying in love is harder. It’s also sometimes a very bad idea, but they don’t always know that until they’re in trouble.
Wolf: Yes. Sometimes relationships can be hard work. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?
Catherine: Cats! So much cats! I like dogs okay, but they’re a lot of work. My cats are too, but they make it seem like you’re lucky to be serving them. My cats are also Egyptian Mau mixes so they’re very soft and cuddly and people-oriented. And they invent interactive games, so it’s a bit like having dogs that don’t have to go for walks, I suppose.
Wolf: Do your cat’s like belly rubs? My daughter is living with one that loves them. (For real, not the usual cat trap.) While walking in the woods you come across…
Catherine: A mysterious object that is clearly more than it seems and a crone with a wolf who is waiting for me in a part of the forest I have never wandered into before. Instaquest! And no, I don’t know what the mysterious object is yet. Maybe something small and portable, like a glass orb or a ring. Those are always popular. Part of my fantasy involves having both a bag for carrying stuff and pockets, just to make all this more convenient. And maybe a few scraps of meat for the wolf.
Wolf: Yum. Can you make those filet mignon scraps? If you could have a super power, what would it be?
Catherine: Healing, self and others. This would come in so handy right now! While it would be fun and useful to have my own illnesses and injuries heal very rapidly, it would be even better to be able to share that power and help others. I think that’s something I’d be happy to fantasize about.
Wolf: I love that. Some of the characters in my novel Star Touched can heal. Speaking of, what five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?
Catherine:
- A Swiss Army knife
- A bottle of rubbing alcohol
- A box of bandages
- A box of energy bars
- A box of water purification tablets
Dull, but practical. I’d say a favorite novel, but I can compose my own and make due on the storytelling front.
Wolf: Practical helps you survive. What story are you working on now?
Catherine: I’m working on one of next year’s Queen of Swords Press titles, but when it comes to my own writing, I tend to work on several projects at the same time. Right now, that’s Blood Moon, the sequel to Silver Moon, my menopausal werewolves novel, a gaming tie-in project that I can’t discuss yet and a new short story set in the late 1700s. The last one is about a young woman who wants to be a playwright.
Wolf: menopausal werewolves? Interesting. I’d like to read that. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Catherine: Or editing or publishing? I like hanging out with friends. I love theater and concerts and some films and I like to read. Also, high tea, preferably combined with the hanging out with friends and/or reading. Really, tea, friends and reading in some combination are all lovely. Cat snuggling is also a big part of this vision of relaxing fun times.
Wolf: Thanks for stopping by. You can connect with Catherine through these links:
Websites: www.catherinelundoff.net and www.queenofswordspress.com
Twitter: @clundoff and @qospress
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clundoff/
Can you be who you are meant to be?
STAR TOUCHED
Eighteen year old Tatiana is running from her past and her Star-touched powers eight years after a meteor devastates earth’s population.
Her power to heal is sometimes overshadowed by the ability to create ravaging fires. Fleeing the fear induced persecution of those like her, Tatiana seeks refuge in a small town she once visited. This civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble. Tatiana is once again left with the choice to flee or to stay and fight for the new life she has built. Only by harnessing the very forces that haunt her can Tatiana save her friends… and herself.
Rebecca Gomez Farrell writes all the speculative fiction genres she can conjure up. Her first epic fantasy novel, Wings Unseen, debuted in August 2017 from Meerkat Press. You can find her short stories in over 20 anthologies, magazines, and websites including Dark Luminous Wings, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Fright into Flight. In California, Becca co-leads the 400-member strong East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup group and organizes a chapter of the national Women Who Submit Lit organization, which encourages female writers to send their work out for publication. She also co-moderates Facebook discussion groups for female-identifying writers and is a regular participant in the Bay Area literary reading scene. Becca’s food, drink, and travel blog, 
Loren: In No More Heroes, the third book in my space opera trilogy, I set the human main character Raena up with her big lizard boyfriend Haoun. After she’d had two really bad relationships in the earlier books, I decided she deserved to be happy.
Loren: Alondra DeCourval is a witch who travels around the world fighting monsters. Her stories combine my love of mythology and fairy tales with my wanderlust. The latest of her adventures – a werewolf story — just appeared in Weirdbook in August. Another of her stories should be out in Occult Detective Quarterly before the end of 2018. She’s also appeared on Nina D’Arcangela’s blog in the last couple months: 
Loren: I’m finishing up the second Lorelei book, which is called Angelus Rose. It’s a sequel to Lost Angels, which came out a couple of years ago. Lorelei is a succubus who falls in love with an angel. In the first book, she was possessed by a mortal girl’s soul. In this second book, she’s trying to learn to fit when she has been radically changed by love. It’s part urban fantasy, part paranormal romance, and a splash of horror.
Loren: I like to hang out in graveyards. A year ago, I had a book out called 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die. I still have more to see!
Juliana Spink Mills was born in England but grew up in Brazil. Now she lives in Connecticut and writes science fiction and fantasy. She is the author of Heart Blade and Night Blade, the first two books in the young adult Blade Hunt Chronicles urban fantasy series. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and online publications. Besides writing, Juliana works as a Portuguese/English translator, and as a teen library assistant. She watches way too many TV shows, and loves to get lost in a good book. Her dream is to move to Narnia when she grows up. Or possibly Middle Earth, if she’s allowed a very small dragon of her own.
Wolf: Dandelions are great. They also make great fritters. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?
Juliana: I’m working on Star Blade, the third and final book in my Urban Fantasy trilogy. It’s a weird feeling, writing a series ending. There are so many loose ends I have to remember to tie up, so it’s almost overwhelming, but at the same time it feels good to finally work towards the happily ever after my characters deserve.
JE (Jayne) Barnard is a Calgary-based crime writer with 25 years of award-winning short fiction and children’s literature behind her. Author of the popular Maddie Hatter Adventures (Tyche Books), and now The Falls Mysteries (Dundurn Press), she’s won the Dundurn Unhanged Arthur, the Bony Pete, and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Award. Her works were shortlisted for the Prix Aurora (twice), the UK Debut Dagger, the Book Publishing in Alberta Award (twice), and three Great Canadian Story prizes. Jayne is a past VP of Crime Writers of Canada, a founder of Calgary Crime Writers, and a member of Sisters In Crime. Her most recent book is When the Flood Falls, a small-town psychological thriller set in the Alberta foothills west of Calgary, and her upcoming one is the sequel, Where the Ice Falls (Dundurn, July 2019), set at Christmas in those wild lands.
Jayne: For all that I adore Goldens (and solicit donations for Golden Rescue Canada whenever I can although I’m in no way affiliated with the group; see 
Wolf: Sound interesting. Thanks for visiting. Connect with Jayne through these links:
Dawn Vogel’s academic background is in history, so it’s not surprising that much of her fiction is set in earlier times. By day, she edits reports for historians and archaeologists. In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, co-edits Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time for writing. She is a member of Broad Universe, SFWA, and Codex Writers. Her steampunk series, Brass and Glass, is being published by Razorgirl Press. She lives in Seattle with her husband, author Jeremy Zimmerman, and their herd of cats. Visit her at 
Dawn: Because I write a lot of short fiction, I’ve written a whole lot of characters, so picking one of those is nearly impossible. If we’re limiting it just to the characters in my novel series, Brass and Glass, my favorite is Indigo, the ship’s mechanic. He’s a teenage boy who was raised at the fringes of the “civilized” world, so he’s got some unusual speech patterns and other quirks. So writing him is always a bit of a challenge but also a delight, as he sees aspects of the world through a very different lens than his fellow crewmembers.
Author Biography: Rachel Mankowitz lives on Long Island with her family, including her two dogs, Cricket and Ellie, and the memories of all of the dogs that came before. She has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College, a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction, from Queens University of Charlotte, and is working on a Masters in Social Work from Fordham University. And yes, that is a lot of student loan debt. Rachel’s first novel, 
Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast is the author of The Ferry Home, a memoir about her childhood on Prudence Island, a tiny island off the coast of Rhode Island. Debbie began writing as she embarked on a quest to reconnect with her island roots, starting with a cookbook for her family.
Debbie: Since my book is a memoir, I changed this question to, “Which story is your favorite?” I love the story called “Sleds and Sundays.” The island where we lived year-round was more isolated in the winter. Since the population dwindled to about fifty, my sister and I had fewer friends nearby, and my father’s store was closed so my dad worked fewer hours. My winter memories are cozier and more intimate than summer ones.
Karen DeMers Dowdall, PhD, MSN, BSN, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and spent her elementary-grade school years in the small farming community of Salmon Brook, settled in 1680 by a stalwart group of Europeans. She grew up exploring Salmon Brook’s Forest Preserve, swimming in Salmon Brook, and ice-skating on a “haunted” pond in winter.
As a life-long animal enthusiast, Tracie Barton-Barrett is a speaker, Licensed Professional Counselor with a specialty in pet loss, and former psychology and sociology instructor. Buried Deep in Her Hearts is her debut novel, and she hopes it will help the reader to relate, reflect, and heal after the loss of a beloved animal. She’s facilitated pet loss support groups and presented and written articles on the subject. She and her husband live in North Carolina in the US and are owned by their two cats, Rutherford B. Barrett and Oliver Monkey.
So, ever the devoted student, I delved into pet loss research, copying as many articles as I could, proud of my newfound labeled and neatly stacked folders. But, they just sat there. Collecting dust. For years. It wasn’t until the anniversary of our Kimball Kitty’s death (whose story is featured in my book) when it hit me: Make it fiction.
Wolf: You really like water, don’t you. If this question were any question in the world, what question would you want it to be and how would you answer it?