Tag: wolf notes

WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Harrison Demchick

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.

This week on Wolf Notes, we have Harrison Demchick.

Raised in Baltimore, Maryland on a steady diet of magical realism, literary fiction, science-fiction, and Spider-Man comics, Harrison Demchick spent most of his formative years inside his own head, working out strange thoughts and ideas that would eventually make their way into stories, screenplays, and songs.

He went to Oberlin College to attain one of modern day’s most notoriously useless degrees, a BA in English with a creative writing concentration, but then actually used it, working for over a decade as a developmental editor of fiction and memoir. Harrison is also an optioned screenwriter, winner of the 2011 Baltimore Screenwriters Competition, and an inaugural fellow of the Johns Hopkins University/Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. His first film, Ape Canyon, is currently in production.

The Listeners, his first novel, was published by Bancroft Press in 2012. Short stories “Magicland” and “The Bead” were published in 2019. Otherguy, his debut EP, launched in 2018. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his girlfriend and their two cats with a combined seven legs. He’s working on a series of short stories, a couple screenplays, a pair of musicals, a concept album, and whatever else keeps him distracted from the dark void that will one day consume us all.

Wolf: I beat your BA in English with a Masters in Sculpture. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Harrison: Yo-yo. Because no one ever picks the yo-yo, and I don’t want it to feel left out.

What are we picking this for again?

Wolf: Just curious. Yo-yos are fun – and dangerous. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Harrison: Well, I’m a horror author. So.

In my genres (tossing in magical realism and dark fantasy), it’s fair to say that some very bad things are going to happen in some very weird ways. But one thing that scares me more than anything is the notion of losing yourself—of forgetting the basics of who you are, and knowing that you have. Even if your life before was terrible. That happens in a yet-unpublished novelette called Rugaru, Montana, and my protagonists are more or less faced with the choice of letting themselves forget everything or embracing the lives they were desperate to escape. That may be the meanest thing I’ve done to my characters.

Though I also do some pretty mean things to Daniel, the protagonist of my novel The Listeners.

Wolf: Forgetting who you are is mean. I’ve done that to my characters as well. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Harrison: I co-wrote a musical with a friend of mine. It was a zombie musical, so terrible things still happened, but at least they got to sing some fun songs beforehand.

Wolf: Too funny. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Harrison: I’m a cat person. Actually, honestly, I have a major phobia of dogs. But in my defense, this is only because all dogs secretly want to eat you and eventually overthrow humanity. My cats will also eat me, but only after I’m dead, which when you come down to it is more thoughtful than spiteful.

Wolf: Interesting way of looking at things. I hope you don’t mind being interviewed by a wolf. While walking in the woods you come across…

Harrison: Bigfoot. It has to be Bigfoot. I did a school project on Bigfoot when I was in fourth grade. I taught cryptozoology as a college class. I wrote a screenplay about searching for Bigfoot, and now Ape Canyon is my first film. I’ve earned Bigfoot.

Wolf: You have indeed. There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?

Harrison: Well, hold on. There are a lot of variables in that scenario. First off, from which side of the door is the rumbling coming? And what sort of rumbling is it? Is it the rumbling of a train over tracks? An earthquake? The growling stomach of some unseen monster?

These latter questions will not be answered because I will be heading briskly in the opposite direction. The door is irrelevant. My characters go through these things so I don’t have to.

Wolf: Great answer. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

Harrison: Oh, I wrote about one of these! The first and most important thing I would want is the most important thing Daniel in The Listeners suffers without: a friend. I happen to have a friend who owns a sword. I think a friend with a sword is a good bet in a post-cataclysmic world.

My second item would be a second friend, which is good to have in case the first friend dies or goes full-on zombie. Or if I do.

Actually, at least four of the five items would be friends. In all seriousness, there are all kinds of basic necessities you need to survive in a post-cataclysmic world, but it’s not worth surviving if you don’t have a reason to live. Friends will give you that. Friends will make the end of the world okay. One of them would be my fiancée, because she makes everything okay.

The fifth item is a guitar. I don’t know how to play the guitar, but if the world has ended I’d have plenty of time to learn.

I shouldn’t have evoked the concept of having time enough at last in a post-cataclysmic context. Now something terrible and ironic will happen.

Wolf: You want to live, not just survive. Friends are important for that. Which of your characters is your favorite?

Harrison: I’ve been writing a lot of shorter fiction the last couple years, and the nature of short fiction is such that you don’t live with an individual character for all that long. So it stands to reason that I become more attached to the ones with whom I spend the most time. There’s a special place in my heart for Cal Piker, the protagonist of Ape Canyon. Though I may identify most with Mindy, the protagonist of my screenplay Time-Traveling Idea Bandits. She’s a wildly enthusiastic aspiring writer struggling with serious self-doubt. That describes too many of my friends for me not to love her.

Wolf: What story are you working on now?

Harrison: I’ve just wrapped up a short story called “Sophie Anne” about a mother, her young daughter, and the Honey Tree Baby (think Cabbage Patch Doll) the mother gives her for her birthday. That sounds like the setup for a creepy possessed doll story. It’s not. Or not in the way you expect at least. It’s actually become one of the saddest things I’ve ever written. I’m very hopeful about it once I start submitting it to literary magazines and anthologies.

Wolf: Hope it does well. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Harrison: Wait—there are other things—?

Wolf: Perhaps not. Thanks for visiting. You can catch up with Harrison at these links:

http://www.harisondemchick.com
www.facebook.com/HarrisonDemchick
https://www.facebook.com/ApeCanyon/
https://twitter.com/HDemchick

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Wolf Dawn

May 22, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Elsa Wolf

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.

Today’s guest is Elsa Wolf.

A George Washington University graduate now living in the suburbs within the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Elsa Wolf began with a theater background, which developed into public relations and eventually into the ownership of a small equestrian business. Elsa spends her time writing, traveling, helping rescued horses, and supporting soldiers.

Wolf: I always liked horses. If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

Elsa: If I could be any animal, it would likely be a wolf running free with my pack. However, I would like to be reincarnated several times with my companions. We could learn from our mistakes and make each life better than the last.

Wolf: Excellent choice. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Elsa: The nicest thing I’ve done for a character is help them find the lost bits of themselves through unexpected sources. In my current novel, Buried Truths-A Daughter’s Tale, the adopted daughter decides to find her birth-mother when she accidentally comes across a novel about a mother giving up her baby.

Wolf: I hope she finds the answers she is looking for. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Elsa: I have had cats and dogs over many decades. My cats while loving and independent, cannot match the devotion of my dogs. One in particular, gave me unconditional love and was a wonderful hiking companion. He helped me feel secure in any environment.

Wolf: I’m partial to dogs myself. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Elsa: If I had a superpower, I would want to be able to teleport at will from place to place with another person holding my hand. I love to travel and explore new sites as well as visit old haunts. Teleporting would give me lots of options.

Wolf: That’s cool. I’ve been working on a series with a teleport. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

Elsa: In a post-cataclysmic world, I would have a pot for cooking and purifying water, a flint to lite fires, a pair of comfortable hiking boots, a layered water-proof jacket as well as a knife.

Wolf: Great picks. What story are you working on now?

Elsa: I am currently working on a novel with a military man who falls in love in Savannah, Georgia and then is traumatized in combat. He only sleeps a few hours a night and has mystical experiences in Savannah and then Portugal.

Wolf: I’d like to read that. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Elsa: When I’m not writing I like to take long walks or spend time with friends locally or while traveling. During my solo times, I listen to audiobooks or sew quilts and costumes.

Wolf: Costumes. Awesome. How do you find your characters?

Elsa: I find my characters while I sleep and dream, I find them out in public spaces, I find them in people I know and morph them into a new character, and I find them when I’m traveling.

Wolf: Thanks for visiting. Connect with Elsa through these links.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100022567891468
https://twitter.com/WolfElsaWolf
https://elsawolfbooks.com/

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Wolf Dawn

May 15, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Valerie J. Mikles

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: Say hello to Valerie J. Mikles.

Valerie cosplaying Captain Jack Harkness coming out of the TARDIS

Valerie is a PhD astronomer who found a home at NOAA working on weather satellites. She loves to travel and learn about other cultures, but considers herself a homebody the rest of the year. In September 2017, she published the first novel of her New Dawn series “The Disappeared,” and has since released several more. When not writing novels, she can be found at the community theater, acting, choreographing, costuming, or stage managing. She’s also written and produced a series of comedic short films about asexuality, inspired by her own journey of self-discovery. Her motto in life is “I can be everything I want, just not all at the same time.”

Wolf: That is a great motto. If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

Valerie: I’d be some kind of fish living in warm, tropical waters. I love the ocean and I always feel cold, so a life at sea in a warm environment would be awesome. If I were a mermaid, I would occasionally beach myself on a rock and spend the night stargazing. I don’t know if I’d ever swim far north enough to see the Northern Lights (it’d just be too cold), but I could dip into the southern hemisphere to see the Magellanic Clouds. I think as long as being a mermaid didn’t require me to wear a sea-shell bra, I’d be okay with it. Otherwise, I’d want to be something simple, blue, and tropical, like a blue tang.

Wolf: How about a shell tunic? (Trying really hard not to start singing “Under the Sea”) If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Valerie cosplaying Deadpool at the Farpoint Con book sale.

Valerie: I’m stuck between knife and trebuchet. I feel like the knife is infinitely practical, portable, and reusable. As a minimalist, I also like that it can be used for many different things, like killing chickens, cutting fruit, and stabbing enemies. However, the trebuchet allows me to launch any number of weapons of opportunities a great distance, saving me the trouble of hand-to-hand combat, which I have admittedly not trained in. I don’t really foresee myself launching rocks, but I could totally launch plague-infested corpses into anti-vaxxer territory… sorry, is this getting too political? Also, if I needed an escape, I could launch myself.

Wolf: Not too political. I’m very much pro-science and pro-vaccine. You’ve just been turned into a plant. Describe yourself.

Valerie: I have broad, soft leaves and bright, rainbow-colored, fragrant flowers. I love roses, both in softness and scent, but I wouldn’t be thorny like a rose bush, nor would I attract aphids and beetles. I am not the kind of plant that bugs crawl on. I naturally repulse them with my super-plant oils. I’d flourish in tropical climates with lots of humidity. When my seeds are tossed into flood waters, the water levels instantly go down, roots spread, and flowers bloom. I’m probably edible, too.

Wolf: Awesome! Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Sky (gray), Chase (black), and Hawk (tabby) looking up from a nap because I moved a muscle.

Valerie: I’m more of a cat person than a dog person, but one of my cats thinks he’s a dog. He barks at the squirrels in the back yard. (It’s a cat-like bark, but it’s not a meow.) I have three cats, but I’m a one-cat person. But when I adopted the first one, he was so sad and depressed, and my options were to take him back or try a friend. So, I went back to the person who’d fostered him and picked up a second cat. Things got instantly better for the first cat, but the poor second cat wasn’t able to handle his neediness 24-7. The third guy really balances the house, so now I have three happy cats and I just sit here constantly overwhelmed in my cat-crowded house. I hate when people call me a “cat mom” because I consider us to be more like roommates.

Wolf: Wow. You’re the second person who said their cat was like a dog, but the first on with a cat that barks. I’d love to hear a recording of that. While walking in the woods you come across…

Valerie: A snake eating another snake. True story. I grew up in Baltimore County, north of the city, before the houses turn to horse farms. My family went hiking with our dog almost every weekend. There were places nearby with dense woods, rocky trails, streams and rivers, and the occasional log bridge to challenge one’s balance. Once, we even did an Easter egg hunt in the woods, and left a hard-boiled egg for the woodland creatures because we couldn’t find it again. Though in retrospect, it’s possible something ate it. Which brings me to the snake. We didn’t often see snakes, but one day, I guess it was just that time of year, and the snakes were out. We jumped into a cool refreshing river after a long hike, and then jumped out five seconds later because a snake slithered in. Snakes are not the best swimming companions for humans. We bolted, and it seemed every time our heart rates slowed, another snake appeared on the path. After we crossed the snake eating another snake, we just kept running until we got to the car.

Wolf: That’s a lot of snakes. It must have been a snake holiday. What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)

Valerie at the beach

Valerie: How do I choose? When you swim in a river, your skin and hair get all soft. Fresh water doesn’t have waves, but it also doesn’t sting when you get some up your nose. It’s good for skiing… But the ocean is the ocean. Salt water has this whole other healing effect on the body. It’s soothing to stare at, more-so if you can listen to the waves crashing on the shore. You can choose your shoreline for gentle waves or giant ones. My perfect afternoon is at an Atlantic Coast beach, somewhere in south Florida. So, I guess the body of water is the Atlantic Ocean, at the part where it kisses Crescent Beach, Florida.

Wolf: Nice. What story are you working on now?

Valerie: I’m working on several. Book 6 of my series is with my editor, and I expect to have feedback on that soon so I can get it out later this year. Book 7 is ready for beta-readers, but I promised myself I’d slow down on the series. I also started work on two original novels. I’m super-excited about one called The Qinali Vaccine, which features an astral projecting asexual astronomer who is trying to save the human race from extinction. I don’t have a release date yet because I’m still wearing the rose-colored first draft glasses.

Wolf: Sounds interesting. Let me know when you’re ready for beta-reader for that one. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Ghostbuster Valerie emerging from the TARDIS with her first book!

Valerie: I do a little bit of everything. I’m a board member for my local community theater, and have filled many roles on and off the stage. My favorite role is choreographer. I love bringing stories to life through dance. I also love making films, playing piano and guitar, and sewing costumes. A few years ago, my antidepressants sent me into a hyper-mania, and I joined a gym to let off excess energy. I’ve really enjoyed getting stronger and learned some of the basics of power lifting. I can now lift a 50 lb. bag of cat litter with minimal effort. Also, I’m super excited to be able to open the fire doors at work without throwing my entire body weight behind the effort. Being strong is fun.

Wolf: It’s amazing how many writers also make costumes or another art form. The Arts are definitely connected. Thanks for visiting. Connect with Valerie through one of the links below.

Social Media Links:
http://www.valeriejmikles.com (books)
http://www.aces-sitcom.com (film)
http://www.facebook.com/vjmikles (books)
https://www.facebook.com/beanythingcosplay/ (cosplay)
twitter: @valeriebean

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Wolf Dawn

May 8, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Esther T. Jones

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: Give a big wolf welcome to Esther T. Jones.

A voracious reader, Esther T. Jones has been writing stories in her head since she was five. She calls the United States her home, and when not writing can be found gardening, playing flute and piano, and designing costumes centered around her novels.

At present, Jones is working on her second novel: Thorunn, an exciting new Young Adult Sci-fi work.

Wolf: It’s always nice to meet a fellow dreamer/writer/costumer. If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

Esther: If I could be any animal in the universe, I’d choose to be a cat. They’re fierce and independent and very aesthetically pleasing.

Wolf: That they are. What is the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

Esther: The weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten (on New Year’s, as part of a friend’s family tradition) was an insect that is apparently a delicacy for pregnant women in South America. Never again. Never, never.

Wolf: I have to admit; I’ve never tried to eat any bug on purpose. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Esther: I favor the bow. One of my absolute favorite stories growing up was “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (and I’ve had the wonderful privilege of being able to visit Sherwood Forest) so I’ve practiced archery on and off since childhood, and I enjoy making my own bows for cosplays and such.

Wolf: I LOVE archery. If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Esther: I think being able to fly would be so neat! I’d be a world traveler.

Wolf: That seems to be a very popular super power. There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?

Esther: Depends on whether or not I have my bow with me. But if I do, I see myself creeping toward the door, holding my breath as it opens a crack, just enough to let a sliver of light peep through. Slowly, I knock an arrow to the bow string and drop into a half crouch, ready to face what lurks just beyond…

Wolf: Spoken like a true adventurer. What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)

Esther: This might seem odd, but I love the gym swimming pool. It’s a place I’ve always associated with peaceful calm, and doing laps is very soothing. The ocean is a close second however – the sound of the waves washes away all stresses or worries.

Wolf: Interesting. I can smell chlorine just thinking about a pool. What story are you working on now?

Esther: Currently I’m working on “Thorunn” a YA novel that is a bit of a culture clash, a little bit of a conspiracy, and a good bit of an adventure story, featuring two teen protagonists – Laine and Kenton – who could not be more different. It’s sci-fi, so I’ve had a lot of fun making up new planets, moons, weapons and transportation, flora and fauna, the weather, and even some deadly diseases that may or may not impact the lives of the main characters.

Wolf: Creating new worlds is a lot of fun. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Esther: When I’m not writing, music is my life – I teach and play flute and piano almost every single day and am actively involved in my alma mater’s community music ensembles. I also love gardening and taking close up pictures of the vegetables and flowers. There’s nothing like fresh grilled zucchini or a sweet-smelling bouquet I picked myself. And of course, I love to read!

Wolf: Sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for stopping by. Connect with Esther at these links:

Social Media Links:

Website: www.etjwrites.com
Twitter: twitter.com/etjwrites
Instagram: instagram.com/etjwrites
Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/15844192.Esther_T_Jones
Tumblr: etjwrites.tumblr.com

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Wolf Dawn

May 1, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Stephen Berberich

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: Let’s meet today’s guest, Stephen Berberich. Tell us about yourself, Stephen.

Stephen: I am a science and environment journalist, a novelist, an organic master gardener, a public-affairs and education outreach specialist, baseball fan, and devoted to the ecology of Chesapeake Bay country.

In addition to several years of newspaper reporting, I’ve contributed to many different publications on topics ranging from business and politics to ecology and pets. I’ve covered stories at the U.S. Supreme Court and remote villages in Kano, Nigeria.

I have also held senior editorial positions at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which is a World Bank agency, and the five professional graduate healthcare schools of U. Md. in Baltimore–medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and social work..

I’ve also performed significant contract work for the American Farmland Trust, the National Institutes of Health, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

I now freelance news and features on business, environmental and agricultural technology.

My first novel is Night at the Belvedere. My second is Fatal Deadline. My third novel is Trout Heaven. I also published a non-fiction book, The Naked Intruder. Find them on Amazon or Goodreads.

Wolf: Wow. You’ve been busy. If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

Stephen: A box turtle and hang out with Tommy Turtle in my vegetable garden. He and I are the best of friends but I’m intimidated by his red-eye staring when I pick a lope or tomato. We could be chums chomping it all up together.

Wolf: Sounds like a demon turtle. What is the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

Stephen: A brain taco in Tijuana and told its true identity by my companion at the time—so pretty, I’d eaten shoe leather if she’d said so.

Wolf: I guess you didn’t like it much. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Stephen: No doubt: A pen in any of its forms.

Wolf: Great choice. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Stephen: I saved someone from nearly certain insanity in Night at the Belvedere, but I think the most intense nice thing was in Trout Heaven. I had the protagonist admit to his editor that he was in love with his principle source and turn his back on a great investigative report as a consequence, only to mentor young Erich to take over the story and byline.

Wolf: Interesting. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Stephen: Definitely stab a man in the eye with a letter opener in self-defense, avoiding her murder at his hands.

Wolf: Ouch. You’ve just been turned into a plant. Describe yourself.

Stephen: I am a submersible sea grass off Smith Island protecting 2-inch baby crabs just released by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Laboratory.

Wolf: And soon they will be big enough to eat. Thank you. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Stephen: Dog, yet my cat behaves like a dog.

Wolf: I’ve never heard a cat bark, but my daughter is living with one that demands belly rubs. (Real ones, not the usual cat bait and scratch.) While walking in the woods you come across…

Stephen: A wild orchid and can’t find it in my wild plant guide. Get it named after me.

Wolf: I’ll have to look for the Steven orchid in my local garden store. If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Stephen: To fly. What else?

Wolf: I like flying. It’s falling I don’t like. There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?

Stephen: Rumble back.

Wolf: I wonder if it will answer. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

Stephen: Wait, I have to look that up. Okay, I get it. So, I want all of my hero, naturalist E.O. Wilson’s writings, to tell me what just happened. I want ice cream. I want a bible. I want Diane Lynn Berberich with me. And I want to have a place and inspiration to write a novel about it, edited by Diane.

Wolf: Sweet. Which of your characters is your favorite?

Stephen: Stephen “Pop” Esposito, the alter ego of my grandfather in East Baltimore (Night at the Belvedere).

Wolf: Describe a meal you would be served while visiting another world.

Stephen: Not a brain taco. Maybe chicken.

Wolf: You really didn’t like that brain taco. What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)

Stephen: U.S. Atlantic Ocean on the coast.

Wolf: That’s where I grew up. What story are you working on now?

Stephen: Maximum Green, a gardening novel.

Wolf: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Stephen: Obvious answer is reading, but no, I like to work on my home and my gardens by myself.

Wolf: I love working in my garden as well. If this question were any question in the world, what question would you want it to be and how would you answer it?

Stephen: It is for you, Stephen. The man said you got the Pulitzer. Want to take it? YES!

Wolf: Wouldn’t that be nice. Thanks for visiting. To learn more about Stephen, check out these links.

Social Media Links:

https://smberberich.wordpress.com/
https://aboutsmberberichsbeat.wordpress.com/

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Wolf Dawn

April 24, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Michelle Ray

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.

Michelle Ray is a middle school teacher who lives in Silver Spring, MD with her husband and teen girls. Falling for Hamlet, her first novel, became the E! TV series, The Royals, starring Elizabeth Hurley, which she finds highly entertaining. Her other Shakespeare novels are Mac/Beth and Much Ado About Something, technically YA though many adults have enjoyed them. Her newest book, A World on Fire, is based on her professor husband’s research about what happened to the Jews after they were expelled from Medieval Spain.

Wolf: If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

Michelle: A cat. They don’t care!

Wolf: Interesting. What is the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

Michelle: Gefilte fish. Jarred fish cakes in goop. I like it but every Passover I wonder why.

Wolf: You and me both. I like mine with lots of horseradish. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Michelle: My glare. My students say it’s scary and it definitely stops people in their tracks.

Wolf: Good one. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Michelle: Giving them a happy ending. I’m not good at that. I always want everything to be ambiguous, but my draft-readers are always like, “No! Let us have something positive.”

Wolf: I get that a lot too. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Michelle: In my latest book, A World on Fire, the main character decides to cross the Mediterranean to find her fiancé. Let’s just say it’s historically accurate but it doesn’t go well for her. Actually, writing it didn’t feel mean. Just true and sad. Okay so really “mean”? In Mac/Beth giving the main character a mother more interested in her daughter’s fame and income than her well being.

Wolf: That is mean. And sad. BTW, I love the cover for A World on Fire. You’ve just been turned into a plant. Describe yourself.

Michelle: Something prickly that turns out to be helpful.

Wolf: I’m picturing sewing and hypodermic needles. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Michelle: Neither. Both. It depends. The animal’s personality affects how/if I connect with them. Some cats and dogs are irresistible. I’m kind of neutral about dogs, which apparently makes me more attractive to them. I’m like a bad boyfriend – the more aloof I am, the more the dog is like, “I will make you love me!” It’s a running joke with my friends because their dogs seek me out and lean on me all the time! A rude cat turns me off, but sometimes it cracks me up. I had a roommate whose cat used to prance across the coffee table, pause, and hang up the phone (some of you will remember the land line phone with the part that was separate). When a sweet cat drapes across me and purrs? Love it!

Wolf: I’m a sap for a cute pup. While walking in the woods you come across…

Michelle: Nature and think, “How come I don’t spend more time out here?”

Wolf: Good question. After you finish reading, go take a walk. If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Michelle: Flight. Airports make me tense.

Wolf: Interesting. I’m fine with airports but hate flying. There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?

Michelle: Run the other way!

Wolf: Smart. Unless it’s your washing machine. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

Michelle: Nothing. And here’s why: after reading many, many post-cataclysmic books & watching The Walking Dead for so many years, I have come to the conclusion that, should there be a disease outbreak or a zombie apocalypse, I want to be taken out in the first moments, thank you very much.

Wolf: Makes sense. Which of your characters is your favorite?

Michelle: Oh that’s hard! Okay, I think I like Hamlet the best. I’m still in love with him. My best friend reads all my drafts and she says my boys always start out too perfect. I guess it’s true. I’ve always had great guys around. Hamlet is funny and smart and handsome and, well, a prince. He gets a little nutty midway through the book, but Ophelia still has a thing for him to the bitter end, as do I.

Wolf: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Michelle: I like stories of all kinds, so I love movies and well-written TV shows, but my favorite place is the theater. I also love grabbing coffee with friends. Great stories come when you sit down with people to chat. (Author friends are dangerous. Many personal details from real life become part of the characters’ stories.)

Wolf: I hear you. What are your two favorite books about writing?

Michelle: On Writing by Stephen King & Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. Both gave me the confidence to say I’m a writer and the permission to not be perfect while doing it.

Wolf: Super. Thanks for stopping by. You can connect with Michelle through these links:

Website: www.michelleraybooks.com
Facebook: Michelle Ray writer
Twitter: @mraywriter

Star Touched

March 13, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – David J. Bernstein

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.

David Siegel Bernstein, PhD is the author of Blockbuster Science: The Real Science in Science Fiction and the forthcoming mystery novel Poisoned Pawn. His fiction and poetry have been published in numerous print, podcast, and online magazines. His nonfiction has been published in academic journals, newsletters, book chapters, and science fiction magazines.

He also volunteers his time promoting writing and his fellow authors. He serves on the board of directors for the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference. This is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to bring writers together for instruction, counsel, fellowship, and the exchange of ideas. He also leads the Words in Progress writing group—a group dedicated to helping members to improve their writing and publishing skills.

His non-literary projects include: Re-inventing the wheel, the Sisyphus relief project, referring to myself in the third person (as THE David, lest fools confuse him with the other one).

Wolf: I like the last line of your bio. It’s good to have a sense of humor. If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

David: Since much of my writing is science fiction and fantasy, I’d have to answer: Space Kraken. Although considered evil by most (misunderstood really), I’d keep all Earth colonies safe. Naturally a few would be fed to me as offerings. That’s fair. Whenever there is an alien invasion, they would have to release the Kraken!

Wolf: Love it. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

David: A sharp tongue to cut down my critics… errr, I mean my enemies. As a hidden backup piece, I’d have my wit.

Wolf: Good plan. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

David: I’ve kept my main characters meaningfully employed. Their fictional paychecks keep on rolling in. I remember for one character I provided a touch of insanity. It made him much more interesting—though not much of a people person, but he was happy.

Also, when it has fit into the story (never gratuitously) I provided a merciful death. My latest novel is a mystery with a fair number of victims. I was easy on the ones I liked.

Wolf: Remind me not to get on your bad side. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

David: A merciless death. Another cruel thing I’ve done on rare occasions is to make them two-dimensional.

Wolf: I think that is the cruelest thing you can do to a character. While walking in the woods you come across…

David: A car to take me out of the woods.

Wolf: I take it you aren’t much of an outdoors person. How about this? There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?

David: Turn around and leave! I’d come back with a new lightbulb and dehumidifier for the hall and a new drum for the washer to stop the rumbling.

Wolf: You must have read the same story I did. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

David: A suicide pill; I’d only need one.

Wolf: That is sad. What was left of the world would miss your wit. What story are you working on now?

David: I’m scribing the next book of the Caleb Jacobs series. Poisoned Pawn, the first book in the series, is hitting the market this November. I am also working on a couple of new science fiction short stories. One will challenge the reality of characters. It may turn out a few of them are fictional. The other story is a space adventure.

Wolf: What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

David: I enjoy interviews with very nice bloggers.

Wolf: Thank you. If you were stranded on a deserted island and only had one book, what would you want it to be?

David: I’d choose War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. It would be the only time I’d be able to get through it.

Wolf: Great answer. Connect more with David through these links:

DavidSiegelBernstein.blogspot.com
Twitter: @DavidBernstein
Instagram: davidsiegelbernstein
Facebook: @DSBernstein

March 6, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Rhiannon Held

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.

Rhiannon Held writes urban fantasy, along with space opera and weird western (as R. Z. Held). She lives in Seattle, where she works as an archaeologist for an environmental compliance firm. At work, she mostly uses her degree for copy-editing technical reports; in writing, she uses it for cultural world-building; in public, she’ll probably use it to check the mold seams on the wine bottle at dinner.

Wolf: If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?

Rhiannon: I’m not sure I’d ever want to be an animal literally, but being one metaphorically (in the best tradition of animals that talk in folktales) would be fun! My personal metaphor animal (or patronus) is a fox. Sometimes foxes are the villains of the piece in Western folktales—sly, killing chickens, stealing what isn’t theirs. But what if folktale foxes applied their methods to less villainous goals? I aspire to be stubborn like a fox. Not stubborn like an ox, just going forward and hitting your head against a wall until it breaks (or does it?). Stubborn like a fox, who sees a goal and goes over or under or around or talks their way in or distracts the guard or in the end, makes peace with deciding it wasn’t actually worth it. If they do decide it’s worth it, they keep stubbornly trying different methods of getting to their goal until they succeed.

Wolf: I never thought about foxes like that. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?

Rhiannon: At one time, I thought I might write a spin-off series of my main urban fantasy series, Silver. That ended up not being where I wanted to go with my limited creative time (though I still love the idea for it!). The spin-off was intended to be set about 60 years in the future, when the werewolf characters who were part of a society hidden from humans in the Silver series had mostly died in clashes with humans once they were discovered. It meant that the characters I’d written about originally had somewhat passed into legend, with all the crunchy misunderstandings and exaggerations that intrigue me about real history. It also meant that I had to know how they all died.

That’s not the mean part, though. Death is death; it comes to every character off the page. No, the mean part was when I figured out what life must be like for the characters who remained. Though the series was slated to take place in a relatively safe enclave, anyone who’d made it that far had lost pretty well everyone in the life to violence. That’s one thing to have in backstory, but it’s another to have happen to characters readers have already met!

Wolf: So true. While walking in the woods you come across…

Rhiannon: As the interest in history I mentioned above hinted at, for my day job I’m actually a professional archaeologist. Specifically, I work in compliance archaeology, which involves checking places slated for development before ground is even broken, so that we can know or predict with confidence whether there are any “cultural resources” (not just artifacts or objects, but also other things that are evidence of past humans, such as stains in the soil, trails, ditches, or building foundations) that might be disturbed when development goes forward. Over my career, I’ve specialized and now mostly edit the technical reports we produce for our results. However, I was trained in survey, which is what I would be doing when I was walking out in the woods and came across something.

What might I find, out on survey? In the Pacific Northwest, not much on the surface—our survey almost always involves digging what are called shovel probes because otherwise things are just plain too grown over to see. But we’re hypothetically walking, not digging! When walking, we often find railroad grades, but almost never rails or ties, as those were removed by the railroad companies when they closed the lines, or moved spurs as they opened up new areas for logging in historical times. Old roads are also out there. Occasionally one can find concrete foundations or pads associated with homesteads or houses. And can or bottle dumps! Workers on the job or people traveling on a road might dump the cans or bottles from what they’d eat or drunk by the side of the road or tracks. Cans rust away and can be hard to identify very precisely, but bottles often have maker’s marks, as well as how particular shapes tell you what’s inside (take a look in your recycling bin—you know what had wine in it, and what had ketchup!).

Just as a note—even as archaeologists, most of the time we record things, we don’t collect them. The point is what they can tell us, not possessing them, and they can tell us things while staying right where they are for another person to see! So if you find historical stuff in a the woods, be like an archaeologist: look it over and leave it there.

Wolf: Just like I learned in scouts. Take only picture. Leave no trace. If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Rhiannon: There are two answers to this question! The first is, I’d love to be able to teleport, mostly so I could visit far-flung friends whenever the heck I wanted. Narratively, though, that one’s no good, because no super power can just work quickly and conveniently with no side effects, tradeoffs, or complications. I’ve seen plenty of complications for teleportation across fiction, but none of them are meaningful for my personality. For instance, getting lost in some kind of limbo state if you step in without picturing your destination clearly enough makes the most narrative sense for a character who metaphorically doesn’t look before they leap as well. That is the diametric opposite of me!

So the second answer is, I think I’d probably have empathy. It’s great for understanding people and helping them, but it’s pretty terrible for making sure you don’t burn out trying to fix the world all on your lonesome. If I had that superpower, maybe I wouldn’t use it very much…

Wolf: Interesting. One of my works in progress is about an empathic teleport. She has loads of complication. What five items would you want to have in a post-cataclysmic world?

Rhiannon: I have a very high, wonky prescription for which I currently wear contacts, but obviously in that case I’d want my glasses first and foremost. The next things are all bound up in what I’d like to consider my long-term survival strategy. Assume for the sake of these items, that in this new world, there are now more resources than people (true for a disease outbreak, not true for crippling drought for decades, etc.). Most fiction likes to focus on the fighting after the cataclysm, but people already tend to stick together during disasters, and enough resources afterwards means there’s much less impetus to fight to go steal someone else’s food because you’re starving, for example. But I digress!

Second item, I want a farmer’s almanac. Gotta get some crops in the ground if I want to eat in the future. But those won’t be ready for a season, if not more, so time to get me something to eat now, with a book of city maps. Remember those, from the 90s, with street maps for an entire city in far more detail than one fold-out map can give? It’ll be outdated, of course, given all the updates went online, but it would be enough to orient you and record your progress as you start scavenging. Maps are important! I won’t just be scavenging food, so I’ll want a solar panel so I can generate electricity to run any useful items that I find.

Last? Well, it’s kind of a big item, but I want a printing press. Preserving knowledge is so important, and while it’s easy to go the direction of worshiping books as singular, magical objects, I think that’s not the way to go. Preservation of knowledge is about replication. Find the books, copy down the information, and fire up the press! Print a hundred guides describing how to build a water filtration system using charcoal, and which wild plants are good to eat. Then all the people around you and their knowledge of their experiences can survive in the new world too.

Wolf: You and Tatiana, the main character in Star Touched, would get along great. Books and wild edibles are her things. What story are you working on now?

Rhiannon: Oddly enough, speaking of a post-apocalyptic world…That’s not quite true, I have at least four projects on my hard drive right now in various stages of completion, but the one I’m currently revising is a weird western, set centuries after the apocalypse, that explores, among other things, just what people looking back on us might put in their books about the period of their history we’re currently living in. Also it has conscious AI and other leftover technology from the old world as well as tall tales, lonely trails through deep forested canyons, private dancers, saloons, gun battles, and bicycle chases.

Wolf: That sound great. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Rhiannon: For hobbies that get me out of the house, I belong to a community choir and have a D&D game, and I also enjoy hiking and finding little local museums to poke around. On a given evening, though, I write until I have no more brain left, which isn’t always bedtime, so I also have to fill that time. To get away from words without completely vegging in front of Netflix (which I do my share of, let’s be honest) I enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles and cross-stitch. The bigger the picture the better, for both of those!

Wolf: All fun activities. What’s your philosophy that keeps you going through the hard times of writing?

Rhiannon: A question I get a lot that I never know how to answer is “Has there ever been a time you tried to give up writing?” It’s hard to answer because the honest reply is, “No.” But there’s a really interesting question buried inside of that, it’s just been made too specific. When times are hard (and every writer knows, damn but they get hard) even if you don’t feel that difficulty in the form of wanting to quit, how do you get through?

My philosophy: things work out. That needs a bit of explanation, otherwise it sounds like an empty platitude. Not everything will succeed. Not everything will get better. But things will change. That change might bring something that’s even better than what you thought you wanted. It might bring what you feared but you find out there was no reason to fear it after all. It might bring something so awful that you’re forced into making a decision that you never would have imagined making that brings even more change…that might be better than you imagined. Or worse. My life philosophy is that change is terrifying but as you get used to things, you realize they’ve worked themselves out. Somehow. Not how you imagined. But probably not bad, in the end. And a writing career is just a microcosm of that. There are no guarantees you’ll succeed at any one project or goal, but if you keep writing and submitting and give the change something to work on, you’ll end up somewhere new. And I’d like to keep finding out where that new place is!

Wolf: Great philosophy. You can connect with Rhiannon through these links:

Twitter: @rhiannonheld
Website: www.rhiannonheld.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5324198.Rhiannon_Held

February 27, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Heidi Hanley

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: Thanks for stopping by today, Heidi. Tell us a little about yourself.

Heidi: There are worse things than living in a world of kings, queens, warriors, bards, and all manner of magical beings. After a life spent burying myself in the imagination of others and lamenting my inability to create such a story myself, I was challenged by my husband and a friend to bust down the barriers to my own creativity and just do it! I did, and the Kingdom of Uisneach series is the result.

I have been blessed by careers as a Registered Nurse, an interfaith minister and a hospice chaplain, but ever-flowing beneath the surface was my passion for books and writing. Whether I was writing care plans, weddings or journaling my own personal odyssey, I crafted words in ways that others found . . . interesting.

The Kingdom of Uisneach series taps into the core of my Irish heritage, evoking the spirit of ancient myth and legend. I hope you enjoy this story and would love to hear from you.

Wolf: Sounds interesting. If you had to pick a weapon, what would it be and why?

Heidi: I am drawn to swords, which represent many things such as justice, ritual, power and strength. Specifically, I would choose the longsword. On the physical level it is the common weapon of the warriors I write about in the mythic fantasy genre. It requires a great deal of strength and dexterity to manage in battle and can get the job done completely. Granted, it is usually more difficult for women to use effectively, but not impossible. It is both an elegant and earthy weapon, crafted and honed by the hands of a smithy in a simple wood-fired cottage. On the symbolic level it is power and strength, two attributes of the men and women I write about. It plays a key role in The Prophecy in the magical sword Nuada, one of the four treasures of Uisneach.

Wolf: There is nothing like a good blade. You’ve just been turned into a plant. Describe yourself.

Heidi: I adore ferns for their diversity and grace. They remind me of faeries and whimsy. Being one who is often referred to as ‘a bull in a china shop’ the lithe grace of ferns is something I can only dream of. Living in forested places, changing color with the seasons and hosting shelter to small or magical beings, is all I could hope to be in the botanical world.

Wolf: And some of them taste good. I mean the ferns, not the faeries. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?

Heidi: Definitely canine! I adore dogs and have often said I’d have one of every kind, though that would leave little time for writing. In my mundane world, I have a very un-mundane Scottish Terrier named Riley, who people on Facebook have come to know as my office buddy. In Uisneach, Briana has Dara, an Irish Wolfhound. She saved him when he was wounded and in turn, he became one of her loyal guards. I cannot imagine any world without dogs in it and none of my future books will be without some form of canine hero.

Wolf: I know exactly what you mean. While walking in the woods you come across…

Heidi: Well, obviously a magical oak tree that is a portal to another kingdom in need of a savior-queen.

Wolf: Of course. What else could there be? If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Heidi: All my life, I have had this occasional dream of being able to fly. They are rare, and I really treasure them. It feels so good to be able to fly fearlessly above the world, seeing everything from a higher perspective. I am also inspired by watching documentaries where they are looking down on say, the African savannah or the Amazon River and birds are flying below. It gives me the same feeling that I’m flying.

Wolf: I’ve had those dreams as well, which is kind of funny. I don’t like heights. Do you have a favorite character?

Heidi: Every character in The Prophecy is my favorite for a different reason. However, I am really beginning to appreciate Briana as a force to be reckoned with. Readers have so far either loved her or have rolled their eyes and picked her apart. I guess she makes an impression and that is exactly what I like about her. She isn’t ordinary, though she thinks she is. Up until she walked through a tree in the woods near her house and ended up in Uisneach, she lived a pretty sheltered life. On the other side of the tree, she immediately discovers she is the savior to a land of gnomes, dryads, witches, druids and very mythic men and women and must adapt quickly to this new paradigm. She goes from being a young woman who cries at the drop of a hat and rejects most men because they don’t meet her dreamy expectations, to a woman who makes hard, sacrificial choices for the greater good of a kingdom she falls in love with. I freely admit it is cosmically cliché. I meant it to be. Her character arc seems complete in The Prophecy, but through the writing of the second book, The Runes of Evalon, it is clear she has room to grow, and is. She impresses me more and more with each passing day.

Wolf: Describe a meal you (or Briana) would be served while visiting another world.

Heidi: So, I’m on Uisneach and it’s the season for Christmas and Briana wants to celebrate the holiday she remembers so fondly. She consults with Moira Flannigan, the head cook and Reilly Doherty the butler, to create the meal. Slabs of cheese and baskets of nuts and fresh berries start the meal. The main course is roast turkey, pheasant, rabbit and venison, with sautéed mushrooms and wild onions. Brimming bowls of potatoes, turnip and carrots are set on the tables. Fresh oat bread with herbed butter is a staple at the castle and one of Briana’s favorites. Apple crisp and wild berry cobbler with whipped cream will be dessert. Cups will overflow with red ale, Uisneach mead and fresh goat milk. What won’t be served is plum wine, an Uisneach specialty that makes Briana act a little crazy.

Wolf: Yummy. What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)

Heidi: Two bodies of water play important roles in my life. Waterfalls are magical and play a significant role in my writing as you will see as the story of Uisneach unfolds. I live within a couple of hours drive of the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. When I’m feeling stressed out, overwhelmed or overtired, I head for the ocean. The timelessness of wave after wave, crashing on rock or breaking on the sand is healing and reassuring for me.

Wolf: I agree, sunny day ocean waves are soothing. What story are you working on now?

Heidi: The Runes of Evalon is book two of the Kingdom of Uisneach trilogy. I have just finished the first draft and hope to have it edited and published in the spring. This book is written from Briana’s and Silas’s alternating points of view. Silas is on a quest to find important magical runes to restore magic in Uisneach and Briana and Brath are trying to capture Lord Shamwa and stop him from wreaking havoc across the kingdom.

Wolf: If this question were any question in the world, what question would you want it to be and how would you answer it?

Heidi: What is the meaning of life? Ha! Isn’t that everyone’s question? Doesn’t everyone want an answer? In my work as a hospice chaplain, I often ask people what gives meaning to their life. I think the answers to the question about the meaning of life are varied and personal. So, for me, I will answer that the meaning of life is to find the place where I am connected to the song of the universe and then to discover how to work with that energy in the quest to be all that I am capable of being and bring something of meaning and value to the other souls and beings I share this life with.

Wolf: I hope everyone enjoyed Heidi’s visit to Wolf Notes. You can connect with Heidi through these links:

Facebook: Heidi Hanley Author Page
https://www.facebook.com/heidihanleyauthor/
Kingdom of Uisneach (closed group on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1936863969722285/
https://www.instagram.com/heidi_hanley/
http://kingdomofuisneach.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Prophecy-Kingdom-Uisneach-Book-ebook/dp/B079DS3R2M

February 20, 2019
WOLF NOTES: An Uncommon Interview – Catherine Lundoff
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:
1. A Swiss Army knife
2. A bottle of rubbing alcohol
3. A box of bandages
4. A box of energy bars
5. 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.
February 13, 2019