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.
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, theGourmez.com, has garnered multiple accolades and influences every tasty bite of her fictional world building.
Wolf: If you could be any animal in the universe, what would it be and why?
Rebecca: The universe is so big! I’m going to take a page from Doctor Who and be a star whale, which feeds on the light of stars that it passes in the galaxy. Star whales can travel freely in space, and they live quite a long time. I’d imagine that’s an adventuresome, fulfilling life.
Wolf: I loved that episode. What is the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Rebecca: I’m a food blogger, so this is actually a hard question to answer! There’ve been a number of times that I’ve had to close my eyes and just dig into a bite, choke it down fast as I can. Head cheese is one of my least favorites for sure. For the past decade, foodies and chefs have been entranced with the idea of whole animal butchery, appreciating all the parts of a creature that’s been slaughtered for our consumption. I honor the morality of that aspiration, but dear lord, head cheese—the combination of, yes, meat from the head and gelatin—does not need to exist. And it’s so salty! RUN AWAY.
Wolf: My mom used to get head cheese but I never tasted it. Now It’s hard to find. What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Rebecca: Writers are sadistic beasts, as there’s not much of a story if you’re not subjecting your characters to mean things. Excluding death, the meanest thing I’ve done is revoke the happy endings for characters who thought they had one coming.
Wolf: Harsh. Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?
Rebecca: Cat person, for sure. Dogs are totally fine, and I had dogs, cats, lizards, rabbits, fish, and hamsters growing up. But cats are as independent as I am, and that purr is excellent when you need soothing on a bad day.
Wolf: There is definitely something to be said for that soft outboard motor. While walking in the woods you come across…
Rebecca: Beautiful, tiny, white flowers that I’ll take pictures of to add to my floral photography collection. If I’m lucky, I’ll also glimpse some rabbits hopping between the trees. If I’m feeling imaginative, nothing is better than a hanging mist between redwoods that I can’t quite explain.
Wolf: Sounds like the beginning of a story. What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)
Rebecca: Growing up, my answer was lakes, as I didn’t visit them often and enjoyed the still water and fun of easily swimming coast to coast. But once I learned about the existence of leeches? Oh, sorry lakes! Oceans have been my favorite ever since, especially at night as waves beat against the cliffs.
Wolf: Give me an ocean any day. I got turned off of lakes when I saw a huge spider on the dock at camp. What story are you working on now?
Rebecca: I’m working on the first draft for a sequel to my fantasy novel, Wings Unseen. The working title for the rough draft is Wings Unfurled. All the things I feel like I got away with in writing the first book will be addressed in this one. The metaphorical becomes physical, throwing the world of Lansera into tumult once again.
Wolf: Sounds good. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Rebecca: Feel guilty for not writing. Just kidding! I don’t like that part at all. What I do like is going for a swim, going out to new restaurants and bars, seeing theater, and breathing in nature on a fresh, clear day with a hint of rain.
Wolf: But that guilt always seems to follow. What would you like to do if you won 1 trillion dollars?
Rebecca: Why, I would like to hire the brightest minds in the world to figure out how we could provide universal healthcare, housing, and enough income to cover basic needs for everyone on the planet, because we absolutely could with that amount of money. And then I would like to tackle how we, as a species, can better protect all the other species the Earth sustains.
Wolf: Amen. I like that idea. How can readers find out more about you and your books?
Rebecca: You can find me anywhere @theGourmez! But mostly, you’ll find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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 may be overshadowed by more destructive abilities. Fleeing the persecution of those like her, Tatiana seeks refuge in a small town she once visited. But this civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble. Will Tatiana flee or 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.
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.
LJ Cohen is a Boston area novelist, poet, blogger, ceramics artist, geek, and relentless optimist. After almost twenty-five years as a physical therapist specializing in chronic pain management, LJ now uses her anatomical knowledge and myriad clinical skills to injure characters in her science fiction and fantasy novels. When not bringing home strays (canine and human), LJ can be found writing, which looks a lot like daydreaming.
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?