Amber Polo's Blog, page 13

Wolf Rescue

 Bill Chamberlain, Director of the United States Wolf Refuge


 Bill Chamberlain has over twenty-seven years of experience dealing with wolves and wolf hybrids on a daily basis. He is certified in assessing and evaluating animal behavior and has done extensive studies and research into wolf and wolf-hybrid behavior.
   I met Bill at a presentation in Arizona. Not only did he talk about the work he's doing with wolves and wolf-dogs but he explained the history and evolution of wolves, wolf behavior, recovery programs, and the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf into the wilds of the Southwest. The U.S. Wolf Refuge  facility in Nevada presently has 16 wolves and hybrids, some for possible adoption and others are there in their forever home.


United States Wolf RefugeThe U.S. Wolf Refuge is in existence to promote and protect the welfare of all wolves and wolf dogs throughout North America. Their overall goals are to return the wolf to its rightful place within our ecology and to promote healthy and harmonious relations between man and wolf dogs.

They believe virtually all recent tragic incidents involving wolves and wolf dogs have been a direct result of humans dealing ineffectively with the wolves. If wolf and wolf dog behavior is understood and properly dealt with, man's relationship with them will be happy and harmonious. The U.S. Wolf Refuge is dedicated to this belief.

It is the belief of the U.S. Wolf Refuge that wolves are wildlife and belong in the wild as is naturally intended. Those who oppose the mere existence of the wolf must understand that the wolf is an absolute necessity to the natural balance of any ecosystem. Those who revere the wolf and make it out to be something greater than it is must understand the same thing. The wolf is simply a piece in Mother Nature's delicate and complicated puzzle.
                                                                                                          
Kasa  

Bill was accompanied by Kasa (Hopi Indian for "dressed in furs"), a 3 year old Wolf-Dog that was rescued from a California animal shelter after her owners lost their home to foreclosure. In most California cities any dog that is suspected of being a wolf mix is not eligible for adoption and either must be pulled out by an authorized rescue organization or is automatically euthanized. When her owners surrendered her they classified her as a Wolf-Dog. A volunteer from the U.S. Wolf Refuge was fortunate to have received a call from the animal shelter and was able to "rescue" her before she was euthanized.

Kasa has a wonderfully friendly disposition due to being raised with children and other animals. She has become an Ambassador Animal and goes to many public events.  Wolf & Wolf-Hybrids Besides the plight of wolves, Bill is an expert on wolf-dogs. He says, "wolves and wolf-hybrids are magnificent animals that many see as a status symbol."
Bill's organization takes in and finds homes for wolves and wolf dogs that are socialized enough to adjust to a new pack/family without significant trauma. This is a complicated and delicate process in that it requires an in-depth assessment of the animal as well as the people who are willing to bring such an animal into their home and into their lives. Bill has written a Placement Guide. He told me the his Adoption Questionnaire is exceptionally thorough. When I asked him about the success rate of wolf-hybrid adoptions from the U.S. Wolf Refuge he said only one had been removed from a home. He felt this was because the placement process was tough.  
I also asked Bill about DNA testing to determine if an animal was pure wolf or wolf hybrid. He said that at this time that is not possible.


Learn more & gain more insight by reading "Find Your Wolf a New Home" by Bill Chamberlain. And Download the Adoption Questionnaire and / or the the Adoption Agreement.


Amber Polo and Kasa
Learn more about the U.S. Wolf Refuge 
and wolves and wolf-hybridsand assist their work.

Choose a wolf or wolf-dog to
sponsor for one year 
in their "Adopt-A-Wolf" Program.

Love Blog Tours? Prizes?

To Celebrate the print release of "Released"(Book 1 of The Shapeshifters' Library) I'm setting out on my first everback-to-back blog tours.
Join me and take a chance on winning
great prizes (including genuine Arctic wolf fur)
Print and Kindle  and Nook now available
Follow along with me for Reviews, Excerpts, Guest Posts, & Interviews! 
14 stops in 9 Days!
Big Blog Tour Sept 10-17th Sept 10 Hezzi D's Books & Cooks Review Sept 11 Bound To Astound Guest Post Sept 12 Aria's Dark Muse  Review
Sept 13 Nette's Bookshelf ExcerptSept 14 Nezzi D's Books & Cooks  Guest Post Sept 15 Books, Etc. Review
           The Wormhole Review/Author Interview
Sept 16 Truth, Beauty, Freedom & Books Review Sept 17 A Simple Love of Reading  Guest Post 
Big Blog Tour Prize Large canvas Shipsfeather Library book bag,4 signed books by Amber Polo including The Shapeshifters’ Library Book 1: Released, Amber's relaxation CD, 2 collectible dogs, a tuft of Arctic wolf fur, And more…
One Day Excerpt Blitz - Sept 18th Sept 18  A Simple Love of Reading Sept 18 The Peasants Revolt Sept 18 Crossroads Sept 18 Sherri's FIK*TISH*UHS Reviews Sept 18 Herding Cats & Burning Soup 
One Day Excerpt Blitz Prize
3 signed books by Amber Polo including The Shapeshifters’ Library Book 1: Released, a tuft of Arctic wolf fur, and more...
Lots of chances to win

Thanks, Collette, from ABG Reads Book Tours for setting me up with these wonderful bloggers!
a Rafflecopter giveawaya Rafflecopter giveaway

Doris McFadden - Dog Lover and Trainer for 70 years

I wish you could all get to know my friend Doris McFadden. 
Her connection with dogs began at the age of 12 when she handled Dalmatians at a kennel in San Francisco area in the 1940s and trained puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. She attended obedience classes and showed her own dogs in obedience and conformation. That means Doris has spent 70 years in the world of dogs.
Doris graduated from San Francisco State and bred German Shepherds. After her marriage to Don McFadden, a California State Humane Officer who shared her passion for animals, they trained, bred and showed Appaloosa horses and trained German Shepherds. Doris showing in obedience and worked for a small animal vet.
After moving to Arizona, Doris taught obedience classes in Camp Verde, organized a Doggie Drill Team, judged at Chino Valley Kennel Club shows, presents programs at her local library, and continues to train dogs of all breeds and ages, offering private classes and classes through the OLLI (Yavapai College - Osher Life Long Learning Institute). 
Charter member of the Richmond Dog Fanciers Club, AKC Evaluator of “Canine Good Citizen” program. Guide Dogs for the Blind Legacy Society, Board of Directors U.S. Wolf Refuge)
Doris presently owns Lucky, an Australian Cattle Dog, and Sirius her rescue Greyhound. She's busy private training class for two Mastiffs, planning her next Wolf Workshop Dancing with Wolves, and taking in a few yoga classes every week. Doris recently traveled to Egypt and to my favorite place in the Southwest – Chaco Canyon.
Doris is especially dear to me for her support during my writing of dogs and wolves in fantasy. She continues to be invaluable for her enthusiasm and spirit.

Learn more about Doris and her work with wolves on Oct 17th post.

Dog Shows Revisited!

Dog Shows Have Changed!
Recently I attended the Flagstaff Kennel Club Dog Show. I hadn’t been to a show in “many” years. Much was the same, but a lot had changed.
There were still lots of dogs and stressed owners, breeders, judges, stewards, and handlers, uncomfortable weather, confusion finding rings, and lots of dogs. It reminded me that most dogs shows are not for spectators - or for the dogs- it's all about the dog people. 
ConfirmationIt wasn’t a large show, only about 1,000 dogs entered in all classes Obedience and Confirmation but I saw breeds of dogs that hadn’t been sanctioned when I was showing back in the 70s.
I used to be proud of my knowledge of dogs. I thought I could identify every breed, while the average person only knew the most popular. I could point out a smooth Collie, a long haired Dachshund, and a Puli. I knew the names of dogs cat owners couldn’t pronounce. Well, times have changed. There are now 174 AKC recognized breeds and some ready to be added to the list. I saw Canaan Dogs, Swedish Valhunds, Pharaoh Hounds, Dogues de Bordeaux, Cane Corseo, and an Anatolian Shepherd Dogs (especially of interest to my friend Doris).
ObedienceI was looking forward to watching the Obedience judging. It was a long time since my Old English Sheepdogs achieved their Companion dog titles (three also with a confirmation Championship) Those were the days when some people believed my dogs would go blind if I trimmed their hair enough to see.
I saw many accomplished dogs and trainers, some novices at their first show others performing near perfect scores who made it look so easy, I longed for a dog to train (that feeling didn't last long). RallyI also was fascinated by obedience classes called Rally. They are new to AKC shows and looked like more fun than the ordinary Novice Open and Utility classes. Before the class started a “course was laid out and handlers walked through. When the judge said "Forward" the owner started and continued over jumps, Most fun was the “course” where dogs were expected to walk past a bowl of biscuits.
Canine Good CitizenshipHad a chance to watch an outstanding judge award Canine Good Citizenship certificates. The various tests were informal and showed if a dog had good manners in some basic situations. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all dog owners had to pass a test.
I saw a woman showing in Obedience wearing an oxygen tank, another in Confirmation in a powered chair. I saw young people in Junior Showmanship and Obedience and talked to many wonderful people happily sharing their knowledge and love of dogs.
Next, I want to attend a larger show and see every one of the newer breeds. And hopefully at least one Old English Sheepdog. And I definitely want to go to an Agility Trial and see dogs flying through the air and crawling through slinky tubes.
I picked up all the AKC literature (notice the librarian coming out again) hoping to understand some of the new things. I was disappointed the brochures didn’t answer my questions.
Thankfully, right before the show I read Show Dog, the Charmed Life and Trying Times of a Near-Perfect Purebred by Josh Dean. Besides being an entertaining and educational look at the world of a Best in Show hopeful, it took me right back into the mind of a dog show addict.   I still don’t understand Puppy Groups, Bred by Exhibitor Groups, or the Master classes which seemed to be part of Junior Showmanship. Leave a comment if you can help me out.

For a fun day this Fall find a dog show near you!
 
To locate shows: check this AKC site, click your state, and the type of event you want to attend (Conformation, Obedience, Agility, Rally, Tracking, etc.) and see what's around. 

Learn more: AKC A Beginner's Guide to Dog Shows



Me and my first OES puppy King Pellinore of Pepperlane, CD

Cecil - Character Interview

Cecil Miller Audio-visual Librarian, MA, MLS
Don’t ask me why I’m working in this town that would be the perfect setting for “Our Town.” It’s nice enough, but there’s absolutely no entertainment. After graduate school I took the job of AV Librarian to earn some money for my move to Hollywood. I want to be a director. My friends tell me I should try for a job in one of the studio libraries, but I’m still building my resume.
Here in Shipsfeather’s Library I curate the audio-visual collections. That means I select the visual media of all types, except for except for audiobooks and juvenile titles. All the formats that you have to listen to or view with some kind of device are my purview. Movies, TV shows, documentaries, educational videos, and music. My department also has computers for DVD viewing and one very old microfilm reader for film not available in any other format.
Library Director Liberty Cutter is great. I mean she encourages me to plan film series programs and create montages of classic films. Without a movie house, the poor people of this town are limited to movies on cable TV and streaming movies to computers and other small screen devises, but that is so lame. I feel my special job here is to introduce the screen gems of the past.
As you might guess I spend a lot of time watching movies. Besides the movie channels on my big screen TV, I travel to Dayton and Columbus and even Pittsburg and Cleveland for film festivals. I have a complete personal collection of Michael Moore films.
One more thing -– You’d be surprised at Liberty’s taste in movies. She loves fantasy, as do a lot of librarians (I won't venture a guess about that). But she also likes some movies made for children like 101 Dalmatians. Most surprising is her obsession with Disney’s Shaggy Dog. She loves that movie. I mean loves. Before she purchased her own copy, she checked it out so often we had to replace the DVD. Everyone has their quirks. The characteristics that make movie characters interesting also make librarians interesting. And this library is filled with quirky librarians. Maybe I should write a script…

There is something odd in this town... Just whispers but I think there are shifters around. Now that sounds more like a Hitchcock film. Impossible. Who believe small town librarians were really dog-shifter?
As soon as the next season of Ohio film festivals is over, I’m sending my resume to Lionsgate. Favorite Reading: 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and Steven Spielberg: A Biography, 2nd Edition. Complete List of Characters 
in The Shapeshifters' Library Series
  Read  Released (The Shapeshifters' Library Book 1) to learn more about Cecil's library, the dog-shifters, and the werewolf book-burners. In Print September 9th!

Dana Davis Remembers Her Dog and Inspiration

Welcome, Fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi author Dana Davis. 
I asked Dana back to talk about the canine in her latest book Desert Magick: Phoenix Lights. Dana, Tell us about Perky!
 
Thank you for having me back, Amber. I’m excited to be here again.
Amber asked me if I would share a little about a particular character in my Desert Magick paranormal fantasy series and I’m happy to do so. He’s unlike any other characters in the series. He has no unusual powers and isn’t much good when it comes to fighting off evil, but he stole my heart the day he burst into the room as I was making notes and preparing to begin the very first book. I’m talking about Perky, Daisy’s little terrier mutt, a happy, scruffy little guy with brown fur, who is eager to please. Daisy’s husband Noah got him from a shelter when he was just a puppy and gave him to her for her birthday one year.  
Now, I’ve written dogs into some of my other novels but never as a pet for any of my main characters. As soon as Perky showed up, I realized this was going to be a challenge, since having a pet means the characters can’t just run off and forget about him. Probably why a lot of paranormal fantasy characters don’t have pets or kids. I tried writing the scenes without him but he always showed up again, always under foot and looking for attention. He refused to go away so I had no choice but to accept him as another character in the series. Besides, I just couldn’t resist that little face that popped into my head each time he came around.
My main inspiration for Perky’s personality came from my best friend when I was growing up. When I was eight years old, my mother took me to a neighbor’s house for a surprise. There, I saw the most precious sight - A litter of new pups. I was thrilled when my mom told me to pick one out. They were all very cute but I chose the runt, the only male in the litter. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him all curled up next to his mother, so tiny even to my eight-year-old hands. When he was old enough, he came to live with us.
He cried the first few nights but eventually became used to his new home. I was a bit of a loner child with few friends, so my dog became my confidant and my best friend, someone who didn’t judge me or laugh at me. He was always thrilled to see me and could hardly contain his excitement when I came home from school each day. Although he liked my younger siblings, he was most definitely my dog. I fed and bathed him and he always chose to be with me over anyone else.
We played chase in the backyard. A few times he dug his way out and waited for me in the front yard. When I would get close, he’d run several feet away and stop and look at me again. We would repeat this several times before I caught up with him. Good thing I was a fast kid and able to leash him before he got into real trouble. Some days he sat next to me with his head on my leg as I read books on the old metal glider my grandparents had given us. Other times, we would lie on the picnic table and watch the stars together. I told him my troubles and secrets and he always listened. Always.
My precious pup lived for thirteen years. The day he died, I was devastated. I grieved for many years and felt guilty for a very long time that I wasn’t home with him that day. I was in college by then and very busy. I didn’t have much time for a dog so my mother took care of him. He came into my dreams often during those years, always happy and frolicking around, and I would wake up crying, heartbroken all over again. He’s been gone a long time now and doesn’t come into my dreams that much anymore, but I still think about him often and am grateful for the love and understanding he gave to that misfit child.
In a way, I’ve immortalized part of my beloved dog in the character of Perky. The fictitious pup who stormed into my series also has stolen part of my heart, and he appears in several scenes throughout each book in the series. I hope readers will see the love and happiness I had with my own dog in the way Daisy and Noah treat little Perky and the comfort he gives them after a hard day of fighting paranormal baddies. I’ve written Perky-poo into four Desert Magick books so far and he’s now part of my family, as well as Daisy’s.
  

Dana Davis is an award-winning and bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction and a paranormal investigator. She once worked for Hollywood and Disney. Genealogy fascinates her, and her ancestry includes Irish, Scottish, Dutch, British, and Mohawk Indian. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and uses her varied background, along with family stories, to aid in her writing.
Dana's Contest
Enter for a chance to win a free PDF or ePub copy of the newly released Desert Magick: Phoenix Lights (Book 4). To enter, leave a comment and email addy (Use AT in place of @ to avoid spammers). Dana's family members not eligible.The winner will be chosen at random and must have an email address that accepts attachments in order to receive the prize.

Contest ends Saturday, August 18th at midnight PST.
Dana will notify the winner within one week of that date. Good luck!

For information on the entire bestselling 
Desert Magick series, please visit Dana’s website www.danadaviswriting.com
Dana’s Facebook pages  
https://www.facebook.com/DanaDavisbooksand https://www.facebook.com/DanaDavisAuthorPage
Dana’s Blah Blah blog http://danadaviswriting.blogspot.com/

Sybilla - Character Interview

Sybilla Romano Dinzelbacher, LLD, Restaurateur (Black wolf, Beta Female)
I should have been the heroine of Amber’s book The Shapeshifters’ Library because I’m way more interesting than that librarian Liberty Cutter. I would have taken over the book except for my husband Harry. Don’t get me started about Harry, but marrying him was not one of my better decisions. His shaggy innocent good looks were so different from the slick confident werewolves prowling around the law school campus. I was rebelling and his half-breed persona caught in a moment of rebellion.
When his father gave him the opportunity to move to Ohio, run a bank, and wait for the ancient pack Alpha to croak, it seemed like a first step in moving on to bigger things. I’m ambitious. Settle for being a small-town banker’s wife? I don’t think so.
Amber is telling me I shouldn’t give away that happens in Book Two. She’s calling that one Retrieved . Cute. Like puppy dogs chasing books. I'd will tell you a couple of really good things happen to me in that book and I get to shine.
Anyway, if Amber had wanted a heroine with a little sex appeal to heat up her books, she should have given me more pages. But what can I say, she’s the author. I get to be one of the villains, which suits me. I’m one of the most important characters and got my own POV, which is cool because without my viewpoint you’d think books and libraries are wonderful and worth saving.
I wear sexy clothes and own a trendy bistro which serves the best food you’ve ever eaten. Forget the stale donuts in the library’s staff room, my French chef’s flaming deserts are to die for.
Harry is Beta Male to Elsie Dustbunnie (and you thought my name was dumb). She’s retired from the public library but still runs the pack. I do give her credit for burning down the old library, but when the librarians moved into the old dog-shifters’ building we had to figure out how to put them out of business and kill all the dog-shifters still in the basement. The old bag needs a new hip and a quick trip to the old wolves’ home, but she thinks Harry with lose the town to the dog-shifters, if she turned her tail for a minute. She’s right. Harry would flub the whole thing. But she won’t let me have a go at running the Pack because she’s so jealous of my youth and beauty.
I try to get Harry to be a man – or a wolf – but his dog blood makes him wishy washy. I’ll admit when old Harry is in wolf form he still can light my fire, but the rest of the time – if I were a reader and I’m NOT – I’d rather curl up with a good book.
I do my best to destroy every book I find. I love the rituals where we run around in the woods on four feet and toss books onto bonfires. 
So read The Shapeshifters Library Book One: Released to see if I can nudge Harry and Elsie into burning down the town library. And don’t miss Book Two: Retrieved when I get the bigger part I deserve.

Released (The Shapeshifters’ LibraryBook One)



Complete List of Characters 
in the Shapeshifters' Library Series

Love dogs? Love books? Love Libraries?

  Love dogs? Love books? Love Libraries?Hate Book Burning Werewolves?
You’ll love The Shapeshifters’ Library  Welcome to the wonderful world of Shipsfeather, Ohio, where an ancient race of  dog-shifters has been charged with curating the knowledge of the world under an ordinary public library.
The Shapeshifters’ Library will have you laughing with delight and amazement. Don’t miss the first in the most original series of the decade.
The Shapeshifters' Library Book 1: Released available in July, 2012 from
Blue Merle Publishing
Coming in print September 10
Pre-order
Read moreExcerpt

Why I Write Fantasy - Forrest Hayes

Welcome Forrest Hayes
Amber: Why do you write fantasy?
Forrest: I started writing about thirteen years ago when I had a little short story in my head that I felt passionate about. I sat down one evening and started writing the rough draft that is now Chapter 3 of Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar . From then on I was hooked.  I didn't start out with the idea of writing a novel.  Just a three or four page story, then another, and another. I didn’t develop a storyline or outline for some time.  It sort of wrote itself. But, through the course of time, it became apparent that these seemingly separate stories were really just part of a larger one, and I began tying them together.   There was something about the story that was coming through me that was very compelling.  And it was this passion for this story that drove me on. Sometimes I would write for eight, ten hours day, and often past midnight.  At one point I was unemployed and wrote seven days a week for quite a few months. You might say I was obsessed, or possessed. So I guess, in answer to the question, why I write fantasy, is because of my passion for this story.  I had to get the damn thing out of my head.  :)
This passion was spawned many years earlier while reading the true life adventures of Ginger and Dana Lamb. Their travels through the jungles of Mexico in the thirties were very inspiring. They were self -proclaimed adventurers in search of a lost Mayan city in the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico.  They eventually found it along with a previously unknown tribe, the Lacondon. There were pictures in their book of the tribesmen - striking long, shaggy, black hair and clad in white tunics.
I was handed one of the Lambs’ books one day by a stranger while selling burritos on the streets of Juneau. I was a street vendor and he was an occasional customer. One day he just handed me the book and said he thought I'd like it. I don't know why he thought that. But he was right. He had checked it out of the library and said I could take it if I promised to return it to the library by its due date. That was in 1983.
That same year Alaska Airlines offered a round trip fare from Juneau to Mexico City for $100. Too good to pass up. So my girlfriend and I took off for Mexico that September and spent five weeks there.  Someone told us about the artist town of San Cristobal, high up in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, so we went there when we tired of the beach scene. We flew into a small town and then shared a taxi for the thirty-mile trip up the jungle covered hills to San Cristobal.  One of the other passengers was a museum curator from New Mexico and she told us of a place where we could stay that was very nice, and cheap, and safe. It was called Na-Bolom. We arrived at a large complex surrounded by a ten-foot adobe wall.  When we were let in through the large, hand-carved door, I immediately noticed the pictures of natives on the walls. They had long, shaggy black hair, and wore white tunics. 
It immediately struck me that they were the same tribe I'd seen in the Lambs’ book that had been so mysteriously delivered to me in Juneau just months before. And now I had miraculously arrived right at their very door. It seemed to be divine intervention. The jungle was calling me. But why? The seed had been planted, but it would be years later before I would start writing.   Amber: Why the fantasy genre you chose?
Forrest: I probably answered this question above.  I wrote a fantasy story because I was driven to do so. It chose me. I didn’t choose it. There was a story inside of me that needed to come out. My next story may be an entirely different genre.
 Amber: Why do readers love fantasy?
Forrest: I think we love fantasy because we have a need to explore.  Some of us live fairly mundane lives and our world becomes too predictable.  We need to stimulate that need for adventure, to explore, even if it’s from the living room couch. We need to search the vastness of our minds and discover what’s there, waiting to be discovered, and we can do that through one another. We are unlimited beings and fantasy has no limits.
Amber: Would you write fantasy even if no one reads it?
Forrest: Well, no one has read it! Not mine.  Not yet anyway.  This is the case for all new writers.  You have to write first, then see if anyone shows up for the dance.  Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar is fresh off the presses, so to speak. So I still don’t know whether it will be well received or not.  So, I wrote for a decade not knowing if anyone would ever read it. That takes a certain passion.  So I guess the answer to that question is, yes. I would write even if no one reads it. I had the passion for this story, so I wrote it. But will I have it for another? We’ll see.
Forrest Hayes:I sold burritos on the streets of Juneau, Alaska in the early eighties and later practiced as a certified massage therapist for ten years. I currently reside in Prescott, Arizona, where I sell insurance and write.  Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar is my first novel.
Kindle edtion of Na-Bolom: House of the Jaguar

Why I Write Fantasy - Gene Twaronite

Welcome Gene Twaronite, author of young adult satirical urban fantasy!
Amber: Why do you write fantasy? 
Gene: I think it has to do partly with my basic outlook on reality, which tends toward the surreal. From earliest memory I’ve had this feeling that there’s something irrational and strange about the universe. Whenever I look at a giraffe, rhinoceros, or my own face in the mirror, a certain weirdness creeps over me. How did such an unlikely creature come to be? So writing about fantastic or unreal worlds comes perfectly natural to me when reality itself seems unreal. 
I remember as a young boy being able to project myself at will into various imaginary worlds and characters. A history lesson at school would be followed up that afternoon with my role-playing some historic figure back in time. And running home, lungs bursting and short cape flying in the wind, I would become Superman—running so fast that it felt like flying. Whether it’s Tolkien’s magic rings of power or Gene Roddenberry’s quasi-science-based fantasy, it’s all part of the same magic. It’s like what my main character John says at the end of my first fantasy novel The Family That Wasn’t: “…words are powerful stuff. You think that just because you arrange and compose them on the page you still have control over them. But once you set them into motion, words have a life all their own. No telling where they might go. Sometimes they’ll take you to places strange and wonderful. And sometimes they’ll take you to places all too real and terrifying. I never knew writing could be so dangerous.”
Amber: Why did you choose your subgenre of fantasy?
Gene: I guess you would call my subgenre satirical, young adult, urban fantasy (or middle grade in the case of The Family That Wasn’t). Though I now live in rural Arizona, for most of my life I’ve been an urban dweller. So writing about a young man who lives in the city and dreams of becoming a writer wasn’t a big leap.  I wanted to show how the everyday life of urban existence can quickly become unglued through our imagination, taking on wholly new dimensions and possibilities. 
Having achieved some measure of early success in publishing juvenile short stories, I felt comfortable writing for young people. As for the humor, for me there is no other way I can write. When given a choice in a scene between serious dramatic tension and veering toward the absurd or silly, inevitably I’ll go for the laugh. 
With mentors and heroes like Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, James Thurber, Woody Allen and George Carlin, to name a few, it is easy to see why. Nothing so turns me off in a novel or short story as a total lack of humor. Nothing so defines human as a sense of humor.
Amber: Why do readers love fantasy? 
Gene: Humans have always needed to explain reality: how it all started, who we are and where we are going. Answering these questions requires us to step out of our everyday existence and imagine the incredible and the unknown. So we invent stories that we once shared around the campfire. All the great myths, legends, sagas, and religions started in this way. And even as science begins to unravel some but not all of the mysteries of our existence, we continue to hunger for these stories. They provide not only entertainment but allow us to vicariously project ourselves into alternate visions of reality while acting out different aspects of our personalities. There’s definitely a therapeutic value in fantasy, in stretching our imaginations and visualizing new outcomes and possibilities. 
Indeed, I hope that at least one sexual abuse victim somewhere is inspired in this fashion by my novel My Vacation in Hell. Some fantasy stories become so convincing to us that we come to inhabit them, as many of us will forever inhabit Middle Earth. In my novel The Family That Wasn’t, John’s Apache grandmother explains it to him this way: “Johnnie, it’s all a story. It’s been that way since the beginning of time. Back before Geronimo and before mountains, oceans and rivers and before even the earth and the stars, there was always the story. It is a story that lives in our hearts.”
Amber: Would you write fantasy even if no one read it? 
Gene: I would have to say no. The basic drive behind all my writing is to share it with others. All fiction writing is storytelling—stories are meant to be told. I once read a book about writing poetry—in a way poems are a kind of short short story—in which the author (a well-known actor) admitted that he wrote his poems solely for his own amusement. And I found that kind of sad. Poems and stories are an open invitation to the world to share in a writer’s vision.  And even if I were stranded like Robinson Crusoe, with no hope of rescue, I would still write with the dream that my writing, if not me, might someday be discovered.  Gene Twaronite is an Arizona author whose stories have been published in numerous magazines, journals and anthologies, including Avatar Review, Highlights for Children, Read (Weekly Reader), and Heinemann.  He is also the author of the middle grade novel The Family That Wasn’t.
The author first introduced the theme of sexual abuse in his previous novel The Family That Wasn’t—the prequel to My Vacation in Hell.  In his words: “I felt I needed to help my character John resolve his issues. So I tried to imagine as best I could part of the horror experienced by a sexual abuse victim and how he might deal with it. It is my hope that in some small way my novel helps to address the needs of all who seek to find their own way out of hell." 
Early on in his writing career, Gene Twaronite realized that he was the sort of person so aptly described in an essay by E.B. White ("Some Remarks on Humor") for whom there is a constant "danger of coming to a point where something cracks within himself or within the paragraph under construction—cracks and turns into a snicker." Dealing with this "uninvited snicker" has been the story of his life.
He is the author of the middle grade and young adult fantasy novels The Family That Wasn’t and My Vacation in Hell.  He is a published member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and Professional Writers of Prescott. An accomplished speaker, he offers interactive PowerPoint programs, based on his two novels, free to any school or library in Arizona. 
TheFamily That Wasn’t 

 MyVacation in Hell   A dark comic tale of a young man’s journey through hell
  My Vacation in Hell is a dark comic fantasy of a young man’s journey through hell. Set in the mid-1960s, it is narrated by a 15-year-old writer named John Boggle. A troubled nerdy misfit and a frequent flyer of his imagination, John is inspired by a book report reading of Dante Alighieri’s the Inferno. In the eternity of the five minutes before summer vacation, he embarks on a pilgrimage based upon his own free-wheeling interpretation of the work.     Following Dante’s lead, John populates his hell with all the people who have wronged him over the years, inventing deliciously cruel punishments for each of them in his teenage version of cosmic retribution. Aided by his best friend Virgil, a trusty guide in this shared imagination, John also struggles to come to terms with the world’s many evils. And as he descends further into this realm, he constructs his own hierarchy of evildoers, assigning them to the levels he believes they deserve.     But it is the evil perpetrated upon John, a victim of sexual abuse, which poses the most difficult challenge. The deeper he goes, the more he encounters obstacles, some of whom in the guise of colorful demon characters try their best to keep him there. But the worst obstacle of all is his own self-image, forged out of guilt and shame. He will not leave this hell of his own making, Virgil tells him, until he learns how to deal with the abuse inflicted upon him and finds the true center of his being.     Though dark and disturbing at times due to its mature theme, My Vacation in Hell delivers a message of hope with a large dose of humor. More information about the novel can be found at the author’s Web site:    Find Gene at his website:  www.myvacationinhell.comOr email him at gtwaronite@gmail or can cut out the middle man and contact Gene’s character John Boggle directly at Twitter.