Terry Spear's Blog, page 455

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This made my day and I'm ready for TGIF!!!

Review: Wolf Fever by Terry Spear November 19th, 2010 | Author: Crystal

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WOLF SERIES BOOK 6: WOLF FEVER
Terry Spear
ISBN: 978-1402237522
December 1, 2010
Sourcebooks/Casablanca
Paranormal Romance/Shapeshifter
Mass Market Paperback

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Carol and Chaz have fantastic chemistry, and the tension of the desire they are fighting alongside the deadly spreading disease in their midst adds page-turning excitement that just doesn't stop. Spear's trademark of using realistic wolf characteristics and behavior remains refreshingly delightful as does her introduction of secondary characters and subplots within the main storyline. Savor this one slowly because Spear's next wolf series book, tentatively titled Heart of the Highland Wolf, is not due out until June 2011.

Thanks so much, Crystal!! I love her blog, the Celtic look of it!!

Today is a great day! It's Friday! And I have off the weekend. And I received this great review. So it's a great day already!

The police think the "intruders" in the library last night were rats. Yikes! :)

I told the department where the motion was detected twice in the middle of the night to keep them in their department. Now, if I could find a big cat, or better yet, a couple of wolves, end of mice problem. :)


No, no, not that mouse!!

Hmm, need a bigger cat!



I thought all cats/kittens were mousers!


This looks like my cat and she was definitely a mouser!

This reminded me of the time she actually brought in a field mouse and set it in her cat dish, planning to have a snack when she was hungry. The mouse didn't plan to wait around and as soon as she let him go, he bounded out of the dish and through the house. I was hollering, "Trixie, catch the mouse! Catch the mouse!" while moving the desk so she could catch him again. And then once she had him, I made her take him outside!

Our Labrador Retriever loved attention and when she saw Trixie get so much of it for bringing in a mouse, she retrieved a rat... I open the back door to let her in, and her is the goofy yellow Lab with a rat in her mouth. I don't eek. But I came close to it. And I wouldn't let her in the house until she got rid of the rat!!!



No, this won't work either!! The wolf is not supposed to make friends with the rat!

We need Dewey, the library cat!

And then I just need my Highlander for book signings, and all will be right with the world.

But it's Friday...and today will be great! No matter what!!! I will it. :)

Have a super TGIF!!!

Terry

"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."

www.terryspear.com

The Wolves Are in the UK!!!

It's hard to tell from the photo because we can't see all the wolves fully, but who do you think is the alpha of the pack?

Remember Werewolves of London? Well, werewolves are back in the UK!! Except that they're of a new and different breed!

Thanks to Anne of the UK for the lovely review at Red Roses for Authors. She gave Heart of the Wolf 4 1/2 red roses!

http://redrosesforauthors.blogspot.com/2010/11/heart-of-wolf.html

"This is an excellent take on wolf shape-shifters that the reader is sure to enjoy. The story is fast paced with enough twist to grab the reader's attention and never let it go until the very last page. The author took the usual shape-shifter story and put a great spin on it to make it unique. This is one that is definitely worth reading."~~Anne Herries, Red Roses for Authors

Oddly enough, a Facebook fan wrote me last night, asking to see more of Bella and Devlyn's pack and world also. I've had several fans write to me asking to see more of the pack. What about you all?? I'm thinking of a particular cousin who really loved red....

That's one of the greatest joys of writing. When fans love characters so much, they want to see more of them. I left poor Bella pregnant and everyone wants to see her triplets! :) Well, and how Devlyn handles it! :)

I have to work late tonight, so I'm off to write a little.

Oh wait~~

About the wolf pack pictured, it appears to me the one in the background is the alpha. His (her) ears are flattened, but it looks like the tail is waving high above, right behind the wolf to the right. The rightmost wolf's tail is also elevated. Another alpha? The alpha pair? The one lying down appears to be a beta. The one to the left is standing very tall and straight, not in the least bit cowed, yet it appears its ears are flattened also. So hard to tell. And we can't see its tail at all.

So if we were to make up a story, what would it be?

Here's mine: The one on the left is the alpha male, tall and proud. The one in the middle is the alpha female, and she's just given the wolf lying down grief for not watching the pups like he should have been doing since it was his turn to babysit. The wolf to the right is trying to get on her good side and is offering to take next watch. :)

What do you think when you see the picture? :)

Have a super Thursday!!!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Being Politically Incorrect!

Okay, our romance authors were told that the signing that we've had scheduled for a couple of months was being canceled, because?

Someone famous is coming for a signing! Well, he or she could have scheduled his or her own time well advance like we did!

When I was in the Armed Forces, if a general officer wanted to get ID cards for his family, he didn't shove a private and his family out of the way to get special treatment.

Yes, I know it's all about the American dollar when it comes to a book store, but still...

Someone said they figured it was George W. It might not be. But then again, it might be.

And to whomever it may be, I say, wait your turn, or sign up earlier, like we did! Isn't that supposed to be the American way? First come, first serve?

I mean, I have to work around a work schedule to make arrangements for a book signing. I'm not free to do it whenever I please. :(

But, like I said, it all has to do with money, and I'm sure 3 local romance authors, although one is pretty well known, won't have nearly the draw that someone famous might have. *sigh* What is the world coming to?



Aren't these wolf pups adorable?

It's hump day!!! Finally. It feels like 7 days already...and it's only Wednesday. :) My manager emailed me and said the alarm went off at the library twice in the middle of the night. We're having all kinds of trouble with it. I have to check with Tech Services to see if they had any trouble getting into the building because they come in earlier. Okay...so that's the start of my day and it hasn't even begun yet!!!

I hope you all are having a delightful Wednesday!!! I can't wait to have turkey with my daughter and play games on Saturday!!!

And I have to say that the cover of Heart of the Highland Wolf and the announcement that it's available for preorders is being made all over the world!

There's just something darned sexy about a Highland hunk. And a wolf to boot. I need to find me one to help sell my books next June!!! Anyone want to volunteer for the job??? :)

Oh, wow, if I could only get a hold of one of the pipers who plays at the veteran's activities.... :) Or maybe I could wrangle one of the American Highlanders at the Highland days in Salado into showing up...hmm, I think I missed it already. :( Or maybe at the Scarborough Fair in Waxahachie. It's right before my release. Hmmm.... Now if my daughter asked, she'd probably talk one into standing around in his kilt at a signing. :) If they still did the local one here, I might have been able to.

And did I mention, HEART OF THE WOLF is in its 3rd printing? My editor said it should be coming out again soon! :)

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

When the Bad Guy isn't as Bad as You Thought

When creating characters in a book, everyone needs flaws--at least those who carry the story do. With the bad guys, it's easy. They're downright bad. But on the other hand, shouldn't they have something to admire in them? Some bit of humanity, or skill that we can look at and believe if they only could be saved...

I was just listening to a story where the soldier had come back with the notion in mind to kill his best friend off for carrying a wounded captain from the battlefield who had been one of the most hated officers in the regiment. And leaving him to be taken prisoner. But the man looked like he was ready to die with a wound so severe, and the other wounded officer had only a broken leg. So the friend, who'd become a prisoner of the Russians, came back to kill the hero. And the captain who was so despicable, who had wanted all the glory and received none of it, returned to warn the hero of his friend's madness, as much as he hated the hero.

In both cases we have two bad guys--one who is evil throughout the story, but shows a bit of humanity (to pay his debt for having been saved, although he hates the hero to the end), and the other who was good throughout until the end (and is brought back to sanity by his friend).



I try to remember this as I'm creating my villainous characters. To make them real, we have to show a more in-depth character. No one is all good or all bad.

My dad always claimed he was perfect and he made no mistakes. He did so tongue-in-cheek, and we always had a good laugh when he made a mistake, and we'd remind him of it over the years in a good-humored way. Like the time he tried to put the pop-up camper up, after we girls had practiced and practiced on how to do it right at home while he worked. Finally, he arrogantly motioned to us to do better, and we had it up in minutes. :) No one is perfect, right every time, never making mistakes, ever. So creating a character who says and thinks they are, then showing how they aren't and how everyone around them reacts and the way the character himself acts when his imperfections show, is the fun of writing characterizations.

Well, this is what happens to me sometimes as I'm writing. If I distance myself from my villains, I tend to make them bad without any good graces. But if I'm kind of growing to like them, darn it, I have to show they have some humanity or morality to them. And that makes it difficult for me to kill them off. :)

I was having trouble with that when writing about my evil vampires in Killing the Bloodlust. My critique partners were falling in love with my vampires. LOL But they were the bad guys! *sigh* So I had to show them in a worse light. Even so, I killed off one of my vampires and my critique partner would not forgive me for it. So in the rewrites, he lived. :)

So there's a fine line between giving the bad guy some humanity and making him more "real" and making sure that he's still the bad guy in the end.

Unfortunately, this has happened to me with The Wolf and the SEAL. All of a sudden (and I can never force these scenes) it came to me last night--what one bad guy character is all about. His motivations for what he's done. And now, the whole story is falling into place. But now I don't want him to have a bad end. :)

And that's the problem when the bad guy isn't as bad as you thought!

Ever read a story where the bad guy turns out not so bad after all? I think of Serenity where the assassin listens to reason at the very end of the story. He's still not a good guy, but he shows some sense of humanity.

Just a note: Wolf Fever arrived!!! Let the party begin! :)

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Snowy Picture ...

One blog review site already requested a day in June to have me guest blog in anticipation of Heart of the Highland Wolf's release!! So June 14's taken, in case anyone is wondering.

This is not in Texas, believe me. Although one year as I mentioned on the Casablanca blog, we had an ice and snow storm for Thanksgiving. I was in St Louis doing my reserve training one year when a blizzard hit for Thanksgiving also. Another lieutenant and I were invited to a lieutenant colonel's house for the feast. So I drove us through the blizzard to get there. He and his wife were awfully nice and it was really worth it, although at the time we wondered if we'd make it! :)



So where do you think this is? Do you see the bird? He probably wonders where the birdseed went to!! He knew it was around here somewhere.

We used to live in Madison, Wisconsin, and I recall the gorgeous fall leaves there, the huge piles of leaves once they'd fallen from the trees, frozen lakes in winter that we'd skate across in just plain old snow boots, and the mountains of snow my dad carried me through to reach the bus stop. I was in kindergarten. :)

We lived in Colorado also and saw a fair amount of snow. And in Oregon. And New Jersey. And Oklahoma. And Maryland.

Oh all right...it's only Texas and California and Florida that I've lived where we didn't have snow, or much of it. :)

One day last year, we had enough snow here in the Heart of Texas for folks to build snowmen all over the city. One looked to be a college girl wearing shorts, a Baylor sweatshirt, shivering, hunched into herself, hands in pockets while others built the snowman. Hmm, if it's cold enough to have snow, it's cold enough to put on long pants. :) I guess they don't teach that at Baylor.

It was cold enough for us actually to have snow yesterday, if we'd had the moisture.

I'm off to awful Mondays. I wish I could say they weren't so bad sometimes, but I can't honestly say so. We're horribly understaffed.

Have a super Monday! I'm looking forward to the book signing on Saturday and turkey day too!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

Wolf Fever--Another Review!

Donna sent me this cool Celtic Wolf paw symbol. Thanks, Donna! It's lovely!!

Terri Badiuk's review Nov 11, 10
When I hear Terry Spear has a new release coming...I make sure I don't have any books in progress because I will drop it to read her books!Yet again I was not disappointed!
The story begins there and it flows so well that once again I couldn't put the book down. I loved the characters, I loved the mystery aspect, I loved the unpredictable parts and of course I love the ending.

Okay, I had an idea--some of my newsletter readers say they've already bought both of my historicals and love them. Probably most haven't. So I'm thinking of giving another read or so because I had over 100% read through on it, and then for Thanksgiving week I'll begin something new.

It'll be different. You know like the scenes that were lost on the cutting room floor? Except that this was my first version of Legend of the White Wolf. A few scenes are the same, but most of the book is different. So what do you think? Want to see the original version? Just for fun?

I'll probably start it around Thanksgiving time.

I'm off to work on The Wolf and the SEAL. Finished edits on Heart of the Highland Wolf and 3 blogs for the guest blog tour. I have two more to do today. The rest are interviews, but I don't have the questions yet.

And I'm off to get the newsletter written to send. :)

Have a super Sunday!!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Whenever I think of: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I think of Clint Eastwood's western searching for buried gold movie. Ever see it?

But there's a terrific site that goes by that name that reviews books. The first time I saw that a reviewer had reviewed one of my books on the site, I was afraid to click on the link and check it out. What if the reviewer thought my wolf tales were Bad....or worse, Ugly???

:) With any Google Alert letting me know a review has been posted, I always have some trepidation. As writers, we want everyone to enjoy our stories, and I have to say I was thrilled to see Sandy M's review of Seduced by the Wolf as she gave it an A+!!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
"Somehow I missed reading this Terry Spear book back in August or even September. Shame on me, because it's a terrific read. Ms. Spear has definitely come into her own with this werewolf series of hers. She pulls you in immediately, pounds you with emotion and action until the very end, gives you characters to love, and a story to bite into (sorry, couldn't resist that one!). If you haven't read of her werewolf books, pick one up soon. You'll be chomping at the bit for the next one as soon as you've finished reading it. Oops, sorry, wrong animal there. ... The sixth book in the series is out this month and I am not waiting to get started on it!"
~~ Sandy M, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Reviews

I'm currently in promo mode for Wolf Fever, but also just received final edits for Heart of the Highland Wolf. Final line edits will be after that to ensure that everything is correct, no missing periods and the like. And I need to get my word count done on The Wolf and the SEAL, although the story will be done way before deadline, I still like to finish them early so I can get started on the next story (The Highland Wolf in Paradise) and propose a couple of more.

Anyone you feel needs their own story? Tom does, most definitely!

I'm excited that a Portland examiner reporter will be doing an interview of me coming up and Monmouth University plans a feature in their February magazine issue, thanks to Michael Maiden.

And I've got to get 3 guest blog posts done this weekend before the onslaught of interview questions start coming. I have 11 of those to look forward to. Lots and lots of guest blogs and lots of free giveaways!

Wolf Fever is coming, and truly you don't need your flu shots to read the book, even if you get a little feverish. It's the good kind...not the bad or ugly!

Okay, a note to ponder. I noticed on Google that they are honoring Robert Lewis Stevenson for his birthday today, 160 years ago. First, I thought birthdays were celebrated because you'd LIVED another year. But I will say he was a writer from Scotland and wrote remarkable books that I loved, Kidnapped (which I read a romanticized version recently and thoroughly enjoyed), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Treasure Island.

Born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson
He was only 44 when he died, or I'm sure we would have had many more wonderful tales to cherish. He was born in Edinburgh.

In honor of him, I wanted to share some more Scotland pictures!

I took these at the Hilton Hotel in Edinburgh. Lovely fall colors and flowers too. Remember, I had barely any sleep for 2 days when I arrived that morning at 7:30 after an all night flight. :)
But I was giddy to take pictures of everything, so I wouldn't forget any detail when I returned home.



This was one of my traveling companions as we were getting the car packed to begin the first leg of our journey.


Loved seeing the beautiful flowers and the fall colors at the same time!


This was at one of the castles, and we almost didn't notice it.



And here's inside the garden. I could envision making a home right in the midst of all this!



Okay, enough goofing off. Got to get back to edits on Heart of the Highland Wolf!

Are you relaxing or have a busy weekend planned?

Have a terrific weekend!!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

What do Werewolves Eat for Thanksgiving?

Turkey, of course!!!

I know some hunt wild turkey for Thanksgiving feast, and it does seem like a nice way to preserve the historical aspect of having turkey for the holiday. But have you seen how scrawny they are in the wild?



Give me a farm-raised turkey that's nice and fat and yummy.


Do I sound like a wolf, or what? I should say a citified wolf. A regular wolf loves the chase as much as the meal. :)

Donna wrote me last night that her Wolf Fever book is being shipped Nov 17!! Woohoo!!! That means I should be seeing them soon!! But probably AFTER she gets her copy! LOL


I'm talking about one wild and adventurous and memorable Thanksgiving at Casablanca today!

http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-dinner-was-great-but.html

We were supposed to talk about delightful dinners, methinks. But what's the fun in that? All turkey dinners are delightful. It's the entertainment that's what makes it truly memorable!

Well, for the retelling of a story anyway. But when I see this~~~



~~~ all I care about is eating!

Have a terrific TGIF!!! I'm off the weekend to catch up on word count!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com

A Salute to Our Veterans!

Please take a moment to remember those who served our country.



At work, someone wrote on the back whiteboard to take a moment to salute our veterans and I drew one of my lopsided smiley faces and said, "That's me!" I didn't sign it and we have a lot of people working in our area now, so several were trying to figure out who the veteran was. Even one of my coworkers, who finally said, "Duh, that's Terry!" LOL

Anyway, the discussion had been going on back in the back, and finally a few learned who it was.

I'm a member of women veterans who write romance.
http://www.romvets.com/ Just click on the before and after picture link.

I'm at the very bottom as Terry Wilde, under my maiden name, although I continued to serve as Terry Spear.

So many of us were support, some in the midst of some kind of military engagement, and yet more will be involved in war in the future.

I've been reading a historical romance about a well-decorated officer who came back from the Crimean War a changed man. And yes, you can't helped but be changed by all that happens during battle.

I often talked to my dad about his experiences as an ex-prisoner-of-war and how he managed to survive 16 months on death marches and in camps in Germany.

And he earned two purple hearts--one for a mission where he was the only one shot up--the shrapnel wounding him in the arm and cutting his oxygen and communication lines. He was losing consciousness when the other gunner informed the pilot of his peril. He relayed to my father to crawl up to the cockpit where he could get oxygen.

Now, my dad was only 16, unlawfully having lied about being older, so he really was just a kid. But in any event, the shock to his system made him have to urinate. The navigator asked, "Can't you just hold it? We're headed back in."

But dad couldn't. So the navigator gave him his helmet to use. And then the plane was again fired upon and the navigator jammed the helmet on his head....

And swore up a blue streak. He had told my dad he could use his helmet as a chamber pot, so not his fault!!! But the pilot sure laughed.



Dad was in the field hospital for six weeks and was wounded again on his 13th mission--this time his plane shot down, and where he also earned his caterpillar wings. The gunners didn't wear their parachutes while fighting. They didn't have room to maneuver. So he kept it at his feet.

When the plane was hit and they were going down, he only had a split second to decide--put on the parachute before he left the plane, or put it on first. Before he could decide, he was left free-falling with only his parachute in hand. So he struggled to get it on, then attempted to snap it shut, and pulled the rip chord. Nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing.

He was falling through thinning clouds, getting closer to the earth when he realized he was holding his parachute so tightly to his body, he was keeping the chute from opening. Releasing it, and because of the explosion of the plane that sent him spiraling upward, kept him from hitting the ground too soon. He said he dropped in what he felt was the most perfect landing that he'd ever made, better than any of his practices, despite having been wounded in the leg by shrapnel.

He became a member of the caterpillar club--exclusive membership to those who parachute from a plane to save their lives.


My mother's father had been a doctor during WWII in the Royal Canadian Army and my grandmother had been a secretary for a general in the same unit that my grandfather was assigned and that's how she met him.

My mother was born in Alberta and to obtain her citizenship sooner, she joined the Army and met my dad in San Antonio while he was in the AF on recruiting duty. They had both been from the west coast and that was the start of their romance. :) She was a postal clerk before the military changed the setup to an all civilian job.

I was one of the first women who went through the Army Reserve Officer Training Corp six weeks basic training summer camp for the two-year program. Before this, women had to go through Officer Candidate School or receive direct commissions. But we became the first ROTC graduates--Rot-Cees, as we fondly called ourselves. And I was a Distinguished Military Graduate.

Even my mother's grandfather, my great grandfather from Alsace Lorraine, though the rest of the Roux family was from Selencourt, France, was in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. My great grandmother was so impressed when she saw him in uniform at the World's Fair in Chicago, she married him and they returned to Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba.



My father's uncle, who was only 7 years older than my dad, and my dad was only 16, died as a prisoner of war of the Japanese during WWII. Their grandfather, though not in the military, had broken horses for the cavalry during WWI.

One of our MacNeills was in the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) in Canada, but I couldn't ever track down who he was. Here is a picture showing some in a parade.


Farther back, some of my father's family fought during the Civil War. I'm not saying which side. :)

A Hessian mercenary on my mother's side, was brought over to fight the Patriots during the American Revolution. In fact 1/4 of the forces fighting the Patriots were Hessian mercenaries. But he was so against the war, he went AWOL, ended up in NY, married, and moved to Quebec where he served in the Canadian militia, along with a son, and a grandson. The grandson was named George Washington Cramer in honor of George Washington, who the mercenary much admired.

I wish I could upload pictures of all the family in uniform--or at least some of them, but I don't have a scanner to do so. :( My grandmother had a picture of her father in his Teddy Roosevelt uniform while he posed with his rifle, but it wasn't passed down to us.

My son has followed in my family's footsteps and he is in the AF in navigator training currently.

Unfortunately the pictures I have of him in uniform are on the dead computer. So all I have to share is this one again! :)

So I wanted to thank all the veterans who went before us, those who are in currently, and those who will follow in our footsteps and pray to keep them safe.

Terry
www.terryspear.com

Blog Tour Posting in a Muddle!!! :)

I have to say that she might be a wolf. He can't be. Or if he's newly turned, the tattoo has to go. So if you're thinking of joining a wolf pack, remember that. No tattoos. Just a reminder. Werewolves can't afford to wear tattoos. What if you get caught in you wolf coat and you've got a tattoo??? In Seduced by the Wolf, that is an issue.

The things werewolves have to be concerned about!

Okay, I really need another cup of hot green tea. Partly because I'm cold this morning. Partly because my updating my blog site with the tour date schedule isn't working out!!!

It's all backward, and to add links if I don't have the http link, it won't let me. I mean, I just want to put the date and the Title and I promise I'll come back and edit it with a link.

Growl.

My time is so limited before I go to work again, I REALLY don't need the aggravation. This is when I discover how unforgiving blogspot can be. My link dates are backward. But I can't easily move them around. Sooo, I will have to start over again. Later. Don't have time this morning. *sigh* Why can't I just copy and move them? Seems easy enough to me! But then I don't have the mind of a programmer! Although, I'm beginning to think I handled this differently before, because I know I didn't have links for everyone right away. Hmmm...

I was excited to get some fan comments on blogs this morning! Thanks to Lori, who is having a devil of a time getting my books at her local store. What is their problem?

http://escapebetweenthepages.blogspot.com/2010/11/waiting-on-wednesday-wolf-fever-by.html

And thanks to Melissa in Canada for her kind words!!!--http://community.indigo.ca/posts/Chapters-Fang-Club/group-52/598784.html

If you're from Canada, SASE won't work because I can't mail using a Canadian stamp. But my mother and all her family were from Canada, so I can't neglect my Canadian cousins. If you want bookmarks, just send me a Self Addressed Envelope, and I'll send some bookmarks.

Now, I've done my good deed for the day. I might even do one or two more today. After I have another cup of green tea!

Have a super Wednesday! Hump day!! Woohoo!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com