K.M. Shea's Blog, page 14

Character Profiles: Phillipa Sabre and Alpha Greyson

We’re coming to an end of all things Magiford–at least until Cat Girl’s trilogy launches later this year! I decided to close the party out with the two characters I imagine you most wanted to learn about, Pip and Greyson!

Pip strode onto the scene confident in her hunter skills and fragile in her relationships–which was pretty much the exact opposite from Hazel and Leila.

Hurt by a lifetime of being left behind by those she loved–at least from her perspective–Pip was very reluctant to form deep attachments. This is a trait that’s typically assigned to male characters, but I decided to use it in Pip since it was the perfect foil to Greyson. (Greyson–with the matebond at his back–was sure to be overwhelming in the romance area. If I gave him an inch, he was going to have Pip married to him the second he figured out she was his mate.)

This also made for an interesting character arc, though, because unlike Leila and Hazel–who were typically most anxious in their books during the big fights–Pip is relatively chill about the battles in her books, but instead has meltdowns when it comes to her friends and her possible romance with Greyson. (There’s a reason why she’s hanging out of a tree at the start of Fated. She might not be in physical stress, but she’s got a whole-lot of emotional stress!)

To add to her emotional load, Pip has a loyalty streak that’s so wide, the whole Pack could drive golf carts across it, even though she tries to hold back. You can see it in the stubborn way she cares for Princess and Princess for the sake of her adoptive werewolf parents, even though they’ve been gone for a while. You can see it in her determination to help the newly minted werewolves in United, even though she doesn’t understand her own magic and her whole world has turned upside down. A hallmark of Pip’s personality is that she’s willing to sacrifice to help others all while fearing that they will eventually hurt and leave her.

Like I said, she’s got a slew of emotional stress.

Thankfully, by the end of the series she fixes her thinking, and you can see that as she’s more powerful at the end of the book than she was before. (Cedar is a perfect example of this.) And that’s what makes Pip a particularly powerful Wolf’s Kiss. Not only is she willing to use her powers for the Pack that she loves, but she wants to help others, even if it means risking herself. Thankfully, for the sake of her wellbeing, she’s got a mate who is going to keep her safe. No matter what!

This isn’t a character note, but I wanted to share that Pip’s fighting style was particularly fun for me to develop because of the flavors her magic comes in. First, her hunter magic is mostly physical based. She’s not blasting lightning bolts or forging magic shields, she’s tracking and hunting with her regular hunter magic. But her second fighting style involves her magic as a Wolf’s Kiss, which–as you see in the last battle–is best used as a sort of “home base” or “central control spot” for a fight. Pip wasn’t in the thick of things, she had to step back and depend on her Pack to protect her while she wielded her magic. Her Wolf’s Kiss magic is especially different because it strengthens her Pack, it doesn’t actively do anything to harm the enemy, so playing around with her actions and the Pack dynamics was so fun!

Greyson…where to begin with him? He was SUCH a hard character for me to nail down because I didn’t want him to be so…borderline abusive, which is something an alpha-type character can easily turn into.

I found the best way for me to make him have that hardened edge/strong vibe was to make him so ridiculously strong that he couldn’t ever relax around anyone–except Pip, due to her powers. Since Greyson is an excellent Alpha, he’d never want to make his packmates uncomfortable, which means he’d always hold himself back and give him a bit of a distant edge. He hides that distance with a healthy dose of charisma and cunning in his personality.

I decided to make him smart because while in modern literature the werewolf character type usually focuses on the sheer strength aspect of being a werewolf, in old fairy tales and fables the wolf is typically said to be dangerous because he’s crafty. Now that sounds like my kind of hero, right? But cunning is seen as a dubious trait, so I decided I needed him to show his intelligence in ways that were cunning, but only because he’s using it for good.

Greyson calculates everything out. He is always measuring out his alpha power and is constantly reviewing what he’s saying and doing because he has to act 1) for the safety and good of his pack 2) for the safety and expansion of Timber Ridge 3) frequently has to fight off challengers, intruders, etc.

The only time Greyson isn’t plotting is when he’s with Pip. Pip is able to give him relaxation and peace, but it’s a double edged sword. She means so much to him that he’s willing to make idiot-level bargains just to keep her safe. (Hello, the last 40% of Fated…)

Now…regarding Greyson’s wolf form! I designed Greyson to resemble the largest subspecies of gray wolf in the world: a Makenzie Valley wolf/Northwestern Wolf. These wolves live in western North America–in Canada and the US. The males of this species range from 105 lbs to a whopping 159 lbs. (That’s 47.6 – 72 kg.) The bigger ones tend to live in the US. For reference, the average Euroasian male wolf clocks in around 88 lbs. These guys are built. They also have thicker fur, shorter ears, and–hilariously–a rounder head.

And that’s it for Pack of Dawn and Destiny. Thank you so much for your support of this series, Champions! You blew off my socks with the rush of ratings/reviews and your general love for Pip, Greyson, and the rest of the Timber Ridge crew. Magiford has been such a fun world to write in, and it lets me put everything I’ve learned about writing and crossovers from my previous series (I’m looking at you, Timeless Fairy Tales) into practice.

However! But just because the Magiford fun is over, doesn’t mean the party is ending! I still have my (VERY LATE) 2021 year-in-review post to unveil, and some general community news about things like Sheacon 2022 and new covers coming your way. So stay tuned, Champions, and until next time, thank you for all of your love and support.

The post Character Profiles: Phillipa Sabre and Alpha Greyson appeared first on K. M. Shea.

Supernatural Cities: Timber Ridge

In Pack of Dawn and Destiny, the city of Timber Ridge itself is practically a character due to how important the city itself is to Pip, Greyson, and the harmony between wolves and humans. That harmony is a big deal in the book, so I knew I needed to make sure that scenes in the city counted, so you could feel the difference between it and other normal cities–or even Magiford itself. I attempted to achieve that by filling it with interesting characters like Mayor Pearl, and by being very purposeful in the kind and stores, shops, and restaurants I showed.

I started by focusing on attempting to put a northern Wisconsin atmosphere in it. There’s a region in Wisconsin called Door County (in the map below, it’s the red part.) Door county is a popular tourist area since it pokes into Lake Michigan. The area is filled with Bed and Breakfast homes, beaches, cherry orchards, wineries, parks, and more.

What’s unique about Door County is that it’s exactly that, a county. There’s lots of little cities in Door County, and equally small cities on the lake that are clustered near Door County but not quite in it.

A few years ago I traveled to area just south of Door County, and explored cities like Manitowoc, and Green Bay, but it was the smaller cities–like Two Rivers and Algoma–that really captured the feeling I wanted for Timber Ridge. The smaller cities in Door County and the area just south of it have more of a traditional Wisconsin vibe with their excessive amounts of bars and churches, but each town also have very specific, tourist-friendly places. For instance, every city has a café, and typically one diner, and a “supper club” in addition to the bars–which, yes, most bars in Wisconsin serve fish fries on Fridays! Most cities will also typically have a bowling ally–or one within a 20 minute drive–and most libraries tend to be right on, if not close to, the town’s main street.

Despite being clustered together, each city has a unique spin–some have ice cream parlors, small museums, or huge parks with walking trails. The idea for the Timber Ridge Welcome center was partially inspired by a welcome center in the town of Algoma, and by another location I’ll mention shortly!

I modeled downtown Timber Ridge–with its park, Town Hall, Welcome Center, library, café, and other eateries–after the smaller Wisconsin cities in the area. However, a lot of the theming and more tourist-friendly locations the wolves came up with were inspired by another Wisconsin city–one much larger, and located in south central Wisconsin: Wisconsin Dells.

Wisconsin Dells is another huge tourist city with its many water parks, amusement park, forest reserves, **mini golf**, and lakes that provide space for entertainment like water skiing, canoeing, and the Wisconsin Dells Ducks. The Door County area is more beach focused since it’s on Lake Michigan, but Wisconsin Dells–despite being in southern Wisconsin–has more of the log-cabin/up-north feel to it. (There’s a literal Paul Bunyan themed restaurant which has been around so long, I went to it as a kid!)

I borrowed the more rustic feeling of Wisconsin Dells when coming up with the insides of my Timber Ridge buildings–specifically the Welcome Center and Howl-In Cafe. But while the town of Algoma inspired the Timber Ridge welcome center, Wisconsin Dells inspired the giftshop inside the center, as well as the never seen Sweets Shoppe.

Wisconsin Dells has a famous candy store called Goody Goody Gumdrop, and more themed giftshops than I could prepare you for. (The boggling number of giftshops was incredibly useful to me when I needed to come up with ideas of inventory for the Timber Ridge Welcome Center gift shop!) Some of the giftshops also sell fudge, truffles, and other sweet treats that are made right there in the shop–which inspired more than a few conversation topics for the visiting Night Court Fae.

You can also see the Wisconsin Dells influence in the Northern Lakes Wolves’ camp-style compound with the small cottages and giant main lodge that’s built out of timber and decorated in a matching, rustic fashion.

And there you have it–the inspiration for Timber Ridge! This city was so much fun to dream up–particularly because I’m very familiar with the area. Confession time, I set Magiford in the Midwest–which is a pretty unlikely place for urban fantasy novels–because it’s the only  area I can reliably describe. Also, I have some speech patterns, sayings, etc that are part of my Midwestern accent and I don’t even know they exist, so I was very aware that even if I researched the heck out of other areas, my characters would still sound midwestern, so…ta da!

I hope you enjoyed learning about Timber Ride! Until next time, thanks for reading!

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Character Profiles: The Bedevilments

Today we’re taking a look at two of Pack of Dawn and Destiny‘s most cantankerous characters: Prince and Princess. I’m thrilled to share with you that these troublesome siblings are real. In fact, just about everything they do to Pip, the real life Prince and Princess have done to their owners–or, as I’m sure they see them–their staff. With that, please allow me to introduce you to the Bedevilments.

To start out, yes, Prince and Princess are full blooded siblings from the same litter of kittens. Prince is the one sitting on the arm of the chair, while Princess is sitting on the seat….I think. I can’t actually tell this duo apart when they’re not together, but their owners can! Who are their lucky humans, you might be wondering? Why, it’s Rock-Star-Assistant-Meg, and her hubby.

Meg got these siblings several years ago as fuzzy kittens, and while they adore her husband and tolerate Meg, they find the general populace–like myself–pretty distasteful.

Just like in the book, Prince and Princess have had health issues that requires special cat food. Each one needs a different kind of food, which can make feeding times all sorts of interesting as for the longest time they kept trying to eat each other’s food which would make them sick. And yes, at one point Princess did need butt cream that Meg had to apply to her daily. Neither of them were happy about that arrangement.

These siblings also love to use their litterboxes while Meg is cleaning them out, and they rule Meg’s home with an iron paw so even the dogs fear them–which is what inspired PoDaD’s Prince and Princess general disdain for werewolves.

The scene where Pip ruthlessly beats down an Alpha because she thought Prince was in danger was even inspired by real life events. Two coyotes once had a fight on Meg’s porch, just outside her front door on her porch. Meg was convinced they were attacking Prince, so she slammed the door open to discover the coyotes were on her front mat. The coyotes ran off, but they’d scratched each other during the fight and gotten blood on the porch, so a terrified Meg thought for sure they’d harmed Prince. She went tearing outside, and thankfully found him in the barn–sour faced and grumpy because she’d woken him from a nap.

But, I can’t just complain about them, because Prince and Princess aren’t all bad. Despite their sour temperaments, they are actually quite kind in the ways they’ll let you pick them up and cradle them, and they don’t bite/scratch even if you kiss the tops of their heads. (No, they’re way too conniving for that kind of simple retribution.) Princess has the softest fur, and although for a while they were really fat, Meg valiantly worked to slim them down, so they’re now a healthy weight. They’re friendly enough that they’ll bound around the yard with Meg, and they generally like to see what she’s doing and enjoy inspecting new visitors.

In conclusion, the real life Prince and Princess are very much like a typical cat in their ability to be gentle/loving, and their spiteful cat games. Thanks for reading, Champions! I hope you enjoyed learning more about Prince and Princess!

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What’s Coming for Magiford?

With the bad news out of the way, it’s time to keep up the fun! I’ve got more Pack of Dawn and Destiny coming your way for the rest of April, but I thought now was an ideal time to talk about what’s coming for Magiford in the future.

I’m going to stick to my plan of one Magiford trilogy approximately every 12 months, so you can expect to see the next trilogy later this year, probably with a December launch for book 1. Regardless of the exact month it launches, that series will finish in early 2023. I have no concrete release days yet–a lot of it is going to depend on my health issues and how everything shakes out.

But I’m pretty certain that the biggest question on all of your minds is who will the next trilogy be about? The fun news: you’ve seen her already! In fact, she’s been mentioned in all three series–though in Hall of Blood and Mercy she made her appearance in an extra, not an actual book.

There’s quite a few characters that show up in the series, so to help you narrow it down, here’s a few more clues! The extra she appears in is “Sincerely House Medeis,” while she’s mentioned in The Queen’s Crown from Court of Midnight and Deception. Finally, she makes an appearance in both United and Fated in Pack of Dawn and Destiny.

Have I stumped you? Here’s a final clue: our new Magiford heroine doesn’t appear in a human shape…

If you connected the dots and realized that there is a black cat that appears in all of the instances I listed above, congratulations, you’ve uncovered our new heroine!

To be specific, our new heroine is the black cat that House Medeis throws at Killian, and she’s the same black cat that the Night Court Fae Lords attempt to domesticate so they can “properly celebrate” Leila’s Pet Appreciation Day. She’s also the black cat that Pip sees who gets chased by Curia Cloister gargoyles in United, and then by the Pack in Fated.

She is unnamed as of yet–I’m trying to decide how badly I want her name to be a pun–but I’ve got her story, magic, and cast of characters all fleshed out!

I think you Champions will like her. She’s a bundle of anxiety since she’s far down on the Magiford pecking order and has gotten harassed a lot, but she’s a brave and determined soul. Despite her ability to turn into a cat, she is 100% human–which should tell you just how strange her magic is! Sadly, her unusual magic has caused a lot of problems in her life, and there’s a reason why she always shows up in Magiford books alone and terrified.

Still, she’s funny, and her crew is hilarious, so I can’t wait for you to meet her!

This new heroine will reveal more about what the Paragon is searching for, so you’ll see him heaps more in her trilogy. You’ll also get some glimpses of characters from other Magiford trilogies and–another fun hint–her romantic interest has been mentioned before! (Specifically in Leila’s series.)

Like Hall of Blood and Mercy–which was vaguely inspired by the creepy fairy tale of Donkeyskin–Cat Girl’s trilogy also has a myth at the heart of her story. It’s so loose it won’t be a true retelling, but you’ll be able to see the hints and similar structure, just as you could with Hall of blood and Mercy with donkeyskin. Cat girl’s myth is……drum roll please….Hades and Persephone!

Hades and Persephone was one of my favorite Greek myths to read as a kid–and, frankly, it’s one of the only myths I feel like I can retell without having to send my characters to therapy in the story. (I thought fairy tales were bad? HAH!) I’m looking forward to this trilogy because there are so many interesting aspects of Hades and Persephone to explore. (And adjust. Because, spoiler, I don’t do Stockholm syndrome romances.)

But if you want to take anything away from that myth reveal…I’d say it’s safe to assume Cat Girl’s main male character is pretty dang powerful.

So Cat Girl’s series will be out late this year/early 2023, but what comes after that?

I’ll be writing another “spin off” trilogy (I say “spin off” because it doesn’t have anything to do with the Paragon’s goal) that will launch at the end of 2023 and finish in early 2024. That trilogy will follow the adventures of Jade–the vampire slayer who was hired to be a part of a Curia Cloister task force. (You met Jade during a Regional Committee of Magic meeting in The Queen’s Crown, but she showed up again briefly in Pack of Dawn and Destiny’s Fated!)

Jade’s trilogy will focus more on the Curia Cloisters and what’s going on there since it’s where she works!

I’m not entirely sure what will come after those two trilogies. I have plans for a couple others, but I don’t know what order to tackle them in. Honestly, it will probably depend on you Champions!

In the meantime, we still have some Timber Ridge/Northern Lakes Pack fun ahead of us for the rest of April, so stay tuned and thanks for reading!

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Thank you for your Support!

Hello, Champions!

I just wanted to drop a quick note to say thank you for all of your encouragement and support! I was dreading telling you Champions about the book delays because it felt like I was letting you down, but your outpouring of emails and comments on the blog, discord, and my facebook pages reminded me just how special our community is, and how blessed I am to have some of the best readers ever. I can’t even put into words how much your support and concern for my health means to me. (There’s been some ugly crying as I’ve been reading your kind and heartfelt messages.)

And to reassure you all, I really am doing okay. Out of all the health stuff and issues I’m facing, I was most concerned about how you all would take the delay. As a reader, I’ve also experienced the disappointment that comes with an author delaying a book release and I never wanted to delay something so far out like this as a result. I can’t tell you how much happier I’ve been since I told you all, and your messages have come poring in. (In a funny twist, I’ve been able to write more of Retha #4 the past two days than the previous week–I think it’s the sheer relief.)

Thank you so much, Champions, for everything.

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More Bad News

Hey, Champions, I’ve got some bad news to share today, so I’m just going to rip off the bandage and jump straight into it: I’ve had several dentist and doctor appointments and found I’m going to need another round of teeth procedures on top of some other health procedures/surgeries, so all books–excluding Magiford trilogies–are getting pushed back by one year.

This means Second Age of Retha Book 4 will be out in 2023, the final Elves of Lessa book will be out in 2024, and Angelique #5 is now 2025. IMPORTANT: It’s not that I won’t be working on these books–in fact the next project I work on is still going to be Retha #4. It’s simply that with all of my health issues, there’s no way I’ll be able to complete them as fast as I usually do, and the Magiford books will get priority for reasons I go into down below.

Obviously these changes are a big deal, so I wanted to tackle some of the comments/questions you’re sure to have.

Are you okay? Yes! About half of this is the same as it was last year, and none of these procedures are life endangering. Everything is just very tedious/painful, and I essentially have weekly appointment for the next year and a half between my dentist and the surgeon for x-rays, the procedures/surgeries, recovery follow ups, etc, on my teeth, and my doctor for some scans, different procedures, tests, etc for a few other health issues that have popped up in the last few months. I’m hoping the additional health problems will be solved by the end of the year, but I know officially that all the mouth fun won’t be over with until fall of 2023. (Remember how I said I would likely need either two or three mouth procedures last year? HAHAH, now I’m likely gonna clock in at six. Woohoo!) Also, now I’m drinking milk like a baby cow and popping vitamin D supplements like a cave dweller because my bone isn’t growing as fast as the professionals would like, so Moo to you all.

What are these new health problems? Again, it’s nothing serious, just painful and tedious to address. The long and short of it is that I pushed myself too much the past few years and I ignored health problems that I should have addressed immediately, but I didn’t. Now I HAVE to address them, or they’re going to turn serious, which I need to avoid. I’ve already started undergoing tests and scans, but I will at bare minimum need additional procedures to fix these issues, which means more necessary recovery time–and that’s what made me decide to officially change my schedule.

Why do all of the books have to be delayed?  As I mentioned above, it’s the recovery times. I can’t write on pain meds or while I’m in the hospital, which means I’ll be losing quite a bit of time in the next year. I tend to write on a fairly tight timeline, which means losing even two weeks would delay a book launch. And writing books is like dominoes, if one gets delayed and pushed back, it nudges back all the books behind it. I can’t take shortcuts and make up for last time. (Or rather, I refuse to take a shortcut, because it would mean releasing a subpar book, which I’m not willing to do.)

Why aren’t Magiford books delayed? Honestly? It’s because they sell best. And with all of these procedures ahead of me, I need to be able to pay for my dentist’s kid’s college, and my doctor’s mortgage by the time it’s all over. The Magiford books hands down are my best sellers. As long as I get them out, I won’t have a problem affording these procedures for my mouth or my other health issues, so finances are the honest reason of why they’re the priority. (This means there will be a Magiford trilogy in which book one will launch sometime in December of this year, more on that in an upcoming post.)

I’m really upset/sad about this. Me, too. This isn’t what I wanted, and I’m not looking forward to any of this. Unfortunately, it’s out of my control. I need these procedures, or things are going to get uglier than they already are for me. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be sad by this unfortunate turn of events. You’ve been waiting so patiently for these books, and now they’re getting delayed, that’s disappointing! Don’t feel guilty for being sad about this–in fact, we can be sad as a community. However, our emotions about this situation won’t change it. Blasting me with an angry email isn’t going to make it so I suddenly don’t need these procedures. No matter how angry/sad/upset we are about these delays, it’s not something that will change.

Are there any upsides to this? We’ll try to look on the bright side and say there will be a few. While I can’t write while on meds, my team and the companies I work with have proven to be very kind/understanding if I tend to ramble or say weird things, so I’m using the various recovery times and hospital visits to kick off a few projects that have been sitting around forever. This year I’ll be working with Bee Audio again to get you some more audio books, we’ve got new covers on the way for some of my old books, and I was FINALLY able to go through the edit of Robyn Hood that a very patient Champion did for me so the edited version is available now–for the first time ever with the same pretty formatting as my other books. I also have a few little tricks up my sleeve that I’ll share with you all later this year to soften the blow for all of us, starting TODAY!

In an attempt to try and make this post not 100% depressing, I’ve got the short you Magiford fans have been waiting for: A Bowling Alley Romance (Click here for the PDF) It’s about Chase and Chrysanthe, and I’m so excited to share it with you!

And with that, I’m going to end this post. Thanks for your support, Champions. It means so much to me. <3 I hope you enjoy the short story, and starting with the next post we’ll be back to some Magiford themed topics.

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Character Profiles: The Fletchings

Today we’re looking at the hunter end of Pack of Dawn and Destiny with a study of Radcliff and Scarlett Fletchings!

Scarlett and Radcliff Fletching are a sister/brother duo from the Fletching Hunter family who (during the trilogy) live in the apartment of the Timber Ridge Welcome Center. They specialize in tracking magic, but they are certified hunters and very skilled in working together.

Radcliff and Scarlett Fletching begin their story as uneasy enemies in that they don’t dislike Pip and the wolves like their uncle does, and they end their arc by becoming Sabre/Ward hunters and belonging to the Northern Lakes Pack. Emotionally speaking, they have one of the biggest arcs in the trilogy, and yet their transition is the smoothest because of who they are.

The pair’s inner strength is easy to overlook because they’re so accepting of everything they encounter. They agree to work as baristas and wear their hunter gear at Greyson’s request. They agree to help the Pack track Aspen, and later use their magic to track Greyson. They naturally look to Pip as a leader, and want to learn everything they can from her about living and working together with wolves, all while respecting the werewolves that other hunters scoffed at.

Radcliff and Scarlett are a study in respect, and making an effort to really get to know others and understand them–that’s why their arc is so fun and not traumatic. That’s also why they can support Teresa–because their initial reaction is always to observe and be gentle.

That’s all for today–it’s a shorter post, but I wanted the Fletchings to have their own moment! Thanks for reading, Champions, and have a wonderful day!

Fun fact: All hunter families are named after a weapon/a part of a weapon! Fletchings are the feathers on the end of an arrow, Sabre is a type of sword, Quillon is the cross guard of a sword, and  Ward refers to magic wards.

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Werewolf VS Wild Wolf Behaviors

Greetings, Champions! Today we’re going to talk about the bones of the Pack of Dawn and Destiny trilogy: real life wolves!

First up, I have to admit that for this trilogy I abandoned my plans of using a fairy tale as the base. I originally planned to do something Little Red Riding Hood themed, and if you look closely you can still see that theme in initial relationship between Greyson and Pip, and in the way I branded their romance as a forbidden love kind of thing.

However, as I started doing research on wild wolves and compared on contrasted it to common werewolf tropes in fiction, I grew a little indignant and I ended up focusing more on wolf behaviors and accidentally left the whole Little Red Riding Hood thing on the roadside. (I had a few last ditch attempts to work references in, but my beta readers said they felt too out of place and forced, so I took them out and decided to double down on the wolves aspect.)

So, what did I find that made me so driven to make changes to my werewolves? Basically…everything we hold as a werewolf trope is wrong.

First of all, let’s tackle the whole alpha wolf/fight for dominance thing. The phrase was originally coined by a researcher Rudolph Schenkel in 1947–who when observing CAPTIVE  wolves said that wolves fought for dominance. Other scientists/researchers piled onto this bandwagon and wrote books on the subject, only to find out that the idea is completely wrong compared to what wild wolves actually do. (On a depressing side note, a lot of scientists/researchers who wrote books/articles based off this bad information have begged publishers to stop spreading their outdated work, but most publishers have refused to do so.)

The root of the problem is that Rudolph Schenkel observed two packs of captive wolves when writing his original paper, and now we have plenty of video and photographic proof that show wild wolves act very differently from their captive counterparts.

In the wild, there is a male/female pair who are the heart of the wolf Pack…that’s because they’re Mom and Dad. And I mean that literally. Wolf packs tend to be very small, and what fiction literature would tell us is the alpha pair are what scientists now call the breeding pair. The breeding pair have puppies and then their puppies stay/live with them. They care for the entire pack because it’s their kids living with them.

So wolf packs are actually family units. The members of the Pack will change as the wolf puppies grow and some will eventually leave to start packs of their own, but this fight for dominance thing doesn’t exist. The breeding pair don’t rule with iron paws because they’re the most deadly, rather they make decisions (like whether or not to have puppies) because they don’t want members of their pack starving and dying.

Additionally, Pack members don’t pick on the puppies–wolves actually love puppies–but since the adult wolves are either the puppies’ parents or the puppies’ older siblings, all adults will take part in educating the puppies on acceptable behavior and actions. (Huh, weird. I’ve never known a single older human sibling to ever boss a younger sibling around, or inform their younger siblings they know what’s best. Must be a wolf thing.)

This information alone was enough to make me dive headfirst into focusing on trying to adjust werewolf tropes to hit closer to the reality of wild wolves, but I did find out some other information on wolves that I thought you might like to learn.

Most interestingly, it’s been thought that the reason why wolves get such a bad rep in fairy tales, fables, and other historic stories (ie: the aforementioned Little Red Riding Hood) is because of the way they hunt.

Wolves aren’t built for swift kills. Despite the popular depiction in urban fantasy/paranormal romance…wolves don’t actually have claws. The only real weapons they have are their teeth and their pack. Blood warning–though I’m going to keep the description as fast and basic as possible–but wolves hunt by running their prey until it falls/stumbles, and then they go at it with their teeth. They can’t pounce like a big cat, or use their claws like bears. This means the way they hunt and eat is pretty gruesome to observe, and seems way more horrible than a big cat making a fast kill. (In doing my research, I found that, interestingly enough, a lone bison or elk could stand up to the wolves if they didn’t run, or–even better–planted themselves in water and refused to give into their flight instinct. Wolves will catch fish on occasion, but they aren’t interested in hunting big prey in water.)

I tried to use real life wolf hunting methods in the Pack of Dawn and Destiny trilogy–as seen in the way they get Pip to run during play hunts, commonly go for throats and bellies, and generally try to knock their opponents over–but I had to be really careful because wolf hunting is pretty gorey, which made me understand why wolves would be extra terrifying to humans historically speaking than a lynx or a mountain lion, who have much cleaner kills.

That’s all for today, Champions. I hope you enjoyed this mini wolf lesson! Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!

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Character Profiles: Aeric, Shania, and Wyatt

Last week we talked about Alpha Tom and Alpha Dale, so I thought we’d continue the theme and talk about three wolves from the Northern Lakes Pack: Aeric, Wyatt, and Shania! All three of whom are loosely modeled after real friends of mine! (And yes, Aeric and Shania are a couple, and Aeric and Wyatt are best buds!)

Loyal, happy go lucky, and remarkably open and friendly, Aeric is one of Pip’s long time friends, who proves his loyalty and trust in Pip again and again throughout the PoDaD trilogy. He is best friends with Wyatt, and is dating Shania–Pip’s friend and coworker, and is responsible with Wyatt for coining the phrase “Pomeranian Puppy Powerup!”

Aeric is from Canada and is a timber wolf–though I did ease slightly away from traditional timber wolf coloring a little to make his wolf have more red hair to match his human form. He is one of the few werewolves in the Pack who was born a werewolf, which meant he was born with the strength, endurance, and abilities of a werewolf–including shifting into a wolf.

I created Aeric and Wyatt to be Pip’s remaining ties to the Pack after her adoptive parents die, and Lynn and Hudson leave. And in the first book they seem to be exactly that–friends who hang out, but aren’t ride-or-die kinds of people. As the trilogy progresses, however, you see that the pair all along have considered themselves to be much closer to Pip, but they’re smart enough to refrain from pushing their relationship with her, and as a result keep things more casual. (Basically, Pip was picked to be a close friend by this pair all along, and she had no idea as they hid it between all the aggressive snuggling and light-hearted jokes.)

Aeric is a wonderful friend for Pip and a rare type of werewolf thanks to his cheerful and open personality. He’s excellent at lulling people into his orbit–as displayed by Pip–but his good natured personality would never take advantage of this, even though he has enough power of his own to be an Alpha if he wanted. (Which, he doesn’t. He’d never be able to leave Wyatt. Or the Pack. But mostly Wyatt.)

Shania is Pip’s work friend, and Aeric’s girlfriend who is turned into a werewolf in book 2, United. Her wolf form is a Red Wolf–which is an endangered sub-species of wolf–there’s only about 300 left in the world. It’s typically a smaller wolf, coming in-between a gray wolf and a coyote size wise, and it lives in the Southeastern region of the USA.

When I first designed Shania before writing the books, she existed to round out the duo of Aeric and Wyatt, and to serve as a gut punch for the werewolf-turning plotline of United. But when I started writing her out, she fast became so much more. As a human, she’s able to give Pip a safe venting space and still understand some of the finer points of life with werewolves since she was dating one, and as a wolf she–more than anyone else–has an easier time of inspiring Pip’s Wolf Kiss powers because of that friendship between them.

She’s very funny and chill, but while her wolf form would normally mark her as someone regulated to the back of the pack due to a smaller size, Shania’s fierce and loyal heart has her staying with Pip to watch her back, leaving Pip free to use her powers knowing nothing will get past her friend.

Smart and possessing emotional intelligence by the boatloads, Wyatt is the other half of Pip’s long-time friend duo with Aeric, and is also great friends with Shania. Though he bemoans his lack of a girlfriend, Wyatt is a trusted and respected member of the Pack, as seen by his frequent interactions with humans for his work, and that he is frequently chosen to guide new werewolves after the transformation process.

Wyatt is a gray wolf, though he is what’s called a melanistic wolf because of his dark fur. Like Aeric, Wyatt is capable of being an Alpha–and he would be a more traditional alpha given his larger size and that he is so trusted by all. However, like Aeric, Wyatt has no desire to leave the Pack (or his friends) and is content with his Pack life and many friendships.

Wyatt’s emotional intelligence makes him more aware of Pip’s struggles than Aeric, but that intelligence is how he knows that goofy Aeric and their friendship shenanigans are the best thing for Pip–who is wary of deep emotional ties with werewolves at the beginning of the trilogy. Wyatt was also the reason why Pip and Greyson were forced to tell Wyatt, Aeric, and Shania about the mate bond before anyone else, because he was likely only a day behind Pip in puzzling it out.

And that’s all for Aeric, Shania, and Wyatt! I hope you liked their characters–I had so much fun with them. I probably most enjoyed writing them–besides Tom, Dale, and Mayor Pearl, that is!

Curious about the wolf forms of the rest of the Pack? I don’t have specific types picked out for everyone, but I did design a few! Rio and Hector are both Mexican Lobo – Gray Wolf hybrids (which is historically and biologically possible!). Their coloring comes from the Mexican Lobo, but their size is from the Gray wolf part of their wolf forms. Moira is a tundra wolf–as mentioned in the books–while Ember is a Eurasian Wolf! Greyson is also a specific subspecies of Gray Wolf…but you’ll learn more about that in his post!

And that’s all for today! Thanks for reading, Champions, and have a wonderful day!

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Greyson’s Hot Chocolate Recipe

Since Hazel was a tea drinker and Leila was a coffee drinker, I knew for Pip I wanted something different, which is why I chose to give her an obsession for hot chocolate!

Greyson is an excellent mate, and in Fated he admits that he learned how to make homemade hot chocolate specifically for her. I went through a lot of recipes in figuring out what ingredients he needed and I tried a few recipes myself, but I was more than a little surprised at all the requests I got for Greyson’s recipe, so here it is!

Ingredients:

Approximately 1 cup milk of your choice (Whole or 2% cow milk will make for a creamier, richer taste, but if you REALLY want a rich flavor, add some cream or half and half)

Sugar (I use a large tbsp but you might want 2 tbsp depending on if you choose to add toppings and how sweet you like your drinks)

Baking Cocoa Powder (A heaping tbsp, but again you can add more to adjust for your taste and based on the cocoa powder you use)

Large pinch of Cinnamon

Large pinch of Nutmeg

Splash of Vanilla extract (I’m very generous with my vanilla–it smells soooo good–so I usually add two splashes.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: To get your hot chocolate to taste the best, you really want to focus on the kind of cocoa powder you use. Most recipes I came across recommend Dutch Cocoa–I bought mine at Penzey’s Spice–but I also used the Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder for baking, and that turned out fabulous as well. (I also made some with store brand baking cocoa powder. It was tasty, but the Ghirardelli and Dutch cocoa was definitely a big step up. If you don’t want to buy the fancy baking cocoa powder, I’d suggest you cheat and add in a few semi sweet chocolate chips to melt in the milk!)

Second note: Adjust the cinnamon and nutmeg to your taste–the less sugar you use the less spices you’ll want to use, or the nutmeg can make the chocolate taste slightly bitter. In general I’d say use more cinnamon than nutmeg–nutmeg is a very flavorful spice!

Heat the milk in a saucepan on the stovetop–don’t let it boil or it will get this gross skin on it–and stir near constantly. Once it warms to a drinking temperature you want, stir in all of the above ingredients.

I personally think it tastes best when topped with whipped cream and/or marshmallows! (Especially whipped cream because then you can add sprinkles or chocolate or caramel drizzle if you’re feeling fancy!) But Greyson is not going to stretch his cooking skills, so he typically gives it to Pip without anything extra. (Unless he needs to apologize for something. Then out come the sprinkles!)

Does anybody have homemade hot chocolate recipes they’d like to share in the comments? I was astounded by the huge varieties in recipes I found when I was doing my research, but as I experimented I realized it mostly comes down to personal taste!

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