Interactive Werewolf Book

As part of the MSc I’m undertaking, I have to create a major project.

My plan is to create an interactive book based on my Diary of the Wolf world.

The basics are simple: You’re a werewolf hunter (like Red & Jenny) and you head to a remote Scottish island to stop a werewolf. En route you’re shipwrecked and quickly find yourself at a disadvantage. Without your usual weapons and brawn, you have to discover the identity of the werewolf before the full moon.

It all goes a bit murder mystery then. I’m planning to write it in the 3rd person, with the narrator squarely focused on the protagonist. There’ll be no peeking behind the scenes for the reader, they’ll have to go through the story, guiding the actions of the main character and learning as they go.

 

Um, About NanoWriMo…

Unfortunately real life got in the way of the NaNoWriMo dream. Real life and plot points.

I began writing a children’s novel, which quickly started taking some very dark and unplanned turns. The fairytale morphed into a story about domestic abuse and escapism. Outlines were no longer relevant and the story that was going to write itself, well, it had written itself into a far more complicated maze.

Add into that mix a number of college deadlines and you soon get failure.

I have half a novel written (or at least half as defined by NaNoWriMo) and it sometimes tempts me to have a look, but the whole point of NanoWriMo was a fixed period to break free from existing obligations and write fresh. Now I’m back into a world where wolves need to be fed.

 

NaNoWriMo 2011

Signed myself up for NaNoWriMo 2011 !

The goal: To write a novel in one month. November to be exact.

It’s seat of your pants writing and anything can happen.

I’m taking a break from writing about werewolves and have gone for an odd fairytale type story.

WIP title -”The Tale of the Clee”

Check out how I’m getting on here – http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/frankwhelan/novels/a-tale-of-the-clee/stats

 

A Tale of Hunters

I’ve just uploaded a free novella: “A Tale of Hunters”.

It’s part of the Diary of the Wolf series and slots in between books 1 & 2.

Cover is stitched together from book 1 and 2 and also features a rose emblem.

The focus is moved from werewolves and placed on the hunters, Jenny & Red to be precise.

The two hunters pose as tourists in a small English village while they hunt down a killer werewolf.

While the novella is self-contained, I hope it’ll add to the experience for readers of both book 1 and 2.

This book also features the first mention, in print, of the black wolf. So there’s some long term story value there.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94941

 

Research takes over

I’m finding the writing process being slowed down by the interesting nature of my subject matter, or rather, the background of my characters. So here’s a little glimpse at the sources of some of the tangents I’ve wandered off on…

Ciaran Connelly and his adventures are easy, he’s a twenty-something male living in Dublin. I’ve spent my life passively researching the character and all that was needed was some work with maps etc. Other characters on the other hand…

Rose Hawthorn – A native Briton in the time of the Roman occupation. Research went into when and how the Romans invaded Britannia. Rose had to be placed in a time where she would be meeting the black wolf when she was old enough for romance, but also it had to make sense in the black wolf’s story. The black wolf needed a reason to be in Britannia, and more importantly he couldn’t be elsewhere. So, this aspect of research was pretty fascinating, and took up quite a while.
Rose’s story then spans thousands of years, but since she only features in a short story, well, the history of England doesn’t need to be explored just yet (thankfully, or nothing would get done.)

Kraven – Here was some research that was as tricky as it was interesting. Kraven comes from Poland, his life spanning countries and wars. So much is known about WW1 and WW2, that you can’t just bumble through and hope to maintain the realism established in Diary of the Wolf. The interesting aspect is obvious, but the tricky bit comes in issues with language and distance. What does Krakow look like in 1904? What are the locals into? How do careers progress? World War 2 is less tricky, as Krakow is well documented, especially in relation to the treatment of the Jewish population. The Nazis were going to show Kraven the lows of humanity, but it had to be realistic, so that led to a lot of tough reading until I found the scene to recreate. From Poland Kraven travels through Europe, and this led to hours looking at troop movements and researching old escape routes for refugees etc.

The Black Wolf – Well… this is the monster research task that feeds into all others, but I guess it’ll remain a secret until about book 5.

 

Amazon: The Forgotten …

Well, Diary of the Wolf has been up on Amazon for ages now!

How did I forget that one.

Amazon.co.uk for any UK types

Amazon for everyone else

(Unless you’re German)

I’m lucky enough to have nothing but positive 5 star reviews (especially since I didn’t write any of them!)

So, whether you want to keep my fivers rolling or you hate my face enough to roll a one, please leave a comment if you purchase on Amazon.

 

Oh Words Electric

Electric Picnic was last weekend. It was fun. Energy levels are low. I may have been exploring new places in my head, all while writing. I assume it’s all nonsense, but I will look back on it over a cup of tea.

For the first time ever – No camera! I’ll have to scribble down all the happenings, because I’m sure to forget the guy falling from the tree, Bob’s heart attack, the phantom shitter, the super reality during Pulp, the amazing performance by The Walkmen to a near empty tent… and other stuff that’s already drifting away…

My discovery for the weekend was “Thirst” – A short enough vampire novel by author Claire Farrell. I downloaded it for free and used it to pass some quality “Not ready to face world” moments during the festival. Thirst is about a young vampire/human hybrid, basically she’s got a thirst for blood but none of the soulless evil vibes going on. It reminded me of Diary of the Wolf in a few ways: Very Irish vibe to it; pop culture references; efforts to make up new rules for the werewolves/vamps; told from the perspective of the protagonist; sprinklings of humour. I haven’t finished the book just yet, but so far it’s kept me interested. Ava is slowly learning about the lore, just as Ciaran does, and coming at it as a reader rather than the writer, I must say it works quite well. I was always afraid that I hadn’t set “the rules” out early enough, but a bit of mystery works fine.

Her author blog is here if you’re curious.