Red Wolf Blogs

Hi, Pack Mates! If you’re close to my age, or you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you might not know what I’m talking about. A “Blink” is what they call fans of the wildly popular K-pop girl group, BlackPink. I stumbled on the Netflix documentary last year and fell in love with Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa (especially Lisa). I went to YouTube, right away. Now I’m hooked. I have to watch some version of Kill This Love, Du Du Du, or Lovesick Girls at least one a day. Usually more. I like to share my musical discoveries with my son, Seth. Sure, there’s a generation gap, but I respect his tastes. After all, he’s the one who turned me on to Cake and Vampire Weekend. So, I queued up my favorite version of Kill This Love and sat him down in front of my laptop. He watched, cutting sideways glances at me, for about a minute. Then he hit <pause>. “Sexy teenage girls,” he said. It wasn’t a compliment directed at the group; it was a judgment of my character. The...

  Hi, Pack Mates!   I can’t believe it’s already time for another newsletter. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? I wonder about that saying, sometimes. I mean, it’s true, I suppose. But sometimes time just flies because…it’s time. There’s another old saying I’m sure you’ve heard - you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That’s complete bull. Old dogs can learn plenty of new tricks.   They’re just not interested.   The truth is, old dogs - I’ve qualified as one for a while, now - already know enough tricks to get by. They’ve filtered out the ones that aren’t useful and have stored away in their trick bags all the good ones. So, it’s not that they can’t learn. They just don’t want to.   Unless they’re motivated.   Case in point: When I decided to become a full-time writer, I had to learn a lot of new stuff. I had to learn about marketing, cover design, composing product descriptions and ad copy, how to negotiate the Amazon advertising plat...

  From mid-April, 2021: Hey, pack mates. Here’s the question: Would you rather inhale or exhale? It’s kind of a dumb one, don’t you think? I mean, it’s not like you have a choice to do one or the other.   But my son asked the question a while back, and I’ve trained myself over the last twenty-two years to give all his questions careful consideration and to answer them the best I can. People think you’re a good parent when you do stuff like that.   It wasn’t hard to answer, either. “Exhale,” I said. “It’s easier.”   “Hah!” he gloated. “I knew it!” It seems some psychological research suggests the answer to that question says a lot about your attitude toward life. “I like to inhale,” he elaborated. “All that fresh air coming in with a deep breath, the energy, the life. It’s wonderful.”   Seth has an enthusiasm for life that can be infectious…if you’re into that sort of thing. He did NOT get it from me.   I don’t think he got it from his Mom, eit...

  Hi, pack mates. It’s my first newsletter and giveaway!   Not only that, but I’ve received my second dose of the COVID19 vaccine. Whew. I am so ready for this pandemic to be over.   I admit being in lockdown at home has been great for getting some writing done, but I have developed a chronic case of cabin fever. To keep myself from going completely bonkers, I tried to find at least one day each week for a hike in the nearby Uwharrie National Forest.   If you’re familiar with the Red Wolf Saga, you know the Uwharries are the setting for a number of scenes in the books. Here are some pics I’ve taken over the winter. Not only does a five-to-ten-mile hike every week keep me from murdering those close to me, it gives me time to work out some of the plot corners I’ve written myself into while working on Half Human, the paranormal sci-fi series starter I’m releasing later this year. I’ll give y’all more info on that, including a cover reveal, in the coming months. ...