Red Wolf Blogs

(From the 10/20/2023 newsletter)  14th Day of the Harvest Moon, 1218th Year, Human Age of Magic ... I've been busy--too busy to keep up this journal as I had hoped. It has taken me nearly a year to bring my plan to fruition, but I'm finally on the verge of retrieving the Eye of Ellindrell and Ka'il Idreth.  I arrived in Azureth almost a year ago. I sought out the Alchemist and was able to persuade him to employ me as an assistant, convincing him of my ability to translate and otherwise interpret most of the Fae manuscripts he has accumulated. At first, I was little more than a glorified housekeeper--and let me tell you, some of the chores around here are thoroughly disgusting. When I first came on, he had me collecting hundreds of frogs daily from the marshes around Lake Marin and then cleaning the messes he made using them in his experiments with spells. Thank the gods I've been able to discourage some of that experimentation with more accurate translations of the manu...

  27th Day of the Frost Moon, 1217th Year, Human Age of Magic ... Humans are so willing to babble on and on, pretending to be experts on things they know nothing about, especially when their tongues are loosened with a bit of wine. However, intermingled with their babblings are often hidden gems of valuable information. I've been sitting around the evening campfires as our caravan makes its way south, pouring cups and listening, and I am convinced there are two extremely valuable elven artifacts in the area that need retrieving as soon as possible--the Eye of Ellindrell and Ka'il Idreth (The Sword That Sings). The Eye of Ellindrell appears to be a particularly large ruby with a mesmerizing, pulsating bubble trapped inside. Its intended usage is a power source for the creation and opening of portals. As unlikely as it might be that some human may discover its true purpose and use it to travel the realms, a human mule--sorry, sorcerer --can easily tap into its power to conjure al...

 From the August 18, 2023 newsletter ... 19th Day of the Frost Moon, 1217th Year, Human Age of Magic ... After only a few days spent in the human port city of Arleanne, it has become obvious that faerie spawn will be too dangerous to work with. I need to find a mule . Perhaps I should take a moment to explain my use of the above pejoratives. Not that I care so much whoever reads this might be offended--I want to leave no chance for misunderstanding in this diary. You see, the problem of having Fae artifacts in the hands of humans is compounded by the fact there is now a good bit of Fae blood present in the human gene pool and therefore humans who possess some powers they call magic. I call such half humans faerie spawn  for obvious reasons. Okay, if it's not obvious, I'll tell you straight. The Faeries have been primarily responsible for inserting non-human DNA into the local population. I know there has been intermittent intermingling among humans and elves, some dragons, an...

 (from the 8/4/23 Red Wolf Pack newsletter) Hey, Readers! If you're not familiar with R.M. Schultz (I featured one of his Caleb of the Woods books in a newsletter last year), you soon will be. Because I predict his new epic fantasy series is going to create some noise. Even before the first book was released, the series was being considered for a video game, and when Through Blood and Dragons came out this past Monday, it immediately vaulted into the top 100 in multiple categories on Amazon. I mean, who doesn't like dragons? I sure do! So, I had this book on preorder and dove right in as soon as it was delivered to my kindle on Monday. Lot's of action and plenty of dragons, so far. Plus, Mr. Schultz has included maps and illustrations with the narrative. The author informed me the special preorder price of $0.99 would be in effect for a few more days, so don't wait! (As of this post, it still was.) <Purchase on Amazon US> Steeped in blood. Ruled by those with drag...

 (From the July 21, 2023 Newsletter) 12th Day of the Frost Moon, 1217th year, Human Age of Magic ... My name is Trevor, and I should have kept my mouth shut. As any goblin will tell you, a good idea should not be voiced until all ramifications have been considered. Yet, knowing well that axiom, I could not hold my tongue when no one at the Conference of the Fae Protectorate addressed the elephant in the room--the plethora of Fae artifacts that have come into the hands of humans, and the dangers of not retrieving them before the Protectorate implements its plan to release the Vampire Scourge. Fool that I am, I should have known that as soon as I brought up the problem, the task of implementing the project to retrieve such artifacts would have been assigned to me. The Protectorate, under the present direction of the dragon Damocles, is famous for using the term implementing the project as a euphemism for doing all the work. So, here I am, living among the humans for the next century-...

 (From the July 7, 2023 Newsletter) Hi, Pack Mates! No, I'm not going anywhere. The fond farewell is for Clifford Crane, to whom I'm saying goodbye as the MC of my novels for a while. Cliff has taught me much over the last dozen years, and having just finished his 8th novel, I thought a few special words of explanation and appreciation were warranted. Clifford was an updated version of a sci-fi character I tried to write about back in the 1970's. Heavily influenced by Frank Herbert's Dune books and a character I loved in James Tiptree's Up the Walls of the World, Fedtlove was the product of a secret breeding program for galactic rulers--one that hadn't quite worked out. He had all the charisma of a great leader, but none of the other leadership skills. I started--and never finished-- The Fedtlove Chronicles multiple times over a decade or two. By the time my brain matured to the point where I could finish a writing project, I was really into Urban Fantasy, and I...

 (From the June 2 Newsletter) Hi, Readers! I took this picture the other day on the trail. It's the kind of decision I like to make. Whichever way I choose, I'll have a nice walk in the woods. No pressure. No big deal. But this past week I had to make a different decision--one that I wasn't so sure about. I was coming to the end of Halves and Half Nots, and I hadn't decided for certain what to do with Clifford Crane. After 8 novels with him as the MC, how should I leave him? Should I saddle him with more troubles, like I always have? Should I give him a happy ending? Should I kill him off--put him out of his misery? So, I've been thinking a lot lately about how I make decisions--and just how effective the process is. I once had a girlfriend who itemized how she decided to dump me in minute detail. She'd made a list of pros and cons. She'd talked to all her friends (yikes!). She'd prayed about it (I love when they drag God into it). A few decades later, a...