When did you first start writing?
I first started writing during high school in the 90’s (did I just age myself? lol). At that time I wrote mostly poetry—maybe someday I will compile it all and put it up for free ;-)—but I also wrote almost all of The Bathroom then. I honestly don’t even like that story and have been surprised of its success. My real “digging-deep” writing started in 2008; that is when I began the Annan Werewolf Series, though at the time Annan’s name was Freya. I had scrapped that book after writing the entire thing, as well as part of the second one, convinced the content was not worth putting out. I am now happy to say that I have gone back to that story, just like with The Bathroom and Amelia and Lucius, and have made it much, much better. But, having honed my craft over the years I’m not too surprised!
What's the story behind your latest book?
This is an excellent question since people can go to the place that inspired my newest book. Coming Home – Book One of the Annan Werewolf Series, was inspired by the most interesting thing, poop. That is absolutely the honest to god truth of the matter. I was making my way out to the abandon town of Lester alone in the Cascades and decided to shoot some photos—my other passion in life—of some old cars that were half buried in brambles. When I looked down I was standing in a huge patch of deer or elk droppings. I was completely grossed out and carefully made my way through the patch when I saw another kind of poo in the mix; scat from a predator. Now, when I was younger, and went to camp, I learned about different kinds of animal droppings and how to identify the kind of animal they came from. The predator scat looked canine and my mind began to wander to wolves stalking a huge herd of elk then those wolves became werewolves.
At that time wolves were thought to not be in the Cascades—having been killed off in the Northwest by early settlers—so that is why my imagination took off. And sure, it might have been a really big coyote that left it but likely it was wolves because since that time they have been found on trap-cams in the Cascades. Of course real wolves are not the only things stalking around out there. Settled in the Cascades, around the location of the abandon town of Lester, now lives the Snoqualmie wolf pack. It’s an easy place to get to and would be fun to go out and visit after reading Annan's story. After all, who wouldn't want to visit those abandon houses and get that creepy feeling I did? I mean come on, that feeling helped fuel the series and even plays an important part in book one.
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