Be Inspired Blog Hop… Howling Moon

Be Inspired Blog Hop…  Howling Moon

I said I was going to do this back in the summer for all of my current full manuscripts…I only did it for Ulysses and I figured it is time I should do it for Howling Moon.  Mostly because it is the novel I am concentrating on the most at the start of 2013.  And really as I’m writing this blog I just got to chapter 10 with my current edit/read through….

Now for the questions:

1.) What is the title of your book?   Howling Moon

2.) Where did the idea for the book come from? This is one of those projects that I kicked around writing for several years, had a loose plot written up and everything as far back as 2009.  In 2011 when I was preparing for NaNoWriMo, this was my third choice the month before.  I’ve basically been a fan of werewolves since I was a kid…the first exposure to it was probably the old Werewolf television show and I guess I’ve been hooked on them ever since.  Probably seen most werewolf movies ever made and have written and plotted out other werewolf stories in the past.  But this is one that I was sort of just drawn to from the moment I plotted it.  Once I got started writing it there were times it really just seemed to write itself.

3.) What genre would your book fall under? Horror, Suspense

 4.) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Emily (Kate Mara)

Ashley (Meaghan Rath)

Colin (Eric Christan Olsen)

Bradley (Sam Elliott)

Lauren (Lauren Cohen)

5.) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  (Ignoring the one sentence rule here)   Emily Meyer is in a terrible car accident and attacked by a mysterious creature when she wakes in the hospital days later and her life is turned upside down.  She begins to have horrifying nightmares and her body begins to change as she starts to realize what it was that attacked her.  She realizes she is being hunted by the beast even now and fears she may be becoming one herself.

 6.) Is your book published or represented? No/No

7.) How long did it take you to write?  I had a completed 70 k rough drafted completed during nano 2011.

8.) What other books within your genre would you compare it to?  I haven’t read near enough Werewolf novels to compare it too… But this is definitely more in the vein of classic werewolf, horror stories.

 9.) Which authors inspired you to write this book?

10.) Tell us anything else that might pique our interest in your book. 

It’s an emotional struggle, as Emily has to not only deal with being hunted.  Her family.  But the changes she is going through as she realizes the greatest threat to her family and friends maybe herself.

Sneak Peak:

Guess spoilers ahead…as this sneak peak is taken from Chapter 9 but has a lot to do with the first chapter.

“The pretty girl can humor me with her help but you don’t mind given us a moment or two to talk do you Dwight…”  Colin took a step back, he never even tried to correct the old man when he called him by his father’s name.

Emily took the old man by the hand but could tell he did not need help as they entered the cabin.  She paused just inside the door and looked back at Colin whose back was now to her looking off towards the woods.  Then she saw the old hound, only a couple steps behind he kept an eye on her with a quivering lip showing his aged teeth.  The very presence of the dog caused her to take a couple clumsy steps forward into the cabin.  “Shut the door,” she broke from her gaze on his dog just as she shut the door.  As Emily turned she noticed the armory in the living room, which also doubled as a dining room and possibly the bedroom of the cabin.  The table was covered with ammunition, a couple rifles and three hand guns she turned as she felt him step close to her.  “Have you a snort,” Bradley stated as he handed the glass to her, she did not even ask as she brought it to her lips and swallowed.  Not even a cough as the bitter tasting liquor burned her tongue, down her throat and to her chest she could feel it.  “An experienced drinker,” he said with a smile as he took the glass and returned to the small kitchen area.  A stove, a fridge, and a couple big fridge size cabinets made up the most of the room.  It was separated from the other room only by a bar counter very similar to the one in her own home. 

“I have had my share,” Emily replied again she turned to look at the living area, a couch pulled out as a bed, covers and pillows scattered about and several duffle bags of clothing and other accessories scattered around the room.  

“I bet young lady,” she smiled at the thought of the conversation being about her experience in the consumption of alcohol but he still called her ‘lady’.  Emily saw yet another handgun as it peaked out from under the pillow of the make shift bed.  She turned to look behind her, as it was hidden by the door there sat a shotgun and a large machete.  “Another?” she turned just as he stepped back into the room, she showed no hesitation as she took the glass and in unison they both took down their shots.  She handed back her glass and returned his smile.  “So you are here because you wanted to know what an old man saw.”

“You did see it didn’t you?” Emily questioned, she watched as he returned to the counter and began to pour a couple more shots. 

“To be honest sweetheart I don’t know what I saw that night,” he replied a glance back over his shoulder at her.  “I almost didn’t see you there in the road,” he took another drink of his own before he refilled his glass and approached her.  “I wasn’t driving fast or anything of the sort when I came into those curves but see my judgment may have been slightly obscured…”  Bradley lifted his glass into the air with a smile.  “What happened in that last curve was enough to sober up just about anyone.”  He finished off his drink and watched as Emily did the same, he took both glasses back to the sink but did not refill them.  He walked past her and took a seat at the table.  “I never actually saw the animal miss, was a feeling as I came out of that last curve something kept my attention off the road and to the embankment where you wrecked.  The truth I never even saw your car until after I picked your broken body from the pavement.  I only saw shadows…I was nearly on top of you before I saw you there, swerved to miss and was several car lengths past before I even realized what you were.”  Emily’s complexion was of shock, she did not know what to think of the fact the reason she was alive was due to man drinking and driving.  “Something about that night, in that moment…I almost couldn’t make myself get out of the truck.  I was startled but it was more than just about hitting you, something inside scared me shitless.  I backed my truck, locked my driver’s door and scooted across the seat.  I wasn’t outside of the truck…a minute total as I scooped you off the ground and put you in the truck.  Even bumped your head on the door in the process…I never looked at your wounds, you were covered in blood.  I just knew I had to get you out of there.  Even over the roar of my engine I heard it in the darkness, the intense hate filled growl like no dog I have ever heard.  I pulled the door shut and locked it, crawled over top of you back to my seat and really I could not get out of their fast enough.  You just kept muttering for god to help you dear.”

“I am thankful you were there,” Emily said she had not moved from her position just inside the door of the cabin.  For the first time she saw the papers at her feet, scattered and opened they were all about the attacks.

“That’s not all…” the old man looked ashamed to finish, she could see him shake and the fear set in on his face.  “As I drove away I saw something in my rear view, it was mostly just a shadow but at the very spot where you laid I saw it.  As tall as any man it stood and stretched and I swear I was a mile away, music on…the sound of your wounded breathing and mumbling, my own heart I still heard it whelp out in anger over a missed meal.”