Author: Cindy

Title: Dreaming of the Wolf (bk 8 in the Wolf Series)
Author: Terry Spear
Pub Date: December 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Pages: 384

About the book:
A FIERCE HUNTER…

Alicia Greiston is a no-nonsense bounty hunter determined to bring a ring of mobsters to justice. Her dogged pursuit of the crime family has forced her to avoid relationships— any man would only become a target for retribution. Luckily, Jake Silver is more than a man, and his instincts are telling him to stop at nothing to protect her.

AN ANIMAL PASSION…

However, the mob isn’t entirely human either, and soon Alicia must flee for her life. When Alicia and Jake’s passion begins to spill over into their dreams, Jake learns he will have to do more than defend her— he’ll have to show his mate the way of the wolf.

Today I am truly honored to have Terry Spear stop by my blog once again for a guest post. I absolutely love, love, love Terry’s books as I am sure you have heard me gush about with all the reviews for her books and if you haven’t read any of them yet that I have to highly recommend them.

When I write my wolf books (werewolves, that is), I do a lot of research about their characteristics and use this in the development of the werewolf characters.

In my books, I try to show that the werewolf, when in human form, is still part wolf. They still have the heightened senses of the wolf, the enhanced sense of smell, night vision, ability to see movement, and hearing. But they also have some of the personality of the wolf.

All wolves do have their own personalities. They may look very similar, but each is a unique individual, just as humans are. Just as your pets are. Each has their own personality.

I often use something from research I’ve done on wolves in each of my stories. In the tenth book, A Highland Wolf Wedding, Duncan MacNeill (of Heart of the Highland Wolf), is searching for the crook that stole his pack’s money. The heroine is an American wolf who is a botanist doing research in the Grand Cayman Islands when he arrives.

Here is an excerpt from A Highland Wolf Wedding, due out in December 2012.

With his ground-eating stride, he raced to catch up to her. She was like a greyhound, and he loved stretching out his legs to join her. He definitely wanted to protect her from the sharks in the sea some more, but running as wolves was just as exhilarating.
****

In this excerpt, I described Shelley Campbell in her wolf form as being as fast as a greyhound. When doing research, I actually found a reference to a real wolf that was the sister of the alpha female that actually chased down more prey than her pack members and the biologist who studied the pack dynamics described her as being as fast as a greyhound.

In another wolf story, I mentioned a wolf who had hair that stuck out all over the place. This was also mentioned by another wolf biologist as he observed a different wolf pack. 

I often mention how curious wolves are, and werewolves are. In one case, a wolf biologist was trying to become one of the pack to observe them. He was wearing a cap and crouched down, trying not to upset the wolves. He saw the alpha male watching him, but didn’t make any move to look him in the eye, which could be considered aggression. After staying like that for quite a while, the alpha wolf finally approached the man. He finally looked the wolf in the eyes. And then the wolf lunged for his hat, but the man anticipating the lunge, quickly removed his hat and the wolf was startled to realize he didn’t have it in his grasp. From then on, the man was part of the pack.

I love stories like this because I use them to show the playful side, the humorous side, the serious side of pack dynamics, and how this becomes a werewolf’s characteristics too.

In Dreaming of the Wolf, I had to research about keeping wolves in confinement when Alicia Greiston is being questioned by a detective about a dead man found in her hotel room and another man who’s thought to have been bitten by a wolf.
       
Excerpt from Dreaming of the Wolf:
      “It’s not illegal to own a wolf,” Jake interjected, his voice quietly firm, as if he was a lawyer who knew her rights when it came to pet wolf ownership.

      She supposed that to protect themselves, Jake and the rest of the pack would know about such a thing for self-preservation.

      The detective switched his attention to Jake. She thought Detective Simpson was fighting a smile. Jake to the rescue. But it was more than that. It was as if the detective had caught them in a falsehood. But she wasn’t rolling over and playing dead yet.

      “No, you’re right, Mr. Silver,” the detective said with emphasis, “not unless the wolf owner takes the wolf within the city limits of some cities, which is illegal. Crestview is not one of those cities. But the wolves have to be fenced in with at least eight-foot-tall fencing. Every access has to be locked to prevent the wolves from escaping.

      “Taking a wolf into a motel room isn’t legal, nor a safe thing to do. If Miss Greiston was afraid for her life and was using the wolf for protection, it wasn’t really a smart idea. Nor was it legal. The wolf could have injured anyone. Since it has bitten someone now, we’ll have to hunt it down and make sure it wasn’t rabid.” He sat taller and turned to Alicia. “So what about this wolf, Miss Greiston?”

      “He wasn’t mine,” she said stubbornly, head held high, voice confident.
***

So you see? Wolf research is extremely important, not only for creating werewolf characters, but for letting the werewolves know what they can and cannot do when it comes to “owning” wolves!

So what would you do if you were in Alicia’s place? Trying to explain how other hotel guests had seen a wolf race out of her room? Take the 5^th? Or square your shoulders and well…what would you say?

Especially if it was YOU who had bitten the man and run from the room?

Terry Spear
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality.”

Here are some ways you can contact Terry:
www.facebook.com/terry.spear
www.terryspear.com
www.myspace.com/terryspear
http://terry-spear.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/TerrySpear

About the author:

Award-winning author Terry Spear has written a dozen paranormal romance novels, with over 60,000 copies sold. She received Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year in 2008 for Heart of the Wolf. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry is a librarian by day. She lives in Crawford, Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.terryspear.com/.

The next book in the Wolf Series is:
A Seal in Wolf’s Clothing (bk 9) and its set to release March 2012

Check back later this morning for my review of Dreaming of the Wolf.

Title: Cats In The Doll Shop (book 2)
Author: Yona Zeldis McDonough
Publisher: Viking
Pub Date: November 2011
Pages: 144

About The Boook:
Young readers joined nine-year-old Anna as she helped turn her family’s doll repair shop into a doll-making shop. Now, Anna finds herself in an all-new adventure in The Cats in the Doll Shop. In this “quiet treasure” (Kirkus), World War I is still raging, and Anna’s cousin Tania leaves Russia to live with her family in New York City. Anna is so excited for Tania to arrive and be her new best friend. When her cousin finally moves in, Anna quickly discovers that Tania doesn’t respond to her friendly gestures and her sisters don’t seem to like her at all. Luckily, Anna finds a creative way to use her love of dolls and cats to bring everyone together. Inspired by her own experience with an injured kitten many years ago, Yona Zeldis McDonough offers a gentle story rich with history, family, and love. The Cats in the Doll Shop is a story that will be a favorite of readers for generations to come.

Today I am honored to have Yona Zeldis McDonough, the author of The Doll Shop Downstairs (book 1) and The Cats In The Doll Shop (her latest book) stop by to share with us her holiday guest post. Thanks so much Yona for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this for me and my readers. Happy Holidays.

We didn’t “do” holidays when I was a child. No Christmas (well, we were Jewish) but no Chanukah, Passover, Rosh Hashanah either. I grew up bereft in this regard, resigned to wishing for the sort of large-scale family celebrations that never, alas, were ours. As an adult, I’ve finally got the holiday thing down pat: I married a Catholic and so feel that along with his name, I’ve assumed his holidays too and I “do” Christmas in an over-the-top festive fashion worthy of anyone who’s grown up in the tradition.

But here’s a funny thing: in my writing, I am and remain stubbornly Jewish, a fact that is made particularly evident in my fiction for children, which tends to revolve around Jewish themes, characters, locales and yes, Jewish holidays.

In my most recent book, THE CATS IN THE DOLL SHOP, I have a scene in which the Breittlemanns and their friends celebrate Rosh Hashanah with a traditional meal, music and song. And here is how the family celebrates Chanukah:

We light candles in menorah at sundown, and the smell of Mama’s crispy brown latkes and cinnamon-laced applesauce is in the air. There are small gifts for us to share, too, like a bag of almonds, and orange and, best of all, pieces of chocolate Chanukah gelt, wrapped in shining gold foil.

We use the gelt as part of the game we play with the wooden dreidel that always comes out of the cupboard on holiday. It’s a game of chance that involves winning and losing the chocolate coins. First Sophie is winning, then Trudie and finally Tania. But when we are done, we divide up the gelt again, so everyone gets the same number of pieces. I eat of mine right away but decide to save the rest. I’ll be glad I have some left for tomorrow.

Later, Papa comes in to say good night. He sits down on Trudie’s bed and starts telling us the story of Chanukah…A long, long time ago, Papa begins, the holy temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the eternal flame was in danger of going out…As Papa talks, my mind drifts. Maybe there is room for a little miracle in our lives. Maybe Plucky will come back, safe and unharmed, and Papa will let him stay. Now wouldn’t that be a miracle? I cannot help wishing.

It’s all there: the menorah, the latkes, the dreidel, the gelt, the story of the lamp that burned for eight nights even though there was only enough oil for one. I seem to gravitate back to these rituals, giving myself in fiction what I was denied in fact. I’ve read that writing is a form of redemption, and that through writing, we can restore what has been lost, or in my case, never been. And as the holidays come around again, I know that this is true. I am grateful for the chance to recreate once more the life I had longed to live.

Thanks again Yona. I loved your guest post and how even though you are doing things differently you have stuck to your roots.

Check back tomorrow for my review on The Cats in the Doll Shop.