As a writer I like to explore many genres, and one of my favorites is young adult supernatural. I think I was destined to write in this world because the first book I took out of the library was Where the Wild Things Are. My favorite books as a teenager all dealt with supernatural themes – Summer of Fear, Carrie, and Audrey Rose. Writing about changelings allows me to explore the tenuous connection between what lies inside of us – our psyche, our minds, our souls – and what might exist on the other side of our known world. It’s the search for that missing link that keeps me writing.
I love when fantasy meets reality and that’s just what happens in Linger. A virus turns people into werewolves and the transformations are controlled by the temperature. A worldwide virus and an unpredictable climate? Talk about a dose of reality. Grace Brisbane is an anomaly – she was bitten by werewolves when she was young, but somehow has never shifted and as a result she’s dying. The book follows Grace as she and her friends try to save her life. It’s a fantastical story, but grounded in real human emotions. The perfect blend of truth and fiction.
The LongingOnce Grace and Sam have found each other they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace it means facing a future that is less and less certain.The LossInto their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being human. The LingerFor Grace, Sam and Cole life is a constant struggle between two forces - wolf and human - with love baring its…
I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons. I’m always on the hunt for not just good but great stories. One of the most profound things I have done revolving around fantasy writing was walk the same streets as the legends walked. Oxford, UK is a magical location and the place where Narnia and The Hobbits were born. I visited CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien gravesites. I visited their homes where they wrote their works. Adventure is around every corner in life. If we choose it. Here is a dwarven proverb from my book series, “May your light shine bright and blind your enemies.”
Being a huge Chronicles of Narnia fan, I was taken in by Leah’s storytelling.
This is a middle-grade novel but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it brought me back to the time I read Narnia. Fighting evil, perseverance, overcoming trials, battling the darkness, and maintaining the hero’s resolve. This is what attracted me to this book. It’s a keeper and looking forward to the next adventure.
Peter and Isabella Toth thought they were like any ordinary fourteen or twelve-year-old living in Garavelle, until they encounter Light Snatchers in the woods, and their world is flipped upside down. Imagine their surprise learning they are from another realm, the Land of Light, and are being hunted by the Dark Lord Gog who cursed their homeland long ago.
Together, this brother and sister, along with their friend Sarah, are forced into a perilous journey where a destiny calls them to return the light back to their kingdom. They must discover courage…
Back in the mid-80s, at the tender age of 19, I dropped out of college, and with $800 of hard-earned cash and my bicycle, booked a one-way ticket to Europe. This would be the first chapter of a life of adventure and self-discovery. Through my experiences, I have gained a deeper understanding of the fundamental human qualities which transcend cultural boundaries—in short, the human condition. And what better way to explore the rich and varied tapestry of our collective humanity than through the stories we tell? I hope you enjoy my (far too abbreviated!) eclectic list of books.
As a young girl, most afternoons you could find me up a tree, book in hand. My favorite stories all had a common theme: animals. I felt a stronger connection to the animal world than to my own species. When I first read Julie of the Wolves at the age of 8, I was far too young to understand all the social implications of being a barely pubescent orphaned girl forced into a child marriage, but I resonated with the overwhelming desire to escape the confusion and pressures of human relationships. How I longed to be Julie, living among the wolves!
The thrilling Newbery Medal–winning classic about a girl lost on the Alaskan tundra and how she survives with the help of a wolf pack.
Julie of the Wolves is a staple in the canon of children’s literature and the first in the Julie trilogy. The survival theme makes it a good pick for readers of wilderness adventures such as My Side of the Mountain, Hatchet, or Island of the Blue Dolphins.
This edition, perfect for classroom or home use, includes John Schoenherr’s original scratchboard illustrations throughout, as well as bonus materials such as an introduction written by Jean Craighead George’s…
As an avid outdoors person and nature-lover, I found this gripping tale of Yellowstone wolves to be informative, inspiring, and sad all at the same time.
The book combines fascinating biology about wolves and ecosystems with stories about the scientists and volunteers who work to protect them. I found myself empathizing with individual wolves almost like people; each has such a distinct personality.
There’s a palpable tension throughout the book due to hunters’ guns bristling outside of Yellowstone’s protective borders. Ultimately, that begets tragedy.
The wolf stands at the forefront of the debate about our impact on the natural world. In one of the most celebrated successes of modern conservation, it has been reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.
What unfolds is a riveting multi-generational saga, at the centre of which is O-Six, a charismatic alpha female beloved by park rangers and amateur spotters alike. As elk numbers decline and the wolf population rises, those committed to restoring an iconic landscape clash with those fighting for a vanishing way of life; hunters stalk the park fringes and O-Six's…
I’ve always been somewhat of an idiot optimist coming up with new and frivolous ideas. Yet, despite trying to inject my last three books with humour representative of myself, I feel a certain sense of seriousness in them. The fantasy genre has helped me shirk that feeling, allowing me to write uninhibited by regular boundaries. Without becoming captivated by George R.R. Martin and Terry Pratchett, I’d probably still be stuck trying to carve out a place in literary fiction—how serious. Fantasy works better for me—I like to make things up, and I like light-hearted books.
You either already know Jon Dever and are excited by my mentioning of him or you’re completely unfamiliar with his work.
Jon Dever is the pioneer of choose-your-own-adventure books and Lone Wolf is his flagship series. Mydnight Hero is a stand-alone sequel to the Lone Wolf series and is a great choice for anyone who doesn’t want to commit to a fantasy series. What’s special about Lone Wolf is that it makes the reader the main character of the story, allowing them to make decisions that impact the story—it even has a playable combat system.
This is a picture book that crosses all age gaps. The protagonist is a blind boy, and although this is depicted, it is never mentioned. The pages contain, as well as great pictures, cutouts, tactile patches, and shapes, and there is braille on the cover.
I love this book not just for the quality of its production and content but for the fact that it is so suitable for reading to blind children who can gain extra insights by touch. The ending, where the pages of the book are flicked and ruffled and the resulting ‘wind’ can be felt on the face, is a master touch.
A blind child questions all he encounters----a dog, wolf, elephant, mountain, bird, stream, and tree----about the color of the wind. Each responds differently, with a shape, color, smell, texture, or idea. Each page displays a visual and tactile palette of cutouts, textures, colors. It is a sensory experience that makes the invisible experiential, ending with the wind as the pages fly. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Anne Herbauts expresses an original world in each of her books. Awake to the richness of the world, endlessly curious, and rigorous in her work, Anne has written and…
Since I brought home my first rescue thirty years ago, my life has been full of dogs and dog-related activities that I can hardly imagine the person I would've been without them. My own books often feature one or more dogs, not because I particularly decide to write about dogs, but more because I live with dogs, it’s what I know. When I’m browsing for a good read, if a book features a dog, that’s a draw for me, just because dogs are dogs; they are such good creatures, so infinitely lovable, that their presence enhances a book for me just as their presence in my life enhances my every day.
This is an old book, in the tradition made so popular by Jack London. There were a number of these ‘proud, free dog of the North’ type of books published, and they are all great reads, yet this one is in my opinion the finest of them. It never descends into mawkish sentiment, but tells Kazan’s story from his own viewpoint; there is little of the human world, and we get a glimpse of just how alien a wild animal is, how different from our own, more domestic companions.
A tremendously exciting read, with not a dull page in it.
This carefully crafted ebook: "Kazan, the Wolf Dog" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Excerpt: "Kazan lay mute and motionless, his gray nose between his forepaws, his eyes half closed. A rock could have appeared scarcely less lifeless than he; not a muscle twitched; not a hair moved; not an eyelid quivered. Yet every drop of the wild blood in his splendid body was racing in a ferment of excitement that Kazan had never before experienced; every nerve and fiber of his wonderful muscles was tense as steel wire..." James Oliver Curwood was…
I’m a former independent publisher and current writer of memoir and fiction. My degree was in zoology (animal biology), which got me my first job in educational publishing. After a solid career in textbooks, I switched over to trade publishing and finally writing. I may have left the "hard science" behind, but I continue to be fascinated by human and animal behavior, which shows up in my reading and writing.
The animal is a wild pack of gray wolves. Also a dog. The human is a capable and complex fifty-year-old divorcee who is determined not to let politics defeat the wilderness in her state of Maine. A vibrant and educational novel. Though I live in Maine part-time, I’m an indoorsy type. Author Neily is an outdoorsy type, and she proves it with her plots, settings, and characters.
Winner: Mystery Writers of America McCloy Award. National finalist: Women’s Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” contest.
Cassandra Patton Conover is about to become an outlaw. Searching for her wayward dog in Maine’s dense woods, she finds her best friend Shannon crushed under a tree. Then she finds tracks larger than any animal she knows and a mystery only wild animals can help her solve.
Before she can absorb the loss of her friend, Patton is hired to guide a surly reporter who suspects extinct wolves have returned to Maine, but the forest has too many agendas. A billionaire hopes wolves…
I've been captivated with legends of witches, vampires, faeries, fae, and most magical beings since childhood. Studied and wrote about them with a mysterious twist most of my life. I spent eighteen years as a paralegal in a criminal law firm. Also animal and wildlife rescue is my passion. Working with sanctuaries gives you an up close and personal understanding of why these institutions are necessary. The first book in my second series, A Witch’s Journey, documents a witch who is passionate about animal rescue, and her efforts to build a sanctuary on her family’s enchanted land with the help of her family, friends, and a former Navy SEAL.
I love paranormal stories about, vampires, werewolves, faeries, you name it, if it’s done well I’ll read it.
Molly Harper tells them well and interjects them with snarky humor. You will laugh out loud at times. Her characters are wonderful and her descriptions of places, characters, and situations will make you feel like you are there.
Even in Grundy, Alaska, it’s unusual to find a naked guy with a bear trap clamped to his ankle on your porch. But when said guy turns into a wolf, recent southern transplant Mo Wenstein has no difficulty identifying the problem. Her surly neighbor Cooper Graham—who has been openly critical of Mo’s ability to adapt to life in Alaska—has trouble of his own. Werewolf trouble.
For Cooper, an Alpha in self-imposed exile from his dysfunctional pack, it’s love at first sniff when it comes to Mo. But Cooper has an even more pressing concern on his mind. Several…
I’m a feel-good romance author from Scotland, published with the HarperCollins imprint One More Chapter.
I trained as a journalist and studied Communication and Media, but I always wanted to write romance novels. When I’m not doing that, I write verses and captions for greeting card companies.
I’m also a huge music fan, which gave me the idea for my first published novel with One More Chapter, A Secret Scottish Escape.
This is definitely one of my all-time favourite romances.
I read it years ago, and the hero, Jack Wolfe, left a lasting impression on me. Flawed, passionate, complex, ambitious, and gorgeous, I crushed after Jack and still do! He sprung to life from the page.
Ellie Somerset's high-flying job as an advertising copywriter is hard work, but she's got it under control. Her sexy, devil-may-care new boss, on the other hand? She'll try her best...A perfect romantic comedy for fans of Holly Martin and Cathy Bramley.
Ellie Somerset loves her career-obsessed boyfriend Sam and she loves her job as an advertising copywriter. But Sam is always at work and her fresh ideas keep being overlooked. Her life gets more complicated when new boss Jack Wolfe - Heathcliff in jeans - arrives at the agency. With his brooding good looks, trademark scowl and plans for change,…
