J Damask and her wolves of Singapore #wolves

J Damask is one of the authors of whom I have very fond memories of my time editing at Lyrical Press.  Miss Damask has since gone on to carve a wonder-filled career writing about her wolf shifters of Singapore. She recently celebrated the release of Heart of Fire, the third in her series of adventures of Jan Xu. But today I'm handing over to her as she talks about getting her debut title, Wolf at the Door, into print. And I'm sure you'll agree that the cover art is absolutely stunning. 

What made her writing stand out from the others in the slush pile? Beautiful story-telling and a wonderfully realised non-Western setting written in an authentic Asian voice. J Damask makes me believe in fairy tales again.


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The journey has been long, complicated and at times, frustrating. But Wolf At The Door is finally out in paperback form. At the moment, I am still marvelling at how things have turned out and damn it, I have a print book.

Nerine who edited Wolf and encouraged me a lot has given me the opportunity to talk about... well… the book. What should I talk about? That it’s about wolves in Singapore. Chinese wolves in the form of humans, mingling with the human population. It had been a personal challenge to write about Chinese wolves and I was deeply satisfied to see my dream took form and become real. I wanted to see something different from the US/white/European shifter types – I wanted to see something I could easily resonate with. I wanted to see a heroine that didn’t fit the current UF/paranormal trend: a mother with children, Chinese, and – yes – a wolf. Not a werewolf, but a four-pawed wolf.

Wolf was first released as an ebook under Lyrical Press.  Then came the decision for me to look for a print publisher. I tried looking up on local Singaporean printers and they were all expensive. I plucked up enough courage and approached Gayla Drummond, publisher of Katarr Kanticles Press. I was ecstatic when she said ‘Yes!’.

Then came the hard work of re-formatting the novel and finding a cover artist to create a new cover. Help arrived in the form of Sarah Coldheart who did the lay out and Nathalia Suellen who did the breathtakingly gorgeous cover. Insert a series of to-and-froing with page proofs and stuff… and we were good to go.

So, Wolf was a result of the concerted efforts from my heroes: Nerine (who edited and made Wolf into a lean mean story), Sarah (who did the formatting and lay out), Nathalia (who is an immensely gifted artist and who did the cover) and Gayla (who gave Wolf a home). Many grateful thank yous, my ladies!

Now, get your hands, claws and talons on the book!

Createspace

Amazon

Jan Xu and the Myriad have their own Facebook page
J. Damask (aka Joyce Chng) can also be found at Twitter (@jolantru) and at her blog (A Wolf’s Tale)