A Melancholy Humour by DC Petterson, revised edition

DC Petterson and I go a way back. We've been in writers' groups together, and years ago, when I was still editor over at Lyrical Press, I had the pleasure of working on his first novel-length work, A Melancholy Humour. The wheel turns, and Mr Petterson's rights reverted to him, so when I started working through Crossroad Press, I was overjoyed to have him as one of the select authors with whom I still work.

I've edited two of his novels that occur in the same universe. Lupa Bella, though it was released second, is actually a kind of prequel to A Melancholy Humour. You don't need to read either in any specific order, because each stands on its own. Each tracks Petterson's envisioning of the Good Walkers and the Bad Walkers, the Italian legends of the Benandanti and the Malandanti. Flavoured with werewolves and Italian witches, these stories go to some truly dark places, and hark back to classic-era horror in the style of Stephen King.

And I'm not making the comparison lightly. Petterson is a deeply thought-provoking author whose world is dark, tactile and evocative of something wild that lurks beneath the skin. There's a lot more going on here than you'd expect from the average wolf shifter story.

This time we once again worked with the very talented Milan Colovic, who did the cover art for Lupa Bella initially. We feel he's totally in tune with our vision.

Without further ado, the back cover copy:
Monsters walk the streets of Chicago. So do werewolves. 

Violence swirls around a vulnerable street waif caught between sorcery and madness. Vicious murders on Chicago’s near north side pull Vincent Thiess out of retirement as a police profiler. He must untangle conflicting threads from the Church, the FBI, medieval folklore and his own tortured past. 

Behind the facade of an old Italian neighborhood, do werewolves really prowl? As Vincent struggles to separate reality from nightmare, ancient truths from modern deception, he must protect his family and solve the mystery of the young woman at the center of it all—and keep himself from falling desperately in love.

If this piques your interest, the feel free to add the book on Goodreads, or purchase at Amazon or Smashwords.

Heart Of Fire looks at life and death… and things that make us what we are by J Damask

Today I hand over my blog to the wonderful J Damask, author of the Jan Xu Adventures that I had the privilege of working with many years ago when I was still editing for Lyrical Press. This month, J Damask is celebrating the long-awaited continuation of her Jan Xu stories, Heart of Fire.

Heart Of Fire has had an exciting journey. Third book of the Jan Xu Adventures series, it was first accepted by Masque Books and then later by Fox Spirit Books. Its publishing journey is parallel to its gradual transformation from concept to story.  It has been a journey of ups and downs.

Writing the book took a lot from me. I explored issues that impacted my life: Buddhism, Chinese traditions and customs, and death. I wanted to explore the cycle of life and death as part of the story. It is an urban fantasy novel, but it also weaves in things that matter to us, to our hearts and identities as human beings. The songs that sing to us might just be universal in the end: love, family, trust and compassion.

In this third novel of the series, Jan is confronted with more trouble. She rescues a foreign wolf, setting off a series of events and incidents that affect her health, her family and her pack. Throw in the machinations of Chinese vampires and the Western drakes – and Jan has to fight for her life, literally.

The book starts with the celebration of the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, one of the festivals I love as a Chinese girl growing up in Singapore.  I have always enjoyed the eating, the feasting, the variety of food, and (when I was a little girl) the red packets filled with money. Now, since I am married, I have to give the red packets to children. There are families getting together to have the reunion dinner and share stories while they eat. My own memories consist of going to my grandparents’ and playing with my cousins. The same goes with Jan and her large pack-family. Family, in her case, is the bonding factor that keeps her going.

Life is then followed by the grim reality of death. Someone in Jan’s family suddenly dies and she grieves deeply. How does she deal with the pain of loss? This is where I weave in Buddhism. My father is Buddhist and I grew up listening to his chanting at nights.  The mantra I use in the novel is om mani padme hum, the “jewel in the lotus”.
But, of course, there will be action in the novel. The political and manipulative drakes begin to assert a stronger influence in the story. Familiar characters will also appear, causing no small amount of head ache for Jan and her pack, testing her leadership and straining the ties in her family.

Heart Of Fire can be purchased from:
Amazon UK, Amazon US, Spacewitch

Bio:
J. Damask (Joyce Chng) lives in Singapore. Heart Of Fire is the third book of the Jan Xu Adventures series. She blog at A Wolf’s Tale and tweets at @jolantru. 

Six of the Best with DC Petterson

I'm like a little kid about DC Petterson's writing. He ticks all the boxes for me: magic, mystery, creatures of the night, love... And wolves. Dave *gets* wolves. His novel, Lupa Bella, released on October 31 (very aptly, thank you very much) and today I've got him over for a little fireside chat, so to speak.

Author Rosemary Edghill has this to say about Lupa Bella, “Lupa Bella is a compelling secret history of a world that might be our own. DC Petterson blends pagan mysteries and very human evil to create a haunting tale of love, lore, and renunciation that will keep you turning pages in your race to the end. Petterson gets better with each book.  Keep an eye on this guy: he’s good, and he’ll surprise you.”

I agree with her, and I totally couldn't say it better. So, without further ado, over to Dave.

What makes your werewolves stand apart in your mind?

There are a few things that, I think, differentiate the wolves in my stories from wolves in other urban fantasies. One is the Benandanti ("Good Walkers"), a magical fraternity that we know existed in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. They claimed to be able to transform into wolves, and in that shape they helped protect their villages. They were tried as witches by the Inquisition. My wolves are remnants of the Benandanti. They have this connection to magic, as well as a long history of partnership with people.

Expanding on this idea, bear in mind that wolves were the first animals to form a tie of friendship to people, the first creatures humans domesticated and started intentionally to breed. In my stories, the wolves have been partners with humans for forty thousand years. I've combined this idea of wolves having been bred and genetically manipulated by humans with what we know about the Bendandanti to create the Good Walkers of my stories. I've brought in many other bits and pieces of historic werewolf lore as well—always tweaked for the universe I’m building.

My werewolves are not people who sometimes take the form of a wolf. They are wolves who can appear to be people.

Why Sicily? Can you tell us a little more about the choice in setting?

I have an ancestral tie to Sicily. My great-grandparents on my mother's side were born in the tiny village I've fictionalized in Lupa Bella. Sicily also has a long reputation for being independent of the mainland. It has a rich folklore of magic, even surviving to the present day. This allowed me to imagine a story about a place where some of the old ways have not decayed, a place that has stood apart from the tides of time and change.

Sicily is also a place of ancient vendettas and family feuds that last centuries. The possibilities for tales of intrigue and of loyalty and betrayal are endless.

Tell us more about the bond between Celeste and Dario.

Dario's family has lived on the slopes of Santo Stefano for many years, but they came originally from Tuscany, a region in the north of Italy, known for remembering wisps of gods so old they predate the Romans, and even the Greeks before them. Celeste is a wolf, who was fostered to Dario's mother when Celeste and Dario were both infants. They were raised as sister and brother, and all the villagers view them--and they see themselves--as fraternal twins.

In another novel, A Melancholy Humour, I used the word "legere" to describe the bond between a human and a wolf. That's an old Latin term for a tie or a knot, and it was used in medieval witchcraft to signify a love spell. I use that word to describe the bond between a human and a wolf, and I depict it as a link closer than the blood-ties within a family, stronger than romantic love, not quite a telepathic link but a touch of awareness that cannot be severed.

It it a link, however, that was purposely bred into wolves by their human masters. Some of them resent it.

Dario and Celeste are inseparable. It isn't sexual, and it isn't romantic. It is a love and respect deeper than any of that. This story has provided an opportunity to test the strength of their bond, and I intend in the future to push it still more, perhaps to its limits.

All stories have a spark. What was Lupa Bella's story seed?

Celeste is the grandmother of the wolf character in A Melancholy Humour. I want to tell the story of that family. As I sat down to write it Celeste’s tale, I realized her brother Dario had an expensive Italian motorcycle. Another character asked him where he'd gotten it, and he answered, "I did a service for someone. He said I could keep the Ducati." This forced me to look back toward their home town in Sicily, and to learn more about how Dario came to own the bike. It all turned out to be far more complex than he'd let on.

What was possibly the most difficult part of writing Lupa Bella? And why?

I tend to fall in love with my characters, even the slimy ones I really hate. I want all of them to feel real, and to be complex and layered. To present them as something other than cutouts, I try to spend a lot of time in their heads, getting to know them. This means I have a deep emotional investment in each and every one, even the minor characters who appear only once. (I really like Clio and Eliana, for instance, and I wish I'd had the space to do more with them.)

Lupa Bella includes some deaths. I tend to agonize over those scenes, writing and rewriting them with enough care to get the emotional nuances proper to the character. They are pretty real deaths to me, the end of the lives of people I've come to know. I keenly feel the loss, and I want to let the reader feel that, too.

I struggled with the death scenes in Lupa Bella. One in particular really broke my heart, but it was necessary for the story. I still tear up whenever I re-read it.

Does this world of yours stretch to other cosmologies? I can almost imagine this encompassing North American myths and legends too. In any case, what lies ahead for your wolves?

Humans have domesticated wolves everywhere on the planet--every single place where there are both wolves and humans--not just all over Europe, but also in the Americas, in Asia, in Africa, and in Australia. Everywhere there are domesticated wolves (we tend today to call them "dogs") there also are stories both of the ties between people and canines, and of creatures who freely and frequently step over the line between the two. There is a world full of magical wolf-lore from which to draw. There are differences, yes, and story possibilities can be found there as well, but the underlying ideas, worldwide, are startlingly similar.

Following Lupa Bella, these particular characters are likely to confront the onrush of history about to flood America. I chose the year 1962 for this story with some care. Magic has been fading, but it is not dead, and it is destined to return. I want to tell those stories in the context of a rapidly-changing society, embracing both the horrors and the promise of the new world.

LINKAGE
Now go forth and make me the most amazingly happy author ever by buying this book at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Nook or Kobo, or just go add the damn thing on Goodreads and stalk Dave on Twitter @dcpetterson

Across the Line with Amy Lee Burgess

Some of you will have heard that Amy Lee Burgess and I will be riding again since I've picked up her The Wolf Within series again with book #7, One Step Ahead. But she's recently celebrated the release of book #6, Across the Line, which is hitting the mark with readers all over (well, of course, they could have asked me and I'd have told the exactly how awesome Stanzie is).

I had to have Amy over, of course, since I had a couple of questions I thought I'd throw at her. 

So, Amy , for the sake of readers who've never heard about you and The Wolf Within series, if you have to sum it up to this point, what do you tell them?

Stanzie Newcastle is a wolf shifter who works as an Advisor for one of the most influential men on the Pack’s Great Council, Jason Allerton. She’s bonded to an Irish shifter named Liam Murphy and it is the second bonding for them both. They lost their first bondmates – victims of the conspiracy within the Great Pack. Factions within the Council are debating (sometimes fighting by resorting to murder) whether or not to reveal the Great Pack to the Others – non-shifters.  Along her journey throughout the series, Stanzie’s made friends and enemies on both sides of the conspiracy and she is confused about which side is right. All she knows is that murder is always wrong and so in her capacity as an Advisor, she fights to prevent more deaths and punish those who cross that line.

Also, the series is one long love story – Stanzie’s and Liam’s.

What's your favourite thing about Stanzie now that she's come into her own?

I love her wolf. At the beginning of the series, her wolf was like a child – different than the other shifters’ wolves.  Yet, Stanzie had a connection with her that most shifters don’t with their wolves. Her wolf’s journey has been as dramatic and satisfying as Stanzie’s.

You recently visited a wolf sanctuary with some friends. Was this the first time you met real wolves? What do you love about wolves? And did anything the wolves do surprise you?

I went here...l

I was lucky enough to be able to interact with both wolves and wolf-dogs.  One of things that struck me right away was their wonderful intelligence and curiosity. They are not like dogs at all – even the wolf-dogs.  Yet they are so friendly and trusting. Some of them were shy, but they were one and all curious and watched everything we did intently.  The first thing that happened to me when I walked into Sasha and Pax’s enclosure was that Sasha (a gorgeous wolf-dog, more wolf than dog) immediately singled me out from everyone who walked in and jumped up to put her big front paws on my shoulders and kissed me. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought she’d take time to assess me, but she seemed to know me right away.  Each time I went into her enclosure that weekend, she came right up to me and kissed me.

Isabeau – a gorgeous pure wolf – represented Stanzie’s wolf to me. One of the friends I was with has known Isabeau since she was very young and is a fan of The Wolf Within series.  All the ride to the sanctuary she told me how Isabeau reminded her of Stanzie’s wolf – wild, unfettered and joyful and how when I met her she would race around and half knock me over and be exuberant just as Stanzie’s wolf behaves.  Inwardly I was laughing because at that point this friend had not read the latest book in the series where Stanzie’s wolf undergoes something of a shift and while still joyous and free, she is no longer quite so wild and unfettered.

So before they let Isabeau out to greet us, my two friends and I sat on a bench and braced ourselves for the rush.  The gate opened and…Isabeau strolled out, alert, ears up, tail high and was a perfectly behaved, joyful young wolf. Only after she inspected her surroundings did she turn her attention to us on the bench. Then she came to me, placed her paws on my shoulders and kissed me.  She moved down the bench bestowing kisses and then came back and jumped on my lap. Ever have a big wolf on your lap? Not at all like when my dachshunds do the same thing!  She kissed me and then rubbed her face against mine – wolves do that to scent mark members of their pack.  She moved on and did the same ritual with my two friends.  It was one of the most powerful and profound moments of my life.  We were a pack! And I thought, wow, Isabeau IS Stanzie’s wolf.  She’s grown and changed too!

Another thing that surprised me that shouldn’t have - how deeply wolves care for each other.  Siggy, a stunning wolf-collie mix, had recently lost his packmate and he was bereft without her. Always one of the friendliest, most approachable wolves in at the sanctuary, without his pack mate he was dejected and so sad. He crouched in a corner with his head down and then later, began to howl mournfully.  My heart ached so much for him.

One of my friends sponsors two wolves and one of them had passed away over the winter.  We held a memorial service for him on the grounds and while she was talking about this wolf and sending his spirit to roam, Siggy began to howl and then, one by one, all the other wolves joined in and I stood there crying, tears running down my cheeks. I’m choking up just writing this.

Without giving spoilers, what can readers expect from Across the Line?

An exploration of pack politics and the differences between bigger packs and small ones. The injustices each side suffers.  Star-crossed lovers and how the choices they make or have made affect the rest of their lives. And Stanzie’s caught in the middle of all of it – as usual – trying to balance.

Many of the characters in this story are not what they seem and Stanzie uncovers their secrets and their true natures and many times realizes that someone she dislikes is really someone she could be friends with. Or the reverse.

And I hear you've recently made your next sale, this time with vampires. Can you tell us more about this story?

I’m so excited about my vampires!

The novel centers around Claire, a vampire who has been Turned three years. She possesses psychic talents that the other vampires in her Circle do not. She can read minds – both mortal and immortal and influence people to do things against their will.  Such gifts are not given without a price and hers is that unless she bonds with one of the other vampires in the Circle who can provide her with a psychic buffer and support, she will eventually be driven mad by her own powers.

The catch is that Claire has to love this other vampire and she comes from an abusive past and consequently suffers from low self-esteem and lack of trust.

Her journey with Andre, her trigger, the man she must bond with, is difficult, joyous, terrifying and soul-shaking – not necessarily in that order.

Go check out Amy's blog or follow her on Twitter @amyleeburgess
Find her on Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, or her series at Lyrical Press

But do go check out Across the Line.