Progress Report

After a discussion with my publisher and my publicist earlier in the week I’ve been focusing on getting the next installment of The Wolfcat Chronicles ready for submission. I’ve already completed revisions of the first three books of the series, so I’m working on book four of ten.

It appears Becoming Thuperman may be released after the first one or two of the Wolfcat books. The Wolfcat Chronicles are related to Fried Windows in several ways, though most of the linkage comes later on in the series. As you may recall, Wolfcats are mentioned in Fried Windows.

Another point of discussion, which I alluded to in an earlier blog post, is that I will be marketing my books under my first name alone. It seems natural enough, as I am an only Elgon, right?

With today’s revisions I have completed about 90 pages of book 4 in The Wolfcat Chronicles. I have dissected some of the longer chapters and rearranged other chapters for the sake of flow. I haven’t changed the plot, just the pacing. I think it works better. Book Four had the fewest number of chapters of any of the books. I figure once I have completed the revision it will have around 30 chapters which seems to be around the norm for the series. That is not to say I am targeting thirty chapters, just the way the pacing has been working out for the plots of each individual book. As a writer you tend to let the story tell itself in draft and then add in the details and removes the unnecessary pieces in revisions. My chapters seem to flow better in the 2000 to 2500 word range. However, if a chapter needs to be longer or shorter that’s fine. It’s just that I write with a goal of falling into that range.

For those who have not read any of the pre-view material regarding the wolf cat series, here is a summary of sorts.

The Wolfcat Chronicles is a story about magic and illusionist in the trouble world of Anter’x, a planet with three suns and three moons. Wolfcats are an honored minority belonging to a wolf pack. The wolves, cats and wolf cats of Anter’x are the result of genetic splicing conducted on species extracted from primitive Ea (Earth). All have humanoid attributes, like opposing thumbs and the ability to walk erect, at least for short distances. Wolfcats are magical having abilities beyond normal wolves or cats. One of their gifts is the potential to transform into a cat, wolf or human, though this is a trait rarely demonstrated.

The Wolfcat Chronicles begins in Mt. Belkul, near the Great Forest of Dammerwald in the northern regions of the world. There a pair of second season wolf cat pups, Ela’na and Rotor, are first introduced along with a variety of other characters whop have supporting roles and bearing not he story. The first two books are mainly about the succession of the Alpha Male and the Wolfcat, the latter is what the Alpha Female is called. Although there are both make and female wolfcats, females predominate.

Behind the story of Ela’na and Rotor we learn a great deal about the pack, its government and history, establishing points for the major conflicts that come later on in the series. We also learn of a poem written in the archaic form of wolfspeak that most wolves belief is a prophecy foretelling the end of the wolf pack. References in the poem to a white male wolfcat that mates with a dark female leads many to suggest that The Prophecy is about Rotor and Ela’na. Yet the young pups have grown up together, depending on one another as both their mothers died giving birth and they have been raised by their fathers and several relatives.

As the series unfolds the Pack is drawn into conflict with an ancient enemy and an inevitable battle between the major armies of the world, yet aft the conclusion of the battle many things are left unsettled. The resolution awaits the return of wolfcats to a world where they are assumed extinct. Their roles in the final acts of the world’s conflict challenge the immortals to reshape and redefine the universe.

I started writing The Wolfcat Chronicles when I was in high school. Later on in college I drafted a manuscript titled Tarot that contains bits of the overall plot. As part of a writing project in college I developed a character that is a wolfcat, though I did not call it that until much later.  So, in a sense I have been working on these books for most of my life although the present draft of the story began to emerge in the summer of 2000 and evolved over the next five years into ten books.

It is possible there may be other books added to the series, detailing tangential parts of the story. We’ll see.  There are other books related to the series having some of the same characters. One Over X, The Power of X and The Attributes share some of the characters. There are also a series of books about Brent Woods, the main character in Fried Windows. Brent interacts with many of the characters from the pother series.

#TheWolfcatChronicles #Ela’na #Rotor #Elgon #writing #revising