Doug and Mac

Just a reminder:  The writing samples are unedited.  Don’t judge!  *bats eyelashes*

So here it is.  The beginning of Doug and Mac’s story.  

Just the beginning, mind you.  

I am not sure what to call it at this point.  

 

Dougall McCalleum stopped, closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.  He ignored the people bumping into him in the crowded market and took a moment to savour the scent of the woman he’d come to think of as his.  Doug is the Master at Arms of the Four Claw Wolf Pack.  His mother was a Wolf, a fourth generation member of the pack, who was in love a demon.  The union produced the unique combination of humour and temper that is the slim, wiry café au lait coloured beast.

The object of his affection was McKenna Amberson, artiste extraordinaire.  She was a tall redhead with a porcelain complexion and elfin feature that made him look do a double-take the first time he saw her.  The connection was instant and he knew she knew it.  For her part, McKenna didn’t want to acknowledge it.  After everything she’d been through – molestation when she was but ten years old, a mugging and an attack by a Tiger – she had no room in her life for flirting or for men. 

It just made Doug work that much harder.

Doug, who was in the marketplace with Anna, Marcus and two others, touched Marcus’s sleeve and gestured slightly at McKenna before he slipped away.  He paused a few booths away to admire her wares.  She drew fantasy figures – fairies, dragons, wizards, even including ones humans only thought were fantasy.  She had mugs, prints in frames and calendars but her biggest seller was the line of clothing.  She had socks with baby dragons on the sides, t-shirts and hoodies with her work silk screened on the front.

What made him like her most was the line of pink clothing.  She sold long and short-sleeved t-shirts, hoodies and even aprons all with strong women drawn on the front – warrior princesses, vampires, fairies calling on magic – for Breast Cancer Awareness.  Each item of clothing had the pink ribbon displayed discretely on it.  People came from all over to buy her work because she refused to set up a website people could order from.  It was merely a single page with her location, some pictures of her work and a weekly schedule. 

“Why?” he’d asked her once.

“I’m an artist, not a factory,” she replied.  For once she was looking thoughtful.  “I create each piece myself.  I conceive of the theme for the image, then sketch it out and decide on the medium for the original work.  Yes I have someone else do the prints, calendars and most of the clothing but for the Pink things,” she always capitalized the P when she talked about it, “I silk screen each piece myself.  It makes it more personal and, I think, more meaningful for the women who wear it.”

When Doug had smiled at her and told her he admired her she had blushed then scowled at him and told him to piss off.  He’d only come back the next day with a cup of tea for her.

Today he stopped at a small patisserie and bought her a chocolate croissant and a cup of wild blueberry tea with a hint of honey.  He sauntered towards her with his hands behind his back and watched as she lifted her head, nostrils flaring.  He could smell ink and knew that today she was doing the silk screening on sight.  Those days were scheduled so customers could come and get autographs on the work they chose.

“Hello, my love,” Doug said with a smile.

McKenna lifted an ink stained hand and pointed at him.  “I’ve told you not to call me that.  What have you got behind your back?”  She told herself that it hadn’t been his scent, the one that made her think mine!, but the smell of the tea and food he carried that had her nostrils flaring as he approached.

Doug displayed his prizes with a flourish.  “I thought you might be hungry, Mac.  I’ll wager you didn’t eat breakfast this morning.”  He held the croissant up.

Mac snatched up a rag and gave her hands a swipe before almost lunging at the food.  She devoured the croissant in three bites, taking the first one from Doug’s fingers.  She had grabbed his wrist and chomped down before taking it from him.  It was something that was happening more and more, her eating from his fingers, and she wasn’t really aware of it. 

Doug smiled as he watched her eat then handed her the tea.  “How has your week been, a ghraidh?”

She paused in the act of lifting the fragrant tea to her mouth and pointed at him.  “It doesn’t matter what language you do it in, do not call me ‘my love.’”

“Then come out for dinner with me.” He leaned towards her, pheromones rising to flood the space between them.

Mac unwittingly took a deep breath and drew in the scents.  The pheromones triggered a primitive response in her brain even as her body tightened and suddenly craved his touch.  The need was so great she swayed toward him before she caught herself.  She closed her eyes and sighed.  Then she capitulated.  “Fine.  Tonight.”

Doug thought about the dinner Anna was preparing.  He thought about inviting Mac to it but he knew she wasn’t ready.  “My Alpha’s Mate is making dinner for the pack.  I don’t know if I can…” he trailed off.  Then he made a decision.  “I can skip it this time. I… She will understand.  Where shall we go?”

Mac was taken aback by the question.  “I don’t know. We could have dinner and a walk here in the marketplace.”

“That’s a lovely idea but I want better than that for you.”  Doug thought for a moment.  “What about Indian?” 

She nodded slowly.  “I treated myself to Mother India once.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I can see why it’s in the top three of the best restaurants in Glasgow.” 

Doug smiled.  He loved Indian food as a date meal.  You ate it with your fingers and could be incredibly sensual.  He also happened to have an in with the people at that restaurant – they were cousins to his mother. “Mother India it is.  I will pick you up at seven.”  He darted off before she could answer him.

Sometimes, there are things in my writing that pop up that please me and amaze me, like this one:

He wiped the drool from his brain and lifted his eyes to hers after a long slow look that swept her from head to toe and back again.  “You look stunning,” he said.

Mac blushed, unused to such compliments.  Well, she was unused to compliments that were simply that – a genuine appreciation of her without anything behind it.  “I… I don’t have any makeup on or jewelry…” she trailed off.

“You don’t need any, Mac.  You are a beautiful woman whether you are ink stained and dressed in paint splattered clothing or dressed as you are now.”  His voice dropped, becoming low and husky.  “I bet you are incredibly gorgeous when you are nude too.”

Doug is a wonderful man.  Not without his faults but he is wonderful.  And Mac is his.  He knows it, she knows it.  She just won’t admit it.  Yet.  The story was supposed to take place between book one and book two but I think it’s going to span the entire timeline a little.  However, it won’t take long to convince Anna and Liam of their connection so maybe not a lot of hemming and hawing.

Now… What should the title be?

Catherine Bowman

Good morning!  

I finished this profile for the website on Monday and I thought I would share it with you.

Yep, it’s me.  

I did it in the same style as the others because I liked the continuity but mostly because it amuses me.  hehehe  I do like it though.  I knew I needed to write one but since I dislike writing about myself – I’d much rather write about the fictional characters – I had no idea how to go about it. 

Then it hit me.  ”Do it like the others!”  ”It’ll be fun,” my brain said. “People will enjoy it,” my brain said.   And you know, for once I think the brain has it.  I had fun writing it and my best two beta readers (The Boyfriend and Val) had fun reading it.

By the way, did you enjoy meeting my new Facebook admin?  Lovely lady.

So, here is the profile and it’s the last one!  Yesterday I sent everything over to my brother and the website will be up and running soon!

Have a great day everyone!  Muah.

Oh, by the way, if you have another word for ‘positivity’ (that works) please let me know.

Catherine Bowman

 

Age: 39

Height: 5’8

Weight:  None of your business!

Appearance: 

            Human:  Catherine is a vivacious, voluptuous woman.  Multi-coloured hair – chestnut, copper and silver – cascades a few inches past her shoulder and frames a friendly face.  Sensual lips are almost always curved in a smile while tri-coloured eyes (copper, green and blue) view the world with amused patience.  She is long of limb, generous in breast and hip and exudes an attitude rife with charming irreverence, positivity and affection for the people she calls family.

  She has a tribal tattoo of a wolf’s head with the words “The Fallen: Gone but not forgotten” on her left forearm along with a bear paw surrounded by flames and chicken footprints.  The first tattoo is to commemorate the losses suffered while writing her books.  The second is in honour of her children Bear and Chicken. 

Note: It is no coincidence that Anna looks like me, or that Marcus looks like C did and Chelle looks like G did, et cetera, et cetera.  My characters are based on my friends and I, though by no means wholly accurate, because the original story was about (a fantasy version of)  us.

            Wolf:   On the large side, with midnight black fur that is sprinkled in silver.  Pale blue eyes.  

Just kidding. 

Background:  Catherine was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to parents who later divorced.  She developed a love of the written word very early, learning to read before she was four years old.  When she was about ten a teacher assigned her a short story project and the resulting comments made her realize she wanted to tell stories. 

Catherine told many stories, most verbal, until she was fifteen when she met John, a boy who quickly became her boyfriend.  He introduced her to sex and encouraged her to write out the fantasies she had about what she wanted him to do to her.  The stories were sappy, romantic and very, very teenage-girl.  She learned what not to do and what to do from the stories she wrote and the erotic magazines and books she devoured.  Catherine loved her writing being responsible for a person’s arousal and made a concentrated effort to write better.

Eventually, the short stories weren’t enough and she tried a novel, Welcome to Valhalla, about a Valkyrie community that took tributes of human males from nearby villages.  It wasn’t great so she went back to refining her craft with short stories.  Eventually, she met the group of friends on whom the Highland Wolves characters are based.  Highland Wolves came about when two of those friends died and she wanted to pay tribute to them, keep them alive in a small way.  She began a short story simply titled “Highland Wolves”.  Her every intention was to keep it below 10,000 words, to have it be no more than a novella, if it got that far.  Liam, Anna, Marcus and Chelle had different ideas though.  She fell in love with them and the story they insisted on telling and now that short story is a four book series!  And the four fictional people are considering pushing it into book five.  Catherine is resisting but will see what happens.

Meanwhile, life went on outside her imagination.  She was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia shortly after her son was born and had to learn to adapt to the cascading failures of her body.  Through the years she has also been diagnosed with half a dozen other chronic disorders that almost all center around her spine and central nervous system.  She’s been married, gave her son a sister and divorced.  She lived in the States for two years and returned to her beloved Ontario determined not to live anywhere else.  A trip to Scotland is in the works so she can finally experience firsthand the magic and history that is the Highlands.

Currently, Catherine has a wonderful, awesome Boyfriend who encourages her imagination and makes sure she looks after herself.  Her kids are now teenagers and are intelligent, positive, empathic, compassionate and gorgeous.  She has wonderful friends and beta readers.  She counts her blessings often and shows her gratitude for everything she has.

Weaknesses:  Catherine sees the good in everyone and often is blind to the bad.  She gives everyone more second chances than they deserve.  Her health is her biggest weakness as it saps her ability to concentrate, her memory and her strength.

Strengths:  Catherine is a very positive person and tends to infect those around her with the same attitude.  Her imagination is vivid and enables her to see both sides of any situation which makes her a good mediator and good at finding solutions to most problems.  She has great determination and a very strong will.

Abilities:  Catherine does a lot of energy work, healing and the like, and is capable of astral travel. 

Dougall McCaleum

Dougall McCaleum

Age:  40

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 180

Pack Status: Master at Arms

Supernatural Status:  Liam’s second enforcer

Appearance:

            Human:  Doug is a human bean pole.  He is tall and skinny.  That slimness hides incredible strength.  He has soft, curly dark brown hair most women want to run their fingers through even though it’s always carefully arranged so the humidity doesn’t make it poof out into a clown wig.  He has chocolate brown eyes – dark chocolate at the iris that fades out to creamy milk chocolate at the edges – that are often filled with humour.  He has smooth cafe au lait skin that is marred by a few scars on his torso.  Long fingers are capable of caressing and pleasing or of great harm.  Soft but wiry hair is sprinkled across his chest and belly.

            Wolf:  His Wolf is larger than it should be, coming in at around 200 pounds, in big part because of his heritage.  He has milk chocolate fur and black eyes. 

*Never used his demon form

Background:  Doug was raised by a single parent.  His mother had been raped by a Demon walking around in human guise.  This Demon is a general in the Seventh Circle and was capable of hiding his scent well enough to get close to her.  There was a prophecy in hell that a Demon-Wolf would rule the Supernatural world and this general, it was decided, would be the one to begat just such a child. 

After much research, the Four Claw pack had been chosen to be the keepers of this Demon’s offspring and that Doug’s mother should be the one to raise him. 

Dougall was never blamed by his mother.  She did not believe that he was responsible for his creation or his birth.  So he was raised with love and much affection.  He was also raised to be able to strong, to be able to be the one to take control in a fight.  He was taught about weapons; blades, guns, anything that can be thrown or swung, he knew it all.  He knew their histories, their present technologies, their potential uses and their weaknesses.  And he knew how to use each and every one of them. 

He grew up with Liam, Marcus and then Michelle.  All four of them were a tight-knit group.

Weaknesses:  His Demon self is under-developed.  Other than that, his apparent lack of weaknesses leaves him unbalanced. 

Strengths:  His knowledge of weapons.  His humour. 

Abilities:  He is a shifter.  He has an innate knowledge of people – he can see who is Light and who is Dark.  He can sense where enemies are.

Marcus Cariston

Marcus Cariston

Age:  42

Height: 6’3”

Weight:  280

Pack  Status:  Beta

Supernatural Status:  Beta of the Four Claw Pack.  Right hand of the Alpha of Alphas, enforcer of his will.

Appearance:  

            Human:   Marcus is built a lot like Liam – big, broad-shouldered, big hands, big feet.  He towers over most humans and a large number of Wolves, standing at 6’3”.  His hair turned silver when he was sixteen.  He tried dying it once but after a shift during a full moon it reverted back to silver so he just left it; it seemed pointless to try and change it when his eyebrows and eyelashes turned the same colour. Now he keeps it just about shoulder length and cut into layers that always manage to stay swept back, no matter what he’s doing.  The silver hair only serves to make the denim blue of his eyes richer.  He has a strong, square jaw, hooded eyes and a straight nose.  The broad shoulders taper down into narrow hips, a tight ass and long legs.  Thickly corded muscles in his arms and legs and the rippled abs make women look twice and then a third time. 

            Wolf:   His wolf is huge, slightly larger than Liam.  He keeps his blue eyes, though they’re a pale, washed out version, like bleached jeans.  His thick fur is shades of silver and grey from smoke to polished silver.

Background:   Cubs don’t come into their Wolf until they hit puberty, even though the adults in the pack call their children cubs.  Marcus is the son of the pack’s only female Beta in recorded history and her Mate, the Gamma from a northern pack.  Marcus’s father moved south to be with his mother with his pack’s blessing.  Marcus grew up in a loving, joyous atmosphere and that love and joy didn’t disappear when his father was killed in battle when he was but five years old.  It became a little quieter at times but his mother was never one to wallow.  Marcus was her only child and she loved him. 

He met Liam when he was born, the day after his own first birthday.  He was taken to meet the Alpha’s son when Liam was just a day old.  The new baby opened those eyes, already green, and met the rich blue eyes of the new toddler and reached out with both hands.  Marcus had met Liam’s hands with his and the bond was formed.  Marcus’s mother spent a lot of time in the main house and he went with her.  He spent as much time as possible with Liam.  If Marcus disappeared from his mother’s side, he was found at Liam’s side. 

Marcus is a natural Alpha.  The pack speculated that one day the two friends would battle each other to the death for the Alpha spot.  Eventually it became clear that Marcus always deferred to Liam.  If the two children were given cookies, Marcus waited until Liam bit into his.  If they were forced to fight, Marcus always lost, though he never obviously, deliberately threw a fight. 

When Liam’s father was killed and his own mother challenged then killed by wannabe Alpha Rick and his thug, Marcus helped Liam bury their respective parents and get his mother to a safe place.  He also agreed to whatever Liam wanted to do to rectify the situation.  He swore fealty to Liam as soon as he could speak and then again when they hit puberty and their Wolves made themselves known.  He swore to stand behind, in front of and beside the man he considered his Alpha from day one.  He deliberately altered his own natural Alpha abilities to be able to serve and protect Liam better.  He will stand at Liam’s side unto his death. 

Weaknesses:  Marcus is somewhat inflexible in things as he puts the safety of his Alpha above all else.  His one other weakness is Michelle MacMichael.  She is the love of his life.  However, he doesn’t feel free to pursue it just yet and that hesitation is a tiny chink in his armour, the only uncertainty in his life.

Strengths:  He is a planner and a forward thinker, just like Liam.  He is capable of seeing both the Dark and Light.  His devotion to Liam, Anna and the pack gives him the ability to stand firm in the face of anything.  He is as skilled as Liam in defensive and offensive fighting techniques but a slightly better shot.

Abilities:  He can look at a person and see all the choices of their lives and know the one thing that will help them follow the right path.  He is an excellent tracker.  He has an almost terrifyingly accurate ability to read body language.  He is cunning and an exceptional strategist.

Anna Marie Connor

Howdy!

Over the next three… three?  Anna… Marcus… Doug… yes, three days I will be sharing the rest of the character bios with you.  They will be going up on the website soon (as soon as I get quick and dirty temporary book covers put together for HW3 and HW4!) but I thought I would share them with you.

I will not, however, be editing them here again.  *laughs*   They will be edited [better] before they go up on the site.

Enjoy!

 

Anna Marie Connor

 

Age: 33 (according to the government; 633 as a living Vampire this life)

Height: 5’8”

Weight:  210

Pack Status:  Alpha Mate

Supernatural Status:  Princess of the Vampires, daughter of Cain, heir apparent, holder of the Regnier seat on the Vampire Council, liaison to Dragon, Fae and Demon realms, Alpha Mate of the Four Claw Pack.

Appearance: 

            Human:  Anna is a curvy girl in exactly the right way, she is the kind of sexy Marilyn Monroe was; very fluid, liquid lines, generous breasts and hips.  Her hair is copper* with silver streaks, grows quickly and undergoes a random change in style every few months.  She was born with tri-coloured eyes that change colour with her emotions.  When she is happy they are pale green with copper around the iris and navy blue rims.  They darken to emerald green with passion, either ire or arousal.  When her ire reaches the point of fury or when the Vampire within her is hungry they turn black.  When they are forest green with a black rim she is feeding from the ambient energy around her.  She has sensual lips most often curved in a smile and a dimple in her left cheek that appears under sweeping cheekbones when she is delighted with something.  She has a long torso, long legs and long arms that all make her look taller than she is.  Her soft curves belie the strength her body carries.

*In Demon Plague Anna’s hair turns black after a battle with a griffin and later it turns white after an infusion of Demon essence.  She also acquires three thin scars from her right temple to the corner of her mouth, giving her a small, permanent lopsided smile.

            Vampire: Anna’s Vampire is harder, leaner and uglier, even her fingers lengthen as the nails turn into razor sharp claws.  The bones in her face become more prominent, sharper and more angular.  Her canine teeth lengthen and all her other teeth sharpen, giving her mouth the appearance of double the amount of teeth.  Her eyes turn black as her skin pales to the death white of her undead kin.

            Wolf:  Anna’s Wolf’s beauty is a complete polar opposite to the ugliness of her Vampire.  Because of her human weight she comes in larger than most of the pack’s other female Wolves at about 185 pounds.  Her fur is a deep, dark black like Liam’s but with the silver streaks from Marcus’s influence in her change.  Her eyes are a beautiful clear amber.

After her adventures in Hell in Demon Plague Anna’s fur is snow white, almost a crystalline purity.

            Demon: (Her Demon form comes out in Demon Plague during a course of events in the depths of Hell.)  Anna’s Demon is a blend of her Vampire and Wolf with a few changes.  She has the same facial structure of her Vampire but with a shortened Wolf snout altering the lower half of her face, giving her face a half-Vamp, half-Wolf structure. Long sharp teeth, snow white hair and deep-set black eyes complete the appearance.  Her skin turns ash grey and she is covered with short startlingly soft, white fur.  Her body tightens, slims, becomes longer, almost skeletal.  The claws she has in her Vampire form are nothing compared to what tips her fingers in this form.  The final detail is a pair of large, dull silver, bat-like wings that sprout from her back.

Background:  Anna is her human name but in the other Realms she’s known as Princess Sadira Chalthoum.  She is a living vampire with a purpose: to maintain the peace and good relations between the Vampires and the rest of the Supernatural world. She is born over and over again, choosing with each death to be reborn alive rather than become undead, so that she remains current in thinking with the shorter lived Supernaturals, such as the Lycanthropes.

Janelle, her mother, is half Witch and half Vampire and is the source of much of Anna’s magic.  Where Anna’s Vampire half, from her father, trumps the Witch, in Janelle the two are in perfect balance.  She is in a human body kept immortal by her Mate, Cain.

Cain is Anna’s father.  He is the Cain of Cain and Abel infamy, cursed by the Christian God to walk the night, feeding solely upon humanity.  He is the source of Vampire kind and Anna is the only genetic, living child he has ever sired.  He sits upon the throne, father and king of Vampires, a vicious and nearly merciless ruler.

Anna has been involved in the Supernatural world since birth (in all her lives it is the same).  She is generous, kind and sweet.  She is an excellent diplomat who works tirelessly to find peaceful resolutions but who can be as cold, hard and vicious as her father. 

Anna is the Vampire liaison to the Supernatural Council and it is at one of those council meetings that she meets Liam.  He had never attended before, having always sent his Beta, Marcus.  Their energies, their souls, were immediately drawn together.  They decided to keep talking after the meeting and eventually got together in the Astral Realm.  They fell in love quickly.  It was deep and true and within a few months they knew it was forever.  He and his pack bite her and bind her to them.

Weaknesses:  Anna is the absent-minded professor type; very powerful, fairly smart but most often stuck in her own head or in at least one other Realm at the same time. She is vulnerable to attack because she doesn’t pay attention to her physical surroundings.

Physical body is easily injured; power use drains her physical strength.

Always sees the good in people.

Strengths: Always sees the good in people.  Anna is fiercely loyal.  She loves deeply.  She always keeps her word.  She has the combined powers of Vampire, Witch and Wolf.  She is honourable.

Abilities/Traits: Astral projection, healing, fire (blue is healing and cleansing, black – which is Demon fire and comes in book two – is pure destruction), shape shifting (to Wolf form), body temperature rises with passion (anger or sexual) and can rise to the point of spontaneous combustion.  She can cut an opening in the seam of reality between realms to pull things out or put things in, after book two she discovers that she is able to move her physical body through the seams.

Anna is the only Vampire-Wolf hybrid in existence in any realm and is one of the singularly most powerful creatures ever.  And yet, she is vulnerable because of her human frailities and her innate need to see the best of people. 

Snowy Greens and Brand New Wolves

Good Saturday morning folks!

I have three pictures to show you because… Well because the snowball bush is in bloom and for some reason I find the damn thing fascinating.  Truly though, there are only so many pictures I can show you of tiny white flowers.  :D   And I do have something special to show you.  The blog title is a bit of a misnomer.  There is only one new Wolf to show you but I wanted to share Chelle’s profile with you too.  Her background and the new Wolf’s background are tied together and it happened completely by accident.  

But I’ll get to that after the pictures. 

Does everyone know what a snowball bush is?  No?  Well, it’s remarkably similar to a hydrangea but the balls of flowers are about the size of a snowball you’d make in your palm, hydrangeas can have flower clusters the size of your head.  And the flowers are much smaller and simpler.  And it only comes in white.  (The hydrangea in that link there is spectacular!)  Some people do call a hydrangea a snowball bush but I think that’s largely because no one can ever remember ‘hydrangea’.

Okay, okay, so really the only thing they have in common is the fact that the flowers grow in ball shaped groups.

 

Last weekend our rather large snowball bush began to bloom.  We were disappointed because the flowers were coming up green and we didn’t remember that happening last year.  At this time last year it was all leaf and buds then BOOM! pretty white snowballs.  Like, overnight.   But last week they were green.   I went and took pictures with my phone, just to see how they’d come out.  Not bad really.  I played with the ISO and the white balance and the contrast and got a bunch of pea soup coloured pictures.  *le sigh*

There were, however, two I really liked.  This first one happened after I put the camera on landscape to see how that would come out.  I did have to tweak the colour a little bit.  It wasn’t quite bright enough so I played with the green and yellow in shadows, highlights and midtones. I am impressed with the picture overall.  I like the scale of it and the depth of field surprised me; I figured it would come out a little flat.   

Pretty isn’t it? Hard to be disappointed in the wee green flowers. ….But they weren’t white!

This second green one was taken with the white balance set on Daylight and the ISO at 800.  To find that the picture looked the way it does surprised the hell out of me.  I didn’t do much in editing, I simply touched up the contrast a little.  

Striking, isn’t it?

Finally, this is what I came back to yesterday.  I took the pictures early this morning after the sun rose but before it was well in the sky.  I did like 3 or 4 of them but only this one well enough to share.  There’s a breeze today and it seemed that the Gods did NOT want me taking pictures because every time I lifted my phone, (used for continuity in quality), the breeze kicked up and nudged those heavy snowballs into bobbing like crazy.  To edit this one I tried auto-levels, didn’t like it and undid it.  I tried auto-contrast but didn’t like that much better.  So I played with the brightness and contrast manually until I got it right.  Didn’t take much.  I chose this picture because of the shape and that the contrasting greens made the white flowerettes seem all that much brighter.  

Beauty, eh?

And that’s it for the photos today!  

This came out longer than I thought so I’m debating whether or not to put both biographies in here today or put in one and post the other tomorrow.    My usual sounding board is still asleep, (damn her for being 3 hours behind ), so I’m going to make an executive decision.  Oh hey, I AM the executive, guess I have the power *He-Man voice*.

Me?  Crazy?  Nahh…

I’m going to post Chelle’s – whom you only think you know – and see how much of your time I’m taking up.  Sound like a plan?  Or at least a pluh?

Good.

Here’s Michelle:

Michelle Moira MacMichael

 

Age:  39

Height: 5’7”

Weight: 145

Pack Status: Gamma

Supernatural Status:  Liam’s enforcer

Appearance: 

            Human:  Chelle is a bleached blonde.  The carefully maintained straw coloured silk falls to her shoulders and allows her to hide her intelligence in the stereotype.  She is slim and lithe but she is well defined in the shoulders, arms and legs, her stomach is lightly rippled with a six-pack.  She has pale green eyes and a full, sensual mouth.  She dresses like a man more often than not – jeans, sweats, men’s shirts, tank tops – with her hair up but somehow still manages to look very feminine.

            Wolf:  On the small side, in comparison to her Alphas and Beta but no less strong.  She has copper fur and yellow-green eyes.

Background:  Michelle was not born into the pack as a very large portion of the pack was.  Michelle is not the name she was given at birth.  She came to the pack seeking asylum as a ten year old, the daughter of a mated Beta pair.  The Alpha of her previous pack, one set deep in the Highlands, had a taste for young girls, brunettes in particular, and girls who began to fill out early were of a special interest to him.

One night, a night her father was on patrol and her mother had been sent away to negotiate with a coterie who wanted hunting privileges on their land, the Alpha snuck into her bedroom.  She awoke at a soft noise and slipped her hand under her pillow for the knife her parents insisted she sleep with when home alone.  He crept close to her bed and eased the blankets back while she pretended to sleep.  She let him run his hand down her ribs and over her hip to her knee.  She let him slide his hand under her shirt and even moved restlessly, like she was dreaming.

So focused was he on her soft skin that he didn’t notice her change in breathing or the tension coiling in her body as she shifted to her back and changed her grip on the knife.  So intent was he on touching the small, developing breast that he didn’t see anything but his goal.  When he touched her, finally, he sighed with pleasure and closed his eyes for a moment.  Chelle used that moment to strike at him.  She sank her small blade into the right side of his chest, feeling the steel slide between his ribs.  As he stared at the hilt in shock she bolted from her bed and then the room.

It was a hard journey south in little more than her pyjamas.  She had been tempted to go back several times in those three days from flight to found to make sure her parents were okay but she knew she’d be dead the moment she stepped on pack soil.  She ended up at Liam’s side after he and Marcus found her begging for scraps outside a pub on the edge of Glasgow. 

When the Alpha she’d stabbed showed up at the Four Claw house it was Liam and Marcus who hid her.  Liam and Marcus who lied well to keep her from being taken.  It was Liam and Marcus who had taken the beatings for the lies and it was Liam and Marcus who told Liam’s father what had happened and made sure that she was inducted into the pack.  Liam’s mother taught her how to dye her hair and it was Liam’s father who welcomed her into their home permanently.  From then on she had shadowed Liam and Marcus, learning everything she could from them. 

Weaknesses:  She doesn’t trust a  man’s word, outside of Liam and Marcus.  And maybe Doug.  She has a fierce hatred for those who abuse children and tends to go overboard in her reaction to seeing mothers or fathers who spank their children in front of her. 

Strengths:  Phenomenal martial arts skills, high level black belts in Seikido, Kung Fu and Krav Maga.  She is a sharp shooter, the best in the United Kingdom, third best in Europe.

Abilities:  She is a shape shifter and has superhuman strength, above and beyond most other Supernaturals.

Lovely woman, strong as hell, and absolutely in love with Marcus.  And thank you, lovely people, for showing me that it needed edited.  I think that I will post the new Wolf’s bio here.  It will make the blog a little on the long side but that’s nothing new, eh?

Introducing… *drum roll*

 

McKenna Amberson

Age: 28

Height: 5’10

Weight:  190

Appearance:

            Human: McKenna – Mac to her friends, precious few that they are – has broad shoulders, generous breasts and an hourglass figure.  She has shockingly red hair that is all natural and falls around her face in short, just above the shoulder waves.  She has the porcelain complexion that is typical of a Scottish redhead, along with a smattering of freckles below the bright blue eyes.  Very delicate, elfin features draw the eyes of men and women alike despite her every attempt to downplay them.

She has a scar just under the right side of her ribcage, around the back, where a would-be mugger stabbed her in the kidney when she refused to cooperate.  And she is missing a chunk out of her left breast from a mishap with a Tiger that got infected and never healed quite right. 

            Wolf:  Medium sized Wolf with rust coloured fur and pale, washed out blue eyes.

Background:  McKenna was born to a single mother who happened to be a lone Wolf.  A Scottish Wolf living in London, McKenna’s mom was a runaway, the Theta from a northern Highlands pack.  One who had run away when her Alpha raped her while she was caring for the wound in his chest caused by a missing young girl.  When the mother found out she was pregnant she sought sanctuary in London and raised her girl with love and the arts.  McKenna’s mother died the night of McKenna’s first heat.  The heat had called in several males who were eager to get at the fourteen year old girl.  Mac ran as her mother fought for their lives.  Three males lost their lives before Mac’s mother lost the fight.

Mac did everything she could to cover her scent and crossed into Wales, where she stole art supplies and food and made a home for herself in a cave in the Cambrian Mountains.  She began to sell her work for pennies until a gallery owner saw them, and her, and took her in.  It took Mac a long time to trust the old man but he did nothing to her but treat her like a granddaughter and sell her work.

One full moon night, coming from the gallery on her way to run she was stopped by a Tiger.  He accosted her, demanding to know why she was on their territory without permission.  When she told him the truth he tried to take her to his Alpha by force.  She shifted and ran for the mountains, not knowing that the old man always followed her on her runs.  The Tiger shifted and followed her.  He caught up to her in the foothills and attacked.  She was losing the battle, having been bitten in the chest, a large chunk of flesh torn out, when the man shot the Tiger, repeatedly, emptying a semi-automatic rifle – a Browning Bar Mark II – into the Cat and dragged Mac into his truck.  Only her being a Wolf saved her that night. 

When the man died a couple of years later she mourned him like a grandfather.  Then she took the money and the rifle he left her and headed north again, landing in Glasgow and selling her wares in the Barras. 

Weaknesses:  The fact that she’s a lone Wolf makes her half as strong as she could be.  She trusts no one and allows no one to get close to her.

Strengths:  She became a marksman, not at the level of the upper four in the Four Claw pack but well enough to defend herself.  She is an underground boxer, taking her aggressions and anger out on the men who laughingly step  into the ring with her.  She doesn’t dwell in her anger but has used it to fuel her survival.

Abilities: Shifter. 

Isn’t she lovely?  Twelve years younger than Doug, sure, but she loves him and he her.  And you will meet her properly in HW2.5, the short story I’m doing for KallySten’s anthology.

I’m out, folks!  Have a wonderful weekend!  

Muah!

Liam Taggart, the Alpha

I’ve been working on stuff for the website; biographies and the like.   I thought I’d share one with you.  

This is Liam’s and I’m quite proud of it.  I love the background I created for him.  

Take a look:

 

Liam Andrew Taggart

Age: 41

Height: 6’

Weight:  240

Pack Status:  Alpha

Supernatural Status:  Alpha of the Four Claw Pack, Alpha of Alphas of Scotland – ruler of the Lycans and Therianthropes in Scotland.

Appearance: 

            Human:  Liam is stocky, a big guy.  He has broad shoulders capping a torso that tapers slightly in at the waist.  Muscles ripple and flex under his skin as he moves, his muscles are naturally long and lean, defined without having that bodybuilder look.  Long legs are often encased in denim, regardless of the weather, that hides the power in them.  He’s heavy but it’s all muscle.

 Thick black hair falls across his forehead to drape across strong black brows, when he hasn’t made it stand on end by running his fingers through it in aggravation.  Equally thick lashes frame almost expressionless deep, green eyes.  Those eyes warm up when they land on Anna but otherwise show very little emotion.  His eyes do, however, turn yellow when he is angry.  Crinkles caused by stress and amusement and joy are already making an appearance, faint though they are.  He has a strong jaw, straight teeth and sensual lips framed by laugh lines deeper than the marks at the corners of his eyes. 

After Dagda touches him with his club in Demon Plague Liam has a silver streak at the center of his forehead.

            Wolf:  Liam’s Wolf is huge at close to two hundred pounds.  He stands almost four feet tall at the shoulder.  He has strong, nimble legs, a strong back and yellow eyes.  His fur is a deep midnight black that seems to absorb light. 

After the touch of Dagda’s club, he has a small silver lightning bolt that streaks from the end of his snout towards his left ear.

            Background:  Liam grew up as the son of an Alpha’s son.  He was groomed from birth to be the Alpha and yet he was still expected to fight his way through the ranks. He was made to study the laws, not only of their own pack but of Supernatural world.  He was involved in all pack business at his father’s side from a young age.  He joined the pack as an Omega and worked his way to Alpha.  He made friends with Marcus at an early age and they stuck side by side.  He watched his father die at the hands of an unscrupulous Wolf named Rick who thought only about himself and the power being the Alpha would lead. 

It was then that Liam learned the difference between a true Alpha and a poser.  A pack, he learned, has an energy connection that binds each Wolf to the one above, below and beside him.  That energy flows from the Alpha.  A poser weakens a pack and, left in place too long, will destroy it.  Liam had been an Epsilon, four down from the Alpha, when Rick took the pack by force.  Rick sanctioned a battle between the then-Beta and the thug he wanted in place.

Liam and Marcus buried their parents, spirited Liam’s mother away, (she died six months later of a broken heart), and then talked strategy.  They waited six months, building their strength and steadily taking the pack by energy and stealth.  Then Liam invoked the law involving paternal and hereditary rights to the Alpha position: Ascensionem Filius, Ascension of the Son.  There was nothing Rick could do but show up to the challenge or be labeled a coward.  Once Liam won the challenge, he set Marcus up for a challenge to Rick’s old Beta.  The fight never happened for the other Wolf ran.  After that, traitors were routed and the pack swore fealty to Liam.

Liam and Marcus have been Alpha and Beta for almost twenty-five years.

Liam is a contradiction – dead serious about everything and yet ready to see the humour in everything; ruthless and cold, yet overflowing with love and affection for his Wolf family.  He is often stressed, usually pressed for time about something and generally buried under paperwork but he is always ready to hear from his pack. 

            Weaknesses:  Liam’s only weakness is also his greatest strength:  his utter devotion to his pack.  It can make him blind to trouble within his pack.

            Strengths:  His devotion to the pack makes Liam a forward thinker and someone careful to consider the consequences of every action he takes personally or the pack takes as a whole.  His is able to see almost all sides of any situation and act accordingly.  He is physically strong, well skilled in offensive and defensive fighting techniques and a damn good shot. 

            Abilities:  He is a true Alpha; the power of the pack flows from him and back to him.  Because of that power exchange he is able to sense his Wolves, within a certain radius.  He has a natural charisma and magnetism that draws people in and bends them to his will; he can sometimes deliberately magnify that.  He is a shape shifter and can shift from Human to Wolf to Human with a thought as often as needed, requiring less resting time between shifts than the rest of the pack.

 

What do you think?  I think the biographies will help my readers understand the characters better.  Help the readers love the characters more.  It’ll be great!  :D

!!!GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

It’s giveaway time!

It is time to giveaway the books and book thongs that I have long been promising.  Facebook is at 152 likes!  I am thrilled!  

The giveaway officially started a day or so ago and I’ve just realized how invisible it really is.  So here is the link:

 

Witch Hitlist Book Giveaway

 

It’s small but it’s mighty.  Enter!  Have fun with the last question!  

And as a hint for the first question:  Anna’s Hybrid form is made up of two of the most popular paranormal creatures in current fiction trends.

An Anthology, a Photo and an Update.

Greetings!

Boy, oh boy, I’m a bad, bad girl.  I have neglected this little space here for the last two weeks.  I had a short photo blog planned for last weekend.  Two blogs, really.  One to talk about the anthology and one to showcase a few pictures.  There were a few problems.  One, last Saturday we got busy and I never did get to the anthology blog (part of that is because I let the way things are going to come out – or at least start – percolate and I couldn’t, for the life of me, come up with an opening).  Then Sunday morning…

Well, Sunday turned out to be a really, really bad day.  I’ve talked a bit before about being gluten, corn and soy intolerant.  One of the things I’ve always felt was absolutely safe was jam/jelly.  In a commercial jam you expect to find fruit, sugar (at least two forms), pectin, colouring, flavouring and preservatives.   What you don’t expect to find is a five ingredient jam with the second being corn syrup.  Wal-Mart’s Great Value brand jam is just that.  We found that out the hard way.  I was violently ill for several hours.  So no blog found its way out of my fingers that day either.  It took me two days to recover.  The following two days were spent catching up on my editing of HW2 and being without internet at my home.  (Provider is a jackass)  Friday was… stressful and busy.

I am here now though and I would like to tell you about an exciting project I’ve just taken on.  Kallysten is an author I like not just for her books (which are wonderful, sexy, provocative) but for herself.  I don’t know her personally but everything I see about her, the things she does and the cheer she does them with, make me like her.

Recently she posted a blog about creating a second anthology to sell for breast cancer awareness/research.  I took interest and mulled it over.  It was only a day or two before I emailed her and volunteered. (Why?  Because my favourite aunt-in-law had breast cancer last year.  She had a double mastectomy and a lot of chemo.  She’s thriving now and I’m grateful.)  I don’t expect that she’s going to take ALL of the stories she sent, I’m sure her editor will have a thing or two to say about the size of the book, but I’m going to do my damndest to make sure I make the final cut.

“What will you write about?” you ask.

Good question.

At first, I thought I’d write about Marcus and Chelle, a sexy interlude between the two of them that shows how they feel about one another.  Then I thought about the lady, a very dear person to me, who has yet to be written into the Highland Wolves book, even though she is part of that group that so inspires the characters.  I thought about her enduring love affair with the man who inspired Doug.  And I thought that this is the perfect way to write her into the books.  Make it a Highland Wolves 2.5 novella.  

That, my friends, is that.  It’ll be Doug and McKenna (not so sure about the name as yet) and a steamy story that includes the pink.

I haven’t been taking many pictures.  It’s like the camera in my brain is defective lately but I do have a few.  Most of the pictures I see in my head happen when we’re doing 100 km/h down the highway.  Difficult to take them to say the least.  This one here is my favourite.  It came out absolutely beautifully right from the get-go so all I had to do was tweak the levels just a touch and resize it.  It’s a staple of Ontario summers.  It’s creepy as all hell and yet beautiful in its way.  We call it a mosquito hawk and I have no idea what it’s really named.  It eats the bitey little buggers though so I leave them alone.  This one landed for a rest on the picture window in the living room.

Lovely shot isn’t it? I like the lines. The focus is in the right place. The background is perfect.

The Update:

I do need to speak to my brother about how the website is coming since he hasn’t said anything but I am working on the things that need done.  I’ve been doing the first edit on HW2 so I can write a teaser for it.  It’s funny that I have to reread the thing so I can tell you what it’s about.  I knew the basics but getting a feel for the book again will help write something compelling.  

I will admit that I have been doing two things almost to the exclusion of everything else – the editing and reading J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  Man I love those books!  My kids hate that I’m reading them because I get lost in the book and tune out everything else.  ”Mom!  MOM! Did you hear ANYTHING I just said?” is the most common refrain heard from my son.  To me, that’s the hallmark of a great book.  

My point is that the character write ups for Liam, Marcus and Chelle haven’t been done.  I am thinking now that I need to do Doug and McKenna too, if I’m going to feature them in a novella.  That’s okay.  I’m glad of the work.  I do need to poke my brother though.  We need to get this site up and running.  

And we’re off for the afternoon.  We are going to a small outdoor fetish fair – what?  Is it that you thought it was kept to my characters?  Ever hear the adage ‘write what you know’? – and to do some errands.  I’m on a mission to find purple potatoes.  :D

Be well.

Muah.

Excitement!

My website is being built!  I am beyond thrilled and I had to share THIS with you:

 

This is going to be the header for my homepage.

Isn’t it GORGEOUS?!   I did this.  I got the ankh from Shutterstock (along with a three of the upcoming photos) and I figured out how to make the canvas bigger and then how to add the ankh.  I had a little help from my friend Dawn (of Dawn Neil Studios) in getting the colour for the text just right and she showed me a nifty little thing with the Photoshop tool icons – if you click and hold on them there are options for which tool you’d like. It took me two hours to find the right font.

Me?  Picky?

Nahhh…

There will be pages for the Highland Wolves books and the characters.  Plus there will be pages for the NaNo books and the like, should I get to publishing them.   So since I want thumbnails to go with the descriptions, I needed to select photos.

Anna was easy.  Sort of.  There’s a collection of pictures of Heather (the model) to choose from.  I settled on this one.

Looks good doesn’t it? Dawn fixed the hair and the eyes for me.  I love the expression on her face.  My daughter described it as  ”I’ve been through shit, I’m strong, I dare you to take me on.”  (I have a lousy memory so it’s paraphrased.)

It was such a hardship to have to look at dozens of half-naked male models to find Liam and Marcus.  I did finally manage to narrow it down to these two guys.  With the help of a couple of sorely put upon women (*snorts*  riiiight) I found these two photos.

Liam. Mmmm Can totally see why Anna’s lust for him knows no end.

Mmm mmm mmm mmmmmMarcus. Chelle drools over this one constantly.

Yes, we did the hair.  He does, after all, have silver hair.  Very hard to show that in black and white.  Harder still to do it when you have a black and white photo and a model with black hair.  Dawn had to create a new layer, paint his hair black and then invert it and make the blending a soft light.  

She does so much for me.  <3

I wanted a background for the HW book page that evoked the chaos and magic in the books and I think I nailed it with this.

 

I love the lightning against the sky with the wolf silhouette in front of it. It’s beautiful.

I wanted you to know that things are indeed progressing!  I’ve had an insanely busy life this month so NaNo fell by the wayside; I hope to pick the story there back up in one of the summer Camps.  So much to do still this month.  Tuesday is the tribunal that will tell us whether the provincial government thinks I’m a disabled person or not.  I live with 8 chronic health issues, 7 of them related to my spine and central nervous center, you’d think it would be an easy call. 

*shrugs*  What will be, will be.

Have a great night!  

Muah