I’ve been interested in werewolves for a while, but my attempts to write about them felt like unimaginative retreads until I added ghosts and came up with “Unfinished Business.”
This short story (novelette, if we’re being technical; it’s over 9000 words) was published in Heat #13 from Sofawolf Press, and was inspired by the art director at the time telling me that they wanted to commission an artist who did really good werewolves. “You should write a werewolf story,” they told me, and so I went off and did.
The artist ended up not being available or something, but it was illustrated by Silverclaw, whose style was great for my vision, and I think the story and art worked pretty well. But one thing nagged at me: in my writing group, one of the pieces of feedback was that “the problem with this story is that it isn’t a short story; it’s a novel.”
Six years later, Unfinished Business the novel is here. I’m publishing it under my more mainstream name because in the process of novelization the sex got written out of it (honestly as I was writing the novel it didn’t feel right), but the things I loved about the original story: the worldbuilding of a world where were-creatures exist and immigrated to this country, the dynamics of a human-were relationship, and the snarky Russian ghost bear all remain. Plus I added some new cool stuff that fills out the world.
I would like for Jae to have more adventures and I have a couple nebulous ideas in mind, but for now, I’m happy with his first adventure being out as a novel. If the book does well then I’ll ramp up thinking about his next adventure…
If you’re interested in backstory, Czoltan (Jae’s werewolf boyfriend) is the subject of a short story that was published in Makyo’s anthology Arcana. It’s not sexy either.
Anyway, this is all to say that Unfinished Business will be widely available this summer (we are waiting on some pre-release review shops who want to time their reviews to the wide release), but if you happen to be at a convention where FurPlanet is selling before then, you can buy a pre-release copy. If you’re at Furry Fiesta, you can get it signed by the author (that’s me!). If you’re not going to a convention before July, but you still want to be cool, you can pre-order it.
I really enjoyed reading your werewolf short novel "Silver Circle" Excellent plot, great story line and wonderful ending. Maybe think about writing more werewolf stories but it sounds like you are extremely busy on other projects. I do have a question, how do I get to go to your audiobooks to read/listen to some of your other works in progress. Best regards Paul(paupal)
Very intriguing! Can't wait to see how you've built this world. Unfortunately I won't find out until the e-book version is released, frustrating as the wait will be.
I'll flag 'Unfinished Business' on Angela Quinton's 'Werewolf Town' discord server. There are plenty of folk there who will be interested in this book.