The End – and the Beginning!

There isn't any feeling like it --- typing THE END when you've finally finished a story. At that exquisite moment, I always feel like romance author Joan Wilder in Romancing the Stone. Could be partly because my grown kids now call me Joan Wilder as an affectionate nickname…. Mostly it's the way I identify with the lovely thrill as the character breathlessly types in THE END. There's a wonder, almost an awe to it. It's happened at last, the happily ever after has coalesced and the story is complete. Bliss.

I also love the way Joan celebrates, creating an occasion out of the event with a little airline liqueur for herself and tuna for her cat. In the absence of a cat, I give Scooby the Pug a can of tuna. He's more than willing to humor me. Myself, I go for a milkshake.

I'm SO grateful for the readers who fell in love with the Macleod family in my first novel, Heart of the Winter Wolf. They'll be glad to know that the book I've just completed is for them, that it's the one they've been waiting for:  Connor Macleod's story.  Scooby the Pug says I should write that a little larger:

CONNOR MACLEOD'S STORY IS FINALLY DONE!

I'm not going to reveal the working title of this novel yet, only because it can change before publication. But I'm excited at how this story has evolved and I hope that my readers will enjoy it. First things first of course --- here's hoping that a publisher will enjoy it!  I'll keep you posted.

Dani Harper

Currently reading : Heart of the Winter Wolf By Dani Harper

2:54 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Scooby the Pug gets an assistant!

Scooby the Pug occupies a very important position in my life --- he's my Official Muse.

As a writer, it's my job to keep the Muse happy, right?

First he wanted a page of his own on my website. Then it was a page for all his friends. And then his own email address. Finally, as I finished up my latest novel, the 13-year-old Scoobster put his paw down and demanded an assistant.

Enter Fiona the Pug! She's 4 years old, with a great head on her shoulders, highly organized and on the ball. Scooby now has someone to answer the door for him, check on when dinner will be ready, take messages and bring him his chew stick.

As for me, I now have TWO official muses ---- I'm personally hoping that means I can write twice as well or maybe even twice as fast!

PS --- as soon as Windows Vista and my camera program start talking to each other, I'll have a bunch of photos of Fiona to post on my website.

Love pugs too? Love to hear from you!

8:45 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

NEW STORY for Christmas 2008

Just got the cover for my novella, "The Holiday Spirit", which comes out from Cobblestone Press at the end of this year. I'm SO excited. Out of everything I've written, I can easily say this is my favorite story. I hope my readers will enjoy it too!

THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT

When is a ghost not a ghost?

Kerri Tollbrook counsels the newly departed, but what happens
when the tall, dark and handsome spirit she meets at the shopping
mall refuses to be counseled?

Firefighter Galen McAllister feels like The Invisible Man when
a malicious spell separates him from his still-living body.
Kerri is the first person he's met who can actually see him.
Now if only he can get her to listen to him…

Can they create enough magic in the
nine days before Christmas to break the spell,
or will Galen remain a ghost forever?

COMING just in time for CHRISTMAS 2008

12:28 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

What Scares You 2 -- The Sequel!
Current mood: cheerful

What a HOOT!!!!  I've seldom had as much fun with a blog as I have during the posting of "Fears, phobias, scary thoughts and --- THE WILLIES".  It was wonderful to discover I'm not alone for one thing (one of my friends suggested we start a support group) and the comments, more often than not, were totally hilarious. Of course, we all know that it's NEVER funny at the time!

During my little contest, we had TDOTYK (technical difficulties of the Yahoo! kind). This had the nasty effect of hiding every comment that was posted on my website blog. Fortunately, I could access them from within my blog manager, so nobody got lost! Everybody on both the website blog and the MySpace blog got entered in the contest. Maria's name was drawn from the hat as the winner by the way – congrats to Maria! She's been sent a free download of my new book, Heart of the Winter Wolf.

THANKS AGAIN to everyone who contributed. Below are some of the highlights from comments that were posted on the ill-fated website blog. 

Dani

PS --- Some people signed with their real name, some with their MySpace name, some with an email address. I decided to take out anything but a MySpace ID, "to protect the names of those who are innocent" and those poor souls, who, just like me, are subject to The Willies.

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I also spaz out, jump, scream, you name it when I see a spider. Don't laugh, but I pay my 14yr.old son 5 dollars kill the spider every time I see one in the house. He probably brings them in to make money. lol.

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There is a park in Louisville KY which I have deemed "Spider City" .. and which I have sworn I will NEVER enter again!!! ... I share your phobia of spiders, and this park is enough to make the willies appear seizure-like!

It started out as a fun trip with friends through a nice quiet park, a stroll through the woods, and ended in my friend escorting me out as I danced, hopped, jumped, screamed, shook, swatted, batted, shook my head, and did everything except roll on the ground. There were daddy long legs in the trees stacked on top of each other, hundreds of them, literally, there were spiders on the ground, in nests in the fallen branches, hanging from webs which if you touch them a spider would fall on you thinking you were a snack, there were spiders of all shapes, sizes and species, it was my worst nightmare come to life. I felt like I was trapped in a remake of Arachnophobia! By the time I got out of this place I was shaking so bad I could have been considered a daiquiri machine! Which I needed badly at that point! (MySpace -- Lost in Twilight)

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Don't laugh seriously... I am scared to freakin' death of clowns!! Devils I tell ya!

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We were sitting outside, enjoying the early evening, when something is crawling on me! My hubby says, "Hey hon, there's a spider on you." All nonchalantly, while I jump up as if a hot poker had been rectally inserted, and begin screaming and slapping at myself. "Where is it? Where is it? Help Me!" I shouted. He says, "It's in your hair.", calmly, like it's no big deal to have some beastie in your hair! At this point I'm nearly hyperventilating, my mother-in-law is telling my husband to help me, and he is laughing... Laughing! I don't care if it was only a Daddy Long-leg or not, it was still a spider! I'm afraid that my arm took on a life of it's own at this point, and delivered a beautiful-sounding pimp slap to his chuckling cheek. Keep laughing jerk, and I'll slap you again. God, I hate spiders... and men!

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For some reason, screaming, bickering men give me the "The Willies". I get the sudden urge to crush them whenever I come across one or hear about one. Sarcastic tongues that are hell bent upon hurting are much more Willie material than bugs or insects.

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I live in Phoenix and we have these horrible clear albino lizards that come out at night and hang around near the porch lights. I'm pretty sure they are going to jump on my head and try to steal my soul or at the very least eat my brain. Yes I do realize they are only two to three inches long at that I am a hypocrite when I tell my 12-year-old that the microscopic spider in the bathroom won't kill her, but dammit those things are just gross! The Willies to the point that if they are out and I have to use my front door at night, I run through it just to avoid them. The children think it's funny to run behind me saying "Here they come, mom!" and then run their fingers up my back. It just freaks me the heck out.

(MySpace - Wicked Betty)

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Bugs are high on the list for me but absolute silence (you know, the kind where you hear your own breathing) unnerves me. Maybe I have too much imagination! *g* (or maybe it's the constant din at my house!

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I may sound crazy, but what scares me most is failure. I'm really afraid of leaving this world one day and having nothing for people to remember me by. I don't want to leave my mark out of conceit or for some other self-serving reason. I just want to connect with people in a meaningful way, to have someone else know where I was coming from.

I'm afraid of never accomplishing this task, which to me equals failure.

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I get the willies from Ticks! I think it all stems back to when I was a kid and having a run in with a big ole one at my grandparents farm...they had to burn it off. I am fanatical now about checking me, my dogs and the hubby anytime we come in from a hike. If I do find one...they get squished and then flushed!

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When I was a little girl, I was driving in the car with my mum and sister and I looked up and were confronted with a HUGE spider! It ran along the roof of the car while I was screaming my head off. I know by screaming I freaked both my sis and mum out, but what's a girl to do? Now, my mum just happens to have really dark hair, and the spider had crawled, all hairy and 8 legs over to her and I swear to you it thought "Just to freak these girls out more I'm going to jump into her hair!?" My mum was driving, and she almost crashed a few times trying to stay out of jumping range. Then she pulled over, I scrammed out of the car as fast as I could, still screaming mind you and one of them killed it. …. Now ever time I get in there, even to this day! I look to make sure there isn't anything creepy crawly in there!

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I'm terrified of spiders too! I actually blew up an air conditioner because a spider had made its web between the underside of the window A/C unit and the post my family used to hold said A/C unit in the window. My eight year old self knew that Aqua Net hairspray was flammable. So, I get a book of matches, and my mothers bottle of Aqua Net and take both outside. I sprayed that spider and it's web for a good two minutes before I put the bottle down and struck a match. I started spraying again, put the match in the spray... and WOOSH! No more spider. No more A/C unit. But our house survived!

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 The End 

Currently reading : Crossing The Line By Catherine Stang Release date: 2007

4:38 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Fears, phobias, scary thoughts and --- THE WILLIES

I have empathy for anyone who's afraid of anything. While I have no reaction to slugs, bugs, snakes, rats, lizards and crabs, I come down with a condition known as "The Willies" when confronted with a spider. I don't know why. Some mis-mutated survival mechanism I suppose. While I'm dancing around, rubbing my arms and legs frantically (due to creepy-crawly sensations) and yelling EEYEWW at the top of my lungs, the spider has time to run off. When I'm done with "The Willies", the spider is gone and I'm safe --- at least for the moment.

I'm ready for a different evolutionary leap though. Recently I stepped into the shower only to discover that I wasn't alone in there. The spider was big enough to wear a t-shirt and I'm certain he had a tattoo. The attack of "The Willies" was so extreme that I leapt backwards out of the shower and into the nearest wall, braining myself with the towel bar. I crawled hastily from the bathroom, naked, whimpering and cursing. So much for the quality of my survival. Thanks a lot, Darwin.

It took me half an hour of pacing and jumping with "The Willies" to get up enough nerve to confront the invader. (Have you noticed that scary-evil things only show up when you're alone?) I HAD to have a shower! My hair was sticking up in a lopsided mohawk and I had to go to an appointment later. I considered siccing my pug onto the beast (Kill, Scooby, KILL!) but decided against it. My benign pug has all the ferocity of an eggplant. Besides, he was rolling his eyes at me with that "I don't know about you" expression of his. No help there at all.

The flyswatter looked too flimsy and the broom couldn't be wielded within the confines of the shower. I decided on the bathroom plunger as my weapon of choice --- it had a nice heft to it. Not as good as a baseball bat but I didn't have one of those. Probably a good thing I didn't think of our deer rifles....

I opened the shower door carefully, praying the spider wouldn't be startled. One sudden move from the creature would have cost me another hour of "The Willies". Fortunately, the eight-legged invader was paralyzed by incredulity. A plunger? Are you kidding, lady?

It was grim, it was messy and it was accompanied by strangled shouts of EEYEW, EEYEW, EEYEW, EEYEW, EEYEW and many GODDAMMITS. After which I turned on the hot water FULL and left the shower to disinfect itself while I ran to my room (still naked). I was dancing around but not with victory --- yup, it was "The Willies" again. That's the pity of it. While other gals might feel empowered and raise that plunger over their head and triumphantly shout "I am Betty, Destroyer of Evil!", I just get an even bigger case of the creepy crawlies. It's just not fair.

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CONTEST!  Tell me what gives YOU a case of The Willies! Post it as a comment to my blog ON MY WEB SITE at www.romancingthewolf.com, and I'll enter your name in a draw for a free download of my new full-length paranormal romance novel, HEART OF THE WINTER WOLF. (Warning - suspected spammers and perceived perverts will be deleted without mercy.) Contest closes July 15th at midnight, EST and the winner will be announced the next day right here on my blog AND on my website blog. Good luck, and remember to post your comment on MY WEBSITE to enter.

ALSO ----- I want to give my writing friend, Liz Craven, full points for inspiring the above rant. If you want to read something hilarious, go to her MySpace blog at http://blog.myspace.com/lizcraven and read "The Other Side of Paradise".

Currently reading : Weremones By Buffi BeCraft-Woodall Release date: 26 March, 2007

2:24 AM - 27 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Protecting Wolves -- Why I Got Involved

I write fiction about wolves and wolf-like fantasy creatures. To do so believably, I do a lot of research and also draw on my own experiences and those of my Alaskan neighbors. I lived in northwestern Canada for thirty years and often heard the songs of wolves at night. I've been privileged to observe a pack in the wild, and felt frustrated when another pack made off with the geese from my farm and a neighbor's calf. So I've seen wolves from both sides, so to speak, both beauty and beast. I still have enormous respect for the wolf.

I believe that predators are an essential part of the ecosystem. I recognize that the deer and moose need the wolves as much as the wolves need them. A wolf pack selects the sick and the weak, leaving the stronger, smarter, healthier animals to breed.

Up until a year ago, I was unaware that wild wolves might be in any danger in my area of the world. There are lots of them here in Alaska, even more than there were in northern Canada.

Then I read a local newspaper article about Alaskan government's sudden revival of their aerial shooting program. In subsequent study of this issue, I have not been satisfied that the government has adequately researched the alleged problem of wolf overpopulation. Plus, the government has disregarded the enormous public outcry against the aerial hunt.

I am not against hunting for food or defense, including defense of livelihood when necessary, but to me, the aerial shooting program smacks of indiscriminate slaughter.

This presented a difficult decision for me. I've seldom given my support to conservation groups, because I've often felt they did little but wring their hands, write impassioned letters and collect money. I watched Defenders of Wildlife in action on the Alaska wolf issue and was impressed enough to find out more. I haven't been disappointed. Out of the many groups I've looked at, this one seems to take real action to prevent and resolve conflict between humans and predators. I'm now a supporter of this organization. 

I'm hoping that the combined efforts of wildlife groups and the residents of Alaska will be successful in persuading the state government to reconsider its present policy of wolf management through extermination. I'm hoping there will be experienced and knowledgeable people appointed to the Alaska Board of Game. And I'm hoping that genuine studies will be undertaken and reliable data gathered upon which to base government decisions in the future.

Most of all I hope for a day when wolves are no longer "managed" by political whim. In fact, I'd rather they weren't "managed" at all, but left alone to be what they are:  a natural part of the wild world.

Sincerely,

Dani Harper

PS ---- If you would like to check out Defenders of Wildlife for yourself, here's the link to their wolf page: http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/wolf/alaska.html  From there you can navigate throughout their site.

I've designated a portion of all proceeds from anything sold on the shopping page of my website to be donated to Defenders of Wildlife. Since I started this, my website has been able to adopt its very first wolf (symbolically) and I hope to continue until www.romancingthewolf.com has amassed an entire pack.

3:47 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

BUT DO GHOSTS BELIEVE IN ME?

The women in our family seem to be attuned to the paranormal. (Maybe the guys are too, but they don't admit to it). My gramma, my mom and myself have had a number of experiences. Three of my daughters are particularly sensitive --- and apparently my dog is as well!

Scooby the Pug always slept with my youngest daughter. When you pet him in his sleep, he stretches out and rolls over on his back so you can pet him even better! My daughter awakened one night because she felt Scooby doing this. She opened her eyes and saw a young bearded man petting the dog! The man looked frightened when he noticed her watching him, backed up and vanished through the closed door.

Since that time, the man appeared several times. Another daughter walked right through him in the hallway! Two other ghosts were discovered to live in our house as well, and we had visual contact as well as the usual cold breezes and thumping around (I slept downstairs, and there was always lots of footsteps above, even when there was nobody home). Plus, there was one door in the hallway that the ghosts would NOT leave closed, no matter what we did (yeah, I locked it too...).

We never figured out who they were, although we did a lot of research. The house was only about 40 years old, so there was no lengthy history there, nor did the ghosts seem to be related to each other. I think the ghosts were just pleased with the novelty of finding people who were aware of them. Maybe they just wanted a little attention.

We lived in the house for several years. The kids grew up and moved away, and I sold the house.  I've often wondered if the new residents have had any encounters. Meanwhile, one of the ghosts appears to have followed my youngest daughter to her new home in another town. She says she doesn't mind him, but has to be firm about the noise sometimes.

7:02 PM - 10 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment