(Posted on Melissa’s behalf - Maura)
This month the newest installment in my Dog Wild series, Forget Me Knot, was released. Naturally, I am thrilled. So picture how confused I was, when I received an email from a reader asking all sorts of questions, the first of which was “why dogs?”
Now, I do know that a lot of people are either dog or cat people, but I have both, and the inspiration for the series came from a combination of old stories my Italian grandmother told me and from my own goofy canines.
Not long after bringing home BooRegard, the world’s most cowardly bully of a Basset, I started jotting notes on things he did that made me laugh so hard it hurt. Trust me, the list is long and I have plenty of material to work with yet. He was the original “peek-a-boo” puppy, hiding under the sofa and howling in terror at each new visitor.
At that time I was really into exercising to get rid of the weight I put on after quitting smoking, so Boo, Maximus (the Chihuahua inspiration for Mars) and I would go for our daily walk. I guess it was just a sign as to how well acclimated I had become to their odd walking patterns that I never thought twice about the complex dance steps of jog-jog-stop-hula hoop-spin-change hands-walk-repeat. It took having a friend who also wanted to lose weight join me on my daily four mile walk.
He didn’t stand a chance against the Boo. With a gay trumpet, the hound was on his way jogging (as per our normal jaunt) then slid to a sudden stop as “Jim” slid on gravel and tripped pell-mell for the next ten feet. Jim changed hands, Boo saw it as the signal for spin around time and started racing in circles. In all, the walk took almost two hours and I know I got more exercise from laughing than walking because my stomach ached and my legs were fine, but Jim gave me the best line - “Walking that dog is like having a seizure on roller skates.”
Thus, Dog Wild was born.
Dogs share a lot with their wild cousins the wolf; loyalty, dominance, affection, love, and the willingness to die for one another, to protect the “family”. Not long after the auto accident which left me with permanent central brain damage, I was talking with someone about an unwanted puppy. He had to be the ugliest baby I’d ever seen. Fully half the size of his female sibs, this naked little pup had funny scar-like marks on his left side but his skinny, wrinkly body scooted about with great joy, almond-shaped eyes sparkling. He was a completely naked Chinese Crested that no one wanted. Before leaving on the second visit, I overheard a comment on how the pup might have to be drowned and that was that, he came home and was dubbed Fidget. (Named for the peg-legged bat with the broken wing from the Great Mouse Detective.)
My menagerie was complete. At the time I had three cats, three dogs and three horses – life couldn’t get better. But families grow and shrink, in this case we’re now up to countless cats (with two barns, I dare you to count and get the same number twice) six horses and sadly, back to two dogs. My little Fidget seemed to feel a little under the weather yesterday afternoon, by the time we returned from the barn he was cold to touch and suffering full-blown seizures. I tried everything I could think of from my own seizure management sheets – a warm shower to ease the muscles, something between the teeth to keep him from choking – but it didn’t matter, by 8:30 last night he passed away.
Despite all the tears I’ve shed (and am shedding now typing this) I have to agree with my husband: through me Fidget got a second chance at life and it was great. He was happy and loved.
How does this particular personal incident bear on the Dog Wild series? There is a running theme in every story – second chances. Lupercus has a second chance at discovering a mate in the original tale and in book two four people get second chances. Whether on accident or purpose, I’ve built them into nearly each story I’ve worked on since my “second birthday” AKA the auto accident.
This sequel is for all of the folks who wanted a story for Lupercus sad-eyed brother, Frank Horne. While the main love story is wolf in nature, featuring the growly, taciturn clan-alpha Madden “Red” Silvestri and his mysterious helpmate there is another love story, just as powerful, for Frank and the prickly Flora Daniels. (Side note, if you read Forget Me Knot: Dog Wild 2 and look up the definition of helpmate on Wikipedia, you’ll get a well earned chuckle. Some days the synapses work better than others.)
As for the next story…I am trying very hard to bring out book three and four at the same time (or close to it), just as was done with books 1&2. The third is called Trickster’s Folly and has a May-December romance and book four is Fang Tower which, if things go as hoped, will slide off into a side series with vampires and fearsome things that go bump in the night. After that is (tentatively titled) book five, Blind Justice, for Quint Campanella.
But it all depends on what you, the readers want, and of course, the dogs.
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