Writer in Residence

This weekend, I received a lovely e-mail from an Australian reader, Millie. In this e-mail Millie asked me some interesting questions.

It’s the first time I’ve actually been asked these, and thought they were worth reproducing here. Thank you Millie, for your permission to include parts of your e-mail here ( and thanks for all the kind words! I really do hope Rebel Prince lives up to the first two for you)

Ok. Millie asked me:
What happens to the people called the wolves? Do they turn into wolves or are they just people that act like wolves?

Why did you decide to put the cats and the ghosts in the story? And do they play a major part in the next book cause i was a little confused at there place in the book

This is my answer:
The Loups-Garous do indeed become Wolves (full Wolves when they want to, but sometimes semi-Wolves when fighting.) I hesitated a long time over that, whether or not to let them actually be wolf-creatures. Originally they were just ordinary men who used the Wolf legend to terrorize their victims. But in the end I decided to push things that step further, and have their greed and disregard of others manifest itself as a physical change. The name Loups-Garous is a tribal name, it refers to a very specific group of Wolves. Other then their wolfness, the Loups-Garous are, like Jonathon’s people, an eclectic mix of races. Being a Wolf is what binds the Loups-Garous together, and it is the thing that their leaders have used to both strengthen and exploit them.

I hesitated a long time before taking this step. I have always hated that convention in literature where one particular race/set of people are inherently evil. It seems to happen a lot in young adult’s/children’s literature and it has always disturbed me. I don’t believe anyone is inherently bad or evil. The Wolves are not inherently bad - but the Loups-Garous leaders have seeked out and taken children whose physical/emotional traits tend to separate them from society, and offered them a place where they belong - that place happens to be within a group of ruthless bandits. I chose to show the other side of being a Wolf through one of my main characters. By introducing a Wolf character who was raised in a society open to differences, and whose childhood experiences had help him manage rather then revel in his inheritance, I was able to show that being a Wolf is just a physical thing and does not automatically make you a bad person. For this character, it is not greed and selfish disregard for others that manifests as a Wolf, but fear and a deep, mostly unexpressed anger and resentment against what has been done to him.

The cats and the ghosts were another way of showing all the things that will be lost should the chaos in the kingdom over come the good things. I wanted to symbolizing freedom of expression, independence, and wonder without being too heavy handed about it, so I chose spirits and talking cats. I wanted them to be fantastical things which are part of an ordinary setting and so are taken for granted by those around them. Like most things which humans take for granted, the impact of losing such wonderful things as talking cats and ghosts, won’t be felt until they’re gone and it’s too late to turn back.

-0-

There you go, my crazy reasons for things! I hope my answers made sense.
If anyone wants to know more just ask me.
Thank’s again to Millie for her lovely letter

(This post is mirrored on my own blog. Hope you don’t mind)