Authorpreneur Dashboard – Brandon M Herbert
Walking Wolf Road
Teens
Uprooted and dumped in a small town at the edge of the Colorado mountains, Jimmy Walker is at odds with everything. He feels adrift, alienated from his classmates and even his own family. It’s hard being a teenager in a new town, struggling with grades, depression, hostile classmates, and a stepfather bent on making his life hell— Until a violent collision with fate leaves Jimmy bleeding under the light of a Full Moon…
Book Bubbles from Walking Wolf Road
#WeirdMonth
For as long as I can remember, February has been a wildcard. Off-the-wall events and weather both wondrous and terrible seem the only status quo. I started calling it 'Weird Month' years ago, and sad to say, the descriptor fits as well now as ever. Extreme and unpredictable weather, from sunny t-shirt weather one day, to record-snowfall and extreme freezes the next. Extreme and unpredictable relationship changes, most of the relationships I've ever had have begun or ended in February. Heck, even my wife and I became 'official' in a February! Extreme and unpredictable emotional swings. Whether it's random days of inexplicable sadness, or restless energy, odds are good to hit just about every spot on the emotional spectrum in 28/29 days. Noticing a theme here? Considering the fact that February is also when wolves tend to have their mating season, and the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia which celebrate Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus (which is a fun alternative for those like me who don't enjoy Valentine's Day), and that February's full moon is often referred to as the Wolf Moon; I couldn't resist incorporating Weird Month into Walking Wolf Road.
Haunted
With #Autumn upon us and #Halloween/#Samhain just around the corner, I figured I'd share this Bubble for all the #AutumnReads folks out there looking for a new book. This particular part of #WalkingWolfRoad was inspired by memories of High School, where I would stay late working on my assignments in the Art room as the days grew short and crisp. I always feel a little nostalgic this time of year, for the smell of apples and dusty leaves. My imagination often ran away with me back then, but writing WWR allowed me to make some of my flights of fancy come to life... and somehow manage to propel the plot while doing so!
Journey of the Wounded Healer
While I have never been bitten by a venomous snake, I grew up in Colorado with a near-constant awareness of them and had a couple close calls. When I wrote the first draft of Walking Wolf Road, I made a passing reference to rattlesnakes, which then expanded through each of the following 9 revisions until a snakebite became an integral element to Jimmy's progression as a character, and helped explain why he'd rejected his wolf spirit guide and stopped journeying to the Shamanic Lowerworld as a child. Years later, while doing research for Walking Wolf Road's sequel, Bearing Raven's Mark, I read a book titled 'Awakening to the Spirit World' by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman. In this book, they discuss the concept of the Shaman as the 'wounded healer'; "[h]aving been grievously wounded or ill, and then having recovered after being at the point of death" (p.7,14). After reading this, I realized that I had unconsciously and unintentionally tapped into an authentic Shamanic experience that often triggers a potential shaman's initiation to the Shamanic path; just like it did for Jimmy in the novel. One of many 'happy accidents' of authenticity that occurred while writing. ^_^*
Which road will you walk?
As with many minor details in Walking Wolf Road, this pivotal point in the story was laced with little mythological and symbolic 'Easter Eggs'. The cords that are tearing Jimmy apart are tied to his anamistic wolf soul and his humanity, which are at odds with each other. The cords themselves are representative of an object from Norse mythology. 'Gleipnir' is the binding that holds the mighty wolf Fenrir until he breaks free at Ragnarok, forged by dwarves out of "the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird". Gleipnir is as thin as a silken ribbon, and yet is stronger than any iron chain. When Fenrir was bound, he bit off the God Tyr's hand, which adds another layer of symbolism to another character, Bo Tyrson, and certain events near the end of Walking Wolf Road.
