Wolf Moon – Wolf Bonds – Family

You know me with moon cycles. Lunacy runs rampant in this writer’s mind.

January’s Wolf Moon is the first full moon of 2024.

“During the New Moon, we set intentions and think about what changes we would like to see in our lives over the coming weeks. It is during the Full Moon that a light shines on how these changes are manifesting and even what we can do to bump things up a bit.”

https://www.astrologyanswers.com/article/full-moon-dreams/#google_vignette

Time to manifest and bump things up a bit.

Last night was the first of the three nights of 2024’s Wolf Moon. Tonight will be its apex. Candles are burning.

https://time.com/6588291/wolf-moon-january-meaning/

Now with respect to the origin of the name, Wolf Moon, the writer Laura Beck so beautifully explains: “Ancient cultures and indigenous tribes perceived a link between the moon’s glow and the nighttime cries of wolves in the winter forest. This fusion between the striking brilliance of the full moon and the haunting howls of the wolf pack gave rise to the January moon becoming known as the ‘Wolf Moon.'”

https://parade.com/living/full-wolf-moon-january

Ms. Beck also shares that, according to the spiritual healer Dr. Jonathan Dubois: “Wolves teach us to know who we are and help us develop strength, confidence and surety about who we are.”

https://parade.com/living/full-wolf-moon-january

In sum, Ms. Beck nails it when she connects that wolves denote family.

“As pack animals, wolves model tight family bonds and loyalty.”

https://parade.com/living/full-wolf-moon-january

For me, family is everything. You are blessed by the one you are born into and the one you build around you throughout your life.

That is the central theme that runs through all five books of The Claire Saga.

I drew upon the symbolism of a wolf to make that point.

Spoiler alert:

Whitey the werewolf character in The Claire Saga first appears in An Alien Appeal, where he is invited and welcomed into the newly formed crew of mystical misfits by Claire herself. As a life-long lone wolf, this acceptance into this magical pack means everything to him. His bond is instantaneous and deep and his loyalty and desire to protect the others is reflected time and time again in AAA, Kissing My Ass Goodbye and finally, ultimately, in Where The Ley Lines Meet. His paternal nature is reflected most strongly in his nurturing relationship to the once human child, Lucian, who becomes his legacy. His fraternal nature is reflected with his warrior bond to the human, ex-Army Ranger, Eddie. Valhalla.

A little back story to Whitey.

Whitey is based upon my friend, Jim Fronsdahl.

Jim and I met at Walmart in 2020 during the time of COVID. Walmart had just reopened and had limited the number of customers allowed into the store at any given time. So you spent a lot of time on line outside the building. On Tuesday mornings, they allowed old fuckers in an hour early, so on one cold morning standing on line, Jim and I got to talking.

Like me, Jim was a Colorado transplant. He had retired from his job as an aeronautics engineer, and he and his lovely wife Kathy (who shot the cover for TWA), moved from California to check out a few states before deciding on his final retirement location, which turned out to be Idaho. I miss Jim and Kathy.

Jim is bigger than life. Powerful. Always smiling. Old school. A mountain man. And over time, during our Walmart meetups, he finally asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a lawyer and that I had just written TWA. Jim doesn’t like lawyers, I get that, Shakespeare’s Dick Butcher had a point (“The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Act IV, Scene II, Henry VI, Part II), but being a voracious reader, Jim asked if I would show him the manuscript.

Jim is a polymath, quite brilliant, and his discerning eye for detail was invaluable. It helped make TWA a better book.

He also knows military hardware and armaments better than anyone I have ever met. Jim taught me what fighter jets would chase UFOs from what air bases.

Once Kathy shot that iconic photo of Claire for the cover, I wanted to reward Jim in some way for all of their help, so I asked him if I could make him a character in AAA. He was thrilled.

Now Jim and Kathy had limited family and were never blessed with children, so I kept that in mind when I fashioned Whitey. I wanted Whitey’s inclusion into the crew of mystical misfits to be a metaphor for Jim’s inclusion into a literary family that will continue onwards until readers stop reading my books.

I wanted Jim’s Whitey character to form sibling bonds with Eddie and the crew, and to form legacy bonds that will continue beyond the existence of his character in The Claire Saga. So I had him form an added emotional, mentoring attachment to the child, Lucian’s character, so that some of Whitey would always be carried forward in the story line.

I picked the name, Whitey, for the obvious reference to Jim’s thick white mane. Also, I didn’t want too many Jimmy characters floating around. When I finally showed Jim the draft of AAA, he was thrilled because, it turns out, his father’s lifelong nickname was Whitey. Synchronicity indeed.

One final side note, there is a scene in AAA which I call the Mary & Joseph scene, where Jimmy Moran picks up a hitchhiking pregnant couple on their way to Wyoming for a family Thanksgiving. With them was their dog.

When Jim read that scene, he asked if I could change the breed to a husky and call her Chloe, after Jim and Kathy’s beloved and passed dog. I then gave Chloe that added extra moment when she licks Jimmy’s hand in the truck towards the end of that chapter. Jim was thrilled. So, now you know.

Whitey plays the ultimate ass kicking character in Where The Ley Lines Meet. Just recalling it all as I sit here typing this blog excites the fuck out of me. No lie, the hair on my body is galvanized. But Whitey shows his nurturing, loving and familial side as well. He has found his forever pack.

So, with this Wolf Moon, in this new year of 2024, I intend to manifest taking Claire’s Family of Mystical Misfits to the big screen. I want to share this story of The Claire Saga with a lot of people who may not otherwise pick up the books. And the part of me that so loved the collaborative process I experienced seeing my legit play, Revelations, performed on stage in New York City, in two different venues, would love to see how a talented director and actors could bring this family story and its amazing characters, like Whitey, to life on screen.

So Hollywood, when you hear this mad writer howling at this Wolf Moon, take that as your clarion call to come and check out these wonderful novels. As anyone who has read them will attest, they invoke the emotional connection of LOTR and Harry Potter. Family is family.

But while I am waiting for that phone to ring, I must get on with my day.

Thursday, Friday’s lady in waiting.

So, you fine, five readers, have that last cuppa and head out into the world to wrap up your work week. Leave Friday for planning your wonderful weekends.

I’m going to start my day with a kitty cuddle or two.

And then my rounds.

Let’s see where the rest of the day takes me.

But no matter what else we do, let us make today a great one.

And if later tonight, you feel the urge, have a good howl at the moon, just to let the family know you are thinking about them.