The Secret Life of Wolf – Part One
The Secret Life of Wolf Series
In this series, you will find out the first time I met Wolf (one of my characters in the Bloodline series), how meeting him in the way I did changed my entire writing career, and why Wolf holds the keys to my past and my future.
In today’s episode …
Part One: The Day I met Wolf.
I didn’t create Wolf. I met him. And at the most extraordinary time. Find out how and when.
If you only read one of these, skip to EPISODE THREE, the most important post of all about how Wolf connects to traumas in my past and why he became such an important figure in my own personal story. Whether you have read the books or not, it is an important story that finally needs to be told.
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The Day I Met Wolf
Are they worth it, Master?
There it is: the first moment I met Wolf, and the first line of the novel of Bloodline: Alliance.
Having mapped out every single character, and convinced I knew where the book was heading, I sat down to write about Shenna, the book’s protagonist. Yet out popped this first line, just as it is, complete with italics. And I had no idea who it was.
“Why did it have to be italics?” I wondered.
“Because it was thought, not spoken,” a voice in me said.
“Why did the speaker call someone ‘Master’?”
“Because that is Shenna’s title. And this character respects that.”
“And why do I have the feeling that the speaker is not human?”
“Because he is not. Shenna is alone, the last of her kind. The speaker cannot be human.”
And so I kept writing, waiting to see who owned both the intriguing voice in the book and the clear voice that was speaking to me as I asked questions. I had never experienced such an exchange before – a question and a clear answer.
A few paragraphs later, and there he was: this giant silver creature, strikingly beautiful, sitting calmly at Shenna’s side and sharing her thoughts. It was a wolf. I did not know his name – not yet. Neither did I feel I was meant to know his name just now. And so he became Wolf.
Just who Wolf was, was not clear yet. I had to wait, and gradually he unfolded for me. How important he was, even I didn’t know until he revealed his great role to me in book two. Wolf knew his role all along, and knew how important he was. Patiently, as is Wolf’s nature, he waited for me to find out just how beautiful, precious and vital he was. More than that, God knew who Wolf was. The character of Wolf was God’s idea long, long before I even knew I would be a writer, and I will tell you more about this in Part Three.
It was only when I found out about Wolf, that the reader found out also. As you read Bloodline: Alliance and Bloodline: Covenant, you share in the unfolding of Wolf in exactly the same way I did. Wolf was a mystery, both to me and in the novel. But he was not a mystery to himself, and for that reason he quietly insisted on his place in the novel, slipping into the book on the very first line.
Are you worth it, Creature? my mind asked him that day.
Indeed I am, he answered. Just wait and see.
Why does this even matter? Wolf was so much more than a moment a character appeared. I have had many moments characters appear, but Wolf was special. Wolf was a truly supernatural event. To find out how and why, read The Secret Life of Wolf Part Two & Part Three.
About the Author: Lisa Saul
