Wild Rose Country

[JonaWolf]

Hello Cougar and welcome to my quiet corner of the web, Crash...

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I look forward to your writings the most and am always excited to see another chapter of any of your stories up and ready to be devoured.

Glad to hear that.  '>  Such things always give the incentive to keep writing.

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How's your dog, btw?

The old furball has had quite a morning so far. First off a trip to the vet for her annual checkup and vaccinations then a couple of hours spent chasing other dogs at the local off leash park. She's getting up there in years now(a little over ten) but is still happy and healthy except for a touch of arthritis showing up in her hips. Hopefully I'll be fortunate enough to have her companionship for a few more years yet.

WRC 17 is hovering around 13,000 words now and still needs some bits here and there to finish it off. I hoping to have it posted by the beginning of April.

Stay tuned.... '>

[JonaWolf]

An update on WRC 17...

The chapter is finished and at 13,140 words it's the longest yet. It hasn't been  posted yet as I need to go over it a couple more times with a clear mind (I'm wound up on coffee and a I'm a little cross-eyed from staring at a computer screen all morning) but I will have it up as soon as possible, which means this evening at the earliest or next weekend at the latest.

Stay tuned...

[JonaWolf]

The new chapter is up. You can read it here.

I look forward to any and all comments...

[cougar2k2]

Well I didn't catch you online before I finished rereading the last one or two chapters and the new one.  But damn that was an awsome one and worth the wait.  I've been extremely curious about what happened and why Sharra was out in the woods in the first place.  I mean we got clues here and there but now we have a more clear view of what happened.  It was emtion packed and you yet again raise more questions, specifically about these 'gods.'  Which leads me to believe that they might make another appearance in coming chapters.  Well a great chapter, yet again, and keep it up  '>

[Parrotfish577]

Great Chapter.  '>

Hopefully the next one won't entail such a wait.  '>

[JonaWolf]

Whew! Finally back near my computer after an exhausting week. Probably won't spend much time in front of this thing though. A wonderful spring day beckons outside and I'm itching to go do some wandering.

Thanks for the comments Cugar2k2 and welcome to my forum Parrotfish. Things are generally pretty quiet around here...until I post a new chapter.  '>

The long intervals between chapters are an unfortunate effect of the life I lead when combined with trying to write three online novels at the same time. Writing time is often scarce and weeks can go by without me even looking at my notes or thinking about what I'm going to write. That and I usually try to rotate through my novels to make sure each gets updated at least once a year.

The Gift of a Stranger is next on my list, and after that, Wolf River so it might be a bit of a wait for the next chapter of WRC. I'll try to make up for the lack of quantity with something that is of sufficient quality to make my readers happy.  '>

Thanks for reading guys, and thanks for the comments.

[Crash]

Holy man. That last one was overwhelming. You could really feel the pain traveling from Sharra.   A trademark of a great author when you start feeling it for those characters of his that don't even exist.
I'm still a little perplexed how you'll approach the physical inevitable here, though. You just don't seem like the kind of guy, Jona.  '>
Also, very glad to see GoaS getting attention. I only just read through what you had and wonder if there's anything you'll write that I won't like.

[JonaWolf]

Quote (Crash @ April 22 2007, 11:23 am)

Holy man. That last one was overwhelming. You could really feel the pain traveling from Sharra.   A trademark of a great author when you start feeling it for those characters of his that don't even exist.

I had several readers email me and report that the last chapter had moved them to tears. To me, that is high praise indeed. To know that they get far into the story and start feeling for the characters  when, as you said, they don't exist is quite something else. To you Crash, and to the others who have let me know such things, I extend a big thank you for letting me know me know the swing in the dark I took many years ago might have actually connected with something. '>

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I'm still a little perplexed how you'll approach the physical inevitable here, though. You just don't seem like the kind of guy, Jona.

Believe me, I've been wondering just how to approach that problem from the very day I realized that one way or another this story was going to require a little physical interaction between the main characters. I can guarantee it won't be explicit though. That's just not my style and I do have a reputation to uphold you know. '>

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Also, very glad to see GoaS getting attention. I only just read through what you had and wonder if there's anything you'll write that I won't like.

Glad you like that one too, though I'm having a tough time finding time to work on it these days. I'm in a rut of twelve hour workdays at the moment with several extracurricular projects on the go as well as my usual eight to five workload. It must be summertime or something...

Thanks for the comments Crash.

[JonaWolf]

A new and hopefully improved version of Wild Rose Country has now been posted.

There are several reasons for this rewrite, the biggest one being that the early chapters were written many years ago when I really had no solid ideas as to where I wanted to go with this story in the long run. I've since fixed that problem and a few things had to change to bring the early part of the story in line with the outline I'm working from now.

The other main reason is that I've learned much about writing since my first uncertain attempts back in late '99. The way the first few chapters were written always bugged me and I kept putting off re-working them because I knew the amount of work it would mean.  

This will be the final edit until the story is completed. Hopefully I've achieved what I set out to do and that is come up with a better and more believable way of telling the story from the point of view of the man that lived through it.

The new version can be found here. It's in one big rtf file (800Kb! ) for now as that is currently all that I have time to post. I may split it into separate chapters down the road.

Any comments or feedback on this new version would be greatly appreciated. I need you readers to let me know if I'm on the right track or not.

[Crash]

I'm going to read through it pretty soon and give some feedback. In the meantime, your link to the forum isn't working because they seem to have patched the software.
Hope everything is going well for you!

[cougar2k2]

Hey there Jona

Just reread the rewrite.  I love the changes, it closed up some of the gaps that weren't really that noticable but still appeared.  I would think that it also makes it easier to write for you since you now have a better idea of where you want to take the story.  I'm lookin' forward to future chapters.

A side note that might interest you.  I've seen commercials for a new documentary on the Discovery Channel on Jan. 21st called 'Life After People.'  Guess what it's about?  lol  Anyway as soon as I saw it I thought of WRC and Wolf River.  I thought it might give you a better idea of what the flora and fona would be like and how it would overtake and crumble modern day civilization.  Just a heads up.

Keep up the great work and I'll talk to you later.

[JonaWolf]

Hey cougar2k2! Long time no see.

Good to hear you enjoyed the re-write of WRC.  '>

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A side note that might interest you.  I've seen commercials for a new documentary on the Discovery Channel on Jan. 21st called 'Life After People.'  Guess what it's about?  lol  Anyway as soon as I saw it I thought of WRC and Wolf River.  I thought it might give you a better idea of what the flora and fona would be like and how it would overtake and crumble modern day civilization.  Just a heads up.

I find that to be very interesting an I'm going to keep an eye out for it. I haven't seen the ads for it yet but then I haven't exactly been watching much TV lately.

There is another show of interest that is broadcast here north of the border that is called Survivorman. The basic concept is that this guy gets left in the middle of nowhere in various parts of the world and has seven days to either survive and wait to be picked up or find his way back to civilization. He has no food and almost nothing else to help him in this task. He's done this in the arctic in the dead of winter, tropical jungles, deserts, etc. I think the guy is quite literally nuts but it does make for an often fascinating tv show. Dunno if they show it down in the states though.

[ScottyDM]

Baa-aack! 

[JonaWolf]

Aieeeeee! Run for you liiives!

Oh wait, it's just Scotty. 

How the heck are ya? It's been awhile since you stopped in here for a visit.

[ScottyDM]

Yea... awhile.

I came here in 2004 specifically to post on this forum thread, and then in 2005 I forgot to come back.    <- me

But I got better, so here I am again.

Okay, what really happened is I got this e-mail from Furtopia saying, "The board's been hacked. Run for your wives!" (or something like that). Then a couple of days ago I got another e-mail that said, "We fixed it, y'all can come back now." So I did. And here I am. 


What have I been doing? I left a greeting in the "furry greetings" forum that 'splains some o' that. The most significant is that I've been writing, and I took over the management of a furry writing contest in spring of 2006 when the former manager was forced to drop out.

I participated in NaNoWriMo 2005 and did terrible! Little more than a vague idea only capable of sustaining a short story, will do that to ya. Then I studied storytelling, trying to hone my skills. Mixed results. NaNo again for 2007 and did better, but I seem to have this flaw/feature where I can't effectively write anything if I know at the time it's largely useless/filler/junk. That doesn't meant that what I do write is worth saving--only that I thought so at the time. I'll probably toss out my 4,100 word first chapter and start with the second. The second needs some editing, but the opening's pretty hot.

I've got a lot of partly written stories: shorts, novellas, and that novel. I think I'm ready to start submitting to the professional markets, but I need to finish something so I can submit it. My completed stories have all been Internet published. My two latest short story starts are for professional sale (at least that's my hope).

The first is cyber/sci-fi/anthro set in a far future post-human world (geeeee, sounds familiar) and explores the psychology of the animal bride genre. In this case the human husband role is played by a genetically uplifted fox--although exactly what he is isn't revealed until the third act. And the animal bride role is played by an AI living in VR.

The second story is a far more conventional myth/fairy tale set in present times. It's a retelling of the classic selkie story, but the twist is that rather than capture her and force her to live as a human (selkies are shapeshifers, as most animal brides in the old stories are), he follows her into her world and he is transformed.


The shape of the animal bride story has changed throughout history and is a reflection of how the storyteller's society relates to the natural world. In very early stories a human marries an animal (animals are treated like people) and this animal brings some gift or skill to her husband's tribe--end of story. In feudal Europe and Asia the story shifts to the man either captures a shapeshifting animal and forces her to retain her human shape, or she beguiles him in her human shape; they marry; she regains her shapeshifting ability, or he breaks some taboo, or her secret is discovered; they part, sometimes fatally--end of story. In the last few centuries this second type of story has further evolved so that after they part, he purses her and wins her love, and then brings her back home--end of story. What I'm doing with my new myth is pushing that even further to where, when her true nature is revealed and he is given the choice to give up humanity and join her in her world, he does.

So in the first story type, society is living with nature; the world is filled with spirits and all--plant, animal, and human--are a part of the spiritual cosmos. In the second story type society is struggling against nature--building cities, growing crops, and keeping livestock; humans have risen above the natural world, which is a scary and dangerous place. In the third story type humans are starting to realize that maybe living apart from nature makes us a lonely species, so the pursuit of the lost bride can represent the pursuit of nature--but nature is brought back to civilization and tamed. In our fourth story type the human word represents a failure; in rejection of that world the husband goes in pursuit of nature and becomes one with nature.

I say "our" because Wild Rose Country is of this fourth type. It's an animal bride story. Sure, John doesn't have a choice, but you did and that's what you chose for him, and he accepted it. Your characters don't shapeshift, but John joins a society much like the societies that embraced the first story type--at one with nature; living with nature and not against it. He becomes a wolf. I think that's why, when I first read your story back in 2004, I had a "Wow!" reaction. Given today's ecological, political, and economic climate, there will be a lot of readers who want to become John. Furry or mundane, who you are has nothing to do with that desire.

So yea. I been keeping busy.

Scotty

[JonaWolf]

O.o

Scotty, I think you broke something...

I thinks these forums are hungry or something. There’s a couple of posts missing as well as a chunk of text from your last post that somehow ended up getting posted under my name. Or maybe I need another cup of coffee to help uncross my eyes...

You have been busy.

I’ve come across a few references to that furry writing contest you manage and one time even tried to come up with something useable for it. However, by the time I finished it the deadline had come and gone months earlier and the final product had little to do with the original theme. Still, that attempt turned into one of my best works yet. I’ll have to give that contest another go someday.

Interesting to hear you gave NaNWriMo a shot. I’ve entertained that idea but since it usually takes at least six months for me to write 40,000+ useable words, trying to do that in one month would likely be a disaster. Still, it could be a good way to force myself to write on those many occasions when I don’t have the inspiration to do so. Many times, after the initial few minutes (or hours) of staring at a blank screen with an equally blank mind, something actually starts to flow once the first few hesitant lines are typed out. The problem is sticking with it until that happens instead of getting bored and frustrated and moving on to other tasks.

You’re ready to start submitting to professional publishers? Awesome! I wish you luck in that task. I’ve toyed with this idea as well. While I have had a few people tell me that some of my work seems to be of publishable quality, I’m not so sure. You see, I write without really understanding what writing is all about. I’ve never studied the art of storytelling and I’m a little vague as to what makes a good story. I write what I feel might work and plug away at it until it feels as right as I can make it. I have no educational background to speak of as far as literature is concerned. I’m a high school educated auto mechanic who barely passed(and utterly despised! ) English classes during his long past school days so you might be able to understand why I don’t have a huge amount of confidence in my own writing(though I do have a bunch more than I used to).

Animal bride stories - I’d never heard that phrase until your last post(yeah, I know, I need to do a ton of research regarding writing). Now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense considering what I’ve read over the years. Fascinating the way those stories have changed as society has advanced, stories born out of man’s struggle with and against nature as well as his own species. Definitely something I will have to do some research on.

You’re right. On most levels WRC is an animal bride story. I’d never thought about it that way before but when you consider the reasons that led me to begin writing WRC, it makes perfect sense. I’ve never been a fan of modern society. I find it far too complicated, too cold, too destructive. I wanted a story about a man returning to a simpler life, living with nature instead of against it but I also wanted to show how hard and dangerous that simpler life can be. The anthro element actually came in later when I realized the human was going to need help to survive and I wondered what the next species to rise to a human level of sentience would be.

Given today's ecological, political, and economic climate, there will be a lot of readers who want to become John.

Tell me, where do I sign up?

At his most basic level, John is patterned largely after me (write about what you know, they say...) I figured that for a story born out of my distaste for modern society who better to play a pivotal role in it?

Good to have you back here Scotty. As always, your posts are deep and thought provoking.

And now you’ve got me thinking about writing...

I’m getting better there, especially with the short stories. I don’t know if you’ve read Lost and Found Under the Northern Lights yet, but I consider that story to be one of my best yet. Not really furry, more transformation related, that one. I’m in the middle of revising At Any Cost with ideas of maybe submitting it to one of the anthro related magazines out there. I have another short story on the go, a sort of ‘Last Man on Earth’ type only in this case the character isn’t human. Might attempt to get that one published too. I’m also half way through WRC 18 and hope to have that one done sometime in the next few weeks.

Life has been busy for me too. A new job, my hockey team gearing up for the playoffs, recovering from two busted ribs as a result of playing on said hockey team. Adopted another dog, a 100+ pound Alaskan Malamute as a companion for my old furball, and now I find that I might have to move this summer. Writing has been pushed to the back burner far too often of late, but such is life.

[JonaWolf]

After nearly every conceivable delay and roadblock, chapter 18 of Wild Rose Country has finally been completed.

http://www.jonawolf.furtopia.org/scribblings/chap18.html

[cougar2k2]

Wow   

I think that's one of the best chapter so far in WRC.  It is a very very mean way to end it but other than that an extremely good chapter, well worth the wait.  You really learn a lot about John's past, mindset and how he is changing from who he was.  You can also tell Sharra and him are starting to get closer.  Can't wait to see what all happens next.

[bladan]

I would have to agree with Cougar, another great chapter and even more tantalizing tidbits of info to build our anticipation even higher.  I know it's not a possibility, but reading your stories makes me wish that you were putting out a chapter a month if not a week.

Looking forward to the next chapter from your stories as always.

[JonaWolf]

I know it's not a possibility, but reading your stories makes me wish that you were putting out a chapter a month if not a week.

Hello and welcome Bladan!

One thing I have never been happy about is making my readers wait so long for the next chapter but at this point in time there isn't much I can do about it. Often I wonder if I should have written the entire story before posting it online. However, with my busy and sometimes chaotic life it is highly unlikely that I would have completed more than a few chapters. Knowing that there are people out there waiting eagerly for the next installment is one of the things that drives me to find the time to sit down and write. The feedback I have received over the years has also taught me much about writing and WRC is better for it.

Believe me, you're not the only one who'd like to see chapters on a weekly or monthly basis. I'd absolutely love to be able to give you guys that.

Chapter 19 is coming along well though. Might not be too long before I have that one done...

It is a very very mean way to end it but other than that an extremely good chapter, well worth the wait.

Well, I had to end the chapter somewhere. Actually I had to forcibly cut it off because it was getting so long that it was taking on a life of its own.  The good news though, is that the excess has been transplanted to chapter 19.

Thanks guys. You're comments, as always, are very much appreciated.

[Varg the wanderer]

I finally got the time to sit down and enjoy it. Bravo!

I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said, except to call you cruel and sadistic for ending a chapter like that...

And if his drawings have Power in them, what does Sharra see in them? And what happens if he writes?

[Simo]

I see this story is getting better as it progresses. It's gotta be good to keep one coming back for more for over four years now.     Yuppers, that's when my first post in the thread went up. Oh well, better to take your time and get it right than rush-rush and not get it right.   

[JonaWolf]

Simo!

I missed your post here for some odd reason. Good to see that you're still around.

It's hard to believe that this thread has been around since early '04. It doesn't seem like four years have passed me by already. Time does fly by when life is busy.

On that note, I can hardly believe that I started writing WRC almost nine years ago! It's been one hell of a journey.

I agree with you that this story is getting better as it progresses. A couple of years back (around the chapter 14 mark)  I finally sat done and wrote an outline for the entire story, something I should have done ages ago. It's far easier to write when I have a clear view of the path I want to take. My writing is also getting better, I think. I still need to work on my dialogue scenes but I'm leaps and bounds ahead of my earlier work.

Readers come and go. There are a handful that have stayed with this story since the beginning. Others have no doubt moved on and faded away and a new face pops up every now and then. I'm grateful for each and every one I have, vocal or not.

I don't have the time to rush my writing. 

I'm cautious and want to get things right so I tend to write slow and do much thinking about just how exactly I want to portray a certain scene. I really do wish I could get new material out more frequently but my life never seems to allow that.

WRC 19 is partially done though and if the stars and planets align correctly it may be done soon.

Thanks for sticking around over the years.

[Simo]

Simo!

I missed your post here for some odd reason.

That's called "real life", and it's been getting in the way of my 'Net time too.

I agree with you that this story is getting better as it progresses. A couple of years back (around the chapter 14 mark)  I finally sat done and wrote an outline for the entire story, something I should have done ages ago. It's far easier to write when I have a clear view of the path I want to take. My writing is also getting better, I think. I still need to work on my dialogue scenes but I'm leaps and bounds ahead of my earlier work.

It's a big help.

WRC 19 is partially done though and if the stars and planets align correctly it may be done soon.

Thanks for sticking around over the years.

Lookin' forward to it.

[JonaWolf]

The new chapter is up.

www.jonawolf.furtopia.org/scribblings/chap19.html