{"id":43,"date":"2016-05-17T22:44:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T22:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/?p=43"},"modified":"2016-05-17T22:44:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T22:44:44","slug":"second-book-is-finished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/17\/second-book-is-finished\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Book is Finished"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p>Fairy Wars: Spies Among Us was sent last week to the editor. I anticipate a launch for it of July 1st. I plan on doing a couple of book signings this summer in the Idaho area in conjunction with its release. Check this website for updates about those signings. In the meantime, here\u2019s a teaser from the preface.<\/p>\n<p>Preface\u2014Brutus\u2019s (the Wolf\u2019s) Story<\/p>\n<p>Since our human champion Calen has been captured and imprisoned by the evil sorcerer Galdo, I\u2019ll have to be the one to tell you of the events that transpired before and during our hero\u2019s incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t by chance that Zamir, my supposed former owner, and I were standing on a street corner that day in the village of Lambert when Calen came shopping for a dog. By word of King Aubrey, head of the fairies, who is Prince Enlil\u2019s father and Zamir\u2019s employer, the Creator commissioned me to become Calen\u2019s protector. There I sat, looking all cute, tail wagging. I was sure to lick Calen\u2019s cheek with my wet tongue to seal the deal. I can be very persuasive when I want to.<\/p>\n<p>You see, Zamir is actually a powerful magician, not as powerful as the sorceress Crisa, who can shapeshift into animals and communicate telepathically with the animal kingdom, but mighty nonetheless, although he made himself appear old and feeble that day. He\u2019s the one who made me look like a German Shepherd puppy, although that\u2019s not my true form.<\/p>\n<p>Calen may have thought himself lucky to find a puppy for protection against the dark ones, right when he needed one. If you know the Creator though, you know there are no coincidences, only carefully laid plans.<\/p>\n<p>As you may have guessed, I\u2019m not just a doggone beautiful dog. I told Crisa my secret when she first read my mind. Her response? \u201cYour secret\u2019s safe with me.\u201d<br>\nOkay, so are you ready to hear my secret? Drum roll, please. Da, da, da, dat, da. I\u2019m a lycanthrope or werewolf. That\u2019s right, a hybrid that is both human and animal.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the rest of Fairyland, my race is visible to humans, even without the aid of the Omniweed (a magical plant that allows visual entrance into Fairyland for brief periods), and many tales are told in your non-lupine world of werewolves. Those tales are exaggerated. Silver is not lethal to us; a regular old bullet will kill us, just like you. We don\u2019t change with the full moon into brutish, uncontrollable beasts, but instead transform from wolves to humans and back again with just a bit of concentration. We\u2019re as gentle as they come to anyone with a kind heart, although be assured, I will use the full extent of my teeth and claws to kill anyone who tries to harm Calen.<\/p>\n<p>While I appeared to Calen as a German Shepherd puppy, thanks to Zamir, Crisa later changed me into a wolf to protect Calen\u2019s new identity as a centaur to keep him safe, since the dark ones had seen me with Calen. Ironic that, as a canid, I\u2019m normally a wolf, so she pretended to wave her wand to transition me, but actually she just removed Zamir\u2019s spell.<br>\nWithout Calen\u2019s knowledge, I\u2019ve protected him all along, as I\u2019m able to \u201csniff\u201d out darkness in all its forms. Unfortunately, I haven\u2019t always been able to fulfill my duties, like when Calen ordered me out of the house as the basilisk attacked, which the Creator told me Calen needed to battle by himself, and when Calen told me to \u201cstay\u201d outside after Crisa\u2019s cottage was ransacked. Being the \u201cgood dog\u201d I am when in wolf form, I do have to obey my master, which Calen has become because of the Creator\u2019s commission.<\/p>\n<p>I learned to wriggle out of my leashed collar early on and followed Calen several times in the first book of his Fairyland adventures. I shadowed him in hooded human form into Lambert where he purchased training supplies and later escaped my leash to be by his side when Galdo, that most evil and powerful sorcerer, appeared in Equis, the centaur village, with his dragons. Unknown to Calen, I\u2019ve also protected him several times from rogue bogle attacks in his training journeys across the kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>A bogle is an extremely dark creature, formed when a fairy, who is a light creature, allows the dark side of him to commit a heinous act, like killing an innocent. That fairy then becomes a larger, evil shadow of its former self. A bogle has a formidable skill set \u2013 no corporeal form, a scythe that can cut through bone, and the speed of a cheetah. To keep bogles from taking over the world, the Creator gave us, werewolves and even other wolves, the power to kill these wraiths, and we\u2019re the only animals and numinals, or magical beings, that can. The Creator also made our barks sound like high-pitched squeals to bogle ears, which causes them intense pain. I\u2019d love to sink my teeth into one of those darklings, but I\u2019d have to be fast.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so now you\u2019re thinking, if I\u2019m such a good bodyguard who has the power to kill bogles, why didn\u2019t I protect Calen from capture?<\/p>\n<p>The day of his capture I traveled with him to Equis, the centaur village, returned with him to Crisa\u2019s cottage and then was commanded to remain outside her gaping front door while he went in to investigate. Being the good \u201cdog\u201d I am, at least from Calen\u2019s perspective, I obeyed. I thought the dark ones were long gone, as I didn\u2019t smell them nearby, although there was a faint, lingering odor of darkness.<br>\nCalen was absent for about 10 minutes when I decided to follow him, cutting my pads on some broken glass. I discovered an escape tunnel in Crisa\u2019s basement and followed it into her back yard, but Calen was nowhere to be found. There the recent scent of dark creatures was strong.<\/p>\n<p>So I guess I\u2019m not the hot protector the Creator thought I would be. The Creator tells me He has a purpose for Calen\u2019s imprisonment, which makes me feel a little better, but I still feel like I\u2019ve failed both the Creator and Calen. I must make up for my blunder and find Calen ASAP.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fairy Wars: Spies Among Us was sent last week to the editor. I anticipate a launch for it of July 1st. I plan on doing a couple of book signings this summer in the Idaho area in conjunction with its release. Check this website for updates about those signings. In the meantime, here\u2019s a teaser … <a href=\"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/17\/second-book-is-finished\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Second Book is Finished<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/llbower.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}