NaNoWriMo- Brave Season- Wynter's Character sketch

Why do I need to do this? I know the League wants detailed biographies of every shifter, but I’m not dying. I know accidents happen that’s what made you check the Archives for my file in the first place. Whatever. Ask your questions.

I was born Wynter Jillian Rogers on May 22, 1976. I’m 29 years old. I live in Southern California, Santa Barbara to be exact. I’m the Alpha of the Western Pack, and a member of the League of Packs.

I have light blonde hair that most people think comes from a box. It doesn’t. My blue eyes are mine although; I do wear contacts to make them darker. Pale blue washes out under my light hair. It’s my one vanity, the contacts. I’m slim as all shifters seem to be. I don’t follow the genetic stuff like some of the breeds do, but I do know I can eat a 16 inch loaded pizza without having to worry about gaining weight. I’m tall too and I love it. Wouldn’t give up an inch of height.

I don’t have to work, but I do. I own a charter company called Any Season. I can fly anything that goes into the air. I even dated a Navy pilot and got him to teach me to fly F14’s. I’m a one-woman operation and I work when I want. I love flying. I secretly wished to be an Eagle shifter. Sad that the shifting breed died, some say they never existed.

I come from a long line of wealthy people. I get a monthly allowance that more than meets my needs. I’m not frivolous with my money but not a tight wad either. I did spend a huge amount for my mansion in the hills. I wanted a place big enough for my pack sisters and their daughters to live together as a pack should.

My mother? You want to know about my mother? She was efficient. She groomed me to be strong and meticulous, smart and self-sufficient. She was the same with my sisters. I have six older sisters and three younger ones. None of us know our fathers. There were several different men, but none of them stayed long. Mom made sure of that. She didn’t have much use for men. If she didn’t need them to father her daughters, she wouldn’t speak to them at all. We think that Spring and Summer have the same father, but we can’t be sure since we all favor our mother’s side of the family.

I never knew my father. Mom always said he was an adequate lover she chose because of his hair color. He never knew she was pregnant. None of the fathers were told of the children born. Like I said, Mom didn’t have much use for men.

I have brothers too I guess. Nathan claims to be one. He showed up last year. I don’t know if I actually believe him, but Spring says she remembers Mom being pregnant and going to the hospital in labor, but being told the baby died. Summer says she had a lot of “miscarriages” after Roe V. Wade passed the Supreme Court. I remember a few. I don’t know. Mom never had much use for males, so I guess it’s possible.

My first flight on an airplane is my favorite memory of my childhood. Mom chartered a jet to fly us all the Disney World for Christmas. We’d been to Disneyland too many times to count, but this was flying. I ran away from home a lot when I was little. Mom never worried about it much. She knew she could give me an hour and I would be at the fence of LAX watching the planes. I don’t remember when flying didn’t fascinate me. I dated the pilot, even with his controlling attitude to learn how to fly the military stuff. He asked me to marry him. That’s when I sent him packing. I’m not marrying anyone. Ever.

My first sexual experience? What does that matter? Isn’t that a private thing? Why do you need to know that? I don’t think it matters other than it was my most significant adolescent experience as well. Why so hostile? You’re asking about private stuff. I’m allowed to keep things private. This is America after all.

I never went to college, didn’t need too. All I needed was flight school. Worked up from private planes to a pilot for California Airlines. I was certified for all commercial airplanes up to the 757’s. I quit to open Any Season. I’m doing fine. I get to fly and write it all off on my taxes.

I think I’m honest, loyal and unafraid to call things like I see them. Sometimes that comes back to bite me because sometimes I’m wrong, but most of the time, I call things dead on. I’m laid back and easy going, but tend to be a neat freak. I have large numbers of people living in my house. Everything has to go in its place or we’d be wallowing in crap sooner rather than later.

I don’t believe in God, Buddha, Mohammad, Allah, UFO’s, the God & Goddess or any other form of religion you can think of. No such leader in their right mind would allow the crap that goes on in their names to continue.

Political thoughts? I try not too. The League of Packs is enough political crap for me. The League is a microcosm of the feds or any state. All the wheeling and dealing, ‘I’ll do this for you if you do this for me.’ Yuck. Whatever happened to doing something because it was the right thing to do?

I guess that’s why I told Trace about the baby. I didn’t have to. Probably would have been wiser not to. The wolves have some insane ideas about mates and permanency. I see how the wolves stay with their mates forever and have a few dozen kids. They seem happy enough, but man. I mean why wake up next to the same person everyday?

Trace did well. He didn’t go on and on about how children needed both their parents to be normal healthy children like wolves tend to do. He didn’t balk at my suggestion that he raise it if it’s a boy while I raise it if it’s a girl. I kind of thought he would. I do know, that for whatever reason, Trace is linked to me. I’m his only means of continuing his bloodlines. I’ve seen the research. I know that wolves, and even the non-shifting siblings are sterile until they meet their mates. Never crossed my mind that I’d be one of them.

I have no intentions of becoming any man’s wife or housekeeper or nursemaid. Not me, not ever. I will, of course, help Trace have his sons. Their upbringing will be up to him.

Haven’t we been through this already? I won’t talk about my sexual experiences. They are none of your business. Am I opposed to sexual relations? Hummm, no, I am pregnant. I’m kind of looking forward to it. Having a little one to take care of warms my heart. I hope it’s a she.

Work? I own Any Season, you know the charter company that let’s me fly and still write it off on my taxes? I understand that you guys do a through job with these interviews so there is a record of every shifter, but damn I didn’t think you would be this nosey or repetitive. You’re driving me up the wall.

Hobbies? No, well flying, but we’ve covered and recovered that.

Inhibited? Me? No I’m not inhibited. If I want to do something, I do it. I figure out the consequences later. Yes, before you ask that has gotten me into trouble many times. I’ve always managed to get out without a scratch. Well, most of the time. I’ve learned from everything that’s happened to me. I’ve made sure I don’t repeat mistakes. I make lots of new ones, but never repeat.

I don’t have any phobias really. I guess I’m uneasy of men. A natural twist to my upbringing, no man has ever been anything in my life other than a sex toy. I don’t understand how they think. I don’t understand why they do what they do. They’re supposed to be so logic minded; yet their actions don’t make sense. Why go after a gawky teenager when you can have a wonderful vibrant woman who obviously loves you enough to marry? Autumn didn’t see the drudge of tying yourself down to one man. She loved him. She married him anyway even after… Well anyway, I guess the closest thing to a phobia I have is not understanding males.

My greatest disappointment? I don’t know. I suppose losing my sister to that asshole. He married her and immediately moved her to Michigan, away from us, away from everything she ever knew. I haven’t heard from her, wouldn’t know how to get in touch with her if I wanted to, and I do. I miss her horribly.

I still can’t believe she married him. She said I lied, that I wanted him for myself. She accused me of sleeping with him to lure him away. How could she think that? I’m her sister for crying out loud. I was fourteen and the last thing I wanted was that man touching me, that man stealing from me what was mine to give. That isn’t to go in the public record. It’s no ones business but mine. Happy? You got some dirt on me now.

You have my deepest fear. I’m a control freak because I will never be put in a situation I’m not prepared for ever again. I will be the master of my world. I will control all that goes on around me. If fate wants to throw me another curve, I’ll be ready.

Glimpse in Present Time:
I smelled Trace before I heard him. His strong earthy scent filled the ER before the low controlled voice demanded to know where I was. Relief flooded through me, allowed me to close my eyes against the stark florescent lights that were supposed to be softer than regular lights.

My head throbbed where it slammed against the side window as the SUV smashed into me using its size to move my rented Accord off the edge of the highway toward the guardrail and the ocean.

“Hey.” Came a soft low male voice. The smooth timbre of Trace’s voice washed over me easing the pain. “The doctor says you’re okay.”

“Told me that too.” I don’t open my eyes. “Sorry to call you. If I’d thought, I could have called one of my sisters. I was scared about the baby, you know? I haven’t told them yet.”

“No I’m glad you called me.” He sat in a chair beside the bed. It squeaked in protest. “Everything’s fine.”

I opened my eyes then. The firmness in his voice, the tightness, called to me. I saw the rich brown of his eyes. Worry, anger, and something else I couldn’t place floated around in them. “Sorry to scare you.”

“Me?” He chuckled. “You don’t worry about me. The doctor says I can take you home but that you need to be woken up every half hour or so to make sure your okay. You have a walloping concussion.”

“That explains the headache I guess.”

“I suppose it does.”

The awkwardness of the moment engrossed the both of us. My body ached from the crash, but not as much as I ached for the man by my bed. Memories of fast hard sex surged through the pain temporarily acting as a balm. You’re horrible to be thinking of sex right now. Blame it on the extra hormones.

He grabbed my hand in his the warmth a welcomed relief to the chilly hospital air. “What happened?”

“I was driving to the airport after I left you. I never saw it coming. A black SUV slammed into me. The next thing I remember is being upside down strapped to the car. I was sinking. I broke the window with that metal thing. I keep one in the center console for such emergencies. After the car filled with water, I undid the seatbelt and swam free. Three other people were already in the water trying to get to me. Here I am.”

Trace frowned. His eyes washed over me as if surveying for damage again himself. “Are you always so prepared?”

“I make it my mission in life to be prepared for anything.”

“You didn’t have any condoms.” He teased gently raising his eyebrows up and down comically to make sure I knew he was kidding.

“You’re wolf. You didn’t need them, remember?” I smiled. Pain shot through my head to skewer my eyes. I grimaced.

“That’s it no more laughing for you.” He kissed my hand. “I’m glad you’re okay. Hunter’s gone down to the police station to find out about the accident. Did you see anything else?”

“No.”

“You said that someone tried to kill you.”

“According to the other drivers around, it was deliberate.” Anger surged up like a snake ready to strike.

He nodded. “We never caught Mia’s accomplice.”

I tamped down the anger. Trace wasn’t calling me a liar. “She wasn’t smart enough to pull everything off herself.”

Trace kissed my hand again.

“Why didn’t you tell your sisters?”

“You’re the father. You had the right to know before them.”

“We’ll figure this out. I’m not going anywhere.”

Trace meant to reassure her. She knew the quirky smile on his face, the gentleness of his hands around hers. Figured that when I told you about the baby. The thought belied the disquiet in her heart. I don't need a nursemaid.

“I have a plan for that too.” I closed my eyes to the pain.

NaNoWriMo- Brave Season- Trace's Character sketch

I was born Kevin Austin Trace. I was born at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington Maine on November third 1972. I am the seventh son of a wolf shifter and as such inherit the genetic mutation that allows me to change from human to wolf whenever I want to. I guess that makes me a werewolf even though the full moon has nothing to do with the change. Wolves gave up eating humans in the Middle Ages, but that’s another story all together.

I have 12 older brothers and sisters. I also have four younger siblings. Packs become extremely important when you have broods that big. I loved growing up with the pack. I love my family. We weren’t the Cleavers by any stretch of the imagination. A family tradition is to get the younger brother to pee on an electric fence. The older ones laugh the victim cries, but not enough to keep from getting the next younger brother. I hear that some of my nephews are carrying on the family tradition.

My father is a doctor, a heart specialist, good thing because with all those kids Mom worked inside the house. Man did she ever run a tight ship. I’ve accused her of being a military man in a former life. We all had chores and she made sure we all could take care of ourselves before we left her house. She was there with a firm hand and a loving heart.

I wouldn’t change a thing about my upbringing. I am who I am because of them and the way I was raised. Dad and I have always been close. He and I share the ability to shift. The change itself is painful, but running in the woods, well it’s more than worth the pain. There’s nothing like a run. You can run for miles without getting winded. You can smell the other animals as the scamper out of your way scared that they might be on the menu. I love it.

I was shocked to find out that not everyone could hear other people’s thoughts. I have always been able to. Saved me from peeing on the electric fence when I was eight. Nice family tradition isn’t it? The older boys trick the younger ones. I heard them laughing as they tried to convince me it would be okay. I heard their anxious thoughts as the anticipation of the zap made them giddy as girls.

I refused, duh. I heard them thinking about the pain. Not me no way. Momma didn’t raise no fool. Still didn’t stop me from getting Patrick, Eli, or Shane when the “came of age.” Everett, my oldest brother, asked me about what kept me from doing it, I told him. He didn’t believe me at first until I said out loud what he was thinking. He marched me right into Dad. From then on I was the truth barometer when anyone in the family was caught in a lie or needed a story checked. Imagine, being ostracized because you’re telepathic, not because you can change into a wolf.

If there is anything you can say about me, I don’t lack for self-confidence. I tend to be cocky and being a shifter doesn’t help. I mean it’s hard to not feel good about yourself when you get a full scholarship to college because you score more touchdowns than anyone else in the state. No one knows about the shifting, but a side effect is that I have quicker healing and am a little bit athletic than the non-shifters. Only Hunter was faster than me, but he played quarterback so he got a scholarship too.

I was smart enough to earn scholarships to cover medical school and became a doctor too. Dad was proud of me even when I took up a different specialty. Pathology. I’m currently the Coroner for the State of Maine. The position allows me flexibility and I really love my job. I help the dead speak. I give them the final say when foul play is involved. Fortunately, in Maine, most of the deaths are accidents, disease, and such. There are only about 70 or so murders here each year. Drug overdoses are far more common.

I’m stubborn, smart, athletic, good looking if you listen to the girls I’ve dated. I’m not too sure myself. I’ve broken my nose twice, once in football, once by Hunter. I deserved that one and a whole lot more. I don’t want to think about that. Anyway, my nose is a bit big and a bit flat. The girls don’t seem to mind it, so neither do I. The girls fawn over the red highlights in my brown hair too. I don’t get what’s so great about it, my quick temper used to get me into a lot of trouble. Fortunately, I’m older and wiser now.

I have a revved up metabolism so getting fat is never a problem for me either. Hopefully it lasts well into old age. I don’t know what else to say about my looks. I don’t spend hours in front of a mirror. I have brown eyes that match my hair. Does that help?

I’m not a loner. Never have been. You can’t grow up in a large family and ever be alone. I’ve never gotten used to it, not really. I love to go off by myself and get some piece and quiet, but I’m never truly alone. I can pick up the phone and call whomever I want. I can jump in my car and go visit a bunch of different people.

I bought an old yacht, fixed it up, and added a motor for tooling around when the wind isn’t great. I love it. I’m free to go where I want when I want. I live on the boat in the summer and mooch off the guys in the winter. Someday when I retire, I’m going to sail around the world.

I’ve been quite the ladies man all my life. Another side effect of being a wolf shifter is that I don’t get sick. My immune system kills everything that I could catch. I’m sterile too, well until I meet the right woman for me. All wolf shifters are although we didn’t know that until last year. When I think of all the sex I could have had without the damn condoms… Sorry, guy thing.

I’m not seeing anyone seriously. Haven’t in a long time. I like the freedom. Going to the clubs is a smorgasbord of tasty delights. I don’t have to wake up to the same face everyday just yet. I know that will need to change someday. Someday I’ll settle down to have the kids and continue my bloodline. I’ll have to have seven boys. I hope there will be girls sprinkled in around them too. Although with guys like me out there…

Someday, I’ll find the right woman, the one I can spend the rest of my life loving. Not Wynter. Definitely not her. She is the most infuriating, stubborn, bigoted woman I have ever met. There are so many things about her that piss me off. Yet she is loyal, beautiful, a shifter too, she makes me crazy. I’ll admit sex with her left me wanting more, but a lifetime? Nope.

I’m as normal as the next guy. I don’t cry, but I do have feelings and emotions. When my mother died, I made it through the funeral and everything else. I hurt like hell, still do, but you have to continue living. Mom would hate it if we didn’t pick up and carry on. I did.

I’m not superstitious again kind of funny since I’m a werewolf, but I know there is a scientific explanation for everything. Be it a trick of the eye, or being able to access more of your brain than other people. That’s what the doctors say about my telepathic ability anyway.

I’m afraid of deep water. Funny since I live on a boat, but I believe in facing your fears and I did. I conquered it too. I suppose, if I’m really going to be honest, I’m afraid of being alone. I mean truly alone. Life has a way of checking attitudes all on it’s own. I made a huge mistake once and almost lost everything because of it. I went after Hunter’s girl. Katie was all over me like bees to honey. She flirted, I flirted. I knew better, Hunter was a chosen brother, a pack mate. I don’t know what I was thinking. Well, I do know but then, no I wasn’t thinking at all. Katie made me feel superhuman, as if being a shifter wasn’t enough to evoke that in my personality.

I caught on as she went from flirting to touching me, to hinting that I should challenge Hunter for the Alpha position. Alarm bells rang in my head, finally and I turned to Keagan. The two of us arranged a little incident to show Katie for her true colors. I had no idea Hunter was thinking of marrying her. It was a perverse blessing that we all found out what kind of manipulator she was. Wolves mate until death do us part. I almost lost my self-respect, my pack, my best friends I the world. I walked away with a busted nose and a deeper respect for my weaknesses. I’ve strived to never repeat that mistake.

Glimpse in Present Time:
I stood on the deck of my sailboat. The gentle rocking of the boat usually relaxes me but not today. Today has changed my life forever. I’m going to be a father. The though both terrified him and excited him. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans. The worn jeans had holes in the knees and probably ought to go into the garbage, but they were just so darn comfortable, I hang on to them.

I think I handled Wynter’s announcement well. I didn’t flip out, didn’t say I didn’t believe her or ask who the father is. She’s no virgin, but I know that she wouldn’t come to me, to tell me something like that if she wasn’t sure. Wynter knows as well as I do what that means for me, for her, for us. Truth be told, I’m glad. I knew the night of Corbin’s and Haylie’s renewal of vows that I loved her. She’s strong, loyal, determined, bigoted, stubborn, and a myriad of other traits that both please and piss me off. She drives me crazy, but I love her just the same. It’s getting easier to think. Someday, I may even be able to tell her. She doesn’t believe in love.

What I didn’t like was her proposal. Girls don’t matter to you anymore than boys matter to me. So I propose that if it’s a girl, I’ll raise her. If it’s a boy, you get him. No way I’m going to go along with that but the desperation in her voice, the scared timbre, I let it rest. There would be plenty of fighting later. I smile in spite of the knot in my stomach. I want to be a part of my daughters’ lives as much as my boys.

Family is everything to wolf shifters. I grew up in a huge family of both birth siblings and pack mates. My kids, male or female will do the same. Wynter’s a hyena one of the few creatures to be matriarchal instead of patriarchal. Wynter’s mother gave up all her male children. Wynter met one of her brothers last year. She doesn’t call him much, but he hasn’t gone away either. She’s warming to him.

I sucked in a quick breath and blew it out with much frustration. How am I supposed to show her that family is good? How am I supposed to prove to her that she is needed to help parent the boys? That I’m needed to help with the girls?

The phone on my belt rang. I pull it from my belt and check the number. Not work. Good. The last thing I want to do today is an autopsy. I know I’m the voice of the dead, but it’s living where I want to concentrate my energy today.

“What?” I say into the small phone.
“Trace,” Wynter’s voice shook. “I’m okay, but I need you. I’m at the hospital. Someone tried to run me off the road. Someone tried to kill me!”

NaNoWriMo

Good morning all! I'm writing this today to tell those of you who have never heard of this crazy thing all about it. I've done it for the past three years and will be doing it again. My 2003 attempt will be released in February.

NaNoWriMo is National Write A Novel in a Month. The goal is to write at least 50,000 words during the month of November. I like doing it because it gives me an excuse to kill my internal editor who is constantly telling me that I'm no good that I should quit the writing thing. There are forums for every genre and every area of the world so you can commiserate with all the others crazy enough to try this thing.

I highly recommend this for anyone who thinks they'd like to try to write a book. In Maine, we have get togethers and meet face to face a few times. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who hears voices in my head, have scenes playing in my brain 24/7, and that I am indeed a writer and not crazy! LOL I have included a link that works, I hope. You should check it out.

Thanks Kathryn! Here is the link I left out! Sorry all!

NaNoWriMo

My two cents worth,
Lori

Hello again, again!

LOL It's been an eventful month. I sent fiery Strength into the publishers. It was refused, not on the grounds of weak story or characters, but on my grammar mistakes. I'll have to edit it through again. Not a big deal. I also gave it to one of the English teachers at my school and told her to use the mighty red pen.

My husband thinks it's funny that I take a rejection as a good thing. The story isn't as weak as I thought and grammar can be easily fixed. I will also say that it restores my faith in the publishing world when I find mistakes in all kinds of books that I never noticed before. My publisher has standards! Yeah! I knew I liked them! The English language is indeed still important to people.

I'll do the rewrites again and resubmit it. Hopefully they'll like it and contract it. It's the second in a series of four. I'm planning to start the fourth during NaNoWriMo this year. I'm a little over halfway through the first draft of the third book in the series.

I've started another story and finished the rough draft. At 53,000 words it's the shortest book I've ever written. It's only a rough draft and I still have to add meat to the bones of the story, but after struggling to complete FS it was nice to have one fly from my fingers.

Speaking of which, I should go and do that right now, work in adding attraction and wanton need into my current work in progress, Shaken. It's about a cop tracking down a serial killer hunting the night clubs in Portland, Maine. Yes there is actually a nightlife in Maine. Although it's a bit too far for me. I'm such a homebody.

If you ever do come to Maine, you need to check out the Old Port. I've never been there too much until the past few years with NaNoWriMo get togethers. Oh, NaNoWriMo stands for National Write a Novel in a Month. The goal is to get 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. I've done it for the last three years and finished every year except the first one. My daughter had an accident and it killed the mood to write anything. She's fine and so is my will to write.