Welcome to WOLF NOTES, where interview questions stray from the rest of the pack. It’s nice to know the usual stuff like where an author gets their inspiration and why they write, but sometimes we need a little fun in our lives.
JE (Jayne) Barnard is a Calgary-based crime writer with 25 years of award-winning short fiction and children’s literature behind her. Author of the popular Maddie Hatter Adventures (Tyche Books), and now The Falls Mysteries (Dundurn Press), she’s won the Dundurn Unhanged Arthur, the Bony Pete, and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Award. Her works were shortlisted for the Prix Aurora (twice), the UK Debut Dagger, the Book Publishing in Alberta Award (twice), and three Great Canadian Story prizes. Jayne is a past VP of Crime Writers of Canada, a founder of Calgary Crime Writers, and a member of Sisters In Crime. Her most recent book is When the Flood Falls, a small-town psychological thriller set in the Alberta foothills west of Calgary, and her upcoming one is the sequel, Where the Ice Falls (Dundurn, July 2019), set at Christmas in those wild lands.
Wolf: Glad you could come by. What is the nicest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Jayne: I give my characters – most of them – other characters who love them and genuinely want what’s best for their lives. That’s not to say there aren’t miscommunications and occasional disappointments, but that underpinning the characters’ lives are other characters who support them the way I would love to be backstopped by friends and family.
Wolf: What is the meanest thing you’ve ever done to your characters?
Jayne: Just one mean thing?
Wolf: Yes, Sorry, just one please.
Jayne: I routinely cost them their jobs and financial security. I’ve made one homeless. I threaten their loved ones with danger and death. I dangle them off cliffs, punt them into flooding rivers, lock them into burning buildings. But the worst thing I’ve ever done (and it was so heart-wrenching that I had to do it off-page) was letting the dog die. Don’t ask. It was so traumatic that I still weep whenever I see a Golden Retriever.
Wolf: I hear you. I’m a huge dog person. How about you? Do you consider yourself a cat person, or a dog person?
Jayne: For all that I adore Goldens (and solicit donations for Golden Rescue Canada whenever I can although I’m in no way affiliated with the group; see www.goldenrescue.ca for more information), I’ve been a cat-slave since my earliest years and am never happier than when there’s one or more feline treating me like comfy furniture to nap on in the sunshine.
Wolf: Cats can be sweet. Some of them. While walking in the woods you come across…
Jayne: Funny you should ask. Lacey McCrae, my urbanite ex-cop in The Falls Mysteries, spends a lot of time walking in the woods. And jogging in them, x-country skiing, hunting for missing people…. I’ve done all those things too, in a past stage of life. Never found a dead body but I’ve searched for a few. What I’d most like to find is a lamppost. Or a wardrobe and then a lamppost. I’d give that White Witch a taste of her own Turkish Delight. Seriously – any portal to another dimension. It comes up often in my fantasy writing.
Wolf: Cool. There is a door at the end of a dark, damp corridor. You hear rumbling. What do you do?
Jayne: Hey, I’ve read Jane Eyre. I’d get a fire extinguisher and a tranquilizer gun before I ever opened that door. But because I also found Wide Sargasso Sea compelling and highly possible, I’d bring along some chocolate and a hug. And a good lawyer for that locked-up wife, because she’d damn sure have a lawsuit worth pursuing in today’s world.
Wolf: Smart choices. Which of your characters is your favorite?
Jayne: Depending on mood and weather, I might be answering this question differently every time I’m asked. Today my favourite is Maddie Hatter, runaway daughter of Britain’s Third Steamlord, who’s making a precarious living as a fashion reporter when the story of a lifetime falls into her lace-gloved hands, carrying her by airship from Egypt to England and onward in search of batty Baron Bodmin and his legendary Bloodstained Diamond (see Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond, Tyche Books, 2015). She’s had three zany Adventures and my agent & I are discussing a further trilogy.
Wolf: What is your favorite body of water and why? (river, ocean, waterfall, puddle, bottle…)
Jayne: Definitely the Pacific Ocean. I lived on the west side of Vancouver Island as a child and ever since then have gotten dehydration of the spirit if I’m too far inland for too long. Now that I’m past my workforce years and my children are adults, I spend half the winter on Vancouver Island, rarely more than a mile from the sea. On fine afternoons I take my coffee to the shore to sit with the waves and the sea birds, listening to the seals bark, watching for whales, petting the dogs and chatting to their walkers.
Wolf: Sounds very peaceful. What story are you working on now?
Jayne: This winter I’m editing Where the Ice Falls, the second in The Falls Mystery trilogy. It’s a contemporary suspense involving people going missing in the frozen Alberta foothills, and a psychologically demanding book to edit because it also involves a terminally-ill mother and her daughter grappling with the question of whether to apply for medically assisted dying (MAID, now legal in Canada but unevenly available across jurisdictions). My father went out via that route last winter, a whole year after I had planned this book, and the storms of emotions I survived during his journey opened my eyes – and maybe my veins – to that fictional daughter.
Wolf: Sound interesting. Thanks for visiting. Connect with Jayne through these links:
www.jaynebarnard.ca
@J.E.Barnard (Twitter)
@JayneBarnard1 (Twitter)
Saffron.hemlock (Instagram)
https://www.facebook.com/FallsMystery/
https://www.facebook.com/MaddieHatterAdventures/
Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond
STAR TOUCHED
Eighteen-year-old Tatiana is running from her past and her star-touched powers eight years after a meteor devastates earth’s population. Her power to heal may be overshadowed by more destructive abilities. Fleeing the persecution of those like her, Tatiana seeks refuge in a small town she once visited. But this civil haven, in a world where society has broken down, is beginning to crumble. Will Tatiana flee or stay and fight for the new life she has built? Only by harnessing the very forces that haunt her can Tatiana save her friends…and herself.
Dawn Vogel’s academic background is in history, so it’s not surprising that much of her fiction is set in earlier times. By day, she edits reports for historians and archaeologists. In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, co-edits Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time for writing. She is a member of Broad Universe, SFWA, and Codex Writers. Her steampunk series, Brass and Glass, is being published by Razorgirl Press. She lives in Seattle with her husband, author Jeremy Zimmerman, and their herd of cats. Visit her at 
Dawn: Because I write a lot of short fiction, I’ve written a whole lot of characters, so picking one of those is nearly impossible. If we’re limiting it just to the characters in my novel series, Brass and Glass, my favorite is Indigo, the ship’s mechanic. He’s a teenage boy who was raised at the fringes of the “civilized” world, so he’s got some unusual speech patterns and other quirks. So writing him is always a bit of a challenge but also a delight, as he sees aspects of the world through a very different lens than his fellow crewmembers.
LJ Cohen is a Boston area novelist, poet, blogger, ceramics artist, geek, and relentless optimist. After almost twenty-five years as a physical therapist specializing in chronic pain management, LJ now uses her anatomical knowledge and myriad clinical skills to injure characters in her science fiction and fantasy novels. When not bringing home strays (canine and human), LJ can be found writing, which looks a lot like daydreaming.
Whimsical Words welcomes guest author, A. L. Kaplan. A. L. Kaplan’s love of books started as a child and sparked a creative imagination. Born on a cold winter morning in scenic northern New Jersey, her stories and poems have been included in several anthologies and magazines. Her novel, Star Touched, released October 2017. She is the Maryland Writers’ Association’s Vice President and served on the Howard County Chapter board for several years. A. L. is a member of Broad Universe and holds an MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art. When not writing or indulging in her fascination with wolves, A. L. is the props manager for a local theatre. This proud mother of two lives in Maryland with her husband and dog.
A. L. Kaplan’s latest book, Star Touched, is a fast-paced read for those who love science fiction. A quick summary for my…
Author Biography: Rachel Mankowitz lives on Long Island with her family, including her two dogs, Cricket and Ellie, and the memories of all of the dogs that came before. She has a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Manhattanville College, a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction, from Queens University of Charlotte, and is working on a Masters in Social Work from Fordham University. And yes, that is a lot of student loan debt. Rachel’s first novel, 
Debbie Kaiman Tillinghast is the author of The Ferry Home, a memoir about her childhood on Prudence Island, a tiny island off the coast of Rhode Island. Debbie began writing as she embarked on a quest to reconnect with her island roots, starting with a cookbook for her family.
Debbie: Since my book is a memoir, I changed this question to, “Which story is your favorite?” I love the story called “Sleds and Sundays.” The island where we lived year-round was more isolated in the winter. Since the population dwindled to about fifty, my sister and I had fewer friends nearby, and my father’s store was closed so my dad worked fewer hours. My winter memories are cozier and more intimate than summer ones.
Karen DeMers Dowdall, PhD, MSN, BSN, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and spent her elementary-grade school years in the small farming community of Salmon Brook, settled in 1680 by a stalwart group of Europeans. She grew up exploring Salmon Brook’s Forest Preserve, swimming in Salmon Brook, and ice-skating on a “haunted” pond in winter.
