Wolf Fever Tour with Terry Spear

I am the last stop on Terry’s WOLF FEVER blog tour and I’d like to welcome her back to my blog! I love Terry’s lupus garous and my review of WOLF FEVER is here.



1. What inspired you to write WOLF FEVER?

Fans!!! Several loved Carol Wood from Destiny of the Wolf. She was such a flawed character that many wanted to see her with a happily ever after ending. My critique partner, Nicole North, who writes for Red Sage, was really upset with me at one point in Destiny of the Wolf because she thought Carol wasn’t going to live and that my hero, Darien, could not be a hero if he did anything to put Carol in peril. :) I hadn’t planned to, but I REALLY loved Nicole’s take on the story. It meant I had made Carol so real, and the suspense so real, and my critique partner sympathize with her so much, she couldn’t bear to see her die. So Carol got a new life, her very own life, in WOLF FEVER.

Now, I had one idea in mind for the story when I pitched it, but my editor said since Carol was a nurse—and this was very important to her in Destiny of the Wolf—why not make the story medical related. Okay, so about that time there was a flu epidemic scare and I thought why not a flu that effected werewolves differently?

But of course I had to have the perfect hero too. In Destiny of the Wolf, Chester Ryan McKinley was surprised that Carol Wood knew what she did about the murder that had occurred when HE was the one who was investigating it. You know, macho alpha male who is an expert, and here comes female nurse, not even a born werewolf and not a trained investigator, and SHE’S deciding the investigation?

Perfect. Now they’re in a race to find a werewolf cure and he doesn’t believe she truly can be psychic or that he’s anything more than vaguely intrigued with her, despite not being able to quit thinking about her 24/7, but that has all to do with the murder case and how she came up with the clues and nothing else. Right? Right!

And WOLF FEVER was born! :)

Thanks so much for having me on your blog again, Amy!



2. Did you research this book?

Absolutely!!! I had one idea about how to resolve the story. And my editor said she didn’t like it. LOL!!! I love my editor because she always makes my books all the better! So I mulled it around and came up with an entirely new angle, which meant lots more research, and voila! It worked!


3. If so, how did this impact the story?

Totally different ending! And I loved it. And my editor loved it. And my first reviewer did. So hopefully most everyone who reads it will too.


4. What did you do differently in this wolf tale?

For this story, it was how to cure a werewolf of being a werewolf. Okay, now I must adamantly say right here and now that my werewolves love who they are. They are not cursed or moping around about being werewolves. They don’t want to kill themselves off over the whole werewolfism bit. They’re born, for the most part, as werewolves, and proud to be such.
Carol is the exception, not because she’s suddenly a werewolf, but because she has other issues that she can’t control either.

So the part about curing a werewolf has to do with the flu that has put them all in a really, really bad bind. Really. And has nothing to do with their werewolf image problems—which they just don’t have. And anyway, I discovered werewolf cures, but they’ll only work to an extent. The book will explain more in detail.


5. Did your active duty and reserve time in the US Army have any effect on your stories?

Yes! I’ve had my characters rappel, climb mountains, shoot guns, and use hand-to-hand combat that I learned when I was on active duty. Haven’t found a use for gas mask training, firing a tank, using a missile launcher, setting a claymore mine, or jumping across an open pit like me Tarzan, you Jane, yet. :)


6. You’ve been to Scotland and have Irish and Welsh ancestry also. Has this influenced your writing?

Absolutely! Since my next story is HEART OF THE HIGHLAND WOLF, I was also itching to write that one set in the Highlands of Scotland. I have an affinity for naming my characters with Scottish names, not even realizing it sometimes, and when I needed to make more of a background for McKinley, I thought why not attach some more importance to his Scottish heritage. I know a lot of folks who have Scottish roots who do, and I’ve been to some of the Highland games here in Texas, so I added that to the story.


7. Did you come across any research that made you rethink WOLF FEVER?

Yes!!! I’m sure every book I’ve written had at least one problem spot.

In WOLF FEVER, I thought I had the perfect werewolf cure—Wolfbane. But when I researched it, I discovered fictional authors have either prescribed it as a cure, a garlic-like protection from a werewolf, or a way to kill a werewolf.

In my book, I tell the truth about what wolfbane will really do. (This is said totally tongue in cheek because as you recall, I said fictional authors write about wolfsbane to suit their stories.)



8. Why wolves?

That they work together as a pack. Some Native American tribes revered the wolf for this reason. And for the romantic part of the equation? That the alpha pair mate for life. I’ve got a fun guest blog I’ve been asked to do later concerning werewolves that stray, and I’ve told why they don’t. OR else. :)


9. How did you begin your writing career?

I actually started out writing childrens' stories, and had a couple bumped up to a senior editor but the stories were too similar to ones they’d just bought. So I began writing historical romance and learned before I even sent it out that they weren’t selling. Then I read a YA vampire novel, and began writing adult vampire romances, and when I was told it was too hard to break into the vampire adult market unless you were already a famous author, I wrote Heart of the Wolf. One thing you learn in this business is to never give up. Just keep trying!

10. Why did you decide to become an author?

My alpha mate strayed. So it was time to write about alpha mates who didn’t!


11. Do you have a routine for writing?

I work full time, so I try to get some writing in when I get home from work at night, or catch up on my two days off. The main thing is I have a word count goal. Five thousand words a week are doable, and that’s my goal and it allows me to meet my next deadline even while I have edits to do on another book that is getting near its publishing date. I don’t have anything that I do regularly to warm up or cool down because I don’t have time. I just have this word count goal hanging over my head and know if I don’t get it done, I’m in BIG trouble. :)


12. What do you like to read?

I love time travels. Can’t think of any off hand that I’ve read of late, but that’s my favorite. And I love historical romance, and of course paranormal, though because I write it, I don’t usually read it except when I’m judging contests. I read a lot of historical, because most of it is NOT written in the time period my stories fall in which is medieval, so I’m not worried about writing something that someone else has already written by accident.


13. What’s next?

I’m working on book 9, THE WOLF AND THE SEAL and it’s halfway done, although by the time this blog comes out, it’ll be much farther along than that. And after that, I’ll be working on the sequel to HEART OF THE HIGHLAND WOLF, due out in June, which will be HIGHLAND WOLF IN PARADISE, or some such title. And then I’ve got to propose a couple of more tales.



14. You create award-winning bears also. How did that come about?

:) My maiden name is Wilde and my parents were creating doll carriages for doll collectors. At the time, I was playing around with making stuffed dolls and dressed bunnies and so my dad asked if I could create an old-fashioned teddy bear to display on their carriages at the shows they went to all over the States. I said sure, not ever having done so before, and they began winning awards, one receiving the highest honor: Best of Show at the Fort Lauderdale Teddy Bear and Doll Show. They were featured in Teddy Bear Review twice and received 1st place twice for best dressed categories and most unique bear for another. And they were in the International Teddy Bear Connection, a film! So Wilde and Woolly Bears was born. I sold to stores all over, plus they’ve been in several newspapers and magazines, and found homes all over the world, as far away as Australia and South Africa even!


14. Anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

Fans do make a difference in what I write. If anyone would like to see a kind of premise or a particular character have a story of their own, just let me know! You never know! It might become a story!

Thanks again, Amy, for having me!! I thoroughly enjoyed the interview and wish everyone who comments luck in winning an autographed book, WOLF FEVER or one of my backlist.

- Terry Spear


Thank you Terry for visiting my blog again! Good luck to everyone!

Rules for entry:
- Contest runs from December 29, 2010 to January 5, 2011 12AM EST
- Open to US and Canadian addresses only
- Leave a comment about this interview with your email address included so I can contact you if you win!