Wayne Gray

Thanks for the feedback, and the great comments. I had never written anything supernatural until I started on Silverwolf. It's weirdly freeing. I get to play with the "rules" of the world and design my own - in the image of ours, yet different enough for me to bend reality. I treat Silverwolf as dessert. It's sort of a guilty pleasure, but probably won't be my regular thing. I do appreciate your comments about my mechanical skill. Though, if you want an example of someone who blows me out of the water those are abundant here on this site. MacGreg, Thorn Wilde, Mikiesboy and AC Benus all excel at clean, well-crafted stories. Those are just the ones I know. I'm certain there are others. Thanks again. I'm glad you liked the work. There will be more from me down the line.

Thanks, Thorn. It may end up my next project after I finish the two I'm on now. It'll take a lot of work, but it'd be worth the effort.

The longer this goes the more I realize that I sorta suck at adulting. Ditto, @TetRefine!

My kinda crowd. 😈

It makes it that much more special when you make the effort anyhow. You have other talents anyway - being the expert with your hands that you are.

I thought perhaps was more an indication of your love of whiskey, beer, and cigarettes. 🙂 FYI, Jamie Oliver's recipes are almost always very good, and pretty easy. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/crispy-and-sticky-chicken-thighs-with-squashed-new-potatoes-and-tomatoes-recipe-2011976 I typically split it into halves, and we have leftovers. It's delicious, easy, and will knock the pants off of your date (I have lived experience here). I was very impressed by it. Yes, there are a few steps, but it's worth the effort. Also, if you're not a fan of tomatoes you can sub in lemon juice (you just need some sort of acid taste). You already conquered the toughest thing in the world in those perfect boiled eggs. This will be no problem. 😋

@BHopper2 and @MacGreg, cooking used to be this huge mystery to me as well. I'm not sure when it happened, but now I find myself loving it. There's always food in my stories!

Additionally, I have a terrible sense of direction. I mean, terrible. Spatial problems or puzzles of all sorts drive me mad. Organic Chemistry was nightmarish. I can't "turn" molecules in my head, or fold them into new shapes. I have to use models. Up until that point in my academic career, I had aced every science class I had taken. I passed Ochem simply because of my lab skills, and acing that portion of the course. I've never been so happy to have a "C" in my life. Weirdly, I have an excellent sense of time. So, I can tell you exactly how long it is that I have been lost.

Oh, my brother is proof that the apple can be rotten before it ever hits the ground, no matter how healthy the tree. Those three are terrible people, and sometimes there's little to point at to show why. That's not to say there's not a reason. There may indeed be something lurking that we simply don't see yet.

Steal away. 🙂 My beta-reader liked that line too. Poetic justice definitely has some attractiveness, doesn't it?

Thanks! 🙂 I'm happy you're enjoying the work.

Travis's adventures with Mr. Branson would be a very different story than the one I'm telling here. Though, not to say that isn't a story worth telling, because it is. It's just beyond the scope of this particular work. 🙂 There's little to pull Wren back to California. Though it could happen it's not looking likely at the moment.

Husbandly duty calls. Imagine what you will. Have a good day at work, @Mikiesboy!

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it.

My condolences to you and yours.

That's all right. "girling" is probably overrated anyway!

I still love that you tried. 🙂 Thanks for reading this far. Two more to go, if you're determined to finish!

Well, actually... I was trying to be clever with my last name. 😋

We all have our thing, right? What's that one goofy thing you think you should be able to do, but for whatever reason, you just can't. I'll start. Keep this to yourself - it's a secret. My husband has to even up my beard. No matter what, I will invariably miss a spot, or get it uneven, or just... whatever. I shave and think "This time. I've got it this time!" He comes into the bathroom, looks at me, shakes his head and picks up the razor. I stand there; shoulders slumped as he purses his lips in quiet judgment of my ineptitude. I've only been wearing a beard for about fifteen years. Maybe I'll get it, one day?

Good theory. Keep reading. 🙂

I know. I still hope that he read my work, that he internalized it, and more - that he explored the options for counseling and treatment I researched for him and sent along. Rural Louisiana is a pretty awful place to find yourself in his situation, but even there I dug up options for him to explore. I just hope he did. I work in healthcare, and we have a great program for PrEP and HIV prevention. We also have a wonderful treatment program for those who are already positive. I see patients reclaim their lives from the disease. These are people, not a condition. Though, it takes work for many of these folks to see themselves that way - for them to move past that. You're right - love is possible and probable. It requires education and work. But, man, what a payoff. He was the push I needed to write Camp Refuge. Though he never wrote again, many others did. I take solace in that, and in the hope that he found a way to see himself as a person deserving of love. Thanks for the comments, Mike. Edit: By the way... I think it would have been so powerful for him to have heard from you, Mike. This young man wrote to me almost two years back, but there will be others. I may call upon you for help in the future if that's all right. I can only speak to the clinical side of things, but you have lived experience. That's powerful in a way I can't match.

@Will Hawkinsyeah there’s a reason I got that information wrong. Rather, there’s a reason I LEFT it wrong. Read the chapter end-note above here if you’d like to know.

Charles has stuck to his character throughout. I never set out to write the "perfect" sidekick to the main characters. Charles is his own man, and he'll continue acting how he feels he should. 😉 And finding another one like him in rural Kentucky? Frankly, writing him as understanding and decent as he and Tracy are is a stretch. There are other people from their collective past that Wren and Caleb could run into, but none they'd feel comfortable with - not like they do with Charles. Rachel has had a decade to think about where her husband might have gone. She definitely has her theories. Thanks for writing. 🙂

Thanks for the great comments, and for the read of the chapter. Being rotten people is one thing... murder is another. The murder of family is just beyond foul. So far the uncles have proven themselves willing to fight in underhanded ways, but most of it has been cowardly and at little risk to themselves. Yet, nothing is off the table. Beecher certainly knew his sons and the men that they are. Maybe they were capable and did what you say. If so, then Wren and Caleb are in very real, very certain danger.

No doubt! I left it all alone, thanks to him.