Razor-sharp writing this Wolf Moon

by Sharon Kitchens

I said to Michelle I want to write about werewolves. Why should vampires get all the action? Our supernatural blood sucking maestros have names – Dracula, Lestat, Damian and Stefan (my personal favorites – oh hell practically the whole vampire cast of “The Vampire Diaries”), Bill and Eric (I’m 100% in the Eric category fyi), Angel, Mr. Barlow, the de Clermonts – Yasmin! (all Baldwin – although he’s a Montclair), and so on. Werewolves – well, there’s Remus, Jacob and Jacob (we’ll get to the latter in a few paragraphs), Alcide, Ginger, and my personal favorite David Kessler (the poster child for what not to do when on a walking tour of Britain).  

Look, I get it. Werewolves have a lot of hair (or is it fur), they have seriously bad posture, are generally less sophisticated, have mood swings, are mindless at times, and howl a lot – which would be beautiful at first, but then just annoying. 

The werewolf has no equivalent to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So where did the werewolf myth develop? In Greek mythology and early Germanic and Nordic folklore. 

How to identify a werewolf. Most stories have them remaining at least partially human in appearance, but larger and with wolf-like ears, claws, and teeth. Their eyes either wolf-like or red. In folk tales and academic studies, they are known as Lycans or Lycanites, sometimes as a Wendigo or skin-walker, Vullkodlaks (Serbian zombie werewolf), and Je-Rouges (from Haitian mythology – also referred to as shapeshifters). All of these moonstruck howlers kill and devour people.

According to Merriam-Webster a werewolf’s bite could turn one temporarily into a person transformed into a wolf or capable of assuming a wolf's form. 

They can be killed with silver bullets, decapitation, and weakened with wolfsbane. *For more information on wolfsbane by a Harry Potter fan check out this delightful article by Mason Heberling from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

And now, without further ado… 

Following are three example of razor-sharp writing I suggest you examine during the Wolf Moon — our first Full Moon of the year — on Thursday, January 25. It’s in Leo just to add a little more intensity and physicality to the week.

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

Sexy, gory adult reading. Our narrator is Jake (Jacob Marlowe), a chain-smoking two-hundred-year-old werewolf who drinks very expensive single malt Scotch whisky. As the title suggests, he’s the last or one of the last werewolves in the world. He’s lonely, depressed, rich, and on the run from the World Organization for the Control of Occult Phenomena. A dark explosive thriller. 

Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

A lovely dark and bloody short novel by the king of horror. Illustrated by Bernie Wrightson.

The first screams came in January from the snow-bound railway man in the isolated Maine town of (fictional) Tarker’s Mills. Each chapter is one month of the year.

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Rory (Aurora) Morris isn’t thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant and needs support.

After a night out at a bar she hits a large animal with her car and when she gets out to investigate, she’s attacked. She survives, but is cursed. Will she try to fight her new wildness or accept it and in doing so how will that change her.

I loved this dark comedy. My first Rachel Harrison book, I’m now reading my way through all her supernatural goodies.

Curious about lycanthropy? 

Michelle usually has the following on the shelf at Green Hand Books:

The Lycanthropy Reader by Charlotte Otten 

The Book of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould

for a modern take: Real Wolfmen by Linda Godfrey 

Beware, the full moon is rising — stick to the road when crossing the foggy moors. Of all the supernatural creatures out in the world, I’m thinking you least likely want to run into a Lycanthrope.