Sachem Blog
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Character Sketches
Character Sketches Displayed are earlier sketches of my main characters as I, basically, saw them in my head. With Colin, I tried to imagine a regular, tall boy believing he was of French-Canadian background, but vaguely questioning his physical features. Though many New England tribe members look very much like any other of European descent, I...
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Indian/Wolf Relationship
The attached article quickly describes the amazing connection of wolf with man. It was said that the aggressive, wild animal was one of the first to see the advantage of connecting with humans for self preservation. It is also recorded that the wolves "wildness" physically changed in time to the more mellow "dog" expressions today. Of course, the...
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Family Reunion
Family Reunion. Sometime in the middle 90s my then wife and I, and our infant daughter, went to a family reunion. It was on my mother's side (Dumont), but the Carrier side was represented, too. The event was held at a campground east of Lancaster, New Hampshire. Now my memory is quite vague of exactly where this campground was, so looking at a...
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Steinbeck
The above article was found in an internet newsletter by chance. It caught my eye and here's why: Firstly, it was about the legendary Steinbeck, and, secondly, it was mentioning an unpublished works of his about werewolves! Can you imagine the 233-page story by The Grapes Of Wrath writer depicting werewolves? It would be fascinating for sure. But...
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Initiation Dream Cover Ideas
Here's something fun. Displayed are the many concepts of making the cover. I presented them to friends, family and students to see what ones caught their eye. I had made my choice of the Kino MT font and worked off of that. The wolf image was found and Photoshopped by using "poster-edges" in the filter section and adding my eyes to it. The...
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Imagining a Shifting Colin
Colin Imagined I sketched this years ago in an attempt to visualize what Colin might look like and how a "shift" may work. I tried to see if I could match the caricature-like human features and morph them into wolf-like characteristics. And to NOT make it scary looking. Now being a cartoon illustrator by profession, a lot of people asked whether...
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The Misrepresentation of Wolves
Page 7, Chapter 1: The Misrepresentation of Wolves I chose this chapter heading for good reason; I totally felt this way myself! In fact, from television shows, movies, and books, I saw that both wolves and American Indians were being misrepresented. Like Colin listening to his mom read children's books with wolves in them, I, too, had a strange...
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Thunderheart
Please excuse the brief explanation of a more detailed film: In the movie, Thunderheart, Val Kilmer, playing an FBI agent investigating a murder on a reservation (and who is half Indian), has a vision in a dream involving a power animal (something considered important and honored in the native world). What I remember of the story is that the...
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Birthday Card Inspiration
When I started writing my first YA fantasy novel, I had high expectations. I thought there would be instant interest from a publisher or agent. However, I either didn't ask the right people, ask correctly, or my book just wasn't ready. Because of this I had Initiation Dream on the shelf for a long time. I would pull it down, dust it off, reread...
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Wolf Shifters and Cell Phones
Trying to wrap my head around this, but Initiation Dream (Colin Trask and the Wolf Shifters) was written as long as fifteen years ago. To look back, one of the changes in that time period that affected the book was the cell phone. Cell phones were not everywhere 15 years ago, but were increasing in popularity and, obviously, have evolved into a...