Tonight is the winter solstice, a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. I have some big writing projects in the works, but today I'm taking some time aside to start something new. I'm a panster, so things may change, but my current plan is to write a novella-length retelling of the Native American fairy tale The Boy and the Wolves. I hope to add a romantic element and use tree spirits in place of wolves. And, of course, a happy ending.
I've never been big on the wolf shapeshifter characters, at least not in romantic stories. *shrug*
Here is a brief summary of the original The Boy and Wolves as provided by Wikipedia:
A man lived far from his people, but one day he died. He told his older children that they must never forsake their younger brother. Soon after, their mother died, extracting the same promise. The older brother left one day, abandoning his sister and younger brother. Later, his sister left, leaving much food and promising to come back for him, but she found her older brother with their people, married, and she also married and forgot their younger brother.
When the boy had eaten all that his sister left, he went out and ate from what the wolves killed.
One day, the older brother heard a voice singing, "My brother, my brother! I am becoming a wolf, I am becoming a wolf!" He tried to find him, but he heard wolves howl and saw his brother turn into a wolf and run off with them. He went home and mourned the rest of his life.
