The Twilight Witch by Diana McCollum

My wip (work in progress) is "The Twilight Witch". 

My story is about Opal, a witch by birth and a conservationist/biologist studying the Coywolf pack in Nova Scotia. She is an albino and rarely goes out in the day time. Her familiar is a white wolf named Bowie. She lives & works in the New Breton forest. The leader of the Coywolves is tragically killed & she begins to suspect dark magic is at work.

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beautiful albino women free picture

The love interest is a back country skier who gets caught in an avalanche and is rescued by Opal and Bowie. Unbeknownst to her he is cursed and to break the curse he has to complete a task for a warlock. That task is to find the witch, Opal, and bring her to the warlock.

 I watched a documentary on PBS tv a few years ago about a hybrid wolf/coyote breed, nicknamed a coywolf. It seems the wolves in Eastern Canada have traveled down to Nova Scotia and inter-bred with coyotes. I Googled, don't we all?, to find out more. (Check out the above links for more info).

In the mean time, the warlock is doing his own hybrid experiments on turkey vultures, and human DNA. He is also experimenting with the DNA of the coywolves. Will Opal be able to stop him?

What do we have? A) a heroine who is a witch, and who is working to protect the environment and study the coy wolves. B) a familiar who is a white wolf C) a hero who is cursed, and who will have to make a choice once he finds out Opal is the witch he is searching for. D) the warlock who is playing "God" trying to create a new creature.Here's an excerpt from the rough draft.

Draft 1: Twilight Witch                                       Chapter One

      

On a bright winter morning in January, conservationist Opal Willows snowshoed through the woods of the Cape Breton, Nova Scotia forest. Winter was her favorite season, the one she was born in. Cloudy days were her friend and less harsh to skin and eyes of an albino like her. Today though, the sun and snow were brilliant. Her witch’s familiar, white wolf Bowie leaped through the recent snowfall and sent glistening plumes of crystalline snow into the air. He stopped to roll in it now and again

Opal stopped at a large balsam fir and detached her trail camera from the trunk. She checked the information screen and grinned. More than one hundred photos had been taken overnight! She removed the video chip and inserted a new one, and then secured the cam once more to the tree. She was thrilled the cam had showed more than one hundred photos. Busy night in the forest. She smiled to herself. One never knows which way to turn the cam to get the most pictures. I hit the jackpot last night.

Bowie’s howl came from deep in the dark forest. “Bowie! Come!” She shaded her eyes from the harsh sun, straining to see through the dark Polaroid sunglasses she wore to protect her eyes.

Bowie bounded out of the dark woods. He sat down thirty feet from her and stared intently. Opal knew that look the wolf had found something out of the ordinary. He turned and loped back into the woods. She followed the great white wolf into the forest. She flipped her sunglasses up on top of her head, to see better in the shadowy woodlands. The snow crunched under her snowshoes as she followed Bowie. Ahead of him she saw a spread of crimson on the snow, Bart, the alpha coywolf from pack CW 10, lay dead. One treacherous bullet hole through his spine. He was one of her favorite study subjects. Opal unlatched her snowshoes and fell to her knees.

Opal sucked in a breath as sheer black fright swept through her. “No, no, no! Not Bart, not now.”

She pulled her hands free of the warmth of her artic mittens. Shocked to her core she unzipped her jacket and clasped the stone of her magic opal pendant in her left hand.

A lot is going on in this paranormal. I'm about 1/2 way through writing it.Do you enjoy paranormal stories? If yes, what is the title of a paranormal you've read and liked?

Stay safe and sane in these crazy times.