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.

Blessings of Nature

By Diana McCollum

We live on the edge of town, actually at the beginning of the county. The cross street at the end of the block, one house down from ours, is the dividing line between city and county. We are in a small housing track of maybe 30 houses and each one is on an oversized lot. Ours is an acre.

My husband sets the trail camera out to see what all animals wander through our unfenced yard at night. 

We had a herd of deer in the winter and when it snows my husband puts out some hay and feed for them.

There have been racoons, foxes, bunnies, quail, ducks, geese, and all kinds of birds come in to feast on the birdseed. We’ve even seen one black squirrel hanging off the bird feeder, a rare sighting in Bend. Never saw him again. 

And then sometimes a neighborhood cat will pass by, and in 4 years we’ve only had one dog at night.

It is fun to watch the videos and the animal interactions with each other. All the videos are at night. The deer might be eating a carrot and the bunny hops into view. The deer is startled and runs off. The quail will chase after the bunny or the duck either one.

This summer, at the very beginning, June 24^th, 7:15 am a doe had her baby in our back yard by the old pickup truck. The baby was so sweet! It was the size of a small dog, and had big spots on its back. It was not afraid and came up to the chain link fence. It kept running back and forth trying to find a way into the small fenced backyard area. Eventually, the mama got up and the baby trotted after her. I was surprised how the little fawn could keep up when the doe ran across the street and into the field and then the forest.

My husband and I were feeling truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to witness this new born fawn.

But our blessings were not over. We were driving through another neighborhood close to ours, and two quail were trying to cross the street. My husband stopped the car, as nobody was behind us. We watched as the parents escorted their brood of newly hatched chicks. We counted 10! Their bodies were the size of marbles with little tooth pick legs. Amazing how fast they ran and could keep up with their parents.

I love watching animals, and reading about all kinds of animals. I love National Geographic shows.

In my new manuscript I’m working on my heroine, Opal, is a scientist in Nova Scotia. She is studying a new breed of animals. Coywolves. Yes, there really is such an animal. The Canadian wolf and coyotes have cross bred. There was a documentary on tv about this new creature an it garnered my interest. I researched the coywolf and began writing my story.

I will tell you more about it in a later post.

Do you have a favorite animal native to your town, city or countryside?