Ulrik on sale

The first review of Ulrik is up at Amazon, and the novel is on sale. Amazon has lowered the price by 19 percent. Don’t miss your chance to pick up a copy for over $3 off the cover price.

How to become a werewolf

I get asked about this all the time. “How can I become a werewolf?” I’ve even had people ask me to bite them. If it had been Salma Hayek, I’d have been nibbling until … well, I’d still be nibbling. But it never is. Anyway, assuming werewolves exist outside the pages of books like mine or the movies, the easiest way would be to get yourself bitten. Failing that, there is another way (which was discussed in my novel Shara, by the way). Sadly, I didn’t record my source for these notes, and it’s been so long ago that I can’t remember where I got the information. But here it is:

The Greek writer Neuri wrote that people living north of the Black Sea, both Greeks and others, regularly turned into wolves for a few days each year. Neuri lived in the 5th century B.C.

To become a werewolf, one could wait until the night of the new moon, go to a lonely place, such as a desert or mountaintop, and, on a level spot, draw a chalk circle about seven feet in diameter. Then draw a smaller circle of about three feet inside the first circle. Build a fire in the center of the small circle, and hang an iron pot from an iron stand. These must be iron! Throw into the pot handfuls of three of the following: parsley, hemlock, henbane, saffron, aloe, poppyseed, opium, solanum, and asafetida. Then recite this spell:

Spirits of the deep

Who never sleep,

Be kind to me.

Spirits from the grave

Without a soul to save,

Be kind to me.

Spirits of the trees

That grow upon the leas,

Be kind to me.

Spirits of the air

Foul and dark, not fair,

Be kind to me.

Spirits of the dead

That glide with noiseless tread,

Be kind to me.

Wolves, vampires, satyrs, ghosts!

Chosen of all the hateful hosts!

I pray you send hither,

Hither, hither,

That great gray shape that makes men shiver,

Shiver, shiver, shiver!

Come, come, come!

After saying the spell, one should rub themselves with lard or some other kind of animal fat mixed with camphor, anise, and opium. Tie on a belt made of wolf skin, and then kneel down inside the large circle, being careful to stay outside the small circle. Spirits will appear within the small circle and it/they will grant the power to become a werewolf.

Some problems fixed

There were some bugs when I moved this site from my former host. It took me a bit to find them, but hopefully I have found and fixed everything now.

The PDFs under Free Stuff and Reviews weren’t working. I’m still not clear on what was wrong, but I have moved those files and changed the links, so those should be working now. If you find anything that isn’t working, please let me know.

Monster Librarian Review & Interview

Bob Freeman’s been a busy dude. Among the many other things he’s been up, he recently did an interview with me for Monster Librarian. It’s a pretty thorough interview and was a lot of fun to do. While I was answering his questions he was busy reading Ulrik. He has these very, very nice things to say about the novel. Here’s a little snippet of what he said:

Within Ulrik, and the Saga as a whole, is an elegant mythology that lives and breathes in a world that the reader can submerge himself into and feel apart of.

For those who don’t know it, Bob is quite the author himself. He’s also an artist. And supernaturalist. You can read all about him in this interview I did for Horror World.

The Beast is Loose

At long last, the sequel to Shara is available. Ulrik, Book 3 of The Werewolf Saga, became available at Amazon today.

Picking up about eight years after the events of Shara, this volume begins with the kidnapping of Joey, Shara’s son, by Kiona Brokentooth. Kiona is charged with the task of bringing the boy to Ulrik, but she has an agenda — and powerful friends — of her own.

Thomas McGrath has been watching Shara and her family. When he moves to stop Kiona he is nearly killed for his trouble. Badly wounded, he becomes Shara’s only ally when Fenris, Ulrik’s most powerful rival, attacks Shara’s home and her husband is presumed dead.

Together, Shara and Thomas set out in search of Joey as Ulrik struggles to maintain order in his household while teaching the young Alpha about his heritage and his destiny.

Rue Morgue magazine said, “Written in a style that’s simple, raw, fierce and merciless, Ulrik will seduce readers into leaving the path and running with the wolves.”

Needless to say, I’m very excited about the release of this book, and I hope you will be, too. The cover image is not yet up on Amazon, but you can see it here. Also here at the official Werewolf Saga site, you’ll find an excerpt from the book (A Meeting in the Woods) and a crude book trailer (it’s my first effort at such a thing).

FenCon & Newsletter

For the past couple of years I’ve been using a dedicated e-mail account to send out my electronic updates. Prior to that I used a Yahoo Group. I’ve decided to go back to the Yahoo Group. It’s just easier to manage for me, and easier for people to sign up and get off. If you were on the Yahoo Group (sewedel), you’re still there. If you were on the e-mail list (newsATstevenewedelDOTcom) you should be getting an e-mail asking you to join the Yahoo Group. If you weren’t on either list but want to be, here’s your chance.

Click to join sewedel

In other news, I’m EXTREMELY sad to announce I won’t be at FenCon this year. Sure, the outrageous gas prices are part of it, but more importantly, FenCon falls on the same weekend as TrickConTreat. It was a really hard decision trying to decide which con to attend, but in the end I went with TCT, partly for reasons I can’t go into yet, and partly because it’s local, and more horror themed. Gotta support the local guys, ya know.

Well, we’re about to watch “Sweeney Todd.” I don’t expect much from it.

Radio spot scheduled

A date has been set for my appearance on The Mysterious Lab of Dr. Fear. I’ll be joining Brian Yount, aka Dr. Fear, in my hometown of Enid, Okla., on July 13. The show starts at 8 p.m. CST and there is a live Internet feed. Brian’s promised a show filled with werewolf themed music, so I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun. The appearance has been scheduled as part of the promotion for Ulrik, which should be out by then.

Okie Werewolf Art & A Contest

Today I got to see Bret Jordan’s art that will accompany my story “Okie Werewolf Seeks Love” in Graveside Tales’ The Beast Within anthology. You can see it here.

Now, I mentioned a contest, right? I’m looking to make another little video for The Werewolf Saga. But I need your help. I want video testimonials from you, the readers. They need to be short, as in no more than 20 seconds, and preferably in .WAV format. Remember, funny is good. Maybe even preferable. I want about five of these, so the senders of the top five videos will win a signed copy of their choice of my Werewolf Saga books. The quality doesn’t have to be great; if you have a decent cell phone camera, that’s probably good enough. The destination is YouTube, so I’m not expecting to see Lucasfilm special effects … just you saying something about the books. Or hell, it can be about me, if you want. I’m relying on your videos to determine the overall direction and tone of the final product. You can e-mail your entries to me at author (at) stevenewedel (dot) com. I’m going to set a deadline of July 4 on this, which should give me time to put the video together just about the time Ulrik is released. This is advertisement, so in your e-mail I need you to state that I have your permission to use your video and your image for advertising purposes. If you’re under 18, I’ll need your parent’s permission.

Galleys returned

Just wanted to drop a note to say I made it through the Ulrik galleys and got them returned to Scrybe Press on Monday. Hopefully we’ll see the novel very soon.

The Beast Within TOC

Here’s the table of contents for Graveside Tales’ werewolf anthology The Beast Within:

The Claws of Native Ghosts by Lee Battersby
Like Cat and Dog by Michael Stone
Gift of the Bouda by Rick Farnsworth
Hatchet Job by John C. Caruso
Yard Sale by Norma Lehr
Desert Heart by William D Carl
Let?s All Welcome The New Guy by Raoul Wainscoting
Beached by Joel A Sutherland
Needs to be Met by Mark W Coulter
Some Touch of Pity by Gary A BraunBeck
The Night John Fell by Richard Moore
Okie Werewolf Seeks Love by Steven Wedel
The Marine by John Palisano
Lure of the Wolf by Belea T Keeney
SQ 389 by David W Hill
Crop Frogs by Gina Ranalli
Of Silver Bullets and Golden Teeth by Trent Hergenrader
By the Light of a Silvery Moon by Vince Churchill
Colugo Men by Mike Hultquist
The Immaculate Conception by Matt Hults