Shapeshifter v. Werewolf

I have a little bit of a pet peeve about the blurring of the lines between werewolves and shapeshifters, just because a shifter takes the shape of a wolf that doesn’t mean he or she is a werewolf.

Let’s look at werewolves first. Werewolves are cursed creatures. They’re people who, under the influence of a curse, are forced into the shape of a wolf during the full moon. They don’t have any control over the change or over their actions while in wolf form. Finally, the “curse” can be transmitted through blood or body fluid contact.

A lot of the werewolves we see in fiction now are not, at least by that definition, werewolves. They are shapeshifters who take the form of a wolf. For the most part, they seem to retain their human intelligence and personality while in wolf form. Therefore, if the person is a killer the wolf will also kill humans. If the person is not a killer then the wolf is, for the most part, not a danger to humans.

I read a lot of paranormal romance and that issue bugs me. The werewolf is the hero so he can’t be entirely a werewolf otherwise it’s tough to make him sympathetic. So most of them are shapeshifters with werewolfy tendencies. They shift usually around the full moon, but they can shift at other times. Their shifting seems more connected to their emotional state than to the phase of the moon.

When I imagined the wolves of Lowell island, I called them werewoves at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to see that they weren’t really werewolves. They maintain human intelligence, they shift at will, they don’t stress about their loss of humanity. The shapeshifters of Lowell island, don’t consider themselves human at all. They don’t do  it often, but they are not averse to eating humans.

Oops, I almost called them werewolves again, the shapeshifters, or the changing kind of Lowell Island featured in my short story Spirit Wolf, are neither wolf nor man they are another species  that happens to share the world with humans. Usually, we put ourselves at the top of the food chain, but what if that’s an illusion. We look into the night and see only the lights and sounds of the city. What if there are things walking in the darkness, just beyond our sight, that watch and wait for  one of us to stray from path.  I think that is the ingredient I’ve been missing that I want in my own work. I want to take that journey into the shadows.

Destiny's Childe Cover Preview

I finished my first stab at making a cover for my upcoming short story, Destiny's Child, today. I might make another version or two just to try out some other ideas, but so far this one's not bad. The story is about a prescient boy who tries to change the future for someone he loves. 

On My Knitting Needles: The Merino and Cashmere Cowl

Cowl’s are the new "it" garment. I saw an article in the New York Times last winter that got me interested in them. The title was something like can the cowl save Christmas. I made one for myself last year and I wore it all winter long.

Clothing sales were kind of dismal in winter 2010, according to the story, clothing designers were trying to make cowls happen because it was an article of clothing that most people didn’t already have in their closets. The designer cowls the Times featured were really hot, but the prices were well past the limits of my budget.

I thought about it, and finally said to myself, "hey that’s a tube, I can knit a tube," and my first cowl was born. Of course, being me, I couldn’t just knit a tube. That cowl turned into an exploration of using the golden ratio as a design tool. 

I considered trying to knit it as a moebius, but my skills weren’t up to the task. Check out the moebius cast on method below. Cat Bordhi, knit wear designer and knitting Goddess, gives a great lesson in casting on a true moebius.

 
  Eventually, I just knit it back and forth like a scarf then grafted the two ends together after giving them a twist.

The project on my needles now is another cowl inspired by the first one. My aunt saw me wearing mine and asked if I could make one for her too. It’s on a much smaller scale because my Aunt Veronica is a much smaller person than I am. 

I spent a few weeks swatching and hating my swatches when I found this neat pattern called Aqua Ripples in Simply Knitting magazine, Issue 81, June 2011, page 67. 

I loved how fast the cowl grew in the bulky yarn. The pattern looks a lot more complicated than it is, every other row you just go back to the basic three by one rib, very relaxing TV knitting.

And no, I couldn’t just follow the pattern and make the shallow, but very nice cowl pictured. I’ve modified the pattern so that the cowl would be longer and wider than the original design. Cowls feel more luxurious to me when you can twist them once or twice around your neck, or pull them up to form a hood.

The yarn was a Michael’s find: Lion Brand Super Wash Merino, a blend of 70% merino wool, 20% cashmere with a dab of nylon in Slate (color # 150), an elegant shade of gray. You get the warmth of wool and the softness of cashmere. I thought it was a steal at $7.99 a ball. 


I'm planning a visit with her over Labor Day weekend. I should have her cowl completely finished by then.

If I have enough yarn left, she might even get a pair of fingerless mitts because I really like knitting this pattern.

Some Summer Reading

I’ve accepted that I’m what Barbara Sher refers to as a scanner. I have a zillion interests that I pursue with varying degrees of passion for however long the fire lasts. I say this to prepare you for my summer reading list.It seems a little, how do I put it politely—eclectic?

The Post American World

Fareed Zacharia says, "This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." I’m nearly done with this refreshing look at the past and future of American hegemony. 

Knitting the Old Way, by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Deborah Robson

I’ve been a knitter for about three years now and I’m just becoming adventurous enough to try to stop being a slave to patterns. Ms. Roberts breaks down the construction methods for traditional garments so that line by line instructions aren’t necessary. I made a shawl using basic “how to make a triangle,” instructions and embellished it with stitch patterns of my own choosing. I frogged that thing more times than I care to count, but in the end I love wearing it and I have an understanding of how to make a triangular shawl with or without a pattern.

UnHoly Angels, by Karen Fenech

I added this to my reading list because when I got to the end of the sample I downloaded I wanted more immediately. What can I say about a thriller that has murder, suicide, grave robbing, child abuse and political corruption in the first four chapters—buckle up it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Hard Day’s Knight(Black Knight Chronicles), by John G. Hartness

How can you not laugh at a story about an overweight, vampire who tries to solve mysteries wearing a spandex body stocking, a cape, and a utility belt? The sample chapters had me laughing out loud.

On China, by Henry Kissinger

I see On China as a companion to the Post American World. I’ll be taking a look at the modern relationship between China and the United States through the eyes of the man who designed the American side of the exchange.

That’s the lineup so far. I’ll post another one of these updates in August

TweetLit #1: I Am The Hunter

Hmm, she's hip for an H&M girl. Watching her browse mall goods, unaware she's prey thrills me. H&M, Gap, Macy's, sheep! Taking her wallet was easy. She even apologized for bumping in to me. I dubbed her Mocha.

I bought a shiny, new hatchet with Mocha's credit card. I need to make space for her. I'll pick her up in a few days.

Doe's in the cage cuddling her predecessor's head. She ate the rest, eventually. Tacos for her last meal I think.

Cage cleaned, steaks, roasts, ground meat prepped, before I left, I put Doe's head in the cage. I'm ready for Mocha.

(c) 2011 Lisa Toppin


If you'd like to see I Am The Hunter in its original form search Twitter for #iamthehunter. For more Tweetlit, follow me on Twitter.

A Puzzle And A Haiku Have A Baby

I'm getting a kick out of writing these microstories. This first one was like figuring out a puzzle. How do I create a full scene with each tweet when I have less than characters? The answer: graph paper and loads of rewrites.

I've fallen in love with Sharpie Liquid Pencils. I know it's an erasable pen, but the ink looks really pencilly, and after about 24 hours it's indelible. That means lots of working time for rewrites and no smudgy notes. Yay Sharpie!

Twit Lit? What do you call a story told in Tweets?

I listened to an Accidental Creative podcast yesterday. The show was an interview with Noah Scalin, who created the Skull-a-Day blog. I was really inspired by his project and decided to create one of my own . I'm going to tweet a super short story every day for a year and a day (love the fairy tale-ishness of that). Some tweets will be complete stories, others will be just a portion of a tweet series. Tweet-tastic I'm psyched.