shm'Ahnmik'nesera
Oliza Shardae Cobriana is heir to the avian Tuuli Thea, and Arami of the serpiente. When she takes the throne, her reign will mean the final blending of two peoples who before her birth had warred for generations. Though Oliza daily fights to conquer the poisons of discrimination and distrust left by thousands of years of war, her people seem determined to cling to their hatred. Serpents occupy the southern hills, avians roost on the northern hills, and neither side is anxious to cross the marketplace to learn about the other half of this new world.
As her parents knew, when they first founded Wyvern's Court, one queen cannot rule two lands. If Oliza cannot find a way to bring her people together, her ascent to the throne may not be a joyous day of celebration- but the spark that drives her entire world back into war.
Origin of the Story:
First things first, the Kiesha’ra Series was supposed to be a trilogy. As I mentioned on the Falcondance page, Wolfcry was originally supposed to be the third and final book in the series... but then the falcons got in the way.
When I first signed the contract for Wolfcry, it was so badly in need of revision it barely had a plot. This was a problem for me. Among other things, I was terrified of telling it wrong, and ending up with something that seemed to have the moral, "When life gets tough, give up."
Falcondance was written mostly during my first semester of college. Wolfcry... well. The vast majority of this book was written during a very difficult time in my life. Long story short, as a result of some previously-unresolved medical and personal issues, I ended up taking a health-withdrawal from college. Or, to put it more bluntly, dropping out in the middle of the semester. Something I didn't know at the time, and only found out later (thankfully), was that most of my friends never expected me to go back to school.
Beyond being about Wyvern's Court, and politics, and Oliza, Wolfcry is a struggle. It is not meant to be a political statement, though some of its themes make it easily translated that way; yes, I am from Massachusetts and yes I am very happy with my legislature, but that's not the point I wanted to make in this book.
Wolfcry is about expectations. It is about coming to terms with yourself and the path you need to take, even when that path is different from the one everyone thinks you should follow. Even when it is different from the one you always thought you would tred.
A lot of people were angry with the way Wolfcry ended. While some people were pleased with some or all of Oliza's choices, more IMed, emailed, PMed, posted, MySpaced or wrote to me to ask, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"
Yeah. That reaction is pretty much what I was going for. Wait until you see what happens next.