Wolf's Head Issue 2 on Kindle

This issue picks up immediately after issue 1. Literally moments after. I don’t often do this and I suspect it will be a bit of an anomaly with the series itself, but it was a lot of fun to brainstorm! Especially the opening page, since it picks up right after the final page of the very first issue of WOLF’S HEAD.

Last issue saw the reveal of the weird shape-changing artificial intelligence that Lauren’s mom, Patty, befriended. This issue starts delving into the background of that; how did Patty meet it? What’s their relationship like? And just what the hell is this weird AI “thing” that is now a big part of Patty’s life? Lauren has a lot of questions and her mom — much to Lauren’s frustration — is not exactly forthcoming with answers.

Throw in the other problems in Lauren’s life and it’s a recipe for a lot of drama. Even without her mom’s new complication, Lauren is still struggling to find a job and pay rent. That creates a great deal of pressure on her and her struggle to resolve that plays a big part of this issue. I don’t know about you, but I actually really like grounding characters in reality. One of my immense frustrations with a lot of contemporary stories (regardless of the medium) is when we can clearly see that the lives of the characters are not realistic. Yves Smith on her Naked Capitalism site wrote a great piece on this that’s well-worth a read. She noted, “Not only does TV show how the better-off half lives, TV and the movies regularly depict characters living in better circumstances than the incomes that go with their jobs would allow.”

A reader named Clive then wrote a wonderful comment on that post. A quick (and hopefully fair use) excerpt: “Once I started noticing a phenomena (…) TV houses having unreasonably large rooms or characters having a standard of living not commensurate with their jobs (…) the author has to conjure up some outrageously contrived explanation and scenarios as to how the central characters have the time and resources to participate in whatever story arc they are about to be launched upon. (…) Where do the participants get their money from? If they work, what do they do which gives them the energy to pursue the plot line?”

One of my goals with WOLF’S HEAD was to avoid this. For me, the ordinary day-to-day struggles that characters have are important. It rings true because for so many of us it is true. One can tack on the fantastic on top of that, but that core of realism is a big part of the story. And a big part of WOLF’S HEAD.

Okay! With that said, here’s the Elevator Pitch: “After Patty Greene helps a young Artificial Intelligence escape from a secretive corporation under the cover of a huge research factory fire, she turns to her daughter Lauren for help keeping it safe. Giddy with excitement, Patty doesn’t recognize the danger she has put herself in… but Lauren does and she is terrified. As Lauren does her best to help her mom, the tensions over the Artificial Intelligence erupt between them, leaving Lauren on her own. Broke, down on her luck, and needing a job very badly, Lauren turns to her friends for aid, all the while keeping her mom’s discovery a secret.”

And here are the usual links:

• Wolf’s Head Official Site: https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/
• United States of America: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089V7356R
• Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089V7356R
• Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B089V7356R
• Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B089V7356R
• United Kingdom: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089V7356R
• France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B089V7356R
• Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B089V7356R
• And so on!

And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In Spain, changing the “dot com” to “dot es” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.es/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!