While brainstorming for my prose-poem, Rosaire I envisioned an epic denouement which I thought was entirely of my own invention. It wasn’t until I began to picture it in my mind’s eye when I realized there was a whiff of familiarity in it. Although my idea isn’t identical to it, I believe the inspiration for my epic ending may be partially inspired by the 3rd act in the Dark Fantasy novel “The Black Wolf” by Galad Elflandsson, which I have reviewed on here before. Mr. Elflandsson stumbled upon my review and agreed with my assessment of his novel and we ended up becoming pen-pals. When I told him about my recent epiphany he was amicably dismissive and said, in reference to my post which included a shot of the cover art from his novel, “you poor thing…nevertheless…you’re more than welcome to whatever comes to you from the above…”.
Trade paperback copy of The Black Wolf by Galad Elflandsson. [1980, Centaur Books]. Cover art by Randy Broecker.
Cyäegha, Summer 2016
I also based some of the werewolf attribute details in Rosaire on historical accounts from Montague Summers’ 1933 treatise on lycanthropy, The Werewolf in Lore and Legend. In particular I was thinking of the 17th century teenage lycanthrope Jean Grenier. I am almost done with the story, but not quite. I felt I needed to add something to it before it is ready, and I want to give it some serious thought before I write anything else. Of course, I’ll keep you all posted on any developments.
The Werewolf in Lore and Legend by Montague Summers [2003, Dover Publications]
