The Sianian Wolf book cover, by Christian Bentulan. Permuted Press © 2015. All rights reserved. It’s a mere ten days until the release of my second book. These next few months will be some of the craziest I’ve lived. Having a book release in August, September, October, and November is an intense schedule – one that even seasoned authors balk at. I didn’t know what I was in for. That was why I agreed to it.
In the summer of 2012, just after I had signed my literary agency contract, I began work on The Sianian Wolf. This was a book that I had originally penned for the first time at age fourteen. It had been called Man of the Legend, and the only advantage about that title was that it was easier to pronounce than The Sianian Wolf. If you can’t pronounce Sianian, by the way, all you have to do is think “sigh onion”, and you’re halfway there. Then say “onion” with an “ah” instead of the “o”: “sigh ahnion”. And you have the pronunciation perfect. If you’re still having trouble, you could just follow my older brother’s suggestion, and call it “The Cinnamon Wolf”. He’s told me that if I sell reprint rights, I have to include a sprinkling of recipes – right after the Lashki has brutally killed somebody, there’ll be page saying: “Enjoy cinnamon cookies Sianian style. Dine on a delicacy that the Lashki might have enjoyed in his more innocent youth. Two teaspoons sugar, etc”.
Anyway, I wrote the first draft of The Sianian Wolf when I was fourteen. Originally, my plan with it had been to highlight how Rafen tied in more directly with Sianian legends and who exactly his real parents had been. Both these goals have been carried out to completion in the actual book. At eighteen, I sat down to write the book again. I penned something 120,000 words in length, and wound up cutting 20,000 words out, because they were hideous – which is quite a common discovery for an author to make. Then I wrote book three and left book two to sit for a bit. I finally came back to book two the following year, 2013. On a Creative Processes Course through Massey University, I spent inordinate amounts of time with my beaten up silver laptop, typing when I was meant to be studying the course material. With regards to the university study, the words “can’t be bothered” sprang to mind many times, as the course was mostly about hugging trees and roaring like tigers. One time on my way to the university, I had a crash on the bike I was using – a rather bad crash. I remember thinking – will I land the painless way or land the other way and save my laptop? It was a no-brainer. I saved the laptop.
The Sianian Wolf is probably my favourite book out of the whole Fledgling Account series. I can’t say too much about it, except that it’s definitely not an animal story.
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“Something’s not right,” he tried to tell Etana for the umpteenth time. If he was the Fledgling, why weren’t they listening to him?
When Rafen and his newfound family, who are royalty of Siana, return from their year long sabbatical, Rafen is certain something is wrong. But before he can figure out what it is, Lord Frankston – King Robert’s younger brother – has already trapped the royal family in the same room as the Lashki Mirah, an invincible figure who rose from the dead decades ago to steal the Sianian throne. Forced to flee, Rafen means to spend all his time trying to save those he loves – if they are still alive … but instead, he unintentionally discovers a whole new side of himself.
“Fans of Game of Thrones and J. R. R. Tolkien will love this book series!” – Tony Newton, Author of The Zombie Rule Book and Filmmaker.
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The Sianian Wolf: available for preorder from Amazon, Book Depository, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.
In the summer of 2012, just after I had signed my literary agency contract, I began work on The Sianian Wolf. This was a book that I had originally penned for the first time at age fourteen. It had been called Man of the Legend, and the only advantage about that title was that it was easier to pronounce than The Sianian Wolf. If you can’t pronounce Sianian, by the way, all you have to do is think “sigh onion”, and you’re halfway there. Then say “onion” with an “ah” instead of the “o”: “sigh ahnion”. And you have the pronunciation perfect. If you’re still having trouble, you could just follow my older brother’s suggestion, and call it “The Cinnamon Wolf”. He’s told me that if I sell reprint rights, I have to include a sprinkling of recipes – right after the Lashki has brutally killed somebody, there’ll be page saying: “Enjoy cinnamon cookies Sianian style. Dine on a delicacy that the Lashki might have enjoyed in his more innocent youth. Two teaspoons sugar, etc”.
Anyway, I wrote the first draft of The Sianian Wolf when I was fourteen. Originally, my plan with it had been to highlight how Rafen tied in more directly with Sianian legends and who exactly his real parents had been. Both these goals have been carried out to completion in the actual book. At eighteen, I sat down to write the book again. I penned something 120,000 words in length, and wound up cutting 20,000 words out, because they were hideous – which is quite a common discovery for an author to make. Then I wrote book three and left book two to sit for a bit. I finally came back to book two the following year, 2013. On a Creative Processes Course through Massey University, I spent inordinate amounts of time with my beaten up silver laptop, typing when I was meant to be studying the course material. With regards to the university study, the words “can’t be bothered” sprang to mind many times, as the course was mostly about hugging trees and roaring like tigers. One time on my way to the university, I had a crash on the bike I was using – a rather bad crash. I remember thinking – will I land the painless way or land the other way and save my laptop? It was a no-brainer. I saved the laptop.
The Sianian Wolf is probably my favourite book out of the whole Fledgling Account series. I can’t say too much about it, except that it’s definitely not an animal story.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Something’s not right,” he tried to tell Etana for the umpteenth time. If he was the Fledgling, why weren’t they listening to him?
When Rafen and his newfound family, who are royalty of Siana, return from their year long sabbatical, Rafen is certain something is wrong. But before he can figure out what it is, Lord Frankston – King Robert’s younger brother – has already trapped the royal family in the same room as the Lashki Mirah, an invincible figure who rose from the dead decades ago to steal the Sianian throne. Forced to flee, Rafen means to spend all his time trying to save those he loves – if they are still alive … but instead, he unintentionally discovers a whole new side of himself.
“Fans of Game of Thrones and J. R. R. Tolkien will love this book series!” – Tony Newton, Author of The Zombie Rule Book and Filmmaker.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sianian Wolf: available for preorder from Amazon, Book Depository, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.
Black Wolf by The Shared Experience, December 13, 2009. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode
