Worthing author offers "exciting, but meaningful story about wolves”

Jane, who has just celebrated her 70th birthday, said: “I have held a fascination for books since childhood; read stories about animals, or whatever drew my attention on the bookshelves in our local library.

“I believe those early years helped foster my love of reading. I am still an avid reader and love nothing more than to relax with a good book in my hands. Over the years I have read numerous books in all genres, fiction and factual.

“It was many years ago that I came across a book pertaining to wolves, relaying how they live and the importance of upholding the hierarchy within the pack, a ranking system where each individual wolf knows his or her place. They are family orientated animals and not so different from us. Wolves love and naturally want to protect their offspring and also actively tend a sick or injured pack member, giving them time to recover from their ailment.

“They are beautiful intelligent creatures and very much misunderstood by many people who think they are merely vermin and not worth the bother. The misconceptions of wolves continue to this day.

“I wanted to write an exciting, but meaningful story about wolves, with one wolf in particular sharing the protagonist role with his human counterpart Edmund.

“And so slowly an idea began to materialise in my mind.

“It is my hope my book will highlight the plight of wolves and bring awareness to this endangered species and the urgent need to protect them.

“My book is first and foremost a fictional story whereby as an author my imagination plays a huge part in the fantasy and supernatural elements described: a thought-provoking story for anyone who loves adventure with a twist of darkness.

“The planning of the story took several months to complete.

“It was a huge undertaking. Firstly, I had to decide on the theme and tone of the story; the conflict, what was it about and why it was happening?

“Then, my principal characters, the protagonists and the antagonists emerged, plus the supporting characters with emphasis on each separate role.

“I discovered writing a rough draft was essential to keeping the continuity of the plot on track as I progressed.

“It’s easy to get confused. Keeping notes also helped avoid repetition and blundering errors.

“I found it was essential to monitor structure too which is vital in maintaining a timeline of events.

“This lesson I’d learnt the hard way during my first months of writing, and therefore I had to delete several chapters of my work in order to regain a sense of cohesiveness and sensibility back into my writing. It was a mind-boggling time for me when at the end of the day my reward was to relax with a drink in hand. Tea and biscuits, of course…”

Jane added: “I began writing the GoldenEars series in the spring of 2015: this was my first serious piece of writing. It was during the bereavement of my little dog Beamish who died in April, just before his 13th birthday the previous year. His courage and indomitable spirit were the inspiration behind the story. He was normally a happy little dog, loving fun and games. At age four he fell ill with canine epilepsy and since then I loved him all the more for he needed love and reassurance when times were bad. To say I enjoyed writing this story would not be entirely accurate. It was more like a compulsion, combining my passion for wolves and my heartfelt connection I had with my beautiful little dog. It was my privilege to write it, and I would like to share the story with you.”