Tales from Burkeland: Tale 22
Welcome to the second issue of Behind the Books, a quarterly author spotlight series on Tales from Burkeland. This month I’m featuring Wulf Moon. He’s been an incredible mentor to me, and I credit his teachings in How to Write a Howling Good Story with helping me sell “Rise of the Witches” to Flame Tree Publishing for Circe.
Moon won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards at fifteen. It became his first professional sale in Science World (1,000,000 print copies per issue). He has won over sixty awards in fiction and nonfiction, including six Writer of the Year awards and seven Best Writing Workshop awards.
Moon’s stories have appeared in numerous publications including Writers of the Future Vol. 35, Best of Deep Magic 2, Best of Third Flatiron, Galaxy’s Edge, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 2—a borg love story, what could be sweeter?
Moon writes a series on writing craft for the professional magazines DreamForge and Story Unlikely. He teaches the award-winning Super Secrets of Writing Workshops, leads the award-winning Wulf Pack Writers group, and is the author of the runaway bestseller How To Write a Howling Good Story.
Let’s get to the questions.
How did you discover that you wanted to be a storyteller?
Like many, I’m a born storyteller. You don’t want to be a storyteller; you either are one or you are not. I wrote poetry before I went to kindergarten and was winning awards by third grade. By junior high and high school, I was winning state, regional, and national writing competitions. My head was always swimming in stories, and I’d often sneak down to the basement after everyone in our house was asleep to write.
What’s your favorite part and least favorite part of being a writer?
Favorite: Writing while in Flow state. There is no greater joy than when you’re firing on all cylinders and your conscious mind yields to the dream state of writing and the story unfolds without thought.
Least favorite: Never having enough time to write. It’s a constant battle because you must do what pays the most first to take care of your family and living needs.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a storyteller?
Know who you are. If you’re truly a writer, you won’t be satisfied doing anything else. But to become a paid writer that gets published and read, you will need to rise to writing at a professional level. This is a different animal from being a hobby writer. For a hobby writer, you can write for the pure joy of writing and not be dependent on the quality of your writing. But if you want to become a professional writer—which involves making money from your writing, getting published, and having readers and fans—you will have to learn how to write professionally.
Professional writing takes smart practice, studying the craft of writing, and investment in your training. The majority of writers go it alone, never get critiques or edits from experienced writers to help them improve, and eventually give up. Find a professional writing group that is positive and enjoys real publishing success and learn from those ahead of you on the path.
Author’s Note: Moon provides exactly that kind of group in his Wulf Pack Writers. As a member myself, I can attest that it’s a great place to learn the ins and outs of professional writing. Check it out here.
What themes tend to show up in your work?
Rising to triumph after tragedy. I write about characters facing impossible odds and often how to find their way to triumph even in a no-win situation. My Writers of the Future winner, “Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler” is one of these.
These stories are influenced from my childhood. I faced abandonment by my mother, extreme abuse by my father, and even had to run away to save myself and lived in a foster home. One can change their destiny even in the most adverse situations, but it will never be easy and usually comes at great cost. The price of victory must always be paid in my stories, creating deep emotional moments for my readers to experience through the protagonist.
I like writing stories to entertain and even to make readers laugh, but if my stories don’t evoke deep feelings in my readers’ hearts as they go on the journey with my protagonist, I don’t feel I’ve done my job. I want my readers’ hearts to be gripped as I engage their minds. I write my tales to give readers an emotional experience that they’ll savor like a fine wine long after the last sip is taken.
What’s your favorite form to write (novel, short story, poetry, etc.)? Why do you like it?
Right now? Novelettes. These are longer-form short stories that allow greater character development and world building. Every word still counts as in short stories, and tension must be maintained and ratcheted up from one scene to the next. But the longer form gives me more room to take the reader on a deeper and more compelling journey of the heart. “Muzik Man” is an example of this: an android minstrel missionary sent to save a tone-deaf world. Free to read at DreamForge magazine if you would like to see why I love this form.
Thanks for the interview Wulf Moon!
He’ll be conducting the next in his sold-out Super Secrets of Writing Vegas Suite Seminars at the Horseshoe Las Vegas in November.
You can find him online here:
- Website (where you can join his free Wulf Pack Club)
- Patreon (where you’ll find the Wulf Pack Writers Group)
- Teachable (for workshops on-demand through his online Super Secrets of Writing School)
- Wulf Pack Writers on Facebook
Thanks for reading Behind the Books! The next Behind the Books will be in February 2027.
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What you missed in this month’s newsletter:
From the Drafts: WIP Quote.
Quote of the Month.
Myths and Magic: Samhain.
From My Shelf: Death and the Dragon by David Hankins.