The Red Wood

(Currently on hold until April 2016)

Rohan "Ro" Northwood knows that red forests of the Northwood well, living in it with her black and silver kin, her red fur as much a part of the landscape as the wet earth and tall red oak trees.

A week before her eighteenth year, Ro is sent off to her grandmother to claim her birthright as the red wolf in her family: that of the Wise Wolf, a famed creature meant to serve as protector of the woods and often viewed as a bringer of fortune to those that seek her. She agrees: after all, it's what she's been groomed for, and despite her blood red coat singling her out her entire life, she's proud to have been chosen to take her aging grandmother's place.

Yet there's much to fear beyond the northern woodlands: there's the threat of humans, eager to kill stray wolves who leave the wood's protection and are unsuspecting. With her mother's blessing -and stern advice against the humans she'll be living amongst- Ro sets out on her quest to the Westwood, seeking her Grandmother dozens of miles away in a new land.

But even wise wolves fall to temptation, and Ro is no different.

Tempted away by the scent of jam and crusted bread on the wind one evening, she encounters a girl named Scarlet, on the road to visit her grandmother at the edge of Westwood. Taking human form, Ro accompanies her, enamored by humans and her first chance to see them up close. It is there, in the sight of one Scarlet Slaughter of Jam Village, that Ro faces an enemy she never expected to encounter: her own heart and the fondness that blooms for human flesh and love alike.

Yet true danger awaits Ro at the end of the road, and its going to take more than one wolf to fend it off, lest the soon to be wise wolf falls to the blade of a hatchet.

The Red Wood is a story about love, friendship, and temptation, all meeting at a crossroad where the hunter becomes hunted, and kindness blooms anew.