Thanksgiving weekend, I attended the Darkover Grand Council Meeting — an annual science fiction/fantasy convention. One of the panel discussions was titled “Flying Cats and Talking Dogs: Creating believable animals in SF&F.” I brought up the question of how authors can make sure they’re getting it “right.” As a dog trainer who’s studied canine behavior (including wolf behavior), I often find it jarring when I’m reading a story that features dogs or wolves – simply because the author got it “wrong.” This is especially true of fantasy novels that include wolves – or werewolves – because there’s so much misinformation ingrained in our “common knowledge” of wolves.

One of the panel members asked what it was that authors so often got wrong about wolves, and I replied “Alpha wolves and wolf hierarchy.” There wasn’t time to go into the details of just how wrong the “common view” of wolf culture is. I left it at “A wolf pack is actually a family unit, with Mom and Dad leading their offspring” and invited anyone interested to email me for more information.

Margaret L. Carter, author of “The Shadow of the Beast” (a werewolf novel) was there, and she recently took me up on that offer.

This was my response (edited for clarity and accuracy after I re-read the articles I suggested to Margaret as good sources of information): (more…)