It's challenging getting back into characters that I haven't had very much to do with in more than a decade. Granted, one of them made a brief appearance in The Chronicles of Nightfire, Texas, and I did write the first six pages of the Cry, Wolf sequel some time after the first book was published, but for the most part, I had left the few characters returning for book II behind when I published Cry, Wolf in late 1999.

There really are very few characters returning for part II. Only two of the first book's cast are returning in large roles this time around. One is the obvious, central character who we all knew would be in this new book; the other should be unexpected, as I killed him in book I, and he has returned for book II as a restless ghost. Think of him as a less dignified, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking Obi-Wan Kenobi. That description should be a clue for fans of the first book.

The other possible returning characters aren't the sort that fans would jump for joy over, and they are presently only making cameos. One is another ghost, who really has nothing at all to say at this point, but may need to be seen at least once by the primary werewolf in this part of our tale. Another is a character who everyone was meant to hate but just happenned to survive, and the last is a character I threw in at the very end of the book with absolutely no explanation as to who he was or where he came from. That was a big literary no-no, I knew even as I did it, but it will all make sense when you see this as a series, rather than just one novel. He had to be there at the end of book I, if his presence in future books was to make any sense.

When I outlined Cry, Wolf, I saw it as a complete story. There were no sequels. However, by the time I'd nearly finished writing the manuscript, I realized there was more to say. There was another story to tell, and if I were ever to decide to tell it, I would certainly look back and be glad that I stuck Julius in at the end of the first book.

I'm struggling to outline this new book's chapters without having "spoken" to the central cast of characters in so long. I'm hoping they come back to me, as I go along. In fact, I'm certain that they will. After all, it was they who told me there was another tale to tell.