Author Intro – Maegan A. Stebbins (Maverick-Werewolf)

A single howl drifts over the lonely fens, yet nothing disturbs the fog. You shiver at a chill running up your spine. Hot breath wafts upon your neck, and you know you’re being watched. You dare to turn around…

Imagine, if you will, having the same dream nearly every night. Not in that the dream is precisely the same, but that it always ends in the same thing: a monster appears, a great, white werewolf. Will it help you or will it harm you? Will it save your life or take it? Each time, I could never be sure of the outcome. But, each time, the white werewolf would appear.

It haunted my dreams for many years of my life, no matter how the dream may have begun. Sooner or later, the werewolf would appear. It was terrifying – and disturbingly consistent. I had never thought about werewolves before in my life, nor even really knew anything about them. I loved all animals and still do, but my favorites as a child were housecats and tigers, not wolves specifically. Yet, even as young as four years old, nothing more than a child, the white werewolf was there.

And with the stage set, I’ll finally introduce myself: I am Maegan A. Stebbins, known online as Maverick-Werewolf. I’ve been writing for all my life, mostly about the same world and characters. I first started self-publishing as opposed to sharing stories online in 2015, and I recently relaunched my debut novel, Wulfgard: Knightfall, the beginning of my most important series, The Prophecy of the Six.

For fiction, I primarily write fantasy – my favorite sort of fictional setting – of many literary genres set therein, including but not limited to adventure, mystery, and horror, or often all of them combined. I pride myself on my strong and memorable characters and snappy but natural dialogue. I also plan to publish sci-fi, among others, but fantasy is my staple. My signature is monsters, mutation, and in general transformation and curses, all addressing one great question: what does it truly mean to be human?

Though fiction is my passion, I am also a lover of history, folklore, and mythology, as well as a scholar of it, specializing in werewolf studies, and have published some nonfiction books about werewolf legends and their history. I have the special ability to turn anything back around to discussing werewolves, sooner or later; I think about them incessantly. Werewolves are “my thing.” I also love movies, as they bring me more joy than they really have a right. I’m certain this influences my writing style, since I would love nothing more than to someday see my stories created through filmmaking. 

So what does all this mean for the articles I’ll share? I’ve been writing fiction for over twenty years, and I’ve taught university level literature, grammar, syntax, editing, academic writing, and rhetoric at Virginia Tech, while also giving talks about – you guessed it – werewolves, both in folklore and popular culture.

You’ll be seeing posts from me discussing various topics and provoking thoughts as to how to approach them in fiction and the importance of letting them influence you, such as real-world folklore and myth, how to approach research responsibly and professionally, and also simpler articles about general subjects related to the English language and how to properly use it. While you can choose to ignore some rules, it’s much better to know them than not! I’ll likely throw in articles now and then discussing writing style in general, as well.

I hope you’ll enjoy my coming articles and find them helpful on your own writing journey. Until next time!