The Language of Dogs

Back several months ago, I stumbled upon an article about dog body language and "culture" - things like why dogs sit on your feet or lick your mouth. With the mouth licking, it comes from a pack behavior in wolves. When the alpha couple hunt, they bring meat back to the cubs... in their stomachs. The pups lick the adults' mouths, sometimes thrusting their snout into the corner of their mouth, to signal the adult to spit the meat back up for them to eat. (Yeah, gross, I know.) This behavior of dogs licking your mouth means that they recognize you as a senior pack member - someone who will provide you with food (even though Fluffy is expecting something more along the lines of you opening a can or sharing bits of your burger rather than you vomiting up elk).

When I read this article, I remembered reading Julie of the Wolves as a kid, and then later rereading it when I was a children's librarian. Julie, a teenage Native Alaskan, has run away from an arranged marriage and is somewhat adopted by a pack of wolves; she observes the behavior of the pups and manages to mimic them in such a way that the pack allows her to stay with them, and even to eat the food that they bring back to the den. Both times when I read this, I recall thinking that it was interesting behavior, but it didn't really occur to me that domestic dogs might have mannerisms relating to it.

Last Christmas, we took our dog, Athena, with us to Jason's parents'. It was her first time meeting their new dog, Gillie, who, while still a puppy, was also already close to double Athena's height and weight. We weren't really sure how Athena and Gillie would get along, what with Gillie being much larger and more energetic, and Athena being deaf (and therefore not privy to social cues related to sound, such as barking or growling). I ended up being amazed, not just that they got along (Athena is a good, sweet girl, and generally gets along well with other dogs), but that this much larger dog instantly trotted up to our little girl and started licking her mouth. Gillie apparently immediately recognized Athena as a senior member of the pack.

Thinking about the mouth licking, and bringing food back to the pups, I also thought about a story I wrote from the perspective of a wolf. The story is written in first-person present tense. In the story, the wolf narrates her plan to take her kill back to the den for her pup. When I wrote the story, I debated how to write this scene, and how true I should be to actual wolf behavior. I decided not to be entirely accurate - the wolf described intending to drag her kill back to the den rather than eating part of it to take back to her pup.

I made this choice for stylistic reasons, and not to alienate the reader. I figured most readers wouldn't be familiar with wolf behavior and would be so turned off by the idea of eating and the regurgitating the meat that they would lose what else was going on in the story.

I usually aim to write with accuracy. And every time I reread this story, it does bother me a litlte bit that I don't have the wolf's behavior exactly right. But, ultimately, I think the feel of the story is right - and apparently other people did, too, because it was published by the James Dickey Review. You can read it here ("Ashes," the fourth story on the page) if you're interested - and then you can decide if you think my change suited the story: https://www.iveyink.com/myworks

Hi, there! I recognize that you are a senior pack-member - do you have food for me?

No Mo Wri Mo

NaNoWriMo* begins on Wednesday.  I will not be committing to the challenge this year, or to an alternate challenge, as I have sometimes done.

*For any of you who are unfamiliar with the term, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month.  It's an annual challenge that encourages anyone who wants to to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  It's actually not as hard as it sounds.

In 2009, 2010, and 2011, I committed to the challenge - and I have 3 partial novels that I still have not finished.  The last thing I need to do is to begin a FOURTH novel that will take me 8 years to finish.

There were a few years that I selected alternate challenges; one was that I would write something - anything - each day for 30 days.  Some of these were writing prompts.  Some of them just came to me.  One of these stories, "Scarlet," has been published.  There was another year that I chose to spend each week of November workshopping a different short story.  The result of that challenge is another soon-to-be published story, "Ashes."

Last year, because I had a lot on my plate, and was also dealing with what my doctor calls "situational anxiety," I decided  not to set any goals or commit to any challenges, to give myself a much needed mental break.

This year, I'm going for something in between.  I have a lot I'm currently trying to sort out and deal with (not the same level of stress as last year, just post wedding logistics that are taking a while and must be done), so I do not want to set a goal for that reason.  I will, however, work on a project.  

This NaNoWriMo, I am picking back up on my first NaNoWriMo project - the Wolf and the Sheath.  Wolf and Sheath currently stands at 81 pages/just under 50,000 words (the document has been through several computer upgrades and it seems each new version of Word calculates the word count of this piece slightly differently).  I have been working on rereading, starting on on some pre-planning, making to-do lists, etc. for this piece off and on over the last couple months.  This November, I am going to sit down and start making some meaningful edits, write new content, and generally start cleaning up and improving a document that is good, but can also be a lot better.  (I have honed my craft a lot in the past 8 years.)

Don't expect to see updated posts on word counts, like I did in November of 2015.  Since this will be a combination of researching, editing, rearranging, and writing, there may not necessarily be tangible milestones to post about.  But I will pots an update late in November or early in December as to what progress I've made on the piece, and will continue to post about W&S as I workshop it for the next few months.

"Ashes" Update

For those of you have may not have seen the announcement on my author's Facebook page, my short story "Ashes" has been accepted for publication by the James Dickey Review of Reinhardt University.

While this is not my first short story published (it will be my third), it is a first in its own way:
-This is the first time I've had a story accepted "close to home" - both of my previous stories having been published through New England Universities.
-This is the first time that I submitted a story to people I know.  While I don't know everyone on the James Dickey staff personally, I do know some of them.  Sending your story out into the ether to be read by strangers is one thing; sending it off to coworkers who you respect is another.  I am very pleased that they thought it good enough to represent our University.
-This will be my first published work after getting married.  As some of you who follow this blog may have noticed, I changed my name on my personal facebook account, but not here or on my author's facebook page.  Back a few months ago when I was figuring out various wedding and post-wedding logistics, I decided that I would keep Elizabeth Ivey as my "pen name" and go by my new married name in my personal and (non-writing) professional life.

While the formal notice that "Ashes" had been accepted came on Monday, I was actually kind of expecting it.  Last Friday, the head of Reinhardt's MFA in Creative Writing program came by my office to drop off something for one of my coworkers.  On his way, he stopped by my desk to say that he really enjoyed my story.  He had more praise to offer, but I won't share that until after the story is published, as it spoils the ending : )

The same night, I ran into the Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities in the grocery store.  He told me congratulations; we are friends on Facebook, and this was the first time he'd seen me in person since I'd gotten married, so my initial instinct was that he was congratulating me on that.  But then thinking about it later, I wondered... Given that he is also involved in our MFA and literary magazine, was he referring to something I didn't know about yet?  (Equally curious, as he is actually the managing editor of the JDR and was the one who officially informed me of my acceptance on Monday.)

I also now have an update as to publishing.  The 2017 edition of the James Dickey Review goes to press in December and will likely be available to the general public in January.  I will update everyone once it's actually available, and I will also let everyone know once I am allowed to post it to my personal website.  In the meantime, since some of you have asked, the easiest way to obtain a printed copy is to subscribe to the James Dickey Review using the form below.  (Just as a security reminder, do not include a credit card number if you plan to email the form.  If you are emailing the subscription form, you can call the Reinhardt Business Office to make a secure credit card payment over the phone at 770-720-5520.)

In the meantime, if you would like to read my previously published works, and other pieces besides, you visit the "My Works" page on this website.