Gelert the Legendary Wolfhound's Blog

I got to meet Terry Brooks yesterday at Auckland's Armageddon Expo. He was there signing hundreds of copies of his latest- my biographer less so. But he found time to come over and have a chat, give me a pat, and he took a wolfhound tongue and bookmark, and promised to buy 'The Dog Hunters' when he got home to Seattle. Which was a bit of a gulp moment. Top bloke.

20 million books sold! I'd better get my skates on if I want 'The Dog Hunters Illustrated' to catch up!

Oh, and if you're interested, and your a member of goodreads, you can go into the draw for a free copy of the book about ME.

"You describe The Dog Hunters as ‘the epic retelling of the legend of Gelert the Wolfhound’. Tell us about this legendary dog and why he captured your imagination..."

When I was 6, I read the legend of Gelert the faithful wolfhound on his gravestone in Beddgelert, North Wales, and bawled my eyes out. Gelert’s master, the King, had slewn his old dog thinking he’d killed and eaten his baby, Prince Llewelyn, only to discover that Gelert had killed a ravenous wolf, saving the toddler, who belatedly crawled out safe and sound from under the bloody bedcloths. The legend has it that, having slaughtered his oldest and most loyal friend, the King never smiled again, and the story certainly ruined the rest of my holiday. Years later, I’d been tinkering with a story about a Chinese Emperor who had dogs of different sizes and shapes bred ‘to order’, but I was looking for a more meaningful and personal hook to the story. That’s when it struck me that if the Emperor had heard of the Legend of Gelert, surely he’d want to get his hands on the world’s greatest dog’. It meant rewriting Gelert’s grisly end (yay! I saved Gelert!), but from then on, the story wrote itself and now Gelert has a human protagonist, Prince Llewelyn, now 14 years old, to play with.

I dunno- On Wednesday I was being sold in Santa Barbara in California, and this weekend last I was being flogged off in Auckland in New Zealand

Let's see- took a food bribe, got stabbed by several spears and a sword (again) ripped a guy's throat out, fell in the sea trying to save Llewelyn and passed out through loss of blood and several holes in my side.

Woof! 21,000 looking at my story. That deserves some pics of dogs...