It's a Story about Curtis

Curtis is lost in his final semester of college. He works part-time with no career plan. Months removed from a breakup, he spent the summer avoiding everyone. 

His longtime friend Cassandra insists they meet for lunch. Taking a cue from his business class, they apply a fishbone diagram as a self-help tool to lift him out of his funk.

Wild animals suddenly start talking with Curtis. Initially freaked out, he realizes they are also trying to help, although a squirrel seems more determined to watch television and lounge around the apartment. 

His new friends say Luna caused this surreal change. Is Luna an animal too or something cosmic? They refuse to tell him.

Curtis decides to search for Luna and find out why she’s turned his life sideways. 

At the end of my 3rd year at North Carolina State University, I decided to start writing about college life and general observations. In my final semester, I decided to fictionalize these accounts

The story had been written in third-person close. Someone asked why not first-person, and I didn't have an answer

Instead of a fictitious university in a fictitious town, I was also advised to change the story NCSU, places around Raleigh such as Kentwood Park, and other towns in North Carolina

When I started outlining the cover, I sketched Curtis and Cassandra in the top corners. Then someone said, “You know the animals are what make this story, right?” Since The Fishbone Wolf leans into magical realism, I removed the human faces to keep it from drifting into a new-adult vibe

After staring at the cover a bit longer, I realized that I never wrote Luna talking to the seagull. That ended up being the final scene I wrote