Winter Of The Wolf

BY MARTHA HUNT HANDLER

I was born and raised in rural northern Illinois. With few neighbors and two older brothers who had little interest in me, I spent a good deal of my time wandering alone in the woodlands that surrounded my home. Except I was never really alone because I could hear flora and fauna speaking to me. Their messages were almost always dire pleas. They were asking me to help stop the habitat destruction that was beginning to happen all around them. And they were right to be alarmed, as, by the time I reached high school, the woodlands had almost all been replaced by new homes.

When I was 17, I moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, emancipated from my parents, and became a Colorado resident for tuition purposes. In Steamboat, I witnessed similar habitat destruction, as a sleepy western ski town became an international resort destination in record time. These two experiences would help define my career path. When I attended the University of Colorado the following fall, I designed a major I called “environmental conservation.” Post-graduation, I worked as an Environmental Consultant in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

In 1996, our family, consisting of my husband and our four children, all under the age of six, moved from Los Angeles to South Salem, New York. Over the years, my consulting work had become more bureaucratic and less rewarding, so I thought I’d stop working outside the home for a few years while I figured out my next move. And then the wolves started howling!

I’d always had a special relationship with wolves. They’d appeared regularly in my dreams as messengers, pointing out things that I otherwise would have missed. When I heard the howls in New York, though I was awake, I was sure they couldn’t be real because I knew wolves had been absent from the state since they were hunted and poisoned to extinction in the late 1800s.

Though it was very late at night, I was desperate to know if anyone else could hear them, so I nudged my husband, who groggily confirmed their existence. A few days later, I ventured into the woods to investigate and found two adult wolves in a large enclosure next to a trailer.

When I knocked on the door, the future founder of the Wolf Conservation Center, Hélène Grimaud, greeted me. When she told me about her plans for the Center, which included public education, wolf advocacy and participation in the survival plans for the two most critically endangered wolf species (red wolves and Mexican grey wolves), I enthusiastically jumped on board (literally and figuratively).

Though I’d always dreamed of being a writer and had written and illustrated my first book at age seven, I’d written only technical, environmental papers up until this point. But as a wolf advocate, I began to write about the vital work we were doing at the WCC and about our founder, who also happens to be a world-renowned classical pianist. Soon after my pieces began to appear, I was asked to write a humorous and topical monthly magazine column. The positive feedback from my column finally gave me the confidence and courage to venture into writing fiction.  

And then, when I was 42, the unthinkable happened: my best friend’s 12-year-old son was found hanging by a belt. This incident rocked me to my core. To cope, I began to write about my feelings and my confusion. And then Brendan, the boy who’d passed, began to speak to me, much like the flora and fauna had. He insisted I tell his story, and his was the jumping-off point for my debut novel, Winter of the Wolf, “a tragic mystery blending sleuthing and spirituality.” 

It has been eighteen years since I wrote my first journal entry until a publisher accepted my novel, but I believe it has unfolded perfectly. Why? Because in this time, I’ve grown not only as a writer but also as an activist who understands that her role in this lifetime is to be a voice for nature. And so, what began as a tragic family story, eventually turned into a spiritual tale of redemption, acceptance, and ultimately, growth and understanding. 

My subject matter has also become more relevant and urgent during this time. For example, youth suicide rates have increased 56% in just the last decade. My novel helps readers see how we react to suicides compared to other deaths, which leaves loved ones not only grief-stricken but also guilt-ridden. Another topic I hit upon is our spiritual interconnectedness with everything on our planet. As children, we understand this instinctually, and then for some reason most of us lose sight of this when we become adults. 

But, of all the themes in my book, I’m most passionate about encouraging people, especially teens, to believe in themselves. A deep inner knowing is present in all of us; we simply need to listen to it and believe in it.

Winter of the Wolf follows Bean, a teenage sister who’s desperately trying to make sense of her beloved brother’s death. Unable to accept that he was capable of taking his own life, she follows her heart and eventually finds answers that allow her to move from grief to gratitude. Along her journey, she relearns what she has always known to be true: that souls, as energy, can neither be made nor destroyed, they can only change forms. I only hope that readers enjoy my story half as much as I enjoyed writing it!

—

Martha Hunt Handler grew up in northern Illinois dreaming about wolves and has always understood that her role in this lifetime is to tell stories and be a voice for nature. She has been an environmental consultant, a magazine columnist, an actress, and a polar explorer, among other occupations. She has also driven across the country in an 18-wheeler and been a grand-prize winner of The Newlywed Game.

Soon after she and her family relocated from Los Angeles to South Salem, New York, she began to hear wolves in her backyard. This was the start of her twenty-plus-year career as an advocate for wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center, where she currently serves as Board President. When not up near the wolves and her rescue pups, she can be found in New York City with her husband and four adult children.

This is her first novel but definitely not her last.

WINTER OF THE WOLF, Martha Hunt Handler

“Winter of the Wolf is a compelling, heartfelt tale based on a story close to the author’s heart. She takes what is a difficult subject and weaves a captivating story about life, death, grief, and gratitude. A must-read for any age.”

–Mary Ellen Keating, former Senior Vice President of Communications for Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing