Outlining the path for which the wolf walks...

      The thing is in the creative process of the story that I like to develop a point a to point b and then the end.     Usually most writing advice I've ever read is that one must have the end before they can start at the beginning. 

      I actually do have an end.   The one thing that seems universal between all the different ways that Timber's introduction to Snake Eyes meet:  It's apparently in a mountainous region and that Timber is in some kind of trap or trouble and Snake Eyes is there for the rescue.


       To most people, writing a story up to that point should be easy.    Just as there has been many different ways GI Joe has been written for film, cartoon, and books (comic and print), there too can many ways I can have Timber eventually come to his inevitable meeting with Snake Eyes.


   I'm not going to attempt to write this for any specific continuity.    In fact, I hope it reaches across the board to fit into the stories of what has been done and what will be done.


    Despite the fact I'll be writing the majority of this from Timber's view point, I realize that "wolfspeak"  is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.


So, I will have humans in there, and a connection to GI Joe.      Now, I will guarantee that there will be no trope of Snake Eyes meeting Timber before that fateful day in some overly hackneyed way.


    If one takes a moment to research (as I did) about the area of the High Sierras where Snake Eyes found Timber, then one would know that the wolf wasn't really around that much....more like Coyote Wolf hybrids, or just plain old Coyotes.    In fact, the wolf hasn't really back in the US for a very long time until recently one decided to cross the Canadian border. 

    If this is going to be a story about a pack of wolves that aren't really suppose to be around the area that they are roaming, then it seems a bit logical to have a reason for their presence.


    And, that's where the military comes into play.



 And, how Timber's connection to GI Joe will be established...

Packed house

In the beginning phases of my outline for Timber's story, I naturally had to address one main thing.

He was once a part of a pack before GI Joe (I wouldn't do anything as over-the-top as Cobra creating cloned wolves...). 

So, I had to give them names and personality to match...


First of all Timber's parents


Skookum Tyee (nickname of Scooty), the alpha male

Wildflower, the alpha female

And, his sisters and brothers...


Leloo, the seemingly vain quiet prancer...she is also the most ghost like of her pack.   

Highball, she is the opposite of  Leloo in behavior....wildly active, vocal, and playful, and has an unusual coloring patch of fur that shows her namesake.

Whistle Punk,  the seeming male scout of the pack.


Queen Snipe, the female alpha of the litter.

Itkus, the male runt of the family.  


And Timber makes 6 (and I wasn't seriously attempting to get to that number for the pack...).

I was debating halving a 7th wolf just like the Seven Samurai, and I may still find room (after all I can't lay everything out for any reader that might happen upon this).     If you wonder how I came to the names, The Chinook Native American tribe was close to area where Snake Eyes would eventually come to meet the Timber Wolf of the High Sierras.    As logging is part of the culture within that area, it seemed to make sense to have a balance of those two aspects of the region.

As I am an avid lover of word play, I believe Timbers name has actually two distinct twists.   He has a very unusual but haunting howl (he has timbre),  and that he tends to fell any prey he comes across (which gets him his cult like status among the people, particularly the loggers, around the area). 


More to follow....