Sangay Glass's Blog - Posts Tagged "literary"

For over a century, wolves were absent from the Adirondacks, driven out by bullets and bounties, forgotten by the forests, and replaced by silence. But in We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves, they return quietly, defiantly, as if they never left.

This isn’t just a story about conservation. It’s about the places inside us that go wild when we’re pushed too far. About the myths we inherit and the ones we become.

Jess Taylor thought she was going back into the field to observe a breeding pair of wolves. What she didn’t expect was a reckoning, with nature, memory, and the consequences of control disguised as care.

This book is for readers who love psychological thrillers laced with folklore, dark humor, and the ache of becoming something new. The wolves are back. But they’re not the only ones.

Follow me read all about it July 25th!

We love wolves when they’re printed on T-shirts or howling at the moon in pixel-perfect documentaries. But real conservation is messy. It’s blood in the snow and lawsuits in the courts. It’s science colliding with politics, tradition, and fear.

Wolves aren’t just apex predators. They’re flashpoints. Talk about bringing them back, and you’ll hear cheers, threats, and sighs of exhaustion, all from people who love the land.

In the U.S., wolf conservation isn’t about saving a species. It’s about deciding who gets to define balance: ranchers trying to protect their livelihood, activists chasing rewilding dreams, scientists crunching data, and Indigenous communities whose voices often get pushed aside despite sometimes having ancestral knowledge of ecosystem balance.

We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves lives in that discomfort. The wolves in the novel aren’t just animals, they’re symbols of everything we want to control, fix, or pretend we understand. And Jess Taylor, like many in the real world, is caught between love, guilt, and the need to do something.

Because that’s the truth no one wants to admit about conservation. Sometimes you do the right thing, and it still feels wrong.

Set in the remote Adirondacks, where wolves have returned after a century-long absence, We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves is a chilling and darkly humorous story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.

We Weren’t Meant to Be Wolves coming July 25th Follow me for updates and giveaways.

Goodreads Giveaway ! Now until August 17th

What happens when science meets myth… and loses?

The Wolfer’s Daughter is coming—and you could be one of the first to read it for free. Enter the Goodreads giveaway this July for your chance to win a copy of this darkly thrilling novel rooted in real-world wolf conservation and ancient folklore.

Jess Taylor is dead. But death is only the beginning.

Set deep in the Adirondacks, where wolves have retuned after a century-long absence, this haunting, twisty story explores identity, power, and what it really means to protect the wild. If you love wolves, dark humor, or books where the wilderness bitesback—don’t miss it.

📚 Enter the giveaway now and follow to get updates when the book drops! The Wolfer's Daughter: A Story of Resurrection and Reckoning in the Adirondacks

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of sticking your hand too close to an otter’s mouth (I don’t recommend it), you’ll know something most people don’t: those fuzzy river goblins pack serious dental hardware.

But how do they stack up against the apex predator everyone loves to fear, Canis lupus, the gray wolf?

Let’s take a bite out of the science.

Tooth Type: Precision vs. Power

Wolves have what you’d expect from a meat-specialized predator: long canines for puncturing, sharp carnassials for shearing flesh, and a bone-cracking back molar. Their dental formula (that’s science-speak for tooth arrangement) is built for dismantling large ungulates-deer, elk, even bison.

Otters, meanwhile, are seafood specialists. Those rounded molars? Made for crushing. Shellfish, clams, even small turtles are no match for an otter’s grip. Think nutcracker meets bear trap, dipped in cute.

So: wolves slice and tear. Otters crush and splinter.

Bite Force: Numbers Don’t Lie

Wolf bite force: ~ 400 PSI (pounds per square inch) A Rottweiler: ~328 PSI

Otter bite force: ~ 80–100 PSI (river otters), but concentrated in a much smaller jaw, pound for pound, still nasty.

Here’s the trick: wolves are power biters. They grab, hold, and don’t let go. Otters are finesse biters. They know exactly where to bite to get that crab leg open or sever a spinal cord.

One’s a can-opener. The other’s a nutcracker with surgical precision.

Behavioral Bite Risk

Wolves can bite, but generally don’t. They avoid humans like the plague unless sick, starving, or cornered.

Otters, however, have been known to chase down dogs, tourists, and the occasional kayak. Territorial, underestimated, and armed with needle teeth and attitude.

Ask any wildlife rehabber who they’d rather hand-feed. (Spoiler: not the otter.)

Final Verdict?

If you’re up against a wolf, it’ll likely warn you, posture, and give you time to back away. An otter? No promises.

The wolf’s bite can kill. The otter’s bite will send you to the ER asking why you lost a chunk of your finger to something that weighs 20 pounds.

So who wins the tooth-off?

Depends what you’re chewing through:

Deer femur? Wolf.
Mussels in a half shell? Otter.
Unattended camp sandwich? Tie

Want more science, sass, and teeth? Stay tuned for: “Moose vs. Minivan: Which Leaves a Bigger Dent?”

[book:The Wolfer's Daughter: A Story of Resurrection and Reckoning in the Adirondacks> PreRelease Freebies!

Set in the remote Adirondacks, where wolves have returned after a century-long absence, “The Wolfer’s Daughter” is a chilling and darkly humorous story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear.

Three ways to get a free copy.

It's free on all digital platforms until midnight 7-27.
Free on KU
Goodreads Giveaway until August 17

The paperback comes out July 31st!

Some predators play a long game. Wolves, foxes, coyotes, they pair up, raise pups together, and invest in the family they’ve made.

Others? Not so much.

In some species, like lions, leopards, and certain primates new dominant males will kill the offspring that aren’t theirs. Brutal?

Yes. But in their world, it’s strategy. Removing dependent young brings the female back into heat sooner, letting him pass on his own genes instead of raising another male’s.

It’s not “evil.” It’s not “wrong.” It’s biology, wired by millions of years of survival math.

But the thing about predators that hunt as true partners is they’re playing a different game entirely: survival of the pack, not just the individual. That’s why I’ll always have more respect for a pair-bonded wolf than a lone lion with blood on his muzzle.

And before anyone asks—no, humans aren’t exempt from this conversation.

More on real-world wolf conservation with a bit of the supernatural: The Wolfer's Daughter: A Story of Resurrection and Reckoning in the Adirondacks

Set in the remote Adirondacks, where wolves have returned after a century-long absence, The Wolfer's Daughter is a chilling, darkly humorous story rooted in real-world conservation, identity, and the blurry lines between what we love and what we fear in ourselves.