Big Bend National Park
- Maggie Shayne
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
I set most of the story of LONE WOLF in Big Bend National Park, hugging the Rio Grande along the US southern border.
Last week bulldozers and backhoes began to destroy it. I’m going to write a little more about this here, but if you don’t want to read it, scroll down below the photo of the Rio Grande flowing between towering cliffs, where it comes back to books and writing, with lots of fun updates below.
Big Bend
They’re putting in a border wall in a place where it’s virtually impossible to cross. The park’s towering cliffs already form a natural wall through much of Big Bend National Park.
I was stunned by those towering cliffs as I experienced them through my characters’ eyes, and learned more about them between chapters. During the writing of LONE WOLF, Big Bend went onto my bucket list of places to visit before I croak.
Camellia and Wolf shared their first kiss waist-deep in the Rio Grande there.
But now, roads are being built, weirdly, alongside roads that already exist in the park. They say the new roads are for ICE vehicles, but ICE already uses the existing roads.
“Vehicle barrier walls” designed to keep vehicles from crossing the border are being erected in parts of the park where it is physically impossible for any vehicle to cross.
Texas Border Sheriffs, mostly Republicans, have joined together to oppose this wall. One of them is a former border patrol officer himself, and says a wall through the park is absolutely unnecessary. People don’t cross there. It’s too harsh, too rugged, with too many cliffs and obstacles. It’s too far from any city where you might blend in and vanish. You’re a sitting duck in Big Bend. There’s nowhere to hide.
That’s why it was so easy for Camellia’s stalker ex to find her there. There’s not a lot of cover.
Here’s a Scripps News Report on the topic of the wall through the park for those who’d like to learn more.
A company that is a friend and donor of the prez, is getting millions of taxpayer $$ to put a wall in front of a sheer cliff, or build a road where there’s already a road.
I just can’t bear it. This place is too beautiful to destroy this way for a grift! Lawsuits have been filed, of course but in the meantime a national treasure is being ravaged.
Anyway, I don’t think this is a political post at all. It’s an environmental post and a personal one. I’m just bleeding about this. Wildlife don’t see borders. They regularly cross back and forth. Oh, and did I mention this new project is going to cut off a hunk of Texas and leave it on the Mexico side? People live there!
I keep reliving the scenes I set in this majestic landscape. Wolf’s first glimpse of what remains of the shack where his off-the-grid early childhood unfolded. That romantic trek up into the highest places, with such breathtaking views, where things moved to a new level between them. Wolf looking down from a high cliff to see the woman he did not yet know was his sister, burning herbs in remembrance of him.
I feel like I lived there with them during those days when they were trying to solve the mystery of Wolf’s past while falling inexorably deeper in love.
Anyway, if you want to experience Big Bend’s magic, make plans to go there before it’s all wrecked. Short of that, you can find a little bit of it LONE WOLF. I feel like we should all be vibing Love for Big Bend energy while this gets settled. Can’t hurt. I believe it can help.
PS: You can read LONE WOLF without reading any of the rest of the Texas Brand: Generations series. Most of Wolf’s story takes place completely detached from his birth family, while trying to figure out his true origins.
LONE WOLF: Official Trailer
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ROXY UPDATE: She’s feeling great. Still not much improvement in the eyesight, but she’s really adapting well. However, she now has a bump on the top center of her head. She has a lot of lumps and bumps, which our vet monitors diligently, but this one looks different, is growing, and we think it might be malignant. Vet appointment Thursday.
I want to emphasize that she’s feeling good and having a good time. Our efforts are not about extending her life, they’re about extending her quality of life. We’d never let our pets suffer. So she’s happy, and she’s strong, and she’s getting around great. Her appetite is back to normal, normal being ravenous. Her outside walks are shorter, but she’s still basking like Cleopatra while the two of us fan her with palm fronds and feed her grapes. (Metaphorically. I don’t have any palm fronds, and I know grapes are bad for dogs.)
Here’s another photo of Roxy and her favorite person, my hubs Lance, with the irises around the pond in full light purple bloom. The grass is so green I almost want to tone down the color in this photo, but it’s not retouched.
WRITING UPDATE: It’s a new week, and I’m working on the second half of Arsenic and Old Ladies II: A Festive Fatality. I had done one segment, but it wasn’t feeling right. After taking the weekend off, though, the correct course came to me as I was driving home from a lovely day with two daughters and two granddaughters.
It came through powerfully, and I pulled the car over and started scribbling it down as a note to myself. That night, I could barely keep the ideas at bay during dinner with that looker above, if you can believe that, and when we went to bed I took the laptop with me to rapid-fire type my ideas for the remainder of the book. And they just flowed. I have most of the rest of the story laid out now and it’s a strong one.
So this week I’m diving into this next segment, and the previous 40 pages or so will need a heavy rewrites before I go forward. Still, I anticipate having a complete first draft by the end of this month, and two more drafts by the end of September when it goes to the editor. This is so exciting, how these books are flowing for me!
PLANS
I have not abandoned my existing series. I still have several series that are getting more titles added and I’m going to lay them out for you so you know exactly what I’m thinking.
Texas Brand: Generations – Drew, Orrin, Trevor, and Baxter, are all getting stories. These are top level priorities. Although I am considering writing one of them as a single book with dual romances unfurling (Drew and Orrin, brother and sister) just because I never have.
Wings in the Night – That will be ongoing until I die. There won’t be a conclusion but I’ll try my best not to leave loose ends or unanswered questions. The next vampire tale will be Roland’s backstory as a knight in medieval times and his connection to the lycans will be laid out.
The McIntyre Men –This one’s getting two or three more stories. I had hoped to give Jack Kellogg, the con-man, a story, and of course we have the two Wakeland stories in the pipeline that I’m writing with my daughter Jessi, one of which is almost done.
Fiona – I have a sequel half written that I’ll probably re-read, hate, and trash, but I fully intend for her to have at least two more books.
The Fatal Series – I feel like this has more books to come, too, and these tend to be fun and easy to write, so this is high on my priority list.
Brown and de Luca – Although the last book ended in a perfectly good place to wrap this series, I feel like there are a few more tales to tell here, especially with one of the nieces now having a true crime podcast. We could weave that in again as we did with The Mermaid Murder.
Series that are complete
Shattered Sisters
Danger After Dawn
The Portal
The By Magic Series
Texas Brand
Oklahoma Brands
The Immortals, sort of*
*With The Immortals, the core series, books 1-4 are in fact complete. BUT…
I can see twelve novellas for Puabi’s sisters, maybe put together into one gigantic volume or collection. Remember in Immortality, how as a little girl, Puabi was forced to fight her own sisters? There was magic at work there, and I deliberately showed the elaborate tombs where the others were interred. I think I could resurrect them grow them up and give them stories. They’re trained fighters, after all. Skilled in combat. Imagine a little girl team of kick ass vigilantes or something, maybe at first trained by a bad actor, but eventually reformed to work for good.
I couldn’t even write that many sentences without story ideas flooding my mind. I’m in a VERY good place, creatively, right now. Possibly my best flow ever.
But I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to do all the things I want to do. Actually, I’m pretty sure I won’t, because as soon as I check one story off my list, ten more ideas appear.
I’ll like a while yet, though. I’m doing the vegan thing, after all, and I swear to Goddess, I put in an hour on my treadmill today. I figure I have another 20 years, fuck that, maybe thirty, maybe longer. Let’s see how I do.
See you next time!
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2026/08/06
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