Clawdia Wolf's Frights, Camera, Action! - Hauntlywood diary

August 25th
Today as I was walking through the streets of Londoom I just wanted to howl and do a little dance because I'm so excited to be here. I didn't of course, do the dancing part, since I'm the one with the 'clumsy gene' in our family and I didn't want to fall through an open monster hole cover. It has never bothered me that I'm not as athletic as the rest of the pack because I think it was pretty apparent even when I was a cub that I was better at writing stories about my brothers and sister's athletic exploits than participating in them. It's not that I didn't try, but my mind and my body may have been in concert but they were not playing the same tune. I remember the last organized soccer game I played; the coach put me in goal partly because I was tall for my age and partly because he thought that perhaps the prospect of a ball being rocketed toward me might keep my attention. It worked for a bit until the ball stayed at the other end of the pitch for a while, and a butterfly landed on the net. All of a sudden I became a ferocious were-spider who decided to give the butterfly a reprieve. So I climbed up in the net to shoo it away when I heard my dad yell "Clawdia, turn around!" A ghoul was on a breakaway and the only thing between her and me was open pitch and the ball. I tried to turn, and my spikes caught in the net, so I just closed my eyes and leaped toward the front of the goal. Somehow the ball ended up in my claws, and I kept the ghoul from scoring. It was my one and only athletic achievement, so I retired with my legacy in check and got a good story out of it, which I'm sure will end up in one of my screamplays some day.

September 8th
I was sitting in the lecture hall today, not really paying attention like I should have been, partly because I was working on a not-for-that-class writing assignment and partly.. okay, mostly because symbolism in ghost-modern neo-realist goblin cinema is only slightly less painful than rolling in flea infested wolfsbane. Honestly, I have no idea what a goblin minder wearing a red hat and pushing an empty ore cart says about the state of modern goblin-kobold relations. I'm sure it is profound and important, but well... it doesn't matter. What did matter however was that the professor asked a question that he wanted all of us to answer, and I didn't hear the question. I could have asked him to repeat the question of course, but then I would have had to acknowledge that I had not been paying attention, and since this particular professor hates that I knew I was going to have to wing it on the answer. Which made me nervous, which made me look for something to chew, which meant I wasn't listening to the other answers, which meant I didn't have a clue when he got to me. So when he said "Ms Wolf?" I said that I didn't think I could add anything to the discussion that had not been more profoundly stated in the answers my classmates had already given. This caused the rest of the class to burst out laughing, to which the professor said, "While I appreciate your humility, your answer leaves us no closer to knowing how many siblings you have." I was mortalfied, but even more so when he said, "Please do try and pay better attention going forward." Unlive and learn Clawdia, unlive and learn.

September 15th
I've been using my iCoffin tablet to do some of my writng lately, and I really like it. I mean, I like the tablet. It's great for doing video chats and there are some really cool Londoom based apps that have helped me find my way around the city better. As for the writing part, I still prefer my chewed pen and leghoul pad. It may be old fashioned, but there's something about a blank sheet of paper that's less intimidating than a blank scream with a blinking cursor.

October 1st
The only thing that's coming down faster than temperature in Londoom right now is the rain. I'm not sure what the real temp is, but you know it's cold when a werewolf has to put on her fuzzy wool socks... brrr... Fortunately Dad did a good job preparing me for this climate by never allowing us to turn the thermostat up past the 'I can see my breath' mark during the winter. We would say "Dad, the house is freezing!" to which he would always reply "You can either have heat or you can eat." Followed quickly by "We're werewolves for ghoul's sake, put on a sweater if you're cold." Then we'd all look at Mom, who would just shrug her shoulders. It was one of the only things she couldn't change his mind about. So we'd all jsut sit snuggled together on the couch watching bad TV, complaining about Howleen's sharp unclipped paw nails and making promises about what we'd do when we all moved out and got our own places. I distinctly remember saying that I would turn up the heat so high that it would make Gloom Beach seem like a yeti cave. So the first time it got cold here I did just that, and it was every bit as amazing as I imagined it would be, until I got my first heating bill. Lets just say that grocery shopping for the few weeks gave me a completely different perspective on Dad's old saying. I'm pretty confident that saltines and marmite will never darken the shelves of my cupboard again after having formerly tasty combination as my only breakfast and lunch option for a fortnight. I'm really missing being able to snuggle up on the couch with my pack of siblings, and I wouldn't even complain about Howleen's uncut paw nails... well, maybe not a lot.

October 6th
I had a great video chat with the fam tonight, and they could not stop talking about Draculaura being chosen as queen of the vampires. They were in complete shock, and I have to admit it was a surprise to me as well. The vampires haven't had a queen since the last chosen one, a young vampire ghoul named Elissaat, disappeared some 400 years ago. What is really curious about this, as if Draculaura being chosen as the new queen right out of the boo wasn't curious enough, is that Clawdeen told me Draculaura's choice was confirmed by the Vampire's Heart. I have actually been doing quite a bit of research on the heart, which is really just a massive jewel with magical properties, for a screamplay I wanted to write about the mystery of the missing queen. There are many scholars that believe the jewel disappeared at the same time the ghoul who would be queen did. So either the scholars are incorrect, or there is more here than meets the eye. I didn't want to be the one to rain on the funeral though, until I had a little more proof, especially with Clawdeen being so excited about attending the coronation. I did notice that Clawd wasn't in the room with everyone else, and I'm wondering how he is dealing with this news.

October 7th
Clawdeen has sent me as least 30 texts and emails since last night detailing the fashions she's thinking about taking to the coronation. I can see her now running around the room with absolutely every piece of clothing she owns spread out so she can mix and match fashions. She's probably also been through Draculaura's closet several times as well. I love her so much and I wish I could be there to make her laugh when she starts getting too serious. She's so beautiful though, that whatever she chooses will probably steal the show. I finally got an IM from Clawd asking if we could talk. This wasn't unusual, since Clawd prefers one-on-one conversation to fighting for face time in a group. When he popped up on the screen he looked terrible, almost like he'd been crying, although it might have just been bad lighting. As usual, Clawd didn't want to talk about himself and instead wanted to to know every little thing I was doing. I finally had to say "Stop howling around the moon and talk to me, little brother." So he did. He told me that he didn't trust the Lord Stoker character that showed up with the Vampire's Heart claiming it led him to Draculaura. What's more, neither did Dracula. They both thought Draculaura would be more miserable being queen, but that she would feel honor and duty bound to take the throne. Even so he was trying to be as supportive as possible and went on for a few more minutes about things that were worrying him. When he stopped I said "You really love her, don't you?" He looked down for a moment and swallowed hard. "She's my best friend, sis, and I'm about to lose her forever." Now it was my turn to swallow hard, and then he made an excuse about having to leave for practice and said a hasty goodbye. I'm going to do some more digging into this, because something doesn't pass the smell test here, and a Wolf's nose is always right.