One Week of Wolves- Lauren Dane
By Vivian Arend
I’ve mentioned before that Lauren’s Cascadia Wolves were one of the inspirations for me to start writing in the first place. That, and the fact I followed her to Samhain and spotted the call for humorous paranormal were the catalyst for what I’m celebrating in a week’s time–my first print.
Since discovering Lauren’s work, I’ve found myself fascinated with the wide variety of genres she’s written. She’s a National Bestseller who writes Futuristic, Contemp, and still continues to put out awesome Paranormal stories as well. She’s also one of the authors I admire for working both New York print and maintaining an ebook presence.
I’ll let Lauren share now.
—
I wrote my first shifter book in 2005. I’ve always loved werewolves. Be they the scary kind who hate humans and hunt them all down, or the less scary, more sexy kind who live like humans part of the time and have relationships with them.
Wolves are beautiful animals. Strong. Fearsome. And yet they live in packs. They have mate bonds. To me, that’s great material for any romance – strong, fierce, love of family and of their mate.
My two greatest loves all rolled into one and it’s so much fun to write them! I feel, for wont of a better word, comfortable writing them because they make sense to me in a way that other shifters don’t. That’s not to say I don’t like other shifters, I read a lot of them, LOL, but to write them I need to feel a certain level of comfort and connection and with wolves I do.
For me, the core of my books is family. So naturally, the first werewolf book I wrote was about a family of wolves set here in the Pacific Northwest. And because those familial relationships are close enough to a wolf pack, it was a natural progression to add other human things into their shifter world like organized crime, hate crimes, problems with your mother, etc.
I tend toward paranormal stories that are completely a departure from real life or ones that mimic it and give it a twist. My wolves have jobs with their families, as do my cats. But they’re also beholden to a higher set of laws and rules flowing from their identities as others.
It’s that juxtaposition of reality and paranormal that I find perfect for wolves to fit into. They’re alive and warm, in touch with their animal side which makes it easier to write a super-alpha male shifter than a human one. I can let go and write an uber-protective man because there’s a reason why he rides that line between acceptable as a human man and acceptable as a shifter.
I love to play along those lines and writing paranormals is always a rich playground and it’s definitely why I write shifter stories.
______
And that’s why I love to read them! Prize today is one of Lauren’s sexy weres. Your choice of any–print if it’s available , ebook if you’re prefer. ( a few books are ebook only) Information about all these books, and Lauren’s others is available at her website.
To be entered, post a comment telling me if you have a ‘first author’ you remember for introducing you to Paranormal books.
CC
Jul 30, 20104:21 pm
With great embarrassment I will admit to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Series which lead to Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Books which lead to…
Donna
Jul 31, 20105:42 am
I have two, Shelley Laurenston and Kate Douglas. I continue to read everything they write and find each new release just as enjoyable as the first read, and the second, and…!
Marlene Breakfield
Jul 31, 20107:43 am
I can’t remember the first paranormal romance, that I read. It’s been too long and too many books in between.
Tracey D
Aug 1, 20105:16 am
My first paranormal book was Night Games by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. After reading that, I was hooked on the series and genre.
Ilona
Aug 1, 201011:25 am
I’m not sure who I first read as a ‘real’ paranormal writer but I got interested in the genre through all the Myths and Legends of the worlds as a child. It was probably someone like Mary Shelley or Alexandre Dumas but at almost 52 it was too long ago to remember names
Vivian Arend
Aug 2, 201011:20 am
Thanks for all the comments- the contest is now closed!