Nothing too strenuous before the holidays.  No words just letting the pictures speak for me today.  What do you think?  This is my April 2010 release.

Yes, I’m late.  My apologies.  My day got started with a bang and hasn’t slowed down yet!

First let’s start off by announcing the winner of AJ Chase’s Cat and Mouse!  our winner is LISA N – Congratulations!  Lisa please email me at desertpetiri@aol.com so you can claim your prize!

So, back to the Mighty Wolf.

One of the really wonderful things about writing shifters is you realize there’s so much more to them than you could ever put on the page.  Not that we don’t try, of course, but when it gets right down to it, how much about shifters can our imaginations pull together for one world?

In most cases, as an author progresses through a series, if one exists, the world becomes deeper, fuller, and more magical than it was in say, book one. The same is true, of course, of any world created by an author.  Fantasy, science fiction, or any other paranormal.  Ok, I’ll admit, the same can be true for contemporary and historical as well.  But when it comes to the shifter, the magic we look for is something which can be found all around us.

Take for instance the wolf shifter.  Most of us have dogs or have owned dogs in our past lives (you know, the one before we started hearing voices in our heads) or know of people who have dogs.  What alot of people forget is every dog has a small piece of wolf inside him.  Take my dog, Blackjack.  No, not literally. I’m kinda hooked on the old man.  In fact, here’s a little pic of him.  Isn’t he handsome?

But I bet you can’t guess what wolf trait good ol’ man Blackjack has.   I mean, he’s a Labrador retriever, with all the fun loving ways a Lab has.   Yet almost every single Lab holds the same “Wolf” habit.  It’s in the way they eat.  When wolves eat, they “wolf it down” as fast as they can.  This is because there are predators all around and they might not get to finish.  They eat as much as they can, because they might not get to eat for another three or four days.

Blackjack likes to “wolf it down” too.  I think ten seconds is his record for finishing a meal.  Between the time I pour his food till I scoop up the food for the other dog, Blackjack is finished.  The only problem is, he, of course, gets fed two times a day and so we must watch his diet for him, otherwise he’d be as big as a house.

So the next time you set down your shapeshifter book, take a look at Rufus the dog or Sam the cat sitting next to you and wonder.  How much of the behavior authors use in those books also apply to your best friend?  What lurks inside their hidden depths as they stare out with those sweet, lovable faces?

So tell us, what wild traits do YOUR pets have?  And yeah, birds count too.  After all, wouldn’t an Eagle shifter be awesome?

What a wild month this has been for me! It says something that I’m looking forward to the hustle and bustle of December and the holidays – for the chance to slow down!

The most exciting news is about WINTER KISS, #4 in my Dragonfire series, which went on sale at the beginning of this month. Delaney and Ginger’s book is doing well out there in the world – it was #20 at Borders and #18 at Barnes and Noble on the mass market romance list for the first week on sale. Yippee! Of course, the cover is gorgeous – it’s there on the right sidebar. I like the book, too (ha!) and so did a lot of reviewers. You can read an excerpt HERE, and check out reviews on my blog HERE. Just choose Dragons from the sidebar to bring up all the Dragonfire-related posts.

As the Dragonfire series progresses, it becomes more likely that readers will pick up a book other than the first book and start reading. Because you might have questions, I’ve added a new feature to my website. I interviewed the Pyr – about firestorms and the Dragon’s Blood Elixir and the history of the Pyr and a bunch of other topics – and put their answers on the site. You can find the links on the index page.

I’m also hip-deep in the residency program. As some of you know, I was selected to be the writer-in-residence at the Toronto Public Library this fall, for the first residency ever focussed on the romance genre. There’s a blog associated with the residency, which is a resource for aspiring romance authors – you can check it out HERE. I’m doing a bunch of critiques for writers, as well, and there’s one more public event left – on November 26, we’ll have a panel discussion called “The Other Side of the Story” with an editor and an agent. Brenda Chin from Harlequin and Amy Moore-Benson from AMB Literary Management will be my guests. If you’re in the GTA, you might want to check it out – more information on the library site HERE.

I’ve also been doing a lot of guest blogs and there are more coming for the week ahead. Pop by my blog for pointers – sometimes there’s a doorprize!

That’s it for this month. Stay warm and be sure you have lots of good books to read!

Deborah Cooke
Alive & Knitting blog

Hi all!  We have a very special guest today.  Someone who has stepped out of the “norm” for shapeshifters, and done something new, exciting and funny.  AJ Chase, author of Cat And Mouse is here to talk about her book, and why she chose to something so unusual to write about.  Now mind you, AJ is like thirteen months pregnant (ok, not really, but you get the gist) so our interview will be rather short.

First, let me show you this adorable cover!

This is your first book, are you excited?  Tell us all about it.

I think I’d be more excited if I wasn’t so tired.  Gestating makes things a lot less exciting.  Unless it’s cake.  Cake is still pretty exciting right now.

If I had to choose a book to read for pleasure, it would be a historical romance.  Whether paranormal or not, I love a good story set in the past.  I have specific time periods and places I prefer, but sweep me away to a different time and I’m happy.  The first book I ever published, though touted as a contemporary, had time travel back to the 18th century because of that.  I followed with five historical novels, and a few fantasy novels set in medieval times.

Lately, I’ve been writing contemporaries, while pining to get back to the history of things.  That’s why I enjoy paranormals, because many times the heroes and heroines have lived for a very long time.  They have history, and some have centuries of history.  I like to toss in a flashback scene when possible, just to fulfill my own love of history.

But I know some readers have very defined lines drawn when it comes to time period in a novel.  Some will only read historical, others love contemporaries.  I’m not sure how many enjoy both, and I wonder if they like to see the various time periods mixed in a story?

It’s neat how the paranormal genre allows we writers to incorporate history into our stories.  If we have a passion for Napoleonic times we can craft a hero who may have served in Napoleon’s army before being bitten by a vampire and now he’s lived for two centuries.  Perhaps we prefer medieval times, and decide that our shapeshifter was summoned in the thirteenth century, and has been walking the world since then, desperate for love and acceptance.  I believe that history makes the character stronger, more interesting and ultimately, both smarter and vulnerable as he walks through modern times.

So I want to know which you prefer in your paranormal romances.  Straight historical?  Set completely in modern times?  Or do you like a mix, a contemporary story with flashbacks to the characters’ history?

Michele

I was invited to post today, RomConInc. So, there’s my poor lonely post, with a signed copy of WINTER KISS as a doorprize, and only the moderator has commented. They’ll pick a winner at midnight, and I don’t think the mod should win!

Reading and Writing
by Deborah Cooke

Go see!

Finally, it’s here – today’s the day that WINTER KISS, Dragonfire #4, goes on sale. It’s got a gorgeous cover – check it out in the sidebar – and I’m pretty much crazy about the hero, Delaney Shea. (I like those emotionally scarred heroes with noble impulses, don’t you?) I also like how Ginger Sinclair tells Delaney how it is, whether he wants to hear it or not.

Romance Reviews Today calls WINTER KISS “a terrific novel” – read more HERE – and we have two, count ‘em TWO, five blue ribbon reviews from Romance Junkies! The first says WINTER KISS is what epic love stories are made from,” while the second says “[s]izzling hot love scenes and explosive emotions make WINTER KISS a must read!” And of course, there was a great review right here on SSR from Penelope Fitzgerald – if you missed it, it’s right HERE.

Check out the back copy and an excerpt on my site HERE. It’s Delaney’s on sale date – do you have your copy of WINTER KISS yet? (Yup, I’m just a little bit excited…!)

Deborah Cooke
Alive & Knitting blog

Thanks to Michele Hauf for spotting my newest cover on Amazon. I know a lot of authors’ favorite part of the process is getting their actual books, but mine is seeing the cover for the first time. It reminds me why I do this. Which at the tail end of a writing project (finished a Nocturne yesterday, yay!) is always good.

Anyway, what do you think? I, for the record, think it rocks. I love that the hero is all big and burly as fitting for a hellhound. And I love the background; it really goes with the story. So, today is a happy day.

Oh, and it is also available for pre-order…

Hope everyone had a great, safe Halloween! AND that you all took good advantage of that extra hour of sleep last night.

First, I wanted to say that these wolves were actually celebrating their first Halloween at Wolf Howl Animal Preserve and this was their first pumpkin. These are sisters and the one is showing the other how to tackle the big orange thing.

But what if they are really werewolves in disguise? Sure, why not celebrate Halloween? Or any other holiday that they’d like too! Here’s a hunky wolfish guy having a little Halloween fun when not in his wolf coat.

And here’s what I’d like to be able to carve if I only had the talent!

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween! My daughter and her friends are coming over for scary movies and dinner–everyone’s bringing something so it should be lots of fun!

Doing anything special for Halloween???

PS–Did I mention Book 7 & 8 of the werewolf series sold??? Dreaming of the Wolf and Taming the Highland Wolf will be out in 2011. I’m working currently on Plight of the Wolf, Book 6.

Terry

www.terryspear.com