This book is the first in “The Light of Darkness”, an epic fantasy series by Catrin Russell. And as it behooves such a series, the ago-old battle between good and evil, literally between light and darkness, is at the front and center of it.
Here’s my review:
The story revolves around two main characters who are polar opposites: The Priestess Ayana and the demon Prime Samael.
Ayana lives in the Temple of Light and fighting demons is her everyday life. Those evil creatures keep attacking humans, stealing children and robbing crops. And the Head Priest has decreed that all demons must be killed in an outright war to rid the world of them.
Samael is the heir and prime defender of a large demon tribe. He is expected to marry and secure his line, to keep the tribe alive and safe. But none of the potential mates shoved at him stir even a flicker of interest. Instead, he keeps watching and baiting a certain priestess, with no idea why.
Soon, it becomes obvious that things are not as clear-cut as they seem. And not much later, convictions are beginning to be tested.
In addition to the two main characters, there is quite a team of supporting characters who all bring their unique personalities and experiences to the story, from the sweet, talented healer to the scarred war veteran. And love blossoms in many different ways.
I invite you to step into this epic world where Light kills, where Darkness creates fear, and where people strive to hold on to their convictions. And where, as you know, opposites attract.
You can find “The Power of Conviction” in these stores.
The Entire Series by Catrin Russell is for Sale for a Limited Time (April 17th – 21st)
The first 3 books of the completed Light of Darkness series by Catrin Russell are on sale between the 17th and the 21st of April! The series is perfect for readers who enjoy visceral, gripping high & epic fantasy tales with dark undertones and romance! As humans engage in a sweeping war against demonkind, a Priestess of the Light is forced to choose between heart and duty. Fate, prophecies, and an impossible love will blur the very line between good and evil.
Hoo boy, that is a loaded question. Because Hannah isn’t reading what she writes…
In fact, I am a bit embarrassed to reveal what I’m reading. Which is exactly what I want to talk about today.
Because, you see, I’m reading steamy Alien Abduction Romance. *takes a deep breath* And that, as I will do my best to explain, is a good thing.
Reading for Escape
We keep talking about reading for escape as if that’s something bad. As if wanting to escape is a sign of weakness, of giving up or of being unable to cope. A sign of failure.
Let’s be honest for a while here, though.
We are in the third year of a pandemic that has killed millions of people world-wide. We still don’t know all the factors for Long Covid and how people can recover from that, but I’ve seen claims that about one quarter of all the people who contract it are still battling symptoms months after their official recovery. And that’s in mild cases.
Pandemic fatigue is setting in now, which means measures are being relaxed even as a new variant is burning through all continents (yes, Covid has even reached Antarctica) and numbers are higher than ever.
We are still dealing with the economical fall-out of everything the pandemic interrupted, with massive changes in life-style (home office, anyone?) and life will never get back to the normal we knew until early 2020. Never. And we’re still adjusting to that.
On top of all that, we’re in the third week of a massive war in the middle of Europe, a war that might still lead to World War III and potentially a nuclear inferno. A war that might – in a best case scenario – turn to guerilla warfare in an occupied nation and continue to simmer for years to come. (Yes, I dream of Ukraine being restored to full sovereignty, but let’s be honest…)
I’m not dealing well with this, at all. I envy those who do, but I need breaks and time-outs from constant worrying and stress. I need this in order to function and so I can keep creating my own worlds.
Escaping into a fantasy world where guys are perfect mates (even if they are growly and possessive) and women get all they ever dreamed about (the teddy bear beneath the growl), where the happy ending is guaranteed, no matter how dire the situation gets – all this is very soothing. And it’s what I need right now.
(Read this if you’re an author or if you want to know the secrets we authors use.)
Yeah, yeah, I know. And no, it’s not entirely an excuse.
Reading this is teaching me a lot about series, even if I may never write in this exact genre (but never say never, there is Joanna, after all, and I may have a steamy story with growly shape-shifters on the backburner).
The worldbuilding in this series is fascinating. Every story – even if it’s the same story over and over and over again in structure – adds more to the world. We learn about the alien culture, we learn about their capabilities, we learn about history, we learn about the state of Earth in the future. And I find it fascinating to see how it’s all “casually” woven into it.
The “butter”. (You need to read “7-Figure Fiction” by T. Taylor to understand that expression. Get it if you’re an author and want to learn about Universal Fantasies.)
Oh, gods, the “butter”. These stories hit a ton of fantasies, including chocolate cake that’s not fattening. And I’m not joking here at all. This stuff is what keeps people reading. These bits that make your heart swell with longing will keep you coming back for more in a series. Even if you blush admitting that to yourself.
I am taking notes. Kind of, anyway.
And finally, the series hooks. They are done quite masterfully, even if it’s a simple technique that I used in my Wolf books for the first time.
The trick is to introduce likable side characters. Give them something to do, make them memorable in a way, make the reader like them. Make the readers care about them.
And then give them their own book.
It’s as simple as that, but it’s done so well that I’ve been reading book after book after book in this series. If you write series and people love your world, find ways of doing that. Give side-characters their own book. It will be worth it.
What are you reading?
So yeah. What are you reading this month?
I’m asking because I’m always looking for more books to read. Don’t be afraid to share even if you think it might not be my favorite genre. Or did you expect me to enjoy Alien Abduction Romance?
Tell me what you’re reading and what you like about it. Would love to hear from you.
Here’s the one good thing for my progress report: I have been writing every day, just as I have since January 1st 2019. Today (3/13/2022) I’m on day 1166 of writing every day.
Keeping track of this is one way of making sure I do not skip even a single day. It makes it possible to keep that promise to myself.
Having said that, I’m still not back to writing 2k every day. I miss that speed. I miss being that deep inside a story, but it is just not working with what I’m writing now.
The Twin Worlds Progress Report
“Twin Worlds” is my shorthand for the new series I’m working on. It’s challenging me on several levels.
First, I’m writing four focus characters instead of one or two like I used to. I’m still not sure this is the right way to go for this story but they are insisting.
Second, this story has been coming to me in bits and pieces, not at all in the order they will be read in. So I have chapters that will stand and am writing chapters to fill the gaps. Talk about a Frankennovel, seriously.
Third, it’s easily double the size of any Wolf book or even one of the Zell books. This is huge. A massive storyline to keep track of.
Fourth, Writer Brain is already throwing more plot points at me, for books 2 and 3. Even so, I’m worried about being able to create another book with a similar size because for now, the ideas are not enough for 100k. I actually bought Plottr for a year after a recommendation from a friend, and I am very happy to have a place to dump those plot points in.
Fifth, I have come up with titles for the first three books. I really hope I can get all of that published this year, but … well, you see items one through four. Anyway, here are the titles:
Steps of Courage Paths of Control Trials of Power
Wolves Print Progress Report
Yes, I promised. I know I have at least three friends waiting for the print versions, and yes, I started the process. And then I stalled out checking the print interior of Wolves #1 for more typos (if you find any, please let me know).
Yesterday, I found out that being stalled out was a good thing. You see, Atticus, the program I started using for the Wolves, has revamped their PDF creator and previewer, and it’s become much better! Waiting paid off!
Except now I have to go in and redo all the formatting settings. But since I have to do that anyway – would you like a cute wolf graphic as chapter headers? Let me know in a comment.
ArtBreeder Progress Report
What? ArtBreeder? What’s that?
It’s a very neat website with an AI that “creates” images from “parent” images that you can “breed”. I looked at it first quite a few years ago and created an image of Zell that really inspired me to keep writing his story. (But in all honesty, it was rather… gruesome.)
I returned to it last year and found it much improved. I played with more Zell characters and turned the gruesome version into a much better one.
Finding myself extremely bored at some point late last year, I went back once again. It has become amazing. In fact, it’s so much fun to play with now that I went and created images for my Twin World characters. Hop on over if you want to see how I envision Sara and Judy, Krashanaris and Krighen.
And in fact, I created that landscape image above on that site, first “breeding” one and then playing with the sliders to give it a sunset feeling. I can totally see that one as background on a cover, too.
I will absolutely recommend playing with ArtBreeder, especially if you’re an author or a cover designer. It’s fun and fascinating.
Newsletter – Progress Reports and much more in your Mail Box
I do send out a newsletter every month, on the 13th, called “Ember Alert”. That’s because it features an exclusive story about my little dragon plushie Ember. And no, I’m not even posting it on this blog. You can only get it in the newsletter.
A little over three years ago, I made a promise to myself: I wanted to keep writing every day. Because I wanted to be a productive writer. You see, being an indie author means you have to keep publishing books.
I started keeping track of my word count in a simple spreadsheet a few years earlier, but there were huge gaps, often spanning months.
At that point in time, I wanted to know what I can do as a writer, I wanted to be able to gauge my productivity. And I kept hearing my coach say, “What you measure, grows.”
So yeah, I chose to write every day on January 1st, 2019. And I have been doing it ever since.
Yesterday, I reached Day 1,111 of Writing Every Day.
Of course, there is a trick to this.
“Of course,” I hear you say. “It’s impossible to write every day like that.”
No, I didn’t cheat. I really, truly wrote every day. But if you look closely, you might notice I didn’t specify how much I’d be writing every day.
My worst day was only 11 words.
That was on March 20th, 2019. And I had plenty of two-digit days. Why do I count that as writing?
Because even writing one sentence means that I opened the file, that I thought about the story and that I added to it. I went to that world in my mind. I lived there for a little bit.
That keeps creativity flowing. It keeps the story growing.
Of course, writing more would be better. But there are days when you can’t do it. When all you can do is open the file, type out one half-hearted sentence and call it writing every day done.
I can’t tell you how often that simple promise to myself has kept me going. Because yes, there is pressure not to break that spell.
Who wants to break a 1,000 day spell of Writing Every Day?
Nobody.
So that’s the trick that keeps me writing. Even if it’s just a few words.
But you see, those few, reluctant, hesitating words are often just the beginning. They tune my mind into the story, and if I allow this, the words often begin to flow. Of course, this is easier once I get to know my characters and the story picks up some momentum. That’s when I get a thousands words or more a day.
But the actual number doesn’t matter for the promise.
The trick is setting yourself up for success. And even writing one word – one single, stupid word – is good enough for Writing Every Day. Everyone can do one word.
I would even allow sick days, but fortunately, it hasn’t come to that yet. And the whole Covid situation has helped, since I got to work in home office, giving me even more time in a day. 2021 was my best year so far, I wrote 600,000 words. That’s 12 NaNovels, if you wish.
And it started with writing every day.
Should every writer go for Writing Every Day?
No. This works for me, first and foremost.
Can it also work for you?
Of course it could. But that depends on your situation and how your life is structured. It depends on how much you want to write, how many deadlines you have, and how you create inspiration.
I like and need the daily contact with my stories. It keeps the characters alive and interesting for me. And they often enough throw me curveballs when I start writing with the mind not yet fully engaged. I love it when that happens.
But if you need silence, the kids or dogs taken care of and no urgent demands on your time before you can enter your world with a clear conscience, then writing might be something you can do best on Monday mornings.
I would still encourage you to try writing every day. Even a little amount of words adds up, and if you even manage a thousand words a week, you’ll have a 50k novel at the end of the year.
Want to try the Writing Every Day Club?
Join my Facebook group The Write Mindset, where I run a bit of accountability every day. It’s free. And I think it’s fun. Oh, and if you don’t like Facebook, I have a similar group on MeWe, called Authors and Editors.
Want to get writing news? Sign up to my newsletter.
Looking back at the year – in this case 2021 – seems to be a fashion on New Year’s Eve. And yeah, I’ll share my thoughts and accomplishments here.
Have an image to illustrate my year 2021 in books.
That’s right, I published a dozen books in 2021, one per month. That has been quite a ride, and it certainly forced me to get things done. I even used pre-orders and set them up a month early, which probably wasn’t a good idea in hindsight. They didn’t capture any emails for me.
No, I didn’t write all of those in 2021. I started working on Zell (my hero in the Franssisi Four Chronicles) in 2016, I believe, and I finished Flux in NaNo 2020. But the Wolves all but took over earlier this year and dominated my thoughts for several months. It has been hard to let them go.
If you want to take a look at all my books, here is my Author Page on Books2Read. From there, you can get to every store that has my books available, including Amazon, Apple, Google and even Smashwords (although I need to finish uploading there, let me know if you’re missing a book in a store).
The Franssisi Four Chronicles – First Series of the Year 2021
“The Franssisi Four Chronicles” are an SF series taking place on a human colony planet that was taken over by aliens. The humans were turned into pleasure slaves, for reasons that are explained in the books.
My young hero Zell is a “Wild One”, growing up in the wilderness in a hunter/gatherer society before being captured. He befriends his new owner and things get interesting and dangerous from then on… changing not just their lives but the lives of everyone on that planet. Epic, but also quite steamy. (Which is why it has my Joanna pen name as author.)
Wolves of the South – Second Series of the Year 2021
The “Wolves of the South” are the opposite in many ways. Making love happens behind closed doors, it’s okay for YA. It’s urban fantasy, set in the early 2000s. And the monsters are human, rather than alien. It’s a werewolf adventure/romance/family saga with a new set of main characters in every book, although the others have cameos.
My Wolves are simply humans with extras – they can shift into wolves. Good-looking ones, very similar to real wolves. I don’t like the werewolf hairy monster trope (although mine do have a few features like some extra strength and fast healing), and I really despise the alpha-wolf trope. There is actually one of them in book 3, and he is not an ally, at all.
Okay, that is a loaded question, considering we’re in the second year of a pandemic. I’m one of the lucky ones – work sent me to home office in March 2020, and with the exception of November 2021, I haven’t had to return. And even in November, it was only on two days a week. I’m also fully vaccinated and I have a comfortable apartment with a studio where I work and write.
I do miss meeting friends and family, but as an introvert, that is something I can deal with better than others. I like being at home. I like being on my own and do my own things. So my social year 2021 hasn’t been too bad, despite the isolation.
The best part are my online friends, of course. I am so grateful for the internet and that’s where I spend most of my time. Writing groups on several social media cannot replace direct human contact, but they are a close second. Also, Zoom calls are wonderful. Yes, I said it.
What does 2022 hold?
Will I repeat that in 2022? That is unlikely. I’m writing in several projects, and I have some series in the pipeline, but I want less pressure and more fun. Not that Zell and the Wolves haven’t been fun, but… I also need to write more on brand. If I ever find out what it is, of course. Right now, I’m leaning towards Hannah doing more Young Adult books while Joanna gets the ones with some spice.
The biggest news is that I signed up with a lovely small press company for two of my series that I simply haven’t found the time to edit and publish. There are seven books waiting for you through them already, and more to come.
One a is an epic fantasy tale of mages and shamans who escape being sacrificed – more of a Joanna series there, with four books already written and five more planned. I’m splitting those up into two different sets, one is the “Winds of Destiny” and the second is called “Pillars of the Earth”. I can’t tell you how much I love South, West, East and North, the main characters of the ones I’ve already written. some of them early in the year 2021. Yes, those are their names, for reasons.
The other is a fun fantasy adventure romp with characters almost straight out of RPG systems, and I have three books written for that already. I’m calling that series “The Mengarian Conspiracy”, and it features an old female fighter, a burly inn keep, a busty bard and a dark, handsome assassin. Oh, and a giant spider, a cute little goblin and of course, evil mages and druids.
There’s also at least one new dragon book from the Cloud Lands coming, although there are more characters raising their hands, and you know what that means. I might put out some of my early German work, as well, and yeah, there is a sequel to Konrad that’s also waiting in the wings. I’m not done with writing, at all, I wish I had more than 24h in a day!
Anyway, here’s to 2022! May it be a good year.
PS: If you want to know what I’m up to, I do send out a monthly newsletter. Sign up and get a dragon story for free!
It’s been ten days since the NaNoWriMo challenge ended.
So let’s talk about what it did for me this year.
As you can see, I did win NaNoWriMo.
Yes, I did write 50,000 words in November. I even finished a day or two early, even though I had to play catch-up for a few days. And that is a good and valid result.
But.
I didn’t get all I could out of it (a new book, for example) because I didn’t follow all the “rules”. In fact, I ended up with quite a mess. Here’s what I did “wrong”.
I didn’t start a new story.
Starting a new book and living through all parts of it is actually the whole point of NaNoWriMo. You’re supposed to begin a new story on November 1st and let it grow through-out the month so you end up with a new book at the end of it. Pushing through in one month lets you experience all the emotions that go with it – from an excited starting point to a sagging middle and a rushing finale.
Originally, this was the pantser festival (aka not planning your story but just letting it flow out). Now people often plan their stories ahead of November and still use the website and the companionship to hammer out words. Which is fine by me.
That “write a new story”-rule got ignored because I was in the middle of a rewrite for a dragon story that I was planning to release in January. I didn’t want to push it aside for something new. (I should have done that anyway… considering what happened.)
I didn’t even write consistently for one story.
In fact, I wrote words for *three* different stories. The Dragon story, a desperation story (that I will continue one day), and finally New YA story which is now occupying my mind. In a good way, mind you, but that’s not what NaNoWriMo was supposed to be about.
So I wrote somewhat incoherent bits and pieces during November, tried new characters, new worlds, mixed genres and created a rather unholy mess. I’m still sorting it all out. It’s still fun, yes, and I am happy I got the seeds for a few things.
At least I totally love the New story I came up with. It’s now called “The Twin Worlds”, will be a trilogy (hopefully), has four main characters and a budding story line. I’m getting bits and pieces, and I can only trust that it’ll all come together in a full story. I’m relying heavily on Writer Brain right now.
Lessons from this year?
Return to the good old NaNoWriMo tradition of creating something entirely new. Or at least a new book for an existing series. Plan, if you must, but prepare for a ride.
Create some structure for your writing so you don’t end up staying up too late to get your word quota for the day. Seriously. Structure is important, and it’s much better to have two or three writing rounds during the day.
Give yourself permission to play during NaNoWriMo. Reserve November for fun. Don’t do anything out of desperation. Pick a genre, pick some characters, put them on GO and then see how they run. You can even pick an end point that you are aiming them at. That’s what makes a pantser’s heart happy. And that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about.
Have fun, try something new and just enjoy the return to writing a lot every day.
Because in the end… if we don’t enjoy what we’re writing, our readers won’t, either.
Want to know how New YA story does?
Follow me on Patreon. I make Progress Updates free over there.
So what have I been up to lately? What progress can I report?
Writing has slowed massively. I feel worn down and ideas are slow to come. I just want to play my favorite game all day (Titan Quest, if you want to know). So I’m trying to take it easy, doing my best to function.
Life in the Times of Covid-19
I believe that the pandemic with all its restrictions is catching up on me. I’ve been holding up fairly well, I’m an introvert and I usually don’t mind spending my days at my desk at home. I miss talking with friends and going out, of course, and at the same time I have no desire to do so at all.
Yes, I got my two shots, but I received Pfitzer/Biontech with only three weeks between them, and we know by now that this does not result in as good an immunity as could have been. So I lean towards being very careful.
Progress with Wolves and Pillars
Anyway. I finished the sixth wolf book (“A Wolf’s Peril”) a while ago and went back to writing Earth, from the Winds and Pillars series (“Earth Splits”). That has been a struggle. I’m getting ideas for conflict and emotional stress, at least, so that’s good. But the words don’t flow easily.
Dragon Girl
For the last few days, however, I’ve been working on a goodie for my newsletter list, “Dragon Girl”. That’s a short story about Dorelle, telling us how she met Mashira. At least I want it to be a short story, but it’s resisting and demanding to be bigger, and that means it’s stressing me. Because it should go out in two days, and I will not be able to finish it by then. Even so, it is fun to go back to writing dragons, so there’s that.
Release Day for “A Wolf’s Honor”
As you saw yesterday, I published “A Wolf’s Honor”, and set up the sequel – “A Wolf’s Fury” – for preorder. Sales are… underwhelming, but at least some reviews for “A Wolf’s Fear” are coming in.
I long for a cheerleading team. And fear that that is narcissistic and incredibly selfish. So I’ll muddle on, as I always do.
And you’re very welcome to subscribe to my newsletter, where I do announce my new releases, share book recommendations and tell tall tales about Ember, my little red dragon pet. They always go out on the 13th of a month. Because I can be contrary like that.
It’s release day for my new werewolf book, “A Wolf’s Honor”!
This is my favorite book of the Wolves of the South series, although “A Wolf’s Fury” is a close second. (That book is on pre-order already, by the way!)
So what do I love about “A Wolf’s Honor”?
First, I love Nessa. She’s the most spirited and smartest of the three McMullen kids. She’s also fairly fearless and just does what it takes. Even if it means gritting her teeth and doing scary things.
And then… and then there’s Nick. His full name is Nick Karagiannidis (and I will reveal at the end who he is named after), and he does have that bit of Greek romance in him. Not that he would admit to it, of course. Oh, and he does embody Greek tragedy, as well. Fortunately, this book is a Romance tale, and it ends well, although he wouldn’t believe it.
Nick turns into a lovely black wolf when he shifts, and he’s just as fearless as Nessa. But what’s more, he has true honor, unlike the leader of the wolf biker gang he’s a member of.
And of course, the moment comes where Nick will have to choose between following his nasty alpha wolf of a leader, and his own honor, by doing what is right. You can guess what he does, of course, since the book is named after him.
What else is special about “A Wolf’s Honor”?
I spent quite a lot of time poring over maps, plotting out where the wolf pack goes. They do pick up Nessa in Virginia, but the some of the action takes place in Charlotte, and of course, it ends in Asheton – which is my version of Asheville, NC. I love that town, and I even visited it once. But I did want to take some liberties with it, and that’s why I obscured the name a little n my series.
Asheton is where the “superpack” run by Beth Minster makes its headquarters, and of course, it’s where Mal McMullen sends his kids when things got dire. After all, he and his mate Val grew up there. (Val gets her own book, too, but that’ll take a while longer.)
Where can I get “A Wolf’s Honor”?
The ebook is up in all regular stores, and I plan on getting a print version set up on Amazon. Not there yet, however.
If you follow the link below, you can choose where to buy. I’m deliberately making it available on most stores, not just Amazon. It’s up on Apple, Kobo, Tolino, Barnes&Noble, and yes, it’s even up on Smashwords.
That is a bit obscure, I’m sorry. But the name spoke to me, and I simply had to use it.
You see, there is a guy called Prof. Dr. Christian Karagiannidis, and he is a Professor of Medicine here in Germany. He’s also the President of the Association of Intensive Medicine (I’m sure I mangled that translation) and thus became locally famous during the pandemic.
And no, he doesn’t look like Nick at all. I just borrowed his name. And he’s one of the good guys, just like Nick, so there’s that. And please, don’t tell him, okay?
Never want to miss another book?
Sign up to my newsletter. It goes out every 13th of the month, and it will always link to new releases and interesting books. It has an Ember story in it (that’s my little dragon pet), and I’m doing my best to create even more goodies for you.
The first book in my new Werewolf Fantasy Series “Wolves of the South” is now available for pre-order! And I am so happy how it all came together, including the amazing cover.
You see, a few months ago, I read a dragon shifter series by an author I admire. It was rather steamy, consisted of short novels and followed the romance of two people in each installment. The sequels were all connected to the previous main characters, and buying through was a no-brainer.
Which made me think. Actually, I thought… I can do this, too!
Except I didn’t want to do dragon shifters. And I have been thinking a lot about werewolves – mostly about what I didn’t like in those stories. You see, that whole alpha wolf stuff is based on very outdated behavioral studies of wolves in zoos. Where animals do not necessarily show natural behavior, after all. So I wanted werewolves, but not the traditional, hairy, ugly ones.
My Werewolf Fantasy Characters
Writer Brain went to work, and presented me with a plot for three novels of my new werewolf fantasy series within a single night. Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot of sleep during that night… but when morning rolled around, I knew about the McMullen family, about Ben, Liz and Nessa, and had a vague idea about their adventures.
So I started writing Ben, and his love interest Sylvia. That story happened very quickly, and I quite love how it came out. However, one thing was a surprise – both of them utterly refused to add steam. So while there is some love-making, it basically happens behind closed doors.
Liz’s story is closely interwoven with Ben’s story, and in fact, her love interest belongs to Sylvia’s family. And the antagonists are partially the same.
Then Nessa came along and met a motorcycle gang, and dark-haired Nick captured her heart, and then another member of the gang raised his hand. So Connor got his story and found Ashley, and then… another character demanded his story. (That’s how my series explode…)
That character was Olivier, Ashley’s father, and of course, he needed a love interest, as well. Which turned out to be Alice, an accomplished wolf doctor from the pack that took in Ben and his sisters.
I already know some details about one more book, which will involve a female main character (no spoilers here) and Dan, a wolf from the big pack. Writer Brain still needs to come up with that particular plot, however…
You also need to know a few more things about my werewolves, just so that you’re not disappointed.
My wolves don’t do that alpha nonsense. They do not howl at the moon. They don’t to that screaming, hairy shifting stuff. Most of all, they are not evil. In fact, they are basically humans with specific, additional superpowers – and some problems that humans don’t have.
Additionally, I’m actually developing a bit of a lingo they use to express their wolf-ness. That makes my linguist heart cackle, you know.
So yeah, no horror vibes in my tales. They are Sweet Werewolf Romance with a large side of adventure and action. And yes, happy endings. I love them, after all.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because I’m gearing up to releasing this entire werewolf fantasy series (6 books so far, and vague ideas for more) starting in July. There will be one new book every month, with a new, fast-paced adventure and a clear happy ending.
The current titles in the Werewolf Fantasy series are (some might still change…):
A Wolf’s Quest
A Wolf’s Fear
A Wolf’s Honor
A Wolf’s Fury
A Wolf’s Fight
A Wolf’s Revenge
And did I say that “A Wolf’s Quest” is already up?
I’m distributing it in all major stores, and it will go live on July 10th, 2021. Grab it here:
And if you’re not good at remembering dates, you can sign up to my monthly newsletter. I will remind you of every new book and pre-order, of course, and even better… you’ll get a cute story about my little, red, dragon sidekick, Ember with every email. Sometimes, I’ll also ask questions and offer ways of contributing to the stories. Working on ARCs, so you can read my stories for free. Oh, and you’ll get another gift: a free, fast-paced short story set in my dragon world, the Cloud Lands, that you can get nowhere else.
Right now, I’m writing a series of short novels with a werewolf or three. Yes, you read that right. And if you know me even a little, you’ll know that is a surprise (it was for me!).
Writer Brain created a host of ideas after I read a hot shifter romance series and just clicked through to the next in series. And of course, I thought that hey, I can do that, and I can make it a really tight series with great read-through.
Never thought I would do it with werewolves, though, because I hate most of the common tropes for those hot werewolf shifter romance tales.
Werewolf tropes I hate:
The “Alpha Wolf” trope. It’s totally not how real wolf packs work. I hate the macho aspect of it, I hate the bully aspect of it, and well… a lot of other things connected to that “big bad wolf” take on it.
The “Mating Rape” trope. Seriously that is so awful. Yes, it’s probably a subset of the alpha male trope, but sexism is so widespread I really don’t need to promote it with something I write. I replaced it with a magical kiss. That’s much more romantic, right?
The “Full Moon Frenzy” trope. Nope, nope, nope.
So you’ll find none of that in my stories. In fact, my wolves are the good guys. Mostly. I have a nasty guy in mind who will find his well-deserved end in book 3.
There is also very little heat or steam (aka explicit bed scenes). Yes, there is a mating at the end of each book, but it’s not explicit. It happens because this is Sweet Paranormal Romance, and there is a HEA (Happy Ever After), at least in the relationships. I do want to get the whole family to safety at the end of the series, as well, though.
Thing is, my wolves – refusing to play by tropes – also refused to create steam. And so, this is mostly a tale of adventure, courage, and the part that is always in my stories somewhere – the fight for the right to a full, accepted life in freedom.
The series background for my werewolves
The main characters are all members of one family. I chose a Scottish last name for them, McMullen. (And yes, I googled that, and it doesn’t seem to be used in a subtitle just yet.)
And the McMullen family of werewolves has fallen on hard times, they were rooted out by Hunters (gangs of humans who want to eradicate them all), and they have to flee. Mom has already disappeared, Dad is playing decoy to drag the Hunt away, and the three siblings Ben, Lizbeth and Vanessa have been sent to a region in North Carolina where allies live.
Each of them finds their own way to Asheton (which is Asheville in real life, but honestly, I cannot travel there to check locations), and each of them finds a mate – but as this is Romance, they have a lot of problems to overcome to make it there. And it is always a close thing, with much adventure, challenges and wounds. They have to tough it out. Fortunately, their werewolf superpowers are giving them an advantage.
I’m having fun putting a few new cultural phrases into the stories, creating terms and expressions that are specific to the werewolves. For example, they refer to themselves as “wolves”, without the were-. I think that is simply a classic example for shortening long words in everyday speech. (Yes. I’m a linguist. Why do you ask?)
These are the titles I have planned for my werewolf series
A Wolf’s Quest A Wolf’s Fear A Wolf’s Honor A Wolf’s Love
Ah, you say, but there are only three siblings! Who is that last book about? Well, that will be about their mom, Cynthia. Their father, alas, won’t make it out alive…
Covers are, as always, a tricky thing. I had an idea and played around with it, but sadly, my GIMP capacity is not up to that idea yet. So I will have to commission them. Wish me luck.
Update – December 2021
Well, things have developed a little since I posted that. Which is a good thing.
First, there are 6 books now, they all have awesome covers, they are all published, and the titles changed a little:
Also, the mom’s name changed to Valerie, Val for short. As you can see, a few more characters demanded that their story should be told, and so I did.
Second, the series is finished for now, although I have more ideas. But I need some reader feedback and sales before I invest more time in those books.
More Resources
Want to check out what I have written and published so far? Click here: Hannah Steenbock
Want to look behind the scenes or participate in poll? Join my FB group: Hannah’s Dragonriders
Want to know more and get a notification when the series comes out? Sign up to my newsletter and receive a free dragon story as a gift.
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