Falling In Love With Shifters
I admit, until recently I’ve always been a vampire gal. Since first meeting Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my heart belonged to the undead bloodsucker. Point of fact, my introduction to the realm of romance novels—and indeed erotic romance—came in the form of vampire-themed romances. I’ve made no secret of the fact that Buffy greatly influenced my earlier works. Bad boy vamps were my thing.
The story that became Insatiable Need was originally published in 2009 as a vampire romance featuring a demon hunter heroine and the vampire she loves to hate. Sound original? I admit, my own roots in fan-fiction made finding and describing my own worlds a little difficult at first. After all, spending so much time building epic sandcastles in someone else’s sandbox makes returning to the barren wasteland that is your own a bit of a downer.
Considering where I was mentally—and therein creatively—I’m proud of the work I managed to produce. However, when the opportunity arose to rework the original, I leapt at it. Two years had passed, and my imagination was again thirsty and eager for the chance to show off how innovative it could be.
Granted, as someone once said, there are no original ideas. And to a degree that is true. Themes are universal, and in the sort of fiction we write, there is no doubt of overlap. However there is a difference between being inspired and being influenced. In my earlier works, the Buffy influence is so heavy it reeks of rip-off. My later works are more my own, and likewise those of which I am proudest.
Insatiable Need joined those ranks in early 2012 as my first—but hardly last—shifter novella. While I enjoyed the basic premise of Possession, as did my readers, it never felt like it was completely mine. So how do you take a story that involved a vampire and a demon hunter and turn it into something else? I started with the original hero, Kade, and turned him into Zeth. Whereas Kade was a vampire, Zeth is a werewolf who doubles as a private investigator when he’s not all wolfy. Arianna the demon hunter became Raegan the tabloid reporter. These changes, some little and some quite large, completely changed the character dynamic. A demon hunter has a reason to hate demons. What possible motivation could a tabloid reporter boast? Vampires typically have the whole ‘sucking blood’ thing to overcome in the eyes of the heroines, whereas the basic rules governing shifters or werewolves depend on the author.
My love of shifters has been a longtime coming, and it was really only with working with Zeth in Insatiable Need that solidified my insatiable need to write more of them. As a lover of paranormal romances/urban fantasy, what I had enjoyed in passing as a reader turned into a world of opportunity as an author. I loved building my own mythology around Zeth, and look forward to revisiting the world in addressing some characters whose stories I know now I have to tell.
For those readers who enjoyed Possession and are concerned about a newer version of the story—to me, it’s not an update, rather a completely different story. That said, I did my best to maintain the snappy interactions and tension between the hero and heroine. For those unsure of what the new story will offer—well, the sex-plot remains the same, but the circumstances, events, histories, and resolution are completely different. I added almost ten thousand words in the rewrite, introduced three characters that didn’t appear in the original, two of which are likely to reappear in following works.
So what makes you love shifters, and who made you love shifter? Inquiring minds want to know!
You can catch up with Rosalie Stanton at any of the following locations:
Ever since Raegan Pritchett discovered Private Investigator Zeth McDowell’s habit of occasionally going a little furry, she’s been vocal in her fervent dislike of both him and all werewolves. But that doesn’t stop her from shuffling into his office every time she needs a source for her stories.
Raegan has had a vendetta against weres ever since her college best friend was found in several pieces at the hand of her werewolf boyfriend. However, when a psychic claims a local priest plans to summon a dangerous demon—a demon that will strip the town’s inhibitions and have citizens surrendering to their innermost forbidden fantasies—Raegan has nowhere to turn but Zeth McDowell, the annoyingly sexy private investigator she loves to hate. Neither Raegan nor Zeth know how to stop a demon, but they still aim to try.
Until the demon’s spell is triggered—and Zeth and Raegan discover their innermost fantasies involve each other.
Rosalie Stanton is giving away one e-copy of her book Insatiable Need by Rosalie Stanton!
Answer Rosalie’s question:
So what makes you love shifters, and who made you love shifter?
Giveaway will run for 7 days till Oct 24th!
Excerpt
“Someone does something they’ve always thought about doing and suddenly all this superstitious mumbo jumbo doesn’t seem quite so funny,” Zeth mused, only half aware he was voicing his thoughts.
“Exactly,” Raegan agreed, her shoulders dropping. “So are you going to help me, or what?”
“Help you?”
She gave him one of those looks that managed to make him feel three inches tall and hard as a fucking rock at the same time. “I. Want. To. Stop. O’Brien. Have you been tuning me out this whole time?”
“Well, I tried, but some things did get through.”
“I hate you.”
“To be fair, I know that.” Zeth sighed. “So what do you want me to do? I’m your Deep Throat. You’ve only ever come to me for a good story.”
“Well, shit, Zeth, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“I forgive you.”
Raegan’s eyes blazed dangerously, but she ignored the remark. “Yeah, you’re my Deep Throat. You just so happen to also be the only person I know who might be able to stop the crazy man from making everyone go coo coo for Cocoa Puffs. Silly me for thinking you might actually wanna do something nice for someone.”
A half a dozen retorts sat waiting on his tongue—little things he could say that would get her to the point where she’d just as soon leap across the desk and strangle him as accept any help he offered. And as much fun as Zeth had in stoking the fire, he found himself now feeling the
beast called guilt raising its unwanted head.
As much fun as it would be seeing all of Highfield doing the walk of shame, Zeth was a sucker for a damsel in distress. And Raegan was definitely distressed.
Furthermore, Zeth wasn’t such an asshole not to understand why. If Jezebel was summoned, if Jezebel did ride into town on the clouds of chaos, it put everyone at risk. Sure, a person might rob a liquor store. A person also might finally do in his boss. And Raegan had witnessed enough death. She’d seen her fill the night her friend was ripped to shreds.
For the first time, Raegan Pritchett wasn’t here as a reporter. Whether she admitted it or not, she was here as a friend.
And she was asking him for help.
And only a true son of a bitch could look into her pretty brown eyes and say no. Try as he might, Zeth wasn’t a true son of a bitch.
“All right,” Zeth said softly.
She stared at him. It clearly wasn’t the answer she expected. “All right? All right, what?”
“All right, I’m in.” He smiled, biting back a smirk when her face fell, her defense mechanisms and ire melting in favor of genuine astonishment.
Though that she was surprised at all to discover he wasn’t the aforementioned son of a bitch smarted more than it should.
Raegan’s gaze dropped to the space between them. “Oh. I mean, good. That’s good.”
“Yeah. So we off to church, then? That the plan?”
No response at first. Instead, her astonishment lingered, faded, then disappeared altogether. Perhaps she hadn’t had a plan beyond coming here and pestering him. His cooperation had seemingly thrown her for a loop. “Yeah,” Raegan said, sounding every bit the part of someone forming a plan as she spoke. “The church. Harriet said that’s where I’d find what I was looking for. There’s a room there, or something. On the second floor. We go there, we stop him, game over.”
“Game over.” Zeth bounced to his feet. “You lead the way.”
“I do?”
“Might be dangerous, oh captain my captain. And you’re the boss.”
“You’re the werewolf!”
“That’s species-ism. Not a good color on you.”
“Bite me.”
Zeth grinned. “Don’t tempt me. And I might be the wolf, cutie-pie, but like I said, you’re the boss. This is your rodeo. Far as I’m concerned, I’m just the Deep Throat.”
Ah, the fire returned at that. As though right then she remembered exactly who she was, who she was with, and the nature of their working relationship. “I’ll deep-throat you,” she muttered, then squeaked, her cheeks turning red. “I mean, um, asshole.”
Zeth chuckled as he made his way around the desk, doing his best to bat away the array of pornographic images immediately flooded his over-sexed mind. Hell, his cock was already hard just in talking with her. Whenever she slipped up, whenever she made the smallest remark bordering near a double entendre, his overtly male brain couldn’t help concocting a delicious fantasy involving her naked on a bed somewhere, her legs parted and her mouth open.
And since nature had given him a heightened sense of smell, he knew when she got excited around him, and it was more often than she’d like to let on.
“Just name the place,” he replied at last. “I’ll be there, pants down.”
“I hate you,” Raegan said again, blushing furiously and not looking at him.
“You’re welcome. Let’s go find your priest.”
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Insatiable Need by Rosalie Stanton at AMAZON
Lora Leigh with her Breed series! Then Terry Spear with her wolves.
diane dot sadler at gmail dot com
Rhyannon Byrd with her Primal Instinct series. After that, Terry Spear, Lydia Dare and so many other authors.
kmccandle(at)yahoo(dot)com
Nice excerpt. I like shifters because they’re alpha. Kresley Cole, Lydia Dare
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
Lachlain MacRieve from Kresley Cole’s Immortals after Dark series. He was my first wolf shifter and I fell in love with his feral and protective nature, his alpha dominance and that sexy Scotish accent! Thanks for the chance to win!
ehaney578 at aol dot com