Breaking the Mold:
Making Shifters and Their World Our Own

“Sameness” is a common criticism of paranormal characters and their worlds, leading to the conclusion that shifters have been “done.” I consider this analysis to be on a par with suggesting that all romances are the same because they all have a happy ending. In a word: inaccurate. Anyone who writes or reads romances knows that the breadth and depth of the romance genre is essentially infinite—innumerable settings, time periods, character profiles, plots and subplots, conflicts, erotic intensity and on and on. Yes, romances have common characteristics—that’s what defines a genre, and paranormal fiction carries certain expectations as well: readers expect to see creatures with special physical/mental/psychological or magical powers; we expect our Weres to be ruled by primal instincts and disdain the veneer of civilized behavior; and we anticipate that sexual appetites and desires will be heightened and accepted without apology. While shifters/changlings/Weres—whatever name we use—are founded in myth, we as authors and readers are not bound by the familiar—we are free to imagine and take risks and surprise.

How then are we to make our shifters our own, and what makes a shifter series fresh and interesting? The answer lies in how we build the world our characters inhabit, and that includes the “internal universe” as well as the time, place, relationship to the known world etc. What makes Weres so fascinating to me is biology—how do they “work”—what makes them “other”? What drives them, inspires them, controls their behavior?

When I began the Midnight Hunters series the first thing I thought about was biology—where did they come from, what makes them other than human? For me, that comes naturally from my background in medicine. I wanted the etiology of the Weres in my books to make sense from a biological/evolutionary point of view, but even more importantly, I did not want the main characters to be diseased or ashamed of their “otherness.” That being the case, I decided that all paranormal beings in my series would be the products of evolutionary divergence—not human, never having been human, but being separate species that diverged from the evolutionary tree at the same time as humans developed. Then of course there’s the issue of procreation. If Were-ness is not due to a contagion, then how do we make little Weres? And considering that many of my characters have same-sex mates, how does that work? Fortunately, there are some biological precedents for genetic inheritance through the female line (mitochondrial DNA, without going into great detail) that with a little scientific finesse and finagling might make it believable for a mate of the same sex to stimulate reproduction.

The second way to make a series stand out is by incorporating consistent and engaging themes. The central themes in this series reflect issues in the LGBTQ community, one of the strongest being that we are not “abnormal,” merely different and entitled to that differentness. These thoughts were in the back of my mind as I considered the overarching series plot, but as a romance novelist first and foremost, my primary interest was in creating believable, sympathetic, and interesting characters who dealt with personal challenges that readers could embrace. The most effective paranormal fiction not only blends myth and reality, but bears the stamp of an author’s unique view of this alternate world.

Ultimately, we make our characters our own, whether they are paranormal or contemporary or historical characters, by creating consistent worlds, engaging character strengths and flaws, and in the case of the paranormal, believable biology that doesn’t run too far afield from common mythology. Fortunately, within these simple parameters, numerous worlds and unique characters can exist.

Here’s an introduction to mine (From The Midnight Hunt, Book One in the Midnight Hunters series):

A blonde with dusty waves that just brushed her collar and keen blue eyes that took in everything around her in one sharp sweep strode toward Drake. Even dressed in jeans and a plain navy T-shirt, she exuded an unmistakable air of authority. Everyone in her path backed away, hurriedly averting their gaze, but as the blonde bore down on her, Drake couldn’t look away. When the blonde’s gaze fixed on hers, an unexpected wave of heat coursed through her.

“Who are you?” the blonde demanded.

“Dr. Drake McKennan.”

“You’re a human physician.”

“Yes. You’re the Were Alpha, aren’t you?”

“Sylvan Mir.”

Drake finally broke free of Sylvan’s hypnotic gaze and took in the whole of her long-limbed, rangy body. “You’re barefoot.”

For just a second, Sylvan’s full, perfectly proportioned lips flickered, as if she might smile, but then her expression cooled. She moved forward so quickly, Drake barely had time to get out of her path.

“You’ll excuse me.” Sylvan reached for the curtain to the exam room. “I need to see to my young.”

“Can I help you?”

“No.” Sylvan pulled the curtain aside.

Drake stayed where she was. The Were Alpha hadn’t said she couldn’t watch.

“Alpha!” One of the boys jumped to his feet. Both boys, handsome dark-haired teenagers with startlingly beautiful dark green eyes, immediately ducked their heads, seeming to shrink in on themselves. The equally beautiful injured brunette on the stretcher whimpered.

“What happened?” Sylvan growled.

“Rogues,” one of the boys whispered. “They attacked us in the park. We fought them, Alpha, but—”

Sylvan Mir grabbed the boy by the collar and yanked him up onto his toes, shaking him so hard his thick black hair flew into his face.

Drake jerked in shock and barely stifled a protest. The Alpha and the young male were nearly the same size, but Mir handled him as if he were half her weight.

“You brought Misha out of the Compound and then failed to protect her?” Sylvan’s face was an inch from the teens. Drake caught a glimpse of a glinting canine.

The boy trembled in her grasp and the injured girl, to her credit, forced herself upright on the stretcher, even though she was in obvious pain.

“I don’t need males to protect me,” Misha said, her dark brown irises circled in gold. “I am strong enough—”

Sylvan whipped her head around and silenced the girl with a glare. “And you? You followed these brainless pups against my explicit orders? You want to be a soldier, yet cannot obey a simple command from your Alpha?”

The girl’s pale face blanched even whiter and she shuddered.

“She was attacked,” Drake said, instinctively wanting to shield the girl. There’d been a time when she had been the defenseless one, and no one had stood for her. “She’s hurt and in no condition—”

“This is none of your concern.” Sylvan snarled and rounded on Drake, lethal-looking canines flashing. Her eyes were no longer blue, but wolf-gold. “These are my wolves.”

Drake stiffened, the memory of bruises inflicted by older, stronger youths in a group home suddenly as fresh as if the blows had been delivered yesterday. She heard a low rumble and her skin prickled, the fine hairs on her arms and neck quivering. Forcing herself to think, not react, Drake assessed the scene as she would an unknown clinical situation. The boy was limp in the Alpha’s grasp, the way Drake had seen young kittens and puppies go boneless in their mothers’ jaws. The teenagers did not appear frightened or abused. Chastised, yes. But not afraid. In fact, all three of them looked at Sylvan Mir with something close to adulation. Drake realized that no matter how human they appeared, these Weres did not live by human social and moral conventions, and she was out of her element.

– L.L. Raand 

Midnight Hunt, The – by L.L. Raand

What do you do when you wake up to a whole new life…with dangerous urges you can’t control?

Medic Drake McKennan has never been good at following protocol, so she doesn’t think twice about rendering emergency care when a teenager’s life is at stake—even if the young girl is in the throes of Were fever and any sane human should know better. It isn’t the bright shining pain of the bite or even the wrenching agonies of the fever that convinces Drake everything in her life has changed. It’s the way she feels about the blonde with the wolf-gold eyes who awakens a dark hunger she can’t control…and doesn’t want to. Sylvan, the Alpha of the Adirondack Timberwolf Pack, is the one female Drake can’t have. And the only one she craves.

A Midnight Hunters novel

Author: Radclyffe writing as L.L. Raand
Pages: 288
ISBN 10: 1-60282-140-2 / ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-140-8

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About the Author

Radclyffe, a retired surgeon and full time author-publisher, has written over forty novels and one-hundred-plus short stories. She has also edited dozens of anthologies, including the award-winning Erotic Interludes series from Bold Strokes and Best Lesbian Romance 2009-2013. Writing as L. L. Raand, she has authored a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters. An eight time Lambda Literary Award finalist in romance, mystery and erotica (winning in both romance (Distant Shores, Silent Thunder) and erotica (Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman and In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip written with Karin Kallmaker), she is also an RWA/FTHRW Lories and RWA/FF&P Prism winner, an inductee of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame, and an Independent Publisher’s award (IPPY), an Alice B. Readers’ award, and Benjamin Franklin award winner. She is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBT publishing companies.