In My Own Words Regarding the Genre

Please take no offense to what I say in regards to the genre of paranormal romance, particularly to vampire romances. Every book published finds its audience and makes those readers happy. What I've chosen to write about and how I've gone about it is my own personal preference and should not reflect on any other writers' work. Just as everyone's views on religion and God are subjective, so is our belief in the supernatural. However, mine comes about from a reflection of whether it's possible for certain things to happen as described in paranormal romances.

I started with the vampire romance. Was it possible for a superior being to fall in love with a human; which, in essence, is a vampire's food. Humans are weak, frail, and short-lived. What could a vampire possibly see in such a mate? Would it be any different than one of us loving a cow? While I imagine there are some out there who have "loved" a cow, we consider those people deviant and worthy of putting down. I imagine many of you rising up in arm about how your favorite human heroine is beautiful, compassionate, independent, and desirable, but I'm sure there are cows out there that would say the same about some of their species, pining for some human to love them, too. The point was looking at this through the perspective of the vampire, not the human. There had to be something behind the reason why a vampire would romance a human.

The answer is obvious: sexual pleasure. The vampires I write about use seduction to compel their supplicants into offering their blood for the price of pleasure. This prospect opened up so many avenues of interest that I was overwrought with possibilities. If vampires are so callous in their views of sexual intimacy, are they capable of loving even within their own species? To what extremes will an obsessed human go to entice a vampire into loving them? And what if a vampire had been in love with someone prior to becoming one? Does that change? Is there an intrinsic emotional attachment that transcends their transforrnation?

The study of these questions brought me through my first book, Blood-borne, and continues in its sequel, Blood Ties. An entirely new mythos develops around vampire romance, where we can explore our own sexuality and deviancy through the extent we're willing to go for personal pleasure.

Tackling Another Paranormal Myth

Another supernatural creature that has been relegated to the background or given second-rate status to trendy vampires is the werewolf. This creature has become pitable as the opponent or wingman of the more fashionable supernatural superhero. Many times we only see the werewolf appear as a support character in vampire or other paranormal series. But the werewolf mythos is a fascinating subject on its own. It needs no upstaging character to carry its attraction.

Here, I questioned the origin of the werewolf lore and how it was possible to transform into a difference species from a single bite, enough that human DNA makes quick changes into another animal. The answer came to me: it can't. Although it is not impossible to believe DNA can be manipulated to alter characteristics in human beings, those changes should be gradual and permanent. The idea of changing back and forth from human to wolf isn't reasonable. So the existence of werewolves isn't transmutable. It should be contained within its own species. A bite might pass along a disease that might mutate human cells, much as cancer would, but those changes would be irreversible.

In Oboroten, my second novel dedicated exclusively to the "werewolf" mythos, I introduce a species of transforming creatures that live at will between human and wolf form. This culture is heavily invested in the pack mentality of wolves, which is a noble yet harsh social structure to be a part of. And since wolves mate for life, and in a pack, only the alpha mates, the search for love often turns bloody and vicious.