The
third in my series on writers’ experiences of writing gay, shifter or BDSM stories
is from Jules Dixon who tells us her experiences of why she shifted genres.
Why I Shifted to Writing Shifter
This
year I took a leap into a new genre of writing—paranormal shifter. In 2015, I
published my first male/male romance called Spurs: Cherry County Cowboys 1.
Calling on my love of western Nebraska’s ranching industry, I found myself
immersed in building a world of visiting cowboys who meet their loves who are
Cherry County residents (a doctor, a professional football draftee, and a local
law enforcement officer). Thus, the cowboy changes and becomes a “Cherry County
cowboy”. Kind of sneaky there, huh? That series currently has two novels and a
short story and this year I’ll add the final novel and a holiday novel to
finish it out.
But
in giving a try at male/male romance I found a love of sharing the beauty
between two people of the same sex, a raw and honest connection.
So
when Evernight Publishing put out a call for paranormal shifter romance, which
included a male/male call, I took a leap of faith. I’ve loved reading shifter
for years now. Searching for all kinds of animals and pairings of relationships
to quench my thirst. Some of the ones that have stood out are April Zyon’s
Shifter’s-Match series (https://april-zyon.com/evernight-bookcase/) and Dawn Sullivan’s
R.A.R.E. series (http://www.dawnsullivanauthor.com/rare-series.html) and Rachel Vincent’s
Shifters series (http://www.rachelvincent.com/shifters.php).
But
still I was scared to give it a try. There were so many things to think about
when writing shifter romance.
First, what kind of shifters did I
want to write? My
first shifter loves were the books having unusual animals in them, like owls
and otters and pandas. But I also love dragons and mythical shifter stories. So
did I want to be original or go traditional like cats, bears, and wolves. After
looking at the anthology call, it said they wanted dominant animal species. And
since this was my first try, I figured wolves might be a good bet. Lots of
information out there about them and they tend to be territorial and ferocious.
So wolves it was—grey and red.
Mooncrest Teaser Excerpt:
He stared into the eyes he’d seen in
haunting dreams. Caramel colored and fathomless, their entwined destinies were
right there inside of that gaze. But there was something different about this
wolf.
Second, what place? This was supposed to be
contemporary, but where was I going to set the story? A logical and traditional
place is near forests, but I wanted to give it a twist, so I chose Colorado and
created a fictional town of Mooncrest at the foothills of a mountain. One
family is forester and one family is granite miners, which is true to Colorado,
and I found some interesting tidbits to add as well.
Mooncrest Teaser Excerpt:
His trees grew at twice the rate of
other’s in the area. Full-humans had questioned the forester, but he’d reply,
“Must be the way the mountain faces”.
Third, what were the special traits of
their shifting?
In some shifter stories the shifters can telepathically talk to each other. I
used this, plus I gave the Alpha shifter the ability to hear his mate’s
thoughts and those of pack members as well when in their human forms. But he
could turn it off when he wanted to. I also… wait, I want to keep a few things
a secret.
Mooncrest Teaser Excerpt:
This home would take a little getting
used to, but his wolf was already imagining sliding down the railing. He tamped
him down with a quick hush.
“I heard that.” Saber chuckled.
How would he ever have any secrets?
Anything to keep to himself? Hell, Saber’d probably already heard him talking
to himself about…
Lastly, the story development, was
there something special to add? After long consideration, I decided to make a “Mother
Wolf” spirit who chose the fated mates for the pack members, and gave the pack
members special skills, like tracking, or healing…or...you’ll have to read to
find out!
Mooncrest Teaser Excerpt:
This intense
peace meant only one thing. The Mother Wolf’s divination had come true, a mate
would be his tonight.
Writing
this story was thrilling, but being chosen to have the story added to the
anthology filled me with pride. I’ve already started on a second story in the
Mooncrest series. And I wrote a companion male/female story, too. Evernight
Publishing would like to see that story as a longer piece of work and I’m
already working to fill in some of the holes to make it a novella or even a
novel.
Being
an author and stretching my writing voice to other genres is exciting. I’m not
sure when the anthology will be released, but it won’t be long. I hope you’ll
consider checking out my website and Facebook page to keep in touch to find out
when the release happens.
Thank
you for taking a few minutes to find out why I shifted to shifters.
Hugs,
Jules
Dixon
Many thanks, Jules. Look out next Monday for the next guest blog. If you
wanted to read the others:
Samantha Winston click here
This series is to inspire people to write for my Balls & Chains
series – a gay shifter series set in a BDSM club. If you are interested full
details can found on Luminosity’s
website. The first book in the series ‘To Claim a Mate’ is
out in mid May.
This was an interesting read, and there's nothing hotter than a MM shifter story. Thanks for sharing ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me Jennifer! Best of luck with the Balls and Chains series. Looking forward to reading more of these interviews.
ReplyDelete<3 Jules