Catch up with me again on the 24th, here on Paranormal Romantics, where I talk about Vampires and their dark seduction.
Today I'm taking over Parnormal Romantics in place of the awesome Diane Burton (who is feeling a bit under the weather. Give her some love and well-wishes at her blog: http://dianeburton.blogspot.
What is it about a werewolf that gets the shivers going? Good and bad? Light and dark? I've been fascinated with lycanthropes since childhood (Silver Bullet, the Howling...which I wasn't supposed to see, Waxwork, Monster Squad, An American Werewolf in London, Vampire Hunter D, Ladyhawke, Teen Wolf, The Midnight Hour, of course the Scooby Doo movie and cartoons, Fright Night II) and into my teenage years (Wolf, the rest of the Howlings, Full Eclipse, Monster Mash, Bad Moon, and An American Werewolf in Paris).
I read every book I could get that involved werewolves. They were almost always bad guys, more in touch with their beast than their humanity, but I wondered why. Gothic romances pushed werewolf into a curse that had to be destroyed. When it was, I wondered what happened to that beautiful wolf they had been. When I dove into White Wolf's Werewolf: The Apocalypse, I fell in love with a world I'd never imagined possible.
In my late teens and early twenties, my love of the dual-natured hero took a different turn. I found romance and gothic novels that featured the tortured werewolf hero, the man who believed he was being consumed by his animal side. Ones that let him find balance, something my Native American great-grandmother chanted to me about all things in nature while I was growing up.
By the time the Underworld franchise launched and Van Helsing followed close behind, I was immersed in Sherrilyn Kenyon, Susan Krinard, Maggie Shayne, Laurel K. Hamilton, Lori Handeland, Alice Borchardt, and Angela Knight. Kate Douglas has my heart, now, with her incredible wolves. So does Kele Moon. Jet Mykles. Ebooks allow me to get my lycanthrope hero fix immediately.
One thing is for sure, I have fallen in love with the dual-natured kind. It probably goes back to Beauty and the Beast for me. Even as a kid I was fascinated by the question...who was the real animal? The one who wanted to live in peace or the one who used brutality to kill under the mask of "civilized".
Think Gaston and the Beast from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I know I wasn't the only one rooting for the Beast! You watched the Beast transform from vile and retched into considerate and kind. My heart tugged sweetly at every touching moment between him and Belle. It's still my favorite Disney movie. :)
Over the years, I've tackled my own werewolves. I dove into curses, dark magic, genetic manipulation, Celtic Druidism, and Native American Shamanism.
One thing I know for sure, I love reading them as much as I adore writing them. Tell me truthfully, if you could write or read any of the heroes in the image above (Vampires, Werewolves, Angels), which would you prefer and why?
Dawn Montgomery
Action. Adventure. Erotic Romance.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dawn_Montgomery
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