When Did Werewolves Get to Be Sexy?

Werewolves turn me on. If I'd admitted that a hundred years ago, they probably would have dragged me off to the nuthouse or performed an exorcism. Or maybe I'd just keep my fantasies to myself.

Thankfully, I live in an enlightened age where a writer's mind is allowed to run wild. Still, I've thought a lot about my favorite genre. Where does our fascination with the paranormal come from, anyway?

Really, the roots of paranormal romantic suspense reach all the way back to the dawn of time. One of the ways the shaman of an ancient tribe maintained power over his people was to protect them from the scary beings who roamed the night. And in those ancient spectral creatures, we can see the roots of today's literary vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, and all the other beasts who fill the paranormal universe.

In paranormal romantic suspense, the villains may come from the ranks of these fearsome creatures. But at the same time, the vampires, demons and shape-shifters have also morphed into the heroes of our books. In my Berkley Moon series, for example, I'm writing about a family of very sexy alpha males-who happen to be werewolves. My first werewolf was Ross Marshall in Killing Moon. He saw himself as an aberration in the modern world, yet he desperately wanted to be part of humanity. And the right woman helped him make peace with the wolf side of his being.

Now Ross Marshall is the linchpin of the family, guiding his younger brothers and cousins into a life they never could have imagined.

But each Moon book stands alone as its own story. And one of my continuing goals is to make each heroine a powerful woman in her own right so that she can stand up to my sexy alpha male werewolves. Often I give her her own paranormal powers.

In my April book, Eternal Moon, Renata Cordona is the reincarnation of an ancient goddess. She and her lover have met again and again down through the ages-only to be destroyed by a demon bent on conquering the world. In her twenty-first century incarnation, Renata is a private detective.

The book starts with Renata on an undercover assignment to catch a serial killer who has been murdering female real estate agents. When a pack of vicious dogs threatens her, they're chased off by a lone wolf who swiftly disappears. Then, out of nowhere, Jacob Marshall materializes, and his electrifying touch brings out all the sexual longings she's repressed because everyone Renata has ever loved has died a horrible death. Is werewolf Jacob Marshall the key to breaking the ancient curse that hangs over them? Or will the evil stalking them down through the ages destroy them both?

It's startling to realize that paranormal romantic suspense has created something quite new and daring in literature. In the past, shape-shifters, vampires and demons were almost always the bad guys. The conventions were like the conventions in a cowboy movie where we knew that bad guys had black hats and the good guys had white hats. Instead, our heroes have blurred the lines between the good guys and the bad guys. My werewolves may be the heroes of my books, but you never know when their savage side will emerge. Jacob is quite capable of ripping out the throat of his enemies or tearing them apart with his claws.

Is that edge of danger and unpredictability part of the appeal of the shape-shifter? The realization that you never know what's going to happen. And the knowledge that these are guys who live outside the bounds of civilization. They might dress in jeans and tee shirts-or even business suits--but you never know when they're going to rip off that clothing and expose the animal side of their nature. And when they do-watch out. Because anything can happen. Click here to read an excerpt from Eternal Moon.