Guest Post & Giveaway: Terry Spear author of Seduced by the Wolf

I'd like to take this time to welcome author, Terry Spear to Debbie's Book Bag! Please join me in welcoming her and stay tuned to the end of the post for giveaway details!

Why Wolves—Why Werewolves? And How They Ended up in a Series!

Thanks so much, Debbie, for having me here today!!!

To answer your question, I’m a total pantser, which means I write by the seat of my pants. And that means I don’t plot out my stories to death before I write them. Which also means, when I wrote Heart of the Wolf, my only thought was writing something really different. I had already written four vampire novels, having loved vampires since I was a teen, but selling vampire stories seemed like an impossibility since about that time, tons of already well known authors were jumping on the band wagon to write a vampire series. I had written series books before, and being unable to sell the first, I soon found that not selling one, meant I might have three I couldn’t sell, so I was better off concentrating on just that first one and seeing what might come of it.

So if vampires were out, what wasn’t being done? Werewolf romances. At least, not to my knowledge. I had fun researching wolf behavior, thought of a mystery, adventure, sexy foray into the werewolf kingdom, and the Heart of the Wolf was born.

Now, often when we’re trying to sell, it takes forever. I had a lot of interest in the book, a close, but no cigar sale to a NY publisher, and so I began a new book, Destiny of the Wolf, in the event Heart of the Wolf didn’t sell.

Then Deb Werksman of Sourcebooks fell in love with my world, bought the first book, and made my year!!! When she asked if I had anything else, I had the four vampire novels, but Destiny of the Wolf was only partially written. She said the vampire world was saturated, so no. So I went to work on Destiny of the Wolf. And while she considered it, this time, I went straight to work on another werewolf novel, To Tempt the Wolf and had the idea for Legend of the White Wolf, so proposed it also. I hadn’t written that one before she bought both books! And that was the start of the series. After that, I sold Seduced by the Wolf, Wolf Fever (December 2010), Heart of the Highland Wolf (Spring 2011), and Dreaming of the Wolf (Fall 2011) on proposal.

Ever since reading Jack London’s tales—Call of the Wild and White Fang—I’d been fascinated with wolves. I didn’t even realize that was where I’d first fallen in love with wolves until I began interviews for Heart of the Wolf and the question was asked so many times that I finally had to look deeper and discover when my very first interest in wolves came about. I have always been an avid reader of everything from true story adventures to the historical past and one of the books I enjoyed reading was about early man, and how they eventually domesticated the first “dogs.” So from a very early time, I didn’t see wolves as evil beasts, but as companions to men who raised them in the wilderness, or who in early times began to have “camp followers” who eventually became domesticated dogs.

What I love about wolves is how they choose a mate for life, and family and offspring mean everything to them. I loved using that concept to create my werewolves. But I also loved giving them human thought processes while they’re wolves, and enhanced wolf senses when they’re humans. When they take of their wolf coats, they’re still a wolf at heart.

I enjoy having them make fun of werewolf legends, or even giving the other side of the story in children’s tales about the big bad wolf. You know, there are always two sides to every story!

Thanks again for having me, Debbie! It’s been fun.

If you had a chance to be a werewolf, what would you love most about it?

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male.”

www.terryspear.com

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Sourcebooks has graciously allowed me the opportunity to give away two copies of Seduced by the Wolf by Terry Spear!

The rules are simple:

1.) There will be two winners, U.S & Canadian entries only. These will be sent out directly from the publisher.

2.) You must be follower of this blog.

3.) You must leave a comment on this post with an e-mail address where I can contact you.

4.) Deadline for this giveaway is: Midnight EST, Tuesday September 7th.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

+ 5 for following me on Twitter @justpeachy36

+5 for being an old follower

+3 for being a new follower

+5 for entering any of the other giveaways on my sidebar

+5 adding the giveaway to your sidebar

+25 for getting the word out about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites (remember to leave your links)

It is really important to get the word out about the giveaway! It allows new followers to find out blog which increases the traffic and allows us to have more giveaways, Soooooo let's get the info out there!