Linda O. Johnston introduces her undercover U.S. military force of shapeshifters, the Alpha Force, with not one but two new books this month! She’s here today to tell us about about the extraordinary men and women who make up her new miniseries, starting with Alpha Wolf from Silhouette Nocturne and Claws of the Lynx from Nocturne Bites.
by Linda O. Johnston, author of Alpha Wolf and Claws of the Lynx
I am delighted that two stories involving my new paranormal military unit, Alpha Force, will be available in January! One is a Silhouette Nocturne, ALPHA WOLF, and the other is a Nocturne Bite, CLAWS OF THE LYNX.
What is Alpha Force? It’s a very special operations group: a powerful undercover U.S. military force of shapeshifters. Of course it is highly classified. It is a relatively new unit when ALPHA WOLF begins, and will be given very special assignments, when ordinary military skills are not enough.
Members of Alpha Force, especially Major Drew Connell, the hero of ALPHA WOLF, have developed a special elixir to help the shapeshifters morph at will, and to enhance their human cognitive abili
ties while they are in shifted form. Of course, all the shapeshifters change during the full moon anyway, since nothing has yet been developed to modify their natural act.
The commanding officer of Alpha Force is General Greg Yarrow. He is headquartered at the Pentagon but also has an office at Ft. Lukman, where Alpha Force is stationed. Ft. Lukman, in a secluded area on Maryland’s eastern shore, was named for retired General Maxwell Lukman, a highly vocal advocate of the idea of using any
and all resources to reach a goal–even the extraordinary and incredible. The area of Ft. Lukman was originally chosen for Alpha Force because several families of shapeshifters live in the vicinity but have kept their presence low-key–until recently.
Most shapeshifters on Alpha Force are werewolves, but some members shift into other kinds of animals as well, such as Lt. Nella Reyes in CLAWS OF THE LYNX who shifts into–you guessed it!–a lynx.
But not all members of Alpha Force are shapeshifters. Each member of the unit who shifts is also assigned a non-shifter as an aide and backup. In addition, each shapeshifting unit member has a companion who is actually an animal of the species he or she changes into, as an additional means of keeping the real nature of the unit and its members’ abilities secret. If the shapeshifter is spotted at an inappropriate time, or by someone who shouldn’t see him or her, the situation can be minimized by saying it was the genuine animal companion who was seen.
I am excited to say that there is at least one more Alpha Force story to come. Watch for it later this year, or in early 2010. It features Lt. Patrick Worley, who is introduced in ALPHA WOLF. He goes undercover to Alaska and works on a dog sled ranch while investigating some vital issues with glaciers, while attempting not to fall hard for a nosy yet sexy nature magazine writer.
Please visit me at my website: www.LindaOJohnston.com You will see that my writing about shapeshifters is just another aspect of my own compulsion: I love animals of all kinds!
And what do you think: what are the best kinds of assignments a super secret military unit of shapeshifters can be given?
Yeah, I’m upset. I went to walmart all this past weekend, and today..and their sold out plus don’t know when their getting it in again.
Oh I want to read both books……they look fantastic
That’s a pain Lou! Do you order books online? Alpha Force is still available at eHarlequin.com and Amazon, plus as ebook of course.