Paranormal romance author Doranna Durgin never expected to have a conversation with her agent about what animals are sexier than others, but that’s exactly what happened when planning her shapeshifter miniseries Sentinels for Silhouette Nocturne and Nocturne Bites! Read on to find out what creatures made the grade for her new books Jaguar Night and Wild Thing…
by Doranna Durgin, author of Jaguar NightWild Thing (Silhouette Nocturne, May 2009) and (Silhouette Nocturne Bites, May 2009)
It was the conversation I never thought I’d hear myself having.
“No, no,” my agent and I agreed, “it needs to be a really sexy animal.”
And then we had one of those moments, where if we’d been face-to-face instead of on the phone, we would have just looked at one another. Uh-huh. We just said what?
I’ve already blogged here about my love for writing shapeshifters and how it speaks to me personally; this was my chance to pitch a whole shapeshifter series. First thing? Choosing shapeshifter forms. But as much as I love wolves–oh, yes, right from the start–wolves have been done. And while it won’t keep me from writing wolves (I’m doing it right now with WOLF HUNT, the third in the Sentinel series), I wanted to start with something that hadn’t been quite as…pre-explored.
My initial decisions about the Sentinels came pretty easily. For one thing, I wanted to play with different species, so that directed the mythology. Then the Atrum Core bad guys sprang up with vigor. Giving the groups an ancient, common origin point–a mixed family with mixed politics and mixed lifestyles and mixed emotions–provided much glee for my twisted little author brain. The rest grew from there, playing the factions off one another, making the pieces fit…exploring things I wanted to play with.
But wow. Which forms to give my first shapeshifters? Something with power and presence and an indefinable essence above and beyond. Just size and strength…it’s not quite enough.
Start plugging in animals and you’ll see what I mean. Bear, for instance. I’ve got a character who takes the bear, and he’s quite the impressive fellow–but I don’t use him as a primary hero. Too unwieldy, too…er…hairy. He’s support crew, spanning books.
Same thing with my character who’s a boar. Shoot, you really don’t want to mess with one of those things. Strong, capable, fearless, and they’ll rip you to shreds. But nope…not sexy. Not even a completely sympathetic character.
Go another direction. Strength, dignity, size, presence…elk! Sure! Majestic elk, charging to the rescue! And you know what they say about the size of a guy’s, er…rack. But if you ponder the actual logistics of said elk in, say…an indoor action scene? Suddenly things don’t mesh so well. Plus…well, we eat elk. So that doesn’t seem quite right, either.
Even limiting it to predators isn’t enough. Aside from the aforementioned bear…did you know? Skunks are predators–bunnies and baby birdies and li
zards, yum! And I think ferrets are way cool–totally mighty hunters–but somehow that image just doesn’t work for me.
Let us all pause for a solemn moment to imagine the cover design for FERRET LOVE.
So, okay…I was naive. You want a sexy animal? Go back to the beginning, where many have been before. Think big cat. Think wolf or wolf-family. Those are the big guns. But you know…there are some pretty cool big cats in this world. They aren’t interchangeable, either…they have their own needs, their own quirks, their own tendencies. Ditto the canines of the various continents (although I’m not sure I’ll mess with our friend the aardwolf). So far, I’m not running out of fun stuff to play with…and I’m not worried yet.
All the same…I’m leaving my options open. And I have some ideas…. How about you?
I’m too sexy for my fangs, too sexy for my fangs…
