JAYNE PRESENTS: KATE DOUGLAS and CHANKU

Jayne, here, to introduce guest blogger KATE DOUGLAS. The latest in her sensational Wolf Tales series is out this month. If you like paranormal erotica, Kate is your author. No one, but no one, does it better.

By the way, to celebrate the release of her new book Kate will be giving away five books — or a cute stuffed wolf, your choice — to five lucky folks who post comments to this blog. Winners will be announced here late Tuesday afternoon. They will get to choose from Sexy Beast III, IV or V or Wolf Tales V, VI, or VII. Or the stuffed wolf!

And now, please welcome Kate Douglas:

The thirteenth book in my Wolf Tales series—counting the novellas—is coming out this month. I'm currently writing number seventeen, and it's hit me that when this series finally comes to a close—when it finally does—and I have to put my beloved Chanku away, I will probably need therapy....

To begin at the beginning, Wolf Tales started as an online serial for a small publisher called Changeling Press. Kensington Publishing picked up the series to launch their new erotic imprint, Aphrodisia, and suddenly I had to come up with stories to fill books, not short little vignettes for readers to download every six weeks.

So far, my characters have been wonderfully accommodating—all thirty of them, at this point, each with his or her own voice, set of issues, individual needs and desires... Why is it I can juggle connecting plot lines from one book to another and keep my entire pack of sexy shapeshifters straight in my head, but I can't remember why I walked into a room? Scary stuff, but the Chanku, named after an actual species of Tibetan wolf, appear to be much more organized than I am. They definitely lead more interesting lives, which is probably why I prefer my fantasy world to the real one most of the time. The scary thing is, my fantasy world often IS more real to me than, well...this one.

My current book, Wolf Tales VII, a Romantic Times Magazine Top Pick, brings all the Chanku together at uber-alpha Anton Cheval's mountain home where they try to discover who is targeting the females and young among them.

I wanted to post an excerpt (Jayne said keep it clean—not easy! I do write erotic romances, after all...) that would give you an idea how my Chanku think. Manda is one of my favorites—a complex character caught as a young woman in "mid-shift." She was kept in a cage for twenty-five years, a freakish combination of human and wolf, believing all that time she was cursed by God. Allen was one of her keepers, a cruel technician who took great delight in torturing and tormenting her. In this scene, Manda is finally a whole woman, fully aware she was not cursed and not a freak of nature. Allen has tried to recapture her, but as a Chanku shapeshifter and a self-confident alpha bitch, the young woman who was once a freak has shifted to her wolf form and turned the tables on her tormentor:

This time, she aimed for his throat.

She didn't miss. He went down without a sound. She ripped into the soft flesh beneath his jaw and then backed away from the spurting blood. His eyes were open, his mouth gasping like a fish out of water.

Manda shifted. Standing tall and proud, naked and perfect, she stared down at the dying man and felt nothing but disgust. "Sorry, Allen. I bet that hurts. Remember me? The little freak you loved to torture?"

He blinked and stared at her, dying but still aware.

"That's right. I'm Manda. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Not a helpless, deformed little creature now, am I?" She squatted down and looked directly into his eyes. "I want to be the last thing you see before you reach hell, Allen."

He blinked and Manda rose to her full height. She waited and watched while he bled out, until his chest no longer heaved in search of breath, until the shimmer in his dead eyes turned dull.

It took much longer than she'd expected.

It took hardly any time at all.

Hard to believe Manda's really a sweet young woman, but she definitely had issues with Allen. I have full first chapter excerpts of all my Wolf Tales (including the Sexy Beast novellas, which are also part of the series) posted at www.katedouglas.com/eroticromance if you'd like to take a look, but I am curious about something. If you read erotic romance, what's your favorite genre? Do you prefer contemporary, historical or paranormal? Personally, I find it easier to accept the really sexy stories when the entire world is fantasy, but I'd love to hear your take on this.

Sincerely,
Kate Douglas