Shameless Self Promotion by Karilyn Bentley

Thank you for joining me for a session of shameless self promotion. Wolf Mates, my werewolf novella, is out now and the Princesses have happily allowed me on today to blog about it.

So, how did I come up with the idea for Wolf Mates, and what’s it about anyway?

The story starts back in 2008 when I won the Got Wolf? contest on The Wild Rose Press. My short story, "Werewolves in London," was published in an anthology. In the story, a female alpha played a small, but significant, role. Margie, the heroine in Wolf Mates, was born. But what was she like?

Over Christmas 2008, I had the opportunity to meet my editor for coffee at Starbucks. We got to talking about books (naturally, right?) and she mentioned in passing something about a vegetarian werewolf, which stuck in my mind as humorous. And there it sat for a couple of years, almost forgotten. When I decided to write Margie’s story, I remembered the conversation and thought it would be interesting to make Margie a vegetarian werewolf.

Then I needed the rest of the story.

So in typical Karilyn fashion, I started writing the opening scene and hoped the rest of the story would appear. Luckily, my book recipe worked: Take one vegetarian werewolf, mix in an alpha male unable to act as an alpha, throw in a dash of evil, dictator pack leader (not our heroine! Don’t worry!), let the story stew over a summer and the end result is Wolf Mates.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Hey, in there. I’m going to open the door. Don’t even think about taking me down.” As if he could. If she knew he was her mate, she assumed he could sense that she was his. And a male would never hurt his mate. Although if he wanted to take her down and sex her senseless she wouldn’t oppose him.
Pull it together, Margie! How can you think of sex at a time like this?
She shook her head-who would have thought meeting her mate would cause sexual thoughts to overwhelm her common sense-and rapped on the door. “Do you hear me?”
“I do. Why am I locked in?”
She liked his voice. Maybe she could get him to speak more just to hear the melodious rumble as it crossed her skin. By the saints, what was she thinking? Hello, Margie, pull your head out of your hormones and channel your inner alpha.
After she pushed the code into the keypad, she turned the knob and pushed open the door. Spilled soup lay in twisting rivulets across the floor, flowing from the broken bowl. The tray lay behind the mess. Zane stood in front of the bed, arms crossed, completely naked with the exception of a silver torc around his neck. Oh yeah, she could get used to the eye candy. It was impressive.
Eye contact, Margie, eye contact.
Like meeting his eyes helped. Black brows and thick lashes framed amber eyes that gleamed with questions. Sleep-tussled black hair shot through with silver and tan hung in waves to his shoulders. Above a white bandage wrapped around his middle, tight curls dusted his chest and below the bandage the curls led in a trail from his navel to...
Eyes, Margie, eyes.

What is the oddest character trait you’ve written about in a heroine?

Wolf Mates is available from The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177_136&products_id=4656