Guest Blog and Giveaway with Kathy Kulig

The Nature of the Shapeshifter Beast
by Kathy Kulig

Shapeshifters, vampires, ghosts, demons and angels are making their appearance in paranormal romance. I’ve written about them all (except angels) and readers can’t seem to get enough. I know I don’t get tired of reading them or writing them. As long as writers continue to come up with amazing new worlds, discover new twists into the dark realms, create compelling characters and soul wrenching situations, we’ll be sucked in again and again. Yay!

Shapeshifters can be found in mythology and cultures all around the world. Some of these creatures are harmless, many are potentially malevolent. Here are a few I found interesting. There’s a Leszi, also seen it spelled Leshy. This is a Slavic woodland creature covered in dark hair made out of vines and grass. They can shift into any form—man, bear, wolf, or other forest animal. They’re mischievous and have been known to kidnap women. Japanese Yama-Uba is a hideous old hag that can shift into a beautiful woman to lure her victims. Then she shifts into a mass of snakes and eats her quarry. Sounds like someone’s nightmare. Need a folktale with a little more romance? The Selkie, an Icelandic, Irish and Scottish myth, transform from seal to human. Sadly, they can only have brief contact with humans—a good set up for a romantic tragedy—and then they must return to the sea. Male selkies have great seductive powers over women.

And a couple Norse dragon myths: Lindworm is a serpent-like dragon that stalks the countryside devouring cattle or feasting upon the dead in cemeteries. Nidhogg is a dragon that gnaws at the roots of Yggdrasill, the world tree.

A lot of this information I found in a reference book called “The Cryptopedia, A Dictionary of the Weird, Strange & Downright Bizarre” by Jonathan Maberry & David F. Kramer. This is a great source for stirring up paranormal story ideas.

I’m so impressed by the creativity of paranormal authors who can take an old myth and create a story with a new twist or make up an entirely new one.

Many of my stories have a variety of shapeshifters—a man with a 300 year old Celtic curse shapeshifts into a stage but he can be a man only beneath the moonlight. I’ve used a twist on an ancient Norwegian myth where a person can don the skin of any animal and become that animal by willing it so. In this particular mythology, I’ve had a shapeshifting mountain lion, wolf, bear and leopard. My demons also have the power to shapeshift, an ability mostly used as a disguise to hide their presence on earth. My demons have been a coyote, falcon, wildcat and one has the ability to appear as any other human. Imagine the trouble he can get into.

When I wrote DRAGON WITCH, I wanted to write something different. A friend at work does origami. She travels all over the world to origami conventions. She made me an origami dragon. Funny because I never told her I liked dragons. I have him on my desk at work. Of course, I looked at him and thought dragon shifter! This creature when in human form has a voracious sexual appetite. I set the story on another world, because It has always been my dream to write a SciFi-like story. Then I added another love interest, an interstellar transport Captain—a hunky guy that the biologist/witch heroine had a steamy affair with and she can’t for the life of her forget. Toss them all on this planet in a desperate situation where lives are at stake, and that’s the set up for DRAGON WITCH. I hope you’ll enjoy it, because I had a blast writing it.

BLURB:

Biologist and witch, Jaida Chel combines nature magick with herbal science to protect Kai, the last shapeshifting dragon on her world of Somerled. But when Captain Brayden Stokes reenters her life not only is Kai’s life at stake, but so is Jaida’s secured position in the colony. Brayden and Jaida can’t resist the sexual heat between them, even though she knows a relationship would be doomed. Fleet pilots don’t stay planetside for long.

Jaida is torn between Brayden and her dragon and companion, Kai. When Kai morphs into a human twice a year, his sex drive is ravenous. He must mate for twenty-four hours or die. Unrestrained passion between Kai and Jaida temps Brayden into a forbidden encounter. With Jaida’s sassy, wicked ways, the three cross boundaries, exploring eroticism beyond their imagination. When secrets and betrayals are revealed, Brayden must risk everything for one last chance at love.

BUY link http://www.jasminejade.com/p-8624-dragon-witch.aspx

FREE BOOK Giveaway

Select any ebook (except the new release Dragon Witch) from Kathy’s back list.

Wild Jade, Seducing the Stones, Desert of the Damned or Damned and Desired.

Leave a comment on this post with email address

One Winner will be Chosen

Winner will be announced next Wednesday (not tomorrow)