Werewolf Wednesday

Why Werewolves?

Happy Werewolf Wednesday, everyone! This week I’m going to talk about one of the questions I get most often about my work: Why werewolves? As a paranormal romance author, I could have written about any number of magical, otherworldly, creatures: sirens, ghosts, vampires, the list goes on and on. But I chose werewolves.

Why?

Reason #1: You Can’t Beat a Classic.

Vampires, Mummies, Werewolves, Zombies — some things are just classic. Werewolves seem to reside deep within humanities collective unconscious (more on why that might be in Reason #3) and it’s very appealing to include something so iconic in one’s work. There’s a lot of rich material to pull from when it comes to werewolves, a lot of tropes to play with, that make writing them super fun!

Reason #2: It’s a Male Dominated Trope.

This was a big draw for me and a big reason why I started writing Hungry is the Night. Most of the time when you see werewolves in media, the focus is on male werewolves. The Alpha Male, the leader of the pack, roaming groups of men, blah blah blah – boring, I thought. I wanted to see the werewolf tropes of dominance, submission, of pack life in general, through a more gender-balanced lens. Why should the guys get all the fun? Women want to run free under a full moon too!

Reason #3: Werewolf as Metaphor

As someone who has struggled with mental health for most of my life, I relate deeply to the metaphor of the werewolf — the idea that there is something dangerous inside you that could break out at any moment and hurt the people you love. We all have sides of ourselves that we might think are monstrous from time to time. I truly do believe that coming to terms with those less than appealing aspects of our personalities is key to living a balanced and fulfilled live. I find exploring what it’s like to live with and find peace with the burden of monstrosity extremely compelling.

What attracts you the concept of werewolves? Why do you like to consume media featuring them? Did you ever pretend you were a werewolf when you were a kid? (I did. No shame here!) Let’s get some dialogue going in the comment section below!