I’ve been writing shifter romance since
2016—a little earlier if you count some terrible books which shall never see
the light of day. However, I started reading shifter romance much earlier than
that, probably in the early 2000s.
Early into my reading, I found that I loved
the different paranormal “worlds” almost as much as the characters themselves.
They each had their own set of rules, and I was eager to figure them out with
each new series I picked up.
My Fierce Mates universe has a few rules
that I wanted to follow from the start.
- I wanted my shifters to be apex predators
- clothes don’t shift with my shifters
- there is no shifter virus—you’re either born a shifter or you don’t shift
- shifters can sense lies and other emotions along with having heightened senses
- the “mundane” world is unaware of shifters and supernatural beings in general.
None of these rules is original in and of
itself—I’m not treading new ground or anything like that.
Why have the rules to begin with? Isn’t it
limiting? What if I want a hamster shifter? What if a story is just begging for
a hapless heroine to be bitten by a wolf so she can become one, herself? Some
might think that having the rules in place, and continuing them through several
series, would be limiting. For me, however, it has been freeing. When I know
the boundaries, I can play through them, stretching my universe where allowed.
At times, I can subvert those rules. Shifters can sense lies…but what happens
if they meet someone who can successfully lie to them? I tried that in my book Ruthless
Misfit and I loved how it turned out. The hero, also a shifter, had been
forced to hone dishonesty by a terrible childhood.
When I first started writing shifter
romance, in my Sierra Pride series, the only paranormal beings present were
shifters. But I never specifically said that vampires didn’t exist, so when I
wanted to expand the universe in the Corona Pride series, I was able to do
that. Recently, witches were added to the mix, and beings with different
abilities, too.
Why not have these other supernatural
characters from the start? To be honest, when I started in 2016, I didn’t know
how far I was going to take my Fierce Mates world. I’d never published a book
on my own, and if this whole independent author thing didn’t work out, I was
fully prepared to walk away. But the Fierce Mates books started gathering a
small, devoted audience. I needed to write more books. But I wasn’t going to be
happy repeating the same stories over and over again, so I made the world
bigger by introducing new groups and new supernatural creatures. Some shifters
got new abilities—Matt in Ruthless Misfit can tell lies. Doug in Savage
Penance can complete his shift from human to animal in half a second. Bryce
in Ruthless Outlaw can walk through dreams.
This process has shown me the beauty of
creativity, especially within the playground of the paranormal. As I develop a
new series, Junkyard Shifters, I’m once again starting with the
basics—shifters. And as the world expands, so do the possibilities.
Liza likes her heroes packing muscles and
her heroines packing agency. She got her start in romance by sneak-reading her
grandma's paperbacks. Now she’s a USA Today bestselling author and she spends
her time writing about hot shifters with fierce hearts. You can find her
upcoming release, Filthy Beast, by visiting https://books2read.com/filthy-beast.
Join Liza's mailing list and
get Fierce Heartbreaker for free, as well as an exclusive Sierra Pride prequel
story and more fun bonuses! Check out Liza's Free Book page to get started:
https://lizastreetauthor.com/free-book.
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