Happy Friday! Let’s Get to know Sydney Addae!

TGIF! It’s Guest Author Time! Stuff Your Kindle DEC 26th FREEBIES

Happy Friday! Let’s Get to know Sydney Addae!

Happy Friday Roth Heads! Please give a warm welcome to Sydney Addae! She’s our special guest today, so make her feel at home! She’s got some interesting things to say about Human and Wolf family relations! Take a peek and stick around for a awesome special prize! Have a great weekend!

Tying Wolf and Human Families together in Romance

By: Sydney Addae

While researching data for my shape-shifters series, I became intrigued by the similarities between wolf packs and human families. I decided it would be really neat to expand the world of the hero and heroine and incorporate a family into the story line. In BirthRight, the first book of my Birth series, I start with a human woman who had married a wolf shifter and gave birth to half-breed sons without knowing anything about the wolf nation.

That premise alone is enough to set-off sparks. But when you take into account how humans deal with marriage, (mating) raising children, (pups in a pack) and then releasing them into adulthood, (leaving the pack) an interesting parallel can be made. At least I think so.

Wolf shifters are social animals who care for their young and travel in packs for survival. When pups are born, they are blind and deaf requiring constant care in the den from their mother. Other pack members bring food to her so that she can feed the pups and remain healthy. That scenario isn’t that different from a human mother, right? Well there is a huge difference in the gestation period – 63 days versus nine months. And the pups can run with the pack at six to eight months, rather than a few years, but the some similarities cannot be denied. And it’s all fiction, right? Right!

So, the merging of a human family with a wolf and creating a different breed created specific challenges for me. First off, the gestation period. How long would she be pregnant with her half-wolf babes, yes this is paranormal romance and anything’s possible. Next, are the pups born blind? Deaf? What wolf characteristics would I keep? How long would the babes remain babies and dependent on their mom? Choosing which facts to keep, modify or dismiss helped me keep the storyline fun and fast paced.

My Birth Series starts with a woman in her mid thirties. Jasmine already has a set of twins who are adults and she is ready to spread her wings and fly. Sounds familiar? Then she meets Silas, who is the top wolf in the wolf nation, sparks fly and she gets pregnant. As a widower to a military man who was always deployed she’s not excited about raising another child alone. But because of the pack mentality, Silas has no intention of his pups being raised without him or his pack. The mixing of the two, wolf and human mentalities clash, meld and move forward.

Wolves see things in black and white. If you’re hungry, eat. Tired, rest. Horny, have sex, which opens another box of challenges between the wolf and human family. Although humans see some things in black and white, a lot of how we process information falls into the gray areas. For instance, I can’t count the times I have been hungry and skipped a meal for a variety of reasons, all which made perfect sense to me at the time. Or sex. No matter how horny I may be, chances are slim I’d grab the nearest male and start… well you know. Navigating these choppy waters in a story adds flavor because we’ve all been there. Wanting something right then and postponing gratification.

In my Birth series, Jasmine made it clear to Silas that sex in front of her children was out of the question, which surprised him. In his culture it was permissible for the pups to see their parents loving one another or naked. There was no shame involved. Of course Silas agreed to Jasmine requests, and bent to her human needs whenever possible to make the relationship work. Since most of us don’t parade around naked in front of our family and friends, compromises must be made even in fiction.

Despite the challenges, I believe a male Alpha wolf makes a terrific lover, mate and father. In both the wild and the house, these males prioritize the safety of the pack, the den and make sure that those in their care have what they need to survive. Few women could find fault in a man who put her and her children first, right? Therein lies the foundation of an Alpha wolf and his family.

With each book in the Birth series, Jasmine exposes her wolf mate, Silas, to human traditions. Baptisms, family get-togethers, Easter and Christmas broaden his narrow scope of life. Silas teaches Jasmine to trust in love again, and to accept him the way he is. With two adult children and four more from Silas, Jasmine is a busy mom who juggles her nursery, and tries to stay a step ahead of those out to kill her.

As women, we’ve multi-tasked for years, so wearing more than one hat isn’t new… but learning about a new world you never knew existed, and seeing your children in a whole new light, that would make a strong woman, blink. And Jasmine does that quite often. Check out Jasmine and Silas, in La Patron, the Alphas Alpha.

~Sydney

P.S.-Take a moment and check out my series. Book one, BirthRight is a free read, if you enjoy it and want to more, check out the others.

BirthRight, 1st book is free: http://amzn.to/1t5g7wJ