Lissa asked Gail Carriger:

Dear Miss Gail, you've said it takes a great deal of "muchness" to pull away from a hive and become a rove, but you've not said anything about becoming a loner. Does it still require the muchness? Or is it much less much-ey? If a werewolf pulls away from the pack, can they join another, even after being a loner for quite sometime? For that matter, can a rove join a new hive?

Gail Carriger (From the email I just sent you.) These are all good questions and I don't necessarily have the answers, frankly because I don't need them. I do have the intent to write about a loner at some point in time, but not right away.
> You've said of Roves that it takes a great deal of *ahem* muchness, to pull away from a hive and become a rove.
Yes, I think it's a matter of dominance. There are just some men who would never live in a house that was ruled by a woman. Or, roves are sort of solitary independence seeker personalities. Or just overly macho dingbats.
> You've never said of how to become a loner though, do you need the same muchness?
It's different. Wolves are, by nature, pack animals. So a loner, despite the name, would likely pull a pack around him even if it were not a pack of werewolves. (Although I suppose you could argue a Rove like Lord A does the same thing with his drones.) Sometimes wolves who are too much alpha dominant (but can't breed with Anubis form) are ill fitted to actual werewolf packs. But there are occasions where even full Alphas will opt out of pack, the Dewan for example. Although he tends to think of all of England as his pack. Some loners, howlers for example, perceive the whole race of werewolves as a large pack and drift from one to the next keeping record: forming and then breaking tethers with relative equanimity. It requires a certain type of personality: easy going, sociable, very relaxed.

My upcoming novellas are going to explore the further ramifications of what it means to be Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Loner, Howler and so forth as they progress. I intend a whole series called Claw & Courtship that just deals with pack dynamics.

> Can a loner join a new pack?

Yes. Or he can challenge and take over leadership if he dares. However, most wolves are loners with good reason.
> Can a rove?
No. Once a vampire as left a hive it is nearly impossible to join another. With the exception of swarm and death of a queen, of course.
> And, I must say I'm terribly curious, what's going to become of Soap and Sophronia?
You'll see hints of them in the up coming novellas as well, although I have no plans to write them in as main characters.

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