The Popular Werecat Series Now Available as a Special Edition Paperback!
Previously available as e-novelettes, paranormal fans can now pick up the first three installments of Andrew J. Peters’ Werecat series in one book! Included are: The Rearing (Book 1), The Glaring (Book 2) and The Fugitive (Book 3).
Here’s the back cover blurb:
“Twenty-two-year-old Jacks is on a mission to drown his past in alcohol when he meets a handsome drifter named Benoit on a lost weekend in Montréal. It’s lust and possibly something more. Jacks never suspects that a drunken hook-up will plunge him into the hidden, violent world of feline shifters.”
Praise for the Werecat series:
“Steamy enough to satisfy romance-genre die-hards. An innovative take on the shape-shifter genre; this first offering in a gay fantasy series should garner a large following.” — Kirkus Reviews
“If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to live and love as a big cat, this is the book for you.” — Wilde Oats Journal
“If you love action packed stories, more than a spot of violence, and a thread of a love story too, then you should definitely try this book.” —Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews
Paperback available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your favorite indie retailer, or dip your paws in the series with one of the e-books.
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Author Interview
What’s been happening since you last stopped by to talk about Book 1 in the Werecat series?
It’s been an exciting time. 2013 was a break-out year for me after a long haul working on a number of stories and shopping them around. The Rearing came out in May of that year, and my first novel-length book The Seventh Pleiade débuted in November. I can’t say that I skyrocketed to celebrity, but I had a lot of fun with book release events and hopping around the blogosphere.
I continued the Werecat series with two more installments, and I’m currently working on the fourth and final book. Just this past year, I finished two other projects. Banished Sons of Poseidon is the follow-up young adult adventure to The Seventh Pleiade and will be coming out in October 2015 through Bold Strokes Books. In early 2016, I have another book Poseidon and Cleito coming out in a similar mythological vein, published by Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy. That book imagines the early days of the Atlantis legend.
What sort of people read your books?
I guess the common denominator is readers who like LGBTQIA fiction. Though my upcoming book Poseidon and Cleito features two hetero characters so it will be interesting to see how people respond to that. I get a lot of M/M romance readers shelving Werecat at Goodreads, and it’s been great meeting people of all ages through my young adult series. People pick up the books because they like fantasy and sometimes because they have a particular interest in Greek mythology, which is a big inspiration of mine.
Jacks, the main character in Werecat, is a self-described “Euro-American mutt” who discovers his Native ancestry, which was hidden from him. How did you go about realizing Jacks and the spiritual traditions that are behind Werecat’s mythology?
The Euro-American mutt part was easy since that’s close to home. But I definitely felt a sense of responsibility in portraying the Native aspects of his character. Jacks was raised outside of that culture so he is in a sense discovering it himself as the story progresses.
While I was working as a social worker for LGBTQIA youth, I had the privilege of having colleagues from Native communities. We collaborated to educate schools and service providers about LGBTQIA concerns and Native concerns specifically. I learned a lot from working with a great organization called the Northeast Two-Spirit Society.
Werecat took a lot of research because the premise is that shifter magic was borne from indigenous practices related to people possessing dual souls, in this case man and cat of course. That was fascinating for me to study. It took me from Amerindian spirituality to African and Indian and Asian traditions.
I mention in my Acknowledgements in The Trilogy that I don’t purport to be an authority on indigenous cultures, and my intention was to honor those traditions, not to sensationalize or exploit them. It is a fantasy world that I created, and I wanted to take a nuanced approach to the werecat/werewolf trope. I thought about werecats being “good” and “bad” guys, and being both at the same time really.
What’s next for you?
I’ve been in a pretty productive phase so I’m happy to say that I have more books coming out in 2016 and beyond. I just signed a contract with Bold Strokes Books to publish the first book in what I’m calling an alternative history series. The book is titled The City of Seven Gods, and it’s an adventure-romance set in a fantasy world that takes a lot of inspiration from Near Eastern civilizations of the ancient world.
Otherwise, I expect to have a follow up to Poseidon and Cleito coming out, and I’ll be working on a contemporary romance, believe it or not.
About the Author:
Andrew J. Peters is the author of the Werecat series and two books for young adults: The Seventh Pleiade and Banished Sons of Poseidon. He grew up in Amherst, New York, studied psychology at Cornell University, and has spent most of his career as an advocate and a social worker for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. A lifelong writer, Andrew has written for The Good Men Project, GayYA, Dear Teen Me, La Bloga and Layers of Thought among other media. He lives in New York City with his husband and their cat Chloë. For more about Andrew, visit: http://andrewjpeterswrites.com or find him on social media.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrewjpeterswrites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ayjayp
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/AndrewJPeters
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