YAY!!!
Man, am I glad to announce that the last book I had on the schedule for this year is finished! It's going to ARe for a collection they're putting out in October. The theme is about Alphas. :) Hehe, something I just so happen to write a lot of! o.0
It's finished, so now it's winging it's way to my lovely beta readers to have fun with. I'm really ahead of schedule—this was a due until July. But I'm glad I've got it out of the way... I have numerous edits coming down the pike. The first one will be the edits for It Takes Two to Tango. I've been warned that's going to need some loving attention, and other words, some rewrites.
Because of that, I'm a little hesitant to start the next book in the Fur, Fangs, and Felines series. I'm not sure what's tripping DsP up, but I'd hate to get down ten or fifteen thousand words in and then find out I'd have to trash all that. The good thing is once I get the first round of edits, I'll have a good idea what's going on.
In the meantime I may start the second book in the merman serious (lol I don't actually have a series name yet, I'm just calling it that). It's going to be called Beneath the Waves. It too is going to be novella size.
Anyway, it could be several months before Paws and Claws is released, but I thought I'd share the inspirational pics/and notes for the characters.
Moon Valley Jamboree
Full
Name: Alpha Grady Williams.
Age: jaguars shifter. Looks 30ish.
Height: 6’0
Weight: 210/ muscular
Hair: jet black hair
Eyes: golden hazel / in cat form: have round pupils and irises that range in color from golden to reddish yellow. Grady’s are golden
Occupation: Alpha
Siblings: none
Father:
Randolph Moore. Died in rock slide ten years ago.
Mother:
Jennifer. Died during Grady’s birth
Stepmother:
Lynn
Notes:
Alpha’s tend to be aggressive, dominating, and
authoritative. Can come across as calculating. Good Alpha are excellent leaders
and do care for their pack. Alpha’s are black… all black (melanistic) coat have
spots that can still be seen.
Adult males can reach an overall length of more than
7 feet, and can weigh anywhere from 150 to 200 pounds. Alphas are larger with a
larger head, more compact body, and much more powerful paws.
Red Rock jamboree
Name: Omega Cade Decker
Age: jaguars
shifter. 26.
Height: 5’10
Weight: 180/ buff
Hair: honey/golden blond
Eyes: light blue
Occupation: Omega
Omegas *tend* to be submissive and has special abilities. Their cat is white/ grayish white with faint gray markings… an albino. Adult males can reach an overall length of more than 7 feet, and can weigh anywhere from 150 to 200 pounds. Omegas tend to be on the smaller end of that range.
Siblings: older brother who is the Alpha: Wayne Decker and his wife: Bonnie
~According to one indigenous myth, the jaguar acquired its spotted coat by daubing mud on its body with its paws.
~These beautiful and powerful beasts were prominent in ancient Native American cultures. In some traditions the Jaguar God of the Night was the formidable lord of the underworld. The name jaguar is derived from the Native American word yaguar, which means "he who kills with one leap."
The Jaguar is the third biggest Cat in the world behind the Tiger and the Lion and is well known for it's immense power and agility. In fact, the name Jaguar is said to come from the Native American word yaguar which means "he who kills with one leap".
BASIC FACTS ABOUT JAGUARS (the real ones lol)
Coloration/Body
The jaguar is the largest cat in the Americas. The jaguar has a compact body, a broad head, and powerful jaws. The eyes of jaguars have round pupils and irises that range in color from golden to reddish yellow. Its coat is normally yellow and tan, but the color can vary from reddish brown to black. The spots on the coat are more solid and black on the head and neck and become larger rosette-shaped patterns along the side and back of the body. "rosettes" -shaped like roses. Some jaguars are so dark they appear to be spotless, though their markings can be seen on closer inspection.
Diet
Jaguars are known to eat deer, peccary, crocodiles, snakes, monkeys, deer, sloths, tapirs, turtles, eggs, frogs, capybaras, fish, and anything else they can catch.
Range & Habitat
The mighty jaguar once roamed from Argentina in South America all the way up to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Today, jaguars have been almost completely eliminated from the United States and are endangered throughout their range, which stretches down to Patagonia in South America.
The jaguar's present range extends from Southwestern United States and Mexico in forests located near rivers and lakes. They are very similar in appearance to leopards, but generally larger. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Americas. The jaguar makes its home in a wide-variety of habitats including deciduous forests, rainforests, swamps, pampas grasslands, and mountain scrub areas.
As a top-level carnivore, the big cat helps prevent overgrazing of vegetation by keeping its prey populations in balance. Jaguars are also important in human culture, frequently playing a central role in stories, songs and prayers of indigenous people.
Behavior/Bite
Jaguars are solitary animals and live and hunt alone, except during mating season. The male's home range is between 19 and 53 square miles and often overlaps with the smaller home ranges of multiple females. A male aggressively protects his home range and resident females from other males. Jaguars live alone and define territories of many square miles by marking with their waste or clawing trees.
The jaguar hunts mostly on the ground, but it sometimes climbs a tree and pounces on its prey from above. It has very powerful jaws and sharp teeth and usually kills its prey with one crushing bite to the skull. The jaguar is largely opportunistic, stalk-and-ambush predator at the top of the food chain (an apex predator).
The jaguar has an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armored reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal bite to the brain.
It marks its territory with urine and tree scrapes, in the same fashion as the other great cats.
Water
Unlike most big cats, the jaguar loves the water — it often swims, bathes, plays, and even hunts for fish in streams and pools. In fact, they are quite good swimmers. Rivers provide prey in the form of fish, turtles, or caimans—small, alligator like animals. It is strongly associated with the presence of water and is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming.
Vocalization
Like all members of the big cat family, jaguars can roar. The jaguar’s roar sounds like a deep, chesty cough, mewing, hissing, spitting, and grunting.
Type:
Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Average life span in the wild: 12 to 15 years
Size: Head and body, 5 to 6 ft (1.5 to 1.8 m); tail, 27.5 to 36 in (70 to 91 cm)
Weight: 100 to 250 lbs (45 to 113 kg)
