I have no food today. Nor do I really have a title to push. I mean, I have lots of books so go buy one but I have nothing in particular today. What I do have is some tidbits. As y’all know, I write paranormal and urban fantasy. I have wolf shifters (Moonstruck universe) and all sorts of critters in the Penumbra world. Penumbra has a werewolf. They call themselves that. The Moonstruck Wolves get affronted if they are called werewolves. They are quick to snarl and get offended. “Shifters,” they growl. “We’re wolf shifters!” Yeah, yeah. They will also eat anything but that’s another story.

I’ve been reading and rereading (okay, technically listening) to several different authors, all with shifter characters. And each author has their own rules for their critters. For example, me. My Wolves are born human, only males can shift–that pesky gene on the Y chromosome, and not all males can shift. Some of them just carry the recessive gene and while they can pass it on, they can’t shift. Others try to shift, and fail. They don’t survive. This is why children are important to my Wolves. Silver doesn’t bother them, they can change any time they want, and they mate for life.

I’m currently listening to Suzanne Wright’s Olympus Pride series, which is a compantion series to her Phoenix Pack and Mercury Pack series. She has a huge cast of shifter characters of all sorts of breeds, including ravens, black mamba snakes, wolverines, Pallas Cats, mink, tigers, and wolves. Lots of wolves. Each of her main characters has a personality quirk. One believes in “portents.” Another throws cheesy lines at every female within his vicinity (untill he gets mated). One doesn’t understand “proverbs.” Not the biblical kind but the “Slow and steady wins the race” kind. Another sucks on lollipops and spouts weird factoids. I’ve wondered how much sleep the author has lost trying to come up with something cute, funny, and quirky for each character. I mean, with three series, she has a TON of them. She’s also very good when it comes to imbuing her characters with their animal traits.

Another prolific author is Nalini Singh. Her shifters are born and part of a triumvarite of changlings, psy, and humans. Her shifters change in the blink of an eye and a sparkle of light. There’s some sort of magic involved but no one really knows how it works. Her “quirk” is that if two shifters of different species mate, their offspring will be the animal of the most dominate at the time of conception. In one case, it was triplets and there were two wolves and one leopard. Both parents were dominants, so the boys took after dad and the daughter after mom. Seems fair, right? I’ll digress a moment and point out that “mixed matings” occure in Wright’s books as well. In some cases, siblings belong to different species but I don’t remember there being a “dominance” factor.

In other authors’ books, there are other quirks. In Dannika Dark’s series with shifters, they always have a food craving after they shift. A smart mate/potential mate discoveres what that craving is and has it readily available post shift. This is worth all kinds of relationship points. The cravings are often…weird. One wants vanilla pudding. Another wants peanut butter. One want sardines (I think–it’s been a while) yet hates the little fishies at any other time.

See? I did manage to work food into this meandering monolog. I enjoy these little quirks and differences in the worldbuilding. It keeps things fresh and different. I also like the humor these quirks often bring about. All totally intentional on the authors’ parts because we’re talented that way. So, now that I’ve rambled along, here’s my quesiton(s). If you were a shifter, what animal would you be? And what food would you crave and what “personality” trait would you have? Pick your “adventure” ell me what it would be. I’ll go first. I’d probabl be a wolf but a horse would be a close second. My craving would be cappucino chocolate chunk ice cream and my trait would be double entendres and/or euphemisms. With a side of sarcasm. Just sayin’… Who’s next? 😉