Guest Post--Giving the Term Alpha Male New Meaning Where Fantasy IS Reality by Terry Spear

Please join me in welcoming author Terry Spear to The Speculative Salon.  CONTEST--Check the end of the post for a way to win a copy of her new book, A Seal in Wolf's Clothing.

At The Speculative Salon we’re supposed to present a guest blog on a fantasy genre, but what if the world we think of as fantasy is real?

How many fantastical creatures have you read about that have been put on trial for being let’s say a griffon? Or a dragon? A vampire? Or a centaur?

None, right? At least none that I’ve read about. No unicorn trials or trials about trolls. None about mermaids, or elves, or leprechauns either. Not even about ogres or elementals or gnomes.

How can anyone try someone in a court who is suspected of being a mythical creature if everyone truly KNOWS they don’t exist?

We’re all in agreement, correct?

Oh, sure if legends exist all across the world in different countries, different languages about the same kind of creatures, then it makes a body wonder if there is not some small truth to the equation. But in none of the cases above has anyone involved a high court in deciding if someone is a mythical/fantastical creature.

Except when it comes to werewolves.

But if they don’t exist, if they’re only fantasy, why try someone for being a mythical creature when the person must only be mad?

Ah, yes, so though I’m supposed to talk about a fantasy genre, the high courts in England and France actually tried people who were said to be werewolves, which means werewolves have to exist. Correct?

I took elementary logic in college, so I’m sure my logic is way off. In psychology, I did great. But deductive reasoning, forget it.

Still, it does give one pause, doesn’t it?

If all these learned nobles could try a man for being a werewolf, werewolves had to be real. It only seems reasonable to assume such.

What if a man burned a couple of his neighbors’ crofts for revenge? And what if they accused him of being a dragon? Would a trial have been conducted for such a charge? Heavens no. He would have been tried as an arsonist bent on revenge. Any nobleman setting up a trial of a dragon would have been thought mad!

I work in a library and one day one of our volunteers asked where my werewolf books would be shelved, fiction or nonfiction?

See, even today, some are not sure.

I even had a werewolf comment on one of my blogs once. He told my fans if they wished to hear from a real werewolf to check out his blog.

Yep. Really.

Even my editor said once that I needed to stick with writing realistic stories, as opposed to vampires, then she smiled and said something to the effect, “Well, I know werewolves aren’t real.”

But see?

Of course, what she meant was that I make my werewolves as real as I can. When they’re in wolf form, they’re wolves, not overgrown scary dogs, or big beastly monsters, but wolves. Yet they have the human knowledge that makes them more human than all wolf, and in their human form, they still have their wolf senses and wolf loyalty and protectiveness of pack.

Which makes them feel…real. The problem with real werewolves is that someday one might find himself in a court of law on trial.

And we can’t have that. Werewolves must remain fantasy.

The medieval courts were wrong. The men they tried were not real werewolves but madmen or tortured to confess to the sins of being a werewolf. They don’t exist. They’re strictly fantasy. Fiction. On the fiction shelf.

But some of us know better.

Thanks so much for having me here today at The Speculative Salon, Marsha!

What do you think, werewolves fantasy or not?

Sourcebooks is generously giving away 2 copies of A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing, US or Canada addresses only. I bet you didn’t know that wolves could be SEALs too. :)

Thanks again!

Terry Spear

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality.”

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Spear has written over a dozen paranormal romance novels and two medieval Highland historical romances. An award-winning author, Terry’s Heart of the Wolf  was named a Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year in 2008. A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry Spear is a librarian by day and spends every spare moment writing paranormal romance as well as historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Spear lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on new paranormal romances! For more information, please visit http://www.terryspear.com/.

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