Monday, January 30, 2023

Inside Scoop on the Main Character in Pirate Lover’s Curse by Sheri Queen


          Here’s the inside scoop on how I came up with my main character in the Sleepy Hollow Hunter series.

The origin of Janda Gray as a lykoi shifter came about when I participated in the Hotel Paranormal shared-world series. Each author had to pick a paranormal being as our main character and it had to be different from those chosen by the other authors. The choices went fast!

          The usual shifters, vampires, sirens, and ghosts were gone before I could type in my response. Yikes!

          I wanted something unusual but intriguing. Thus, the lykoi.

          Lykoi are real cats that have been dubbed werewolf cats due to their appearance. They really have that wolfy face! They also have a dog-like personality. The name Lykoi is derived from the Greek word lycos, which is loosely translated as wolf.

Once I found this breed, I knew I had my character. So, Janda is a lykoi who is part wolf and part were-cat. Her inner animal is a combination of the two. She is a hybrid shifter whose parents had a forbidden love. Her mother was a wolf-shifter and her father was a were-cat.

Janda has insecurities about being a hybrid and faced lots of taunting growing up from other members of her pack. She kept to the fringes of the pack. Yet, she always managed to find herself in some sort of trouble.

As with the real lykoi cat, Janda is loyal. Throughout the series, we see her slowly come into her own and develop a close circle of friends who are loyal to her as much as she is loyal to them.

I hope readers enjoy Janda and her friends as much as I do. Signing up for my newsletter (https://sheriqueen.com/subscribe) is the best way for anyone wishing to stay updated on the spin-off stories I have in the works.

Pirate Lover’s Curse is out now! https://books2read.com/pirateloverscurse

Happy Reading-

Sheri Queen

 

Pirate Lover’s Curse
Sleepy Hollow Hunter 
Book Three
Sheri Queen

Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance
Publisher:Wilda Press
Date of Publication: December 22, 2022
ASIN:B0BQX5Y4S5
Number of pages:274 print pages
Word Count: 76,321
Cover Artist: SQ Flemming

Tagline: Half wolf. Half were-cat. One-hundred-percent kick-ass Bounty Hunter.

Book Description: 

Lykoi shifter Janda Gray never expected to be cut off from her fated mate.

But when a centuries-old pirate curse stands in the way, Janda finds herself in a race to unearth a treasure that will break the curse and set Alex free.

As the past and present collide, she realizes the bounty hunter skills she's honed over the years aren't enough to defeat her nemesis—the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

Janda struggles with the burden of being the last descendent of the witch who cast the curse—and the only one capable of fixing past wrongs and saving those she loves.

Can she embrace her witch heritage and wield her power before it's too late?

Or, will she lose her mate to the Underworld forever and leave the supernatural community to the mercy of the Headless Horseman?

—————
This is a fated-mate shifter story suitable for 18+. The Sleepy Hollow Hunter series is perfect for urban fantasy fans who enjoy immersive stories of adventure and slow-burn romance. It features witches, ghosts, vampires, demons, and several enticing shifters, and a love story that transcends time. A hybrid shifter discovers her found family and hidden magic.



Excerpt:

“Why does anything pertaining to you have to come with extra baggage?” Uncle Damon said. His dominant pack power surged, affecting the others nearby and making them restless.

The air crackled with his energy. I held my ground. His words stung, but he’d never hear me say it. I’d had lots of practice over the years keeping my hurt from showing, but at this moment, I lashed out with a barb of my own.

“I’m just lucky that way. Kind of like you.” I tapped the desk with my fingertips, knowing he hated it and narrowed my eyes at him.

He sure as hell had his own baggage when it came to relationships and pack bonds, especially when it came to anything with my mother.

“If the two of you are done poking at one another, I’d like to move on to the pertinent issue of the cursed map,” Sebastian said. He stood a good foot away from his desk and peered down at the map as if it might explode.

Everyone had a hands-off approach to the map after I’d blurted out that it was cursed.

“It won’t curse you just by touching it,” I said. “At least, not from what Gwenn or I could tell. It has a hidden layer that will attack you if you try to force it out in the open.”

“That’s just great,” Mutther said. “I suppose you found out firsthand?”

“Not me. Gwenn did. I was the innocent bystander.”

“Right. How innocent?” Nick said. He moved to Mutther’s side and viewed the map from farther away. Neither of them was taking any chances.

Not that I blamed them. They had suffered from being too near me in the past. Mutther was still rebuilding his bar.
About the Author:

Sheri Queen writes immersive stories of adventure and romance.

Her urban fantasy and paranormal women's fiction stories feature snarky bad-ass women, strong female friendships, found family, and sexy romance.

Sheri received her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She grew up in the Hudson Valley region of New York—an area she loves to depict in her stories. She enjoys traveling to new places where she is constantly discovering inspirations for her writing. She especially loves visiting old graveyards.









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2 comments:

Bea LaRocca said...

Thank you for sharing your guest post, bio and book details, it was interesting to read about how you came up with the idea for your main character and I am looking forward to meeting Janda.

Sheri Queen said...

I'm so glad you liked it, @BeaLaRocca! It was fun to share more about Janda!