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Wren Michaels Interview – Building a New Paranormal Romance Series

March 31, 2022

Your book, THUNDERSTRUCK, is the first book in your new “Thunderbird Brotherhood” series. Do you know how many books you plan on writing for the series?  

At this point, there’s going to be four more books for the Thunderbirds, but I’m hoping to do spinoff books for some of the wolves I’ll be introducing in future books, as well as some of the witches which get introduced in book two.

 

Or are you just planning to see how it goes?

Well, that’s always a possibility. In my case, what I plot out and what actually transpires are usually very different. It’s like fighting with an alternate personality, only it’s the characters in your head demanding things of you. So who knows. LOL

 

Will each book feature a different couple?

At this point, yes. But I could see maybe writing another one with Reseda and Kane, which you’ll understand why after reading book two.

 

How would you describe the dynamic between Reseda and Kane?

They’re very push and pull. They feed off each other, taking and giving without even knowing it. They have a lot of banter which was so much fun to write because of who they are. The story of Thunderstruck is about a girl who’s dead, inside and out. I really wanted to do a different type of supernatural entity. I love vampires, fae, witches, angels, demons etc., but wanted to explore something new, something different. So I made Reseda a unique undead, a Universal Soldier meets Buffy kind of thing. And I liked that she was completely dead, from feelings to life itself, so what kind of character would she be then? Harsh, crass, kind of very straight to the point and blunt, with a hint of her struggling with humanity just out of reach for her and explore how would that influence her as a soldier and critical thinker. Then I tossed Kane in, who was all those things, but had a soul, was alive, but dead in a different way, more mentally from a mistake in his past. And how the two put together would push and pull and bring the other back to life, physically and mentally.

 

Do you try and keep an even balance between the romance and the action and adventure in THUNDERSTRUCK?

Yes, while I love romance, I also want there to be more than just the romance in a book. The action and story drive the romance, develop, and influence it as much as their romance influences the plot.

 

What made you decide to write about wolf shifters?  What inspired you?

I wanted to do a different kind of shifter story, so it’s mainly about Thunderbird shifters mixed into the familiar world of wolves already. What would happen if they were at war, why did that war start etc.? I’m of Native decent, so I really wanted to work on a story that was part of my own culture. While the tribe I use in Thunderbird Brotherhood isn’t my own, I did a lot of research into it and wanted to bring to light more than the commonly known tribes of North America.

 

I know authors are usually in love with whatever they’re currently working on, but if you could only recommend one of your books to a reader completely unfamiliar with your work – which book would you recommend? And why?

That’s a tough one, because they’re all my book babies, but I truly love Thunderstruck. The dynamic between Kane and Reseda has been one of my favorites to write because of their banter. I like to think, as an author, each book we release is a better version of our skills, what we’ve learned and incorporated, character development and arcs. So I hope that comes through with this one. They’re a fire and ice couple and I love them.

 

Some authors I’ve interviewed have told me that the kind of things they enjoy reading are not the same types of things they enjoy writing. Is that true for you? What do you like to read? Favorite books? Favorite authors?

I write and read in my favorite genres of PNR/UF. That’s my wheelhouse and what I love to read. My favorite authors are Jennifer Armentrout, Karen Marie Moning, Darynda Jones, Shannon Mayer, Elizabeth Hunter, Stacey Marie Brown, Lisa Edmonds. I could go on and on and on. But really, it was Karen Marie Moning’s Fever Series that made me go, THAT, THAT is what I want to write but put my spin on it.

 

What are you currently working on?

Finishing up book two in Thunderbird Brotherhood, which is Tag’s story. Get ready, it’s going to be a wild ride because there just may be witches popping up.

THUNDERSTRUCK by Wren Michaels

Thunderbird Brotherhood # 1

Thunderstruck

 

Though she functions as a human, inside she’s an emotionless weapon, trapped between the living and the undead. Cold and unrelenting, she’s used as a super-soldier by the government in a special task force to hunt preternatural beings to the brink of extinction.

One night, five years ago, Kane killed an innocent and his brother lost the love of his life. The aftermath forces Kane to become the alpha of the legendary Thunderbirds. He now must protect what’s left of his family from the tribe of wolf shifters who ripped them apart.

When Reseda’s mother is bitten by a wolf, she and Kane are forced to work together to find the Mayan Pul Yah stone to heal her—the same stone that gifted Reseda to the life she now lives. But the journey is riddled with more than the wolves, also searching for the stone.

Something strange happens to their powers when they’re together, and they struggle to fight the intense attraction between them. The deeper they go, the more secrets unravel, until love is the only thing that can defeat an enemy no one saw coming.

 

Fantasy | Romance [City Owl Press, On Sale: March 8, 2022, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781648981647 / ]

Buy THUNDERSTRUCKAmazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Love’s Sweet Arrow | Walmart.com | Book Depository | Target.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR

About Wren Michaels

Wren Michaels

Wren Michaels hails from the frozen tundra of Wisconsin where beer and cheese are their own food groups. But a cowboy swept her off her feet, and carried her away below the Mason-Dixon line where she promptly lost all tolerance for snow and cold. They decided they’d make beautiful babies together and they got it right on the first try. Now Wren lives happily ever after in the real world and in the worlds of her making, where she creates book boyfriends for the masses to crave.

 

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