Thursday, June 4, 2009

Are we mated?

How does one Shapeshifter/Were-Animal know if the other is their true mate?

Is there an explosion in the sky-on the third Sunday of the month after the first meeting? Do bells ring? Lights flicker? Do you grow an unexpected appendage out of an unexpected body part?

LOL...Probably not.

But the idea of how my jaguars would know they'd met their mate troubled me when I started writing The Challenge. I've read so many cool that's my mate stories -- Kenyon's shifters develop a temporary brand on their palm, Feehan's Carpathians males can finally see in color(cool) and Ward's brothers put out an awesome scent.

~sigh~ Could I be that creative with my characters?

Turns out my idea was ~IMO~ creative in a "swim little guys" kinda way. It just took writing, editing, writing, editing and the honesty of a heck of a CP to clarify my thinking. I'm very glad I went with it.

So how about it, which authors do you think rock the "how do you know your a mate" question in their stories?

Have a great week-end!

6 comments:

Savanna Kougar said...

Hhmmm... I won't let the cat secret out of the bag... but I think I know how one jaguar knows his mate...

I adore the creativity authors use in general for Mates to discover each other. I'm not sure I have a fave. It really depends on how it plays out in the story itself. Anything works for me as long as it works in the story.

For one of my heroes it was ball-busting lust.

Serena Shay said...

Ah Savanna, your heroes do ball-busting lust so-o-o well too!

Good point! Fitting it to the story is key!

Have a great week-end!

Paris said...

I'm with Savanna on this one. As long as it works for the world the author has created, it works for me!

Serena Shay said...

:-) Absolutely! Have a great week-end, Paris!

Crystal Kauffman said...

I know you're talking physical here, but often there isn't a physical reaction, other than inside the chest. Many romance novel characters resist the attraction for the obvious reasons, or just plain pigheadedness, but I would have to say my favorite way for a character to realize is when they get that agonizing lurch in the heart when they learn the other is in danger, or has been harmed. ...When they realize they absolutely cannot live without the other.

Gem Sivad said...

I think Lora Leigh and Nalini Singh, print authors make a pretty good rock my world here is my mate, story.

E-pubs~well you of course and I've only read an excerpt.

Gem