Essay for Full Moon Rising:

One of the most common questions I get asked is, where do you get your ideas from? For me, it's sometimes a result of asking the question 'but what if'. Now, this question can hit in the strangest moments--in the midst of making scones, or when watching a movie, or even in the middle of the night during a dream. In fact, it's not unusual to find me in the study at three in the morning, madly writing down ideas from the 'what if' questions my night-owl muse has posed.

But the original inspiration for Full Moon Rising came from an article I discovered on cloning. Oddly enough, cloning has always fascinated me. I guess the possibilities for good and for evil in such research has always seemed such a fertile ground for this writer's imagination. The article was discussing the pros and cons of cloning, and in the list of possible uses, it suggested one use was to bring deceased relatives back to life. Like a dead grandmother. Or a lost child.

Can you imagine anyone wanting to recreate their dead granny? I mean, what possible reason could there be for someone wanting to do something like that?

But that one line sparked my imagination. What if long dead grannies weren't the only source being considered by some-shall we say, less ethical-types? What if there was someone who wanted to recreate some of histories more 'colorful' participants. Or, more accurately, its more vicious representatives?

From those questions, rose others. Like, what if there was someone who didn't actually want to recreate the evil of the past? What if they wanted to create something wholly new? A being who was faster, stronger, more resilient, than the average human? A being who could go anywhere, do anything?

And what if those scientist lived in a world where vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters were real? Why wouldn't they try to combine the best human genes with those of other races in their attempt to create their ultimate being?

Would they use such creations for good or for evil? As a character notes in Full Moon Rising,   "Science and morality are not often bedfellows."

And money can buy many things. Science and ethics included.

But nature can also take some amazing leaps in creation, and from this thought came my two main characters, Riley and Rhoan. They are twins, born of violence, exiled from their own pack because of their mixed werewolf and vampire heritage. Neither is fully aware of what this heritage means in terms of what they are truly capable of, and Riley in particular is unwilling to explore the boundaries of her abilities and gifts. But would the scientists, once they are aware of the existence of two living, breathing examples of the perfect union of cells, skills and potential they are trying to develop in the lab, be willing to leave them alone? 

How far would one twin go in order to rescue her sibling and stop an unholy harvest?  And what powers might Riley and Rhoan discover under the pressure of life or death? Or worse?

With those questions in mind, this story just flowed.