Today we say hello to author Grace R. Duncan joining us on our blog.
Welcome to Love Bytes Grace 🙂
Worldbuilding is a huge issue for any non-contemporary story (and even some contemps). Deciding on everything from location names to attitudes toward LGBT folks to religion, there’s a lot to figure out, sometimes before you even sit down in front of the blank screen.
My Forbes Mates world is no exception. Despite being in a contemporary setting, there was a lot to decide about the wolves and how they worked, what their background was, etc. Including religion.
I didn’t actually think about religion too much until Patience. Jamie turned out to be very devout, unlike Tanner and Finley in Devotion, and I realized pretty quickly I couldn’t stick with the generic terms with him. So, I had to give some serious thought to what their religion would be.
Lots of shifter stories worship the moon–or refer to it in their prayers in some way. Others are Christian or use the Christian God when they talk. I knew that wasn’t what I wanted. I don’t have anything against either, it just didn’t feel right for my puppies.
I knew it wouldn’t be just one god. I have no idea how or why that felt right, it just did. So, I ended up going with a pantheon and decided on the Roman gods. I’d been flipping through an old history book of mine and ran across the story of Romulus and Remus and it was like a lightbulb went off (actually, it was just one of my desk lamps going out at the same time).
Like most pantheons, there are a lot of gods and I didn’t want my readers to get lost in too many of them. I considered what would be important to my puppies and picked those to focus on. They probably have others they’d worship, but again I didn’t want to overdo it in the books.
So, I settled on these guys:
Diana – Goddess of the Moon and their patron deity. She was responsible for getting the wolf Lupa to Rhea Silva’s twins, Romulus and Remus, and feeding them until their foster parents could get to them.
Mars – Great Father (literally, in their case, as he got Rhea Silva pregnant with Romulus and Remus) and God of Battle and Challenges
Neptune – God of Rivers and Seas. Some mythology gives another name to the God of Rivers, but I chose to stick with Neptune for all water for these guys. He was responsible for the river Tiber carrying them safely to where Lupa could help them.
Bacchus – God of Wine and Ecstasy. In Patience, Jamie likes to equate the coffee he drinks with Bacchus.
The rest of the gods and goddesses are simply part of the pantheon because they are aspects of the wolves’ lives and, thus, someone they would want to honor.
Apollo – God of the Sun and Light
Jupiter – God of the Sky
Mercury – God of Travel, Communication, & Commerce
Ceres – Goddess of Earth and Growing Things
Vesta – Goddess of Hearth and Home
I actually didn’t develop the religion much until the second book. Luckily, Devotion was still in edits when I realized this and I was able to go back and add it in to the previous book. In Acceptance, we learn that the jaguars follow (some of) the Egyptian gods. I had a lot of fun researching those, but that’s for another post.
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Blurb:
Jamie Ryan was almost ready to accept he’d never find his destined mate. They’re uncommon to begin with and same-sex versions downright rare. Since his gay best friend found a destined mate, Jamie figured he was out of luck. Until end of semester stress forces him to go through the full-moon shift early. Stuck in wolf form, he runs into none other than his destined mate. Who’s human.
Chad Sutton has always had good instincts. They served him well as a detective and continued on when he went private. Those instincts tell him there’s something about the dog that comes up to him while running away from animal control that isn’t quite right. He works to put the pieces together, but is unsuccessful until his dog turns into a human before his eyes.
Jamie has no idea what a shifter’s mate bite will do to a human. He’s terrified to try—and possibly kill his mate. They hunt together for answers while working together on a case for Chad. It’s easy to see they belong together, but Jamie fears the gods gave him someone he can’t keep.
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About Grace:
Grace Duncan grew up with a wild imagination. She told stories from an early age – many 
of which got her into trouble. Eventually, she learned to channel that imagination into less troublesome areas, including fanfiction, which is what has led her to writing male/male erotica.
A gypsy in her own right, Grace has lived all over the United States. She has currently set up camp in East Texas with her husband and children – both the human and furry kind.
As one of those rare creatures who loves research, Grace can get lost for hours on the internet, reading up on any number of strange and different topics. She can also be found writing fanfiction, reading fantasy, crime, suspense, romance and other erotica or even dabbling in art.
Find Grace here:
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