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A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE CHANKUThis has spoilers if you haven't read the entire Wolf Tales series--
I absolutely love immersing myself in the world of the Chanku. For those not familiar with my Wolf Tales series, Chanku are shapeshifters who lived eons ago on the rugged Himalayan steppes. Much of their history had been lost--they honestly didn't know if they evolved or possibly were planted by some alien culture.What little they knew of their past came from ancient writings that were rediscovered by Anton Cheval, the "über alpha" of the combined packs. |
Essentially, there was very little to go on as they discovered their place in the modern world, though as the series evolved, they began to learn more of their ancient history, which helped them understand their place in this ever-evolving society.
The Chanku ability to shift and their knowledge of their heritage was lost over time as they emigrated away from their Tibetan birthplace and spread out about the world. The few survivors who carried the genetics to become Chanku lived among humans, most of them unaware of their shapeshifting birthright even though they carried the DNA of this amazing species. Chanku are a matriarchal society, with the genes for shapeshifting passed from mother to child. However, the ability to shift is dependent upon certain nutrients found only in grasses native to their Tibetan birthplace. Without those nutrients, Chanku often lived lives of quiet desperation, always feeling apart from human society without realizing why.
They are creatures ruled by a powerful libido that is especially potent after they shift into their wolven form, though their highly sexed natures affect them long before they ever shift. In many ways, their powerful sex drive has ruled them over the centuries, with many of the women turning to prostitution to survive, a career choice that actually worked for them in many ways. Though not immune to human diseases until they actually enable their Chanku birthright through the nutrients their bodies require, they still rarely fall ill, even when still totally human. Once their bodies have made the change from human to Chanku, they are impervious to human diseases--HIV/AIDS and other STDs, cancers, the common cold--none of the bugs or genetic birth defects of modern society are a danger to Chanku.
Their metamorphosis from human to Chanku is directed by a small gland unique to their kind, located near the base of the hypothalamus. Once they've had the nutrients that activate the gland, they achieve the ability to shift, their full immunity to human disease, and powerful telepathic abilities. In rare cases those nascent abilities are forced into action from the stress of impending danger, and in even rarer cases, that unexpected shift results in individuals trapped halfway between human and beast. Once they receive the nutrients and are able to make their first shift, the body reforms in the manner in which it is meant to be.
In their matriarchal society, Chanku females have total control of reproduction once they gain the ability to shift, however, once they are Chanku, a female can only become pregnant while in wolf form when she must consciously choose to release an egg for fertilization during mating. (This is different for the Berserkers, a sub-species of Chanku who were originally bred as the warrior class. More about them later.)
Some Chanku are telepathic even before their first shift, something that increases in strength after they become Chanku. Their telepathic abilities, what they call mindtalking, are an essential part of their mating bond--a powerful mental connection that opens everything in their minds, all their memories, their feelings and emotions, to their bonded mate during the initial mating link--a powerful bond that lasts for life. The strength of the pack is what guides them, the bond with their mates makes them whole.
The name Chanku is, in reality, a local name for a sub-species of Tibetan wolf, Canis lupus laniger. As far as some of the individual characters who return in book after book, Anton Cheval is the "über alpha." In a matriarchal society, he still defers to the love of his life, Keisha Rialto, but Anton's arrogance, which is supported by his amazing intelligence and magical abilities, is balanced by his profoundly neurotic personality. He is extremely intense and often internalizes his failings with the worry that he has failed his people. He tends to forget that the other members of the pack are all capable adults, something which his mate doesn't hesitate to remind him.
Anton appears in most of the Wolf Tales stories, as well as the new Spirit Wild stories, and I always look forward to writing him, especially now that he's a father. He's tall and lean, very sexy with a sort of "David Copperfield" intensity about him. He's not only a powerful leader to the various Chanku, he's also a powerful wizard with abilities that go beyond mere magic. Anton's abilities continued to evolve throughout the Wolf Tales series, with only one wizard showing more talent than his--his infant daughter Lily, who reappears in the Spirit Wild series as a strikingly beautiful woman, and a wizard with unimaginable power.
Anton, like many of the other characters, is also older than the traditional romance hero--in the Wolf Tales stories he is in his mid-fifties. But something interesting is happening to the Chanku, all of whom have been changed as adults--they're beginning to look and feel younger. By the time they enter the Spirit Wild stories, this youthfulness is even more pronounced.
I love the fact Anton has all the attributes of the perfect romance hero, but he's also flawed and filled with vulnerabilities that make him, to me, at least, an even more compelling character. He makes mistakes, but he learns from those mistakes, and he's not afraid to apologize when he realizes he's wrong. His love for his mate, his children, and his packmates, is unshakable.
The overlying theme of the Wolf Tales series is love--my Chanku love without regard to race, gender, or age, although my characters involved in sexual situations are obviously all above the age of consent. The characters--excluding the many children the pack now has--range in age from nineteen to --by the time the Spirit Wild stories begin--well into their (still youthful) eighties, and represent a multitude of races. Many of them have tragic or conflicted backgrounds. The one constant that connects them is that they are all Chanku, a people imbued with a native sense of honor and integrity, something that sets them apart from many humans. They are all finding their way within the pack once they discover their true heritage. The binding force is love, and the power of love to heal. I think that's the main theme of most of my stories.
The final story in the WOLF TALES saga--Wolf Tales 12--takes place five years after the story in Wolf Tales 11, the only one of the series with any gap in time between storylines. It's a bigger book because there was so much to say--but I can assure readers that all your questions about the Chanku will be answered. What I found interesting while writing that final book is the fact things that had occurred in the early books finally made sense to me in the last one. I didn't consciously set out to answer all the questions, but there must have been someone (it wasn't me!) keeping notes in that "Lizard brain" deep in our subconscious that I believe all writers draw on without realizing it.
SPOILER ALERT--and notes about the Berserkers
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In Wolf Tales 12, Anton's daughter Lily makes a trip onto the astral in the company of their goddess. She meets with the ancient ancestors of the original Chanku who traveled to Earth aboard a spacecraft fleeing a dying planet millennia ago. They have survived as living spirits for millions of years in order to pass on their history to their survivors. Six year old Lily becomes the repository of all the lore and knowledge of their kind and shares it through a mind link with her father, and then Anton shares it with the entire pack.
One of the biggest changes to come to the Chanku in Wolf Tales 12 is that they are forced out of the closet, so to speak, when one of the pack goes through a shift in front of cameras on national news in order to save a group of young people from a terrorist attack. A world that has long embraced the lore and legends of werewolves and other shapeshifters is finally faced with the realization that these creatures really do exist. This new knowledge and the social repercussions that ensue are the basis for the SPIRIT WILD series that follows the lives of the next generation of Chanku into adulthood.
SPIRIT WILD picks up in 2039 when Lily is a young woman running Chanku Global Industries in San Francisco. The Chanku, with their long lives and strong pack structure, have become a powerful political force, but their generosity and charitable acts keep them relatively safe in a world that both envies and fears them. What's been really interesting is writing a matriarchal society where the males will always be more physically powerful, but the women still hold the true alpha position in the pack.
New characters have been introduced in the series--the Berserkers mentioned in the earlier books as creatures to be feared are finally coming out of the woodwork, proving to the Chanku that they may be fierce fighters, but they are just as fiercely loyal to their Chanku relations as any other members of the pack. Born in their animal form, usually either snow leopards or wolves, they exist as sentient predators unless they are able to find the same grasses that enable the Chanku. Their animal form is larger and stronger than the usual Chanku, and as humans they are taller than average; the men are often 6'7" or more, with the muscular bodies to match. The females are not as large as the males, but they are still powerful members of the pack. Unlike the Chanku, Berserkers can mate in either their animal or human form, but they will always give birth as animals, and their young must have the grasses in order to shift to human.
I've completed five books in the Spirit Wild series to date--DARK WOLF, DARK SPIRIT, DARK MOON, DARK REFUGE and DARK TERROR. I'm currently working on Dark Captive with a scheduled release in April of 2018.
The Chanku ability to shift and their knowledge of their heritage was lost over time as they emigrated away from their Tibetan birthplace and spread out about the world. The few survivors who carried the genetics to become Chanku lived among humans, most of them unaware of their shapeshifting birthright even though they carried the DNA of this amazing species. Chanku are a matriarchal society, with the genes for shapeshifting passed from mother to child. However, the ability to shift is dependent upon certain nutrients found only in grasses native to their Tibetan birthplace. Without those nutrients, Chanku often lived lives of quiet desperation, always feeling apart from human society without realizing why.
They are creatures ruled by a powerful libido that is especially potent after they shift into their wolven form, though their highly sexed natures affect them long before they ever shift. In many ways, their powerful sex drive has ruled them over the centuries, with many of the women turning to prostitution to survive, a career choice that actually worked for them in many ways. Though not immune to human diseases until they actually enable their Chanku birthright through the nutrients their bodies require, they still rarely fall ill, even when still totally human. Once their bodies have made the change from human to Chanku, they are impervious to human diseases--HIV/AIDS and other STDs, cancers, the common cold--none of the bugs or genetic birth defects of modern society are a danger to Chanku.
Their metamorphosis from human to Chanku is directed by a small gland unique to their kind, located near the base of the hypothalamus. Once they've had the nutrients that activate the gland, they achieve the ability to shift, their full immunity to human disease, and powerful telepathic abilities. In rare cases those nascent abilities are forced into action from the stress of impending danger, and in even rarer cases, that unexpected shift results in individuals trapped halfway between human and beast. Once they receive the nutrients and are able to make their first shift, the body reforms in the manner in which it is meant to be.
In their matriarchal society, Chanku females have total control of reproduction once they gain the ability to shift, however, once they are Chanku, a female can only become pregnant while in wolf form when she must consciously choose to release an egg for fertilization during mating. (This is different for the Berserkers, a sub-species of Chanku who were originally bred as the warrior class. More about them later.)
Some Chanku are telepathic even before their first shift, something that increases in strength after they become Chanku. Their telepathic abilities, what they call mindtalking, are an essential part of their mating bond--a powerful mental connection that opens everything in their minds, all their memories, their feelings and emotions, to their bonded mate during the initial mating link--a powerful bond that lasts for life. The strength of the pack is what guides them, the bond with their mates makes them whole.
The name Chanku is, in reality, a local name for a sub-species of Tibetan wolf, Canis lupus laniger. As far as some of the individual characters who return in book after book, Anton Cheval is the "über alpha." In a matriarchal society, he still defers to the love of his life, Keisha Rialto, but Anton's arrogance, which is supported by his amazing intelligence and magical abilities, is balanced by his profoundly neurotic personality. He is extremely intense and often internalizes his failings with the worry that he has failed his people. He tends to forget that the other members of the pack are all capable adults, something which his mate doesn't hesitate to remind him.
Anton appears in most of the Wolf Tales stories, as well as the new Spirit Wild stories, and I always look forward to writing him, especially now that he's a father. He's tall and lean, very sexy with a sort of "David Copperfield" intensity about him. He's not only a powerful leader to the various Chanku, he's also a powerful wizard with abilities that go beyond mere magic. Anton's abilities continued to evolve throughout the Wolf Tales series, with only one wizard showing more talent than his--his infant daughter Lily, who reappears in the Spirit Wild series as a strikingly beautiful woman, and a wizard with unimaginable power.
Anton, like many of the other characters, is also older than the traditional romance hero--in the Wolf Tales stories he is in his mid-fifties. But something interesting is happening to the Chanku, all of whom have been changed as adults--they're beginning to look and feel younger. By the time they enter the Spirit Wild stories, this youthfulness is even more pronounced.
I love the fact Anton has all the attributes of the perfect romance hero, but he's also flawed and filled with vulnerabilities that make him, to me, at least, an even more compelling character. He makes mistakes, but he learns from those mistakes, and he's not afraid to apologize when he realizes he's wrong. His love for his mate, his children, and his packmates, is unshakable.
The overlying theme of the Wolf Tales series is love--my Chanku love without regard to race, gender, or age, although my characters involved in sexual situations are obviously all above the age of consent. The characters--excluding the many children the pack now has--range in age from nineteen to --by the time the Spirit Wild stories begin--well into their (still youthful) eighties, and represent a multitude of races. Many of them have tragic or conflicted backgrounds. The one constant that connects them is that they are all Chanku, a people imbued with a native sense of honor and integrity, something that sets them apart from many humans. They are all finding their way within the pack once they discover their true heritage. The binding force is love, and the power of love to heal. I think that's the main theme of most of my stories.
The final story in the WOLF TALES saga--Wolf Tales 12--takes place five years after the story in Wolf Tales 11, the only one of the series with any gap in time between storylines. It's a bigger book because there was so much to say--but I can assure readers that all your questions about the Chanku will be answered. What I found interesting while writing that final book is the fact things that had occurred in the early books finally made sense to me in the last one. I didn't consciously set out to answer all the questions, but there must have been someone (it wasn't me!) keeping notes in that "Lizard brain" deep in our subconscious that I believe all writers draw on without realizing it.
SPOILER ALERT--and notes about the Berserkers
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
In Wolf Tales 12, Anton's daughter Lily makes a trip onto the astral in the company of their goddess. She meets with the ancient ancestors of the original Chanku who traveled to Earth aboard a spacecraft fleeing a dying planet millennia ago. They have survived as living spirits for millions of years in order to pass on their history to their survivors. Six year old Lily becomes the repository of all the lore and knowledge of their kind and shares it through a mind link with her father, and then Anton shares it with the entire pack.
One of the biggest changes to come to the Chanku in Wolf Tales 12 is that they are forced out of the closet, so to speak, when one of the pack goes through a shift in front of cameras on national news in order to save a group of young people from a terrorist attack. A world that has long embraced the lore and legends of werewolves and other shapeshifters is finally faced with the realization that these creatures really do exist. This new knowledge and the social repercussions that ensue are the basis for the SPIRIT WILD series that follows the lives of the next generation of Chanku into adulthood.
SPIRIT WILD picks up in 2039 when Lily is a young woman running Chanku Global Industries in San Francisco. The Chanku, with their long lives and strong pack structure, have become a powerful political force, but their generosity and charitable acts keep them relatively safe in a world that both envies and fears them. What's been really interesting is writing a matriarchal society where the males will always be more physically powerful, but the women still hold the true alpha position in the pack.
New characters have been introduced in the series--the Berserkers mentioned in the earlier books as creatures to be feared are finally coming out of the woodwork, proving to the Chanku that they may be fierce fighters, but they are just as fiercely loyal to their Chanku relations as any other members of the pack. Born in their animal form, usually either snow leopards or wolves, they exist as sentient predators unless they are able to find the same grasses that enable the Chanku. Their animal form is larger and stronger than the usual Chanku, and as humans they are taller than average; the men are often 6'7" or more, with the muscular bodies to match. The females are not as large as the males, but they are still powerful members of the pack. Unlike the Chanku, Berserkers can mate in either their animal or human form, but they will always give birth as animals, and their young must have the grasses in order to shift to human.
I've completed five books in the Spirit Wild series to date--DARK WOLF, DARK SPIRIT, DARK MOON, DARK REFUGE and DARK TERROR. I'm currently working on Dark Captive with a scheduled release in April of 2018.
