Beren deMotier  * writer * human  

After writing narrative nonfiction for fifteen years, I returned to writing novels, inspired by the books my teenage daughter was reading.  I'd been reading mysteries for decades, but the writers I found in the teen section were creating stories every bit as satisfying. The "problem novels" of Sarah Dessen, Elizabeth Scott and Meg Cabot amazed me. I'd had my share of problems with long-haired blonde musicians as a teen so I started with a "problem" and wrote:

Just You. Wait.

"Teenager Romy Carroll lost her mom, rejected her musician dad and moved into Grandma's: a.k.a. limbo. But when they move to a nice neighborhood, with a nice school and a nice guy who keeps dropping by to see her at work, she might finally be out of limbo. But her seemingly perfect new life crumbles with one life-altering accident."

Then I discovered paranormal Young Adult fiction: Melissa Marr, Cassandra Clare, Richelle Mead, Rachel Caine, Alyson Noel, Maggie Steifvater, Lili St. Crow, Stephenie Meyer.  It brought back my youth on Vancouver Island, my interest in all things supernatural: witches, werewolves, gypsy curses, ghosts, tarot and palmistry, and the magical sense of that region. When I was a girl I had classmates with packs of wolves running through their backyards. It blew my mind. On our last summer vacation on the island I dreamed up:

Island of Wolves

“Sixteen year-old Thistle Locke travels with her biologist father to a rural part of Vancouver Island to determine if the wolves there are a rare subspecies, only to discover that they are actually a centuries-old family of werewolves. And that the boy she’s fallen in love with is one of them.”

Both novels started out as Nanowrimo first drafts in 2008 and 2009. Island of Wolves is edited and ready for an agent. I can be contacted at beren@berendemotier.com.