Why Centaurs, you ask?

I have been fortunate enough to meet some incredibly talented authors in the Paranormal Romance genre.  

When I think of Angels, I immediately think of Amy Bartol and Tiffany King.  I hear fairies and Christie Rich’s series comes to mind.  Magical beings?   My heart races when I remember reading Rachael Higginson and Charlotte Abel’s series.  I could go on and on, so the short answer is MOST of the characters I had considered writing a series about had already been written, (superbly I might add) by authors I love!

 

When I struck out to write the Touched Series I wanted to start a new series that would be original.  I should preface this with, I read ALL THE TIME, and realized I knew almost nothing about Centaurs.  There had always been a kind of mystery about them for me, so I began scouring the internet and my library.  It turns out:   very little had been written about Centaurs. 

I was excited because instead of trying to fit my story into hundreds of legends, there were relatively few compared to other mythological characters.  It also gave me the freedom to create some Centaur history, too.  I know what you’re thinking, Centaurs?  Really?

I promise, these are not the Centaurs you’re thinking of that are half people / half horse, at least, not anymore. 

Sagittarius is the constellation shaped like a Centaur that most of us are familiar with.  I started my research there and quickly found out Sagittarius was said to have been an immortal Centaur named Chiron.  According to the lore, before he became a constellation, he was one of the few Centaurs who was civilized, described as:  more man than beast.  Chiron was a physician, a musician, a patron of the arts and a teacher.  According to Greek Mythology, one of his prize pupils was Hercules who unintentionally shot him with a poison arrow.  That incident is how Chiron was eventually placed in the heavens by Zeus and is the event where my Touched Series launched from.

Blood Debt (Touched Series Book 1) explains that after Zeus placed Chiron in the heavens to watch over his children, Zeus allowed all Centaurs to take human form to make up for his son, Hercules, careless action.  The Centaurs retained their magic and still trace their bloodlines back to the original pasture, but many of the rules adopted a millennia ago, seem archaic by today’s human standards.

So why Centaurs?  I feel pretty lucky; Centaurs are one of the few characters in the Paranormal Romance genre that don’t have many modern stories written about them.  I hope one day when people think of Centaurs they equate my series to the subject, the same way I immediately think of other fabulous series from friends who have written about characters I adore: Angels, Vampires, Werewolves, Magical Beings, etc.

Still skeptical?  It's okay, I understand.  That's why Blood Debt is on me.  That's right, it's free from all bookstores (Amazon, B&N, i-Tunes, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords).  I know not every book is for every reader - but I hope you'll give it a try!

Happy Reading!
Nancy