Hannah Steenbock (she/her) is a German writer of Speculative Fiction. She uses both her native German and English as languages for her tales, as she loves English and tends to think in that language when plotting Fantasy.
She prefers stories with satisfying endings and generally refrains from slaying her characters, although they can get mangled quite a bit. In the end, however, all the pain is worth the gain. That’s why she likes to call her stories “feel-good fantasy”.
After finishing university with a degree in English and Spanish, Hannah lives and works in Northern Germany. When she’s not writing, she loves strolling along beaches, talking with trees, playing Valheim, and devouring as many stories as time allows.
AUTHOR LINKS:
Website: hannah-steenbock.de
PayHip Store: shop.hannah-steenbock.de
Amazon author page: author.to/Hannah_Steenbock
Google Play Store author page: Hannah+Steenbock
Books2Read Author page: books2read.com/hannahsteenbock
Mastodon: writing.exchange/@Firlefanz
Patreon: patreon.com/cw/hannahsteenbock
Book Sample:
Amazon Sample: Amazon (US) Look Inside
Smashwords Sample: Free Book – Read in Browser/Download
(The book will remain free until October.)
Elevator Pitch for Readers/Book Clubs:
Wolf Shifters. Adventure. Romance. What’s not to love? Actually, if you expect Alphas, Fated Mates and Claiming, you won’t like these books. However, Wolves of the South will give you the shifters, their strength and cunning, clean romance, and evil human adversaries to fight. There’s lots of action, there’s growing love, and of course, a well-earned Happy Ending in every book. If that speaks to you – go for it!
Can you briefly describe the difference between werewolves and wolf shifters for those not familiar with them in the romance context, and tell us a bit about why you’re drawn to write wolf shifter romance?
There is actually quite a difference between “classic” werewolves and wolf shifters.
Basically, werewolves are afflicted with a curse or illness that forces them to change into a monstrous wolf-man on every full Moon. Usually, they become aggressive monsters during that time, a clear danger for everyone who encounters them. This is often what you encounter when searching for “lycanthropy”.
In contrast, wolf shifters are simply people who can voluntarily change their shape to that of a wolf, generally not associated with the phases of the Moon. Often, they gain something with the shift: sharper senses, more strength, faster healing, e.g.
In Romance, wolf shifters are often much bigger than real wolves, but how exactly they express that shape depends on the author. My shifters are very close to real wolves, and I did my best to stay within behavioural biology with them in my stories, but that’s not often the case.
Why did I pick wolf shifter romance? *sigh* To be completely honest, I thought I could write a spicy shifter series to market and finally earn some decent money with my books. Needless to say, my wolves adamantly refused to participate in several of the usual tropes of the genre, making it harder to market the books and series. Even so, they are my personal best-sellers, so I cannot complain.
Can you tell us more about the sub-genres & trends in werewolf romance/shifter romance, and where does your book fall in these trends/sub-genres?
I wouldn’t call myself an expert in shifter romance, but I have read around and can share a few sub-genres and trends.
First of all, shifter romance in general tends to be very spicy. There are series that focus on a specific animal shape, often wolves, big predators, or dragons. Other series mix species, and I’ve even seen some authors include small animals as shifted form (very memorably a squirrel shifter). Generally, one person only has one animal shape, and belongs to that culture.
Another huge aspect, mostly for wolves, but also for some other species, is the Alpha trope. It’s generally based on an article from behavioural science from the 1960s which has been debunked and retracted by the author himself. Even so, in shifter romance there is often a clearly structured clan/pack hierarchy with Alphas in command, Betas as Lieutenants and the insignificant rest. This can be very misogynistic, as well, most often Alphas are the strongest males.
A lot of shifter series, just like many romance series, have a new couple for every book who are somehow connected to each other, e.g. they can be members of of the same family (very often brothers), clan or organisation. This is actually typical for romance as a whole genre, and it often leads to “forever” series, where authors can add books by grabbing former side-characters and turning them into MCs for the next book.
I’m certainly doing that with my wolf books, as they start out with a group of three siblings (Ben, Liz and Nessa McMullen). With book 4, the forever effect kicked in, and I continued the series with a side character from book 3. (Which was great fun!)
However, I have to admit that I am not a fan of the Alpha trope at all. So, while there are a few Alphas in my series, they tend to be villains. The leaders for my packs are the opposite of toxic males, in fact. In A Wolf’s Quest, I deliberately made the leader of the Asheton pack an older woman who leads with love, compassion and wisdom.
I also failed at the spice. When I reached the moment for my first bed scene, Ben and Sylvia categorically shut the door in my face. So there you have it: Wolf shifters with strong women, no Alphas and no spice, where the adventure is just as important as the romance plot.
Definitely difficult to market, but… the characters have spoken.
Introduce us to your main characters and their dynamics. What is/are your least favourite trope/s in wolf romance stories and why? How did you avoid it in this book?
Ben McMullen is the oldest of three children, raised by his wolf mother and father in a rural community, where they were hiding their identity. Shifters hiding their identity is actually another shifter trope, but in my books, there are human groups actively hunting my wolves (called Hunters, with a capital H), declaring them monsters that must be eradicated.
When Ben’s family is discovered by the local Hunters, the three are sent off to Asheton, where their parents originally came from. Ben is given the task of securing a new home for them, so there is a lot of grief and responsibility riding on him.
Sylvia, on the other hand, is a rather carefree college student, with no idea that wolf shifters even exist. She’s in for a rather ugly surprise when it turns out that her own grandfather is one of the bigoted Hunters – and she immediately leans towards supporting Ben. He’s been proven to be kind and caring, and she’s drawn to that.
They grow close through adventure throughout the book – and that is how I avoided two more tropes I really dislike in Romance in general and wolf Romance in particular: Insta-Love and Fated Mates.
Both tropes deny the fact that building a true relationship takes time and effort. That it’s actual work – learning who the other person is, learning to communicate, learning to trust and support. There is no magic switch that turns on everlasting love, and while I realise that Romance is mostly wish-fulfilment, my characters do have to earn their HEA.
What is/are your favourite trope/s in wolf romance stories and why? Have you included them in this book – if not, which tropes have you included in Book 1, are there any new ones going forward into the rest of the series to look out for, and what made them work for this particular series?
I absolutely adore using wolf attributes to move the plot along and possibly save the day. That can be anything from tracking a spoor, sliding through narrow openings or doing other things that humans are just not capable of. I think that might the major part of writing shifters, for me.
I did create a bit of my own thing, which is Fated Mates adjacent – my wolves can bond, and one indication of a developing bond is a very hot, impressive kiss. It is also potent, galvanising the bonding process itself. The bond, on the other hand doesn’t confer any particular powers, it’s just a slightly magical affirmation of having found the right person. I will say that it has a significant impact on the plot in a few books of the series.
In addition, there is the very old trope of “Turning” someone. I believe it started with vampires, but it has carried over into shifter Romance, sometimes also mixed in with “Biting” and “Claiming”. So my wolves can turn a normal human into a wolf, which works best if there are latent wolf genes. Again, this does become important in later books, as well.
I’m not that big of a fan of the actual “Claiming” trope – I would call myself a feminist, and “Claiming” feels awfully like turning someone into a bit of a slave, maybe? It does equal marriage without any exit ramp, and to me, it would feel constrictive, rather than a sign of love. So my wolves don’t do any kind of “claiming” bites, and there will also not be any kind of “mark”, either.
How did you develop the world building for the adventure plot of the novel, and what were your influences for this?
The Wolves of the South do take place in a more or less contemporary USA (~2005). I basically took the existing world and added my wolves to it. So Liz actually walks part of the Appalachian Trail, and most towns are their real iteration in our world. (It means I use Google Earth a lot.)
The biggest exception is “Asheton”, which is based on Asheville, NC. I have actually been there, and I incorporated some geographical aspects, as well as a few historical facts. (In one book, there is mention of the awful plan to raze downtown Asheville to build a mall, a fate thankfully avoided.) I wanted to be able to take some liberties with the town, however, hence the name change.
The book I’m currently writing (#10, unbelievable!) is taking place in a small town that I also gave a different name than in reality, over in Arkansas. That’s mostly because the pack there was ruled by a very toxic (and racist) Alpha. In those cases, I want to make it clear it’s a fictional town, even if it’s based geographically on a real place.
Can you share with us your favourite scene or quote from the book, and how readers have reacted to that (if you know)?
I love one of the scenes from the very beginning. Ben has saved Sylvia from a creep, and now they are taking a break, having food, and are talking about the situation. Sylvia is ashamed she didn’t fight back, and Ben is very gently telling her that it’s a normal reaction and nothing she should feel guilty about.
I don’t have any reader reactions to it, alas, but this moment came from deep in my heart. I am a licensed therapist, I ran my own practice for over ten years, and Ben’s advice is a lot along the lines I would have used with Sylvia were I in his shoes.
I hope it does resonate with readers, because to me, true courage is not jumping into a fight, it’s surviving it and learning from it. It’s overcoming trauma and being willing to fight again, if necessary. That’s where I see heroes – and I want to put that into my stories, as well. And under that definition of a hero, Sylvia definitely becomes one later in the story.
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