Ermine & Bougainvillea came about when I was asked by a writer friend if I'd do a short story in one of his worlds. I said I'd think about it and my little writer brain started ticking over on what I could write. I wanted something a little different and came up with Etireh, a half-dryad. He needed a lover and since I'd been toying with another one of my stories at the time (a shifter piece), I decided to go with a shifter. But what kind?

I like to do the unusual and to be honest, I don't think I've ever written a straight up wolf shifter. While poking around, I saw a picture of an ermine and had a little eureka moment. I'm not entirely sure where the BDSM element came into play with Etireh and Wynn, but I can't imagine them without it. After I finished writing Ermine & Bogainvillea, I immediately started Claiming Rights and submitted the two within a few days of each other.

Technically speaking, E&B takes place in the same city as Blind Desire and there is even a razor thin connection between Etireh and Quin. The tattoo artist who did Etireh's tattoo is the same woman who did the Eye of Ra and Thoth on Quin's back when he was a kid. Her son, Aaron, is also the... friends-with-benefits partner to Sam, one of Ryzel's spawn. Further to that, Sam has a connection to Adrial.

Why yes, I like playing in this world quite a lot. And for the people who are curious, the city in question is Toronto, Ontario and the park that Etireh's tree is in is called High Park.

I would like to write more of Etireh and Wynn as they were a blast. I don't have anything planned for them at the moment though beyond some cameos in the story that will be about the leader and his two lovers of the cackle Wynn belongs to. Those shifters, in case anyone is curious, are Kaleb (jackal), Nico (fox) and Sebastian (honey badger) and the story (which is at 50K+ but requires massive re-writing *sigh*) is called Tasting Transcendence.