Help, I'm In Danger of Becoming A Cat Person!

Not that I don't like cats, it's just that I've always been a dog person and have lived with dog people and so cats haven't figured in my life. But now I'm engrossed in reading Nalini Singh's single title debut for Berkley, Slave To Sensation, and I can see myself shifting (ha, a pun!) over to the cat side.

Nalini's hero is a changeling, you see, who shifts from yummy (check out that cover pic) human form to panther. The heroine is one of a race which has worked over generations to eradicate emotions, sensations and violence from their society. Except Sascha, the daughter of a powerful Psy Council member, is "flawed". She does feel and that may just get her committed.

So, we have two intriguing characters who should be enemies but who are drawn by a powerful attraction neither trusts and by connected hot-and-steamy dreams. They're thrown together in an everyday work situation and then by a need to find a psycopath killer who is preying on changeling women. Not an easy book to encapsulate in a couple of paragraphs but a surprisingly easy one to read, thanks to the amazing talents of Nalini Singh.

Nalini agreed to answer a few questions even before I told her how much I was loving Slave to Sensation. Although she did suggest that I keep my paws off her cats. Her exact words, from memory, "they're mine, all mine!"

How would you describe your book? A paranormal with shape-shifters? Futuristic romantic suspense? A sensual psychic thriller?

Nalini: Hmm, it's a bit of all that! It's very definitely genre-blending but I think that's part of what makes it different.

Yes, it certainly is different and I am in awe of your creativity in coming up with all the elements. The Psy who have traded emotion for powerful psychic ability. A Psy heroine who feels everything she should not...and the clinically cold killer who doesn't feel anything. Where did the idea stem from, Nalini?

Nalini: I've always been interested in extrasensory abilities so that played a part. But with this book, I just kind of knew a lot of the stuff. I sat down one day and it all came pouring out. Three weeks later, I had a pretty solid first draft. An amazing, wonderful experience.

(Bron turns a most unattractive shade of envy, then picks her jaw up off the floor.) Did you say three weeks?

Nalini: Um...yes, but my first draft is really just a first draft.

If you say so, but I'm moving right along because it hurts to dwell on that envy thing. :-) I'm always fascinated by depictions of our future world, by what ordinary things will remain and what technologies will be in play. Was that fun, making up your own future world? Are you a fan of futuristics?

Nalini: Yes! I love futuristics. My favorite old shows when I was a kid were science fiction, including X-Men and Babylon 5. In terms of books, I love, love, LOVE JD Robb's "In Death" series and Anne McCaffrey's Pegasus series. It was a whole lot of fun making up my own world, especially making up words for things that don't yet exist but will one day (in my world anyway!)

You did a great job in building your world and establishing it in the reader's mind, right from the opening pages. Was that an exhaustive process? Did you need to keep a list of rules by your side while writing?

Nalini: Slave to Sensation was written quite instinctively and the world just sort of flowed (did I say I loved writing this book?!) However for the next book in the series, I had to have a detailed file of notes from book 1, so I could make sure the continuity flowed. It's my world so I make up the rules. But then I have to follow those same rules.

I love that how, despite it being a futuristic with shape-shifting cats, you've grounded it with enough of the everyday to make it all seem real.

Nalini: I grounded the book on purpose, because I wanted the world to be close enough to ours that we could imagine it existing, could imagine these people existing, both good and bad. Glad to hear it worked!

Leopards, panthers, jaguars...are you a cat person?

Nalini: I love the big cats. They'e just so sleek and somehow sensuous in the way they move. And their fur looks so touchable but they're predators to the core -- I like that duality, that idea of something so untamed having a softer side. Then there's their arrogance, their knowledge that they're the most dangerous thing out there. All great traits for heroes!

Mmm, absolutely. And apart from the yummy feline references, I adore the concept of skin privileges. Don't have a question on this, just sayin'...

Nalini: *smile*

Slave to Sensation is first in a series of connected books. Can I ask who is next... Nate? Vaughan? Dorian?

Nalini: Vaughn, sexy, dangerous Vaughn. He was amazing to write because he's so close to his animal, so rawly male. His story (Visions of Heat) comes out in March of next year and I'm dying to see the cover Berkley will come up with after what they did with Lucas.

Yup, that is one eye-catching cover! What are you working on now?

Nalini: I'm currently writing the third book in the series, Caressed By Ice, and okay, I'm getting close to shooting the hero. Talk about stubborn. He's making things difficult but he's just so yummy, I might have to let him live. ;)

And I'm sure we'll all be very grateful that you did.

Thanks, Nalini, for visiting with us and chatting about Slave to Sensation. It's out now, folks, and I really do recommend you take a look. There's an excerpt on Nalini's website. I'll own up to the fact that I wasn't a big fan of shape-shifter paranormals--there's something about that transformation thing that gives me the willies!--but after reading Nalini's sexy big cats I am a convert.

So, do we have any fans of shape-shifters or paranormals or futuristics in the house? Care to share your favourite reads, movies, TV shows?