Honor is more important than power: An interview with urban fantasy writer Coral Moore

Today, I'm talking with Coral Moore about her urban fantasy, Broods of Fenrir

1) Tell us about your book.

Broods of Fenrir is about a man who just wants to be left alone. The brutality of his own people disgusts him, and he really just wants nothing to do with them. When he finds out a woman is murdered by one of them in his town, he resolves to find out who killed her and make sure it doesn’t happen again. There are two side-by-side struggles he deals with throughout the story: his inner conflict with his own feral nature, and his outer conflict with the members of his race that don’t want to change from their primitive roots.

2) What inspired this book? Have you always had an interest in werewolves?

My interest in werewolves is relatively new. In fact, if you had asked me when I started writing almost two years ago if I would ever write a werewolf story, I would have said it was unlikely. It’s a bit of a tired trope, but I had a few ideas while I was working on another story that just kept coming back. The more I tried not to think about Brand (his name came to me very early on), the more scenes kept writing themselves while I was driving or showering or trying to sleep. Finally I just decided to just start writing it, and I hoped that I would work it out of my system, but the whole book happened rather quickly. The first draft was done in less than four months, and I’ve made it through the entire process in just over a year.

3) Werewolf-based urban fantasy is extremely hot right now, but that same popularity can make it hard to stand out in the crowd. What distinguishes Broods of Fenrir from other books in this genre?

Two werewolf differences and an addendum afterwards. First, my werewolves are not infected or cursed. They are a separate sub-species that can blend in seamlessly with humans most of the time. Second, my wolves aren’t very magical. There are some unknown forces at work obviously, but rather than mystical I’ve gone more natural. Think of my werewolves as shamans where others are sorcerers. The addendum is that my story is darker than most of the genre. I’ve gone for grit rather than magic and that gives the book a different feel from most UF.

4) Why did you choose to incorporate Norse mythology elements?

I was doing research for a completely unrelated story. While glancing over the Wikipedia page on Fenrir (to this day I don’t know how I ended up there) I came across the phrase broods of Fenrir. It was translated from a Skaldic poem and used as an alternate name for Fenrir’s two offspring, Skoll and Hati. The phrase really resonated with me and I don’t think it left my head for a month afterwards. There’s a little bit of history I’ve worked up for them that you can find here if you’re interested: http://www.chaosandinsanity.com/stories/broods-of-fenrir/broods-of-fenrir-history/

5) What would you say is your protagonist's greatest strength?

His unwavering adherence to the line that separates right from wrong. It gets him into a lot of trouble, but it truly does define him. His struggles all stem from his inability to compromise on this one point.

6) What would you say is your protagonist's greatest weakness?

He’s single-minded. When a problem presents itself, one solution occurs to him and that’s the only one he’ll consider. Even when another character (or his author!) thinks another way is probably better, he goes his way.

7) What two key themes do you think define your book?

Friendship will succeed where strength fails. Honor is more important than power.

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Thanks for stopping by, Coral.

If you want to read more from Coral, you can find her at http://www.chaosandinsanity.com, Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5341919.Coral_Moore or Twitter: http://twitter.com/coralm.

Broods of Fenrir is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.