Author Spotlight: Karenna Colcroft

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.

Today: Karenna Colcroft lives just north of Boston, Massachusetts, and has been in love with the city since childhood, though she has yet to encounter any werewolves, vampires, or other paranormal beings in her travels. At least none that she knows of. 

Karenna is a polyamorous, nonbinary human who lives with her husband. She also has two adult children and a bonus son, four grandchildren, and three cats.

Find out more about Karenna online at http://www.karennacolcroft.com or https://www.facebook.com/KarennaColcroft. You can also sign up to receive a free short story, and be added to Karenna’s mailing list, at https://karennacolcroft.com/get-your-free-short-story/.

Thanks so much, Karenna, for joining me!

J. Scott Coatsworth: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it?

Karenna Colcroft: I’ve always told stories, even before I learned how to put a pencil on a piece of paper and make those little squiggles called “letters.” When I started kindergarten and learned how to write, I started writing down my stories. My kindergarten teacher was a little at a loss for what to do with me, since I already knew how to read so didn’t fit in with typical kindergarten curriculum, so she got me started reading books from the classroom library, drawing pictures about those stories, and then finally writing stories of my own based on my pictures. That was the first encouragement I got, and I knew I wanted to keep writing. As for when I discovered I’m good at it…sometimes I still wonder about that. Imposter syndrome is a bitch!

JSC: Have you ever taken a trip to research a story? Tell me about it. 

KC: Not exactly to research a story, but I incorporated story research for Take Some Tahini into a trip I was taking to visit my kid at veterinary school in the Canadian Maritimes. In September 2022, I planned a trip to visit my kid, and I decided I wanted to explore the route I envisioned Tobias and Kyle taking in the book for their road trip to Nova Scotia. I’d made the trip to see my kid a few times before, but this time I took a different route, spent the night in Lubec, Maine (as Tobias and Kyle do in Take Some Tahini), and explored parts of Maine and New Brunswick that I thought might wind up in the story. They didn’t, but it was fun checking them out anyway.

JSC: What do you do when you get writer’s block?

KC: Whine and complain. LOL. Honestly, I do that, but then I sit down and read something, either a book by someone else or one of my previous books, to get inspired and, if it’s my own book, to remind myself that I can write, I have written, and I will write again. I also give myself time away from trying to write, because I’ve found that if I’m blocked, the harder I try to break the block, the blockier it becomes, whereas if I just take time away, usually it resolves itself. 

JSC: What is the most heartfelt thing a reader has said to you? 

KC: Years ago, I wrote an M/F paranormal romance, set in the Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat universe, in which the heroine, Brianna, had been severely abused for much of her life. She suffers from PTSD, including flashbacks and panic attacks, and when she meets her true mate, she isn’t immediately willing to believe she deserves him. The book depicted their growing relationship, but also made it abundantly clear that finding her mate and accepting him didn’t magically “cure” Brianna’s PTSD or erase her past.

That book was released in 2013, at a time when far too many romances suffered from what one review blog called “magic wang syndrome,” in which the heroines *were* somehow magically cured of trauma and PTSD simply by meeting and fucking the “right” man, and I intentionally wrote Beta Block as the anti-magic-wang book.

Not long after the book was released, I received a message from a reader thanking me for the way I depicted Brianna, her healing journey, and her PTSD. The reader said that she had found a loving, caring partner but still suffered from PTSD and trauma, and other romances she had read led her to believe that she was irreparably broken. She said my book gave her hope that there wasn’t something horribly wrong with her for not being able to instantly “get better” after meeting her partner, and also gave her hope that things would get better over time.

(I won’t be rereleasing that book, since I’m focusing solely on male/male romance, but I did incorporate parts of it into the revised and rereleased version of Hummus on Rye, book 3 of Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat.)

JSC: What was the hardest part of writing this book? 

KC: Diving back into my werewolf world and getting back into Tobias Rogan’s head. Take Some Tahini is book 6 of my Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat series. Book 5, Tempeh for Two, was written in 2013 and originally released in 2014…a gap of nearly a decade between writing the two books, and a full decade between the original release of Tempeh and the release of this one. Beginning in late 2021, I started working on revising and updating the series for rerelease, and I quickly realized that there was more to the story of Tobias and his mate Kyle, the vegan werewolf, than had been included in the original five books.

Setting out to write a sixth book wasn’t all that easy, though. In addition to the time that had passed since my last journey into the world of the werewolves, I’d spent about five years unable to write anything at all. I was out of practice with writing, and especially with writing romance fiction. I’d lost a lot of confidence in myself and my ability to tell a good story. Looking at the previously-published books helped some with that, but I wasn’t completely convinced that I would be able to write a new book that was as good—or as publishable—as the original five. My first draft of Take Some Tahini wasn’t all that good; I wound up scrapping most of it and starting from scratch six months later. And I think the finished product is what I want it to be.

JSC: Who did your cover, and what was the design process like? 

KC: I did the cover myself (it’s credited in the book as being done by Kim Ramsey-Winkler, who is also me). The hardest part of the cover was finding a picture to use as the background, but I chose a picture I took in Lubec, Maine, during the road trip I used as “research” for the book. For “Tobias” on the cover, I used a stock image of the same model who appears on the covers for the previous books that are told from Tobias’s point of view (Try the Tofu and Tempeh for Two). It took some wrangling, rearranging, and a couple of start-overs to get a cover I was happy with.

JSC: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

KC: When I was about 4, I told my parents I wanted to be a writer, actor, singer, and teacher. So far, I’m four for four: I am a writer, with several books to my names (intentional plural, since I write under more than one name); I have worked as a background actor in several movies and TV shows filmed in my area of Massachusetts and one filmed in New York City; I recorded and released a couple of singles in 2015 (I’m pretty sure they’re gone now, they weren’t great, but I was proud of them); and I taught for several years after earning a degree in special education.

JSC: Were you a voracious reader as a child? 

KC: Absolutely. I learned how to read when I was about 2, because I wasn’t patient enough to wait for my parents to read to me. I read everything I could get my hands on. When I was old enough to go to the city library by myself (which would never happen nowadays; I was 7 and the library was over a mile away, but this was in the late 1970s), I would take out as many books as they would allow, bring them home, and read all of them in a week or less. When I was about 10, my parents told me I could take books from their bookcases around the house, but that I had to get their permission to actually read things, because they wanted to make sure the books were appropriate for me. Needless to say, I never actually asked, and I read things I probably shouldn’t have been reading at that age.

JSC: What pets are currently on your keyboard, and what are their names? Pictures? 

KC: Fortunately, they aren’t actually *on* my keyboard. But my cats Shinobi and Moony are nearby. Shinobi is a 15-year-old tortoiseshell with the complete “torty-tude,” and Moony is a sometimes obnoxious female tuxedo cat. My kid’s cat, a 19-year-old flame-point Himalayan named Aubrey, is currently wandering around wailing because my kid has gone out for the day.

JSC: What are you working on now, and what’s coming out next? Tell us about it!

KC: I just finished the first draft of Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 7, currently titled Bring On the Broccoli, which is planned for release in January 2025. (That release date may be moved back a bit once the editing process gets underway.) Next up is revisions of Ebb and Flow, a spin-off from Take Some Tahini. Ebb and Flow continues the story of 22-year-old new wolf Quinn Boucher and 100+-year-old lone wolf Malachi Powers, who discover in Take Some Tahini that they’re mates…and Malachi is far from happy about it. Ebb and Flow will be released in October of this year.

I’m also putting some work into a young adult urban fantasy series that I will be releasing (or in the case of a few books, rereleasing) beginning in February of next year. The Dark Lines is actually three related series about a group of teenagers who become unintentionally—and in a few cases not entirely willingly—pulled into the universal war between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. The first four books were previously published between 2010 and 2012 (I think), but I have done some heavy rewriting and brought the books into the “present” day. I’ve rewritten books 1-5, and am getting ready to start on book 6 after I’m done this round of work on Ebb and Flow.

---

And now for Karenna’s new book: Take Some Tahini:

Tobias Rogan never wanted to be a leader. But here he is, the Anax of the United States, ruler of all werewolves in the country. Only two weeks after winning the rank, Tobias and his mate Kyle are still adjusting to their new reality when a frantic call alerts Tobias to the massacre of nearly half the wolves in a pack in North Dakota–including the pack’s Alpha and Beta.

An investigation reveals that the wolves responsible are from Canada. Tobias reaches out to Silas Creighton, Anax of Canada, and finds someone like-minded in wanting peace between the wolves of the two countries. At Silas’s invitation, Tobias and his mate Kyle, along with their new guard Quinn Boucher, sole survivor of the North Dakota massacre, travel to Nova Scotia to put an end to the conflict. But not all wolves are interested in peace–and not all want Tobias to survive the trip.

This book includes discussions of past sexual assault and physical child abuse, homophobia including a French Canadian homophobic slur, a child character living with cancer, and depictions of grief and mourning.

Amazon

---

Excerpt

“I spoke to the Anax of Canada yesterday.” I took a deep breath. Too many things going on. Too many things on my mind. But I was talking to a friend, and I could keep my focus on that for the moment. “One of the Canadian packs murdered five members of a pack in North Dakota. The Canadian Anax and I agree it’s past time to meet and put an end to this conflict.”

“I’d heard about the incident in North Dakota,” Zane said. “Oliver called me this morning. And you’re going to meet with the Canadian Anax because you’re an honorable man and want to protect your wolves, but you’re concerned about leaving the country unattended.”

“Am I that easy to read?”

He laughed. “To your friends, sometimes, but it’s also logical.”

“I guess.” Smiling, I leaned back. “Yes. I agreed, and I’m making travel plans. Not knowing who’s supposed to be the backup when the Anax leaves the country, I asked Paul Drake to take over for me.”

“He’s been Arkhon for a few decades, and he’s proven he can be trusted.” An approving note colored his voice. “That’s the choice I would have made.”

“He suggested I ask you to cover the eastern half of the country,” I said. “I agree that would be beneficial, if you’re willing.”

“I accept with honor, Anax.” He sounded amused. He knew how I felt about titles, especially between friends. “When are you traveling, and is there the chance of a stop in Pennsylvania?”

“I wish.” I could make time to visit Zane if I wanted. I could even justify the side trip with the fact that some of Kyle’s and my belongings were still at the Arkhon’s house. But I didn’t want the trip to be any longer than it already would be, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to see that house again. “I told Silas Creighton we’d arrive by Saturday. I’m leaving for Boston tomorrow and want to spend a couple of days there.”

“Another time for a visit to me, then,” Zane said.

“You aren’t far from Boston,” I said. “I’m sure there’d be a place for you to stay there.”

“I do miss that city. I’ll see what I can do. Have you informed Kirk and Justin yet?”

“Kirk, yes. I spoke to him earlier. I haven’t talked to Justin.” I should. Not to inform him of my presence as Anax, but simply because he was one of my oldest friends and I wanted to see him. And to find out how his human wife, who was pregnant with their first child and due to give birth pretty much any second now, was doing. “I’ll call him before I go to bed.”

“It’s pretty late out here,” Zane said. “I can call him first thing in the morning if you’d like. Then he’ll be ready.”

I’d forgotten about the time difference. It was nearly eight o’clock here, which meant it was close to eleven in both Pennsylvania and Boston. Justin was a bit of a night owl, but I didn’t want to disturb Tareth if she was getting any sleep. “Thank you. Yes, please give him a call and tell him I’ll shoot him a text when we land out there.”

“Will do.”

“I appreciate it. I hope to see you.”

“I hope so too.” He sounded a little sad. “I’ll let you know. If not, I’ll talk to you when you call to give me the Anax substitute instructions. Thanks for calling, Tobias.”

“Thanks for agreeing to mind things while I’m away, old friend. We’ll talk soon.” I disconnected the call and put down the phone.

Calling my friends was bittersweet. I didn’t want to discuss business with them. I wanted things to be simple. To be able to just talk to my friends because they were my friends. Then again, things had never been simple for me, not even before my change, so why would they start now?

The only simple thing would be going to bed. And that was what I did.