Where I got the idea for Full Moon Rising
By Keri Arthur
One of the most common questions authors get asked is where do you get your ideas? Mostly, in the past, I’ve simply replied that I have a very strange imagination (a fact my family will back up at a moment’s notice.) But in the case of Full Moon Rising, it wasn’t just my imagination following odd ideas. It was an article I was reading on cloning.
Cloning has always fascinated me. I’m not entirely sure why–maybe it’s that fertile imagination of mine running wild with the possibilities for good and evil that can come from such research. But it was the one particular article that set off the idea that became Full Moon Rising. The article was discussing the pros and cons of cloning, and in the list of possible uses, it suggested bringing deceased relatives back to life–like a dead grandmother or a lost child.
I have to admit, I went whoa! That’s just plain creepy. But then my imagination started taking over. What if long dead grannies weren’t the only source being considered by some, shall we say, less ethical types? What if there were some who wanted to recreate some of histories more ‘colorful’ participants…or, more accurately, its more vicious representatives?
What if there were some who weren’t just satisfied with digging up the past? What if they wanted to create something new? A human who was super fast, super strong, super resilient? Super intelligent? A human who could go anywhere, do anything. Be unstoppable. And what if those scientists lived in a world where vampires and werewolves and shapeshifters were real? Why would they not try to combine the best human genes with those of other races in their attempt to create their ultimate being?
Would they use such creations for good or for evil? As a character notes in Full Moon Rising, “Science and morality are not often bedfellows.”
And money can buy many things. Science and ethics included.
But nature can also make amazing leaps in creation, and from this thought came my two main characters, Riley and Rhoan. They are twins, born of violence, exiled from their own pack because of their mixed werewolf and vampire heritage. Neither is fully aware of what that heritage means in terms of what they are truly capable of, and neither is willing to explore their full potential. But would the scientists, once they are aware of the existence of two living, breathing examples of the perfect union of cells, skills and potential they are trying to develop in the lab, be willing to leave them alone?
Just how far might a scientist compromise his ethical and moral bounds in order to further his career?
To what lengths would a ruthless billionaire go to achieve is ambitions of domination?
How far would one twin go in order to rescue her sibling and stop an unholy harvest? And what powers might Riley and Rhoan discover under the pressure of life or death? Or worse?
With those questions in mind, this story just flowed.
