Our LadySmut Paranormal Tea Party on FB last Sunday was fuuuuuuuuuuun!

Joey W. Hill and Kate Douglas were our special guests. It was a part of #Romance15, the online romance festival put out by our publisher, Harper Collins UK.  I know what you’re thinking — yes, we enjoyed our frivolous little online gathering, but what exactly did we learn from the experience?

Welp.  Joey Hill is awesomely nice – and I learned that she has a LOT of other paranormal out there that’s not just vampires. (Witches and mermaids—oh my!) I am going to read up and report back to you on that.

I learned that there is no fan like fans of werewolves/shifters.  In honor of Kate Douglas I asked fans to post their fav wolf references and kicked things off with Duran, Duran’s HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF.

If that doesn’t bring back the mid-80’s to you, nothing will!

Fan responded back with Florence and the Machine’s HOWL:

Love that wolf thang!

The Paranormal tea party was also a opportunity to post photos of bloody tea cups and women wearing adorable little tea cup hats. (Thank you Liz Everly!)

Speaking of Joey Hill – if you don’t know about her (and how could you not? But maybe you’ve been living on mars–I dunno) We got to chat with her about her dominant vampire queen who gets together with a submissive hero.  How did she get away with it?  I mean, let’s face it, most authors couldn’t, because most romance readers like their men very dominant.  But this is a no less intense romance series.  Joey indicated that what does it for readers is the point where her human servants are bound to their vampire mistresses/masters for good.  And they want that.  They’re ‘all in’.   It’s a kind of “I promise to live for nothing and no one but you” perverse romantic ideal.  A romance hero who’s ‘all in’ definitely sends out alpha vibes.

Kate Douglas, meanwhile, is kicking off a whole new series for St. Martin’s Press. This time her series is with werewolves as opposed to her wolf shifter romances.  So in her posts she was asking us how we like our werewolves. Bitten, cursed, or born that way?

We were all over the map.  One thing we agreed upon is that we love broody heroes – but don’t like them too angsty.  Tread carefully with that cursed thing, Kate.  One reader said “bitten – I love biting.” Yes, dear reader! Yes to biting. (Unless you’re in first grade and some horrid little boy is biting you.)

Of course, our tea party wouldn’t be complete without weighing in on the big question of the universe.  Why do some women like vampires while others only like werewolves?

The difference seems about controlled power vs. primal release.  Joey W. Hill is into the controlled power.  Although her vampire queen may be fragile and like a twisted china doll in some respects, she is still definitely in control.  Joey also goes to the BDSM side of life–this too is all about having control. Kate Douglas on the other hand likes the primal thing – a different kind of “all in”. Uninhibited, in the moment, raw.

Let me pause a moment to say that when you describe it that way, I clack my teeth with happy desire. I admit I lean more to the vampire side in general.  But I don’t know, I also like my people au natural and the wolfie side of romance seems to uphold a no fuss, no muss approach to life.

I hope the next time we party you join with us.  Meanwhile, I’m giving out a copy of our anthology to anyone who answers the eternal question in the comment section below: vampires or wolves?