Homicide detective Allison Goodnight has a big problem. One look at the mutilated victim in her latest case tells her he has been killed by a rogue werewolf. She ought to know; she's a werewolf, too. Her whole family is--members of an ancient species separate from humans but passing as human. It is urgent that she close this case, without revealing the killer's nature, before more people die and humans' racial memory of her kind reawakens. But the killer is a stranger unknown to any of the local clan...and her new partner is watching her with unnerving intensity. If he sees too much, she may have to turn killer herself to protect her people.
Inspector Cole Dunavan finds himself in a parking garage with no memory except of his murder. And that's just the start of his troubles. He has no idea why he's become a ghost. He senses there's more to it than his murder. Worse, he has no idea how to be a ghost. It doesn't come with instructions. No one sees or hears him. He can't move objects. And initially, he can't even walk through doors or walls. In the struggle to learn his purpose and master his incorporeal state, however, he discovers that haunting can be rewarding.
In an ancient African of verdant Sahara plains, warrior princess Jeneba Karamoke has grown up scorned by her people because her father was a leopard man. When she rescues a party of fellow warriors from cannibalistic half-men, she hopes it will finally win her acceptance. But no...in order to prove she isn't lying about the vanished hero Tomo Silla's part in their capture by the half-men she must make Tomo face the tribe. Can she find him, and then survive more monsters, foreign tribes, war, and a curse on a fabled city to bring him back alive?
Every story, whatever the genre, happens somewhere. Every story involves characters whose background has helped make them what they are. Checking On Culture provides a structured approach to aid the author in creating the place and characters, a checklist of fifty-two categories Lee developed for writing her own books. The checklist and its accompanying commentary and examples is adaptable for all genres, whether the author wants to construct an entire civilization or just needs a reminder to consider the details in a setting close to home.
