Guest Post and Giveaway: The Case of the Man Eater by Jenna Rose & Katey Hawthorne

We’re so pleased to have authors Jenna Rose and Katey Hawthorne dropping by today on the tour for their latest collaboration, Kanaan & Tilney: The Case of the Man Eater. We’ve got a fun interview they did with each other to share, and there’s also a giveaway, so be sure to check out all the entry details via the Rafflecopter widget below.

Welcome, Jenna and Katey!

Hi, everyone, and thanks so much for letting us stop by! Today’s the book birthday of our latest Kanaan & Tilney mystery, The Case of the Man Eater. To kick things off, we thought we’d be weird and interview each other about the book. There are five main factions of “praeternaturals” in the K&T world: Beasts, Elementalists, Terrans, Necromorphs, and Psychogenics, all with different paranormal powers.

Got any questions? Add your own for us as a comment and enter our giveaway. <3

Katey: So, Jenna, let’s start with you! The Beast faction–the shifters–of praeteranturals in the Kanaan & Tilney ‘verse is largely of your creation. Can you talk about what inspired your favorite aspects of that part of the world building?

Jenna: Well, you know me, I love werewolves. I have a tendency to pick a favorite character in a book or a movie or a tv show and then they just happen to turn out to be a werewolf. It’s weird. Anyway, I guess part of my inspiration came from things I’d seen and read–Things I liked, things I didn’t like, things I kept wondering why don’t they do this? Don’t get me started on the Underworld werewolves. Those things were terrible.

I think my favorite thing about Beasts is the pack system we came up with. Animals, by and large, live in social groups and it was interesting and a lot of fun to translate that into a modern day group living in a major metropolitan city. It’s not true to the nature of all animal social groups (Another thing not to get me started on–The outdated ideas of how wolf packs work), but it makes sense for a not-quite-animal-not-quite-human group.

What would you say you enjoyed most in the creation of the Beast faction?

Katey: I really like coming up with the subculture within each pack and applying that to the characters. It shapes them so much. Like Mateo–I won’t give anything major away about his part in the plot of The Man Eater, but their reliance on old-fashioned lion pride politics really shaped how we thought of him. It was cool to do a Beast-centric mystery this time and get to play with that a lot.

Plus, I mean, there’s Lowell and all his issues, and his screwed up ex-pack, which we get to meet in this book, and all the strange characters therein…

Jenna: Yessss, pack politics were fun. It was great to explore that and to explore how packs work exactly since we only touched on it briefly in the first book.

K: Yeah that one was all Necromorph–the energy eater–Faction all the time. This one let the Beasts shine.

J: We revisited a few characters in this book and introduced a bunch of new ones? Did you have a favorite?

K: I always love Macy–who our friend Fan’ was instrumental in creating. I like John having a really grounded friend outside the relationship. And I love Mina for Lowell, too. They look out for the boys and the boys look out for them. What about you?

J: Hm, apart from the girls, I’d have to say it’s the raccoon twins. They were just a lot of fun to write.

K: I love the raccoon twins. Oh my god. Speaking of fun applications of Beast pack stuff…

J: Yes, definitely! Deciding what animals the Beasts were was fun too!

K: I loved it, and largely because of that thing I was talking about before, where their pack affects their personality so much. Or lack of pack, which we see a lot in this book, what with the whole packless-getting-knocked-off-constantly theme.

Which makes me think of Lowell. Obvs. So talk a little bit about how you came up with the idea to have Lowell as a packless Beast, and how that influenced his character–both creation-wise and as it’s developing in this second book.

J: I knew I wanted Lowell to be a bit of an outsider, someone who didn’t quite fit in the world he was still trying to help, and it went from there. It was that, actually, that first led me to the pack idea to begin with. As the details of how a pack worked got ironed out, it influenced Lowell’s creation even more. Knowing, for example, that Lowell’s mother’s life and passing would have been much different had a pack been involved in their lives, definitely shaped not only how he viewed packs, but how he acts in his personal relationships.

Also, Beasts have this wonderful, built-in family of a sorts and I thought it would be interesting to explore what would happen if you took that away.

K: Yeah that’s super fun to play with. I like how he’s got an outside perspective but it’s by no means a fair and balanced one. I mean, I think he’s right, but there’s definite bias lol.

J: SUPER biased. But with good reason. You can’t really blame him.

So, what about John? We do a bit more exploring into his character in this one too. There’s the appearance of his mother, for one…

K: Yeah she’s a good example of the bias in the praeternatural communities against Beasts–and the kind of person who thinks they’re “not prejudiced, but”. Also she’s the worst mom. John’s a weirdo largely because she didn’t really thinking of him as a son but as a tiny research assistant.

J: She really is the worst. It’s probably a good thing Lowell has yet to meet her because he’d have a few choice words for her.

K: Yeah we’re saving that for a later book.

J: I have to ask: If you were a Beast, what kind of animal would you want to be?

K: Maine Coon. Hands down. You?

J: A wolf, definitely.

K: Epic. What about you all?

About the Book

Title: Kanaan & Tilney: The Case of the Man Eater
Authors: Jenna Rose and Katey Hawthorne
Publisher: Loose Id
Buy Link: Loose Id
Pairing: Bisexual M/Demisexual Biromantic M
Series: Kanaan & Tilney Investigations #2
Blurb: Wolf-Beast and ex-cop Lowell Kanaan recently brought his boyfriend, Elementalist and mystery author John Tilney, into the PI business with him. They’ve been solving cases for Boston’s varied praeternatural communities ever since. So when a young Terran feels that the brutal murder of his Beast boyfriend isn’t being treated seriously enough by the police, he brings the case to Kanaan & Tilney for a second opinion.

Similarly defiled corpses pop up around Boston as they race to find the killer. All the victims are packless Beasts, like Lowell, and the vicious nature of the killings stir up old prejudices in the praeternatural community, Beast and otherwise. Throw a personal vendetta and some ugly family history for Lowell in the mix, and the trails are as muddy as ever.

This case will test Kanaan & Tilney’s strength, both as a PI team and a couple. It’ll take all they have to keep each other alive—and stop a serial killer.

About the Authors

Jenna Rose is an avid reader and writer, particularly when it comes to science-fiction and fantasy. Currently, she works as a receptionist, but her real love is writing. In her free time, she likes to read comic books, play video games, and waste time on the internet. She currently lives in Massachusetts with her dog, Harley.

Website || Tumblr

Katey Hawthorne is an avid reader and writer of superpowered romance, even though the only degree she holds is in the history of art. (Or, possibly, because the only degree she holds is in the history of art.) Originally from the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia, she currently lives in Ohio. In her spare time she enjoys comic books, B-movies, loud music, Epiphones, and Bushmills.

Website || Tumblr || Twitter

The Giveaway

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