I’ve edited quite a few YA fantasies and working with young authors is fun. But Jill Farr’s debut novel is a different animal (quite literally!); Tamer is an adult contemporary fantasy. Her main characters, werewolves, are known by different names; Loup-garoux, Lugaru, Rougarou and more in various languages. So, I asked Farr:
Werewolf or Lugaru?
In the Tamer trilogy, I wanted to create a world of shapeshifters that had different segments, based on various cultures’ legends about them. The old French term for “Wolf Man” was loup-garoux, and so the group of shapeshifters in my story that hail from Europe define themselves that way, but the language they speak amongst themselves is a pidgin, so the simplified version of it is lugaru. (Side note: In the story, one group considers the term “werewolf” pejorative. I just thought it would be interesting to highlight how what we call ourselves sometimes has meaning that doesn’t always make immediate sense to others.)
I grew up fascinated with language–one of my favorite books is my old childhood dictionary, with a graph of Indo-European languages–and also with Tolkien. I loved how language was so central in his books, how he created these intricate cultures within the world of his stories. I would never presume to be on anything close to his level, but immersing myself in that realm was very formative for me, just like I’m sure it was for a lot of fantasy readers and writers, and I appreciate the chance to do that in the little world I’ve created.
Werewolves as one of our main fantasy fears have been around a long time. What books/stories/media inspired your furry characters? I think we have great vampire, zombie, and other types of scary stories out there, but a dearth of good werewolf/shapeshifter tales!
The appeal to me is multi-faceted. For one thing, werewolves are unsettling for unique reasons. Vampires are otherworldly, cold, and seductive at the same time. Zombies are terrifying because they’re mindless, and almost unstoppable. But werewolves, well, they’re like us…until they’re not. My father was always fascinated with the old-school, Lon Chaney Wolf Man movies, and I grew up watching them with him. He also identified with them, and would describe his bouts of descending into boredom, alcohol, or drug-induced madness as “turning into the wolf man.” It might be a little bit therapeutic for me to create this world where there’s deeper meaning behind something that isn’t within someone’s control; they have to learn to manage throughout their life. And there’s a symbiotic relationship, with “tamers” who can help them control this aspect of who they are, if they want to.
You introduced some intriguing history of the main characters as readers are well into the book. Why was it important (to you and the story) to include what we learn?
A key component of the stories is the thread of common experience. One of the characters says in the first book, “Time is a sphere,” and that’s a theme that’s repeated through the trilogy. I believe our individual lives have their own significance, and we’re not necessarily captive to the mistakes or traumas of our ancestors, but they’re also part of us. It was important to me that readers experience the richness of the characters’ lives, not just in the present, but the past. The lugaru characters also have expanded lifetimes, so the inclusion of past experiences and history helps to flesh them out, and gives readers a bit more insight into what has shaped them.
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