“Considering media portrayals featuring the unpredictable and deadly nature of shapeshifters, werewolves especially, was the origin of my werecat family saga series. However, rather than succumbing to their feral natures as commonly depicted in such portrayals, I had in mind for my characters to come to grips with them.”
Mark J. Engels
Mark J. Engels creates enticing worlds in the genre of urban fantasy, where the ordinary meets the paranormal. With its compelling story, “Werecats Emergent,” wowed readers and won the BREW Readers’ Choice Award particularly the Book of the Month for February 2024 title. Engels’ journey from the practical world of signal systems to the ethereal werecat and urban intrigue realms is nothing short of fascinating, especially with this distinction.
Born in Michigan and currently living in Wisconsin with his family, Engels crafts books centered on the mysterious existence of werecats—a contemporary subset of an ancient tribe split apart by international strife. His love of trains as a child, his background in electrical engineering, and his absorption in anthropomorphic, manga, and anime fandoms have all influenced his narrative.
Though “Werecats Emergent” is the first in his werecat family saga series, The Forest Exiles Saga, it is not Engels’ first foray into the realms of paranormal suspense and urban intrigue. In 2017, he presented readers with the rich world of “Always Gray in Winter.” This forerunner of his tale, now out of print, underwent fine-tuning to become “Werecats Convergent,” Book 2 of The Forest Exiles tale series.
Engels is a highly respected member of both the Furry Writers’ Guild and the Allied Authors of Wisconsin. His ability to create stories that straddle the line between fact and fiction draws in readers.
Let us explore this acclaimed urban fantasy author’s mind to learn about the sources of inspiration, passions, and thought processes that drive his fantastical stories. Mark J. Engels will take you on a journey into the core of urban fantasy, covering everything from the beginnings of his werecat mythos to the subtleties of fusing genres.
Exploring Werecat Lore
TWB: What inspired you to create the unique supernatural species of werecats in “Werecats Emergent,” and how does it differ from other shapeshifter myths?
MJE: I came across an artist some years ago whose characters included anthropomorphic cats set in a contemporary spy thriller setting. One of them suffered from a debilitating neurological condition, manifesting in an unpredictable–and oftentimes deadly–feral persona. I contemplated an entire extended family, perhaps even a clan composed of several families, the remnant of a much larger population, struggling to square such a circle in our present time. Considering media portrayals featuring the unpredictable and deadly nature of shapeshifters, werewolves especially, was the origin of my werecat family saga series. However, rather than succumbing to their feral natures as commonly depicted in such portrayals, I had in mind for my characters to come to grips with them. Harnessing their feral natures to help them live their lives and care for their loved ones while still fitting in well enough with society-at-large to avoid attracting undue attention to themselves. Much as their ancestors had learned to do, going back centuries. My books are built on the premise that this current generation didn’t quite succeed in that endeavor, but not for lack of effort or diligence.
“I coined a portmanteau to describe the amount of research I did–‘ridicustupid.’ From the outset my primary audience was me, as I wanted to celebrate elements I thought interesting and noteworthy and fun from my own life.“
Mark J. Engels
TWB: Can you elaborate on the research or world-building process that went into developing the lore and characteristics of werecats in your story?
MJE: I can a little, but you surely can’t spare the space for me to elaborate on all of it! I coined a portmanteau to describe the amount of research I did–“ridicustupid.” From the outset my primary audience was me, as I wanted to celebrate elements I thought interesting and noteworthy and fun from my own life. But to craft a narrative around them, I had to find a way to tie together many seemingly disparate threads. So down I went, one rabbit hole after another. (Pretty sure I’ve got an entire forest’s worth of warrens mapped out by now.) About ice hockey and martial arts and the Great Lakes and maritime trade and ethnic Chicago neighborhoods and Cold War-era Poland. Because these were things that interested me, and I wanted to share that interest with others through my writing.
Family Dynamics in Urban Fantasy
TWB: The dynamic within the blended human-werecat family adds depth to the narrative. How do family bonds and loyalty influence the characters’ decisions and interactions throughout the series?
MJE: Because many of the characters are relatably selfless and selfish, oftentimes both simultaneously. One may want to help another, but they do it in the way that seems best to them rather than in the way the other might actually want or need them to.
TWB: Are there any personal experiences or observations that informed the portrayal of familial relationships in your story?
MJE: I write both out of the abundance of my heart and out of the deep, aching longings within it. Parts of my books are inspired by the life I’ve lived; other parts by the life I wish I had. I leave it to my readers to discern which parts are which, if they’re so inclined. Next question.
Navigating Teenage Struggles
TWB: Pawly’s journey as a teenager discovering her werecat heritage is central to the narrative. How did you approach blending themes of adolescence with the challenges of embracing supernatural abilities?
MJE: Seemed to me that one coming to understand and embrace and master one’s supernatural abilities would involve many of the same thrills and challenges and heartaches faced by teens everywhere as they grow into adulthood. I wanted to depict the same sorts of moments, from knee-slaps and fist-pumps to face-palms and stomach-turners. Pawly and her twin brother Tommy experience them from both Growing Up and from Growing Up Werecat.
TWB: What aspects of Pawly’s journey do you believe resonate most with teenage readers, and why?
MJE: I can’t say for sure. You’d have to ask a teenage reader! And it’s been a long time since I’ve been one. I didn’t begin with the idea that Pawly and Tommy would be teenagers at the time the story opened, but I decided they would be because I thought that would best serve the story. There are some “YA” themes and tropes featuring young adults present in the first book, but it’s not a “YA book” per se. And I seem to recall reading somewhere that many readers of YA books are not even teenagers, but thirtysomethings desiring to vicariously relive their own young adulthoods.
Thrills and Suspense in Urban Settings
TWB: Chicago serves as a unique backdrop for “Werecats Emergent.” How does the urban environment contribute to the atmosphere and tension of the narrative, particularly in moments of suspense?
MJE: I had in mind from the get-go that Pawly and her brother would be of Polish descent, and that some of the “old folks” in their lives would themselves be native-born Poles. Chicago was the obvious choice for a setting, being at least passingly familiar to many North American readers, as several generations’ worth of Poland’s diaspora came to settle there (so too the Detroit area, where I was born and raised.) I sought to contrast urban settings such as Chicago and Szczecin in Poland with the rural and wilderness settings also featured in the books, like Wisconsin’s Door County and the Białowieża Forest straddling the border between Poland and Belarus. Because where a werecat might “let their hair down” and roam feral and freely through the woods, I believed characters raging against instinctual urges to do so in a densely populated metropolitan area would add delightful tension. Especially in a time period where there were no longer any phone booths one might run to and pull a “Clark Kent” inside of.
TWB: Can you discuss any specific techniques or elements you employed to effectively evoke the urban setting and its impact on the story?
MJE: Several scenes from the first book take place aboard busses and trains. Several other scenes take place in Chicago neighborhoods of a decidedly different character than the one the twins call home. And several places one might need to drive to outside of the city, like school or church or the corner store or a neighborhood skating rink, one can simply walk to. Which Pawly and Tommy often do, as they’re in the process of earning their driver’s licenses as the story progresses. Readers ought to also enjoy settings-within-a-setting, such as a cross-country ski trail within a Cook County forest preserve. (For readers unfamiliar with the region, Cook County is where Chicago is located.)
Ethical Dilemmas and Moral Choices
TWB: The characters face complex moral decisions throughout the book. How does the narrative explore themes of morality and consequence, especially in the face of difficult choices such as seeking help from a drug cartel or aligning with a rogue state?
MJE: Many of the characters find themselves facing one sort of intractable dilemma or another. They believe circumstances deny them the luxury of doing nothing, so they end up doing something, which in the final analysis may not be the best thing or even the right thing. Pawly and her brother, being teenagers, may do something without thinking. Others, like their Uncle Ritzi–himself a werecat and a scientist trying to help the twins gain control over their lethal urges–may end up thinking too much. The remaining adults in the twins’ lives are somewhere in between. Each trying to do the right thing, but many of them with very different ideas of what the right thing is. And how to go about doing it.
“Many of the characters find themselves facing one sort of intractable dilemma or another. They believe circumstances deny them the luxury of doing nothing, so they end up doing something, which in the final analysis may not be the best thing or even the right thing.“
Mark J. Engels
TWB: What message or lessons do you hope readers take away from the characters’ ethical dilemmas and their resolutions?
MJE: That life is hard. That hindsight is 20/20. That sometimes trying to help only makes things worse. That we need to pause and consider and seek wise counsel. That we all need to show grace, especially to ourselves.
Influence of Experience
TWB: Your background in the rail and transit industry and childhood fascination with trains are intriguing. How do these experiences influence your portrayal of military conflicts and tactics within the narrative?
MJE: I thought about an answer to this question at some length. I don’t believe there is any direct correlation, but I can think of an indirect albeit compelling one. When I came across the artist I mentioned earlier whose characters included anthropomorphic cats set in a contemporary spy thriller setting, I was on a remote assignment living in a hotel room far from home while doing testing & commissioning of the automatic train control system for a rapid transit line extension in a large metropolitan area. During my downtime, when I wasn’t geeking out over the artist’s work, I was jotting down ideas and fleshing out my own storyline. I was also beginning to engage in that ridicustupid amount of research I also mentioned earlier, including, well, military conflicts and tactics.
TWB: Are there any specific instances in “Werecats Emergent” where your expertise or experiences directly informed scenes involving military elements?
MJE: Never have I been a member of any of the uniformed services. But I grew up near the Great Lakes and spent a lot of time on boats of various shapes and sizes, out on the water in all kinds of weather or nearby to the shore. I also worked as a civilian employee for the US Army Corps of Engineers at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, during college at Lake Superior State University. I spent a fair bit of time on and around the very sorts of tugboats and floating plant featured in all of my books. Out of all of them, the tug Lake Superior was my favorite; I got to go aboard and explore whenever it ventured far enough eastward from its Duluth, Minnesota home port. Its sister ship, the virtually identical tug Ludington, is today a floating museum in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, not far from where I live. Like Chicago, a port city on Lake Michigan, and near to where many of the scenes from “Werecats Emergent” take place both ashore and afloat.
Crafting a Series
TWB: “Werecats Emergent” marks the beginning of the Forest Exiles Saga. What challenges did you encounter in crafting a multi-book series, and how did you approach addressing them?
MJE: I never set out to write a series. It just sort of happened that way. When I first came upon these story ideas, I wrote them all down in a ginormous chronological outline, one spanning generations and continents. I solicited feedback from several of the friends I’d made within the anime fan fiction writer community. One who particularly liked my concept implored me not to try to fit the narrative into one book or it’d end up being the size of War and Peace. So I ended up writing a series instead, endeavoring to figure out where in my narrative I could find a good beginning, middle, and end for one book or another. I came up with three.
TWB: Without giving away spoilers, can you provide readers with insights into what they can expect from succeeding installments of the series in terms of themes, character development, or plot progression?
MJE: Though the events transpiring in the several years between the end of the first book and the beginning of the second could well fill out a fourth book, I’m not making any commitments to myself or others to write it. I’m not ruling it out, but writing and editing and publishing and marketing and promoting the first three books has posed a lifetime’s worth of challenges and frustrations already. Readers may rest assured I grapple with this question frequently. The third book ends my chronological outline, finishing the story I set out to tell. But Pawly and her brother and their respective love interests are all in their late twenties by that point. They each have a lot of living left to do, and I might one day set myself to the task of figuring out just what that entails. And then writing about it.
For Urban Fantasy Fans
TWB: Urban fantasy enthusiasts have certain expectations for engaging characters and intricate world-building. How do you ensure that “Werecats Emergent” meets these expectations while also offering a fresh perspective on the genre?
MJE: I only learned about genres and tropes after I’d written my books, setting myself to publishing and marketing them. (Pro tip for you aspiring authors out there–read widely in whichever genre you might want to write in first, so you have a much better idea than I did as you’re developing your concept and drafting your book of just what those are. Then you can be deliberate about including the ones which best serve your story. They’ll also come in handy when time comes for you to select your book’s “comps.”) All I knew about my story before then was that it was my story. So when the story development and drafting and editing was done, I began researching genre tropes and Amazon categories so I knew which audiences might be most interested in my books. I arrived upon “urban fantasy” more by a process of elimination than anything else. Though selling the premise that not all shifter books are paranormal romance remains a struggle, especially in this post-Twilight world in which we live.
TWB: Are there any specific elements or themes in urban fantasy literature that inspired or influenced your approach to writing “Werecats Emergent”?
MJE: Well, yeah, shapeshifters. But that had been an influence long before I was even aware of urban fantasy as a sub-genre, going all the way back to the fateful day a copy of Gene DeWeese’s The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf from the Weekly Reader Book Club arrived in the mail for pre-teen me. A book, like mine, featuring a teenager coming to grips with who and what they are, with help from friends and family, all burdened to keep the family’s secret safe all the while. I read and re-read that book so many times the cover fell off.
Intersection of Genres
TWB: Your book seamlessly blends urban fantasy, family drama, and thriller elements. How do you balance these genres to create a cohesive and compelling story that appeals to a wide audience?
MJE: See my answer above about genres and tropes and telling my stories. I wasn’t even consciously aware of the many genre conventions and recommended tropes I would later try to back my stories in to as I was developing and drafting and editing them. I just set about to tell the stories I wanted to tell in the manner in which I wanted to tell them, for better or worse, come what may. That’s what I attribute any success blending various genre elements to, rather than any conscious decisions or capabilities on my part.
TWB: Can you discuss any challenges or advantages of incorporating multiple genres into your narrative, and how you navigate these intersections to maintain coherence in the storytelling?
MJE: Doing so makes one’s books unlike many other books out there, simultaneously an advantage and a challenge. On which shelf in a bookstore would a reader find my books? Which categories in Amazon should I list my books under? What other books might readers have read recently which are most like mine? These are big questions that I had to contend with after writing and publishing the books so I could begin seeking out and soliciting their target audience. Ultimately urban fantasy seemed to be the closest fit, though I still have my doubts. Previous answers detail the things I’ve done since writing the books to navigate these genre intersections. Though I wrote the sorts of books I myself wanted to read yet couldn’t find, I’m so glad and grateful for all the others who enjoy my books also–jiving to the very sorts of things I do. Thank you for this opportunity to identify and engage them. ⭐
(Cover Photo Credit: Mary Christopherson)
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We’d love to know your thoughts.
What do you think sets Mark J. Engels’ portrayal of werecats apart from other shapeshifter myths? How does the idea of characters grappling with their feral natures add depth to the story?
How do family bonds and loyalty influence the decisions and interactions of characters in “Werecats Emergent”? Can you relate any of these dynamics to your own experiences?
Chicago serves as a unique backdrop in the story. How does the urban environment contribute to the atmosphere and tension of the narrative? Do you have any favorite urban fantasy settings?
Share your thoughts in the comments below and let’s explore the magic of urban fantasy together!
The World's Best 
What a fascinating interview! I have to say I liked the “Always Gray in Winter” title better, but I loved that the question explored the family dynamics in the saga since it was one of my favorite aspects. And I understand the author didn’t set up to write YA, and I’m not a teen either, not by far, but I think Pawly and Tommy are super relatable characters.
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It’s great to hear that you found the interview fascinating! Family dynamics can add such depth to a story, and it’s wonderful to hear that it resonated with you. Even if the author didn’t intend to write YA specifically, it’s fantastic that characters like Pawly and Tommy are still relatable across different age groups indeed. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Working title of Werecats Emergent was For While The Tree Is Green; same for Werecats Resurgent was Red Sky At Morning.
MJE
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Those are very lyrical titles! But I guess the new ones are catchier.
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Clever! It’s interesting how titles can shape our perceptions of a story.
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Interesting! It’s always fascinating to learn about the evolution of titles. “For While The Tree Is Green” and “Red Sky At Morning” have a poetic quality to them that hints at the atmospheric and thematic elements of your work.
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All that is indeed true, which is why I chose those titles–at least at first. The business side of writing and publishing is frequently intractable and capricious, though. My research led me to shorten up the book titles and include “werecats” in the titles to ensure readers searching for similar books on Amazon could find them. I needed my titles and subtitles and blurbs and categories and keywords to do the work of informing Amazon just what readers to pitch my books to. Retitling the books as I’ve described here seemed to me a necessary step to help Amazon do that. How effective was it? We shall see…
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It sounds like you made a strategic decision to optimize your book titles for better visibility on platforms like Amazon, recognizing the importance of aligning with reader expectations and search trends to enhance discoverability—an approach that reflects the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the publishing landscape. Curious to know what happens next…
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Titles, along with covers, are our first approach to a story. I know we are not supposed to judge a book by its cover but first impressions, especially if one doesn’t know the author, are important, in my experience.
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Agreed. I explain more in my reply to Sam.
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I agree. Titles and covers serve as the initial gateway to a story, often shaping readers’ first impressions and sparking their interest. While we aim not to judge a book solely by its cover, these elements play a crucial role, particularly in capturing attention and conveying the essence of the story, especially for readers unfamiliar with the author. It’s a delicate balance between artistic expression and market appeal.
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That was a wise choice, in my opinion. I love poetic titles, but the saga deserves a bigger audience.
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You honor me in saying so, thank you! Reviews by people like you and Sam on Chrysalis BREW, Amazon, Goodreads, and other places helps so much in that very endeavor. So thank you both for that also. ❤
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It was my pleasure. I often forget how much I relate, even in my late thirties, to characters like Pawly. I enjoyed that immensely.
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Then you’re sure to enjoy WERECATS CONVERGENT and WERECATS RESURGENT, when Pawly and Tommy are both in their late 20s. And finally forced to deal with the fallout from Growing Up Werecat. 😉
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True. I agree, while poetic titles have their charm, sometimes a more direct approach can help reach a wider audience and better convey the essence of the saga. It’s all about finding the right balance between artistic expression and accessibility.
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