Red Sun - Character Profile - Raphael

Originally posted during my Red Sun book tour. 

So… Raphael. Sweet, sweet Raphael. He’s gone through quite the transformation since I first envisioned the series and knew I wanted to write about an “unusual” wolf shifter. And the changes I made to him, in turn, changed the story. For the better. He started out as an older man haunted by the beast within him and became a young man struggling to find his identity. I think this might be the closest to a “coming of age” story that I’ve written so far. That wasn’t intentional but considering the structure of the story, it was a natural fit.  

Raphael is a sheltered man of nineteen, unaware that he’s a shifter, and convinced that he’s possessed by a demon since that’s what his father believes. And his father is his entire world. I ended up making “Red Sun” a bit of an opposite story from book 2, “Love is a Whirlwind.” The bull shifter Ryan, aka Whirlwind, knows what he is and about his world because his father stuck around long enough to educate him. But there was no greater connection between the two. In stark contrast, Raphael and his father have a very close relationship because Raphael’s mother died when he was young, and his father raised him as a single parent. Neither Raphael nor his father know about shapeshifters, and Raphael suffers from that lack of knowledge, which is where Ahmes comes in. Just as Caleb from “Love is a Whirlwind,” needed to show Ryan how to be a human and live in a human world, Ahmes needed to show Raphael how to be a shifter. 

However, there are aspects to how their shifting manifests that sets Ryan and Raphael apart. Ryan was born as a bull and grew up animalistic, though he does look like a normal bull. Raphael doesn’t look like a normal wolf when he shifts. I don’t want to give too much away, but suffice to say, he’s unique in a number of ways and throughout the book he must reconcile what he once believed with all that he learns along the way. 

One of the best things about writing this book is reuniting with a few favorite couples from previous books. Since Raphael and Ahmes make their way toward Haven, Montana, a town founded by shifters for shifters, we get to revisit Xavier and Josh (Healing Minds) and Jack and Travis (Blind Devotion). It was a bit of a tight-rope balance between introducing them to new readers, and to keep the momentum of their growth going for readers who are familiar with them. But, ultimately, it was Raphael and Ahmes’s story, and the focus remained on them. 

It didn’t escape my notice that due to the structure and conflict in “Red Sun,” it could easily be a metaphor for the trials of LGBTQIA youth. Raphael is, indeed, gay, and the struggle with his shifting adds to the greater context of understanding and accepting every aspect of who and what he is. And not letting anyone make him ashamed of the man he is. I was happy to journey with him and see him grow and rise to every challenge thrown at him. He ultimately finds love and acceptance and a community that embraces him. And isn’t that what we all want? 

I hope you stay safe and healthy, and may dragons guard your dreams, 

M.D. Grimm