You may be wondering what on earth I am talking about, because we all know the sweet tale of St. Valentine. We were taught that in the year 271 Emperor Claudius of Rome issued a decree forbidding marriage. He did this after learning that married men didn’t make very good soldiers, because they wanted nothing more than to stay with their beloved wives and children.  So Claudius issued his law that there should be no more marriages, and all single men should report for duty.

A kind priest named Valentine declared that such a decree was blasphemous, and he secretly continued to marry young lovers. When Claudius learned of this extreme act of defiance, he had Valentine executed on February 14. The priest was labeled a martyr and then a saint and Valentine’s Day, a day for lovers, was born.

Sound familiar? Well, what you may not know is that in the early days of Christianity it’s followers did everything they could to sway the populace to turn to their religion. Knowing how popular pagan gods and goddesses were, as well as the dates of pagan festivals, they set about replacing as many of the entities and the holidays as possible with ecclesiastical saints and feast days (which is why nearly every Christian holiday has ties to pagan ones).

Once upon an ancient time, mid-February was devoted to acts of love, acts much naughtier and lustier than the Church liked, so they claimed the days of February 14 through 17 as belonging to Saint Valentine, the holy martyr that bound couples in proper Christian love.

What happened before the Christians claimed these days? Well, some scholars found that the period of mid-February was a time for mating in multiple ancient cultures. Modern day lovers spend this time of year at an expensive restaurant, but in ancient times it was spent becoming a man and finding a mate.

Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, there was a Wolf Charmer known as the Lupicinus. The Lupicinus may have been an individual tribesman who had a particular gift for communicating with wolves. As the tribes developed agriculture and small villages, it was necessary to have a person skilled in howling with the wolves and convincing them not to attack their livestock. Some say that because he also wore the pelt of a wolf, the Lupicinus also had the ability to transform himself into a wolf.

Every year on February 15 the Romans held the Lupercali festival, a day of blooding rites. They would first sacrifice a goat and then a dog. The blood of the she-goat and the dog were mixed, and a bloodstained knife was dipped into the mixture and drawn slowly across the foreheads of two noble-born children. Once the children had been “blooded,” the gore was wiped off of their foreheads with wool that had been dipped in goat milk. As the children were being cleansed, they were expected to laugh. It was believed that laughing demonstrated their lack of fear of blood and their acknowledgment that they had received magical protection against wolves and wolfmen.

The god Lupercus, represented by a wolf, would then inspire the men to behave as wolves, to act much like werewolves during the festival.

That’s not all, there is more! Luperca, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, may have given rise to secret groups known as the Luperci. According to some scholars, for centuries, the Luperci observed an annual ritual of chasing women through the streets of Roman cities and beating them with leather thongs. Once the wolfman had ensnared a woman with his whip or thong, he would take her away to be his wife or lover. Not very romantic is it? Well, as years passed, the Romans became less barbaric and the Lupercali was celebrated by a man binding the lady of his choice wrist to wrist, and later by suggesting to his woman a romantic meeting in some secluded place.

I’m sure you can see why the Church was quick to replace these bloodrites and lusty nights with a sweet day of wholesome love. Hence Valentine’s Day.

I’m sure many scholars will argue against this history of Valentine’s Day, however, there are also many who will fight for the truth of it. Personally, I love the fact that this day was once a day focused on wolves and sex. What do you think?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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In the interview Dylan revealed that our favorite best friend duo (Stiles and Scott) will be pursuing different paths. “I think Stiles kind of had to take the reins last year with Scott, who was more in a state of panic and wasn’t quite ready to handle all the werewolf endeavors. Stiles picked up the slack. This year, Scott and Stiles separate a little bit — not as friends, but in their storylines in a sense,” shared Dylan. “I think Stiles is going to have a lot more to deal with on his own this year.” Hmmm… like a date with Lydia? Well, in the interview he hesitated to call them dates – instead opting for “forced-hang out occasions.”

While I am glad that Stiles and Scott with have their own storylines, I am kind of bummed that we won’t be seeing them together as much.

On a happier note, EW did get a chance to chat with the newbies. Check it out:

Gage Golightly plays Erika, a bullied high school loser whose days of lonely lunchtimes are over after she is bitten by a werewolf. In an instant, she’s “the girl who walks in the cafeteria and forks drop,” says Golightly. “It’s very fun to play that whole transformation and just be able to get back at everybody who made fun of her all those years.” In sexier news, Golightly revealed her favorite scene so far is when she shares a “sexually intense” scene in the morgue with… well, we don’t know yet since EW wouldn’t share! But apparently she’s getting hot with someone on the show.

Up next is Sinqua Walls, who plays new “troublemaker” Boyd, who “brings an interesting animalistic nature” to the show. Boyd, after finding new physical strength, joins the lacrosse team and gains a new level of confidence. But, Walls says, his sudden transformation doesn’t erase all traces of his insecure past. “I hope to show the slow maturation from going really insecure to being confident,” he says. “Inside, [he still has] those nerves and anxieties and self-consciousness.”

What do you guys think so far? How do you feel about less Stiles/Scott time? Or about the addition of more werewolves in town?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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Can you talk a little bit about the new werewolves we’re going to see this season on Being Human and how they’re obviously different from Josh?
I can’t tell you exactly what they are. What I can say is they represent a real threat to Josh, and not so much physically, but more socially. Who they are is also a threat to the people that Josh loves. I don’t really want to give you more than that because, thinking about it now, it is kind of a reveal in the episode. So I feel like I would be doing the show a disservice by revealing what they are, but I promise you that they’re really bad ass and cool.

I’m anxious to see where Josh’s and Nora’s (Kristen Hager) relationship goes this season. Are you pleased with how they’ve been writing that relationship so far and what do you enjoy most about playing those scenes out with Kristen Hager?
Well, Kristen Hager is for all intensive purposes the fourth roommate, right? Especially this season, I think she is as much part of the show as any of us and she’s such a brilliant actress. So I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet. My scene partners, Sam, Meaghan and Kristen, are just so brilliant.

But yes, the cool thing is I have a deep connection with Kristen, and some of the scenes we’re in together are so heavy and relatable. They’re about real issues, including miscarriage and pregnancy, which are probably happening way too soon in this relationship. These are the types of things, though, that I think people can probably really relate to, and Kristen and I take that into everything we do.

She does such a beautiful job that it makes me have to work harder to keep up. As far as how they continue to write their relationship, man, it’s like a rollercoaster. It’s all over the place this season and, without revealing too much, it really has to do with the trauma that her being a werewolf causes to the relationship and how Nora reacts to that. The party scene (in episode three) where she breaks down is one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever been a part of. It’s just so crushing.

Read the full interview HERE.

What do you guys think? How are you liking this season of SyFy’s Being Human so far?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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1. Being Human: Interview with Sam Huntington, Playing Josh the Werewolf
2. BBC3′s Being Human Adds Two New Werewolves to the Cast
3. Season One of SyFy’s ‘Being Human’ Coming Soon to DVD

“High school is over and summer has begun in the dead-end seaside town of Rainmouth. While Jamie’s friends seem to be happy working in the local pie factory by day and looking for a shag by night, Jamie is bored out of his mind, running his pot-head mother’s B&B. He’s desperate to get out of there. But when he meets beautiful, smart and sexy American traveler Juliana at a party, he’s smitten – the world is not so small after all.

But soon after Juliana’s arrival, strange things start happening. One of the local teens goes missing at a party. Then, another. Jamie is warned by an enigmatic stranger that a werewolf is in town – and preying solely on virgin flesh! The only way to be safe seems to be to pop your cherry. (But that can’t be true… can it?)

As the locals are picked off one by one, the boys fear that a werewolf is indeed after them. And for all their talk, it turns out none of them have ever had sex before…

Pretty soon, everyone is dying to get laid…”

The movie appears to have been in the making for a while now and according to IMDB it’s set to be released sometime this year. Love Bite’s official website reports that the film was picked up for distribution and that the studio was shopping Love Bite at this year’s AFM. There is no word on when we’ll be able to see this strange movie for ourselves.

What do you think of Love Bite? Personally, I think it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but then, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to.

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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“Luke Thorpe is a fifteen-year-old wimp. Excellent at math and terrible at sports, he’d rather keep his head down and get on with his schoolwork. Yet, mysterious and uncontrollable changes in his behavior and appearance – patches of hair growing rapidly, howling rather than singing the hymns in assembly, sudden growth spurts causing his clothes to rip off – are threatening to rocket him out of obscurity. Join Luke on a journey of discovery, embarrassing mishaps and hilarity as he gets to the bottom of his werewolf roots, joins a pack, and finds himself en route to war against the vampires (whose number include a rather wimpy, but familiar face) …”

That vampire he is talking about is from Tim Collins other doodle diary series – The Diary of a Wimpy Vampire.

I know Adventures of a Wimpy Werewolf isn’t exactly a book for all of the adults here, but it’s sure to be a fun read, even if you’re all grown up.

What do you think of these kid books? Do you think you’ll ever give Wimpy Werewolf a read, even if you aren’t a kid?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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For those of you who don’t obsessively keep track of Twilight DVD dates, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is being released on DVD a month earlier than the previous Twilight movies. There’s a reason for that, and it is actually because of Valentine’s Day.

“We thought the fans would love to spend Valentine’s Day watching Bella and Edward’s wedding and honeymoon. It’s really the most romantic of all the Saga films,” said T.J. Moffett, Summit’s EVP of Home Entertainment Marketing.

That’s some pretty clever marketing right there. I know what loads of ladies will be getting for their Valentine’s gift this year.

Both the DVD and Blu-ray are packed with an assortment of extra features, including fast forward features to your favorite Jacob and Edward scenes. Other features include Bella and Edward’s Wedding Video; audio commentary with director Bill Condon, and a 6-part “Making Of” documentary that goes behind the scenes of the most talked about film of 2011.

For those that need a refresher, in the highly anticipated fourth installment of The Twilight Saga, a marriage, honeymoon and the birth of a child bring unforeseen and shocking developments for Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) and those they love, including new complications with werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

Who here is picking up Breaking Dawn: Part 1 the day it’s released? Anyone going to have a Twilight marathon on Valentine’s Day?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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1. ‘Being Human’ Season 3 Coming Soon to DVD & Blu-ray
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First up is the werewolf found in the new Blade anime. Directed by Mitsuyuki Masuhara, the 12 episodes originally aired in Japan last summer, and a few weeks ago, Blade finally came to the US via G4. I watched the first episode not too long ago, and I’ll admit, it was badass. What made it even better was the werewolf that Blade battles it out with. As much I love werewolves, this one was creepy, so I was definitely cheering Blade on when he took him down. Here’s hoping the anime has more werewolves, it’s kind of doubtful, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

As I said above, there are also werewolves in Blade: Trinity, you just have to look in the right spot – and that spot is the deleted scenes. If you loved the movie as much as me and actually spent time watching every single bonus feature, you’ll know that hidden in the deleted scenes is an alternate ending featuring werewolves. In Blade: Trinity all vampires are destroyed by a virus at the end of the film, so the Nightstalkers need something new to hunt, and that something is werewolves. The scene is set in a casino and shows the Nightstalkers kicking werewolf ass. The scene was rejected for use in the film due to the discontinuity with the back story, and because the director thought it was too silly.

So, yes, there are werewolves in the vampire slaying Blade series. Who knows, maybe there will be more in the future.

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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(click titles to view on Amazon)

Blood Blade by Marcus Pelegrimas
Book one in the Skinners series, the werewolves may not necessarily be the stars of this book, but since it sounds badass I am adding it to the list of potentially good reads. According to the Blood Blade description, “There is a world you don’t know about, inhabited by supernatural creatures of darkness—vampires, werewolves, and all manner of savage, impossible beasts that live for terror and slaughter and blood. They are all around us but you cannot see them, for knowledge of their presence—so close and so hungry—would surely drive any ordinary human insane. But for centuries a special breed of hunter has kept the monsters at bay, preventing them from breaking through the increasingly fragile barriers protecting our mortal realm. These guardians are called skinners. But beware . . . for there are very few of them left.”

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
This is the first book in the Mercy Thompson series, which is one of the better known werewolf series out there. Mercy Thompson’s life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she’s fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn’t exactly normal herself.

Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint
His name when he was human was Kern. Now he is the most feared of beings: a werewolf. When the change first came upon him, his parents drove him away with silver daggers. Later, he sought human companionship, but he could not hide the truth for long. And so he kept running until he ran headlong into the deadliest pursuer of all – a harper bent on stealing his life away. By chance Kern was able to find refuge at the Inn of the Yellow Tinker, and the woman he was destined to love. But can he risk both human and harper vengeance to keep her?

Moonlight by Rachel Hawthorne
In this young adult romance, Kayla is the nature lover, the all-American beauty who can’t understand why she’s so drawn to distant, brooding Lucas. Adopted as a young child, she has no way of knowing that she’s inherited a terrifying-and thrilling-gene that will change her life forever. Lucas is dangerous, gorgeous … and a werewolf. As leader of the Dark Guardians, shape-shifters who gather deep within the state park, he has sworn to protect his pack. But when Lucas finds his true soul mate, his love could put them all in harm’s way. As Lucas and Kayla struggle with their feelings for each other, a greater danger lurks: Humans have discovered the Dark Guardians and are planning their destruction. Kayla must choose between the life she knows and the love she feels certain is her destiny.

Heart Beast by Tanith Lee
Wanted for murder, Daniel Vehmund travels the world, lured by a brilliant diamond and damned by a curse that transforms him into a beast.

This concludes today’s werewolf book attack! There are many MANY more werewolf books out there so I’ll probably be doing this more often. Now grab a book and read! Also, if there are any werewolf books you’d like for me to add to the next book attack list let me know in a comment here or on my Twitter!

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

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1. Werewolf Book Watch: New Releases This Month
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It has been a long while since we heard anything on FDR: American Badass! and I was thinking that maybe it was just a big joke after all. I mean, would someone really make a werewolf movie about President Franklin Roosevelt shooting Nazis with his wheelchair of death? Yes, yes they would. The trailer for this bizarre campy film was released and yes, it’s about our 32nd werewolf president. Check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

…Yup, well uh, that’s the trailer for FDR: American Badass! I’ll be honest, I was expecting much worse, like, a film made with someone’s iPhone camera in their backyard. While absolutely ridiculous, the movie looks pretty entertaining and who knows, it may even become a cult classic one day.

Unfortunately, there is no release date yet since agents are still negotiating with studios. But director Garrett Brawith did chat with Entertainment Weekly about the film, so we’ve got some info on what the hell is up with FDR:AB. Check it out:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First question — WTF?
GARRETT BRAWITH: Just to satisfy those who think the trailer is fake: It’s real, so yes, there is a God. And people keep asking why we’d make a movie where the 32nd president’s wheelchair shoots rockets and blows away Nazi werewolves but the answer’s always the same. For the children. We do it for the children.

This is obviously based on a true story. What kind of research did you and screenwriter Ross Patterson do to bring this saga in American history to the screen?
Research is the most important part of any project, so we drank four and a half gallons of ether and watched a doc on the History Channel. That night, we spoke to FDR. Or the cops. It’s all a little fuzzy.

Barry Bostwick finds out he has contracted polio from a werewolf bite and asks “Does my c–k still work?” What did you do to prevent him from laughing and ruining every take? (Did it involve actually doing something to his you-know-what? Because that looked like some method acting.)
Barry Bostwick is a genius. We were never worried about him. It was the cast, the crew, and ourselves we had to worry about. It’s hard to shoot a scene when the camera man can’t keep a straight face. And although we didn’t hurt Barry’s you-know what, we did threaten to. It just makes the scene that much deeper, ya know?

The upcoming movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — friend or foe?
Twilight proved that werewolves are so much more badass than vampires. And they don’t cry or sparkle like the front row of a Justin Bieber concert. But there’s room for everybody at this party.

Haha! Read the full interview here.

Ok, the man has a good sense of humor, I think I’ll actually check this film out once it’s released. What do you guys think?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

Related posts:

1. FDR: American Badass
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You mentioned in earlier interviews that one difference in “The Wolf Gift” from other werewolf stories will be the fact that the man-wolf, Reuben, will retain his sense of himself before, during and after the transformation.  Why was it important for you to change this basic element of the werewolf story?
 I simply couldn’t get interested in the werewolf of film and story who goes rabidly wild as a werewolf and remembers nothing of what he did the next day.  Those old werewolf films present the transformation as a curse, and as pointless.  The werewolf shreds his victims indiscriminately and doesn’t even seem to enjoy it.  He certainly doesn’t feed on them.  And then he’s back in the human body hearing about what he did.  Where can one go with that old formula? Right to a tragic finish with a silver bullet.  —– I had to explore the idea of a Man Wolf loving the transformation itself, and being entirely conscious as he experiences it, loving the feel of the wolf coat growing out of his skin, loving the newfound strength to climb walls, vault over rooftops, etc, and loving the fact that he can smell the evil of his victims.  Reuben of course experiences tremendous changes as the result of the “gift” but he is still Reuben, trying to figure things out, reflecting on what he’s done and whether or not he can ever get it under control.  I need a fully conscious hero.  I need a hero capable of wrestling with contradictions.  As I explored all this many revelations came to me — that in the wolfen state Reuben was neither animal nor human, but an enhanced combination of the two.  He possesses the cunning of a human being, with the immense strength and compulsion to act of a beast.  Now, that’s exciting to me. The Man Wolf has the potential to be a hero.

What other changes have you made to the original legend of the werewolf? Right off, I eliminated the idea of the full moon controlling Reuben’s transformation. That was key.  I wanted a wholly new cosmology and origin story.  The old werewolf material is magical, rather like the old vampire material. Vampires cannot be near garlic, cannot endure the sight of a crucifix, must be in a coffin with their native soil in it, etc.  The old werewolf changes during the full moon, remembers nothing.  Well, I couldn’t work with those limitations.  If you introduce that kind of magic, the universe of the novel is too structured, too limited.  I wanted Reuben wrestling with scientific questions about what’s happening to him, what do hormones have to do with it, can it be controlled by strong will, etc.  Of course he wonders if he is part of a moral plan, and if so, what that means.  He can smell evil and he asks himself why that is.  Is there a simple physical explanation for picking up the scent of the malicious, or it is this a moral given, and if so who has given him the power?  To me that is the kind of complexity that makes a revival of the old classic horror monsters possible.  But every author of supernatural novels today works out his or her own cosmology. The biggest change I’ve made, of course, is to see the transformation as a gift. Some werewolf films do speak of the “change” as a gift, but ultimately they play it out as a curse.  For Reuben it is much more a gift than a curse.

Read the full interview HERE.

After reading Anne’s answers I am so much more excited about The Wolf Gift! It sounds like she is making werewolves her own, and that like all her books, she has put a great deal of thought into her character. I can’t wait!

The Wolf Gift will be released on February 14, 2012.

What do you think of Anne’s werewolf? Do you like her ideas so far, or do you prefer the forgetful monster seen in most werewolf books?

- Moonlight

About the Author
Moonlight loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to werewolves and other supernatural beasties. She writes for top genre sites like Vampires.com and Werewolves.com. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and you may lose a limb. You can stalk her via her Twitter.

Related posts:

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2. Anne Rice is Writing a Werewolf Book!
3. Give the Gift of Werewolves!