Imagine a Were-penguin…
Without a doubt the two most dangerous words in the English language are “What if…” (Okay, maybe the two most dangerous words are “hold this” or “come back”. It’s all about context, but I’m being poetic here, so bear with me.)
I love to play a game, if you want to call it that, with my son Bear. For example, he had a friend over the other day (they’re both 16) and they were racing cars on the Xbox in the living room. Perfect. A captive audience that is distracted enough that they’ll tell the truth. (It’s critical to catch teens off-guard.) So, says I, if you could reproduce by dividing yourself like an amoeba, and the resultant other person would be the same age, appear the same, have your memories and full cognition, but from that point forward you would be separate individuals, would you do it? (I didn’t get a look. They’re used to me and my hypotheticals game by now.) First question: would it hurt? Answer: No more than childbirth. Reply: ACK! (Okay, admittedly the wrong answer to a teenaged boy.) Modified answer: No, it doesn’t hurt any more than pooping. Reply: it hurts when you poop? Me: eyeroll.
In the end, the boys both decided they would do it only if A. they could send their double to French class in their stead. I decided not to remind them that their dopplegangers would hate French class too, or B. if they could re-join their doubles with themselves (something like angler fish do when they mate, but without the weird parasitical bits left attached and wihout having to mate with yourself–we watch a lot of documentaries) and then have the memories of both fused into one. I think they liked the idea of sending a part of themselves out into the world, where it would come back with new ideas and experiences to join with their own. Kids are interesting.
We play this game all the time. To (gee, now I have to come up with a blog name for him…) Gorilla I said, which of your parents would you go to if your girlfriend got pregnant. First answer: Girlfriend? Second answer: Mom, definitely. What kind of animal would you be if A. you couldn’t change back or B. could change back. (This is where a conversation about were-penguins came in. For shapeshifters we chose the following: Bear: Well, he chose a bear. Me: golden eagle, Gorilla, well, he chose Gorilla, which is why he gets this blog name. 
This is why I have a hard time understanding the folks who ask me “Where do you get the ideas for your books?” I mean, gee, getting ideas isn’t the problem. I’m battling were-penguins and pooping out dopplegangers. Even the questions they ask and conditions the boys put on things are exactly how you refine a story. What if you could change shape? Can you change back? This is how I write my books exactly. It all starts with what if… what if angels were real? How would they act? How would they organise? Would they have laws? How would they view humans? I’ve got my next 4 or 5 books planned already and more ideas popping up (and out) every day… all started by ‘what if’.
Q. So where do you get your ideas?
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The answer I like to give is ‘From anywhere, anytime.’ because you just never know when ideas will strike you.
Were-penguins could be quite dangerous, because werewolves can’t really swim long distances at high speed and drowning a were-penguin wouldn’t work because penguins can hold their breath underwater for 20 minutes.