Have you ever wondered what would happen if technology—not magic—turned people into werewolves? In Love Bytes, debut author W.D. Robertson takes that wild question and spins it into a heartfelt, humorous, and thought-provoking sci-fi romance.
Doctor Cynthia Adams, a brilliant computer scientist, has everything she could ever want—success, wealth, brains—but not the one thing she can’t engineer: love. Trapped in werewolf form thanks to a mysterious technological phenomenon, she’s resigned herself to solitude…until a fateful night on the dance floor changes everything.
Enter Alex Rogers, a down-on-his-luck ballroom instructor in Atlanta who’s definitely not ready to teach an eight-foot-tall werewolf how to waltz. But sometimes, love shows up in the most unexpected places—and species.
Quick Look
Author: W.D. Robertson
Title:Love Bytes
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance / Literary Fiction
Print length: 395 pages
Publication date: October 31, 2025
Buy: Amazon
Author website:wdrobertsonwrites.com
Reddit:u/WDRobertsonWrites
When a mysterious technological shift causes people to “Turn” into lycanths—permanent werewolf-like beings—society doesn’t exactly handle it gracefully.
Cynthia Adams, AI expert and accidental werewolf, has learned to live with her new reality: coding by day, hiding by night, and quietly yearning for human connection. But everything changes when her best friend drags her to a ballroom dance lesson, where she meets Alex Rogers, a charming but weary dance instructor barely keeping his business afloat.
As the two are thrown together in a series of dance lessons that blur the lines between awkward and intimate, they find that love might just be the most unpredictable algorithm of all. But with danger brewing from anti-lycanth extremists and secrets that threaten to unravel both their lives, Cynthia and Alex will have to learn that some rhythms are worth following—no matter how terrifying the steps.
Author Q&A with W.D. Robertson
Q: What is your book about and what inspired you to write this book?
A: I had always wanted to write a novel, but couldn’t decide about what. After decades of puzzling over what story I should write, in April 2023 I happened to listen to an interview with Diana Gabaldon on Doug Brunt’s Dedicated podcast.
She described how she managed to write Outlander while working a full-time research job and raising a family. Long story short, she promoted the podcast on her Twitter account, I responded saying I’m inspired and am just waiting until I can clear the decks enough to write, and she messaged me that if I didn’t start *right now* I would never write my book.
I started that night.
Over the years I had developed a preference for romances (18% of romance readers are male according to the Romance Writers of America, thank you very much), and one of my favorite stories is Beauty and the Beast. I had been contemplating writing a gender-swapped version, but I’m not a big fan of magic, preferring science fiction, so my beasts (I call them lycanths) would exist because of technology, not a curse, the shift would be one way only, and the story would be placed only a few years in the future in the world we live in.
Those that Turn would have to get on with their lives, go to work, get the kids off to school, shop for groceries, pay the bills, and keep the car running just like the rest of us. It became instantly clear to me that many people in our fractured society wouldn’t accept them, even though they had been human and might have even been their own family members. And some people would consider these poor souls a threat and want them eliminated. I knew this was the story I had been looking for for so long.
The remainder of 2023 was spent outlining the story and getting a feel for the characters. I started writing in December 2023 and finished the first draft in January 2025. Five drafts followed with a blur of editing and beta reading and editing again, all done in one- and two-hour chunks late in the evening, more on weekends, seven days a week, and I’ve loved every moment of it.
Q: When did you start writing, and what made you decide to publish this book?
A: I’m an engineer and I’ve written technical documents all my professional life. Literally millions of words and thousands and thousands of pages. I sometimes got dinged by the boss that my technical writing was too conversational; I guess that was the creative writer in me struggling to be heard, but I never saw the point of making something dry and stuffy. There’s no reason a scientific paper or a user manual can’t be fun to read!
Q: Which character was the most fun—or most challenging—to write, and why?
A: They were all fun to write in their own way. Cynthia’s obsession with optimal performance and her research, while being inept at personal relationships; Alex’s struggles keeping his ballroom afloat while being totally surprised by his attraction to her. Cassandra’s snarkiness; Aether’s loneliness and drive to do the right thing; and Harley, a tragic figure who has had a rough life, but is lost in his blind hatred of people different from him.
Q: What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your book?
A: Be nice to people. It’s none of anyone’s business who a person loves. Quit persecuting people for who they are, because they had no choice in the matter. None of us chose to be sent on this scary journey called life, so why not help each other along during the brief time we’re here?
Q: Were there any real-life experiences that influenced your story or characters?
A: All the characters incorporate little bits of people I’ve encountered; even Harley had some real life counterparts. My wife and I met while ballroom dancing (you should take lessons, a friend told a lonely, single me. You might meet a nice girl. Well, I did and I did.) and I ran a ballroom as a side gig for a while, which was a total surprise to me by the way. That’s why ballroom figures prominently in the story and many of the events in Rogers Dancesport Studio are inspired by things that actually happened. Yes, people really do find love on the dance floor and, guys, take note: ladies do like men who will dance with them.
Q: What question do you wish readers would ask you about the book?
A: Oh geez, that’s a tough one…I suppose any of the ones you’ve asked so far. And if there’s going to be more books in the world I’ve created (see the What’s Next question below).
Q: Do you have a favorite quote or moment from the book you’d like to share?
A: The entire meet cute with Cynthia terrified to dance, then mystified why she likes it was so much fun to write. That and Aether being perplexed over why men like pickup trucks so much.
Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing or publishing it?
A: Finding the time to write was a challenge, but like Diana Gabaldon, I learned that I had to carve out time and get in a rhythm. It’s such a part of me now that I can’t not write every night. Then there’s the marketing. I’ve self-published my book and trying to figure out how to get the word out has been daunting as has all the administrative work to do it. I’m at the beginning of that arc now and Wrote A Book is one of the first steps. Marketing is slowing me down on the next book, but it’s got to be done.
Q: What’s next for you as a writer?
A: I’m currently outlining the second book, which is also placed in Atlanta only a year or so later. Still working things out, but it’s another female lycanth/male human, but with second chances, forced proximity, and secret identity.
Reviews
“Love Bytes surprised me in the best way possible. What starts as a quirky concept about technology and romance quickly becomes an emotional, human story about connection, loss, and what it means to truly know someone. W.D. Robertson writes with humor and heart — I found myself smiling one moment and reflecting deeply the next.”
— ★★★★★ Early Reviewer
“I didn’t expect a sci-fi romance to make me laugh this much or think this hard. Robertson’s writing is sharp, modern, and filled with warmth. He takes familiar ideas about love in the digital age and spins them into something refreshingly original. By the end, I was both entertained and a little bit emotional — the perfect combination.”— ★★★★★ Beta Reader
“Beauty and the Beast meets The Big Bang Theory—with emotional depth and bite.”
— ★★★★☆ ARC Reader
About the Author
W.D. Robertson is a nerdy engineer who designs cool hardware and writes lots and lots of code. Oh, and he also writes romance novels about brilliant werewolf ladies who find love in unlikely ways in Atlanta, America’s New York of the South. When he’s not pounding away at the keyboard, you can find him ballroom dancing with his wife, watching birds, and hanging out with his family and their golden retriever.
Connect with him on wdrobertsonwrites.com
Buy this book: Amazon.
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