[Sasha Distan] Summer Camp - a nanowrimo novel

[Timothy M.]

So now all is clear, Noah is not a shifter because his mother is from the shifter family and his dad is human. But since he knows all his cousins, he is fine with Paddy and Troy as shifters and mates. Shame that Troy did not feel the same way, and poor Paddy bore the brunt of his anger. Boy, does Troy have major issues to be dealt with. But I can certainly see the attraction from the bear's POV, cause Troy is cute and needy and beautiful (at least how I see him in my head). But then I've always liked cats :-)

[Sasha Distan]

Troy is cute and needy and beautiful (at least how I see him in my head). But then I've always liked cats :-)

 

He is all of those things, and more

[Qanon]

So, you now seem to have linked this story to your earlier "Falling for a Bear," yes? Noah's cousin Darryl is the same Darryl who Noah says has a favorite bear cousin that has to be Todd since it's also mentioned that this bear cousin has a human lover who gets to go on the bear fishing trips. I am assuming we won't see Darryl, Todd, or Hoyt in this story, but it is nice that yo seem to be building a whole interconnected world for your shifter characters.

[Sasha Distan]

So, you now seem to have linked this story to your earlier "Falling for a Bear," 

 

yay! somebody links these things! *dances* many points for you Qanon.

 

Yes, Summer Camp and FFAB belong to the same universe. unfortunately, all my shifters don't live in the same universe. my werewolves (Born Wolf, which i will begin posting up in december) live in a totally separate universe and don't have the male-shifter only divide. no, we wil lnot being seeing Todd and Hoyt in this story.

[Kitt]

 no, we will not being seeing Todd and Hoyt in this story.

But that doesn't mean the little voice in his head that he calls muse will not start whispering at sometime in the future demanding he allow Paddy & Troys's families meet Noah's!

[Timothy M.]

So, you now seem to have linked this story to your earlier "Falling for a Bear,"

 

I'm impressed too, I did not see the connection, before I read this, and I like Falling for a Bear a lot too. So cool, thanks for pointing it out ! I like it when authors make connections between seemingly unrelated stories.

[knotme]

Are the animal forms of shifters similar to same-named animals in the neighborhood? If so, then if Troy is North American, he shares the size of a Canadian lynx, 11 kilos or less. If he's British, he might resemble a Eurasian lynx, as big as 35 kilos. Still small compared to even a modest bear, but maybe at least in the ballpark.  We learn that Troy is very strong for his size, but still, I find the size of the Canadian lynx implausible. On the other hand, why should a shifter lynx resemble nonshifting neighbor lynxes? Sometime were creatures are protrayed as especially large. How big is shifted Troy?

[Sasha Distan]

Are the animal forms of shifters similar to same-named animals in the neighborhood? If so, then if Troy is North American, he shares the size of a Canadian lynx, 11 kilos or less. If he's British, he might resemble a Eurasian lynx, as big as 35 kilos. Still small compared to even a modest bear, but maybe at least in the ballpark.  We learn that Troy is very strong for his size, but still, I find the size of the Canadian lynx implausible. On the other hand, why should a shifter lynx resemble nonshifting neighbor lynxes? Sometime were creatures are protrayed as especially large. How big is shifted Troy?

 

Troy is Norwegian, and thus is a Eurasian Lynx. he has webbed feet and a reddish summer fur coat. much more silver in winter. they are all comparable to their wild counterparts. shifters in this universe are not especially large.

[Kitt]

To carry the size question one step further, while spectacled bear males can be anywhere up to 440 pounds ( 200 k) the female if the species can be as small as 35k(77 lbs)  so while in Sasha's shifter universe the males are the only ones shift - the differences between Paddy and Troy's weights in fur would not be an unreasonable one according to mother nature!

[knotme]

It's fun to see the animal side manifest in human form. Troy is sharp and alert, and must stifle hunting urges every he smells prey or a human ticks him off. I don't know how successful he was before Paddy. Paddy, bless his heart, is a gentle bear of a man who happens also to be a bear. He seems to ask forgiveness before taking fish, and for the rest of us, his idea of violence is to yell, and there only in nonthreatening places, and without implied threats. And forgive my observation that he seems a bit thick at times. [Edited to acknowledge that yelling can be violent.]

Edited November 23, 2013 by knotme

[Kitt]

People who are slow to anger and thoughtful before speaking often come across as thick at times. To my way of thinking tis better than some hot deaded dynamo with a flash temper.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Kitt

[knotme]

People who are slow to anger and thoughtful before thinking often come across as thick at times.  To my way of thinking tis better than some hot deaded dynamo with a flash temper.

Agreed on all points.  When I wrote "thick", I was thinking, for example, of his body seeming to get ahead of his brain, allowing Levi to catch them.  Maybe "reckless" better described him in that particular incident, although Paddy is definitely not reckless by nature.

[Sasha Distan]

trusting is what i was sort of going for...

[Timothy M.]

Well, the story has really come along well. Most of the issues have been resolved, even if there is still the matter of the stupid lack of trust in a gay couple in a camp for kids. They should worry more about the staff who are single (gay or not) if they really wanted to be paranoid. But that's why they have the rules, eg about no kids allowed in the staff cabins (this was in ch 1 or 2, I think).

However, I'm sure that Sasha can come up with new and interesting challenges for Paddy and Troy. I for one look forward to them going clubbing with their collegues (and maybe the people from the other camp) - though I'm not sure that Paddy and Troy won't prefer to go for a run in the wood instead. And I think there's gonna be a confrontation or two with Levi and Alexia (who I can never remember the name of, so I mostly think of her as the vegan bitch). I'd also like to read about Troy meeting Paddy's family, and even more so how Troy's mum will react to suddenly having a gay son. Hopefully she'll just be so happy that her son has found love and a mate, that she won't care that it's a guy.

[Kitt]

I'm betting that Troy's mom reacts better than Troy himself did.  

 

As to the rest of your speculation ...

[Dr. John NYC]

First off, I love this story. Paddy's deep, innate  belief in the Great Spirits and the fact that life will work out is incredibly reassuring and -- at least in an anthropomorphizing manner -- very bear-like. I am positively delighted that we will have one more chapter, which I hope will contain the meetings with both families and some hint about what is next for them both (and Noah and Gregg...).

 

Sorry to just now be catching up on this forum, but to go back to the genetics discussion awhile ago, male-linked dominance of a gene (shifter or otherwise) would require it to not only be dominant to the female counterpart but also on the Y-chromosome. I'm not sure that there is a good example -- most often we think about male-inherited features as coming from genes on the X-chromosome (from the mother) that do not get balanced because the Y-chromosome has very few functioning genes so it's like having only the one gene on the X-chromosome. Then again, it's been awhile since I studied human genetics, and there are also a lot of new ideas coming from epigenetics. Of course, in the shifter universe, genetics could certainly work differently.    Sorry if the science teacher in me got wound up too much.

 

Thanks for everyone who mentioned the link to the other story. Now I have something more to look forward to reading while waiting for the epilogue! ...and Sasha, please do give your muse free reign to bring the transatlantic shifter groups together and to bring Gregg back to Troy and Paddy (& family), at least for a bit of time so that he can mature in his shifter self with good role models.

[Kitt]

LMAO    as you get to know sasha better you will realize that it is less him "giving his muse free reign" and more "my fingers cant keep up with my muse!"

 

 

I am editing the epilogue now - be patient!

[Sasha Distan]

Sorry to just now be catching up on this forum, but to go back to the genetics discussion awhile ago, male-linked dominance of a gene (shifter or otherwise) would require it to not only be dominant to the female counterpart but also on the Y-chromosome. I'm not sure that there is a good example -- most often we think about male-inherited features as coming from genes on the X-chromosome (from the mother) that do not get balanced because the Y-chromosome has very few functioning genes so it's like having only the one gene on the X-chromosome. Then again, it's been awhile since I studied human genetics, and there are also a lot of new ideas coming from epigenetics. Of course, in the shifter universe, genetics could certainly work differently.    Sorry if the science teacher in me got wound up too much.

 

The science teacher in you is welcome, one the other hand, eep!

in this universe, genetics will work however it is i need this to work in order to work, because i haven't studied human genetics.

 

should i choose to write in this universe again (i have two shifter universes, go figure) i will come get you to help work this out.

[Headstall]

Yeah...I could definitely love a bear...or a lynx...but a bear like Paddy....Aaaahhhhh.