Cia

Oh look how pouty you are! Suck it up buttercup!!

No, they can't go back to humanoid. But their animals are always a part of them, from birth. It's a part of their inherent magic. They are a mix of human and animal but until they meet their mates and bond together their animal half is only a part of their psyche. They exhibit signs of their animal, certain mannerisms, partly because of that mental influence and partly because of being around transformed adults of their kind. Their animals don't exactly speak to them, being animals, but they allow them to sense others of their kind. Their clan animal, their power/ranking, mates are the main things.

Awww, your virgin hosted author forum post. I'm honored to break you in, snickers! I love being able to discuss the story, how I came up with the ideas and what the readers are thinking about how I am portraying the plot, characters, and world. Thanks for giving me another opportunity to do that, I try to make a fantasy story understandable without laying out all the facts right off, though how that makes me be accused of doing cliffhangers, I'll never know! Okay, well, this 'world' has certain set rules. It's been laid out a few times in other stories, one on here and one hetero story in a published e-book competition so maybe not everyone is familiar with the broad outlines. I'll lay it out here It won't be giving anything away. So, the Carthera world isn't a future Earth, more alternate. They've always been there, always known about by humans but they were fought a lot with humans through history so there is a long standing animosity and a lot of bias. In more 'modern' times the Carthera have become more accepted in a lot of regions, though not all. They can live beside humans and go to human schools and hospitals... all that now. However, they're structured into clans by their animal halves. The clans tend to live together and within a certain territory one clan and its leader is always dominant and rules over the rest. They can live together but sometimes their animal sides create a bit of friction, they also used to war amongst themselves in the past. As children and youths the Carthera appear human, though inside them they can feel their animal selves, they just aren't physically manifested. They transform after they meet their mates and bond with them in various ceremonies (depends on the animal subtype). The physical characteristics vary depending on Carthera clan and animal type. There are subsets within some of the clans. Their bonds become fully realized when they have sex for the first time and they have a mental bond that cements in place. As you can imagine, lots of different scenarios can come from this basic outline of meeting mates and bonding. The stories on GA are modern but the hetero one on ERomance is set in the past. Carthera are all over the world and live many different ways. I also have 2 more stories set in this world that I am writing as I find the time. I happen to be a fan of shifter half human/half animal fiction but I don't like the basic werewolf/lycan mythos much. I love it when I find a new writer that creates a whole new spin on the genre. This is my own take on it.

Ha! And you have to wait until next year to call me on it too, so I do like giving just the basic sketch of a character. Body type, hair color/style, eyes, clothing, that's usually about it. I prefer that in my own reading, it lets me superimpose my own vision on the character better which lets me have a better connection to them. I try to do the same with my own writing.Further writing does flesh out the differences between Bashta and Cavel and the rest of the clan. So don't worry, the confusion will not last long, I promise! I am really glad you enjoyed the first chapter, more to come soon. Thanks sooo much for reviewing!

I will update soon, don't worry! All but the epilogue essentially is written for this story. I am really glad you liked it, thanks so much for leaving a review.

Snickers, Cammy is a gurl! neener neener neener!

Yeah, I knew beforehand. He took me and made me look at wedding rings the weekend before. Then he totally panicked when he was getting ready to ask me and avoided me all afternoon on the day he asked, screwing up his courage to say, "So when we getting married?" Ahh, younguns! To be fair he was only 22. It's not like I got all romantic. My 18 year old bitchy self slapped him with a comeback though, so all good, lol. Then I started planning our week long honeymoon on Maui. He wanted to go camping. Guess where we went? Anyway, point is, all couples are all different nowadays. Young, old, straight, gay, butch, fem, manly... it's all about two people together when it comes to marriage and how they get to it. As others have said, if it's right you'll know. Don't let anyone else tell you something should be done a certain way based on a stereotype. Going for what makes you happy is important!

I don't think being the more 'manly' necessarily means most dominating or assertive in a relationship. That's your first flaw in your logic I see. I'll admit, Josh asked me but only because when he asked, "When are we going to get married," I said, "When you actually ask me". Technically I told him I'd marry him once he actually used the question form I may be the housewife but I control the money, I'm the more dominant parent (threatening to tell Daddy isn't scary but telling Mommy, oh yeah, not good). Josh picked out our first apartment, and our house and all the furniture whenever we had to buy any. Even straight relationships aren't always 'traditional'. I had a gay friend I worked with once. He was in the medical field and very swish sometimes, manicures, jewelry, he even did drag comedy shows sometimes. His boyfriend/husband was tall, dark, wore a leather jacket like a glove, and worked with his hands. My friend was older than him though, by a good 10 years. My friend asked him boyfriend to marry him, not the 'manly' man asking the more 'fem' one. Age, personality, and the interdynamics between two people is much more important than one simple aspect that you lay out. Relationships are rarely so simple as that.

Thanks and Congrats to all the other winners too!! CJ... a very frilly goat will be headed your way this year... just saying, don't forget, payback is still coming!

Great pic Ag! You look very rockin in the shades! Next time use a backlight feature if that was a camera. If it was the computer or phone, exceptional picture!

OMG, lol! Such a funny way to end a scene that was pretty tense at the culmination. I like that Andrew sort of threw out that quip at the end. It means he's losing some of his shyness with Ryan. Though I'd hope so if he got naked in front of him!!

Okay, now the straight guy is plotting to play stip poker with his roommate to get him naked and see his dick. The irony!

LOL. How guy. Obsessed with dicks, even if they're straight. I remember all the guys I knew growing up talking about it. It's funny to see it in writing, reminds me of those times! Good chapter. The flow and pacing is done well!

Decent start. We get to know the characters and you add a little bit of intrigue with the 'it probably won't be a problem for me' about the whole tie business. A tip about your chapters, though you've already loaded all of these. If you don't want the big gaps between paragraphs from pasting from Word paste your chapter into Notepad first. It does remove some formatting which you have to redo but it gets rid of those large distracting gaps too.

As a kid during one summer my mother, sister, and I played trivial pursuit every night for like 2-3 hours. It was insane! I still like the game but haven't played in years. Games are fun. Maybe find a support group? Scrabbleholics Anonymous?

It is very sweet. I like the attitude change in your main character. The flow could use a little work but I like the shifting emotions you have throughout the story within your main character. It made the progression work since the story was so very short.

Thanks! I did try to pick a natural stopping point, though I wrote this as one story it can be broken into several chunks. I'm working the end (almost done) and then I'll make sure the chapter separation is good. I have a lot of stories floating in my head and since I 'see' them it's very vivid to me. I am glad I can share that with readers and that it comes across well. I am always very grateful for your help and comments, so thanks! Chapter two will be ready in a few days, yay!!

Aww, you're sweet! I guess I've just a vivid imagination. But it comes to life when I write and you are a large part of helping me make them amazing. I know I tend to write 'ideal' guys with superb traits and then put them through hell but I try to make them not too unrealistic it's not believable. No one is perfect after all. However, loyalty and devotion are two big traits I had to imbue with these guys. It's very central to their characters. Thanks so much for the review!

So this new story is set in the world of the Carthera Clans. It's modern but has an ancient feel to it. Magic of the clans and a bit beyond should make this a bit different from my average story. Of course there will be hot guys and a stormy romance, we mustn't leave that out!! I hope you enjoying reading this first chapter! I promise to respond if you leave a review, forum comment, or criticism so don't forget the feedback. I welcome any and all types of constructive criticism too, so don't feel like you have to hold back. I've not bitten anyone yet. (Well, unless they asked for it. You know who you are!) Two of a Kind

A hot steamy jungle, a plague in the past and present and two men who are destined to be mates. Volatile tempers erupt in a fiery tale of romance and magic.

"It doesn't have to be him! He is your kind; I can sense that. But a male? No cubs can come from him. If he is here there must be others of your kind. Let him lead us to them, be our guide. A kitling his age is surely capable of that. But you can't claim him, My Lord, the clan would revolt." Cavel's lips curled into a sharp sneer and he cuffed the cat on the head. "Do not threaten me." His voice held a deep snarl and the other cat sank to his belly as soon as Cavel spoke. Saulle's defiance

Awwww, you're sweet! Making signatures is a lot of fun for me. Sometimes I open up pictures and just play with them for fun when I'm stressed because doing it is relaxing and often amusing. So really it was my pleasure!! I don't think the original picture is in the gallery but I'll upload it later on my main computer, the file isn't on my netbook that I'm on now If anyone else wants a graphic let me know. I really don't mind at least trying to make something

OMG! You've gone old on us!! Happy Birthday dear!

I don’t get it. I really don’t. I’m lying in a hard uncomfortable bed and these people keep coming up to me and talking. I don’t understand what they are saying but I watch their mouths move; open, shut, open, shut. They point to things and their voices get louder. I wince when they do that. It hurts. Sometimes I think that is all that is left to me; pain. Then again, I don’t remember anything else so maybe that’s all there really is. I don’t know. Those people don’t seem to be in pain but mayb

What forces a person into hiding? How do you find them when they are too afraid to come out?