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Cyn stared at the lycan. It was all he could do at that moment. I...he...he thinks I’m...handsome? Sheamus thinks… Shea kept his eyes on the beady brown irises in hopes of getting a response, however small. He watched as the deer remained silent but composed. Did I scare him? No...his heartbeat is still the same. I think he’s just trying to process it all. “Cyn? You good, man?” Snapping out of his personal thoughts, the buck blinked and did his best to hide his blush. As he tried, he l

Thanks, Jeffrey! I'm working on Chapter 8 as we speak, and will probably have it posted in several hours. It's going to be an eye-opener, that's for sure. *sigh* Poor Cyn.

I fell in love with my lunch pin number from all twelve years of general education, and have been using 2292 in a lot of my usernames across cyberspace! I didn't even think of it being my favorite number until you mentioned the concept, and I have a deeper appreciation for it! It's a strange number to have kept throughout my existence, but he's been by my side since kindergarten and I won't give him up easily!

Ooof...I am not a numbers person. I've always been a history kid. All of my mathematics and algebra teachers struggled with me, even though I wanted to be better with numbers. My geometry class in senior year proved interesting as I was able to understand proofs and theorems more adeptly than the rest of the class. Once I had a teacher that explained that math had rules that could be explained in the English language, compared to being put on a markerboard and being told, "This is what you do," I was ecstatic about it! I could do math! In...my senior year... Thanks a lot, small town education system. Being a dunderhead broompusher of society, I've had many a manager who claimed to be "the numbers manager." I've wanted to smack them in the face with a dirty mop. Am I allowed to shame these people for thinking that because they can read sales numbers and percentages, it gives them the right to sit in an office chair and twiddle their thumbs? Side note: I'm off to change my member title to 'Dunderhead Broompusher.'

I love the concept of the deer shapeshifter and their nomadic lifestyle! It is super cookie cutter! Cyn has had some traveling companions along the way, but I'm hesitant to say if he has actually had a friend before. These wolves are such a culture shock to him, and once we they bring him into their society, our little deer is going to need some time to acclimate to the new civilized world around him. Forget Kara, because this comment broke my face! I woke my husband from my laughter! I can not wait for Cyn to meet Kara!!!

This is devastating! I'm feeling for Essell, and I know emotions are high. One can hope Timok has a plan to aid or replace his lost hand. I also hope Garjah won't be in trouble for allowing Essell to wander outside of the ship.

This is so exciting! When I joined Gay Authors not too long ago, I began reading everything I could get my little fingers on. And Ask An Author has been one of my favorite segments! When I saw that Renee and the team were searching for someone new to tackle AAA, I pulled up my ankle socks and sent her a message. I'm so ecstatic to be even considered for such a responsibility! But before we get into this, I just want to remind everyone that these questions aren't provided by the staff. Nope. That's on you, guys! Shoot me a PM about a story you read, along with at least three questions, and we'll send the author an anonymous message. • • • • • The Hollow Hills Valkyrie This story centers around The Hollow Hills - a horse farm in Vermont - and Galen and Joshua. Galen moves to New England after breaking up with his boyfriend and meets Josh. Their relationship is anything but easy, with many obstacles standing in their way. When tragedy strikes, they need to learn how to redefine their lives and live with the after-effects Alannah is such an important supportive character to the guys. What in her past made her so empathetic? Alannah had a difficult start in life. She was raised by her drug-addicted mother in her early childhood, until she was brought to her grandmother’s farm and then abandoned there. Her grandmother was a kind and empathetic woman, who passed those traits on to her granddaughter. Alannah learned to be compassionate and non-judgmental, and understands all too clearly how otherwise good people sometimes make mistakes. Who was first? Galen or Josh. Josh. Josh first appeared in a short story I wrote for a writing assignment way back in ninth grade. Galen didn’t come around until about eleven years later. How did you come up with the setting? See question #2! After I wrote that story, the farm kind of took on a life of its own. Josh needed someone else at the barn, so I came up with Alannah’s character, and then Adam’s. The farm became almost a character in and of itself, and is based on my dream place to live. At some point I want to write a prequel to The Hollow Hills, which would cover when Josh arrived at the farm, Alannah moving there from Ireland, and it would feature Adam’s story as well. It's a long story. How did you stay motivated? Any tips? I was really gung-ho when I started writing it, then I got a nasty case of the flu and had to take a several-month-long hiatus from writing. Getting back into the groove proved difficult at times, but these characters are so dear to me that not finishing was never an option. I think my motivation was the need to get this story on paper, so to speak. It was always my dream to share their story, so I’m thrilled I was finally able to do so, and that people liked it so much. I don’t really have any tips as to how to stay motivated to write, since motivation is such a personal thing. What works for me won’t necessarily work for someone else. It’s something I’m struggling with at the moment. I think taking a deep breath and a step back sometimes is helpful. Re-reading my stories can also be motivating to me. So is reader feedback. I love hearing what people think of my work, even when they’re ranting about Josh! • • • • • And that does it for this month's Ask An Author! Since Renee made the rules for me, as per AAA 3.0 #1, we are showcasing a different author for every month this year. That means Valkyrie gets to sit back and relax! Don't forget to send me a message with three or more questions so our community can discover their next binge! After all, I'm starting to run out of things on my streaming services to watch. This pandemic is really rough! Since Valentine's Day is coming up, how about we try for a real sappy love story for next month? Go dig through your favorites and followed stories, ask some questions, and we'll get them answered! See y'all next month, unless Renee fires me! Also, Carlos! I stole your dots from 2.0. They're mine now, and you can't have them back!

Ha! Nailed it! Glad you're loving it, Patch! Glad your interested! Cyn's grown very warm to Shea...but how is he going to handle this new compliment?

I am exhausted. Purely and utterly exhausted. Work has been a nightmare. Currently enduring an eight day workday streak, and my night off on Thursday can't come fast enough. And if Rona and her hold over people wanting to buy more groceries isn't bad enough, our store has been plagued with a monumental challenge. If y'all read the newest entry for Dear, Grocery Shoppers, the new process of how our store's stock crew is to perform their job is truly kicking our spirits down. It's been a while since I've felt this drained. For the first time in almost a year, I had to resort to an Epsom salt bath. My knee is wrapped in a brace from the constant kneeling and unkneeling. This week is just some icing, as next week is going to be pure Hell. Our store's dairy lead needed emergency rotator-cuff surgery, and he's going to be out for up to six months. Another dairy worker is on vacation next week, and another dairy worker is going to be off for a weekend. In unadulterated managerial decision making, it is up to the overnight stock crew to make up for lost manpower. Boy...oh boy. We are not prepared for this. Here's our game plan: every member of the stock crew, including our supervisors, are going to be working a six-day workweek. The fella who will be taking the dairy lead's role for the next several months will be working all seven days of the upcoming week. We're all going to be working 48+ hours next week, and a few of us have been tapped to work the seventh day. By a few of us, I mean the best workers. This means...I have no freakin' clue when my next day off will be after Saturday night. I'm at a loss here. According to our HR manager, none of the people who applied to work for our store as new employees are 'available' to work overnights. No new workers, a brand new way (completely unproductive, by the way) of doing our jobs, an upcoming overhaul of our ordering and inventory management system, and a worn-out stock crew. Next week will be no fun. I've already warned Noah about my soon-to-be cranky mood for the entire time, and despite his positive mental attitude, I just don't think the poor guy is ready. I'm already irritable about the lack of performance from the crew over the last several days, and it will not get better. That isn't to say that I got this. I got this. I've endured worse. I did a thirteen-day workweek just last month. Several years ago, I mustered through an eighteen-hour shift. This is just another hurdle. If there is one thing I have to say to Rona and her devious tactics that have plagued our world, it is this: you can't break me. I've been working hard for a long, long time, sweetheart. This...this new little stunt you're pulling on our stock crew. It's cute, I'll tell ya that. Unfortunately, this will probably cause some pushback on my writing time. I have a couple of chapters pre-written, and that'll help out, but my pacing will be thrown off. I'll do my best to keep up, but I'll be needing to rest when I can for these upcoming weeks. The important thing to remember about this scenario is that this is a marathon. Back in March, I endured my first sprint, dealing with monster-sized orders, stocking my aisle until the crack of dawn, and straight up performing. But sprints aren't my thing. I live for a marathon. I've always had the pipe-dream of setting the world record for the longest worked shift in retail history, and I know I can do it. It seems like a wild and silly dream to have, but I've sprinkled the concept in DGS. I love to work. There's nothing I'd rather do than bust my back, put in a hard day, and be able to say that I'm contributing to something worthwhile. My position isn't looked at in a highsighted light very often. It is my role, and my stock crew's role, to put the groceries on the shelf so you and your family can have a meal. I put some serious pride into that thought. Do I wish for a better job? Hell yeah, but I'm happy where I'm at now. I like being one of the ten reasons why there is food available for purchase in the store I work at. I am one of the ten people that allows our store to hit $1.3 million in sales a week. And this marathon has me salivating. *** In other news! In case my In the Shadows fans missed it, Rising in the Shadows now has its first chapter! You may have missed it since I post-dated the publishing and it got buried in the Stories page. Oopsie daisies! My bad! That'll be the last time I do that, I promise! I got two more chapters in the waiting as I tackle the next when I get off work tomorrow morning. I need to find time to edit Noah's next entry into Dear, Grocery Shoppers, and I just posted Chapter 7 of Cernunnos. I'm remembering my words of "Aaron, don't bite off more than you can chew." I'm almost at the point of eating my words, but I'm just waiting for someone to tell me to quit poking it with my fork. No, sir! I shall poke and prod my food as long as I can! And wow! Love in the Shadows is getting closer and closer to 60k views! I'm stunned, in all honesty! I just wrote that out of sheer boredom, and look what I did! Sixty thousand views. That is just bananas! I'm glad I finished it, though. I'm not one to finish hobbies, and seeing it done is so satisfying! It's bedtime for me. I just wanted to get that little life update off my chest. Through the next week or so, I'll do my best to keep up with my writing, but it took me almost twice as long to pump out the newest Cernunnos chapter. I usually crank that out in several hours, but this one took about six hours across three days. I don't feel myself burning out...but I am going to need some pep pills or something. Anywhoosin...night!

“You…” Shea took a long and hard breath, leaning his head down and slouched forward in the chair. He clasped his hands together and rested his forehead on his outstretched thumbs. He figured it out. I’m surprised he recognized my scent from the woods since he was pretty out of it. The wolf straightened his posture and looked at the buck. “Yeah. That was me, Cyn.” Hearing the words come out of the man’s mouth forced a shudder to rattle Cyn’s body. He could not believe that the wolf that

@Patch1 you might need to look for a house in Owensville. Glad to see you back here!

It's good to have them back!!!

I'm so excited to have this book started!!! To quote my favorite movie villain, "I'm shaking in my little space boots!" There is a lot of redundancy, but it is a brand new book. I anticipated a few new readers who may stumble on this book first. By no means, can this stand alone as a story, as reading Love in the Shadows is almost essential, but I threw some basic details in for either new readers or some who came back and forgot some of the character's descriptions. Vincent's a growing Alpha, and his wolf needs time to develop and get out of his doggy diapers. And woah, woah, woah! Already with the Executive Lycan Council speculations?! Ooof...you're expecting some major events in this book, ain't ya, @Philippe? I can't wait to see what the other LitS commentors are going to bring to the speculation table...

Just as a heads up! Rising in the Shadows is now up and ready for reading!

It was only two weeks, but I'm so glad to go back to Owensville!!! I made the mistake of setting the chapter to publish on a set date, so now it's buried in the Stories page! I'll try to have Chapter 2 up ASAP!

After completing their bond, Mason and Vincent begin a new chapter in their lives. Vincent dives in to his shadow magic training while Mason confronts rising issues within his pack. The couple continue to forge their relationship to new heights, discover secrets in the town of Owensville, and contemplate on confronting Stefan Gregoro. Kaplan Alvey, the attorney and Beta for the New York State Pack, finds himself in a transition of power. With Alpha Scott retiring to Owensville, his new boyfriend, Alpha Cyrus Vonder, steps up to run the most powerful pack in the country. The Beta finds out that his new Alpha has much kept hidden.

Well, you must be pretty excited to learn that I have the sequel to come out tonight at midnight... Thanks for the comment! I'm always happy to see someone finish the book on a good note.

I would like to say I'm impervious to any sort of illness, but once every two years or so, I'll end up on my proverbial death bed. It usually is a combination of problems that would make the elderly gasp (double ear infection, with strep throat and pink-eye). To be honest, I'm quite overdue for my next round of sicknesses, but I'll cross that bridge later. #phonekeyswalletmask

You really like to re-read stories, don'tcha, Patch? Cyn doesn't know any better. He is used to being hunted all his life, ranging from predatory animals, to shifters, and to human hunters as well. I don't think I was expecting Cyn to guess that Shea was the one to save him so soon, but he is an intelligent little buck. Chapter 7 should be out within a few days.

Thanks for the compliments! I'm trying hard with these characters, especially since I'm a very blunt person. Cyn is very timid and scared while Shea has to dance around what he's saying, at least for now, and I am not either of those people. I'll have to go story hunting, but perhaps after I finish Cernunnos. I'd hate to compare and drag influencing thoughts into this story.

I'll go into it later in the story, but from what I have put in so far is that Cernunnos live nomadic lives. They stay away from civilized communities but are raised in rural area with little contact with the outside world. They get a basic education, and that's just about it. Back to the woods they go. Jobs for other prey shifters, hmm? I imagine oxen and other cow-related species work as bouncers for clubs, birds in aviation, and pigs as food-testers. I imagine if the cernunnos were to get jobs, they could do general labor, I suppose.

Thank you very much! I'm glad I could turn a few heads with this concept, but I still give @CincyKris all the glory from her comment in my first story. Again, with Cincy's comment: "Just once, I'd like to see a deer shifter story, they're out for revenge!" I chose not to go down the 'revenge of the deer' comedy aspect (although, teaming up with other prey species would have been a hoot!), but to go with a slightly darker theme. I'm still a newbie to the writing world, and I wanted to test the waters in that tone with something I'm familiar with with. I thought of the 'gay men are weak' concept, as well! Deer are anything but weak: they can run very fast and for a long time, their antlers can be deadly, and, according to a quick Google search, they cause an average of 1.3 million car accidents each year. But I dabbled in the first chapter of how much Cyn likes to run. I believe this will play a major factor into the story. You will never know how hard I laughed at this! I had no intention of that being the underlying means to break down the wall between Cyn and Shea, but...well...I can't get it out of my mind! Having Cyn shift in front of Shea would be a real time-saver, but I also think Cyn's hooves would not be the most stable on the hospital room's tile flooring. Combined with Cincy's comment of deer shifters, you and dughlas points an interesting light on the different prey species. I'm very...very interested in this. I don't think I'm ready to add a third shifter story, as I don't want to cement myself as a shifter-writer...just yet. The concept of chipmunk shifters reminds me of myself back in high school. I'm picturing a scrawny nerd who is an innate wallflower to conversations. He/she strives to pick up on the unsuspecting conversations of others. Once spotted, they scurry away to their burrows, or in their case, the library. I can see chipmunk shifters playing a large role in the international spy game! But for now, I'm going to save this little concept into my idea bank . With the government...considering how long it take the American government two-party system to actually agree on something, I can only imagine a similar conundrum. On one hand, you have the shifters who take up for the lost voice of the prey. "They can talk like us, walk like us, and shift like us!" Then you have the traditionalists...who like venison. "But...my deer jerky!" I may get into the shifter politics with this story, but I'm merely having a fun time with this story. Thank you all for the very colorful comments! I love this! Y'all got my brain all fired up and ready to go! But I need to go back to bed, as I have work in two hours.

Shea had been sitting for several hours in the hospital room. The wolf glanced out the window and saw it had grown dark outside. Giving a sniff, he could tell Kara was still outside the door. Bed time was over two hours ago. Stealing a peek at the sleeping buck, he saw the chest breathing deeply. He's out like a light. I might as well grab some shut eye. He had been dozing off for a couple minutes at a time, but after the two hour mark, he fell into slumber's embrace. He awoke a few hours