Grumpy Bear

Stay tuned for an Epilogue with one last surprise!

A small fleet of Humvees pulled up in front of the El Capitan Hotel on Mission Street. Four figures exited each vehicle, clad in black military-style uniforms and matching berets. The four from the lead vehicle walked to the front door while the rest of the troops waited at attention outside of their vehicles. The driver of the lead vehicle bore the name “Apollo” over the pocket of his shirt, while his lithe female companion’s shirt said “Banshee”, and the two hulking passengers from the back

Do I have a possible love match in mind for Nameer... ? Yes. Has that character already been introduced in the series... ? Yes. Is it Ezekiel... ? Hmmmm... Let the speculation begin!

Nameer opened the front door and looked up to see three sets of eyes staring back at him intently. Blue, green, and hazel, belonging to Siku, Charlie, and Gunnar. “Welcome to our home!” Nameer said with a hint of excitement in his voice, and he pressed his hands together in front of his heart and bowed his head slightly. “Father,” Siku said, “I am so happy to see you again.” He reached his arms out and grabbed the tiger into a warm hug, and Nameer hugged him back with a smile.

Therein is my conundrum when it comes to MCs in this series. I realize that I've unique and vibrant character in Susie Banshee. A transgender female wolf-lycan who has risen to not only become pack Beta, and Colonel in the Lycan Council army, but also the mate of her Alpha? Who's sharp tongue and quick wit can usually take down her opponent without even lifting a paw against them? She is a goldmine of possibilities. However, I have to remember that the series is Werebears in America, and I started writing it as a counter to the vast array of wolf-shifter fiction already out there. So, for now, Susie will remain the most popular of the supporting characters, and will frequently show up to pull the bears' asses out of the fire, so to speak. That's part of the reason why Susie and Apollo are tied up taking care of the side-story in Worlds Apart instead of San Francisco with Gunnar and the rest of the Sturgeon Bay bears. The bears needed a story where they finally handled their problems on their own, instead of needing Susie to come to their rescue! Perhaps, when the werebear series has run its course, I could shift my attention to Susie and her she-wolves as MCs. I'm sure that would make a great series all its own!

Noted and corrected! Sometimes spell-check is your friend, and sometimes it can be a vicious bitch.

Hi @raven1, I'm very pleased that you've been enjoying my series! It seems that I've always been writing, in one form or another for most of my life. Whether it was a research thesis in college, writing/editing newsletters for various organizations, or technical training manuals for work. My fiction was one thing that I couldn't/wouldn't share with others for a very long time. One day, I grew tired of reading my hundredth werewolf gay shifter fiction story online and thought to myself "somebody needs to write more shifter fiction featuring bears, dammit." I soon realized that if no one else was going to do it, I might as well try it myself, and thought that this site could be a good place to let others read the ideas rolling around in my head. If I got through the first story and nobody was impressed, then I could at least say that I tried, and be satisfied writing training manuals. However, if I wrote a story, and people actually liked it, and talked about it with something other than scorn or derision, them maybe I might have a second or even a third story in me. So, that brings us to today, when I'm nearly finished with book 5. I admit that I had quite a bump when I lost faith that people were enjoying what I was writing, and I logged off this site for just a week at first, which turned into a month, which stretched to eight months. The longer I stayed away, the harder it was to return. But, the characters from my stories are so real to me, at least inside my head, that they refused to be shut away in the dark. They wanted their tales finished and new ones begun again. So I returned, and was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did people continue to read and love the things that I'd already written, but there was genuine concern that I had "disappeared" and they wished for me to come back and finish what I'd started. That said, let me answer your actual questions Caution: Mild spoilers exist in some of the answers for those who haven't yet read any of the stories. 1) How do I achieve the cohesive flow from one story to the next? The answer is hard to explain, but it is mostly because I have created a vast "room" within my mind in which the universe of these werebears exist. I can very easily close my eyes, and transport myself into this universe and dwell among these characters. In fan-speak, people refer to "canon" whereby the actions and history of the characters are carried forth as the truth from one story to the next. Within my mind, I don't think of these things as canon as much as memories. This summer, I was having dinner with some friends that I only get to see a couple times a year at most, and I was describing my world of were-creatures and explaining the concept of kindred DNA which allows the bears to reproduce after a fashion and create new werebears. One of my friends was listening intently, and finally asked, "You don't actually believe any of that is real do you?" I smiled and told her no, of course not, but the truth is that I only have to go to that place in my mind where the werebears live, and that world is real to me. That was a long and roundabout way of saying that I achieve cohesion by completely immersing myself in the world of my imagination while I write. I am the omnipotent observer in all that they do, and I remember all. So, when Axel tells Gunnar in the backroom of the Silver Bullet in Trophy Cub that he taught his professional wrestler friends how to do a sleeper hold eighty years prior, I knew that when he revisited his past in Arctic Roots that at some point in his tale he was going to become a professional wrestler. Make your world your own. Make each book you write merely a chapter in the lives of your characters and the actions of the previous books their memories, and you will find cohesion. 2) How do I select new MCs from the ones introduced in the story before? That answer is two-fold. The first answer is that I make sure even though each character is involved in the plot/crisis/drama at hand, they each also have their own life to live, and when one story ends, that character still has more to tell. When Axel adopts his first cub at the end of Savage Beasts the tale of what happens next was waiting to be told. When Gary tells Bill that he can rescue him from a life of injury and disfigurement by changing him into a near immortal werebear, I knew that a future tale would have to include that Papa and Cub pair and the academy that they dreamed of creating together. And, when Siku the polar bear felt the pangs of loneliness and longing for a Mate or Cub of his own in Serpent Mound, the next tale was going to feature everyone's favorite gentle-giant polar bear striking out on his own to find the mate that Fate had destined for him. Which brings me to the second answer to the question... It also depends on which characters the readers are responding to the most. As each tale progresses, the readers develop favorites, and they express concern in the comments for that character's future. So, while I may read some of the comments loaded with theories and predictions after each chapter is posted, pleased when I'm leading the readers down a false path just before I reveal a plot twist that changes everything, I do recognize when those same readers are becoming almost as immersed in my world as I am and I allow them to tell me when a character has loose ends at the conclusion of one tale that is begging to be told in the next. 3) How difficult was it to create Arctic Roots blending many different sub-genres into one tale? I consider Arctic Roots to be the best story of the series so far, and I'll tell you that at times it was extremely difficult to write. In the first two tales, I was able to create the world, characters and scenarios that I wished, and allowed my mind to conjure the history that tied it all together. When I began Arctic Roots, I realized that I had created a character so complex in Axel that his actions and behavior in the first two tales required explanation. I could have written it as a straightforward road-trip adventure story to find his Ancient Papa, but it wouldn't be enough to reveal the core of who Axel is, and why he was so broken by his earlier life. So, I decided to tell his life story, as told by Axel himself to his new, curious Cub, and intersperse his backstory with the present-day dealings with the Lycan Council and the adventure of the expedition to the Arctic Circle in Alaska. However, if I was going to write his history, I had the choice to either base it entirely in fiction, or I could base it on actual history, and place Axel within actual historical events. The migration of the Russian Cossacks to Siberia in search of wealth, the fated expedition searching for a fabled river that accidentally discovered the Bering Strait when all ships but one were lost, the Russian colonization of Alaska and the revolt by the native peoples leading to the burning of the settlement of New Russia... those are all actual historical events. When Axel joined the gold rush in the Yukon, the mining methods and practices he employed are period correct to the best of my research and abilities. When he ran off with the traveling carnival, the practice of having an "athletic show" featuring professional wresting was also period correct. All of that took a great deal of time to research, and integrate those historical events into the world within my mind so that Axel could be a part of it. I probably spent twice the time writing each chapter of Arctic Roots that contained a part of Axel's backstory than any other chapter of the other four stories. When it came to blending the genres, that simply came easy to me. Since I was dealing with so many different historical time periods, I wrote each segment in the style befitting the time period in which it existed, with the road-trip adventure as the framing device for all. Was the character of Lenny in the traveling carnival a bit of an homage to Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men? Of course! Which explains the chapter title "The Best Laid Plans". I was almost afraid when the necessary progression of the story took me to Calgary for a week of long and boring Council meetings that there was the danger of becoming a bit dull, like the Star Wars prequels when they got way too bogged down in Senators and Ambassadors and Republic politics, but lucky for Axel and Adam, there was a frisky and friendly Beta wolf around to keep things interesting! I hope this answers all your question and more! If you want to know any more of the insights into how the world inside my mind flows from my fingers and through the keyboard, you just have to ask! --Grumpy 💙

The house in Sea Cliff was a buzz of activity on Thanksgiving morning. The bears bustled about, some showering and dressing in the best clothes they had packed for the trip, and others busy in the kitchen cooking up a Thanksgiving meal fit for ten bears. “I don’t understand why we’re going to all the trouble of cooking a feast for the bears who tried to kill us yesterday,” Barry complained to Gunnar, wielding a long kitchen knife. “I say we let them starve for a few days and make them suff

On a side note to this discussion, please note that the human crew of the boat didn't put their rifles away until AFTER they were convinced that the bears weren't going to try to eat them! I glossed over a bit what the bears actually said to the crew to win them over, but you can be sure that the crew will keep their secret and remain bear allies in the future.

Siku paced the floor of the living room, waiting for word from the bears who had gone out to confront Colt. They had refused to allow him to come along, fearing that he would be too easily recognized by any of Colt’s friends, and would be a liability for the group. He had his doubts that apprehending the big Kodiak was going to be as easy as using Mike to get him alone in a hotel room, and then have twenty bears break down the door, but Gunnar and the rest seemed confident in their plan.

It's funny, because I knew what was going to happen in this chapter, and I know what's going to happen 2 chapters from now, but I have no clue yet what happens in between to tie them together. I guess I'll just have to start writing and let it flow and see what happens!

Mike walked down Mission Street, looking around nervously. This wasn’t the best neighborhood he’d seen so far in San Francisco, and if he didn’t know that there were 20 werebears watching his back and converging on this location, he’d be worried that he wouldn’t get out of this situation without some poor human thinking that he would be an easy target for a mugging. He stopped outside of the El Capitan Hotel and took a deep breath. He pulled out his phone and called Gunnar. “Hey Papa

Hi @raven1! I'm so glad you've enjoyed reading this story and leaving such wonderful comments. Just a quick clarification- Although Mike is a lighter-furred brown bear, he technically isn't a Kodiak, who are much larger. He's a grizzly, just like his Papa, Gunnar. The reason this distinction is so important is because there is a Kodiak werebear who has been introduced in the story, who will be playing a much larger role as the series progresses, and in addition to size differences there are differences in personality and temperament that also distinguish the Kodiaks from the Grizzlies! Keep reading! I think you'll like what lies ahead. --Grumpy 💙

I think that Papa bears are just having a good time teasing their human crewmates. Seeing how far they can push the boundaries until they crack. As far as anyone knows they're just a fishing crew from Wisconsin who enjoy getting naked and having an orgy on the boat every day after lunch!

Captain Ron strode across the wharf at 5:45 am sipping a coffee and thinking about his fishing strategy for the morning. He looked ahead at the gangplank and was pleased to see Siku ready and waiting with the Ship’s Cat once again perched on his shoulder. As he grew nearer, he noticed that there were five huge men waiting with him, each nearly the size of Siku himself. What the shorter ones lacked in height, they made up for in broad muscle. “Good morning, Papa Bear” the captain said che

Shivay sat in his car early Monday morning just down the street from Siku’s house. He was in a spot where he was sure the bear couldn’t see him, and when he left his driveway would be headed in the opposite direction to get to work at Fisherman’s Wharf. His mother had warned him not to speak or interact with the bear when he returned to claim his computer and clothing, simply wait for him to leave, collect his things, and go. He would head straight to work from here. He would have to

Thank you all for BEAR-ing with me during my long hiatus. I started this chapter back in November of last year, but set it aside until just this last week. I probably wont be able to maintain the chapter-a-day pace I had prior to my hiatus, but I will endeavor to get at least 2 or 3 chapters published per week. Enjoy!

Siku woke to the sound of his phone ringing on the nightstand. He felt the empty space in the bed next to him where Shivay had occupied until last night and frowned unhappily. He reached across the bed and picked up his phone. It was Gunnar. “Hello,” he said after tapping the screen to answer. “Hey Siku,” Gunnar said. “I hope it’s not too early there on the West coast, I wanted to check in with you to see how things were going there at the house and with the new job.” “The hous

It really became a bit of a viscous cycle over time. The first month was really all about my new job consuming my time and energy, but the longer that I stayed away from writing and this site, the more guilty I felt about abandoning the 5th story in mid-stream. The more guilty I felt, the more I dreaded coming back to finish, worrying what people were thinking of me. I tried to push it out of my mind, but the character of Siku kept intruding into my thoughts, begging me to overcome my own personal issues and finish his story.

Hey all, After a long, LONG hiatus, I'm back. Long story short, it was a combination of... Starting a new job which required all of my attention and energy for several months. I love the new company for which I'm managing project work, and I've had to do a crash-course in learning the Radiology field in order to stay up to speed with the work that I've been doing. It has been a pretty intense half of a year. Also, when I left I did fully intend to finish the Worlds Apart story and continue the Werebears in America series, but was dismayed at the sudden flood of negative feedback I received at the cliffhanger point where I left the story. I know that it was a pretty dramatic, graphic and dark twist on the tale, having our hero unwittingly host a party where the attendees were bears who have lost their way, and had paid for the opportunity to rape his weretiger love and potential mate. I had to put the relationship in jeopardy, and it took a major, horrific physical attack to sever the bond between the main characters, temporarily or permanent. However, upon finishing my training week, and seeing the outrage over the state of the story, it made me extremely sad, and I just couldn't bear to pick it back up for a long time. I just got back from a family reunion, and was talking to several family members about the writing that I had done last year. Out of interest, I got back onto the site anonymously, and re-read all four of my first stories, start-to-finish. Today, I logged back into the site for the first time in many months, and realized that people did miss me and my stories, and it has given me hope that finishing the incomplete story might be worthwhile after all. Give me a week or two to pick up the writing where I left off, and I'll see if I can't raise our beloved werebear and wolf-lycan crew from the dead! Thanks, -Grumpy 💙

Hey all, After a long, LONG hiatus, I'm back. Long story short, it was a combination of... Starting a new job which required all of my attention and energy for several months. I love the new company for which I'm managing project work, and I've had to do a crash-course in learning the Radiology field in order to stay up to speed with the work that I've been doing. It has been a pretty intense half of a year. Also, when I left I did fully intend to finish the Worlds Apart story and continue the Werebears in America series, but was dismayed at the sudden flood of negative feedback I received at the cliffhanger point where I left the story. I know that it was a pretty dramatic, graphic and dark twist on the tale, having our hero unwittingly host a party where the attendees were bears who have lost their way, and had paid for the opportunity to rape his weretiger love and potential mate. I had to put the relationship in jeopardy, and it took a major, horrific physical attack to sever the bond between the main characters, temporarily or permanent. However, upon finishing my training week, and seeing the outrage over the state of the story, it made me extremely sad, and I just couldn't bear to pick it back up for a long time. I just got back from a family reunion, and was talking to several family members about the writing that I had done last year. Out of interest, I got back onto the site anonymously, and re-read all four of my first stories, start-to-finish. Today, I logged back into the site for the first time in many months, and realized that people did miss me and my stories, and it has given me hope that finishing the incomplete story might be worthwhile after all. Give me a week or two to pick up the writing where I left off, and I'll see if I can't raise our beloved werebear and wolf-lycan crew from the dead! Thanks, -Grumpy 💙

I will try to see if I can knock out another chapter or two in my hotel room at night! I'm going to be spending most of the time at the University of Miami Medical Center training on radiology IT systems for my upcoming project work. Miami is a short drive from where I live, but being a business trip, it will require a 3-night hotel stay, which is kind of a bonus.

Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger, but I will be on a business trip for work for the next four days, and will not have any spare time to write during that time. If all goes well, I will be able to pick back up where Siku, Shivay and Charlie left off by next Friday or Saturday, so stay tuned!

There was an insistent pounding at the door, and Siku looked over at Shivay as they lounged on the couch in the den. They had spent a relaxing day off together, most of it down in the cove, nude, swimming in the chilly waters and sunning themselves on the sand. They ran down the stairs quickly to the door as the pounding continued and opened it to find Colt standing on their stoop with a grin on his bearded face, wearing a pair of faded jeans and a loose pullover hoodie. “You two read

Okay, this is the first I'm introducing this concept into the stories, so it is the start of the breadcrumbs. Something in the future, maybe a few years, maybe a hundred or a thousand is going to go down. If Siku and Shivay do not come together as a Mated couple in the here and now, the subsequent series of events will be significantly altered to such a degree that it will bring about an end to the old gods forever and rain destruction upon the hidden lycan world. In sci-fi analogies, there is the time traveler who goes back to the time of the dinosaurs and accidentally steps on a butterfly. When he returns to his own time, he finds that this seemingly innocent mistake has changed the future and he comes home to a completely different world. Whether or not Siku and Shivay are able to reconcile is the key event that has repercussions for the Fate of All.