Grumpy Bear

Supreme Alpha Taylor watched nervously from a conference room window at the activity in front of the headquarters building. All morning, vans and shuttle busses had been pulling up into the circular drive, each one packed shoulder-to-shoulder with bears arriving for the big event. His Beta, Chad, had been hard at work for the last three months preparing for this day. There was a confirmed guest list that had been triple-checked against the registry of known bears, and each vetted against

Graduation day at the Academy came and went just in time before Bernie’s physical changes became too noticeable. The students were saddened to learn that Assistant Coach Odinson would not be returning the following year, and they asked if they could throw a going-away party for him before the summer break, but Bill told them all that Bernie appreciated the thought, but he didn’t want any big fuss. The truth was, Bernie was nearly reaching the halfway point in his transformation, and they were

Patience pays, werebear fans! Chapter 3 of Gods and Ancients is nearly complete, and should be posted by tomorrow morning. I am introducing many of the extended cast of new characters in this chapter as well as their culture and environment, so it is taking a bit of time to make sure that I have the details just right! Stay tuned, bear brothers. Same bear-time, same bear-channel. 🐻 --Grumpy 💙

Curtis is a wolf-lycan. The runt of the litter and treated as the Omega of his old pack before he started working at the NALC headquarters. There are no humans working for the NALC, and as it currently stands, only wolves are employed as support-staff.

Keep in mind that Curtis's actions don't just involve the bears, he's been listening to the private conversations of all the Council and the Supreme Alpha for a year and a half and selling the intel. Supreme Alpha Taylor may have a laid-back attitude when dealing with the bears, but when and if Curtis gets caught I don't think he's going to tolerate High Treason quite so lightly.

Chapter 1 of Gods and Ancients has been posted. I'm very excited for this story and happy to be starting another werebear adventure!

Photo by shahin khalaji on Unsplash

The young man crept silently through the woods. Just shy of six feet tall with a muscular build and a head of long blond hair pulled into a tight knot at the back of his head, he chose each step carefully to conceal his location from the predators stalking him for as long as possible. He ducked under a low hanging tree branch and spotted four teenage werewolves in human form moving together as a unit through the dense forest about fifty yards away. The man grinned and absent mindedly reached

Bernhard Odinson, the human descendant of the Norse god Thor has begun the process of transforming from man to werebear. When he undergoes his first shift, he will become one with his bear, and will receive his full powers as a demigod. But the news of this has spread, and the African Lycan Council considers him a threat to all of were-kind. When the North American Lycan Council sends a peace delegation to Africa, Bernie's presence awakens an even more ancient force that poses the greatest threat of all. Can the two opposing factions come together to protect their existence, or will fear and hostility doom them all?

Thanks @Smokey! Reading through your synopsis gave me a spark of inspiration that while not the same as your idea, lit the flame for the story outline for book 6! Here's the back-of-the-book-jacket synopsis: Bernhard Odinson, the human descendant of the Norse god Thor is now twenty-two, has reached maturity, completed his training, and has begun the process of transforming from man to werebear. When he undergoes his first shift, in addition to becoming one with his bear, he will also receive his full powers as a demigod. However, the news of his ascendancy into power has spread throughout lycan communities worldwide, and the African Lycan Council considers him a threat to all of were-kind and should be destroyed. But when the North American Lycan Council sends a peace delegation to Africa, including Bernie and his mate Karhu, Bernie's presence awakens an even more ancient force that poses the greatest threat of all. Can the two opposing factions come together to protect their existence, or will fear and hostility doom them all? I envision the African Lycan Council (ALC) to be composed of Lion, Cheetah and Atlas Bear shifters (thanks for that idea!), and I will get to spend some time on the Atlas Bear history, and the preservation of the Atlas were-species even when the wild bears were made extinct. (Did you know that Atlas bears were used in ancient Rome to fight the gladiators in the Colosseum? There's so much potential there to explore the history of the Atlas werebears!) Main cast carried over from previous books will be: Bernie & Karhu (the perceived threat) Axel, Adam, Ezekiel (representing the NALC) Apollo & Susie (security & representing NALC wolf-lycan interests) Rodney & Marcus and the Wights (our crew's secret weapon!) I'm excited to introduce the new lion, cheetah and Atlas bear shifters, and even more excited for the new/old big-bad-villain who will make the Tuath Dé look like weak little kittens in comparison! Now to get to work!

I'm following along. 😉 I hadn't considered red pandas before, since they're such small species. I haven't yet considered the implications of a human transforming into a creature smaller than his human size yet. I'm glad that Izz got such a great reception. I sort of added him at the last minute while writing the last chapter to add some interest, and it appears to have worked. I'll definitely get back to him at some point, but I'll really need to do some more research on Indonesian culture and behaviors before I can really flesh out his personality. All I have so far is that he really likes his coffee! I admit that I'm having a little trouble getting started on book 6. I have a general idea that I would like it to be a Bernie/Karhu/Axel/Adam story, that includes Bernie's first change, and addresses exactly WHAT he becomes when he becomes a bear and then also calls upon his demigod form. I know what that is, but I'm still working on devising a rough plan for what the adventure/conflict those four characters will encounter, where in the world it will take them, and whether or not Susie and Apollo (fan favorites, of course) will have to get involved. I'll try to keep you all posted once I have the general idea pinned down a little more, and then once that happens, the writing usually takes on a life of its own and starts flying through my fingers to the keyboard. More to come...

I was thinking of introducing a polar bear character who spends the northern hemisphere summer months in the Arctic Circle and the southern hemisphere months in Antarctica, who is bisexual, and has manic depression. He would be a bi-polar, bi-polar, bi, polar bear.

A side note to the fans of this series- I've finally created a discussion thread in the Stories Discussion Forum dedicated to Werebears in America. Check it out if you would like to keep the discussion, plot speculation, and character shipping alive in between stories and chapter postings: -- Grumpy 💙

Hello werebear fans! Now that the series has five complete stories, I'm finally getting around to creating a discussion forum. What new adventures should our band of bears, wolves and tigers set upon next? Are you ready for another Axel and Adam road-trip to find the next Ancient? Is it time for Bernhard Odinson to finally be turned and come into his full demigod power? Should they finally encounter the fabled avian lycans of Asia, or maybe the lion shifters of Africa? Will Ezekiel ever find a Mate? I do read all the comments on my stories, and some of them give me a spark of an idea that can become something big! So, let me know how you've enjoyed the series so far, and what direction is should go next. -- Grumpy 💙

The enclave of Atikokan was buzzing with activity. Spring had arrived, and as the last of the winter snow melted, the area around the werebears’ home saw the emergence of lush spring wildflowers as well as an abundance of bare skin, as the bears shed their heavy layers of clothing in favor of loose-fitting cargo shorts and tank tops. The village was bursting at the seams with visitors who had come from all over North America for the big event. Today was the day that ten polar bears from t

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.