Dear readers, tonight with us is a young woman, scion of an ancient clan of werecats. She is here to tell us about the challenges of discovering your family’s dark secrets and battling lethal urges, while trying to finish high-school.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

My brother Tommy and I lived in Norfolk, Virginia most of our time growing up. Our dad was a Navy SEAL, so we were your garden-variety Navy brats. Around major holidays while Dad was off on deployment, our mom would take us on a bus to D.C. and then a train to Chicago where our folks were both from. There we’d spend time together with our grandparents and aunts and uncles. At the time our extended family all lived together in the same building, so it was like a big family reunion whenever we’d show up. We’d been on ice skates from nearly the time we could walk, so we’d bring our hockey gear along and play pick-up games with the kids from a Chicago neighborhood league our aunt and uncle coached. The tricks we learned there made us high school hockey superstars back in Norfolk!

Did you have any favourite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

Our great grandfather, a retired Coast Guard commandant, had bought a decommissioned light keeper’s cottage situated on a small, remote wooded island in Lake Michigan near Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. He fixed it up for his family to use a summer cabin, and my brother and I continued that tradition for much of our summers. With our dad gone so much, Tommy and I spent far more time at the cabin every summer than we did in either Chicago or Norfolk. We’d wander around all day, every day, building forts and playing hide n’ seek and combing the beaches looking out for treasure washed up from centuries of shipwrecks.

What do you do now?

Tommy and I are both trying to finish out our senior year at a new high school. It’s been, well, a challenge…

What can you tell us about your latest adventure?

Let’s just say neither of us had any idea just what it meant to be Growing Up Werecat. Not until I first morphed last Halloween, the night before our big game at the invitationals last fall in Green Bay.

What did you first think when you found out you are a werecat?

It was…scary. Like what was I? And what was I doing? I had no idea what was happening to me, but my mom and uncle did. Come to find out, they’re both werecats too. And were both hoping (against hope, apparently) that my brother and I wouldn’t inherit their “affliction.”

What was the scariest thing in your adventures?

It’s like…I’m in my body but I’m not in control of my body? Like I’m hearing and seeing and smelling and tasting everything in real time but I can’t do anything about it. For me, that’s frightening. Like one minute I think I’m okay and everyone around me is okay and then the next I turn into the Tasmanian Devil, putting me and them and everyone around us at risk of mortal harm. Fortunately, we had our island hideaway to retreat to until my mom and uncle and the rest of our family could help Tommy and I come to understand what was happening to us. And how not to go feral every time it did.

What is the worst thing about being a werecat?

As it happened, I first morphed while my dad was recovering from injuries received on a covert mission overseas. Blinded him in one eye and nearly killed him. Tommy and I relocated to Chicago with our parents when he requested a new billet as a trainer at Naval Station Great Lakes, so we had to leave behind our hockey teammates and all of our other high school-age friends. But for being close to our uncle, our extended family, and our island hideaway, while Tommy and I come to grips with our Affliction, we might not have had to move. Dad could’ve easily found a billet at Little Creek or something…

What is the best thing about it?

The metabolism! Mom’s got the same body today from back when she was in high school and says her high metabolism is the reason why. A lot of other girls my age stress about gaining weight. To hear Mom tell it I can stuff myself silly however much I want and never have to worry about it. Not that I would anyway what with the rigorous training regimen our mom has us on. Both her and her mom are master-level black belts in a traditional Korean martial art you’ve likely never heard of. On nights my brother and I aren’t at hockey practice, we’re hard at it in the dojang located in the old garage behind our apartment house.

Tell us a little about your friends.

My hockey teammate Lana and I were pretty tight back in Norfolk. We’d see each other during the summers sometimes too, because her grandparents had a farm in Door County, Wisconsin not too far from where we’d tie up our boat whenever we came ashore from the island. Tommy make friends pretty quickly here in Chicago after we moved. But I kept mostly to myself until the sister of one of my brother’s new teammates accosted me one night at the hockey rink, insisting I be her new best friend and unwilling to take no for an answer. Sally grew on me pretty quickly, though, and I’m glad she did. She’s the kind of person you just can’t keep in a funk around. In part why I think my dork brother fell head over heels for her.

Any romantic involvement?

Oh, er…well, there is this guy J.J. whom my brother and I knew from our childhood visits to Chicago. He’s graduated high school now and enlisted in the Navy and serving at Great Lakes himself…just when did he get so damn good-looking anyway? And next time he gets weekend liberty, we’re going to…oh, wait, you might rat me out to my folks if I tell you. Next question.

Whom (or what) do you really hate?

My uncle Ritzi–my mom’s brother, the werecat like us–is also a scientist. He thinks the way my Affliction first manifested will prove harmful to me over time, having long been laboring to maintain my mom’s health for similar reasons. Searching for answers got him on the radar of some cockroach named Blaznikov, a fellow werecat working for the North Korean military. Now Blaznikov is leaning on uncle Ritzi to come work for him and to bring Tommy and me along! As you might imagine, our dad is having none of it. But Blaznikov continues to try coercing us with his goons, even sending them to lean on Sally and her family. Apparently, he won’t take no for an answer either.

What does the future hold for you?

Well, graduating high school for one. My brother and I were both accepted into the Navy ROTC program at Northwestern, so I suppose we’ll be Navy property from then on out. Ordinarily I wouldn’t go for anyone telling me what to do or where to go, but if it keeps that Blaznikov and his goons far, far away from us, I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.

Can you share a secret with us, which you’ve never told anyone else?

I’m…terrified. Terrified that I’ll lose control and hurt someone. That this nightmare I keep having over and over might well come true, the one where I’m in Uncle Ritzi’s lab and the lab is on fire and my dad is there looking for me, calling out to me. Then as soon as I spot him this monster attacks us out of nowhere. And my dad, he…and then I…then I…

Sorry, you what?

I…I can’t. I just can’t. If I say anymore, I’ll lose it. Sorry, we’re done. I’m done. Done.

Boyhood interests in trains and electronics fostered Mark‘s career as an electrical engineer, designing and commissioning signal and communications systems for railroads and rail transit agencies across the United States. Authoring articles for rail industry trade magazine such as Railway Age and Trains, coupled with long-time participation in anime, manga and anthropomorphic fandoms, led him to write paranormal sci-fi thrillers featuring the modern-day remnant of an ancient clan of werecats. Growing up in Michigan never far from one of the Great Lakes, Mark and his wife today make their home in Wisconsin with their son and a dog who naps beside him as he writes. Mark is a member of Allied Authors of Wisconsin, one of the state’s oldest writing collectives, and the Furry Writers’ Guild, dedicated to promoting quality anthropomorphic fiction and its creators.

You can find Pawly on the pages of Werecats Emergent, and the rest of the Forest Exiles Saga.

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