I’m here! Oh, stop it—you don’t have to keep clapping (though you can if you want to…). First things first, thank you so much, Allyson for letting me visit you today. I’ve been looking forward to visiting your site and talking BEARS!
I recently wrote a story about a bear shifter that was included in a short story collection for Liquid Silver Books. The collection has shifter stories from three other amazing authors but my contribution, Bear With Me, is about a surly silvertip grizzly bear shifter who’s really messed things up. It’s also about the woman who’s returned to claim the man/beast who stole her heart.
I was lucky enough to catch Tyee Clark and his lady, Lily, before they denned last winter in the Canadian Rockies. Seriously, if you don’t get ‘em before they go under for the winter you’re just not gonna get ‘em. They were hesitant about the interview but they underestimated my desire to tell their story. And so began the cycle where I persisted and they resisted—it was a lot of fun until … well, you’ll see.
So, where’s a good place to start, hmmm? Here with a picture of the playful bears?
Maybe here with the bear that looks like he’s laid back and chilling—posing even for an OlanMills glamour shot?
Nah, neither of those works. I need you in the mood and so I give you, Tyee Clark, beautiful Chinook Chieftain:
Hotness right? Ruggedly handsome, introspective, half naked and needing the woman his heart picked to return to him because boy did he mess up…
And yet this is so much more accurate and so I give you: Tyee Clark, silvertip grizzly bear shifter in need of an attitude adjustment:
Yeah. So now you know what I was dealing with when I headed up to Canada to interview this lovely *choke-cough-choke* couple whose story I desperately wanted to tell. So here it is, the unedited version of my initial interview with Tyee Clark and his Reckoning mate, Lily.
Me: Interview begin. Thank you guys so much for having me.
Tyee: *grunts*
Lily: Oh, Lea, we’re so glad you’ve come for a visit. *looks over somewhat nervously at the still grunting Tyee* We’ll have to be fast as there’s a snow storm headed our way. If you don’t get back down the mountain before the pass closes you’ll, uh, be stuck with us all winter.
Tyee: *growls*
Me: Well, we wouldn’t want that. I have a husband and kids of my own to take care of. I really just wanted to jot down some notes. I know I should be able to get the rest of your story through email correspondence. Lily, I guess I can start with you. Aren’t you from around my way?
Lily: I’m from Georgia, so if that’s ‘around your way’ I guess so. *small chuckle*
Me: Yep, I’m from right outside Atlanta. How did you end up here? I mean, it’s so damn cold!
Tyee: *growls and huffs*
Lily: Tyee, stop it! *looks back at me* I pursued graduate courses in large mammal/wildlife biology at Texas A&M. For my thesis I came up here to investigate the legend of bear shifters. I met Tyee and the rest, well…
Me: Yeah, tell me the rest. *I lean forward excitedly at this point*
Tyee: Back up, lady. *growls*
Me: *backs up immediately*
Lily: *laughs outright now* Tyee, leave Lea alone. She came to tell our story and damn it, if our story will help others you need to shut your deer chute and tell the story! *laughs again*
Me: Uh, deer chute?
Tyee: *grunts and pulls Lily to him in a, yeah—a bear hug* I eat deer; hence, my mouth is a deer chute. She thinks she’s funny.
*It’s important here to note he never looks at me. His gaze is always trained on Lily. Always. It makes my heart flutter and takes my breath.*
Lily: I am funny.
Tyee: *grunts*
Me: Ooookaaaay, so Tyee, tell me about the reckoning. Why did you push Lily away and leave her to suffer without you for a year?
Tyee: *stands abruptly, knocking over the beautiful Ash wood rocker he was sitting in as he turns a wide-eyed gaze on Lily* You told her?
Lily: *smile serenely and nods* Yep. How are others supposed to learn if we don’t tell our story, Chief?
Me: Yeah, how are others supposed to learn?
Tyee: *glares at me and growls between clenched teeth as he points a decidedly delicious index finger my way* Stay out of this. This has nothing to do with you.
Me: *I stare at him innocently* I’m not in anything. But apparently you weren’t either for an entire year. *I snicker*
*Note to self: don’t ever mock a bear shifter—ever. The air squeezed around me, there’s no other word for it and ozone permeated the den. Between one blink and the next I am staring at an enormous silvertip grizzly. I’m the one knocking over my chair now as I back all the way to the wall. It still doesn’t seem far enough.*
Me: Uh, Lily? Help?
Lily: *guffaws and points at my face* If you could see your face…
Me: But I can’t and uh, he’s really scaring me.
Tyee/Bear: *ROARS and paws the floors beneath us digging long furrows into the beautiful wood with six inch claws*
Lily: *sobers and looks at me* Don’t wet your pants. *turns to Tyee/Bear* Be quiet, Chief. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Me: Sweet Brown? He looks like he wants to rip me limb from limb and you’re quoting Sweet Brown?
Lily: *shrugs* It was appropriate. *sighs* Okay, Lea, he’s not going to cooperate and once he shifts back, well, you won’t see us for a few hours if you, uh, get my meaning. So maybe you should go ahead—
*the air squeezes around me again and ozone is a bitter taste in my throat. Tyee is now standing in front of me in all his naked glory—and doubt it not, it is GLORIOUS.*
Tyee: LEAVE!
Lily: *holds her hands up* Tyee, she’s here to tell our story—
Tyee: And now she isn’t.
Me: Do I not get a say in this?
Lily: *shakes her head and backs away from Tyee* Probably not, Lea.
Tyee: *stalks Lily then turns to me and growls again before returning to his lady*
Me: Okay, can I email you later, Lily?
Tyee: MUCH LATER! Now leave.
*Another important note here, Tyee Clark has yelled in my face and told me to leave. As I’ve seen him in both bear and naked glory, and I can literally feel the sexual energy pouring off him and Lily both, I have decided to end this interview. I wish my husband would stalk me like that…yummeh*
And so the interview ended. As the door to their den closed behind me, I was smiling. I got to see, Tyee Clark, a real-life bear shifter AND I got to see Tyee Clark, the man, naked. It felt a lot like winning. Oh, and because I love me some Sweet Brown, here’s the link just so you’ll know who Lily was quoting: http://youtu.be/Nh7UgAprdpM
So it wasn’t much of an interview but it gives you some indication of what you’re getting with Tyee and Lily. Allyson, thanks for having me. I’ve enjoyed sharing a little of Tyee and Lily with you.
Thank you so much for stopping by, Lea. If anyone has any more questions for Lily or Lea, feel free to ask. You can ask Tyree, too, but you may not get much of an answer 😉
Want to know more about Bear With Me from the Under a Moonlit Night short story collection?
(Available now at all e-book retailers and Liquid Silver Books.)
Tyee Clark screwed up bad and he’s been hiding to lick his wounds. The last thing he expects is to find the woman he craves more than anything else taunting him. She should know better than mess with a sullen grizzly. Unless she means it.
Lily Baskins has been hurt bad and she’s been waiting for the right time to institute a whole lot of payback. She’s not about to let sleeping bears lie. Not when she knows what she wants and is willing to face down a beast to get it.
Lily’s had the man. Now she wants the bear.
And just who is Lea Griffith, anyway?
Lea Griffith began sneaking to read her mother’s romance novels at a young age. She cut her teeth on the greats: McNaught, Woodiwiss, and Garwood. A firm believer that love makes the world go round, she still consumes every romance book she can put her hands on,
but now she writes her own.
Lea lives with her husband and three teenage daughters in rural Georgia. Two dogs, a cat, and a Betta fish named Coddy George complete a family always in motion. When not working at the EDJ, she’s usually at her keyboard, using every spare second to write.
Science fiction, paranormal and contemporary romance, oh my!
Nothing is off-limits when it comes to her writing.
You can find Lea at
Website: http://www.leagriffith.com/
Facebook Profile: http://www.facebook.com/lea.griffith.58
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LeaGriffithWrites?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeaGriffith