About the stories

  There's a guy named Mark Van Sciver who created a nifty little setting he calls "Tales From the Blind Pig", and who chose to let other people play in the sandbox he'd built.
  Start with the world you and I live in. In the year 2001, the Beagle II space probe comes back to Earth with a microscopic hitchhiker, the so-called "Martian Flu virus". To a first approximation, this little piece of work kills 25% of those it infects; another 2/3 (67%) or so suffer cold/flu symptoms for a while, with no lingering aftereffects; the remaining victims, about 8%, develop a complication known as Stein's Chronic Accelerated Biomorphic Syndrome -- SCABS for short -- which remodels your bod. Changes you, to a greater or lesser degree, according to no known pattern. Some folks get a few non-human physical traits grafted on, others get a complete physical transformation into some other species, and so on. As well, SCABS can sometimes grant/inflict inhuman abilities, ranging from the relatively minor (heightened senses, etc) to the physics-breaking.
  Most of the Blind Pig stories are set in the 2030s, a couple decades after the Martian Flu made its unwelcome debut, and deal with the goings-on in and around a SCAB-friendly bar called the Blind Pig Gin Mill. I envision the bar as being laid out this way; others, such as BossHoss, have their own ideas.

One interesting facet of the Blind Pig setting is that it's a veritable orgy of self-insertion fanfic -- most/all of the major characters in it are based heavily upon various TSA subscribers, and SCABS tends to work over each "persona" in accordance with the specific transformative preferences of its "original model". Fortunately, Blind Pig authors (as a group) are made of sterner stuff than the pathetic Trek-obsessed wretches who have made "Mary-Sue" a byword for bad self-insertion fanfic. So if you're looking for crap like thinly disguised power fantasies, best look elsewhere, because you won't find that sort of thing in Blind Pig stories (thank God!).

My character in the Blind Pig setting is a marginally anthropomorphic cheetah who calls himself Jubatus. He doesn't use a last name, but if pressed for one he'd say Jubatus Acinonyx -- you all know that the cheetah's scientific name is acinonyx jubatus jubatus, right? He's one of the numerous Blind Pig characters whose SCABS-derived abilities could qualify them to be low-grade superheroes (speedster, in Jube's case), except that they've got other ideas. Further, deponent sayeth not; you'll just have to read the stories. They're listed here in order of when they occur in Jubatus' life.

  A Good Run of Luck is the story that introduced Jubatus to the Blind Pig. I was mostly trying to see if I could have a viewpoint character who insists that everything is just dandy, while at the same time making it clear to the reader that, in fact, everything is actually going to Hell in a handbasket.
  Second Heat, in which Jubatus displays certain strong and weak points, is the cheetah's second tale. And yes, I do intend to put some sort of reference to speed and/or motion into the title of every Jubatus story; "run" in the first tale, and "heat" (in the Track and Field sense) this time around.
  Speedy Trials is the third tale in the continuing story of Jubatus. Your (and his) favorite cheetah finally comes to terms with something that's really bothered him ever since the fur coat arrived.
  Actions & Reactions was written by a promising gent named Hallan Mirayas, and it's Jube's first appearance in a story writ by someone else. The local highschool has a rule against the use of claws, which doesn't help a lionmorph student deal with the school bully. Maybe it's just me, but I detect some foreshadowing of things to come...
  No Quick Fix is an odd one for me. It's a vignette, a pure "mood piece", not my usual kind of thing at all; while it's the fifth Jubatus tale I've written, its place in the cheetah's continuity is between #s 3 and 4; and it was blatantly sparked by Real Life events which don't bear repeating here.
  Life in the Fast Lane is a story arc involving the Strikebreakers, an all-SCAB band, and their misadventures on a nationwide tour. If you'd like to start at the beginning of the saga, the link that opens this paragraph will take you there. Or, if you'd prefer to go directly to one specific chunk:
  -- Track 1, Building the Perfect Beast, reveals how the Strikebreakers came to be. It's the fourth story I've written with Jubatus in it.
  -- Track 2, So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star, is a look inside the heads of all the band members (and an experiment in multiple PoVs). It's the eighth Cubist-written story of Jubatus.
  -- Future tracks: Going Mobile (addressing the logistics of SCABs on tour). The Cover of the Rolling Stone (publicity is such a whore...). Jesus Loves Me (a first, fond look at one band member's old stomping grounds). Big Time (the tour's grand finale). There will also be a minimum of two bonus tracks, which aren't directly related to the main story arc; Running Down the Dream (a look at the current state of one old glory) and Veronica (a slight detour in the schedule) for sure, and perhaps others as well.
  Throwing Down the Gauntlet, by Hallan Mirayas. Fifth non-Cubist tale featuring Jube. Hallan Mirayas, young lionmorph SCAB last seen in Actions and Reactions, continues to have problems with bullies; fortunately, he's got help this time, in the form of a certain cheetahmorph.
  Something to Live Fo r is Michael Bard's first TBP story, and the second non-Cubist-written one that features Jube. In addition to introducing his character Sue Carter, Bard raises some cogent points that will probably continue to be ignored by most other TBP writers, unfortunately...
  One Small Step... is a collaboration between myself and Michael Bard; we started it to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Tales from the Blind Pig setting. Jubatus, however, is commemorating a very different anniversary... and Sue Carter isn't celebrating at all.
  Man in the Mirror comes to us from Sly 'SurviFur' Squirrel, and is the third non-Cubist story in which Jube has any significant role. In this case, a freshly SCABbed-over full-morph squirrel decides that talking to Jube would be a great way to help him overcome those dratted 'run away!' prey instincts he's been saddled with...
  It's Time That I Realize..., the 4th non-Cubist story with Jube, is the immediate sequel to Man in the Mirror, and likewise written by Sly. Reality sets in for Jim Hart after the euphoria of the previous story's ending has faded.
  Fast Break, by me and Hallan Mirayas. My 5th-completed (me and Bard began One Small Step before this'n) tale of Jubatus.
  Death by Calculus, the 6th non-Cubist tale featuring Jube, by Hallan Mirayas and Michael Bard. In which leonine SCAB Hallan asks for help with math homework, and discovers that the phrase Too Much Information is not necessarily restricted to sexual matters.
  Acquiring Targets, the 9th non-Cubist tale featuring Jube, by Michael Bard. Sue Carter is not pleased: Not only did she not find out about Jube's accident until after he made a full recovery, but she can't even persuade him he was wrong to keep her in the dark... (Sue's view of Death By Calculus, which occurs simultaneously with this)
  Christmas Resolutions, one of the two 7th non-Cubist tales featuring Jube, by Wanderer. The Caped Canine has a family -- and his favorite niece makes a surprise appearance to brighten his Yuletide! (Written for the TSAT 25 anniversary celebration; hosted offsite, at TSAT)
  Christmas Rush, my 7th-written tale of Jube. How does the fastest (and most cynical, and most paranoid) SCAB alive deal with an attack of the Christmas spirit? (Written for the TSAT 25 anniversary celebration; hosted offsite, at TSAT)
  Schroedinger's Dryad, one of the two 7th non-Cubist tales featuring Jube, by Michael Bard. Sue Carter doesn't believe there's anything Man was not meant to know, and she's just the SCAB to prove it... (Written for the TSAT 25 anniversary celebration; hosted offsite, at TSAT)
  I've got other Jubatus stories kicking around inside me head, among them Quick and Dirty, The John Moschitta School of Elocution, Godspeed, and The Velocity of Money. Me and BlueNight are collaborating on a twisted little number called The Quick and the Dead. And as stated above, there'll be more of Life in the Fast Lane. A lot more.
  You'll see them as soon as I post 'em, and I'll post 'em as soon as they're ready.

The Human Extinction Agency setting comes to us courtesy of a bloke who goes by the name Oren the Otter. About all I know of him is that he's a devout Christian of one denomination or another, and I'd expect that his remarkable affinity for otters has the Almighty looking at him with a somewhat bemused expression on His face.
This setting diverges from the Real World in the late 1990s, I believe. Whatever the exact moment, what happened is that a batch of gaseous extraterrestrials revealed themselves to all humanity... and the Nacalites (as their species calls themselves) declared their intention to wipe us out through a five-year program of multi-staged transformation. When the smoke clears, every human on Earth will have become some other species entirely. The Human Extinction Agency is a bureaucracy set up by the Nacs to ensure that their genocide runs smoothly, with trains running on time and all that.

It's an interesting concept, but there are certain themes which show up in altogether too many other H.E.A. stories for my taste. For instance, armed resistance to the Nacs which doesn't take into account the fact that the aliens have an interstellar culture backing 'em up. Even if we did somehow manage to wipe out every Nacalite on Earth, our victory wouldn't last any longer than it takes for an armada-ful of Nac warriors to arrive here and finish what their martyred brethren began!

Sowing the Wind... introduces an ill-tempered human by name of Andrew Aikens Tesla to the world of the H.E.A. I was provoked to write this story by those themes I mentioned above, as a response thereto.
Contamination is the "umbrella title" of a trilogy I'm working on, involving the further adventures of the aforementioned Mr. Tesla. None of the three parts are ready for prime time as of yet. Were it not for the fact that Oren himself is actually steering things towards the general direction of where this trilogy's going to end up, I would say that Contamination is pretty much going to nuke the H.E.A. setting...

  Another fine by-product of the TSA-talk mailing list. Fellow member Sly Squirrel came up with this thing; it's an odd and interesting cross between a writer's exercise and a game show. It follows the Survivor model fairly closely, with an exotic setting isolated from civilization (a several-miles-across structure called the BioSphere), tribes (four members apiece), challenges, tribal council meetings, and so on. As far as the characters are concerned, the goal is to be the last contestant who has any vestige of their former humanity left; from the authors' point of view, however, the goal is to come up with interesting stories in a setting which pretty well guarantees a subinfinite number of interpersonal conflicts.
  Sadly, of all the several hundred List members, exactly four chose to participate in Sly's game/exercise: Joseph Gibbs (aka Ch'Tah), Daniel Lin, Michael Bard, and myself. Ch'Tah wrote the Queens tribe; Lin,the Bronx; and I collaborated with Bard on the tribe called Harlem. We like to call this little story arc Predators at Play, and here it is for your reading enjoyment:
  The Commercial: In which Harlem's members -- Michael (centaur), Mary-Anne (anthropomorphic cat), Norman (human with a light sprinkling of panther traits), and Mal (fully human) -- explain why they should be on the show.
  The Doom that Came to Redmond: Introducing Harlem's members (and the reader) to the BioSphere, and to each other.
  A Night on the Town: First challenge: Walking away with your humanity after spending an evening in the big city.
  Second Tribal Council: Written by me and Bard while Sly was off at wrestling camp, believe it or don't...
  Evil Eats Everything: Second challenge: In which Harlem beats the scavenger hunt, and survives each other.
  Around the 'Sphere in Seven Biomes: Third challenge: Harlem's first casualty, in a 7-biome cross-country rally.
  The Meanest SOB in the BioSphere: Endgame. The ultimate battle between Good and Evil, this one's for all the marbles. Now that it's open warfare, how can Mal survive?