Do you imagine blazing gun battles, bandits, and saloons with watered-down drinks when you think of cowboys and the West? We don’t. Our minds go right to horse shifters, bull shifters, were-leopards, urban wannabes, an interrupted journey along Route 66, a man of mystery named Dr. Feel-Good, and high noon at the edge of the galaxy! The fourth time’s the charm as the Butt-Thology authors saddle up, ride their men hard, and put ‘em away wet.
Butt Riders on the Range…the bulls aren’t the only ones being grabbed by the horns!
Welcome, JP Barnaby, one of our Riders!
Wait, so… Emotional terrorist, JP Barnaby, author of such ansty tales as Aaron, Little Boy Lost, and A Heart for Robbie has written, shifters?Yes, it’s true, and I just have two words for the reasoning behind this latest Butt Anthology ditty—Kage Alan. See, Kage is one of my closest friends and he consistently encourages me (some would say in a relentless fashion) to write outside my comfort zone and stretch myself as an author. So, when it came time to craft a story for the Butt Riders anthology, I reached deep and thought about the one thing I never thought I’d write. Because I was a physics major, and deeply rooted in the science and mathematics side of life, I’ve always leaned toward the plausible and realistic in my work and shifters don’t really fall under that category.
The biggest challenge for me to get over with respect to shifting was not the animal/human DNA because biology and genetics were never my thing, it was the mass differential. According to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (the famous equation E=mc2), with the speed of light being a constant, there is a defined correlation between a change in mass and a change in energy. Because of the substantial nature of the speed of light, a small mass differential would cause a large requirement or release in energy (depending on the direction of the shift). For a human/horse shift, to take the example from the story, we’re talking about going from roughly an 1100 kg horse to a 100 kg human. There would be a profound release of energy, not to mention an extra 1000 kg of mass discharged in the process.
The energy and amount of discharge were minimized in the story to keep the story on a certain track. Had we used the actual theta-level radiation that would have been discharged, he’d have wiped out half the state. But the ideas of mass differential and energy were represented, which is what I wanted. They draw energy from the town in order to shift, and expel it in the form of a sonic boom when they shift back—more in line with Einstein than fantasy.
Do I believe there are such things as shifters? I don’t know. I do believe that we can’t possibly be the only sentient beings in the universe. I know that’s not the popular, arrogant American thing to say, but the universe is a vast place of wonder—we aren’t the only ones to notice. Whether those beings can shape-shift and what those physical manifestations may look like are pure speculation. And since I write fiction—it’s not really something I need to speculate on.
So, enjoy Riley’s story, and his interactions with John for what they are—fun and erotic horsing around. And to my fellow authors, I say—the next time someone challenges you to write outside your comfort zone, give it a shot. You might like what you find.
XOXO,
JP Barnaby
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