Michael Bard

Michael W. "Morgan" Bard was a transformation/furry author, former co-editor of the furry e-zine Anthro as well as the now defunct transformation e-zine TSAT. His character sometimes took a centaur form, though he was known to travel in other forms as well.

Interests

Bard's interests included hard science fiction such as John Varley or Robert Heinlein, and his work in turn tends to focus on heavily scientific themes. His writing was also influenced by humorous sci-fi such as Larry Niven's work.

Transformation

A common theme of Bard's transformation stories is characters who quickly try to accept and deal with the situation of becoming another creature instead of staying in a state of denial, but not going as far as to eschew their former activities or responsibilities, either. For instance, the main character in the story ""A Diary of a Centaur in a Human's World" wakes up one morning to find himself changed into a centaur. After some initial adjustment difficulties, the character makes his way to work, not about to let a thing like turning into a centaur keep him from his job.

This pragmatism is used in Bard's stories either seriously or humorously given the situation, and sometimes, both at once. In "A Diary," the protagonist gets into an argument with the ticket taker at a subway station over his entering the train. The main character makes the reasonable argument that he needs to use the train to get to work on time while the ticket taker makes the equally reasonable counterargument that it would be ludicrous to allow a centaur on the train.

Bard's work frequently deals with the city of Toronto and his affinity for it, and he sometimes playfully refered to Americans as "Rebel Scum," a reference to a line from the movie Return of the Jedi.

Aneurysm and Coma

On Friday, March 12th, Michael W. Bard suffered a "blood vessel injury in the head" (stroke, aneurysm, etc -- specifics not available). He was not found until shift change on Saturday, March 13th.

He was rushed to Intensive Care to have swelling in his brain lowered, amongst other things, where he remained until March 14th. Doctors removed life support on March 15th and his lungs continued working on their own, leading people to believe he is not in a persistent vegetative state.

Brain scan results showed extensive and permanent damage to Michael's brain, with zero chance of recovery. His parents, with the support of the TBI specialists at Tornoto Western, decided to pull all life support except pain medication and allow him to pass on peacefully. There remained a chance he might recover in the next few weeks, although this was an infinitesimally small chance.

On Friday, March 18th, Michael passed away