Feed aggregator

Okay, follow along with this one: Panda Mony is an alternative toy company. One of there signature creations is a line of “cryptid” monsters called Alter Nation. Well now they have teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to bring us Alter Nation: They Hide Hybrids, a new full-color graphic novel. From Dark Horse: “The top-secret team of cryptid-heroes, GK Delta, are committed to protecting humanity from extraordinary threats.When you are all that stands between humanity and certain annihilation, you must be able to trust each other. So when Bomber betrays his brothers in arms, the team is forced to fight one of their own! What’s worse, what if he was right to leave?The team must confront their worst enemies while grappling with the fact that they may not be the heroes they think they are!” It’s written by Tim Seeley, illustrated by Mike Norton and Allan Passalaqua, and coming to stores this October.

image c. 2020 Dark Horse Comics

Hey Papa Bear,

I would like to hear your opinion on what you think about furry porn. …But that question alone is only worth maybe a “it’s good” or “it’s bad” answer, so… The true question is, what do you think of the whole scope about furry porn, and how it affects artists, members of the fandom, etc etc.

To give you more to work with, ever since I was a wee little chap watching TV with my lower lip quivering, and my eyes gleamed when I saw Flamedramon for the first time, I knew what I was in for. That said… The porn is good and all, but I’m always very sad to see how it affects the fandom. This mix of popularity and sexuality seem to entice many people, artists and commissioners alike, into very deplorable habits of flaunting for instant gratification, of filling their galleries to the brim with art of very varied levels of quality involving their sonas into every possible existing sexual scenario on this planet, just for the sake of… Attention, right? Well, money too, in case of the artists. Is that really worth it in the long-term?

It always bums me out that this sexy animal guy I’m jerking off to is almost surely a total douchebag if I met him in person, which… From my own experience, is very often true (But I admit that that’s on ME because I’m a very judgmental idiot and I also have impossibly high standards for everything. I’m sure someone out there could get to know one of those people and find their life-long partner, and that’s perfectly okay.) Still, there are also exceptions. I’ve seen some artists who draw porn but they don’t let their egos get mixed up in it (as much), and I respect those way more because they’re just more human to me. And I’m glad because otherwise that would’ve probably made me a total hypocrite, grabbing my dick with one hand and pointing and judging people with the other…

... Anyway, now that I made my point of view awfully, almost tangibly clear, I would like to hear yours. Hopefully it’s different from mine because I’d like to learn something new from this.

I await curiously for your reply.

~Uncle Tuper

* * *

Dear Uncle Tuper,

Sex and the fandom is a huge topic, and it is one I discuss in my book. It is difficult in a column to cover all the bases, but here's the gist of my take on furporn: Mundanes focus on this aspect on the fandom because they themselves do not have healthy attitudes about sex or they are incredibly inhibited about it (religious and other societal pressures cause this). They are uncomfortable with the idea of a fantasy-related fandom, and so, in seeking a way to reject it because it is "not normal," they zero in on what they feel is its unsavory aspect (furporn), and stereotype furries as sex addicts and zoophiles in order to reject and shame them. 

Why, then, do furries get into the porn aspect? There are a lot of reasons, and none of them have to do with zoophilia. Furporn is just one form of many types of sexual fantasies that people have. You can go on the Internet and find all kinds of fantasy porn out there, some of it is much more strange than anthro sex. Okay, so, why specifically fantasies about anthros? Gosh, there is a laundry list. For one thing, various anatomical features of animals could turn people on, such as the soft fur of a feline or the genital girth of a horse or the fact that an elephant can play with you with its trunk. There are also fantasies such as vore, which has to do with the submission fantasy or even the fantasy of the return to the womb (very Freudian). There is, too, the animalistic nature of it all--wild and passionate sex without inhibition. Also, assuming a fursona in sexual roleplay is a form of self-defense against sexual shame ("It isn't ME doing this, it's my fursona.") Why so much furporn out there? Why do so many people commission artists to draw porn? Well, one reason might be that the fandom demographics skew toward the young range, and, let's face it, young people have "raging hormones" and tend to be horny. Hence, porn. If it weren't furporn, it would be something else X-rated (Star Wars porn, cartoon porn, whatev).

I have no problem with furporn (in fact, I'm a fan LOL). It is not inherently "bad" or "good." Sexual fantasies are only "bad" if they become addictions (i.e., you become so obsessed with porn that it interferes with your daily functions in the world) or if they become violent or hurtful to others in any way (i.e., acting out fantasies for any kind of non-consensual sex). Outside of these two conditions, furporn and sexual fantasies about furries can actually be a healthy and normal thing. Sexual fantasies can assist people in exploring their sexual identities, likes and dislikes, and add a bit of zing to a relationship you might already be in.

What mundanes need to get over is focusing on this one aspect of the fandom. The furry fandom offers a lot more than just some X-rated art. If you focus only on porn, you are missing out on a lot.

So, when it comes to you, personally, I would suggest you explore a bit further what exactly you like about Flamedramon, and this can teach you a bit about yourself. As for online relationships, you should always be cautious about these and make sure you don't let in a predator or other jerk. Such people eventually make themselves known, so you will figure out whether "sexy animal guy" is a jerk or not. If he is, dump him and move on. There are lots of furries out there who are very cool people. 

Don't beat yourself up for having sexual feelings or that these feelings range into the world of fantasy. There is nothing wrong with you. Just remember to be kind to other people and avoid trolls along the way.

Hope that eases your mind.

Hugs,
Papabear

Oni Press are bringing a popular on-line comic to dead trees with the release of the  Frankie Comics hardcover collection by Rachel Dukes. “When they discover a kitten asleep in their doorway, real-life artist couple Rachel and Mike immediately fall prey to her charms. Soon, the new queen of their home is a blue point Siamese cat named Frankie. Stealing snacks, making mischief, and taking snuggling very seriously, Frankie proves, again and again, the wholesome joys of a feline companion.” As with many things at the moment, the release has been pushed back — in this case to October 21st, but you can pre-order it now.

image c. 2020 Oni Press

A quick roundup, followed by various household grievances.

FurCast is sponsored by Twin Tail Creations. Use coupon codes REDWOLF or BLUEFOX to save up to 20% on silicone products during checkout. Free FurCast Themed Colorations are also available which can be applied as a color choice to your toy purchase.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Telegram updates, profile videos
• Vox Fox celebrates turning 64
• Anthrocon’s A/V team is LiDAR scanning the venue
  • Tweet 2
• Human sperm study
• Patreon not doing well legally
  • Tweet 2
  • Court denies Patreon injunction against fans of ‘canceled’ comedian
• The Angry Orange says they want to ban TikTok, ByteDance & Tencent
• 8.8 Million Foxes Have Been Petted In Ghost Of Tsushima (And Other Stats)
• All Gas No Brakes interview
  • Original Video from MFF 2019
• Starlink says it has “extraordinary demand”

[Live] Grievancecast

MOOBARKFLUFF! Click here to send us a comment or message about the show!

It's our longest episode to date, but we have a great discussion with Uncle Kage!  We finally have our furst Five Minute Furs Fur Fun participant, we learn about Fibonacci, phyllotaxis (no that is not a taxi for plants) and have a few really bad puns and jokes. Get your Taebyn fix here.

Support the show

Thanks to all our listeners and to our staff: Bearly Normal, Rayne Raccoon, Taebyn, Cheetaro, TickTock, and Ziggy the Meme Weasel.

You can send us a message on Telegram at BFFT Chat, or via email at: bearlyfurcasting@gmail.com

Bearly Furcasting #14 - Uncle Kage, Phyllotaxis, Fibonacci and More Jokes!

Hello there FWG members, it’s time for another monthly newsletter! Is it surprising that we have a lot to talk about once again? Let’s just get right down to business.

We want to be able to do more to promote our members in the guild. To make this happen, we have three new projects we intend to tackle with your help.

First, we intend to update our suggested reading page. There were links to a lot of older articles and the like on there, but a lot of those things while solid resources aren’t regularly updated. So we will be taking works submitted by our membership to feature on our list!

If you would like your work featured you will need to fill out this form. We intend to attempt to populate the list by looking at furry publisher’s websites but if you don’t fill out the form, we can’t guarantee we’ll catch your work. Help us help promote you! We’ll only be listing works including current FWG members as a perk for your continued membership and support.

Second, we wish to use our social media platforms to help promote people further. It is impossible to catch every new release, book giveaway, and other promotional things to help our members get spotlights. Our staff simply doesn’t have that much time to dig through Twitter (our social media manager is already doing the work for two other officer positions).

So we will be introducing the FWG Promotion Tip Line as a new service offered to members of the guild! All you have to do is fill out this two question form to get featured on our social media. This is the place to tell us if you have new books released (self published or not), give us links to posts to stories on places like SoFurry or FurAffinity, or generally anything else furry lit related the guild can promote. We’ll be keeping this link up on our front page so it’s easy to find. This is another service only open to current FWG members as a perk for your continued support and membership.

We also want to make it clear that NSFW material is okay to submit to us for promotion. We always tag any links to NSFW works on our social media so that users can avoid them if they wish. NSFW furry lit is STILL furry lit. We will not exclude adult focused writers.

Third, we’ve been discussing this idea and there seems to be interest from some of our membership as well as furry publishers. We want to host an online convention with a focus on furry literature. We know how hard it has been hurting authors to lose convention sales so we want to help make that slightly better. We don’t have a lot of details to offer yet as this is a larger project to figure out, but we intend to try and host this during Furry Book Month in October. We hope to feature panels, readings from authors, an online dealers den, and potentially a writing contest among other fun things.

If you have interest in volunteering to help with this please contact a guild officer so we can speak with you. We will most certainly need help with potentially streaming panels, so if you have a solid PC setup and time to help we really would like to hear from you. We’ll likely have calls for panels, the dealer’s den, and other things as we get closer to the date. Publishers, expect us to reach out to you soon.

Our final piece of guild business is to mention we still have two potential officer positions to fill: Social Media Manager and Cóyotl Awards Chair. If you would be interested in volunteering please message our guild president Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps.

—

With guild business out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff! We featured two interviews with FWG members this month. We discussed multimedia fiction with Thurston Howl and discussed writing adult furry works with recent Cóyotl Award winner Gre7g Luterman. Be sure to check these out as they offer fantastic insights to help with your own writing!

• Thurston Howl on Multimedia Fiction and Sensory De-Tails
• Gre7g Luterman on Writing Erotica and Long Way Home

We’d love to take this opportunity to mention we would love to feature more interviews like his, as well as potential guest posts on writing tops for our blog. Please contact a guild officer if you would be interested.

We saw a few new releases cross our path this month you might want to check out including:

• Dogpile from Bound Tales (NSFW)
• The Great Slay: Poached Parody by P.C. Hatter
• Howloween from Bound Tales (NSFW)
• Cold Trailing from Bound Tales (NSFW)
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking from FurPlanet

We also hunted down two books currently up for pre-order from furry publishers! 

• SOAR Volume One from Goal Publications
• What Makes a Witch from Weasel Press

Remember, we now have our Promotion Tip Line to submit to if you have new releases coming out, so don’t hesitate to fill that out so we can feature your book in our next newsletter!

—

Part of our website update was making our Furry Writers’ Market better than ever before! You can find all of open markets for furry writing we can track down here: https://furrywritersguild.com/furry-writers-market/

Currently, these markets are open:

• Dread Volume 2. (Deadline: August 7, 2020)
• Minnow Literary Magazine (Deadline: September 1, 2020)
• Swept Under the Fur Rug (Deadline: October 1, 2020)
• 1921: Furries In Fedoras (Deadline: October 1, 2020)
• The Vore Studio (Deadline: October 31, 2020)
• Dogbumps Academy of Wayward Wixards (Deadline: November 1, 2020)
• Reclamation Project: Year Two (Deadline: October 31, 2020)
• Electric Sewer 2: Boogie Nights (Deadline: December 1, 2020)
• The Howling Dead (Deadline: December 15, 2020)
• iPawd – A Furry Music Anthology (Deadline January 10, 2021)
• The Fox Spirit Book Of… Love (Deadline Unlisted)

Consider checking out our page for details and writing up a story for one of these awesome anthologies!

—

We have a few more things to mention, we’d like to welcome our newest members G.C. Stargazer, Ezen Baklattan, and Roci Stone! We also wanted to say we had a massive several person tie for who beta read the most stories this month on Discord. Keep the competition, and those stories to look at coming.

We’d also like to congratulate Sparf, T. Kingfisher, Gre7g Luterman, and Tim Susman on their recent Cóyotl Awards win! If you’re reading this, we’re working on figuring out a safe way to get awards shipped out to you. We’ll get a hold of you soon to get those shipping details.

I know life has been hitting us hard lately, so I want to remind you all just how much of an achievement it is to have kept going. Whether you’ve been writing thousands of words or only a few, any progress is still progress. It’s not easy keeping creative right now, so allow yourself whatever time you can to relax, especially with a good book if you can. Keep safe and well everyone, let’s do our best to get through August too.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

 

七月過去，八月到來，夏日轉眼間也過了一半。在八月的第一天，皓然要為各位帶來的是由香酥狐所繪製的GIF作品：《慵懶泳圈》！狐狸慵懶的泡在水中，躲避太陽的熱情，看起來好不愜意！

就讓我們一起欣賞香酥狐的作品吧！

作者：香酥狐（https://www.facebook.com/%E9%A6%99%E9%85%A5%E7%9A%84%E6%B2%B9%E7%82%B8%E9%8D%8B-102345294748632/）

作品名稱：慵懶泳圈

Here’s an interesting new hardcover graphic novel from Boom! Studios. Simply called Bear, it’s actually based on scientific research into the brains of animals.  “Bear is a service dog who would do anything for his owner and best friend Patrick who is blind. But when Bear suddenly loses his vision, he worries he’s lost his purpose in life—protecting Patrick! Following the misguided advice from some self-serving raccoons, Bear embarks on a transformative journey to regain his eyesight. Out of both necessity and survival, he learns to tap into his other senses and begins to see the world from a new perspective that is at times more rich and colorful than the world he’s always known.” Written by Ben Queen (Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2 and Cars 3) and illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton (A Mouse Called Julian), Bear is available now from Simon & Schuster.

image c. 2020 Boom! Studios

Months of protest and two killings

Michael Ramos was a Black and Latino man killed by Austin police in April 2020. Since April, hundreds of concerned citizens have been organizing demonstrations as the Mike Ramos Brigade to protest police brutality and call for justice.

This week, their member Garrett Foster was killed while supporting the cause. A video from the scene had a witness report of how they were attacked by a reckless driver who drove into the crowd and shot at them from inside the car. Foster’s killer drove away, but they got his license number.

From Official Garrett Foster Memorial Fund

Garrett Foster died on Saturday, July 25. He was a military veteran and had been pushing his disabled fiance in a wheelchair on another one of nearly 50 days of protesting together. “Garrett’s death painfully reminds us of Heather Heyer’s death in Charlottesville when a pro-Nazi white supremacist deliberately drove his car into a crowd of protesters.” – Mike Ramos Brigade

From the car plates, the killer was identified as Daniel Perry. His lawyer admitted he was the shooter.

BREAKING: Investigation Exposes US Army Sergeant as Murderer of Garrett Foster. (Archive)

The police handling raised a double standard about the deaths of Ramos and Foster. Police shot the unarmed Ramos in his car for supposedly endangering them while he pulled out of a parking space. But after Perry drove his car into a crowd and shot five times, the police let him go. Apparently driving was instigating a threat when an unarmed black man was at the wheel, but that wasn’t the case with a white shooter.

Thin Blue Lies

Who are the real victims here? And why was Daniel Perry released?

The Austin Chronicle reports how public outrage rose when Police Chief Brian Man­ley played judge and jury. Chief Manley “stated as fact that the driver had inadvertently turned into the crowd, which then began to attack the car“. Garrett Foster was carrying a gun in an open-carry state, so the violence was blamed on the victim for allegedly pointing the gun at Perry — but the Chronicle say there’s no evidence for that claim, and the story is “at odds with the statements of numerous witnesses as well as bystander video”.

It must be the story Perry told to police, who ignored certain evidence to hand him a “stand your ground” defense. It’s also the story being pushed by swarms of internet trolls. But there’s evidence of premeditated violence by Perry.

A dashcam video shows his car made a swift turn into the crowd at a red light without stopping, and he fired shots in only 6 seconds. The situation matches his right-wing pro-violence internet posting (and even allegedly taunting mourners at the vigil for the man he killed.)

As a detail of interest to furry readers, Perry has a Furaffinity account too — and his sympathizers are using Shouts to praise the violence, in a manner previously reported here about hate groups misusing the site.

• Archive of Daniel Perry’s Furaffinity

A reader writes in:

“In reading your breakdowns of far-right extremism and its links to our fandom like (Terror, Teens, and Furaffinity — How a chain of violent hate incidents links to furry fandom), I had my doubts. They seemed far-fetched and outside the realm of possibility. I was wrong.

My hometown is feeling just how wrong we were now. We should’ve listened. We could’ve prevented a tragedy like this if we’d just noticed the signs sooner.

Protests and police requests are ongoing to obtain further footage from visible security cameras mounted on businesses in the area. Hopes are high, given previous incidents in the area provoked greater attention. (A gay bashing of a couple with 4 suspects arrested.)”

It’s nice to get thanks for reporting but it shouldn’t be for a story like this. Hopefully Furaffinity and other platforms inside the fandom and out are paying attention.

Update on #DanielPerry: https://t.co/6OPRyE7B4x

Perry is a right-wing extremist who killed #GarrettFoster. A witness confirms he threatened mourners at victim's vigil. Relevant to @furaffinity policy, followers used his furry profile to support violence:https://t.co/Kpx9NzGwjr

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) August 6, 2020

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Use these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

Hey, PB.

I like to keep things succinct. Do you believe in god? I'm not really sure what to assume, because I feel like a few of your views don't align with "traditional" church values.

Not that that's a bad thing. I like progressive. One of my mom's friends is a veteran of the gay right's movements from the 70's. He would take us out to these fancy dinners and tell stories with his partner about how absolutely dogshit they had it. Genuinely, just miserable.

So, I'm sure things in the current are better for those a little more fey, but god is still something I think about. I'm not really sure what I like. I haven't had much experience, but I think I'm open to the idea. God just sort of peeks his head in to break up my thoughts.

I'm not very religious in general, so it's actually not too big of an issue. I was just curious your thoughts. If you are religious, how do you reconcile your personal feelings with your spiritual beliefs? Are there religions that allow such things?

I could just use some guidance. Thanks in advance.

Yours,
Sam

* * *

Dear Sam,

"Is there a God?" is the biggest philosophical question ever, isn't it? Do I personally believe in God? Depends on what you mean by "God." The idea of a guy in robes and a flowing, white beard sitting on a heavenly throne and surrounded by angels and cherubs etc. is definitely not something I subscribe to. Nor do I follow any of the Big Three religions: Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. Religions are human constructs designed to keep the masses in line and a small number of priestly class people in power. That is all. Religion is a horrible thing that has caused more death and destruction in human history than just about anything else. And I find that those who feel they must have a religion to follow often do so because they lack the imagination to seek their own truth about their place in the universe. It's easier to follow blindly than to think independently. (I might lose some readers with these statements, but anyone who follows my column already knows my views, and I would never pretend otherwise to get more subscribers). Most people follow a certain religion because they were raised with it, although there are some who convert to a religion that they find suits their personal philosophy better (I have respect for that because at least it shows they are thinking).

This said, I do believe there is more to the world than is dreamt of in our philosophy. The more science learns, the more amazing our universe becomes, and I do not believe that the universe just happened at random. It is far too complex and mind-boggling to have arisen by chance (a billion monkeys typing on a billion typewriters will never produce the works of Shakespeare). No, there is something going on behind the curtain of the perceivable universe that we do not comprehend. Bits of it are starting to peek out behind the veil as we explore the quantum world. More and more it becomes apparent that the matter and energy we sense around us is not the ultimate reality. Indeed, scientific experiments prove that our observations of the universe actually affect reality. It is my fondest hope that, after we die, we might be made party to what that reality truly is.

In the meantime, we are stuck fumbling about in this world, trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle made of a trillion pieces without a photo on the box. The angst of the human condition arises because we are cognizant of our mortality yet kept in the dark about whether or not we have an ultimate reason for existing. It can make you nuts if you think on it too long, which, honestly, is why many people turned to established religions. Kind of a vacation for the brain. 

The ultimate truth is beyond our reach. However, you can rely on certain guiding principles in life that will give you comfort, give you purpose, and give you guidance. 

• Be good to other people
• Be good to yourself
• Be good to the world around you, including its plants, animals, and even those things we consider "inanimate" (e.g., i.e., keep the water and air and earth clean)

If "religious" people would live by these three simple rules, we would not have religious wars; we would not have religious people hurting others because they are gay or don't believe a certain way. And if we, personally, follow these guidelines, then even if there is no God or afterlife, we will have lived a life of value.

Are there religions that allow you to explore these things, you ask? Well, one path you might try is Buddhism, which is a philosophy that people mistake for religion. You can also check into a Unitarian Universalist church. These people are very open to their members searching for personal truth while also exploring your spiritual side. Finally, you might consider Wicca or various "pagan" beliefs that are more Nature-oriented. Any of these could serve you well, or a combination of two or all of them. 

Whether or not the above answers your questions, continue to seek your personal truth throughout your life. Keep yourself open to new ideas and possibilities. And remember what Kurt Vonnegut said: Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies--"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
​Bear Hugs,
Papabear​

Remember the comic series Franklin and Ghost from last year? Well now from the same universe — and the busy busy mind of writer/creator Garrett Gunn — comes the new one-shot Warcorns: Combat Unicorns For Hire. Now there’s a title you’re gonna notice! Here’s what they say in Previews: “After having successfully evaded two complete dispatches of Retrieval Bots from Defilion, Franklin and Ghost are sent by their female accomplice, Delilah, to retrieve a rare weapon that is instrumental to the destruction of Defilion. Warcorns Special Forces Group Alpha is dispatched, at the behest of General Erich Badguey, to intercept Franklin and Ghost and return them to Defilion dead or alive.” Illustrated by Kevin Stokes and Nicolas Touris, Warcorns should be available at comic book stores and sites any time now.

image c. 2020 Source Point Press

Welcome to another interview with a member of the Furry Writers’ Guild! Before we get started we’re obviously discussing things that are NSFW today as we discuss erotica writing so readers be advised.

At the Furry Writers’ Guild, we’re not afraid of adult writing. Erotica can sell well anywhere, especially within the fandom, with some of our biggest anthologies produced every year being erotic in nature. However, not everyone is experienced in writing such spicy stories and might not know where to start or if they should at all.

While writing adult stories isn’t for everyone, we have some wonderful insights from those who may want to try from FWG member Gre7g Luterman. Gre7g recently won a 2019 Cóyotl Award for “Fair Trade” which is a safe for work novel set in the Hayven Celestia Universe. Today however, we sat down with Gre7g to discuss writing his debut erotic novel “Long Way Home” to discuss his adventures in the adult writing space.

Enough introductions, let’s get to the interview!

 

FWG: Let’s start at the beginning, tell the guild a little about yourself in case readers don’t know you.

Gre7g: All right. My name is Gre7g Luterman. I started writing in the late 70s. For a little while in the 90’s I was known for running a website called “The Temple of Luna” (I was huge into werewolves back then!) and then I made a chat site called “Wolfhome” which was popular in the early 2000s. Back in the 90’s, I wrote a novella that was moderately popular called “Ley Lines” and I wrote my first novel, “Monstrous Motives”. It was awful. I ran a couple writing contests out of the Temple.

Then in the mid-2000s, I wrote a serial novel called “Brick and Mortar” for the World of Warcraft fandom. In ’09, I moved to Alabama and wrote a trilogy of books based on Rick Griffin’s short story, “Ten Thousand Miles Up”.

The trilogy was really well received in the fandom and just recently, the third book in the trilogy, “Fair Trade”, was the first story to win all three of the fandom’s awards, the Ursa Major, the Coyotl, and the Leo Literary Award. I also wrote a SciFi murder mystery and an erotica in the same universe, and I helped Rick edit an anthology of short stories from various authors in the same universe.

FWG: Long Way Home was your first erotic novel correct? What inspired you to take the leap into writing erotic fiction when your previous works were all safe for work?

Gre7g: Well, I have written some erotic short stories previously. “Long Way Home” was just the first novel-length story.

So, anyhow, a couple years ago, my wife and I went out drinking in Chattanooga. I got very drunk and—those who have seen me drink at cons can verify—I’m a really loud drunk. So there I am, in this restaurant, boohoo-ing at the top of my lungs about how much effort I put into my stories, but no one ever gives them a chance because they’re not porn.

And Ky—who is eternally unphased by anything—just says, “So, write a porno.”

Then I spent like the next hour shouting about, “Okay, I will!” But I really didn’t want to do one of the “You’re not the usual pizza delivery guy!” Pornos that are so common in the fandom. I wanted the story to come first, to write a real adventure… that just happens to have a lot of graphic sex in it.

FWG: We’ve all heard “sex sells”. It’s a common message especially across the furry fandom that you ‘need’ to write erotica to get noticed. Seeing as how this was partially your motivation to write the novel be honest, has it sold better than your other books?

Gre7g: Yup. It has proven to be my best-seller. Not a real shocker, but a confirmation. But even before I wrote it, I had always told people that my evil plan to get a readership was to write a bunch of non-porn stories that I was super proud of, and THEN to write an erotica.

My thinking was that readers would be all, “Ooh, furry porn!” pick it up, love it, and then say, “What else has he written?” and then without even realizing that the others weren’t porn, they’d scoop them up and I’d sucker them into reading something more substantial.

FWG: In general has that been an effective strategy you might suggest to other authors who normally might not want to write erotic fiction?

Gre7g: It’s still a little early to say if that plan has worked out. Like I said, “Long Way Home” continues to be my best seller. But it can’t hurt, right?

What I do feel confident in saying is that there’s an old adage that everyone has a million bad words in them. Until you get those out of the way, you can’t get to all the good words to follow. So keep writing no matter what. Even if everyone hates the stories you’re writing now, it may just be that you’re still working through the bad words to get to the good ones.

FWG: So onto marketing the book itself, you’ve said Long Way Home is “too hot for amazon”. Is this just a marketing ploy or is there a story behind this? In general, what changes in marketing do you have to make when promoting Long Way Home instead of your other works?

Gre7g: Well, so there’s a funny thing about illustrations in erotic novels—they all tend to show what happens RIGHT BEFORE you get to the good stuff. You might see a furry undressing, or a butt, maybe the back of a boob, but certainly not the main event. Though, if you look at what gets posted on Twitter feeds and popular furry sites, it’s obvious what the fans really want to see.

So, when it came time for the illustrations, I asked Ky for the good stuff, the best moment of each erotic scene. Well, long story short, it turns out there’s a reason why erotica is illustrated the way it is. The text can be incredibly graphic, but as soon as the illustrations are too dirty, Amazon won’t sell it.

They, actually, sounded quite pissed in their e-mails. They locked my account, made me promise to never do it again, threatened to watch anything else I submitted to them with ADDITIONAL SCRUTINY.

Anyhow, I definitely didn’t want to waste all of Ky’s amazing artwork, so I decided not to change the art, not to add censor bars or anything, to have the books printed privately, and sell them through my website (https://gre7g.com/). True, I’m now missing out on Amazon’s amazing reach and how they cross-promote books, but oh well, the book remains intact and available for people to buy.

FWG: Independently selling your books isn’t a new thing for you by any means. Before the pandemic, you used to attend a lot of southeastern conventions. With so many publishers and distributors at those conventions, why did you choose to sell at your own booth? Are there advantages to doing so authors should be aware of?

Gre7g: Well, what I’ve found is that it’s nightmarishly hard to break into writing! It seems like there’s only a handful of authors with name recognition whose books will sell whether people have heard good things about them or not. The rest of us are left to squabble over the few readers who are willing to try an unknown. And INSIDE the fandom, instead of a handful of authors, it’s more like two.

If a book says “Ursula Vernon” or “Kyell Gold” on the cover for example, then it’s sure to sell great, but for anyone else, the book has to be actively promoted before it will sell.

Like you said, there’s a lot of publishers and book distributors going to cons that you can sell your books through, but if a dealer’s got books from two dozen different authors, how much is he going to promote yours? Will he even have read it?

Besides, conventions are one of the few times I EVER get to talk to readers and other aspiring authors. I love giving talks on the craft and blathering on to anyone who stops by my table. And I love getting feedback from fans. I want to know what worked and what didn’t so I can make my next story perfect.

Sadly, you don’t get a lot of feedback as a published author. Readers are moderately quick to leave comments on stories posted online, but as soon as it’s a printed book or an e-book, a lot more people read them than actually tell you what they thought!

FWG: So this is a way to get some reviews in a specific way, things like if your cover design is doing well, your sales pitch is solid, things like that?

Gre7g: No, it’s not anything quite so formal. The biggest thing about writing is finding a way to keep motivated. Writing a novel is a little like being a radio DJ. You’re out there, giving it your best shot, but your audience is way far away. You can’t hear them laugh, no matter how hilarious a joke you tell.

Same thing. I can write a book that brings the audience to tears, brings them to their feet and they cheer, but will I hear it? No. So, I’m just sitting there in my basement, typing away. I get a royalty check from Amazon every month, but does anyone actually like the stories? Why am I even doing this?

But you go to a con and there’s one single fan who runs up to the table all tongue-tied that wants to tell me about how much they love the story, and NOW I want to run home and write more. Yeah, sure, sometimes people will put that love out in an Amazon review, but it’s not even nearly the same as talking to someone in person. That recharges your batteries and makes you want to do it again.

FWG: You recently started a Patreon, how has that been going? Has it had a similar effect of allowing you to connect more directly with fans?

Gre7g: Yes! I love Patreon! You can find me at https://www.patreon.com/gre7g and I get that same feedback high there in spades! Initially, I was afraid to try it because I didn’t want to put myself in a position where I owed the subscribers stuff, but now that I’ve taken the plunge, instead of waiting to finish an entire novel, got it edited, illustrated, and published, I can just dash together a crazy idea for a scene and toss it up.

It can even be in a totally different universe or something strictly NON-canon, and that’s okay. I’m not breaking a rule of our universe because it’s just for fun and not published. Sometimes the readers love it and sometimes they don’t, but I get that feedback right away. I even let them suggest things that they’d like to see happen and I write that.

Oh sure, now I’m writing on a dozen different storylines and it could be ages before one turns into a completed book, but I’m having fun and I think my Patrons are too.

FWG: Especially as we’re discussing erotica a bit today, are you worried about how Patreon has been locking certain accounts of adult content posted not only on Patreon, but on other websites?

Gre7g: Yeah, that is frustrating! It doesn’t directly impact me since there’s often ways around it. If I, for example, write an erotic scene that I want to share with my readers, I can still make a Patreon post and include a link to my own website where I can host whatever I like. Then Patreon is still faultless and I’m taking responsibility for my own content.

But I’m not just a producer. I’m a consumer too. I love seeing things that creative make, regardless of whether it is G rated or X. I don’t want to see some politician or some investor impose an agenda that dries up the content I would have otherwise enjoyed.

FWG: So for our readers, especially as many are authors themselves, do you have any tips for any that want to try writing something on the erotic side for the first time? Anything to offer from your own experiences trying this as something newer?

Gre7g: Well, I suppose my advice would be to find an avenue where you can get that instant feedback, like I have on Patreon or that other authors are getting by posting their stuff on AO3, SoFurry, or the like. Whenever you’re going to try something new, get that feedback nice and early. Don’t worry about hiding it away so that people will have to buy it when it’s ready.

The worst thing that could happen is that you invest the zillion hours to write a whole novel and then for it to not sell because you’ve gone off in a direction that the readers aren’t into.

That was always a huge fear of mine when I first started writing, that someone would steal my story, or that they wouldn’t buy it because they’ve already read it for free on the internet. But money isn’t the end-all-be-all and there’s always more readers out there. Your priority as a writer is to keep that motivation going so that you enjoy creating and so that you keep creating.

FWG: That about wraps up the general discussion, do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to tell folks about? Anything in general you want to promote?

Gre7g: I don’t actually know what my next book will be at this point! I’ve got about a third of a murder mystery written and a chunk of a new Kanti book and various chapters of other stories.

I’m excited about all of them and I love how readers seem excited but I’m still kinda poking at each to see which will catch fire. You know that wonderful sensation when a book catches fire and you can’t wait to finish work each day so you can spend a few hours giving it some love?

None of them are quite there just yet, but when one does, I’ll be on it. For those that want to keep an eye on my progress, Patreon is 100% the best way to do it. Not only can you see what I’m messing with for a measly $1/month, but you can suggest and give me feedback on what you think too. I love talking about it and anything that helps me connect to the readers (or other authors) is great.

We want to thank Gre7g once again for sitting down to talk with us. You can find him on Twitter and his works on his website. We hope this interview helped provide some insights on writing and marketing your erotic works. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

七月轉眼間接近尾聲了，這也代表著我們的夏日祭典活動已經過了一半囉！在七月的最後幾天，皓然要為各位帶來的是由繪師Arvie所繪製的作品：Coconut Juice。

在熱到不行的夏日中，來上一杯現剖的椰子汁，享受那清爽解渴的感覺，真是讓皓然我嚮往萬分啊！就讓我們一起來欣賞Arvie的作品吧！

作者：Arvie，https://twitter.com/Red_Arvie

作品名稱：Coconut Juice

Resources, Social Media & Donation Links

Follow Crassus 

It's not often I get to chat with gun enthusiasts let alone black ones and Crassus doesn't disappoint with his enthusiasm delving into the topic. We share our opinions about the state of the union and why people should be considering suiting up as well as the way news outlets spin a story to make reality fit a false narrative. 

Crassus is new to the fandom, and officially joined earlier this year. Even in his short time he's seen casual racism from white furries showing just how prevalent it is. Outside the fandom we share experiences of discrimination on a broad scale. 
 
If you want to listen to BIPOC voices this is the one to listen to! Thanks for listening.

Support the show

Interview With Crassus - Guns, Birds, & Racist Furries

WHAT MAKES A WITCH by Linnea Capps follows a rat named Greer who is down on his luck and living (barely) on the streets. He eventually finds his way to a forest and the welcoming arms of an exiled witch named Addison. Both have their secrets which are eventually revealed as Greer observes and experiences a world he didn’t know was there before: a world of magic. The one caveat to this is that magic is only available to females in this world. Mostly. This riveting story starts off a little slow as the characters and world are introduced but quickly picks up with the introduction of Addison and her personable accent. Her accent along with her mannerisms make for a vivid character that you could nearly see standing before you, cane and all. Addison is easily one of the highlights of this story and sends the plot speeding along right from her introduction. The way that transgender themes are woven in and expressed are relatable and interesting, regardless of the reader’s specific circumstances. It’s almost as if the reader is going on Greer’s journey with them, discovering their identity and the magic inherent in the world. This is the true strength of this story. WHAT MAKES A WITCH depicts an impressive journey of figuring out complex emotions and finding one’s place in the world. The characters are expressive, and you can almost cheer for them as they navigate through difficult situations. Though the intro can be dense, I urge you to wade through it and get to the juicy middle of the story. It’s delectable and well worth the read. For me it’s 4 paws out of 5.

It's time! The end of the season! Roo, Tugs, and Nuka get together to discuss how the season went and tease some developments for FWIW Season 9!


NOW LISTEN!
SHOW NOTES
SPECIAL THANKS

Timid Grizzly
Kit

PATREON LOVE
The following people have decided this month’s Fur What It’s Worth is worth actual cash! THANK YOU!
Get Stickered Tier Supporters
Nuka goes here  
Kit, Jake Fox, Nuka (Picture Pending), Ichi Okami, Taz
Fancy Supporter Tier

Rifka, the San Francisco Treat and Baldrik and Adilor
Deluxe Supporters Tier
 
Guardian Lion and Katchshi and Koru Colt (Yes, him)
Plus Tier Supporters

Skylos
Snares
Simone Parker
Ausi Kat
Chaphogriff
Lygris
Tomori Boba
Bubblewhip
GW
Moss

McRib Tier Supporters

August Otter

 
MUSIC

Opening Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Patreon - The Tudor Consort, Inflammatus, Creative Commons, 2010
Closing Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Chill Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!) S8 Episode 28: Finale - It's time! The end of the season! Roo, Tugs, and Nuka get together to discuss how the season went and tease some developments for FWIW Season 9! NOW LISTEN! SHOW NOTES SPECIAL THANKS - Timid Grizzly Kit - PATREON LOVE

Hairy Horny Freedom

Media was different in the 1980’s. There was a TV channel just for music videos. Furry fans got their fix from Saturday morning cartoons or cult films on VHS. Smartphones, Twitter and Facebook didn’t exist. Sharing a meme could need paper mail or a fax.

On MTV, there were lots of metal videos with men who acted macho but looked like hot women. Think: bikers in mascara who switched meth for hairspray. They sang about love over widdly-diddly guitar wizard pyrotechnics. (They were rockin’ like Dokken.) There was an arms race to be the most Glam until Grunge bands stole their place. But first, they were challenged by disco DJ music, minus the hair farming and augmented by rapping and controversy.

In Miami, a club scene rose up that thrilled crowds with rappers doing porn lyrics. Horny young people loved it. The rappers were a few young guys in the Air Force with a music hobby named 2 Live Crew. A recent rap history podcast (Mogul) tells the story of how their song “Me So Horny” went huge even without MTV. It helped rap cross from black to white people, and also pissed off a lot of them.

Think Of the Children

In a similar way, heavy metal started raising record sales with more sex and Satan. And while black music rose to share the limelight, they all had an enemy in common: fossilized moralizers who wanted to make a name for themselves. It was a little like how callouts work on social media, except for political votes instead of “likes”. Instead of mobs demanding apologies, there were powermongers using concerned parents (the Karens of their day) to keep society whiter, straighter, and more full of jesus instead of fun.

While some of the media pushed free expression, artists had fascist conformists trying to ruin their careers, and even getting people arrested for dumb reasons. 2 Live Crew faced obscenity trials. Rappers N.W.A. were targeted for their political message in “Fuck the Police”. So was punk rocker Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, who beat obscenity charges while mocking the moral manipulators. (A few years ago, Jello hung out with furries when he DJ’d their party.)

It wasn’t just about music. Government attacks on free expression hit art museums and libraries. Conservatives targeted TV shows. “Satanic Panic” lead to horribly injust prosecutions. Fans and nerds of the time were even under fire for Dungeons & Dragons and adult comics. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded to win a First Amendment fight that started with a 1986 bust for selling the erotic furry comic Omaha The Cat Dancer.

For as long as furries have been around, they’ve been derided for weird kinks even if they don’t hurt anyone. In a way they’re on the same side with rappers and rockers who opposed freedom haters. (However I doubt most of these people would have sold out for real fascism, unlike dishonest furry shock jock 2 Gryphon who would falsely claim to be like them after killing his own career.)

Trouble Within

Even today, fandoms have occasional conformist prudes, led by grifter Gryphon types. Opposing them has worked pretty well in furry fandom — although the design of social media itself now makes a worry about going past supporting oppressed people, to supporting censorious puritanism itself.

• Dogpatch Press — Fight the Beigists! Furries defend the National Fun Reserve.
• Worst Year Ever — How The Furries Fought The Nazis and Won
• Medium — The New Moral Majority, Same As The Old Moral Majority: On the allure of censorship

The old culture war has new battlefields. When social media pits people against each other, circular firing squads raise traffic and the arms dealers profit. In other words, the owners of Twitter/Facebook/etc win even from friendly fire. It’s a sign of how much power has consolidated. That’s a topic for another time, but let’s look back at a simpler time, and a forgotten incident of 1990’s Karenism.

For the first time, you can see how a “think-of-the-children” mindset did big damage to the first furry con!

Snitch Faxes From the Moral Police

1989: 2 Live Crew was targeted by ultraconservative crusader Jack Thompson. He faxed lyrics of their album As Nasty As They Wanna Be to 67 Florida Sheriffs. (The story is at 20:00 on the Mogul podcast.) A judge ruled the music was obscene, so the musicians sued the police to have it proven free speech. In court they played hardcore porn as evidence… and then they couldn’t ask the audience to stand up. Sex won.

1999: Confurence 10 was days away when the staff got a fax preventing the con from selling anything pornographic. It caught the hotel and staff by surprise, because the hotel itself was selling Playboy magazines in the gift shop. The prohibition fell under the liquor license that covered the entire facility. But the complaint wasn’t due to drinking problems. It was against all furries.

(Record unearthed by Changa Lion, archivist at ConFurence.com):

The key page after the liquor policies.

Can’t Stop Us

Wow, that’s a find with artists who are still active and popular now, and threats to warn churches about them. (God was out of lightning bolts.) Here’s the vintage 90’s Furnation porn that shocked the poor churchmouse, by Max Blackrabbit (NSFW). Spoiler: it’s just drawings. We were promised worse. Report abuse if it does exist, but an entire adult industry with real humans makes this tame.

• Welcome, Furverts!
• “Enter at the back”

It made me wonder if the fax was an internal complaint or did a non-furry send it? What affect did it have?

Changa Lion said it came from an outsider close to an insider. (Details have to stay private, but there’s a reason for the history I wrote!) And:

This came in right before the con and essentially at the last minute we were not allowed to have any porn visible. The Town and Country was a resort, so the license covered the entire property. They had had problems in the past with losing their license so they were very nervous. Stuff came in for the art show that couldn’t be put up. One artist had a pair of jeans up on his panel with a note that read something like “I got here and this is all I can display”. This was the first time I ever saw very creative use of post it notes in a furry dealers room.

This was one of those problems that contributed to Mark [co-founder] to throw up his hands and walk away from the con. The loss of staff caused by moving con 100 miles south and drop in attendance from the move were the major reasons, but I expect this didn’t help.

That’s pointlessly annoying sabotage, because there’s more cons than ever now. Smart people would stop trying… wouldn’t they? But then there’s the nazifurs.

Notice that they attack people who just dress weird, because these losers don’t care about kids or improving cons. They want power and hate when gays are visible. The problem is allowing them in cons to do sabotage. But from the 1990’s to now, nobody stopped drawing, cons shot up in attendance, and consenting adults are still having sex. In the future we can just look back at them as more silly fossils, like they are right now.

Thanks to Changa Lion for his archiving and go watch The Fandom documentary for much more history.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. Want to get involved? Use these subreddits: r/furrydiscuss for anything — or r/waginheaven for the best of the community. Or send guest writing here. (Content Policy.)

经过许多惊天动地的兽展之后，南非展South Afrifur当然也不能落后了。他们自发组织了Fursaverance（本地网展），并为慈善事业筹集了不少资金。

点击此，读中文报道 Hello there, and welcome to July’s episode of Digging Up Positivity. This month we will cover some amazing members of our community, lovely videos, and our featurette is a wonderful artist from Berlin known for her outstanding artwork for individuals and companies alike. Fursaverance Following many amazing conventions, South Afrifur could not be left […]