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The title sequence CAMP [1] festival and gotta say I love the style. Can we get these guys to make an opening film for a furry convention? "AMP celebrates creative technology, art and design by bringing together like-minded professionals, artists, and students to share and shape experiences that educate, challenge and inspire. CAMP’s flagship event, CAMP Festival, is hosted annually at the historical Theatre Junction GRAND in Calgary." [1] http://www.campfestival.ca/
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Almost exactly a year ago we told you about a VR film in production called Rainbow Crow, based a Native American legend. Well now it seems that project has changed name and changed format. According to Animation Magazine, Crow: The Legend will premiere as a free-to-view animated feature on Facebook and YouTube later this month. “Written and directed by Eric Darnell [Antz, Madagascar] with input from Native American cultural experts and community leaders, the folklore-inspired tale arrives timed to Native American Heritage Month. The film features an all-star voice cast including John Legend as Crow, Oprah Winfrey as The One Who Creates Everything by Thinking, Sarah Eagle Heart (Native Americans in Philanthropy CEO) as Luna; 83-year-old tribal elder and lifelong Native rights crusader Randy Edmonds as the Narrator; Liza Koshy (Hulu’s Freakish) as Owl; Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as Moth; Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One) as Turtle; and Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, Fresh Off the Boat) as Skunk… Inspired by the classic Native American legend about the origins of the bird, Crow: The Legend respectfully illustrates the sacrifices the bird must make. As the most beautiful animal of the forest, Crow must risk everything to save those around him. With themes of diversity and self-sacrifice for the greater community, Crow demonstrates how one single act of sacrifice can have a profound impact to our world.” You can also check out the official trailer at Animation’s link.

image c. 2018 Baobab Studios

Bonus post! Live action Pokémon with Ryan Reynolds as as world class Detective that happens to be a Pikachu? Yeah, Totally saw that one coming.
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A pitch series from Studio Mir (Legend of Korra, Voltron) that we previous covered here a few years ago [1] and it's really nice to see this progress to something more than an just an ID video. "KOJI is a Fantasy Adventure show targeted for boys and girls age 6-11+, but aiming to explore themes and topics that relate to people of all ages. Koji crash lands on a colorful earth-like planet, inhabited by incredible alien creatures and hybrid animals. It's here that he meets Tako, a giant blue cat with water/ice powers, who will become his lifelong best friend. They journey together to defeat the evil spreading throughout the land, and it's up to them and a few valiant others they meet along the way to put an end to the Robot King and his mechanical army. Studio Mir is now seeking distribution and financial partners to further bring the world of KOJI to life!" [1] https://furry.today/2016/11/23/koji/
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UPDATE: As we mentioned last summer, both a feature film and a new TV series based on the UglyDolls line of plush toys have been in development for some time. Well now thanks to Animation Scoop and the Hulu Network we have the first trailer for the UglyDolls animated feature. And as it turns out, the film includes quite a roster of singers and well-known actors giving voices to the characters, including Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Pitbull, Wanda Sykes, and Gabriel Iglesias. The film is directed by Kelly Asbury (of Shrek 2 and Gnomeo & Juliet).

image c. 2018 STX

S0ph0s and Gaia join us this week for lots of news.

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Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Euronews: Giant mechanical creatures stroll through France’s Toulouse
• FurFest’s twitter account temporarily suspended
• Buzzfeed Video: Furries Surprise Strangers For The First Time
• Buffalo NY finally getting jesus chicken
• CNN: What you don’t get about furry fursonas
• kiyochii: Furry Skibidi Challenge
• Jeremy – Red Means Recording: Legs
• Tipsy Tails Podcast

News:

• Spiders create fursuits to appear less scary
• Moths use acoustic camouflaging fur to evade bats
• Drowning cow saved by ‘mermaid’ on 200-mile swim
• Retirement home alcohol ban slammed as ‘un-Australian’
• Self-driving cars could function as moving brothels, academics predict
• Are You Really a Psychopath If You Drink Black Coffee?
  • Related article
• Samsung built a robot butt just to test its’ smartphones’ durability
• Deer Walks into Bar
• Bull Gets stuck in Feeding Ring

Emails:

• KT NightWolf – Furcast Listener
• Kismo – Greetings Furcast! (First email to you guys ever wow)

FC-313 Daddy Wolf Legs - S0ph0s and Gaia join us this week for lots of news.

S0ph0s and Gaia join us this week for lots of news.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Euronews: Giant mechanical creatures stroll through France’s Toulouse
• FurFest’s twitter account temporarily suspended
• Buzzfeed Video: Furries Surprise Strangers For The First Time
• Buffalo NY finally getting jesus chicken
• CNN: What you don’t get about furry fursonas
• kiyochii: Furry Skibidi Challenge
• Jeremy – Red Means Recording: Legs
• Tipsy Tails Podcast

News:

• Spiders create fursuits to appear less scary
• Moths use acoustic camouflaging fur to evade bats
• Drowning cow saved by ‘mermaid’ on 200-mile swim
• Retirement home alcohol ban slammed as ‘un-Australian’
• Self-driving cars could function as moving brothels, academics predict
• Are You Really a Psychopath If You Drink Black Coffee?
  • Related article
• Samsung built a robot butt just to test its’ smartphones’ durability
• Deer Walks into Bar
• Bull Gets stuck in Feeding Ring

Emails:

• KT NightWolf – Furcast Listener
• Kismo – Greetings Furcast! (First email to you guys ever wow)

[Live] Daddy Wolf Legs

Bad things sometimes happen to good people.As the cover of this hair-rising collection suggests, Cold Blood: Fatal Fables is a Noir-themed book of Bill Kieffer's furry novelettes set in Aesop's World. Now, for me, as a publisher, editor, and reader, I've read quite a lot of Kieffer's work over the years, from his horrifying novel The Goat to his short stories in a few THP works, to shorts he's posted on online archives. One might even go so far as to say I am quite the fan of Kieffer's work. Of course, I was eager to get my paws on his newest work, Cold Blood. However, I was ultimately a bit disappointed.Before I get into critique, though, I want to talk about the layout of the book. We have six stories here. The first focuses on the gritty cop Shepard as he tries to rescue his son from a supernaturalist cult. There is a lot of genuine emotion at work here, and it is probably the most truly Noir of the stories. It makes me think of the popular supernatural Noir novel Falling Angel, and its subsequent film Angel Heart. The next several stories track army veteran Brooklyn Blackie and his—as the back cover suggests—love of "sex and violence, no matter the species or gender." We start to get some fun mysteries from Blackie, but the plot kind of falls away for the sake of character development; that is, the author seems like he likes talking about the character interactions way more than he cares about the larger plot for Blackie. But, we do get a fun s/m story out of it, and it's gritty and cringy and all things erotic horror.The finale of the book centers on a couple of rap stars in the middle of a gang war. The plot gets a bit of a revival here, and the characters start to flatten out.The world of Aesop as presented in this book translates species into races comparable to the struggles we face in America today. The "Repts" (short for Reptiles really) are stand-ins for black people, their stories told predominantly through rappers and civil rights activists and riddled with crime, violence, and gangs. While the work does not promote any kind of racism whatsoever—and, in fact, condemns racism rather explicitly—the work does engage in an institutional racism and allows for that kind of thinking to be considered "non-racist" in that world. There is further annoyance for me in the common trope of beginning race-writers of naming everyone based on a play off a color word. Thus, in this one book, we have characters named "Blackie," "Jewel Onyx," "Blanche," and even "Ivory." This not only made the characters blur together at a point, but also restricted characters to a kind of coloration that the plot tried to resist. In other words, the plot asks us to not judge characters by color, while the characterization begs us to.The genre of the book became rather problematic for me as well. Yes, today, we are in the age of what is called the "blended genre," the ideal work that utilizes elements of multiple genres: horror, action, romance, adventure, etc. Most novels today implement the blended genre. However, that said, there is such a thing as trying to do too many things at once. Part of having a market/audience implies having readers that have certain expectations. It's great as an author to challenge and push those expectations, but it's another matter entirely to just crush those expectations. For most of this book, Kieffer does not present particularly high stakes for the detective work; very rarely do we feel any kind of suspense. Yet, the characters are pushed through this Noir plotline while Kieffer continues to throw fantasy elements at us. He throws sci fi elements at us. He tries to bring in Beat bisexual erotica. He brings in romance. But these genres don't blend. It's more like the genre changes every few pages to something else. I hesitate to even call the book Noir; rather, it has a Noir shell.As usual for my reviews, I also want to pick on the product itself. The cover is just gorgeous. It sets up a clear genre expectation, and I know exactly what I'm getting. The back synopsis works out well too. The interior formatting, however, is shoddy, with super wide line spacing, running headers that align toward the center of the book instead of the edges, and lazy font selection. The editing too misses whole paragraph breaks, missing words, and misspelled words.Now, even with all that said—much of it nitpicking, perhaps—I did enjoy reading this book. I do not think it is Kieffer's best work, but it is still a book worth reading. It does challenge traditional Noir through a progressive lens, advocating for some racial equality that was not kosher for old-time Noir. It is great to see bisexual characters in literature, period! And it is great to see kink-positive writers engaging in creative genres outside of strictly erotica. There is something in this book for any fan of literature. And, it's a very fast-paced read full of drama and action and memorable moments.So I would recommend this book to any furry readers. Just read with a critical eye. Get Cold Blood, unless you've got cold feet.

Brush up on your Polish and Korean, and join in the adventures of the modern-day remnants of an ancient werecat clan. Blood runs deep—and flows frequently—in this high-stakes game of cat and mouse that involves many different players—each with their own agenda and reason for wanting to see the MGS (Morphogenic Synthesizer) surrendered or returned to their side of the family.The emphasis here is on family. Though this is a Paranormal Sci-fi Action piece with a strong military flavour, a lot of time is spent exploring the relationships between the characters. It is an interesting take. Also, werecats, not werewolves. This is not your run-of-the-mill transformation piece!Engels’ debut novel is well written. It is richly textured, well researched and very thoroughly thought through. The dialog in particular stands out for me. Every detail—from the military lingo, the way the characters speak with one another and the Christmas traditions of this Polish-American family—feels authentic and sincere.Frequent changes in perspective mean that there is no distinct voice in this novel. It all just flows together in symphony. I was expecting Pawlina—the were-lynx lady featured on the book’s Ursa-Major nominated cover—to feature more prominently. This is not a problem, however, as the writing flows well and every character has something to add plot-wise.The characters (there are rather many of them) are all solid. They each have a favorite sports team. A favorite food. A nickname or two. It can be daunting at times for a casual reader like myself to keep track of everyone and everything, which is probably the novel’s main weakness. More disciplined readers will probably gloss over this and appreciate the effort that went into creating them.I highly recommend Always Gray In Winter for folks with an interest in Were-creatures, folks who like action pieces with a military flavour, readers of the Paranormal. Furries and non-furries alike will enjoy this first book in what promises to be a saga that will see us explore more of this world.

Studio Laika, The makers of Coraline has a new stop motion film staring Hugh Jackman! So I expect a really amazing film that could do better in the box office and will probably sadly be ignored.
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For the month of November, we got the chance to talk with Nighteyes Dayspring about his writing.

 

Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?

The project I just finished is a story called “Mile High” I submitted to Heat, that I’m hoping to see get included in the next issue. This story follows a charter pilot on a trip to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe where he and his crew are picking up a mysterious passenger to take to New York. Jonas, the captain of the aircraft, has been paired with a new first officer he doesn’t like very much. This piece deals with the tension between Jonas, his first officer, and a hyena who catches Jonas’s eye.

I’ve got a friend who is currently training to be a pilot, and he’s been telling me about the experience, so it sparked an interest in me and served as an inspiration. I like to make stories like this as accurate as I can, so there were a lot of technical details for this story I had to conduct research on to get right. I had to run certain sections of dialogue by aviation-oriented friends to make sure they’re correct. I watched a number of different cockpit videos just to get the feeling of landing and handling a plane right. I also used a tiny bit of French dialogue to help establish the feeling of being in Guadeloupe, which I ran by our resident French speaker, Erkhyan, to make sure what Google Translate suggested was correct. Also, since Guadeloupe isn’t a place I’ve been, and it’s not on Google Street View, I also watched dash cam video shot in Guadeloupe of someone just driving around the island in order to capture the feeling of the setting.

I know some people might consider this overkill, especially for an adult story, but I feel it’s important if you are using a real place, even in a world inhabited by furries, to try and get the details right. In anything based on reality there are going to be small things you might fudge, either because you can’t find out about something or you need something to be setup a certain way for the purpose of the story, but I like that to be a conscious decision on the part of the writer.

Now the fact I called the story “Mile High?” I just couldn’t resist the word play.

 

What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between? How do you find that this helps and/or hurts your writing style?

I’ve always been more of a pantser than an outliner, but that’s started to change. As I’ve worked on longer work, I’m finding that pantsing just doesn’t work for me. I can’t just write a novel without an outline and clear direction. I’ve tried it twice. One time it was an abysmal failure; I will someday figure out how to fix that piece. The other time, I took a half-written novel and rushed it to completion. I’ve been working on that book, Scars of the Golden Dancer, on and off for years, beating the back half into some semblance of readability. It’s only recently reached a state where I’m ready to start shopping it around.

I think there are merits to both approaches. There is something about taking a few tidbits, sitting down and seeing where it’s going. I love doing that, but in order to get the type of stories I want to write, and produce longer work, I find I need to invest more in planning and worldbuilding. I’m sure someone out there can pants a whole novel and it will be brilliant, but that’s not me. A consequence I find with pantsing sometimes is that I’ll do that to explore an idea, and then it will click what I want it to be. This aha moment is great, but that often requires rewriting large chunks of the story in order to make it smooth and even.

 

What’s your favorite kind of story to write?

I like to write stories with well executed details in interesting settings. Even when I’m writing erotica, I think it’s important to make your world feel real. If I can create a setting and story as a writer where I get to explore, I can generally take the reader along with me for a fun ride. Of course, I still need good characters with their own personalities, strengths, and flaws to make the story complete. When I successfully bring together a rich setting and fun characters to write, I find the story will flow much easier. I think an element of exploration is important with writing. If I want to see what’s going to happen, if I want to be there with these characters, the reader is going feel that same passion, and they’re going to keep reading.

Like anything though, there are exceptions where I’ve focused on just the characters, letting the setting fade away some. I’ve written two stories about a couple that have yet to leave their apartment. There is a tight focus on their interactions, and while it’s outside of my typical wheelhouse, I still think it worked well.

 

Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?

The character I most identify with is a jackal character called Zayn. He’s the primary subject of Scars of the Golden Dancer. This project has taken me eight years to shape, but in that time, I’ve gotten to explore Zayn’s personality in great detail, and I feel a strong attachment to him. At his core, Zayn is quintessentially a survivor. In the start of the novel, he’s working as a prostitute and he’s done things to support himself that others would shy away from. This makes him a broken character, but I love that I’ve gotten to take him from his lowest point and rebuild him. I’ve never personally been as desperate as Zayn, but I know this feeling of having to rebuild yourself well. Watching Zayn work to heal, to learn to love again, has been cathartic for me, and these emotions bring back memories about parts of my youth.

The first part of his journey will be included in FANG Volume 9 in the story “Silk and Sword”, which will be out next month.

 

Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

It’s tough to answer a question like this discussing furry writing without mentioning Kyell Gold. Back when I was first exploring furry books, Kyell’s writing was starting to get well known, and it was a real inspiration to try achieve something like he was doing. I took a break from writing for a while, but around 2010, I got my first sale with FurPlanet, and I started seeing writing as a more serious activity. Since then I’ve met a number of writers who’ve influenced me, and that I get to beta swap with. There are so many great writers in the Furry Writers’ Guild I’ve met, I don’t think I can fairly name a few without making it a long list.

For writers outside of the fandom that most inspired me, Ray Bradbury would be at the top of that list. Bradbury wrote a lot of great stuff, and reading book like the Martin Chronicles, which is a fixup of short stories, really helped me get the confidence to start stringing my small ideas together. If someone of Bradbury’s stature could create a book out of disconnected stories, I too could start linking some of my short stories into bigger work. This is still a transition I’m going through, but I’ve kept Bradbury in mind as I’ve laid out the groundwork to build a novel series.

 

What’s the last book you read that you really loved?

This is another tough one. I’ve read some great stuff. I’m going to have to say Kismet by Watts Martin. It’s got a great plot, and the world building is really exciting to read about. I love the way Watts’s protagonist Gale has a deep back story that she can rely on and yet struggle against. Gale inhabits a world where bioengineering can make you an anthro, called totemics in the book, but she also inhabits a world where not everyone is happy about that. I think the way Watts investigates humanity’s struggle with what totemics represent to the future of humanity, against the backdrop of the River, space colonies built along the asteroid belt, is really exciting. He’s got a very rich world, and a great story coupled with pertinent questions about identity I think readers can really ponder as they read the book. It’s a book that explores some of same kinds of issues we currently see in the news, but it’s also a story that gives us some distance from the news of the day.

 

Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I enjoy board gaming a lot. I’m a fan of both competitive and cooperative games. My currently favorite games are Scythe, The Red Dragon Inn: Battle for Greyport, and Glory to Rome. I’m also an avid fan of music, although my tastes are quite diverse. Being a writer, I’ve got different albums for different moods. When I was working on editing Dissident Signals with Slip-Wolf, I had over a dozen albums I was using as background music for the project.

 

Advice for other writers?

First, read. I know everyone is busy with their life, but if you want to be a writer, you need to read. Also, don’t be afraid to take chance and try new things.

I’d like to point out, there’s a lot of writing advice out there. I think it’s critical to keep in mind you should do what works for you. The way I write may not work for you, and the way you write may not work for me. And you know what? That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. You need to find the techniques and styles that work for you. Writing has a lot of guidelines, but not a lot of hard and fast rules. Even grammar is something that has its subjective elements. People have been arguing about the Oxford comma and split infinitives since before any of us were born, and someone out there will likely be arguing about those long after we’re gone.

 

Where can readers find your work?

Most of my work is for sale through FurPlanet. I also maintain on my website a comprehensive list all of my published stories. My next published story is going to be “Silk and Sword”, and will be in FANG Volume 9, which is coming out at Midwest FurFest 2018.

 

What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom? Why write furry?

Furry helped me find who I really was. I spent my teenage and adult years in a part of the United States where you just don’t come out as gay. I know people did back when I was a teen, but I never know anyone who just went around saying they were gay. I had a friend who told me about the fandom back in High School, and the fact I could just be me without layers was something I found very appealing. Getting involved in the fandom was a slow process for me, but I’ve always loved how it has connected me with other people, without having to hide who I was.

As for writing furry, I’ve been interested in writing about animals my whole life, so once I found out about furry writing, I knew I had to try my hand at that. Even though I now have over twenty published stories under my belt, I’m still loving the genre.

An unusual new graphic novel from Fantagraphics Books: Penguins by Nick Thorburn. “Told almost entirely without words, Penguins is one of the most playfully original graphic novels in recent memory… relying on visual expression and the physical movement of his penguin characters, as well as the formal properties of sequential drawings (with penguins routinely moving within and without each page’s panel borders), Penguins is a series of interconnected short strips that, without words or human characters, does more to showcase the breadth of emotion we as humans experience than most prose novels.” It’s available now in hardcover from Amazon.

image c. 2018 Fantagraphics Books

Summer of 2019 we get Secret Life Of Pets 2 ... man they really did fast-track this thing.
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You may recall we told you about Patrick and Jessica Reilly, a pair of U.S. military veterans who work together as a creative team. Well here’s an update: After some successful fundraising through Patreon the first issue their black & white fantasy comic Five Realms has been released. “Join Mehan, Ronin Prince of the Mallow Clan, his best friend Gellaze, and his student Iwain as they uncover the mysteries surrounding a ‘Golden King’ buried deep within a dust-chocked canyon.” The 1st issue is available at their Etsy store and a 2nd is due this winter.

image c. 2018 Zonks Illustration

Love the character design, if this comes out I'll post it.
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Richard Fairgray is a well-known comic book artist and children’s book illustrator in his native New Zealand. (Interesting fact from his Wikipedia: Richard illustrates and animates his own works, even though he is legally blind.) His best-known work, Blastosaurus, created quite a sensation in his homeland. Now living in Southern California, Richard has re-launched his comic with the help of Paul Eiding and Golden Apple Books. From Previews: “Blastosaurus, a 6-foot-tall, mutant triceratops, aided by Tabitha Jones and Richard Green (the twelve-year-old sidekicks he never asked for) battles monsters, robots, sentient meatballs and whatever other weirdness Freak Out City can throw at him. This action/fantasy all-ages book is big, stupid fun, grounded by a real emotional core and the most human dinosaur you’ll ever meet!” And look, there’s a YouTube preview as well. Blastosaurus is out in comic shops now.

image c. 2018 Golden Apple Books

Well, looks like we have a surprise furry movie. "Super spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) and scientist Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) are almost exact opposites. Lance is smooth, suave and debonair. Walter is… not. But what Walter lacks in social skills he makes up for in smarts and invention, creating the awesome gadgets Lance uses on his epic missions. But when events take an unexpected turn, Walter and Lance suddenly have to rely on each other in a whole new way. And if this odd couple can’t learn to work as a team, the whole world is in peril. SPIES IN DISGUISE is an animated comedy set in the high-octane globe-trotting world of international espionage."
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