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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Jack Wolfgang. T.2, Le Nobel du Pigeon, by Stephen Desberg (story) and Henri Reculé (art).
Brussels, Les Éditions du Lombard, June 2018, hardcover, €13,99 (62 [+ 2] pages), Kindle €9,99.

Here is the latest installment in the Fred Patten and Lex Nakashima service to notify you of high-quality French-language animalière bandes dessinées that are not likely to be published in English.

This is album #2 in the Jack Wolfgang series. I said of #1, “The Jack Wolfgang series looks like it’s designed for the Blacksad market. The main differences are that John Blacksad is a private investigator, and his cases are crime noir with excellently drawn anthropomorphic animals. Jack Wolfgang is a C.I.A. secret agent, and his adventures are, well, too light and too exaggerated for the James Bond market. Say they’re Kingsman clones, with a mixture of funny animal and human secret agents saving the world from megalomaniac funny animal and human villains.”

The humans and the animal-people share the same society. The carnivores have not had to eat meat since the invention of super-mega-tofu several centuries earlier. The humans and animals are supposedly equals, but in actuality, the humans look down on the animals. Jack has to fight this in his CIA human superiors as well as among the world criminals he goes after.

Jack Wolfgang’s cover identity is as the “more elegant than George Clooney, cooler than Tex Avery’s wolves” (vol. 1) leading food critic for the New York Times. This supposedly allows him to go to all the major cities of the world to check their top restaurants. In actuality, he goes to where the CIA sends him, or to where his leads take him. In vol. 1, Enter the Wolf, he met Mme. Antoinette Lavaux, a sultry panther-woman jewel thief who was not officially involved in his case then, so he did not have to bring her in. Since then, by implication, they arrange to meet in the top night spots around the world – Rome, Monte Carlo, the Côte d’Azur, Biarritz, San Francisco, etc. – when they are not “on duty”.

In vol. 2, The Pigeon’s Nobel, the villain is Lord Horace Beckett, a billionaire pigeon (“l’oiseau le plus riche au monde”) in the tradition of James Bond’s Auric Goldfinger. His riches have enabled him to rise to the top of society; to buy whatever he wants. But what he wants is respectability; to prove to everyone that he is more than just a nouveau-riche. To be given a Nobel Prize. However, the Nobel selection committees cannot be bought. So Beckett arranges for the assassination of everyone above him who is likely to be awarded the Nobel Prize. And why stop with a single prize? Economics, Physics, Mathematics… a Peace Prize wouldn’t hurt, either. If he isn’t given at least three Nobel Prizes, not only will he order the assassination of any possible competitors, and of the Nobel selection committees themselves, he will order his agents around the world in control of computers to bring civilization to a stop. Credit cards won’t work; machines at transport windows won’t issue airplane or ship or train tickets; medical prescriptions will go unfilled; BWAHAHAHA! And the omnipresent global delivery service that the CIA’s agents rely on to bring them the secret-agent gizmos that they need at a moment’s notice … well, who do you think is the owner of that company? Agents like Jack will suddenly find themselves not getting the high-tech guns and similar hardware that they’re counting on.

Before Lord Beckett becomes the obvious villain when the CIA is still trying to discover who is murdering the world’s leading economists and scientists, CIA headquarters in Virginia puts Jack in charge of the mission. But to satisfy those humans who consider the mission too important to be left in the paws of an animal, Jack will be guided to go after only the actual hitman. (Pieter-Jan Glock, a stork.) The real mission to unmask who is behind the killings will go to the CIA’s top human agent.

Every secret-agent adventure introduces a sexy woman, as either a partner or a femme fatale. In The Pigeon’s Nobel, it’s Kellyanne Bongo. (That’s her on the cover, holding a gun.) If you can imagine someone who looks like Beyoncé, is also a #1 martial artist, and is actually a bonobo with extensive plastic surgery …   Mme. Lavaux has only a walk-on appearance in this volume. It’s Kellyanne Bongo and her henchmen, Jonas Swamp (alligator) and Kevin Prince (gorilla) that Jack shares this adventure with.

Enjoy.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Buy on Le Lombard

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

The march continues — in seemingly unexpected directions! This showed up in our news feed from The Hollywood Reporter: “Stitch is back. Lilo & Stitch, the 2002 animated movie from Walt Disney Feature Animation, is getting the live-action treatment, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The studio has hired up-and-comer Mike Van Waes to pen the script for the remake, which will be produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback, formerly known as Lin Pictures. The two are already known in the Disney halls as they are working on the high-profile live-action remake of Aladdin. The original film was written and directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, who later found acclaim with How to Train Your Dragon. The Hawaii-centric story told of the bond formed between a lonely human girl named Lilo and a dog-like alien named Stitch, who is engineered to be a force of destruction. Pursuing aliens, social workers and the idea of the bond of a family figure into the proceedings. [In case you forgot the basic idea — ye ed-otter] It is unclear whether the new project, which is intended to be a live-action/CG hybrid, is intended for theatrical release or for Disney’s streaming service that is set to launch in 2019.” Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

image c. 2018 Walt Disney Feature Animation

Yeah, Let's poke it with a stick. (Thanks to Sysable for pointing this one out)
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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Purrfect Tails, edited by Tarl Hoch.
Calgary, AB, Armoured Fox Press, February 2018, trade paperback, US$11.95 (164 pages).

Tarl Hoch’s Armoured Fox Press in Calgary, Alberta, is both a furry specialty press and an anime specialty press*. Its first book, published in 2018, emphasizes both specialties: it’s an anthology of nine cat-people stories, ranging from anime “nekos” with cat ears and tails but who look human otherwise, to full anthro cat people.

“Milk and Brass” by Madison Keller is set in a steampunk Victorian London with animal-hybrids. Carla is a cat-hybrid type neko, bred for lowest-class labor. Nellie Hanson is a pampered swan-hybrid bred to her rich father’s order, with delicate feathers on her arms and decorative but useless wings on her back. When Carla flees the London slum workhouses and docks, she is found and hidden by Nellie, who faces a loveless marriage at her father’s order. Carla urges that the two girls escape together to America and the Wild West, but Nellie is reluctant to abandon her duties and responsibilities. A Dramatic Event forces their hand.

In “Following the Tail” by Dark End, Jacqyl is bored and depressed in a society where almost everyone is mind-connected to the Internet and lets their bodies go. Then she sees The Tail:

“Everyone else [on the train] was jacked in, heads forward, drooling all over themselves as their brain played in the depths of the net. A few were on private servers, and Jacqyl amused herself by guessing what type of Sense-Scape they were in by the way their puppet-like bodies twitched. By the way their hips flexed, more than half of them were in erotic ones. Even the train’s conductor appeared to be in one – not like her job was that hard anyway.

[…]

The train jerked to a stop, causing several dull thumps as a few bodies, so limp while jacked in, smacked hard against walls or railings. A few people woke from the trance of their systems and made their way out.

And that’s when Jacqyl saw him – or rather, a fragment of him: a tail, an actual goddamn tail, flitting in the air as he stepped off. She jumped out of her seat and pressed her face against the window, but whoever he was, whoever he had been, was lost in the drab gray monotony of the mingling throng on the station platform.” (pgs. 16-17)

Jacqyl seeks the man with the tail for months. Why? What does she find? The description of what Jacqyl sees of society as she goes is so zany that I’m not sure whether “Following the Tail” is a comedy or a horror story about what to expect in the future.

In “Cat Toy” by Royce Day, the Nekos are extraterrestrials who look like cat-people, on their own world:

“Okay, I’ll admit they do try to warn you about this sort of thing. My own damned fault I didn’t listen.

Felecia’s inhabitants were feline-analogs, mammalian aliens that looked for all the world like walking, talking wild cats. Xenobiologists mutter ‘Parallel Evolution’ a lot when this happens. Me? I always figured God had a sense of humor.

Anyway, my freighter had dropped off a load of machine parts at their primary space port, I had gotten my pay, and I was feeling pretty good. I was manning station at a bar stool in a downside pub when I caught sight of one of the natives entering. She was about my height, looking for all the world like an upright black panther with bright golden eyes, wearing maintenance coveralls, three golden earrings running down her right ear.” (p. 34)

She leads him to her apartment. They have much sex together. (Is this anthology Adult-rated?) That she says to call her Princess and she calls him Toy will tell you which is the dom and which is the sub. He likes it, so much that he returns to her whenever his spaceship visits Felecia.

“Schematic for a Purrfect Artefact” by Hazuko Sionnach features a fox woman and a cat boy. They are anime-type nekos, whatever animal-people species they are. Yuka, the fox woman, hires Akiko, the cat boy (19 years old), as a mechanic in her factory that repairs airships and other vehicles:

“‘I — I’m not a boy… I’m a man…’

‘Sure. We are nearly home.’ The steam-car pulls up to an asphalt driveway leading to a mansion with an adjoined airfield. The size of the mansion could easily fit a hundred of the auto-shop he used to work for, and that was just the front half of the large home. Several flying machines and a few steam-cars lined open garages, various naked mechanics tinkering on them. Several are humans and a few others have various animal parts like him. A couple women are working on a small biplane with a busted propeller and a wing with shreds torn into it.

‘Why is everyone naked? Isn’t that dangerous while working with steam?’

‘Not at all. This is home to Naked Creations. Everyone here is specially trained for safety and endurance. We have the best safety record of anyone.’

[…]

‘We’ll get you settled into your room and your training shall commence right away.’ Yuka moves aside as a human greets them. ‘This is one of our butlers. He will take care of your needs.’

Akiko glances at the human, but asks a question burning on his mind, ‘What kind of … training?’

‘Fun training. You will enjoy it very well.’” (pgs. 47-48)

Sex training. Put an easily embarrassed 19-year-old in a factory where everyone is naked and sexually uninhibited and be prepared for lots of X-rated “cute”. Akiko and Krista, a squirrel-girl, soon become an item. Then Cindy, a wolf-girl saboteur actually working for Naked Creations’ main rival, targets Akiko as an easy conquest…

“Enter the Garden” by James Pyke features two anime-style nekos, Priscille (female) and Cryo (male), who awaken without pasts or clothes in a Garden of Eden. She says “nya” a lot. They are watched over by a Goddess:

“From Her domain, she espied all that happened in the garden. Her Garden, Her land, and now … The lost one would be the salvation, the mother of Her new people, Her new worshippers who would spread Her name throughout the lands. She shook Her ethereal head at the fortune that chance had taken to bring the lost one here. From what bare glimpse She had into her mind… What darkness had befallen her? Her eyes were wet with Her pity, and Her tears filled the waterfall with Her mercy. Her image, as one could now see, was that of a great cat on two legs. A white and gold robed dress draped Her form, and an exquisite crown of gold, lapis lazuli, and silver was upon Her head. Her fur was that of a grey cat, with expressive blue eyes.

But I can change My form… Her feline mouth turned a smile as She assumed a more familiar form. Now, She was as She had once been depicted, a cat-headed humanoid. Her skin, before the fur of Her neck, was that of sun-kissed, dark bronze. The robed dress now seemed to flow and ebb around Her form, and She floated down the waterfall to examine Her Garden. She smiled, and Her feet touched the ground. Where She stepped, light shone. Her domain may have been once the moon, and indeed, She still had a fondness for it, but She could also appreciate the sun too.” (pgs. 90-91)

The world beyond the Garden is a ruined wasteland:

“A great, limitless landscape. Grey and ashen were the lands that stretched forth, and glints could be seen, here and there. The land looked… ravaged, broken, in despair. Her form shimmered, changing to look more like the nekos; a woman with a cat’s head. Those feline eyes turned toward the two, Cryo of the Garden, and Priscille the Lost, now Found.” (p. 96)

It is implied that humanity has ruined the earth, and the Goddess is replacing them with nekos. She tells Cryo and Priscille to go forth, and multiply. She doesn’t tell them how to go about it, but they sure have a lot of fun experimenting.

“Leather Boots” by Thurston Howl doesn’t have any women. Just Jonas, a drunken Canadian businessman visiting Japan, and “Puss in Boots”, a man wearing magic leather boots that turn him into a neko – a cat man with cat ears and tail and claws sharp enough to kill. Jonas doesn’t care about that, however. He’s gay, and the cat man looks hot enough to kill for …

“The Good Girl” by E. S. Lapso features two characters; Samson, a human, and Sora, a demi-human neko. Sora is a cat-boy, but Samson makes him dress as a girl – a French maid:

“Blushing scarlet red, Sora stood and undid the button above his tail on his boxers. ‘P… pervert. This is so stupid, mew.’ Sliding them down, the petite neko crossed his legs as he tried to ignore the swelling of his shaft; the slight chub reminding him just how much at least one small part of him was loving this. Hissing inwardly, he threw the boxers at his master’s face before hurrying to pull the panties up his thighs. He had to adjust his cock a bit to fit easier which left a damning bulge in the front. ‘There! Happy, mew?’” (p. 109)

Okay; this is definitely Adult. Don’t worry; Samson and Sora are both adults. They’re gay lovers who trade off.

“Lacuna Vice” by Searska GreyRaven starts with Gan, a cyberneko hedonist at the Purgatory nightclub:

“Gan examined his reflection in the mirror behind the bar for the fifth time that night, fussing with the lay of stray hairs along his bleach-blond mohawk. A trickle of light flowed down the pair of tear-streak nanotats on his face while he fidgeted. Vanity, thy name is Ganymede, he thought. He finally gave up and returned to people-watching.

Across from the hookah bar, Purgatory’s dance floor writhed with new blood. Spliced chimeras danced, raved, and dazzled under blacklight, expressing a rainbow of modification from simple fangs or pointed ears to full body morphs. Gan watched as a canine-spliced woman led a lovely young man into the fray. In another time and place, she would have been called a werewolf. Soft grey fur, digitigrade legs, and a long, sly muzzle. A fluffy tail swished from beneath a short red skirt as she bounded onto the dance floor. The human, on the other hand, looked perfectly normal. Aside from the smart-cloth shirt and pants in a garish shade of neon green, he didn’t appear to have a scrap of tech or gene mod in him.” (pgs. 118-119)

Nobody is what they seem. In more than one way. “Lacuna Vice” gets my vote as both the most spectacular and the cleverest tale in this anthology.

“Pussy Perfect” by Kandrel is spelled Pussy Purrfect in the story:

“‘Irasshaimase!’

Spoken from ten smiling mouths simultaneously, the generic greeting took on a rather unsettling tone. Lee wasn’t sure what it originally meant. He wasn’t sure anyone really knew, but every asian [sic.] store had someone inside who shouted it – sometimes constantly. Even this far from Tokyo, Nestled [sic.] in between the VR Pleasure Palace and a neuropharmacy that advertised performance enhancing brainware, was a slim storefront. ‘Pussy Purrfect’ glared in garish pink script, next to a winking cat face. Just inside the door was a throng of the shop’s one and only product: cat girls. They stood alert and perfect in every way. In other stores, the goods were at least in some way obfuscated from view, so that the nervous shopper could pretend that they had found their way there by accident. ‘Oh dear! I seem to have turned into this store looking for a new pair of shoes. My mistake.’ But in Pussy Purrfect, the neko girls were blatantly naked, goods clearly on display.” (pgs. 137-138)

Lee and three friends – two English girls and two boys visiting Japan – decide to go in for a lark. They’ll be sorry — or will they?

Purrfect Tails (cover by Monori Rogue) is a fun beginning for a new furry (and anime) specialty publisher. Buy it, and help them publish more.

*Armoured Fox Press is also a bookshop at Canadian furry conventions, to import and sell the furry books of the U.S. furry publishers that don’t go into Canada. AFP has first appeared at Fur-Eh! 2018 in Edmondton, AB on 14-17 June.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

Looks like we finally get a full trailer for the new Wolves and Sheep film ... I admit I have no idea what is going on there. "Wizart Animation presents the long-awaited continuation of the animated film "Wolves and Sheep: Crazy Transformation"! This time, Gray should be able to protect the combined town of wolves and sheep from a flock of predators! Fun and exciting adventure "Wolves and Sheep: The Move of the Pig" will appear in the cinema on January 24, 2019!"
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A two-week voting period ended on September 30th, asking members to vote on the following questions:

• Should self-published works qualify for FWG membership?
• If so, what criteria be established?
• Should unpaid works still qualify for membership?
• Should we establish a minimum pay rate of ½¢ per word?

So as not to bury the lead:

Self-published works will qualify for FWG membership.

90 FWG members voted—not quite half the current membership, but that’s a pretty good virtual turnout. Here’s a breakdown of the votes.

Question 1: Right now, self-published work doesn’t qualify for FWG membership. Should that change?

• 87.8% voted YES
• 12.2% voted NO

Obviously, YES won overwhelmingly.

Question 2: If you voted YES, how should works that meet the already-established content criteria be qualified for membership?

• 11.1% voted that works should net $200 earnings in a 12-month period
• 11.1% voted that works should sell at least 50 copies in a 12-month period
• 64.2% voted that either of the above should qualify
• 13.6% voted “Other”

“Other” ideas included different values for the above, entirely different criteria such as receiving a minimum number of reviews, or no required threshhold other then the work simply being available for download or purchase.

Question 3: Right now, works published for free can qualify for FWG membership. Should this be removed from qualifications, so membership requires at least one paid story sale or qualifying self-published novel?

• 51.1% voted NO.
• 26.7% voted YES, but only if the self-publishing qualification passes.
• 22.2% voted YES (unconditionally).

This was probably not a well-constructed question, in that it would have been possible for the two YES votes combined to be a majority but NO to still be a plurality; it would have been a better signal to split it into one definitive YES/NO and a second “If you voted YES, should it be only if the self-publishing qualification passes,” or similar wording. As it turns out, NO won a slim majority of votes.

Question 4: Right now, the membership criteria for paid story sales does not specify a minimum pay rate. Should we explicitly require a minimum of ½¢ per word?

• 66.7% voted NO
• 33.3% voted YES

In summation:

• The self-publishing qualification passed, with the either/or criteria of number of copies sold or $200 or more earned.
• No other changes to qualifications passed.

The new rules go into effect October 1, 2018 (i.e., immediately). The membership qualification page will be updated within the month, including some guidelines on what information we’d like to see as qualification proof.

World Wild Fur Camp – October 5-7, 2018

For Southwest Ohio (and everywhere) fandom

You know what’s an amazing drink? Blend watermelon chunks with tequila and lime. Nothing else! So fresh, so simple.

That’s what I brought to a visit at the fur house of Ratchet Fox, one of my closest neighbors.  Ratchet directs stage events at a bunch of fur cons, including BLFC. It has one of the fandom’s highest budgets for their eye-popping setup.  While I blended fresh fruit for the fabulous fox, he showed me videos of what they do with over a million dollars of equipment.

“One reason BLFC succeeds is the way they spare no expense on that main stage”, he told me. “Not every con understands how important that is.  Lots of furs go to party with their friends, and might not go to the dealer’s den or panels – but the main stage is the one thing that draws everyone.”

Huge and glitzy is one way to make magic. But sometimes you need a change of pace. Something laid back, less crazy, and more personal, where you don’t just have too-short drive-by meets with friends. And I love the idea of breaking out of the comfy but predictable hotel experience. (That’s why street fursuiting is my favorite thing.) How can it be more naturally furry?

Hotel Staff Can't Wait For Furries To Come Try New Natural Habitat Rooms

— Dogpatch Clickbait (@DogpatchNewsBot) September 4, 2018

Furry camping events are the answer. Big cons in news are the urban and hotel kind, but the oldest continuous furry event in North America is Camp Feral in Canada. Smaller local gatherings can have big advantages. I’ll bet cheap rental cost can make it easy to start (especially when it’s not summer break for kids.) And the activities can be more unique, the friendships more intimate, and the show is the outdoors.  Nature makes the magic. Woods, stars, campfires, fresh air… so simple.

World Wild Fur Camp is the fandom’s newest:

Get ready for a brand new style of furry get-away! WWFC is taking furries to the great outdoors of Ohio for a family friendly outdoor adventure. Here at WWFC you can enjoy 3 days of fishing, archery, hiking, camp fires, ghost stories and so much more outdoor fun! You’ll be staying in a huge cabin, one of 10, that holds up to 30 people each! … Did we mention that there are meals included? Only 115$ each for the entire 3 day and 2 night stay!

Making even another difference from usual cons, this camp prefers drinking at bars nearby but not on site. That seems like the best of both worlds for welcoming families but getting to party without having to overindulge.

Join their Telegram channel

I chatted with the chair, The Dog Father Al CaBone.  Al is a gregariously enthusiastic dog who I think got fursona inspiration from a love for pro wrestling. (I think he’d wanted to make furry wrestling for an entertaining crossover with its live, theatrical spectacle. Maybe he’ll make an outdoor show for future camps.)

The Camp is a way to bring people together to forge friendship in a family atmosphere instead of a hotel. Attendees share space in a cabin and it is called a Guild house. WWFC is the number 1 spot for furry entertainment. Not to compete with other cons or events but to be the event that attendees will not forget. They can enjoy a weekend that just may change their life.

Speaking of entertainment, would you miss the hug powered con fursuiting? Guests of Honor Marks Barks and Gerce have you covered. (Maybe literally if you ask.) There’s a lot to say about costuming and fun stuff, things you might never think of at a regular con. See the excitement it’s been making below.

Take a look at the online con store for shirts and more too.

We welcome @Marks_Barks And @itsgerce As our GOH this year! Follow these amazing FURtubers if you havent! pic.twitter.com/wNE1oy80c5

— Worldwildfurcamp (@wwildfurcamp) June 19, 2018

So, just so that you know. This year will be the first World Wild Fur Camp (@wwildfurcamp) and they will be holding some type of trick or treating activity one night. Says so on their camp schedule, see! pic.twitter.com/8YEnEm6T1H

— Delta EverGreen(@WWFC) (@anno_martyrum) September 5, 2018

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

Whoa Nelly! We missed a new My Little Pony tie-in? Yes we did — Naughty us! Well here it is: IDW have a new comic miniseries. My Little Pony: Ponyville Mysteries is written by Christina Rice, with art from Agnes Garbowska and Heather Breckel (all of them MLP veterans). “Welcome to a new series of mystery and intrigue! The Cutie Mark Crusaders discover their inner detectives and solve crimes nopony else can! Will they be able to discover who is stealing supplies from Ponyville hospital and get their schoolwork done at the same time?” Turns out this all fits in with the Ponyville Mysteries series of books as well.

image c. 2018 IDW Publishing

It's October and I guess it was about time somebody ripped-off borrowed from Five Nights at Freddy's for a horror film.
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Welcome back to Furry Book Month (or Furry Booktober), as well as the FWG Blog!

Yes, it’s been quite some time since we’ve done one of these blog posts, but new VP Sean Gerace of Ottercorrect Literature Services and Goal Publications/Fanged Fiction (that’s me!) is resuming these, as well as our Author Spotlights and Title Spotlights—both of which will resume next month. Our blog post will be resuming its monthly status.

 

Guild Newsroom

For the last couple weeks of last month we had a vote circulating to members, the primary goal of which to come up with entry requirements into the guild for those that are exclusively self-published. The results? Our president will be sharing them once the vote is all tabulated.

 

Member Highlights

First, some highlights from last month, as featured from our FWG Member News section on the forums:

• Frances Pauli had a story come out in the Wind in the Willows edition of Non-binary Review. The story will be featured and possibly dissected on the Alphanumeric Podcast, coming up in the near future.
• Allison Thai had a story accepted to Ombak: a magazine for Southeast Asian speculative fiction, their first pro sale!
• Hakuzo Sionnach’s latest novella, “Of Foxes and Spiders”, has been released on Amazon.
• Mary E. Lowd had a few things come out in Daily Science Fiction this past month! “The Pink Agate“, “Hypercrystal Wish“, “Veins of Black, Dust of Gold“, and “The Oldest One“.
• S.Park has had their gay romance novel about were-horeses, Stallion Assassin, accepted by JMS books.
• Lisa Timpf has had both a furry story entitled “Gone” and a poem entitled “What Really Happened” released in New Myths, Issue 44. Their story “Roxy” and poem “Fidelis Reinvented” will be released in their Passages anthology, coming soon. They will also have their story “The Open Road” and two poems (“Moonlight” and “A Cat’s Confession”) appearing in From a Cat’s View by Post-to-Print Publishing.
• Cybera Wolf is republishing their LGBTQ+ comedy with Deep Desires Press’s YA imprint, who are also publishing the fifth and sixth books in their “Tales of Monsterotica” series.

Three of our members have also been announced as upcoming convention guests of honor! Kyell Gold will be one of the guests of honor at this year’s Midwest FurFest, Frances Pauli will be featured at the next Furlandia in May, and Mary E. Lowd has recently been announced as a guest for the inaugural Furvana, starting this time next year.

To our members that have had something exciting happen in the past month not featured here: be sure to keep up with you Member News thread on the forums! Not only is this how we get our information, but these threads are able to be viewed by any person logged into the forums. Share your achievements with the rest of the writing community!

 

The Marketplace

For those of you looking to submit, keep an eye on the open markets on our website. For those of you who just forget, The Marketplace is your reminder for all things open for submissions!

Short Story Markets:

Publisher Title Theme Deadline Pay Sofawolf Press HEAT Erotic furry stories October 14th $0.01/word + one copy of the finished title Thurston Howl Publications Purrgatorio The ten regions of Mount Purgatory —a followup to Infurno and Seven Deadly Sins October 15th (Sloth and Avarice only—rest are closed) One copy of the anthology (non-paying) Thurston Howl Publications The Furry Cookbook Furry stories featuring a food or beverage item November 1st $10/story + one copy of the anthology Goal Publications The Daily Grind Furry stories featuring coffee November 14th $0.0075/word + one copy of the anthology Fanged Fiction Thrill of the Hunt Furry erotica featuring a predator/prey dynamic December 1st $0.0075/word + one copy of the anthology Zooscape Zine Zooscape Excellent furry stories N/A (continually open at this time) $0.06/word (maximum $60) for original, $20 for reprints Thurston Howl Publications Species: Bunnies Furry stories featuring bunnies January 1st One copy of the anthology (non-paying) Thurston Howl Publications Breeds: Bunnies Furry erotica featuring bunnies January 1st One copy of the anthology (non-paying) FurPlanet Inhuman Acts 2 Furry noir stories February 1st $0.0050/word + one copy of the anthology Thurston Howl Publications Even Furries Hate Nazis Furry stories against Nazism February 15th One copy of the anthology (non-paying)

 

Novel Markets:

• Goal Publications is open as of today for general-audience “Pocket Shots”, which are novelettes from 15k-30k words. There is no planned date for submissions to close.
• Fanged Fiction is open as of today for 18+ “Pocket Shots”, which are novelettes from 15k-30k words. There is no planned date for submissions to close.
• Thurston Howl Publications is open to novel/novella submissions, with no planned date for submissions to close.

 

Special Events and Announcements

Furry Book Month has begun, and a lot of our publishers have special promotions going on right now! If you’re a publisher or author with a promotion not listed here please email fwgblog[at]gmail[dot]com with your promotion so we may add it.

• FurPlanet will take 10% off all orders with code FBM2018, and any order over $100 will receive a free book up to $20 in value.
• Bad Dog Books is offering 20% off all books—excluding sale items—with code FBM2018. In addition, all issues of ROAR, FANG, and other selected anthologies will be 50% off.
• Fusselschwarm, the biggest German/European distributor, is offering 15% off all English anthologies, novels, and novellas ordered via email (order[at]fusselschwarm[dot]net) for the month.
• Goal Publications/Fanged Fiction is offering 15% off all books, both print and ebook, excluding sale and clearance items, with promo code FBM2018.
  Goal Publications author, Jako Malan, is also running a drawing for the sequel to his award-winning title, reWritten. Check out this page for the full details, and win a chance to be a part of a major scene!
• Thurston Howl is offering $3.00 off of all furry orders.
• Jaffa Books will be taking 10% off of all ebooks.
• Ottercorrect Literature Services will be taking 10% off all new projects for FWG Members with contracts signed in the month of October.
• Rabbit Valley is giving 20% off orders of $50.00 or more with the coupon code FurryBook2018 during checkout.

 

Wrap-up

Our forums are open to all writers, not just full members of the FWG. Check them out here and join in on the conversation. While you’re there, check out how to join our Slack and Telegram channels. Before joining any of these, though, we ask that you please read up on our Code of Conduct! With all the negative going around in the world these days, both furry and non-furry, we want to make sure the guild feels like a safe place to all its participants, free of threats and hate speech.

We have two weekly chats, called our Coffeehouse Chats! Our first one is Tuesday at 7:00pm EST in our Slack channel, and our other is Thursdays at Noon EST on our forums in the shoutbox. Both of these chats feature writers talking about writing, usually with a central topic. As with the above, these chats are open to both members and non-members.

Fans of the Ursa Major Award-winning rebooted DuckTales TV series (and they are myriad!) have a new resource at paw, thanks to teacher and illustrator Zack Giallongo. His new book is called DuckTales Doodles. “Draw, color, and create with your favorite characters from the all-new DuckTales series. Every page is packed with character doodles, from Scrooge McDuck to Webby Vanderquack. Tap into your artistic talents to bring these hilarious and exciting scenes to life! Solve a mystery and re-draw history!” It’s available now from Disney Press.

image c. 2018 Disney Press

We're back! We've been sprucing up the studios, dusting off the equipment, and making sure all the pies are gone and now we're throwing the doors open for season 8! Mfalme and Oaken join Roo and Tugs to talk about break-ups and understanding there isn't just dating or not. Discover the variety of different relationships and how to get through change to something better. We've got your favorite segments, too - including the return of Fifty Sheds of Grey.





NOW LISTEN!
Show Notes
Special Thanks

Mfalme Lion and Oaken, our guests.
Kit, for our ident!
Shane
Miski
Tea

Music

Opening Theme: RetroSpecter – Cloud Fields (RetroSpecter Upbeat Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2018. ©2011-2018 Fur What It’s Worth. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Potty Break: Synapsis - Alpha Tango Foxtrot Charlie. Online: Date Unkown. Used under CC License from Free Music Archive.
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Fifty Sheds of Grey: Kevin MacLeod - Spy Glass. Licensed under Creative Commons: by Attribution 3.0. Visit Incompetech for more.
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!)

Patreon Love
The following people have decided this month’s Fur What It’s Worth is worth actual cash! THANK YOU!
 
Artorias Ichisake and Kit and Cody


Rifka, the San Francisco Treat!

Lokimutt and Guardian Lion and HotSauce and Dusky
Plus Tier Supporters

Skylos
Snares
Lukar Wuff
Simone Parker

McRib Tier Supporters

Hachi Shibaru
Ilya / EpicRive
Lygris S8 Episode 1 – One is the Loneliest Number - We're back! We've been sprucing up the studios, dusting off the equipment, and making sure all the pies are gone and now we're throwing the doors open for season 8! Mfalme and Oaken join Roo and Tugs to talk ab

Another cool thing from San Diego Comic Con. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the artist Brian Kesinger has released a new art portfolio book called Penned Dragons. “Brian Kesinger’s charming collection of pen-and-ink dragon portraits obliterates winged-serpent stereotypes with its fun and fantastic portrayal of these magnificent creatures at their informal best. There are no cookie-cutter fantasy clichés to be found here… just candid studies of dozens of the world’s most wonderful dragons with their individual personalities on display. An authentic and insightful glimpse into the little-known realities of being a dragon. Characters like Fynlar the Daring, Gorüng the Skittish, and So’kee the Vegetarian will delight readers of all ages.” It’s available now in hardcover from Baby Tattoo Books. (Oh by the way: Brian has a book of mermaid art too!)

image c. 2018 Baby Tattoo Books

Now from Yen Press we find a new black & white manga series with the descriptive title of Sacrificial Princess & The King of Beasts, written and illustrated by Yu Tomofuji. “A young girl has resigned herself to being he next sacrificial meal for the Beast King…but the king is no mere monster! Love is more than skin-deep in this gorgeous fantasy manga.” Which is available at Amazon.

image c. 2018 Yen Press

Here is a new CheetahSpots music video for #FursuitFriday!
View Video

Here’s something else we missed.  Goldfisch is a new-ish black & white manga from TokyoPop. “Say hi to Morrey Gibbs! A fisher-boy in a flooded world overrun with mutated animals known as “anomals”, he’s got more problems than just giant fish to deal with. Namely, how everything he touches turns to gold! Sure it sounds great, but gold underpants aren’t exactly stylish… or comfortable. Together with his otter buddy Otta and new inventor friend Shelly, Morrey’s on a quest to rid himself of his blessing-turned-curse, and try to find a solution for the tragedy he unwittingly caused…” Hardly a complicated plot is it?  Here’s an interesting fact: The artist and writer, Nana Yaa, is from Germany.

image c. 2018 TokyoPop

Patreon: www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow www.draggetshow.com Be sure to check our website for all Things Dragget Show! Podcasts, videos, merch and more! Also, don't forget we stream the D&D sessions Sunday at 7pm Central on YouTube! YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow 205 - Snake Football - Patreon: www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow www.drag…

Who knew there was a market for Werewolf babies? "What would a werewolf look like… as a baby? That’s the question SFX artist Asia Eriksen has sought to answer in creating a line of life-sized baby werewolves, which she calls WerePups. Each hyper-realistic silicone doll -- 18 inches long at birth -- is handmade in a long and detailed process, coming home clothed and diapered with its own baby blanket and certificate of adoption."
View Video

Here’s news from Joe Strike – you may have seen his recent piece for Flayrah about “stealth fur.” Joe’s Furry Nation book got a lot of love here. He seems to have a sequel in the works (not sure how much I’m supposed to say, but there may be a chapter from a certain dog’s paw!) Joe saw an article making fun of furs in MAD magazine, and sent this piece. With so much going on in the news, I think it’s a bit refreshing to get gentle joking. Honestly, I want outsiders to just laugh a little while we can be like this… (- Patch)

From graphic designer Chris Piascik (I don’t think he’s a furry… yet. The outfit got us right though.)

MAD Magazine and the “Lighter” (?) Side of Furries

By Joe Strike

NOTE: This article contains a spoiler, if you worry about that sort of thing…

It only took three issues, but the re-launched MAD magazine took note of us in the final chapter of “Boonies Burbs and Burgs,” a short-lived feature charting the travels of three young cousins. If you thought MTV’s Sex 2K or CSI gave us a hard time…hoo boy, you’ve got another fershlugginer thing coming!

MAD articles always begin with an imaginary department heading. If you needed a tip-off, this installment came from the “Let the Fur Fly Department.” The story begins with a mystery: why is one cousin’s surly dad so eager to take the trio to the “Pop-Con” convention? (“A dad can’t do something nice for his rotten kid and his rotten kid’s even rottener cousins?”)* At the bottom of the first page the threesome come face to face with a blobby guy wearing a cow-themed leather get-up, complete with black leather udder. (“This the line for the Leashes ‘n’ Lashes confurence?”) Sure enough, top of the next page shows a female chicken and donkey pair asking, “this the confurence?” and being told by an overweight Darth Vader “Hall F, as in furvert.”

Trouble’s afoot, judging from the animal noises (“MOO…OINK…SQUEE”) coming from Hall F. Finally the wall gives way and an avalanche of fursuiters—giraffes, dragons, kangaroos and more, oh my!—tumble into view. (“Furry orgy tsunami!” a fleeing spectator shouts.) In the final panel a rat in the middle of the furpile removes his head, revealing himself as (SPOILER DEAD AHEAD!) surly dad—the furtive furry is a grumpy greymuzzle! “Today was frickin’ awesome!” he exclaims, wrapping up the tale. Way to go, dad!

It wasn’t hard to track down Bob Fingerman, the story’s artist and writer and give him a piece of my furry mind…

On behalf of all the furries in the world…thanx a lot buddy! (As if CSI wasn’t bad enough.)

We’re coming for you with an adorable pink French poodle suit (with EXTRA sph’s) and a giant size tube of Krazy Glue. Once we suit you up and seal you in we’re gonna drop you in the middle of the skankiest furpile we can find and post all the videos on YouTube for your friends and relatives to enjoy…

Seriously, I laughed my tail off at the comic—thanx much for the “kind” attention. BTW not sure if you’re aware that ConFurence was a real thing, the very first furry convention that began in 1989 and ran for a goodly number of years. You can read the “hole” story in my book Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood [because of creeps like you] Subculture. Wish I could send you a copy but they go for $18 a pop—cheap!

-Joe

Bob was cool enough to write back:

Hey Joe.

Thanks for reaching out. I definitely find humor in the Furry phenomenon, but in the MAD strip I think they come off far more lovable than the comic con attendees. They’re just trying to have a good time (and succeeding). Hell, it’s the only time the dad is happy in the strip…thanks for having a sense of humor. Those seem in shorter and shorter supply these days. When we need them most. -Best, Bob

PS: I can look forward, now, to my Facebook wall being inundated with Furry links from looking up your book on Amazon, so consider your “revenge” achieved. Ha ha.

I took another look at Bob’s website – bobfingerman.com – and saw something I’d overlooked, which necessitated a follow-up email to the guy:

I just noticed the first thing on your website is a cartoon of you…as a rat! Representing yourself as an anthropomorphic animal character makes you a furry, you do realize that? Thanks for making Dad a furry in the strip too, nice to know he and I have something in common.

Unfortunately, in my eagerness to see the world through furry-colored lenses I had misinterpreted the image…

The character on the homepage of my website isn’t me, it’s a character for a graphic novel I didn’t get to do. Probably won’t get to do anytime soon. But follow your bliss, sir.

To which I could only apply by way of apology…

Sorry ’bout that. (I guess the resemblance confused me. )

( * All words in bold type are reproduced as they appeared in the magazine.)

Like it says above, Joe Strike is the author of Furry Nation: The True Story of America’s Most Misunderstood [because of creeps like Bob Fingerman!] Subculture. Find out more about this great book at: www.furrynation.com