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Fun time! Thanks to all who joined us for the live stream. If you want to see the video, you can put it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z__0VYWf40 142 - Fireside Chat Stream! - Fun time! Thanks to all who joined us for the li…

Howl of Thurston Howl Publications sends this guest review.  Thanks Howl!

REVIEW OF THE GOAT: BUILDING A PERFECT VICTIM BY BILL KIEFFER

Shock. From beginning to end. If you ever want a book to slap you in the face as hard as possible, this…this is for you.

Frank is a car worker. He is not gay. To verify this, he would not hesitate to glare you down. He would not hesitate to hit you. He would not hesitate to force you into his car. He would not hesitate to force your head on his cock and eventually force you to swallow. This is how he started to develop a relationship with Glenn.

Glenn is a cybermancer, strong with technological pseudomagic but not so great at wards like Frank. Loving the utter dominance Frank forces onto him, Glenn enters into an S&M relationship with the mechanic. However, the main story arc occurs when Glenn reveals that he is species-dysmorphic: despite being born in a human body, his natural identity is that of a goat. Unable to pass the necessary ani-mage tests, he can only dream about becoming a goat. However, Frank is a little better with magic…

This book is by NO MEANS a kinky romance. This is, as the author claims, horror erotica. Even as a Stephen King and Clive Barker fan, I was cringing so hard from the beginning and ending of the book, and I’m not sure I will fully recover in the next week. I might have to read My Little Pony fanfiction to survive in fact.

As far as constructive criticism goes, the book excels with its ability to horrify and disturb readers. As any horror aficionado will claim, the best horror is the kind that dwells under the surface of normal, everyday life and then bubbles up with an exploding pop at points. This novel thrives on that. You will fall in love with these characters, and, then, you will witness the new master of furry horror as he proceeds to not only rip your heart out, but also your intestines, your spleen, and whatever else he can find. While this book is by no means gory as my metaphor would make it seem, it is horrifying in levels that portray crueler fates than disembowelment.

My main critiques are with the magic system erected in the novel. It is introduced so suddenly and never really explained, although it is expanded gradually. Narratologically, the magic exists solely as a means of giving Frank the ability to control Glenn’s transformations. While the author does implement small uses of magic here and there—wards and a magical advisory board—it seems consistently too disconnected from the story Kieffer is trying to tell.

However, if you can suspend your disbelief in this system of magic, the novel will grip you—and drag you through the hell that is Frank’s twisted mind, or to put it more closely to the author’s words, Frank’s “fucked up” mind.

– Howl

Mickey Mouse’s lifetime companion (literally!) gets her artistic due in The Art of Minnie Mouse, new from Disney Book Group. “Minnie Mouse embodies a constant reminder to girls of all ages-including grown-ups!-to live confidently and express themselves. In The Art of Minnie Mouse, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world re-imagine their favorite Minnie styles and portray them in a variety of mediums. Minnie’s earliest incarnation, her classic red polka-dot look, and trendy modern styles are all newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. The book also features a never-before-published comprehensive filmography of Minnie’s animated appearances as well as a visual timeline of her career milestones.” And it’s also available now in hardcover from Barnes & Noble.

image c. 2016 Disney Book Group

Happy Halloween, fuzzbutts! This is our annual episode where YOU write the show! In a twist, we've asked other victi--er, volunteers to help read your stories! We hope you enjoy the spoopy stories, which have had sound and music added to enhance your performa---er, the atmosphere. THANK YOU to everyone who helped by writing and voicing! We also have Space News, Get Psyched!, and the teaser for Fifty Sheds of Grey. Oh, and the mailbag gets cracked open! Happy Halloween!



NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

All our writers and readers!
Writers: Mfalme Lion, Rive the Rat, Rifka Fox, Joshua Dillon (twice), Smokescale Aquatos, D'Otter, Kuragari Inuken, Skylos, lostpanda, Ausi Kat.
Readers: Mfalme Lion, Miski, Diamondia Doodle, Zuka Zalad, Ranji, Buck Riley, Barnaby, Tenax Raccoon, Skylos, Kristian Collie, Blue.
Skylos, for the ident.
Spark the Dragon.
D'Otter.

Music

Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. 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!)
Some music was provided by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. We used the following pieces:

Phantom from Space
 Awkward Meeting
Dance of Deception
Echoes of Time
Land of the Dead
Pop Goes the Weasel
Return of Lazarus
Static Motion
The House of Leaves
The Voices
This House
Welcome to Horrorland 1


Calcabrina Theme from Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Soundtrack. FINAL FANTASY XIV © 2010-2016 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved. Used per Materials Usage License
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Get Psyched Music: Fredrik Miller – Universe, USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. 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!

Premium Supporters

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Skylos

McRib Tier Supporters

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Want to be on this list? Donate on our Patreon page! THANK YOU to our supporters once again!
Next episode: Do you roleplay? To what end or why? What effects do you think it's had on the fandom? Let us know by November 4, 2016! S6 Episiode 6 – Halloween - Happy Halloween, fuzzbutts! This is our annual episode where YOU write the show! In a twist, we've asked other victi--er, volunteers to help read your stories! We hope you enjoy the spoopy stories, which have had sound and musi

Down one ferret that cast discusses the weeks news Episode -20 - Throwing sharks at the wall and seeing what sticks

The mighty machine that is Pokemon carries on — and no, we don’t mean Pokemon Go either. Pokemon Adventures: Ruby & Sapphire is the latest black & white manga to hit North America; coming to us thanks to Viz Media. “Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald face a new crisis of epic proportions: a giant meteor hurtling toward the planet! Don’t miss these awesome new adventures inspired by the best-selling Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire video games and picking up where the Pokémon Adventures Ruby and Sapphire saga left off!” Illustrated by Satoshi Yamamoto and written by Hedenori Kusaka, this new digest-sized manga is available now. Anime News Network has this and a whole lot more brand-new Pokemon stuff as well.

image c. 2016 Viz Media

Save

Disoriented from a late start, Fayroe distracts us from the usual flow of news and emails with a new Halloween toy he found at Walmart.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Zoology review: A tail of individuality in oppressive Russia
• A New Monogamy? A Fresh Look at Open Marriage for 2016
• Night In The Woods release date set for January
• Awoo fines given out at Furpocalypse 2016
• Furpocalypse 2016 Snuggle Police

News:

• Dogs dream of you cats dream of Death
• Vine being shut down
• How the Adams Family totally gets BSDM relationships right
• Colorado unfairly targeting wildlife refuge at swingers’ sex club, says squirrel-loving swinger proprietor
• This Lost American Tourist’s 1-Star Yelp Review of Berghain Will Go Down in Infamy
• Spider Carries A Mouse Up A Refrigerator Like It’s No Big Deal
• Spiders Can Hear You From Several Meters Away – Even Without Any Ears
• A Teen Creates Horror Lifelike Creations With Special Effects Make Up
• Why Men And Women Can’t Agree On The Perfect Temperature

Emails:

• Shayne – “Hi :3 + worried about your basement creek secret door”
• Keoshi – “Musical Inquiries”
• elof – “So Yeah…”
• Cookie Fox-Dragon – “Relationship Problem”
• Trevor – “Slowly burning”

FC-249 Slip’N Spider - Disoriented from a late start, Fayroe distracts us from the usual flow of news and emails with a new Halloween toy he found at Walmart.

Disoriented from a late start, Fayroe distracts us from the usual flow of news and emails with a new Halloween toy he found at Walmart.

Download MP3

Watch Video Link Roundup:

• Zoology review: A tail of individuality in oppressive Russia
• A New Monogamy? A Fresh Look at Open Marriage for 2016
• Night In The Woods release date set for January
• Awoo fines given out at Furpocalypse 2016
• Furpocalypse 2016 Snuggle Police

News:

• Dogs dream of you cats dream of Death
• Vine being shut down
• How the Adams Family totally gets BSDM relationships right
• Colorado unfairly targeting wildlife refuge at swingers’ sex club, says squirrel-loving swinger proprietor
• This Lost American Tourist’s 1-Star Yelp Review of Berghain Will Go Down in Infamy
• Spider Carries A Mouse Up A Refrigerator Like It’s No Big Deal
• Spiders Can Hear You From Several Meters Away – Even Without Any Ears
• A Teen Creates Horror Lifelike Creations With Special Effects Make Up
• Why Men And Women Can’t Agree On The Perfect Temperature

Emails:

• Shayne – “Hi :3 + worried about your basement creek secret door”
• Keoshi – “Musical Inquiries”
• elof – “So Yeah…”
• Cookie Fox-Dragon – “Relationship Problem”
• Trevor – “Slowly burning”

FC-249 Slip’N Spider - Disoriented from a late start, Fayroe distracts us from the usual flow of news and emails with a new Halloween toy he found at Walmart.

Disoriented from a late start, Fayroe distracts us from the usual flow of news and emails with a new Halloween toy he found at Walmart.

Download MP3

Link Roundup:

• Zoology review: A tail of individuality in oppressive Russia
• A New Monogamy? A Fresh Look at Open Marriage for 2016
• Night In The Woods release date set for January
• Awoo fines given out at Furpocalypse 2016
• Furpocalypse 2016 Snuggle Police

News:

• Dogs dream of you cats dream of Death
• Vine being shut down
• How the Adams Family totally gets BSDM relationships right
• Colorado unfairly targeting wildlife refuge at swingers’ sex club, says squirrel-loving swinger proprietor
• This Lost American Tourist’s 1-Star Yelp Review of Berghain Will Go Down in Infamy
• Spider Carries A Mouse Up A Refrigerator Like It’s No Big Deal
• Spiders Can Hear You From Several Meters Away – Even Without Any Ears
• A Teen Creates Horror Lifelike Creations With Special Effects Make Up
• Why Men And Women Can’t Agree On The Perfect Temperature

Emails:

• Shayne – “Hi :3 + worried about your basement creek secret door”
• Keoshi – “Musical Inquiries”
• elof – “So Yeah…”
• Cookie Fox-Dragon – “Relationship Problem”
• Trevor – “Slowly burning”

[Live] Slip’N Spider

Papabear,

I don't know if this question really applies to you...but here ya go!

So I have depression, and occasionally I get into a very sad or mellow mood, but my friends usually think I am mad at them so they stay away from me rather than actually try to talk to me and ask me what's wrong. This happened today, when one of my friends asked me if I was mad at them and I said no, after they have proceeded to shun me the entire day. Is it because of my body language or what?

Amber (age 18)

* * *

Hi, Amber,

Thanks for your letter. I am intimately acquainted with the problems associated with depression. Quick question first: are you receiving any kind of treatment for your ailment?

Hugs,
Papabear

* * *

Yes, I am currently on Lexapro, though it's a really small dosage.

* * *

Okay, Amber, just wanted to be sure, first, that you were seeking some sort of treatment.

There are two basic causes of depression, as you may know: one is physiological, the other is caused by life events. In the former, a person becomes depressed because there is something amiss with their body chemistry. This can result from many factors: thyroid problems, adrenal gland problems, fibromyalgia, viral infections, brain tumors, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and on and on. This is why it can be important to see a good psychiatrist (rather than psychologist) who has medical training. The other cause of depression is a negative life event (death in the family, divorce, bad news about a disease, being bullied in school) or problems with one's behavior (drug or alcohol addiction, bad dietary and exercise practices, sleep deprivation, overwork, and so on).

In the former case, there is really no advice you can get from friends that will help. You have a medical condition. In the latter case, it kind of only works if a friend has been through the same thing you have. Even so, everyone reacts to bad life events in different ways, and what works for one person might not for another. For example, people kept telling me to go to group therapy for widowers, so, finally, I went. Didn't help at all. In fact, it made me feel worse, so I stopped going. 

The thing about friends and family of those suffering from depression is that most people don't know how to handle themselves around people like you and me. We make them uncomfortable because they don't know if they can comfort us or if saying something might offend us or make matters worse. Now, in your case, it sounds as if your friends misinterpret your depression for being sullen and angry. Have you actually told them you suffer from depression? Just saying, "No, I'm not angry at you," is not really enough because they still don't know what is wrong. They might think you're lying and really are angry.

So the first step is to tell your friends what your problem really is and that you have medication for it (there's no shame in this; many people are in the same boat as you). If they come up to you and ask if they can do anything, tell them that the best thing they can do to help you is to be with you, keep you company, perhaps some hugs would be nice. If you're like me and many others, getting "advice" from people who might be well-intentioned but seriously do not understand what you are going through can be very irritating and annoying. As I always say, if you don't know what you're talking about, the best thing you can do is shut up.

But you don't need their advice. What you need is some normalcy and companionship in your life. Having your friends shun you and isolate you is going to make you feel worse, as you already know. You need to reconnect to your friends.

To do this, wait until you're in a pretty good mood and not in one of your dark moods. Talk to your friends during this time. Explain to them frankly what you are going through and give them the heads up that sometimes you may be a bit hard to deal with, but that when that happens you hope that they could come and give you a hug and try to lift your spirits by just being there for you. Tell them you don't expect them to try and solve your problems--you are working on that yourself--but you still need them in your life.

Make sense?

Good luck!!!

Papabear
​

More from Toon Books, this time on a much more serious subject. It’s a full-color comic-style book called Benny and Penny in How to Say Goodbye. “Why won’t Benny care? Penny finds a dead salamander, but her brother Benny doesn’t want anything to do with it. Is it silly to have a ceremony for Little Red, or could the loss of this tiny animal mean much more to the lovable siblings? With his unique knack for portraying children’s emotional turmoil, Geisel Award-winner Geoffrey Hayes shares this gentle tale of an early encounter with death.” The latest Benny and Penny book is available now in hardcover.

image c. 2016 Toon Books

Hello Everyone!

We open this week's show with a discussion on ways to make your polyamorous relationship more sustainable. When couples make the switch from a monogamous to a polyamorous relationship, many face feelings of fear, jealousy, and anger. We discuss an article written by one such individual and the ways that he and his partners worked through those feelings to find relationship stability and bliss.

Our main topic is on empathy. Much like our previous episode on Envy versus Jealousy, many people often use sympathy and empathy interchangeably. We discuss the differences between the two before diving into why empathy matters in your life and your relationship. Empathy forms one of the core foundations upon which a relationship stands-- too much and you find yourself burning out, too little and your partner might seek elsewhere to find emotional support. We look into how you can use empathy in a way to resolve conflicts in a non-violent fashion, and how empathy can reinforce your emotional boundaries and integrity. We also discuss the levels of empathy that we experience and ways that we have had to either raise or lower that level to keep our relationship going. 

We close this week with a question about the appropriate speed one should explore their sexual interests, especially if they are experiencing their "gay teens" later on in life. We talk safety, responsibility, and how to keep Grindr from becoming more important than your friends. 

For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 042 Empathy - Are polyamorous couples more prone to fighting? How essential is Empathy in a relationship? How much sexploration is too much sexploration? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Ape and Armadillo Take Over the World is a new hardcover Toon Book for young readers, written and illustrated (in full color) by James Sturm. “How much fun would it be to take over the world? Armadillo is trying to come up with a plan for global domination…but with every new idea, being a bad guy seems a little less fun. Young readers will delight in star cartoonist James Sturm ‘s tender depiction of how far a true friendship can take you.” Order it over at the Toon Books site.

image c. 2016 Toon Books

Hello Papabear,

I am going to be handing out candy for Halloween and was wondering what is the safest way to go about doing this with the kids and my fursuit?

T-Lo

* * *

Hi, T-Lo,

Good question! And I better post this now since it is almost time!

Halloween is a great time to fursuit. I've done it several time, handing out candy at my house. The thing about fursuiting at night is that it can be very difficult to see. Also, it can be hard handing out little candies when you are wearing forepaws. 

So, the solution is that you should always do this with one or more non-suiters with you. It's kind of like having a handler when you are at a furcon or furmeet. In the case of Halloween, the handler will actually handle the candy and make sure you don't stumble into anything or anyone in the dark. The fursuiter doesn't worry about the candy thing and, instead, you focus on interacting with the trick or treaters.

Apply the same rules to interacting with trick or treaters as you would if you were at a convention. That is, first, do not approach little kids on your own but let them come to you if they wish to interact. Kids, especially little ones, can actually be a bit overwhelmed or even scared of a fursuit, even one that is not scary (the same way some kids freak out about Santa Claus). This is because you're very large and look strange to them. That's really the minority, though. Most kids will be delighted to see you and you will often get compliments from the adults about your cool "costume."

Other tips: keep water available (usually in plastic travel mug with long strong); if your handler has to go inside to use the restroom, go in with them because you don't want to be out there by yourself; when interacting with little ones, it can be helpful to squat down or kneel down to try and be more at their level, which makes you a bit less intimidating.

Hope this helps! Have a splendiferous Halloween!

Papabear​

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

The Familiar: A Paranormal Romance, by Jill Nojack
Kent, OH, IndieHeart Press, September 2015, trade paperback $9.99 (277 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $2.99.

Witch Risen: A Paranormal Adventure, by Jill Nojack
Kent, OH IndieHeart Press, September 2016, trade paperback $9.99 (285 pages), Kindle December 2015 $3.99.

Nine Lives: A Paranormal Adventure, by Jill Nojack
Kent, OH, IndieHeart Press, September 2016, trade paperback $9.99 (291 pages), Kindle April 2016 $3.99.

These three books constitute Nojack’s The Bad Tom series. They are meant to be read together, in that order. Amazon has a three-book Kindle package for $10.97.

Up to now, I’ve avoided reviewing the paranormal romance genre. There are dozens if not hundreds of books (probably 95+% e-books only) about handsome, hunky werewolves or werelions or werestallions or werebears who need a human woman to tame them. They’re mostly written from the woman’s point of view – wish-fulfillment fodder.

However, The Bad Tom trilogy features a man spelled into an ordinary housecat, and it’s more about him trying to avoid a jealous witch so he can get together with his true love – and worse. There’s enough non-romantic story here for a furry fan that isn’t interested in romance to enjoy. There are enough clever twists & turns in the trilogy that I have to reveal a major spoiler to cover all three novels.

“Back when her skin was smooth and her lips were juicy as ripe berries, Eunice did the nasty with the devil. And she loved it. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be lurking in the dark, twitching the tip of my tail, trying to keep an eye on what the old witch is up to. Everyone knows spells cast during the Black Moon aren’t illuminated by the Goddess’s light.” (The Familiar, p. 1)

The trilogy is set in the small town of Giles, Massachusetts, on the route from Boston to Salem. The town specializes in the colorful “witch” motif associated with the notorious Salem witch trials of 1692. Several elderly women dress up as witches, and a leading spell shop is Cat’s Magical Shoppe, run by seventyish Eunice. “Of course” the spells are all fake; just harmless herbal medicine charms – but the witches are real. Most of Giles’ costumed witches are organized in a “choir” (coven) of white witches, or at worst gray, led by Eunice. They don’t know that Eunice is secretly a black witch, the leader of a small black coven within the white coven, subtly practicing forbidden magic to make sure that she remains Giles’ social leader. The #2 witch in the white coven is Gillian Winterforth; another important witch is Natalie Taylor.

There are also two warlocks; sixtyish Robert Andrews, the high priest of the white coven for twenty years and the mayor of Giles, and his late-30s son Kevin. Robert is content to politically run the town. Kevin has become a black warlock. He is conspiring with Eunice to, if not replace Robert immediately, help Robert to buy up the town while making sure that he remains Robert’s heir.

Eunice has a granddaughter, Cassie. She is innocent of what’s going on. Cassie visits from Boston often, and has been helping out/learning in the shoppe how to make the “herbal charms”. Eunice is slowly teaching her to become a witch without revealing that witchcraft is real.

Cat’s Magical Shoppe has a real black cat as a mascot. Nobody knows that the cat is also Tom Sanders, who had been Gillian’s young husband in 1967 when they were all in their sexy 20s. He tried to have an affair with Eunice, and she bound him into her shop’s cat. She turns him human again when nobody else is around by saying, “Good cat,” and back into a cat by saying, “Bad cat”. He’s her boy-toy, eternally a hunky 25-year-old while Eunice and the other witches grow old.

As a cat, Tom is trapped inside a feline body. When the cat dies, he’s reincarnated into a black kitten’s body. He can try to influence the cat, which he can do to a limited extent, but more often he is overpowered by the cat’s instincts and can only ride along while the cat is in charge.

“The next day, it’s business as usual. I’d like to take a nap, but Cat is distracted by everything: a passing shoelace, the shop broom moving across the floor, the sound of paper bags crinkling.

Crinkling. First my ears and then my eyes are drawn to the source of the sound. Eunice’s granddaughter, Cassie, plops a brown paper bag onto the counter, and it rustles again as she rests a dainty hand onto it.” (p. 7)

All of this is background. The story starts when Eunice unexpectedly dies (not of natural causes) in her sleep. Cassie comes from Boston to decide whether to sell the shoppe or to take it over and keep it running. Tom, currently a tiny kitten, is frantic to get her to say “Good Tom” and turn him human again – though how she’ll react to having a little black kitten become a handsome, naked man in front of her, he doesn’t know.

Any more detailed synopsis would give away too many spoilers. The first 100 pages of The Familiar are narrated by Tom, who is desperate to communicate with Cassie; then the narration switches back and forth between them. Conflict is provided by Kevin Andrews, who assumes that Cassie is too naïve to oppose him as he tries to take over the shoppe and Eunice’s coven. Cassie eventually learns how to turn Tom human again, but it only works within the shoppe. The two need to find how to release Tom from the spell entirely, which they do with the help of the now-grandmotherly Gillian and her white coven.

The Familiar seems to come to a happy ending, but there’s a shocking cliffhanger in the final paragraph. This is no real surprise since there are two more books in the trilogy. In Witch Risen, Eunice’s spirit comes back from the dead and possesses Cassie’s body. Tom is frantic to free Cassie’s spirit. The white witches in Giles (plus Robert) don’t want Eunice back, so they join Tom in trying to outwit Eunice and banish her spirit to release Cassie’s.

What nobody realizes at first (and I’m sorry to reveal a major spoiler, but it’s necessary to continue this review) is that it never was Eunice. “Eunice” is really Anat, a thousands’-year-old witch’s (she claims she’s a Goddess) spirit who has been body-hopping for hundreds of generations, and had possessed the real Eunice’s body decades earlier. To her, Cassie is just the latest body in a long string of beautiful young women. What’s worse, she has been looking for the perfect young male body for millennia for her husband/master, the demon Ba’al, to possess. She’s finally found it in Tom. Witch Risen becomes a race between the two sides to succeed. Tom and the white witches have the greater organization, but they are hampered by unknowingly underestimating at first how much evil “Eunice” can command, and then how much magic it will really take to exorcise her.

“When I get my lover’s heart beating again during the quickening, I’ll help him move to his new home in Tom’s handsome shell soon after. Will he find me too tame now? I’m in bed by ten after taking my nightly bath in lavender-scented bubbles instead of the blood of my victims. But oh, when we were young! There wasn’t a god or a demon who could challenge us.” (Witch Risen, p. 122)

Witch Risen is narrated by Tom and “Eunice”. It again seems to come to a happy ending, but there’s still a final novel in the trilogy. Nine Lives shows a demon-dog on the cover, so that’s no secret; so I’ll just say that there’s more than one demon-dog in Giles, determined to make their victims more than just Tom and Cassie. Nine Lives completes The Bad Tom trilogy neatly.

Nojack labels The Familiar “a paranormal romantic comedy”, but the other two as “a paranormal adventure”, which is more accurate. Tom certainly has romance towards Cassie in mind, but the books are more about his fighting the age-old Anat (even if he doesn’t know she’s Anat until Witch Risen) than about his getting together with Cassie. The trilogy is not anthropomorphic in the usual sense, but even when Tom is freed from the original spell that allows “Eunice” to control his human/cat transformations, he remains having to share his human body with Cat. Tom finds that he has to transform into Cat a couple of hours each day to remain healthy, usually to let Cat go hunting in the nearby wood. He often uses the Cat body in his magical combats, despite having to influence Cat’s cooperation.

“I squat down to make myself less visible as Gillian explores. That may be a mistake. Cat’s got my nose tilted up in the air, sniffing at the tantalizing fragrance of wilderness that blows my way on the breeze. That’s definitely a mouse. A tiny, furry, juicy, tasty mouse. My haunches tense, I gear up for the chase. And then I grab my body back from Cat’s influence and stand up. ‘Gillian.’ I whisper. ‘Have you got enough yet?’” (Nine Lives, p. 155)

The three books, covers designed by IndieHeart Press, are definitely something that furry fans should check out.

–Fred Patten

• Buy The Familiar (Book 1) on Amazon
• Buy Witch Risen (Book 2) on Amazon
• Buy Nine Lives (Book 3) on Amazon
• Buy all Three Books on Amazon

Pack your bags and join WagzTail as we embark on an adventure to… where were we going exactly? Either way, we know what we’ll do when we get there.

Also, Denny’s references. You know you want to listen.

Metadata and Credits Let’s Go on a Trip!

Runtime: 38:58m

Cast: KZorroFuego, Levi, Wolfin

Editor: Levi

Format: 196kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.

Let’s Go on a Trip! - Pack your bags and join WagzTail as we embark on an adventure to... where were we going exactly? Either way, we know what we'll do when we get there. - Also, Denny's references. You know you want to listen.

Pack your bags and join WagzTail as we embark on an adventure to… where were we going exactly? Either way, we know what we’ll do when we get there.

Also, Denny’s references. You know you want to listen.

Metadata and Credits Let’s Go on a Trip!

Runtime: 38:58m

Cast: KZorroFuego, Levi, Wolfin

Editor: Levi

Format: 196kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.

Let’s Go on a Trip! - Pack your bags and join WagzTail as we embark on an adventure to... where were we going exactly? Either way, we know what we'll do when we get there. - Also, Denny's references. You know you want to listen.

Here’s one from Japan we almost missed. Kuma Miko: Girl Meets Bear is a black & white manga series by Masume Yoshimoto, originally published by Media Factory. Now One Peace Books are bringing the collected first series to North America in digest form. It’s the story of a young teenage girl named Machi who lives in a remote mountain village. She’s a Miko (a shinto shrine maiden) and she has never left her idyllic native home.  But now she’s thinking about moving to the big city to attend high school. That doesn’t sit well with her best friend: Natsu Kumai, a talking bear. A tie-in anime series of Kuma Miko premiered in Japan this year; maybe we’ll get to see that our way soon too!

image c. 2016 Media Factory

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We’ve mentioned Magnetic Press before: The international distributors of the Love series of wordless wildlife graphic novels scripted by Frederic Brremaud and illustrated by Federico Bertolucci. Well now the same creative team have a new series of full-color hardcover graphic novels for young readers called Little Tails, and once again Magnetic Press has brought them to us here in North America. Here’s what the publisher says: “Chipper and Squizzo are a precocious puppy and squirrel who love to explore new and exciting environments, flying their cardboard box airplane to wondrous worlds full of fascinating animals and creatures.  In each volume of this fun, educational series, they tour a different location, encountering the real-world animals found there in beautiful illustration and fun cartoon strip antics! In each volume of Little Tails Chipper & Squizzo set out on a journey to explore new and interesting environments full of fascinating animals and curious creatures.  The first volume in the series is Little Tails In The Forest, which finds Chipper & Squizzo venturing into a lush forest to visit Squizzo’s family. On their journey, the two animal pals discover and discuss a fantastic variety of bugs, birds, bears, & more!  The second volume, Little Tails In The Jungle, takes them around the world to the jungles of South America, Africa, and Asia, where they encounter tigers, elephants, snakes, and sloths!”

image c. 2016 Magnetic Press

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