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Are you too old for trick-or-treating? In this fall-themed episode, we remember costumes, games, and trick-or-treating from long ago.

Metadata and Credits Furry Halloween

Runtime: 33:05m

Cast: KZorroFuego, Levi, Pamiiruq, 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.

Furry Halloween - Are you too old for trick-or-treating? In this fall-themed episode, we remember costumes, games, and trick-or-treating from long ago.

Be prepared to SQUEEE: “The World’s Cutest Dog comes to comics! He’s Boo, the Pomeranian pup that’s become an internet sensation, and he’s ready for four-color adventures in his first-ever comic book! In this debut issue, Boo and his canine companions Buddy and Blueberry Pie create kitchen chaos when they can’t control their tummy rumblings; our favorite doggie becomes a “Boo-vie star” when he lucks into a Hollywood audition; and finally, Boo celebrates the birthday of adorable eight-year-old Audrey… but the party gets out of hand! Comic readers of all ages will love the whimsical, fun-filled escapades of Boo, the World’s Cutest Dog!” Written by Kristen Deacon, Audrey Elizabeth, Fernando Ruiz, and Joelle Sellner; with art by Tony Fleecs (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Fernando Ruiz, and Rob Robbins; this full-color 3-issue miniseries is available now from Dynamite Entertainment.

image c. 2016 Dynamite

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Sorry for the late episode post duders, it's just a wee bit crazy in bitey fennec land. We talk butt stuff, animation, anime, the run up to Savrin's convention, Guild Wars 2, WoW some, and a lot more. This is a long episode with special appearances by a barky doggo. Want to support the show? We have a Patreon! www.patreon.com/knotcast Episode 330 - Awoo And Chill

You might see less posting here for a week – I’m busy writing for a book. That’s Furries Among Us (part 2) from Thurston Howl Publishing. (The Ursa Major Award went to Howl’s first book of essays about the fandom, so they made a new “nonfiction” award.)

My chapter is “The Furclub movement – independent furry night life is thriving!” Furry dance parties happen around the world, so if you see new dances start anywhere, please send info for the list.  (To San Francisco furs, I can’t say anything now, but expect some good news soon.)

It’s Furry Book Month, so check out some more of the fandom’s awesome creativity. Flayrah finally started approving new posts about that. Their slowness might have to do with a big rise in great reader comments here.  And so does this…

High activity with furries in the news. Rolling Stone linked here last week when covering the triple homicide in Southern California that took furry victims.  Then George Takei reposted it to his massive readership.

I have mostly tried to avoid resharing other news about the sad story (although I definitely believe it’s a “furry” story, within limits).  I did have a little personal chatting with a reporter and on other shares. Surprise… with both the media and the public, there’s a lot of sensitivity. Even if furries are silly, people know a tragedy is a time to step back and be nice.

I made an exception to discussing when it made a side topic I thought was good and relevant about the power of cartoons and OC Weekly’s editorial cartoon.  It got a re-edit sent in by Shining River (shown here.)

Even more high traffic and comments came for A Brief History of Who Ruined Furry.  Thankfully the vast majority got the satirical humor and only a few thought it was mocking for real.

The comments brought an unexpected gift, a historic piece of freakotronic video of the first fursuiter at the first furry convention in 1989. It’s a sexy gender-bending deer creature in dom gear, Hilda the Bambioid:

That’s groundbreaking.  Who else had the guts then? Hilda was so far ahead of her time. It made one of the Greymuzzles community comment on the “Who Ruined Furry” post: “Just take advice from the Dadaists: “The aim of Furry is the destruction of Furry!”  This is why Furry is outsider art.

The video was uploaded to the net thanks to Changa Lion, who lives at the Prancing Skiltaire and posts daily furry videos at Furry.today.  It’s a whole film festival on the net!

Daily Dot then shared it: “Here’s some amazing raw footage from the world’s first furry convention“.  I’m told they found it on the “obscure media” subreddit.

Changa helped me find Otaku Trucker: Furry Road. Kinda like Furry Force, it’s a “fursploitation” cartoon, which I really hope becomes a mini-genre. Have a laugh with each other if you’re a Steve too (watch all the way to the end to meet Steve).

Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy. Look, a title like that’s gonna grab your attention, and you know it. Here’s what they say about this new full-color graphic novel, over at AMP! Comics For Kids: “Batman and Robin meet Rocky and Bullwinkle. The forest is full of danger . . .  but help is here. Meet Laser Moose and Rabbit Boy, improbable pals who use their powers—laser vision and an unrelenting sense of optimism—to fight the forces of evil. Join the dynamic duo as they battle aliens, a mutant fish-bear, a cyborg porcupine, and a mechanical squirrel, learning along the way that looking on the bright side might be just as powerful as shooting a laser.  Get ready for hilarious, action-packed, laser-powered adventures written and drawn by Doug Savage, creator of the popular comic Savage Chickens.” It’s available and on the shelves now.

image c. 2016 Andrews-McMeel

more nonsense! We talk about the Apocalypse, the Russians, pinball, and as always, shoutouts and answering your questions! Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us a buck or two, we'd greatly appreciate it. www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members!telegram.me/draggetshow 140 - Anne Frank's Knock Knock Jokes - more nonsense! We talk about the Apocalypse, the…

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

Dawn, by Marcus J. LaGrone. Illustrated by Minna Sundberg.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, December 2011, trade paperback $14.95 ([1 +] 192 pages), Kindle $3.95.

Edward, by Marcus LaGrone.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, January 2013, trade paperback $9.95 (314 pages), Kindle $2.99.

The Highlands of Afon series must be science-fiction since the novels are set on the planets Afon and Ramidar in the far future, when humans have spread throughout the galaxy. But they read more like adolescent funny-animal dramatic fantasies featuring Afon’s dominant felinoid “race”, the Taik. (They aren’t just on Afon; they too have spread through the galaxy. See the complex “Introduction to the races and cultures”.) There are also the Shukurae, oversimplified as huge (9’ tall) muscular warthogs, intimidating but loyal to Taik leadership, and the Gelkin, short, squat, bearlike, and militaristic; both also spacefaring peoples.

Dawn is the story, in flashback, of Dawn Winteroak. She’s the Taik teenage schoolgirl in the middle on Minna Sundberg’s cover. Besides other adolescent problems, she’s embarrassed because her fur is “boring. Black and plain, not a spot or stripe to be seen. All her sisters had wonderful coats with spots and rosettes, a fact they used to take some pride in pointing out to her.” (blurb)

Dawn has worse problems. Her story begins: “As Dawn cracked open her eyes, she realized one thing immediately: she hurt. From the tip of her pointy ears to the end of her fuzzy tail she hurt. Even her fur hurt. How does fur hurt? she wondered. Well she wasn’t sure, but it certainly did. She sat up only to find that it was possible to hurt even more! Her ears rang and her head throbbed as she straightened up her spine. Looking down she noticed her jet black fur was horribly tousled and her dress, a gift for her fourteenth birthday all of a week ago, was now in tatters. Shredded and charred, it still stank of smoke.” (p. 3)

Dawn has been caught in the assassination of most of her family including her First Mother, the Highland Taik Ambassador at Large on the Taik-settled planet Ramidar. Worse, she has been taken hostage by the villains. She is rescued by her uncle Llewellyn Silverglade (“A man stood there, dressed like a Highland Taik. His fur was a gorgeous silver and white with black rosettes and a long, long tail. He stood there, looking very much like a snow leopard walking erect and just as graceful in his movements.” — p. 6), leading a group of five Shukurae warriors.

But all that is in the first ten pages. Dawn, now orphaned, is adopted by her Uncle Llewellyn and taken to his very large estate on Afon to live. Much of Dawn could almost be called a felinoid comedy of manners, taking into account differences like the Highland Taik social custom of having families like lion prides:

“Having four mothers seemed to cause no end of confusion and curiosity [in human space]. That and the fact that it was her First Mother rather than her father who was ambassador. Of course it was her First Mother! First Mothers were the heads of the family; why in the world would someone expect her father to be the ambassador? Males didn’t get involved in politics and things like that; that didn’t even make sense.” (p. 10) Males get involved in military affairs. Dawn, and Llewellyn, also have Second and Third Mothers, and large families of half-siblings. The Lowland Taiks, with a lower male-to-female ratio, have different customs.

And technological differences like the gates, or dimensional portals:

“‘Aurora [a Taik with pure white fur] was able to open one of the portals, gates as it were. These gates connect the other regions together and permit people and goods to cover long distances just by walking through their thresholds.

‘The humans described them as a stable wormhole or something. I know they were all very curious about them for a whole lot of technical reasons,’ Dawn rolled her eyes, ‘that I never really paid attention to even though I probably should have.’” (p. 27)

Dawn also has a Personal Secret:

“She all but purred as she flexed and then relaxed her wings, the stretch was doing them quite a bit of good. Wings? Oh yes indeed! Her stately wings filled almost two-thirds of the room they were so large, well more than eighteen feet across. It had been a long time since she had stretched them, much less tried to use them. Jet black feathers perfectly matching her fur coat fluttered in the breeze.

She didn’t understand them, but she’d had them for as long as she could remember. They would wink in and out of existence just as easily as she might stick out her tongue. Sticking out her tongue … She could almost hear her older sisters and their heckling. ‘Freak!’ That was the word du jour. She sighed to herself as her mind raced. Her new family seemed nice enough, but a black coat was one thing, wings were another thing entirely. Well, they hadn’t batted an eye at her appearance yet, and she was loathe to do anything to change that!” (p. 18)

… but it doesn’t stay a secret for long, and when Dawn is caught practicing flying early one morning, she’s told briskly, “‘while that was a marvelous flight, breakfast is the next order of business.’” (p. 44) So: for all its strangeness with an anthro feline cast, large families like lion prides, convenient wormholes, wings and other personal talents like invisibility, Dawn is very much a comedy of manners about socially meeting the Right Boy, adjusting to the Silverglade family of relatives including matchmakers, being menaced by highwaymen with swords, various dances, and making an enemy of the haughty daughter of the local Lady Mayor.

Dawn learns to grow out of being a shy 14-year-old into a popular teenager; by taking advantage of her abilities, not being embarrassed by them. There is some menace – one of the villains who killed her real parents strikes again – but it’s so downplayed that it’s barely an afterthought. The feline traits of the characters are used casually: “As Dawn stepped inside, her claws clicked on the hardwood floors and she had to consciously retract them. No sense messing up a nice floor!” (p. 15) There are a half-dozen line-drawing portraits of Dawn and her family & friends.

Edward is about Dawn’s young uncle; an eighteen-year-old bobcat-looking Taik. Edward Silverglade is the youngest of seven children, all of whom have succeeded brilliantly at their professions. Determined to prove himself their equal, Edward chooses a military career in the space force’s 517th Assault Group, a volunteer unit of Taiks, Shukurae, and humans serving together. They are involved in the rescue of Dawn from terrorists against the Taik governor of the planet Ramidar, where Dawn’s First Mother and family had been killed.

That mission is quickly concluded, but the terrorists are still at large, causing destruction and death. The 517th Assault Group is asked to remain on that planet as a bodyguard detail for the governor’s daughter, Tatiana, a megapopular pop star. The 517th’s job is not only to protect Tatiana but to serve as counterinsurgency experts to help the planetary police catch whoever is behind the terrorism.

Edward finds that Tatiana is no diva. She is an intelligent 18-year-old Taik resembling an anthro jaguar, who works with her bodyguards to catch the terrorists. Edward becomes the 517th’s personal bodyguard of Tatiana, while the rest of its team – 25 of them; 15 Shukurae, 5 Taik (both Highlanders and Lowlanders), and 5 humans; explosive experts, snipers, martial-arts warriors, police liaison – works together smoothly to protect not only Tatiana but the rest of her musical group and her crowds of fans. Edward’s individual talent of changing his fur’s color makes him an excellent furry chameleon:

“Edward slipped into the shadows of a corner of the room and let his fur shift in hue to match the walls.” (p. 27)

It also makes blushing a real problem:

“Edward’s fur stood straight up on end and he fought to keep his color from cycling. ‘Um.’” (p. 107)

The reader becomes familiar with not only Edward but others of the 517th – Kadu, Edward’s Shukurae partner; Jake, a human sniper; Gigirena, a Lowland Taik hand-to-hand combat expert; Meeka and Patuk, more Shukurae; Trevor, their Lowlander police liaison. At the same time, Edward becomes familiar with Tatiana and those closely involved with her, especially Gillian Rose, her motherly agent. When Tatiana forms a girl-to-girl friendship with one of her group’s musicians, Zoë Sylva, a Taik who looks like a clouded leopard with black hair, she is drawn into their orbit. Edward becomes so closely involved with them (that’s Zoë, Edward, and Tatiana on Minna Sundberg’s cover) that at one point he asks to be relieved due to becoming too emotionally involved with the two. Gillian becomes “Mom”, and the Shukurae Kadu is a big sister.

Despite the romantic entanglements, there is plenty of action as the terrorists strike on the streets, in theaters and concert halls, and in hotels:

“Things felt wrong as soon as Edward stepped off the elevator. It was going to be a long night. Like the morning, there was a mob of fans waiting outside. Instead of the protestors of the morning, there was a plethora of of media hacks with cameras in hand. Tabloid vultures, ready to document exactly what Tatiana was or wasn’t wearing as she headed out for the night. They were a hazard of the course, unfortunately. It wasn’t up to Edward to judge people, he was there for one thing: protect the client, protect Tatiana.” (p. 44)

“‘You think they’d bomb the elevator?’ asked Alex.

‘No, but I didn’t think they’d bomb the car either. They have escalated their game, just as Kestrel feared. Our job has just begun.’” (p. 46)

It seems like Edward can’t turn around without the terrorists striking again. So: one romantic comedy for women, and one adventurous military drama/police procedural, both feline-furry.

There are two more books in LaGrone’s The Highlands of Afon series, but they are in Kindle editions only: Chloë (397 pages) and Theodore (288 pages), also with covers by Minna Sundberg. If you like these first two, you may enjoy the last two.

–Fred Patten

• Buy Dawn on Lulu
• Buy Dawn on Amazon
• Buy Edward on Amazon
• Buy Chloe on Amazon
• Buy Theodore on Amazon

He’s back! Or he will be, this December. From the pages of Previews magalog: “The first new Cerebus comic since 2004! Where has Cerebus been since he died twelve years ago? Is he in hell? Purgatory? Limbo? Some strange 1980 disco with links to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Henry Kissinger? Some ancient Greek disco with links to Plato, Socrates, Aristotle? Some 1990s disco with links to The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, and Oasis? Is he stuck inside his own Cerebus Online Disco Twitter-feed? Well, wherever he is, he deserves it, so feel free to laugh at his misfortune! This one shot leads into the Cerebus In Hell? 4-issue mini-series in 2017 celebrating Cerebus‘ 40th-anniversary!” Brought to us by none other than Dave Sim (with a little extra help), the new black & white Cerebrus in Hell? #0 hits the shelves right after Christmas.

image c. 2016 Aardvark-Vanaheim

Here’s one we definitely missed the first time around, but now it’s back thanks to the folks at IDW: “Finally, Spiral-Bound is coming back in print! With an ensemble cast straight from a box of Animal Crackers, this delightful tale of ambition, morality, and self-discovery is an all-ages classic. Drawn in a decidedly beautiful fashion, reminiscent of Richard Scary and Lewis Trondheim, Aaron Renier gives us a fully-realized and compellingly adventurous narrative, at once both achingly naive and profoundly worldly. This tightly crafted graphic novel is the real deal, and will charm your socks off.” Here’s a little bit more about the plot, courtesy of Booklist: “In this [black & white] graphic novel about the young animal characters who live in the Town, Turnip the elephant is using the summer to find his artistic voice through sculpture, his friend Stucky the dog is building a submarine, and Ana the rabbit is working on the town’s underground newspaper. Their stories all wind around the town’s deep, dark secret about the monster that lives in the pond.” Got all that?

image c. 2016 IDW Publishing

inbetweenasode! Xander & Miko talk about VR headsets, a pinball convention, spooky games, costumes & more! Fuzzy Graffix - Spoopy Virtual Insanity - inbetweenasode! Xander & Miko talk about VR head…

So we came across an add for a new plushie toy line called Feisty Pets from WMC Toys. Here’s what they say on their web site: “Feisty Pets go from cute to feisty with just a squeeze to the back of the head. Choose from 4 animals: bear, dog, cat, and monkey – and more animals are currently in production. Which one do you like most?” Actually, it’s more like they go from cute to nightmare fuel! Seriously, check out this introduction video on YouTube. But beware!

image c. 2016 WMC Toys

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Our friends over at IDW put it best: “In 2015, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed began (without warning!) producing ALL-NEW Bloom County strips—for the first time in more than 25 years! Breathed released the new Bloom County strips exclusively through his Facebook page, to the cheers of devoted and delighted fans everywhere. These brand new strips have NEVER before been available in print—until now! All the wit, charm, and biting satire that are trademarks of Bloom County and Berkeley Breathed are clearly on display and evident in this handsome new volume. Featuring all your favorite characters: Opus, Milo, Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, Cutter John, and many more. Bloom County has come home… and it’s about time!” Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope is available in trade paperback, and it’s on the shelves now.

image c. 2016 IDW Publishing

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Hello again,

Sorry, I seem to be a boomerang, always coming back to ask questions. I'll try to keep this short. Hope you are doing well. So I work at a Vet Clinic and they work me to near absolute exhausted, I make the least about of money and they promised a raised but they never came through. I'm a really hard worker, coming on days off, never had a vacation. Do all the holidays. I know that they don't appreciate me as an employee and don't care what happens to me. I was in the hospital and the ER doctor got into a fight with them because they demanded I come in, but I had a head injury and couldn't. I'm extremely disappointed and sad about this, I always hoped to work in a place that cared about its people. Do I just accept that, this is a myth, really no company cares about its employees? That no matter where I go it will always be the same? I don't know if I should quit, won't it all be the same? I'm not even super sure what to expect from employers.
 
Galileo (age 27)
 
* * *
 
Hi, Galileo,
 
As with people in general, everyone is different. There are good employers, and there are bad ones. Doesn’t sound like you have a good one, but that doesn’t mean they are all bad. If I were in your situation, I would not be happy with an employer who gets mad that I didn’t go in to work when I’m in the ER with a head injury. That’s ludicrous.
 
My recommendation is this: do NOT quit your job … yet. Instead, start putting out feelers for a better job elsewhere. Scope out businesses you think might be good for you and see if you can talk to some of their employees. If you wish to remain in the veterinary clinic field, you can do a little research online, such as at http://www.usa-veterinarians.com/reviews. Customer reviews are a good indication of whether or not a business is good. In my experience, businesses that are good to their customers also tend to be good to their employees. For example, if an employee is cheerful and helpful to a customer, this is probably because they are happy at their job, which means they are likely happy with their bosses, too.
 
While you are doing this, be the best employee you can be at your current job. You do not want to burn your bridges—meaning if your current place of employment is dissatisfied with you, word can get around, even if they don’t write you a recommendation.
 
Be patient. Work deliberately and methodically as you do your research. Do not jump at the first opportunity, but check it out thoroughly. If you find someplace that looks like a needed improvement for you, give your two weeks’ notice and make plans for the move!
 
Good Luck!
Papabear​

Things get decidedly more anthropomorphic in issue #18 of Scooby Doo Team Up from DC Comics: “Can it be? The entire universe threatened by the spectral spirit of Canis Major, the dog star? To get to the bottom of the space-spanning mystery, canine crimebuster Scooby will have to team up with some of DC’s greatest dog heroes, including old friends Krypto and Ace the Bat-Hound, plus G’Nort, Wonder Dog, and the Space Canine Patrol Agency!” Woof. Have a look at it on-line over at Read Comics.

image c. 2016 DC Comics

WHY DON’T FURRIES RECOGNIZE GOOD JOURNALISM?

 

This topic has come up before: “Bay Area Furs find out why there should be a Furry award for Best Journalism” (see some good articles within) – and – “VICE looks back on the Midwest Furfest attack, earning kudos for thoughtful journalism.”

The simplistic answer is – back around 2001, this little fan group was mistreated by Vanity Fair, MTV and CSI.  Forevermore, “The Media” was a thing to hate.

But it’s not so simple. In a chicken-or-egg way, “The Media” deserves some credit for creating furries. (It’s a FANdom!)  That usually means fiction media, but there’s much more than that. There’s the “science” part of science fiction; transhumanism, animals and nature, and anything about growing a self-defined subculture. There’s info coming from the Anthropomorphic Research Project.  A top selling nonfiction book (from Thurston Howl publishers) is the fandom-essay collection Furries Among Us.

Nonfiction is a big deal in fandom for anthropomorphic animals.

As the group grows and gains attention, members could use their own internal media to report stories that outsiders might not understand.  And outsiders are getting way better, too.  Bad-old Vanity Fair stigma is going out with a big rise in good-new Zootopia kind of attention.

In the history of furry fandom, almost all official recognition for its favorite media has gone to fiction. Look at The Coyotl Awards of the Furry Writers’ Guild; and the Ursa Major Awards are dominated by fiction, with no official category for nonfiction (just “Best Other Literary Work.”)

Until now. Fred Patten tells more:

Dear Patch;

The Ursa Major Awards, which have had eleven categories since 2011, have added a twelfth category; by popular demand and after consideration by the Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association’s administrators.  The new category is Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction.

This is split off from the Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work category.  Up to now, non-fiction works such as art books of anthropomorphic motion pictures and social studies of furry fan culture have been in competition with fiction collections and anthologies, graphic albums, and other works of anthropomorphic literature that did not fit into the Novel and Short Fiction categories.

Beginning immediately, and with the 2016 awards to be voted upon during 2017, the category of Best Anthropomorphic Non-Fiction will be included on the Anthropomorphic Recommended Reading List and on the UMA final ballot.

Dogpatch Press is a furry news source, so I’m telling you about it… Obviously, the winning by Thurston Howl’s Furries Among Us in the 2015 Best Other Literary Work category has a lot to do with this.  This year’s The Art of Zootopia, The Art of Finding Dory, The Art of Kung Fu Panda 3 and other coffee-table art books of anthropomorphic movies will go into this category as well.

Best wishes;
Fred

I think this is long overdue. If “The Media” has been an enemy (or a frenemy) in the past, this is a good way to develop understanding and reward them for doing well.  And (with no selfishness) I love how this could encourage more writing from newsfurs, a small-but-enthusiastic corner of the fandom itself.

Skylanders Academy is a new CGI animated series set to premier this month on Netflix. According to the Skylanders Wiki (yes there is one), the series is being produced by Activision Blizzard Studios under the guidance of Eric Rogers (writer on Futurama). Spyro the dragon, Eruptor, and Stealth Elf study to use their diverse powers to protect their world from the evil forces of Kaos and the Doom Raiders. Look for it October 28th, and check out the trailer on YouTube.

image c. 2016 Activision Blizzard

Hello Everyone!

On this week's show we open with a discussion of an article Debra Soh wrote on common misconceptions people make about polyamorous relationships. We use science to debunk mistakes: it's almost as if one of the hosts is a scientist! 

Our main topic is on Boundaries versus Rules (featuring Ultimatums). We go into the differences between these ideas, why they are not interchangeable, and why you might need to change how you think about your relationship terms. 

We close out the show with a Patreon shoutout to Snares (seriously go and give money to this comic), a reminder to see our episode of Culturally F'd!, and a question on changing the expectations of a poly relationship when locations and living circumstances change. 

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 040 Boundaries vs Rules - Is Polyamory a magnet for STIs? Should you give ultimatums in a relationship? How do you handle a discussion of shifting expectations with your partner? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer. This goes out a little late (sorry). You might also be interested in others announced here at Adjective Species. 

Goal Publications is announcing its first original short story anthology.

Title: The Symbol of a Nation. Theme: national animals. Deadline: December 1st, 2016.

Wanted: original short stories (no reprints) of 2,000 to 15,000 words, featuring furries that are the national animals of countries, such as Afghanistan’s snow leopard, Algeria’s fennec, Australia’s red kangaroo, Bangladesh’s tiger, Canada’s beaver, Denmark’s swan, Eritrea’s camel, France’s rooster (fighting cock), Germany’s black eagle, Honduras’ white-tailed deer, Italy’s wolf, the U.S.’s bald eagle … There are over 200 countries and most of them have a national animal.

For this anthology, we are extending the theme to the official animals of provinces and states. There are several animals such as the koala (Queensland) and platypus (New South Wales) of Australia, or the giant squirrel (Maharashtra) and red panda (Sikkim) of India, or the coyote (South Dakota) and raccoon (Tennessee) of North America that are not national animals, but are the official animals of provinces or states.

But: this is limited to the officially adopted animals (including birds) of national or sub-national entities only. No sports team mascots, corporate mascots like the NBC peacock, political party mascots, or breakfast cereal mascots. No fictional official animals or countries like Transylvania and vampire bats. However, some countries have both a national animal and a national bird, such as Chile – its animal is the huemal, an Andean deer, and its bird is the Andean condor. We will accept stories featuring either or both.

Romania’s official Lynx.

Please make sure that they are official. There are many animals that are often associated with countries, such as the eagle & snake on the Mexican flag, or Mexico’s Chihuahua, but they are not official animals. (Mexico’s official animal is the xoloitzcuintli. Don’t know what that is? Look it up.)

If you would like to submit a story, write to the managing editor (Fred Patten) first to find out if that animal or country is already claimed. If you would like to use an animal or country but don’t know what to pair it with, ask the editor or look it up. Stories sent to the editor without checking first may be wasted effort.

The rules are more complex than for most furry anthologies. (1) There must be a connection between the animal and the country. If you feature a tapir, the national animal of Belize, make sure that there is something about Belize in the story. (2) No funny animal stories where the characters could just as easily be humans. Make your characters feel like uplifted or evolved animals. Most animals with fur don’t sweat. (3) Try to match the animals to their environments. If they have thick fur, don’t have them wearing thick clothing in humid tropical lands. (Or justify the discrepancy.)

Stories may be humorous or serious. There may be humans in the story as secondary characters, but the main character(s) should be furry.

On sale at Fur the More 2017, in Baltimore on April 28-30, as a trade paperback. Payment: 1¢ per word upon publication, plus a contributor’s copy of the book. Contributors may buy additional copies at a 30% discount.

Goal Publications is looking for First Rights on stories, as well as exclusive sales rights to digital and print versions of accepted stories for six months following publication.

 

If you have any questions, please write to fredpatten@earthlink.net.