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Episode 322 - High Level Poliwhirl
Personality Differences Are Causing Tensions to Rise between Roommates
Hello, and thank you for reading my letter. I have a bit of a potential roommate problem that could either turn out to be nothing or get worse over time. It’s not so much the roommate behaving badly, but rather a confusing emotional situation that I just don’t know what to do or feel about. So, one of my roommates and cousin, Anna, and I have been living together for four years now, two of which were at my parents’ house after she needed a place to stay when she dropped out of college. We got along great and were pretty close, even though we came from two very different backgrounds. Two years ago, we decided to move out and live together in another state to go to college. It was challenging; Anna got very depressed during that time because she couldn’t get a job for about a year, and there were some tense times. But hey, that’s part of growing up and it would be dumb to expect that we would get along happy all the time, so it didn’t bother me. In the end we were still tight and grew as people.
Then, about two months ago, Anna got a message from one of her friends at her old college whose name is Ray. He got a job in the area and wanted to room with us. Another thing: Anna is seriously in love with this guy; Ray knows she had a crush on him, but I don’t think he knows she flat out loves him (being aromantic, I didn’t really get it). I didn’t mind him living with us; Anna’s feelings for Ray didn’t affect me at the time, and a third roommate would lessen the financial burden, so I agreed.
Ray and Anna come from similar backgrounds; they’re basically both wilderness people who grew up in small towns, while I’m a city person and a big city nerd. Even though there’s some overlap of interests between the three of us, it was clear Ray and Anna had more in common than either of them had with me. Again, I expected this and wasn’t really surprised when she started favoring his company over mine. She even said as much, but not in a hurtful “you’re not good enough” way. I like being by myself anyway, so it was okay. For a while.
Here’s the thing with Anna: she’s kind of a control freak and gets irritated easily. She insists on doing everything herself because she feels she has to take care of people (I had to argue with her just to get litterbox duty, something I never thought I’d be vying for). She’s a very kind and good person, but sometimes she expects me to “read her mind” and doesn’t always understand why I would do things differently from her, and it irritates her very quickly. I, on the other hand, am very laid back and can tolerate an unusually high amount of bullcrap, but I do have trouble remembering certain things and interpret instructions weirdly sometimes. So, misunderstandings sometimes occur. Before, the argument would happen but we would talk about it later and everything would be good. Then after Ray moved in, something changed.
As nice and chill as Ray is, I’ve found he can’t tolerate other people’s way of life very well. He frequently complains about how people move too slow and are too lazy, and he’s kind of a know-it-all. Anna has started to agree with him more and more. She’d be in worship mode, and even said that he is definitely smarter than both of us, which rubbed me the wrong way. He is very smart when it comes to wilderness stuff and utilities, but not so much at city culture or my field of study, which is art. So saying he’s smarter than both of us is pretty stupid, since me and him have completely different sets of knowledge. I’m pretty sure Anna’s doing this because she wants to impress Ray, but it’s having a bad effect on me since I am a slower paced person, so I can’t help but think some of these complaints are subconsciously directed at me.
On top of that, Anna has been snapping at me more and more. Her job has been frustrating her lately, but she never snaps at Ray, only me. I also get the feeling she thinks I’m stupid because I don’t get certain things right away, and I recently caught her complaining about me to Ray after I had a frustration attack, which really hurt me. I confronted her about this, but she assured me that she was just venting, everything was okay, and that she doesn’t think I’m stupid. I want to believe her, I really do, but there’s been this growing feeling that it isn’t true. It doesn’t help that I was a bit sheltered growing up, and many of my relatives also thought I wasn’t smart enough to make it on my own, so I’m particularly sensitive to this and Anna knows it. I doubt she’s being intentionally malicious, but her personality and Ray’s influence are clashing with mine. And while I have friends who are more like me, I don’t see them very often because of school, while Anna sees Ray every day, so I’m starting to feel isolated as well. I knew adding a third person would change the dynamic, but I didn’t think Anna would be more hostile toward me.
Anyway, I’m not sure I have a question but rather I just need general thoughts and I guess rant to someone. I don’t want to confront Anna because it has led to her either a) say everything’s okay and I’m right back to being paranoid, or b) she gets even more irritated with me. Or am I completely overreacting and should just wait to see how things turn out?
Thanks again for reading,
Thunderbird (age 24)
* * *
Hi, Thunderbird,
So, let me see if I understand this. The point of contention seems to be about chores and tasks around your home, who does them, and how? Is that a big part of it? Also, I am assuming that the three of you split rent and utilities equally, which means that the three of you should be treated equally. Another part of this seems to be that Ray and Anna are Type A personalities, while you're more of a Type B (more bear personality, as I like to think of it, while I would call them more squirrelly hehe). Am I correct those are the main points?
Hugs,
Papabear
* * *
Thanks for replying back!
It's more about our split in personalities than chores, though how we do chores differently does ruffle some feathers on occasion, but that part isn't a huge deal. More of a side effect. And yes, we do split bills equally. The only difference between me and them is I don't have a job right now and family has been helping me out. I've been looking, but all the jobs I've gotten offers for are either full time (because of school I can only do part time) or across the state, which is a good six hours away. Usually it's both. Jobs I've submitted for weren't interested. My previous job was a very specific position (automotive assistant quality manager) which a lot of people around my area don't need. I do think I have a chance with art commissions in the near future, so that's something.
Tangent aside, our main issue is our personalities. We are very much like bears and squirrels, though in Ray's case, he seems like a bear on the outside but definitely a squirrel on the inside. Anyway, Anna kind of naturally molds her personality to whomever she's around at the time, but her default personality does lean towards Ray's. I have tried to mold my personality more towards Ray's to be more accommodating, but that just made me miserable and confused. The more I think about it, the more I think Anna is becoming exhausted from constantly having to switch between Ray’s and my personalities. I've been trying to tell her that she doesn't have to do that, but like I said, it does happen naturally with her and she doesn't realize it. I just wish she wouldn't snap at me all the time, or at least snap at Ray every once in a while to make it even.
Thunderbird
* * *
Dear Thunderbird,
I think I get it now, yes. It sounds almost as if Anna is suffering from what psychologists call “mirroring” or “the chameleon effect,” a type of borderline personality disorder in which the person’s demeanor and attitudes change according to the people they are around and trying to please. This is usually the result of low self-confidence, which, in Anna’s case, might be influenced by her earlier bout with depression. Her anal side (being overly controlling about chores) is also her attempt to find order in a world that she finds chaotic. People without confidence in themselves find comfort if they can at least create some kind of order in their world to cling to. This must all, indeed, be very exhausting for her, which causes her to lash out at you. Too, as you observed, she is gravitating toward Ray as someone who could be more of an anchor in her life because he has a similar background and a job.
This doesn’t excuse her behavior toward you, of course. She probably isn’t overly conscious of what’s going on inside her head and is not intentionally doing anything to hurt you with remarks such as saying you’re not as smart as Ray. Judging by the letter you wrote me, you are not a stupid person. Indeed, you are insightful and articulate (e.g., correctly observing that different people have different areas about which they are knowledgeable). Another part of the problem is that you are an artistic type, while Ray and Anna sound more as if they are pragmatic types. It can often be hard for the pragmatic to understand the artistic.
Some suggestions:
- You and Ray need to get to know each other better. Sounds as if your relationship is only through Anna. Get a deeper understanding and appreciation of each other by spending some time together sans Anna (also see below).
- Anna needs to become more centered by reaffirming her self-worth as something separate from other people—that is, she needs to find out who she is without defining herself by how she interacts with other people and what others think of her. She also needs to learn to trust you more. A good way to start that would be to divvy up chores evenly between the three of you and for her to allow you to do chores your way without being anal about it. BUT! In addition to this, pick a chore or project that you all do together. When people work on a project together the synergy forms stronger bonds. Also, take some time to give Anna an ego boost: compliment her on things she does well and let her know you are on her side.
- You don’t mention whether or not you do this, but it would be a fantastic idea for the three of you to, once in a while, share in a fun activity together. You say Ray and Anna are kinda outdoorsy, so perhaps the three of you could go camping or fishing? On the reverse side of the album, perhaps you could do something more “inner city” with them (laser tag? Field trip to an art show?) Make sure it is fun and something you can do without worrying about work or school or chores in the process. Everyone needs a break from the “real world” once in a while.
- You need to all get on the same page and realize you’re on the same team together and you all want the same thing: to be able to live comfortably together as a cooperative effort without strife and argument. Once a month, all of you should sit down together for an “apartment meeting” to discuss bills, chores, and share what is going on in your lives.
- Try having at least one meal together once a week where you all sit at the dining table, eat, drink, talk and do not look at your &$*#( phones.
Papabear surmises that, although the three of you inhabit the same house, you are not actually living together, if you see what I mean. Living together in close quarters can build up a lot of tension and disagreements and bitterness if you just see one another as “that person I live with” rather than as friends and companions. You probably won’t all live together forever, but for now you are together, so to be happy you should act like a cooperative unit of three people rather than as three separate individuals who just happen to occupy the same residence.
Hope that helps,
Papabear
Furry Self-Help - The WagzTail team discusses what to do and what not to do if you are having trouble and need help.
The WagzTail team discusses what to do and what not to do if you are having trouble and need help.
Metadata and Credits Furry Self-Help
Runtime: 34:35m
Cast: Braniff, KZorroFuego, Levi, Wolfin
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.
Furry Self-Help - The WagzTail team discusses what to do and what not to do if you are having trouble and need help.
The WagzTail team discusses what to do and what not to do if you are having trouble and need help.
Metadata and Credits Furry Self-Help
Runtime: 34:35m
Cast: Braniff, KZorroFuego, Levi, Wolfin
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.
Hers, Drawn By Him — For Her
Writer Nicole Hoang created a story called What Is It? when she was 10 years old. More recently, well-known comic artist Dustin Nguyen (Batman: Li’l Gotham) illustrated her story — and presented it to Nicole as a wedding gift. Now Kaboom! Studios have put words and illustrations together into their first hardcover illustrated children’s book. “In a nearby forest, a young girl discovers a mysterious little creature. Together they seek to understand who or what the other is. Featuring beautifully painted illustrations by Dustin Nguyen, What Is It? is a story of wonder, discovery, and the joy of making new friends.” It’s available now, and Bleeding Cool has an interview with the creators too.
image c. 2016 Kaboom! Studios
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FA 027 Body Image and Self-Love - Why are furries furries? Should you love yourself if you're too thin or thick? All this, and more, on tonight's episode of Feral Attraction!
Hello Everyone!
We open our show with our Anthrocon interview with Nuka, from the International Anthropomorphic Research Program. It's about 25 minutes long and super fascinating and touches on topics ranging from Gender, Sexuality, and Relationships in the furry fandom. If you would like to read a transcript, please refer to our Transcript in our Advice Column. Thanks again, Nuka, and we look forward to your upcoming papers!
Our main topic is on Body Image and Self-Love. This can be an incredibly difficult area for a lot of people, especially furries. We get told that we are either too thin, too fat, too muscular, or in some cases too short or tall to take seriously. While furry has been able to fetishize a lot of what makes us different and our bodies unique, when it comes to interactions in person there can be a lot of self-consciousness about how we look.
A lot of people find they are not their 'ideal' body size, and for some they struggle to change this. As a podcast with someone who is chubby, someone who was once chubby, and someone who has been told is too thin, we wanted to express how you can love yourself regardless of the size. We go into the health side, the mental side, and ways you can work to lose weight, gain weight, and stand tall when people make fun of you for your size.
As always, we are not medical professionals and, before embarking on a health adventure, take the time to consult a doctor to ensure your plan will be sustainable for you. Also, you're amazing, no matter your size, shape, or anything else.
We close out the show with a question on pet play, polyamory, and the renegotiation period in a D/s relationship. What can a pup do when they struggle with jealousy?
For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 027 Body Image and Self-Love - Why are furries furries? Should you love yourself if you're too thin or thick? All this, and more, on tonight's episode of Feral Attraction!Fellowship of the Ringtails, by Angela Oliver – book review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Fellowship of the Ringtails, by Angela Oliver. Illustrated, map.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, June 2013, trade paperback $15.49 ([iii +] 406 [+ 9] pages), Kindle 99¢.
Technically the title of this book is Lemurs (A Saga). Book One: The Fellowship of the Ringtails. But the cover doesn’t say so; Amazon.com doesn’t say so; and I’m pretty sure that nobody else is likely to say so, either.
This title makes it sound like either a parody of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, or an unimaginative imitation of it. Fortunately it’s neither. Its opening paragraph is:
“‘There will be others, Fiantrana,’ the soft voice drew the young lemur from her reverie. She turned her gaze from the great stone tomb: the final resting place for her ancestors, relatives, and most recently, her own son. There was a deep ache inside her: the memory of his tiny, fragile body as she had cradled him to her breast, watching his life breathe out of him.” (p.1)
Angela Oliver, of Christchurch, New Zealand, is devoted to lemurs. In a two-page “Why Lemurs?” afterword, she explains that she was introduced to lemurs while working at a local zoo park, went to Madagascar where lemurs come from in 2007, and fell in love with the whole island-nation. The Fellowship of the Ringtails is an adventure fantasy featuring anthropomorphized lemurs in their Kingdom of Madigaska, a fictionalized Kingdom of Madagascar before it became a French colony in 1897.
An important fact is that there is not just one kind of lemur. There are many different species, roughly divided into the sifakas that are almost entirely arboreal, and the “true lemurs” (which she has dubbed the hazosaka because it sounds better for a fantasy novel) that can walk on the ground, including the famous ringtailed lemurs. For The Fellowship of the Ringtails, she has made the sifakas into the royal family and the aristocracy of Madigaska, while the hazosaka are the commoners.
Fiantrana is a young hazosaka of the maky (ringtailed) tribe, living in Morombe, a small coastal fishing village. She has just lost her first child, a deformed infant who died after only a few days. She is still lactating, so when a badly mauled (by a predator), heavily pregnant sifaka comes to her village, the Ombiasy (healer) sends for her to be a wetnurse for the baby. The dying mother, who fled to escape deadly sifaka court politics, says that her child’s name is Aurelia, and that she is the last true heir of the royal family.
Oliver makes her lemurs anthropomorphic yet as realistic as possible, so the babies mature quickly. Aurelia looks considerably different than the other makys, and she is picked upon by the bullies among the maky children. Most other villagers accept her, but the bullies make Aurelia aware that she is different. When Fiantrana will not explain why makys and sifaka are different, Aurelia sneaks off to find a sifaka village. She finds something else first.
“‘What are you?’ She asked. ‘You don’t look like a maky and I don’t think you’re a sifaka either.’
Chike made a low rumbling noise.
Aurelia startled, wondering if he were growling, then relaxed. He’s amused, she realised, and this is how he laughs.
‘I’m neither,’ he said. ‘I’m a vervet. A monkey from the mainland.’
‘The main land? What’s that?’ Aurelia licked the last of the stew from her fingers, catching a stray crumb in her fur.
The vervet rose one large hand and gestured. ‘Across the water there is another place: a vast expanse of land – deserts and mountains, rainforests and swamp. That is where I live. I came here to teach and learn.’ He shrugged his hairy shoulders, ‘but now I am forced to hide in this desert forest.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she has decreed that I am an outlaw,’ he said with a sad shake of his head. ‘And will kill me if she can catch me.’
‘Who’s she?’ Her whiskers and fur clean, Aurelia gave Chike her undivided attention. Ears perked, looking alert – as Fiantrana taught her. Listen, ask questions.
‘Your Queen, Ranavalona.’” (pgs. 50-51)
Aurelia goes on and makes a friend of Matthieu, one of the first sifakas she meets. He returns her to Fiantrana, who has come looking for her, that evening. Over the next days, Aurelia learns that she must stay in hiding because her blue eyes and pure white fur mark her as of the family of old Queen Ramavo, and the new queen, Ranavalona, is a usurper who will kill her on sight. Yet Aurelia matches a prophesy of one who is destined to unite the sifakas and the makys. Aurelia and Fiantrana eventually leave their home and maky friends to venture into an unknown wider world on a quest to escape Ranavalona’s killers.
But prepare for a cliffhanger ending, because this is only Book One of Aurelia’s saga.
The Fellowship of the Ringtails shows what Malagasy wildlife (anthropomorphized) is like.
“Chuckling, Fiantrana reached out her arm to her little brother [by her mother’s later mating]. He scrambled up it, eager to get away from his boisterous sister and clambered up her belly, tiny fingers clutching handfuls of fur. Fiantrana lifted her lamba and the tiny lemur wriggled up under it, seeking the teat. Fiantrana’s milk would not go to waste, not when Reniko [her mother] had her paws full with the two kits.” (p. 6)
“Fiantrana was frantic. I told her [Aurelia] to stay close but she’s gone and bounced off again, she thought, furiously licking her belly in an effort to alleviate her frustration and concern.” (p. 71)
“A loud, high-pitched shriek sounded somewhere off in the distance, startling them both. Matthieu stood and scented the air.
‘What’s that?’ she [Aurelia] asked.
‘Alarm call,’ he explained. ‘The Hunters are coming.’ He scooped her up in his arms almost tossing her onto his back. She clutched tight to his thick fur as he scrambled up the nearest tall tree.” (pgs. 89-90)
The novel is full of words from the Malagasy language, and wildlife names that are all obvious from the context. Misaotra = thank you. Salama = hello. Lamba = a large colorful scarf. Azafady = excuse me; please. Miala tsiny aho = I’m sorry. Veloma = goodbye. Vonjeo! = help! Votsoa = a giant jumping rat. Fossa = the deadliest Malagasy predator, evolved from the mongoose, until the arrival of man with his dogs and cats. Vontsira = a smaller mongoose-based ground predator that can’t climb.
Queen Ranavalona I (1778-186l; queen from 1828) was a real human; one of the more bloody “off with her head!” tyrants who ever lived – according to European news at the time, mostly from British and French sources trying to justify conquering the island. Wikipedia says, “Recent academic research has recast Ranavalona’s actions as those of a queen attempting to expand her empire while protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European cultural and political influence.” Unlike Oliver’s fictionalization, she was legitimate – but the legends are more colorful.
Oliver has also included several full-page illustrations, and the cover. That’s Aurelia in the foreground, Chike behind her, Manjoretra with the hat, and Matthieu wearing a lamba.
The Fellowship of the Ringtails shows a skilful blend of Malagasy natural history and fantasy adventure. Oliver’s characters are certainly not just animal-headed humans. Read for fun and for something different.
ep. 124 - Pokemon Go! and Vikings - Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us…
Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us a buck or two, we'd greatly appreciate it. Time for another! Xander is sick, everyone is playing Pokemon Go, we destroy a bouncy castle, & there's a visit from a very special guest! We also do listener questions with priority given to our Question Master patrons! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members! https://telegram.me/draggetshow Stay tuned for more episodes and videos on our Youtube channel! - www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow/videos ep. 124 - Pokemon Go! and Vikings - Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us…
Ep67 – Reading Writing - Ever tell yourself “I don’t have time for reading”, or encounter someone with similar excuses? Join Fangs and Fonts as we talk about the merits of being a reading writer! Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints: @Fa
Ever tell yourself “I don’t have time for reading”, or encounter someone with similar excuses? Join Fangs and Fonts as we talk about the merits of being a reading writer!
Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:
@FangsAndFonts
Facebook.com/FangsAndFonts
fangsandfonts@gmail.com
Fangs and Fonts
Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep67-Reading_Writing.mp3Download here | Open Player in New Window
Ep67 – Reading Writing - Ever tell yourself “I don’t have time for reading”, or encounter someone with similar excuses? Join Fangs and Fonts as we talk about the merits of being a reading writer! Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints: @FangsAndFonts [...]Episode -31 - Prolific Shark
Tailless, by Erin Quinn – book review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Tailless, by Erin Quinn
Las Vegas, NV, Rabbit Valley Books, May 2016, trade paperback $20.00 (284 [+ 1] pages).
Dolores, a young tailless vixen, is a waitress at Max’s lower-class diner. When she is molested by a drunken rat customer, Max (a fatherly bear) moves in to protect her; but she can take care of herself.
“Dolores clenched her serving tray to her side and took a step forward. Her heals clacked against the wooden floor. The diner became quite. ‘I wasn’t done with ya, sweetie. How about bring that bare bottom back over here?’ She toyed with the idea of clawing his face, but her father’s words echoed between her ears: ‘Young ladies do not raise their claws.’” (p.1)
The problem is that they are in the city of ‘Lo, Lyndon, and Lyndon lost the Common War with Ulick a year ago. King Scottsburg (lion) is furious and is executing most of his old advisors, their families, and anyone else he doesn’t like as traitors. Dolores and Max cannot afford to do anything that will bring themselves to the attention of his Royal Guard. Dolores is something of a mystery woman:
“Ever since they met Max had been curious about her. She arrived six months ago with little more than the clothes on her back. The easy option would have been to turn away a girl who had no work history, no credits to buy a meal, and a vague explanation for why she was in the city. But she was eager to help and wanted very little in return. Max couldn’t say no.” (p. 3)
It’s not giving away much of a spoiler to reveal that Dolores is really Belladonna Sinclair, daughter of a minister personally executed by King Scottsdale. While the Sinclair family was in favor before the war, Dolores/Belladonna was in a close friendship with young Tym Timmons (gray and black tabby cat). Since the war, Tym is the new Minister of the Interior, in charge of finding and executing the king’s enemies. He dares to plead for Belladonna’s pardon since she was innocent of her father’s treason, but King Scottsdale is adamant that she be publicly killed. The missing Belladonna/Dolores’ hiding is helped by the fact that nobody knows that she lost her tail in the war (“‘I just got caught up in a scuffle. It wasn’t too bad. Honestly, I’m sure whoever swung the sword wasn’t aiming for my tail.’” – p. 29), but it does make her stand out. She is now in hiding in ‘Lo, helped by her taillessness and the fatherly Max, and by James Euclid (skunk), the handsome son of her former (slain) university professor.
Tailless (cover by Robbye “Quel” Nicholson) is a combination of a soap opera and an adventure novel, with three story lines. One features Dolores’ new life as a waitress, with new friends like Max, Gretchen Went (brown squirrel), and James Euclid. Now that she is old enough to be interested in romance, she wonders if her friendship with Tym was more than just friendship, or if she is developing a romance with James – or with Gretchen. A second is with Prowl Milton (middle-aged wolf), a former minister now in hiding in the port city of Dret to escape King Scottsdale’s soldiers, and trying to get out of Dret before his disguise as humble Willow Grey is uncovered. The third is with Tym Timmons, leading the manhunt for Milton and Belladonna, to execute the wolf but hoping to spare his old friend.
My summary of Tailless is “eh”. It’s a good story, with Quinn cleverly holding back several secrets to be revealed one at a time. (Minor spoiler: lizards enter the story on p. 120.) But the basic setup makes it never convincing. The characters are each random fuzzy mammals (raccoons, ocelots, rabbits, cheetahs, deer, tigers, horses, etc.) who could just as easily be humans. A vixen trying to decide whether she loves a housecat, a skunk, or a squirrel? A cute child is a hybrid: “Her features could not be ignored, the fox like tail, the cat whiskers, the red and grey colors melding fur coats of diverse species parents.” (p. 21), making you wonder why all the animal-peoples of this world of Azul are not homogenized by now.
Tailless is horribly proofread, or more likely not proofread at all. On the first page alone, in addition to “heals” (heels) and “quite” (quiet), there are “Dolores folded her ears back and shook her head, she yearned […]”, “[…] buried his face his in paws.”; and “The rat’s eyes were in faraway state […]” Other errors include “The idea of the rabid praying on her” (“rabble” and “preying”), “When her tailed was grabbed”, and “what are people are scared of?” Never mind the literary merit or lack of same; the typographical and spelling errors make this a “grit your teeth and plow ahead” book.
Why do the kings have such names as King Scottsdale and King Grayson? Scottsdale’s full name is given more than once; King Richard Scottsdale the Third. This is done too often to be an error. Everyone should know that kings and queens are known by their personal names, not their dynastic names. Is this deliberate to make the furry world of Azul more exotic? It just looks weird.
Read Tailless if you’re really desperate for furry fiction.
Pointy, Furry Ears
New from Retrofit Comics comes Elf Cat In Love, a new hardcover black & white graphic novel by James Kochalka (creator of American Elf and Johnny Boo). “When the incredibly conceited Elf Cat goes on a quest for the Ice Sword with his magical friend Tennis Ball, they will face dragons, magical hot dogs, snowflake princesses, and confront their feelings! If you find love in many places, can you see it when it is right in front of you?” Mr. Kochalka’s drawn a few interesting stories with cats… Previews has all this and more, of course.
image c. 2016 Retrofit Comics
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 52
Let’s talk about publishing: contracts
New small presses explicitly targeting the furry market have been springing up over the last few years, while some of our older presses have been producing more titles. Meanwhile, the number of furry authors has grown steadily. Submission calls that might have received only a couple dozen submissions even three years ago receive three or four times that in mid-2016.
As fantastic as this growth is, the furry publishing scene is still tiny. Not only do writers know each other, writers tend to know publishers and vice-versa. For the most part, we’re all friends with one another, and we’re all figuring out this “creating a market” thing as we go. As far as I know, all the editors and publishers in furrydom became editors and publishers by fiat; some of us might have worked at college presses, but I’m not aware of anyone who worked for a major fiction publishing house or periodical, even as a slush reader. A lot of business gets conducted in…let’s call it a relaxed fashion.
As it turns out, “handshake contracts” are surprisingly common in the literary small press world, particularly poetry journals that pay in contributors’ copies rather than money, to the point where there’s a de facto industry standard for it. But when money changes paws, it’s important for both parties to nail down exactly what they expect of one another.
So let’s talk about contracts. What a publishing contract should do is fairly straightforward:
- Define the rights the author grants the publisher. In most cases, these are first publication rights—the story hasn’t been published anywhere else, including archive sites like Fur Affinity—with limited exclusivity: after an amount of time given in the contract passes, the author can publish the story somewhere else that accepts reprints. A six-month period of exclusivity is typical. (Note that magazines buy serial rights, but books and anthologies buy rights to a geographical region: North American rights, World rights, etc. You’re free to sell the book again to other publishers outside that geographical region; this is why novels often have different publishers in the US and Europe.)
- Define the amount the publisher is paying for those rights, how they’re paying it (check, Paypal, doubloons, etc.), and when they’re paying it. If you’re being paid by the word, the total amount you’re being paid should be specified here. Some contracts specify payment on acceptance; many specify it on publication. In either case, the contract should give a window (“within 30 days of publication”).
- Cover appropriate electronic and subsidiary rights. If the contract allows the publisher to archive your work indefinitely on a web site, do you have the right to withdraw it after a certain length of time? If this is a novel, are you granting the publisher rights to produce the ebook? (Some authors, like Kyell Gold, self-publish their ebooks.) What about any other subsidiary rights, like audiobooks?
- Give the publisher a deadline, so they can’t sit on the work indefinitely (“if the publisher fails to produce Great Furry Stories within one year of the execution date of this contract, rights revert back to the author”).
- Guarantee approval over content editing changes. The publisher should be able to fix spelling errors without running them by you, but not change your grizzled Vietnam vet protagonist to a twelve-year-old kid.
- In furry, it’s not unheard of for authors to end up paying for art out of their own pocket and have the publisher repay them. If you do this, get the reimbursement amount of the art in the contract, too, even if it has to be a single-paragraph addendum.
What a publishing contract shouldn’t do is also straightforward: it shouldn’t take any more rights than necessary, and it shouldn’t leave anything significant undefined. If the answer to “when do I get paid” or “when can I sell reprint rights to this story or put it up for my fans on FA” isn’t answered by the contract, there’s a problem. And it shouldn’t ask you to assign exclusive rights in perpetuity. (Carefully consider assigning even non-exclusive rights in perpetuity, especially for a flat rate.)
The SFWA Model Magazine Contract runs 8 pages, but there’s extensive annotation explaining each clause—and a few somewhat unusual clauses. In practice, most publishing contracts, at least for magazines and anthologies, don’t need to run more than a couple pages.
If you’re concerned about a clause in a contract, ask. If you’d like a clause changed, bring it up with your publisher and explain why. Contracts are negotiations, not “take it or leave it” propositions. And if a publisher insists on a clause you’re worried about, bring it up with the Guild. We may not be able to negotiate on your behalf, but we can let other members know about potential issues.
And one more thing. Contracts should be signed before work starts. Before the publisher sends the author any money, before the publisher starts going back and forth with the author on editorial changes, and for the love of Judy Hopps, before the publication goes on sale. If your story is a month away from publication and you haven’t seen a contract, ask the publisher. Better yet, ask when it’s two months away.
I suspect the advice in this column may make some publishers tear their fur out, and I’m sorry. But I’ve been sent contracts when—or even after—books and magazines went on sale. Sometimes I’ve never received a contract. As far as I can tell, my experience isn’t unusual. The more the furry publishing scene grows, the greater chance being lackadaisical has of causing serious problems for publishers, writers, or both.
Because we are all friends with one another, this subject can be hard to talk about. But getting contracts right helps everyone, publishers and writers alike.
I’ll talk about other considerations for publishing in other articles, including marketing, production and editorial. These are good for writers to know—and it’s good for writers if publishers know them, too.
The Mancer Series (Books 1-6): Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Pyromancer, by Don Callander. Map by the author.
NYC, Ace Books, May 1992, paperback $4.50 ([v +] 292 pages)
Aquamancer, by Don Callander. Map by the author.
NYC, Ace Books, January 1993, paperback $4.99 ([v +] 289 pages)
Geomancer, by Don Callander. Map by the author.
NYC, Ace Books, January 1994, paperback $4.99 (v +] 257 pages)
Aeromancer, by Don Callander.
NYC, Ace Books, September 1997, paperback $5.99 ([iii +] 289 pages)
Marbleheart, by Don Callander.
NYC, Ace Books, July 1998, paperback $5.99 (278 pages).
The Reluctant Knight, by Don Callander.
Cincinnati, OH, Mundania Press, June 2014, paperback $12.95 (204 pages)
Curious … The first five of these were published without a series title, between 1992 and 1998. They were reprinted by Mundania Press in 2013 as the Mancer Series, with a sixth in 2014. By Don Callander, but ISFDB says that he died before that. Donald Bruce Callander, March 23, 1930 – July 26, 2008.
What’s more, the copyright dates of the first three 2013 reprints agree with the Ace editions, 1992, 1993, and 1994. But for the last two they are 1995 and 1996, not 1997 and 1998 when the Ace editions were published, and with The Reluctant Knight © 1995 (and Marbleheart © 1996) even though it wasn’t published until 2014.
Ace Books published a lot of whimsical light fantasies in the 1990s, by authors such as Piers Anthony, John DeChancie, Esther Friesner, and Craig Shaw Gardner. Most of them have talking animals in supporting or minor roles, such as Gardner’s 1990 Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies, but none are really memorable. (Maybe Scandal, the wisecracking kitten, who is a major character in Friesner’s Majyk trilogy.) But Callander’s Marbleheart Sea Otter, a furry sidekick in the original series, was popular enough to win his own starring sequel in 1998.
I won’t say that Callander’s fantasies are bad — they aren’t, really, for those who like light fantasies. But they are very – I’m not sure whether “cute” or “twee” fits them better. They are the type of fantasies that other fantasy writers make fun of; full of singing and dancing pixies and elves and fairies and friendly animals. And furniture & utensils. Here is dinnertime at Wizard’s High, a wizard’s cottage:
“Shortly they sat down to a feast and were regaled by the antics of the salt and pepper shakers and the serious, droll sayings of the Gravy Boat, who also chanted Sea songs and seamen’s ditties for them.
A pair of fire tongs did a clattery clog dance on the hearth, and Blue Teakettle herself acted as ringmistress over it all and kept the good food hot and savory, coming at just the right pace and intervals. Toward the end the entire chorus of pots and pans sang old favorites with the crocks and cutting board humming along in perfect harmony. And never once did Douglas consider how odd this little household was.” (Pyromancer, p. 10)
Douglas Brightglade, a lively and cheery lad, answers a wizard’s advertisement:
APPRENTICE WANTED
To learn the MYSTERIES and SECRETS of
WIZARDRY in the Discipline of FIRE
From a MASTER MAGICIAN, SUPREME SPELLCASTER
WONDERFUL WIZARD
AND PRESTIGIOUS PYROMANCER!
And learn Douglas does, from the wizard Flarman Flowerstalk over four novels and five years. He meets all sorts of talking animals and objects, from Flarman’s busybody, clattery Bronze Owl doorknocker, to the seagulls Cerfew, Tratto, and Trotta (she’s a girl; a Gullfriend), to the porpoises Skimmer, Leaper, and Spinner, to Oval, the Giant Sea Tortoise, to the evil Ice King’s spies:
“‘It is best we become more circumspect in our comings and goings from now. I’ve seen some suspicious crows hanging around the top of the High lately.’
‘Yes, I noticed them and told Bronze Owl about them. He said he didn’t like the cut of their pinions.’” (Pyromancer, p. 81)
In Pyromancer, Douglas meets the above as he and Flarman Flowerstalk (who soon becomes Flarman Firemaster) join Augurian Watermaster to lead the free men, faeries, Dwarves, and other peoples of this world against the would-be world-conquering Frigeon, the Ice King, and his armies of orcs, ghouls, witches, banshees, goblins, and similar cruel monsters. Douglas also meets the beautiful island maiden Myrn Manster, who becomes his fiancée and Augurian’s Apprentice Water-Wizard. But Marbleheart isn’t in Pyromancer.
In Aquamancer Douglas, now a Journeyman Pyromancer, is sent by Flarman to journey to Old Kingdom, a part of this world he has never seen before, to investigate a rumor that a Coven of Black Witches is seizing power there. Douglas learns not only that the rumors are true, he’s captured by them (or seems to be). Myrn goes to his rescue!
But well before that, Douglas is swept overboard in a storm and meets Marbleheart.
“‘A river’s mouth?’ he [Douglas] wondered, aloud. Talking to himself was another habit he had acquired from Flarman, who kept up running conversations with himself while he worked. ‘And if so, is the river nearby?’
‘Not far away,’ said a cheerful voice, startling him by its nearness. He missed a stroke and submerged completely for a moment. He hadn’t seen the long, brown, sleek-bodied animal floating on its back in the water ahead of him, forelegs folded on its chest.
‘Sorry!’ said the animal, waving one forepaw. ‘I didn’t mean to startle you.’
Douglas trod water and examined the creature apprehensively. It had a narrow, streamlined body covered with luxuriant fur. Including tail and whiskers, it stretched at least five feet long in the water. Its narrow, pointed face was pleasantly rodent [rodent?], with a pert and upturned black nose and wide-set, intelligent eyes above flaring gray whiskers and sharp, white teeth. (Aquamancer, pgs. 34-35)
Douglas and Marbleheart immediately hit it off. The sea otter has explored the seas thoroughly, and is eager to see the inland areas. Young man and young otter not only become best friends, Douglas teaches Marbleheart some basic fire magic and the otter becomes his familiar. By the end of Aquamancer, Marbleheart is a full member of the wizardly coterie.
Geomancer begins with Douglas going north to a melting glacier. Naturally, Marbleheart goes along. This paragraph shows Callander’s penchant for using flowing multiple descriptors:
“From all around them came the rushing, gushing, gurgling, and tinkling of water dashing over stones and minor falls, hidden in cracks and crevices or dashing across smooth, flat slabs of dark blue gabro granite. Where their way crossed an icy streamlet or skirted a shallow pool of meltwater, the Otter paused a moment to splash and dabble. Cold or not, water was his preferred element.” (Geomancer, p. 6)
When a living stone giant seizes Douglas and a companion and carries them under the glacier, Marbleheart quickly follows them. The otter realizes that the magic involved is dangerous and above his level, but he doesn’t let that deter him from trying to help Douglas; even when it means following him to one of the driest deserts in the world. “‘Even if he hates waterless deserts,’ muttered Marbleheart under his breath. ‘No water! No fish!’” (p. 78) Marbleheart’s diet, by the way, throughout the series includes pork chops, which I can understand a sea otter liking, but also such dishes (at different times) as pancakes with lots of maple syrup, curried carrots, ice cream with strawberry sauce, and hot, sugary coffee.
“They were met by Clangeon, much relieved to see them again, and shortly the capable steward had set a tasty meal before them: fresh-caught, broiled Sea bass, watercress salad, spicy crab-cakes, and excellent corn bread, all of which Marbleheart declared were superb.” (Geomancer, p. 84)
“Marbleheart enthusiastically supervised the cooking until he was good-naturedly shooed away by the village wives for sampling the berry pies, marble cakes, and cookies too liberally before dinner.” (Geomancer, p. 183)
“‘Speech! Speech!’ called Marbleheart. He reached for the last piece of banana cream pie.” (Geomancer, p. 244)
He’s called by another character in Geomancer “the cuddly Marbleheart” (p. 60). Unfortunately, there’s a further reference on page 106 to him as a rodent:
“‘The heat is getting to him, poor rodent,’ Wong, who was beginning to learn to tease, said gently.’”
The first three Mancer novels (covers by Daniel R. Horne) were each published a year apart from 1992 to 1994. They cover Douglas Brightglade’s beginning his training, his meeting Myrn and his engagement to her, and his meeting Marbleheart Sea Otter, up to Douglas’ and Myrn’s planning for their wedding. Aeromancer (cover by Don Clavette) wasn’t published until 1997, three years later, and it begins with Douglas and Myrn married for some time and Douglas bouncing their two two-year-old twins, Brand and Brenda, on his knees. It feels like there’s a novel missing here.
A possible complication was that between 1992 and 1994, Ace Books was a subsidiary/imprint of The Berkeley Publishing Group. In 1996 the entire Berkeley Publishing Group was “acquired” by Penguin Putnam Inc. This must have been “in the works” and known by Ace’s editorial department for some time before it was finalized. Was Callander’s Mancer series put on hold between Geomancer and Aeromancer, and did the new ownership decide against any further Mancer novels except Aeromancer and Marbleheart which were already contracted for?
In Aeromancer, a flying-horse filly colt comes to Wizard’s High (now Wizards’ High), presumably for help; but she can’t talk:
“‘No comment, eh?’ the web-footed animal [Marbleheart] said, sighing. ‘Well, that makes it more difficult, doesn’t it? She not being able or willing to speak, as it were.’
The beautiful little horse trotted over to greet him shyly, nodding and pawing the damp earth in a pleased-to-meet-you fashion.
‘Is it that you can’t speak?’ Marbleheart wondered. ‘Or that you don’t care to?’
The horse, given the choice, managed to indicate her complete inability to speak.
‘Was it ever thus?’ asked the Otter, shaking his head sadly.
The filly shook her head also.
‘You could once talk? Is that it?’
The little horse nodded vigorously.
‘And you miss it, don’t you?’
The horse signaled a definite ‘Yes!’ by bobbing her head up and down several times.” (Aeromancer, p. 12)
A friend is magically kidnapped to this world’s Nearer East, and their own magic indicates that only Myrn can save him. She and the flying horseling, who Myrn dubs Nameless, go after him; but after a warm and friendly welcome by the Sultan and Sultana of the Arabian Nights country of the Empire of the Midday Sun, Myrn is suddenly abducted and carried off to be sold into slavery. Nameless follows her and the kidnappers. So do Douglas and Marbleheart when they learn about it, with Douglas disguised as a desert tribesman and Marbleheart transformed into his pet black monkey. Aeromancer shows how Marbleheart has become an equal to all the humans:
“Marbleheart Sea Otter, taking a break from being a monkey, stretched himself full length in the still-warm sand, listening to their talk and putting in comments when he felt the conversation needed a boost.” (p. 160)
Aeromancer is also about Nameless’ adventures with the talking Nearer Eastern animals, and a twenty-foot-long dragon:
“‘A flying horse, as I live long and breathe fire,’ exclaimed Lesser Dragon. ‘Don’t fear, dear filly. We won’t harm you. Sit here by my side until the storm falls off [a fierce desert sandstorm], and let me introduce you to my friends…’
The Dragon’s head turned and as he named the beasts about him, his words were delivered with short, pale flashes of pure flame and welcome warmth.
‘Here’s an old friend: Riantor the Jackal. He lives in the heart of High Desert and raises his family on its hot sands.’
The striped, black-and-yellow doglike beast grinned broadly at the horse and nodded in greeting. Beyond him were his mate and a litter of lately bora puppies, gazing at the horse over their mother’s ruffled mane. They grinned and chuckled softly.
‘By my right hind-leg is Oliver, Patriarch of all the High Desert Hares, and his six wives and twenty-seven kinder,’ continued the Dragon, puffing pink, peppermint-scented smoke rings their way. And here is …’
He introduced a dozen other animals, all of whom nodded and spoke to the little horse pleasantly, urging her to come close and settle down near the Dragon.
‘Without young Lesser here,’ explained the mother of a large family of desert rats, ‘well, some of us would not survive these storms, and it’s so much more pleasant to be here with our friend, safe and warm.’” (p. 118)
The friendly Nearer Eastern desert talking animals whom Nameless meets include an elderly lion, dik-diks, ocelots, zebras, wild goats, pronghorn antelopes (there are antelopes in the Near East, but pronghorns? Well, this is the Nearer East), hyenas, and more. In Aeromancer the two adventurers finally join together, Nameless’ real name is learned, and she and Marbleheart join Douglas and the rescued Myrn in defeating the Dark Servant.
After four books, Aeromancer ends:
“‘It’s all over,’ Douglas told Marbleheart.
‘Which means,’ Marbleheart chuckled, ‘knowing things around here, that new things are just about to begin to happen.
‘Dinner first, however,’ the Sea Otter added, following the Wizards Brightglade and their whooping children across the lawn to the front door.” (p. 288)
Callander must have known as he ended Aeromancer that he had a contract to extend the series for at least one more novel. Marbleheart followed Aeromancer one year later; 1997 and 1998. However, in book time five years had passed. Douglas’s and Myrn’s twins, who were two years old in Aeromancer, are seven years old in Marbleheart.
As Marbleheart begins, the Sea Otter has been a resident of Wizards’ Rest for the last five years and he is bored:
“Now the furry Familiar’s time was filled with serious study, with careful reading of ancient, musty, dusty books, of sneezing from fumes of bubbling retorts, peering through murky magnifying glasses, conjuring up columns of acrid smoke, and enduring endless discussions of wizardly Ways and Means.
‘All very important and very useful and all that, I admit to you,’ Marbleheart said to a largemouth bass, who came swimming by on his way to the reed beds below Augurian’s Fountain.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ snapped the startled bass, watching the Otter warily from a safe distance. ‘you eat regularly, don’t you? No having to hunt for your supper in ice-cold water!’” (p. 2)
Bored, bored, bored! But not so bored as to throw over his studies when the tiny (one and a half feet tall) child Prince Flowerbender of Faerie wants the Otter to join him in running away going questing:
“‘Something told me you might be … well, that you might welcome … er … that I might persuade you to go Questing with me. I need a companion, you see, and you …’
‘Impossible!’ cried Otter, pretending shock at the very idea. ‘I’ve much too much very important work to do! Douglas needs me! Myrn and the twins need me! The Ice King’s enchantments and everything! Why … !’
‘Oh, pooh!’ sighed the fairy in disappointment, drumming his heels against the side of the wooden bucket. ‘I hoped that you … and I heard what you just said to yourself. ‘Bored,’ you said. I heard you!’
Marbleheart drew himself up, gathering a suitably firm but polite and tactful refusal. But one that would, in effect, leave the door open for negotiation.
‘‘Tis bad luck to lie to a fairy! Especially a Prince of Faerie like me,’ the tiny Prince warned.
‘Well …’ the Otter sighed after a further moment’s pause, ‘I admit to being … sort of … bored and suffering itchy footpads and …’
‘Fine! I hereby appoint thee, Sir Marbleheart of Briny Deep, to be my boon companion in adventuring!’
The Prince leapt from the bucket bottom and landed lightly on the slate paving.
‘So… let’s be off!’ he said in a businesslike tone. ‘You’ll be my courser, too, as well as advisor and counsilor and picnicking companion! You love to eat. I imagine you’re a pretty good campfire cook, too?’” (p. 12)
Marbleheart persuades him, as his advisor and counsilor, to stay for dinner first. During dinner, Marbleheart contacts the Prince’s parents. They agree, since the Prince wants to go adventuring, to let him do so in the company of a responsible adult like Marbleheart, whose advising he has shown he will listen to. Marbleheart doesn’t mind, as long as he is the senior member of a team – and not a steed.
“‘Let me ask, if you won’t be insulted,’ Marbleheart said before they had gone far. ‘Last time I met your folks, they were both as tall as Douglas – taller than Flarman. You’re a fifth that size, at best. What is your normal altitude?’
‘Oh, just about any convenient size. Papa says he once made himself a giant, fifty feet tall! I’d like to’ve seen that!’
‘So would I. So, you can pick your favorite size, can you?’ Marbleheart asked, truly interested.
‘All fairies can do that! What size would you prefer?’
‘We’ve a longish way to tramp, m’boy. Longer legs and more stomach-room’ll get you further at regular boy-size, don’t you think?’
‘I was, actually,’ Ben said wistfully, ‘planning to ride Otter-back.’
‘Ho! Make your very best friend do all the walking and carrying … is that it? Let me tell you, young Flowerbender, Questing has to be a cooperative enterprise, each for the other, and one for all!’” (p. 28)
Considering an Otter’s regular galumphing land-gait, I don’t know how comfortable it’d be to ride one. At any rate, they go through Marbleheart as a full-sized boy of nine or ten, but with transparent blue wings, and a six-foot-long but four-legged Otter – Prince Flowerbender (Ben) not as the gauzy-winged creature on Dan Horne’s cover (or Niki Browning’s on the 2013 Mundania Press edition, which makes Ben look girlish to boot).
Their Questing is educative rather than dramatic. A good ruler of Faerie needs to know much, which is the main reason that Ben’s royal parents have agreed to his going Questing under Marbleheart’s tutelage. Marbleheart starts out as a travelogue by ship to where the adventures in the previous books took place, now that those places have become peaceful. However, Marbleheart and Ben never get there, due to a violent seastorm:
“Marbleheart appeared from deck, puffing and blowing lustily. The companions ate without talking, not because there was nothing to say but because the shuttering, shivering, shattering, creaking, groaning, snapping, rasping of ropes and timbers, and the constant howl of wind and hiss of water, made conversation impossible.” (p. 71)
… followed by shipwreck, becoming castaway with the captain – a pretty lady captain, Lorianne – and drifting ashore onto a strange land. Meanwhile, Douglas, Myrn, and their children back at Wizards’ High are menaced by pirates – rather, the villains from Pyromancer, turned to piracy and back for revenge. Actually, the villains, although nasty, are so inept that Douglas, his wife, the seven-year-old twins, the animated cookpots and tableware, Flittery Chipmunk, and Papa & Mrs. Thatchmouse are more than enough to take them in hand. Callander shows an unusual skill at keeping everything quite adventurous for 278 pages while making it clear that the main characters are never in more danger than being mildly inconvenienced and pass the strawberry jam, please. All the wildlife that both parties encounter are very friendly … well, the carnivores are at least polite:
“‘Leave us to our sleep until we wake in the morning,’ Otter said. ‘Do you plan to spend much time down in the mouth?’
‘Just ‘til first light. We’ll probably be hungry again and come seeking some breakfast. If you’re still here …’
‘You’ll find a good, hearty breakfast waiting for you,’ Marbleheart promised. ‘But you won’t find us.’
‘Wise Sea Otter,’ rumbled the lead alligator, nodding his head slowly. ‘I’ll even give you a word of warning. Watch out for a gang of fierce hippos, upstream. Frightening, terrible, ravening monsters! Pink, if you can believe that! Not at all trustworthy nor even very bright, either. Danger by the ton!’” (pgs. 142-143)
The “horrendous hippos”, who prove to be quite friendly, pass them on to a forest porcupine named Toothpick; and … well, they have more adventures, including an unexpected one in which Ben and Marbleheart save an entire kingdom! Ben as a full-sized boy gets to demonstrate his wings (which are gauzy but powerful); old friends are met in unexpected places; true romance blossoms; and Callander manages to find a couple of loose threads from the previous four novels and tie them up here. Marbleheart (cover by Dan Horne; presumably the same Daniel R. Horne who painted the covers of the first three books) seemed to be a fine coda to the 1992-1998 series.
However, as noted above, the five Ace Books were reprinted by Mundania Press in 2013-2014 after Don Callander’s 2008 death, as the Mancer Series, Books 1 through 5, and with a new Book 6 added, The Reluctant Knight. Did Callander try to sell this to Ace Books during his lifetime and have it rejected? There is no explanation, though one can be guessed at.
It is clear that The Reluctant Knight follows Marbleheart, because Brand and Brenda Brightglade, who were seven years old in Marbleheart, are eight years old here. It begins with the inhabitants of Wizards’ Keep noticing a lone knight in full armor slowly riding toward the Keep. Knights are unusual, and this one is doubly so because his armor bears no coat-of-arms, blazons, escutcheons, or other markings. The knight arrives just as a violent storm breaks out, and as they are about to invite him indoors, he is struck by lightning.
“A blinding flash of lightning filled the hall, all Valley and, it seemed, the whole world!
Bronze Owl screeched in alarm and tumbled beak-over-tail feathers to the floor slates, brilliant blue electricity leaping all around his metal body.
[…]
The Otter’s fur stood on end and he hissed like Teakettle at the sight of the glowing figure in the hall. Myrn covered her eyes against the glare and cried, ‘Douglas!’ but kept running down the hall after the Pyromancers.
[…]
‘Owl? You all right?’
‘A bit blackened about the wingtips, I fear,’ gasped the bronze bird. ‘Shocked me, only. Help the poor man!’
Flarman, taking in the scene in a glance, stepped past Douglas and the Owl and dropped to his knees beside the smoking, armor-clad figure sprawled across the threshold.
‘Seen this before, a few times,’ he snapped to the younger Pyromancer. ‘Careless! Should’ve shed his armor the minute it started to thunder!’
‘But … is he alive?’ Myrn gasped.” (pgs. 18-19)
The knight is alive, but he has complete amnesia. He does not remember his name or why he came to Wizards’ Keep. Chestnut, his talking charger, doesn’t know, either.
“‘I’m sorry; he never told me his name. I call him either ‘Master’ or ‘Sir’. It served our purposes well enough … until now.’
‘You’ve not been with him long, then?’
‘Seems like a long time but I wasn’t keeping track,’ the stallion explained apologetically.’” (p. 24)
Okay, this is the first improbability. Callander has obviously gone out of his way to keep the knight’s name and purpose unknown.
Since the inhabitants of the Keep have to call the knight something, they temporarily dub him Sir Galad. He is horribly embarrassed for his amnesia, and offers to help out at odd jobs until his memory comes back. But it doesn’t, and the Wizards are too busy at other important work to help him out.
“Myrn, increasingly chubby with her unborn child, gradually let her more active chores be taken by Galad; such things as harvesting her kitchen garden. He prepared lawns and flower beds and vegetable plots for the winter and spoke eagerly of springtime planning and planting.” (p. 37)
This is the second improbability; that everyone would allow Sir Galad’s real name and his mission – which was presumably important – to be pushed aside for days, then weeks, and finally months. Not just at Wizards’ Keep, as Galad makes himself useful throughout the Valley of Dukedom, even becoming the Acting Captain of the volunteer Valley Patrol.
Callander lets Galad’s story become increasingly minor as he switches to what the Wizards are so busy doing. Pyromancer is about the battle against evil Frigeon, the Ice King, who is finally defeated. There are mentions in the subsequent books that the reconstituted Fellowship of Light have been concentrating on finding Frigeon’s old evil spells and nullifying them, when they are not involved with the adventures of each book. In The Reluctant Knight, the Wizards and the story concentrate upon these forgotten but still active spells, which is why they do not have time to concentrate upon restoring Galad’s memory or tracing his past.
After about a year, the Wizards are drawn toward the unknown Littoral Kingdoms of the far East. They discover that one of them, Sulleña, may be where Frigeon sent Thorowood, the missing father of Thornwood, the present Duke of Dukedom. Coincidentally, Sulleñna may be improbably where Galad and Chestnut come from. By now the reader will have guessed there is a magical reason why neither Galad nor Chestnut can remember anything. Flarman, Douglas, Augurian, Myrn, Marbleheart, and the whole gang gather for a lengthy solving that ties everything up but is extremely complex – maybe too complex for Ace Books.
So the series ends. And apparently Callander and his editors never did learn that otters aren’t rodents:
“‘Wonder where the horse got to?’ Douglas asked, pausing at the rickety old gate that stood opened onto River Road. ‘If you were a badly frightened horse, Marbleheart, where would you bolt?’
‘Tell the truth? I’d find a hole to hide in. But that’s an Otter’s answer. We’re basically rodents and rodents hide from danger in holes. Deeper the better! Let me see …”” (The Reluctant Knight, p. 22)
Plant-Eater Wear
Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter attended the Animal Rights National Conference in Los Angeles this weekend. Lo and behold, there was actually some good anthropomorphic art to be found there, mostly on t-shirts. One set that especially caught our eye came from CompassionCo.com. They employ the services of a few really good artists in the creation of their organic-ink t-shirts for people who want to brag to the world about their veganism. Think that plant-eaters are wimpy? Tell that to a rhinoceros! “We believe that the best way to affect social change is to lead by setting a positive example and creating opportunities for conversations with others. We want everyone to feel proud about where their clothing came from at every point during production.” Visit their web site to see more of what they have currently, plus you can sign up for their newsletter and get notices about their new upcoming designs.
image c. 2016 CompassionCo.com