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In a counterpoint to last week’s show, we talk about the ways in which the furry fandom elevates some individuals to celebrity status, and how perception changes with time involved in the fandom.

Metadata and Credits Furry: Popularity in the Fandom

Runtime: 40:04m

Cast: Levi, Path, Wolfin

Editor: Levi

Format: 96kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.

Furry: Popularity in the Fandom - In a counterpoint to last week's show, we talk about the ways in which the furry fandom elevates some individuals to celebrity status, and how perception changes with time involved in the fandom.

Tabitha Ladin describes what she does as “fantasy, science fiction, creepy, and nature art”. We couldn’t describe it better. She has a particular affinity for mice — winged mice (especially that!), robot mice, zombie mice… but gryphons, dragons, and other fantastic animals work their way into her paintings as well. And of course, many of them are available as prints at her web site also. She’s another artist you’re likely to see displaying at fannish conventions as well, in the dealer room or at the art show.

image c. 2016 by Tabitha Ladin

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Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.  Fred writes: three or four reviews of furry books that I wrote in 2003 or 2004 have vanished from the Internet.  I wrote them for the first version of Watts Martin’s Claw & Quill site, which he has apparently taken down. Here they are back online.

Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales, by Gregory Maguire. Illustrated by Chris L. Demarest.
NYC, HarperCollinsPublishers, August 2004, hardcover $15.99 (197 pages, Kindle $7.99.

Some people can’t hear Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” without thinking of the Lone Ranger. I couldn’t read Leaping Beauty without imagining it being read aloud by Edward Everett Horton as the Narrator of the “Fractured Fairy Tales” on Jay Ward’s Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show. Leaping Beauty is categorized as an Ages 8 – 12 children’s book. Sure, and Jay Ward’s TV cartoons were for kids, too.

Leaping Beauty is exactly in the style of “Fractured Fairy Tales” except that the eight stories all feature animal casts. Some are in traditional fairy-tale settings, such as “Leaping Beauty” which takes place in a swamp kingdom with a bullfrog king & queen. At their polliwog princess’ christening, a bumblebee good fairy blesses her with a loud voice. “She will have a beautiful voice for all to hear and enjoy. Her ribbit will be as loud as a foghorn.” Old Dame Hornet, the nasty fairy they forgot to invite, wishes she will die as an exploding frog, but the last good fairy who has not used his wish yet tries to save her. So the polliwog grows up to become a weeping, sleeping, leaping beauty who hops over to demand Dame Hornet lift the curse. “The sound came right up to Old Dame Hornet’s doorway and went away again, like an ambulance driving by, and driving right back. Like an ambulance going up and down the street, hour after hour.”

Some are in modernized settings, such as “Rumplesnakeskin”:

“Down by the old mill stream, there stood a mill. In the mill there worked a miller. He was a sheep named Bubba.

Now Bubba had a beautiful daughter named Norma Jean. Her fleece was as yellow as a field of dandelions. Furthermore it was naturally curly. When she went for a drink in the millpond, she tossed her flaxen locks and admired herself in a mirror. ‘How like a movie star I am!’ she said. ‘If only I could be discovered!'” (pg. 175)

She changes her name to Beauty and is discovered by a stag king who is a wannabe horror movie director and promises to star her in it. But he is really more interested in her spinning gold to finance it:

“The king stag chattered all the way to the studio about camera angles and foreign rights and how genius usually ends up on the cutting-room floor. ‘You’ll be a big star one day,’ he said to Beauty. ‘You’ve got the looks. You’ve got the curves. I’ve got a serious case of the nerves. Spin me some gold, sweetheart. All the world will thank you for it.’

And off he went, locking the door behind him.” (pg. 178)

Some stories involve gender reversals. “Little Red Robin Hood” is a boy, not a girl. A boy with an overactive imagination:

“Little Red Robin Hood pretended he was a superhero with special superpowers. Sometimes he wore a little red cape with a red hood. It was his superhero costume. It made a nice fluttering noise when he flew, like the sound of baseball cards slapping against a rotating bicycle wheel.” (pg. 107)

When he is sent to bring a basket of goodies to Grandma Robin “in a retirement village for old birds on the other side of the forest,” he is alert for the opportunity to confront any supervillains he may meet on the way.

The stories embrace all animals and locales. “So What and the Seven Giraffes” is an African tale about a chimpanzee prince of baboon parents, a gorilla evil stepmother, and seven female giraffes who are bespangled performers in the local circus. “The Three Little Penguins and the Big Bad Walrus” takes place at the South Pole. Or maybe the North Pole (does it matter?):

“Once there were three little penguins who lived in an igloo with their mother.

“The oldest penguin liked to eat fish.

The middle penguin liked to eat fish.

The youngest penguin liked to get dressed up in a ballet costume and put on a show. This was not usual for penguins, and it worried old Mama Penguin a lot.” (pg. 129)

The remaining three tales are “Goldiefox and the Three Chickens”, “Hamster and Gerbil”, and “Cinder-Elephant”. Betcha can’t read these without imagining them narrated by Ed Horton, and drawn in the Jay Ward art-style (which is pretty close to the illustrations in this book anyway). If you remember the “Fractured Fairy Tales” from 1960s TV and later video releases (they just came out on DVD), that should be all the recommendation you need for Leaping Beauty, and Other Animal Fairy Tales.

– Fred Patten

• Buy online

Frank Forte is a professional storyboard artist who has worked on projects as diverse as Bob’s Burgers and Despicable Me 2. In his spare time he paints largely-monochrome works that are often very funny-animal oriented… and very, very strange. He offers many of them up as prints through his company, Asylum Press. Visit his web site (if you’re an adult!) and see what we mean. You might also see his works at local art galleries or fannish conventions. It travels a lot!

image c. 2016 by Franke Forte

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Two Old Furry Fans, Episode #3b: In which Mark gets his “skiltaire” put in a role-playing game, and helps to start anime fandom in America, while Rodney gets started down the path to Furry Fandom thanks to two Disney mice. Meanwhile, rabbits go to war, and Ralph Bakshi actually makes a good movie.

Download file | Size: 123M

TOFF Episode 3b

New members

Welcome to our newest members: Kris Carver, Jay “Shirou” Coughlan, TJ Minde, and Mog Moogle! If you’re not a member of the Guild and you’d like more information about joining, read our membership guidelines.

Member news

Sean Rivercritic has started a new publishing imprint, Goal Publications. (Also see Market News, below.)

The novel From Winter’s Ashes, co-written by member Patrick “Bahumat” Rochefort (with Keith Aksland), is available on Amazon as an ebook.

Editor Fred Patten was interviewed on the Furry Times blog.

Madison Keller’s steampunk short “Poppy and the Great Expo,” originally in the 2016 Furlandia program book, is now available as an ebook. In addition, her novella Snow Flower is now available as an audiobook.

Member (and past president) Renee Carter Hall launched a bimonthly newletter.

Kris Schnee’s novel The Digital Coyote has been released in ebook and print form.

Mary E. Lowd sold two stories in July, one to Daily Science Fiction and one to Analog (which she notes is a furry story, “about a dragon/lizard-like alien”).

Daniel Potter published the second volume in his successful Freelance Familiar series, Marking Territory.

New markets

• Seven Deadly Sins: Furry Confessionals, themed around Dante’s seven deadly sins. Publisher: Thurston Howl Publications. Length: 2,500–8,000 words. Payment: contributor’s copy. Deadline: December 1, 2016. Submission call.
• Species is a projected anthology series in which each volume presents three sections—folktales and myths, reprints, and original stories. The first volume is Wolves. Publisher: Thurston Howl Publications. Length: 2,500–8,000 words. Rating: PG-13. Payment: contributor’s copy. Deadline: January 1, 2017. Submission call.
• Heat #14, annual anthology “in which sex or romance play an important role in the overall plot but are not the sole purpose for the story’s existence.” Editors: Dark End and Teagan Gavet. Publisher: Sofawolf Press. Length: 4,000–8,000 words. Payment: 1¢/word. Deadline: September 19, 2016. Submission call.
• While Goal Publications has wound down their eponymous magazine, they are now looking for “full-length works,” novels and novellas. Submission guidelines.
• The Symbol of a Nation, anthology themed around “furries that are the national animals of country.” (The guidelines get somewhat complex.) Editor: Fred Patten. Publisher: Goal Publications. Payment: 1¢/word. Deadline: December 1, 2016. Submission call.

For ongoing markets previously covered but still open (and occasionally, open in the future), visit the FWG web site:

• Paying short story markets
• Non-paying short story markets
• Novel/novella markets

Remember to keep an eye on the Calls for Submissions thread on the forum, as well as other posts on the Publishing and Marketing forum.

Odds and ends

Member Malcolm F. Cross appeared in a brief profile on seminal science fiction blog File 770.

The World Fantasy Convention programming this year offers an “animal fantasy” panel which refers to Watership Down and The Book of the Dun Cow as being “in recent years.” We have a lot of work to do, people. (With some pressure, they added Kij Johnson’s The Fox Woman, so they’ve at least hit 1999. Progress! That also nearly doubles the number of women authors their programming refers to.)

The Tuesday Coffeehouse Chats have been successfully transplanted from the FWG forum shoutbox to the now-official FWG Slack. If you have no idea what any of this means, you haven’t visited the forum in a while, have you? Go visit it. There’s cool stuff there.

The FWG Goodreads group needs more love. Go add things to our members’ bookshelf (see the instructions here on how to do that). Start conversations. Put subversive happy faces with cat ears in your reviews of non-furry books. (No, don’t do that.)

The FWG blog also needs more love. If you would like to love it, consider writing a guest post. See our guidelines for the details.

Have a terrific month! Send news, suggestions, feedback, and steampunk bats to furwritersguild@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

From Cornbread’s photo gallery

Sports fans are notoriously devoted.  Fursuits are incredibly photogenic.  Mascots and fursuiting make a powerful crossover when they meet.

It happens at games when fursuiting fans get noticed for national TV.  Sometimes a furry gets to be a mascot with the sweet moves and personalities that seem to spring naturally from our cons.  There are even official, high-profile team characters commissioned from fursuit makers.

That’s all covered in the article series continued in the recent Q&A with Uncle Kage and Kodi of Midwest Furfest.  It started with 1) The beginning of mascots and fursuiting, 2) Fursuiting crossover with pro sports, and 3) The National Mascot Hall of Fame.

Cornbread Wolf brings the voice of a true furry fan to this story.  This isn’t about ordinary furmeets, or a safe way to support teams like everyone else.  He stands out in the crowd in a super powerful way by following two passions to the same place.  It’s a great example of my favorite thing, Street Fursuiting.  Find him on Furaffinity, Facebook, and Twitter.

From Cornbread’s photo gallery

Cornbread explains how it started:  

“I’ll be honest – I was initially inspired by someone else to start suiting at the college games. It was Fall of 2012. I was pretty new to the fandom and didn’t know very many people in the area or even the state. At the time I was a sophomore at GA Tech, and had just commissioned a partial from Syber.

One Saturday I started watching the University of Georgia game (they’re our rivals). At one point the camera panned over the student section. On the outer edge of the screen, I saw a tiny, dog shaped blip of blue and green in all that awful red and black. At that moment I was completely convinced I saw a fursuiter in the uGA student section. However, they never really panned back over that section again. I eventually started to doubt what I had seen. There was no way that there was a fursuiter in that crowd.

So I eventually reached out to /r/furry in search of this mysterious fursuiter. Within 24 hours I got my answer. It was true. His name was Alec. It made me feel this sense of awe. There was a fursuiter? At uGA of all places? I was pretty impressed. uGA is not nearly as progressive as GT in terms of something like this. So that day I told myself I would start suiting at GT games as soon as I could. I was not going to allow furry to be represented front and center at a school in bumble fuck Athens and not in the heart of Atlanta, known for being much more progressive. (Excuse my french!)

That is basically my motivation for why I started suiting at the games. I wanted my fandom to be represented on my campus, especially if it was being so openly displayed at uGA.”

From Cornbread’s photo gallery

Like Superman does his thing.

“Running around in suit was quite a fun time. I tend to treat fursuiting the way superman does his thing. I’d throw the suit on in my dorm and try to quickly run out. That way no one knew who this crazy wolf guy was running around during home games.  Being in the middle of a college gameday, while wearing a giant dog suit, is pretty exhilarating. So many children smile and run up to you wanting pictures or high fives. I would even heckle the opposing teams fans, steal their hats playfully, basically anything to stir up friendly banter. It was rewarding to see the children and even the less sober adults laugh and smile as they interacted with me. That’s the part I love the most.

As for getting into the stadium, I never contacted anyone about being able to wear a mask in the stands. The first try was terrifying. I had no idea if they would let me in. However, it worked flawlessly. Plus I wasn’t asked to remove the head so I didn’t even have to break character! Once you get in the gate it’s a mad dash to see who gets to claim the front of the stands. That’s the best seat in the house, right in the front of SWARM (the student section).

I would stay in suit the entire duration of the game. Some of the earlier games in the season were giant fursuit endurance tests, but I had no desire to give up my front a center view of the game. Every now and then I would get on the big screen inside the stadium. I could be seen on ESPN a few times, and I was once featured on ESPN’s weekly “Super Fan’s” gallery.

All in all I loved every moment of it. I am extremely thankful that I saw Alec that day. Without that I know for a fact I never would have pursued this and I owe it all to him.”

Thanks Cornbread!  Have a bunch of hugs for sharing this slice of life, and keep doing what you do. 

Sarah Clemens is an all-around artist (being a medical illustrator pays the bills) who has chosen to focus her talents on creating oil paintings that are almost photo-realistic. Not only of friends, family, and landscapes, but also of numerous fantasy topics. If you visit her web site you’ll find a special fantasy gallery — and it doesn’t take long to notice that she has a special affinity for both cats and dragons… often in the same picture! Her two favorite characters — named Magnus and Loki — even have their own special web site. Ms. Clemens displays at art galleries and convention art shows throughout the US, but of course many of her works are also available as prints on her web site.

image c. 2013 by Sarah Clemens

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Hello,

I'm not a Furry but I don't know anyone else I could ask. (Besides people on FA but I don't want to make an account since I would only use it once). She's 16 I'm about 15.

About 4 months ago I met Angelina. Her parents are furries, and she got her first suit, and it's not too ackward, because she doesn't wear it in public around me, so props for that, But she asked me to go to a furcon, and to go with her to furry meets, and trying to introduce me to the fandom, and I don't want to... But should I? I don't want to break up with her.

Eric (15)

* * *

​Hi, Eric,

Thanks for your question. You don't have to be a furry to have a furry girlfriend. My late husband was not a furry, but he was very supportive of me. I would suggest you join her at a furcon or furmeet for the one reason that you should probably get a better idea about what furries are before you make further judgments about them. You will see that we are just normal people with an unconventional interest that's really no stranger than, say, being a Trekkie or being obsessed with World of Warcraft. We're just people--like your girlfriend :-)

She obviously has qualities about her that you like a lot and you want to continue the relationship. Be supportive, just like--I would hope--she would be supportive of you if you were interested in something even if she wasn't.

Make sense?

Good luck!
Papabear

Ocean runs off to AC 2016 and ends the con in a hotel room sitting around with other authors, editors and publishers. The gloves are off, the drinks are out and we’re ready to unwind and shoot the breeze. As usual, there’s an explicit advisory warning with our SWS shows. Otherwise, enjoy!

 
Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:

@FangsAndFonts

Facebook.com/FangsAndFonts
 

Fangs and Fonts

Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep68-ACSWS.mp3

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Ep 68 – ACSWS - Ocean runs off to AC 2016 and ends the con in a hotel room sitting around with other authors, editors and publishers. The gloves are off, the drinks are out and we’re ready to unwind and shoot the breeze. As usual, there’s an explicit advisory [...]

The National Mascot Hall of Fame is coming in 2017.  This mainstream event might deserve furry attention. It’s a series here:

1) The beginning of mascots and fursuiting.
2) Fursuiting crossover with pro sports.
3) The National Mascot Hall of Fame.

Could a full time mascot-based tourist attraction include furries somehow?  Maybe they will indirectly benefit.  Imagine an exhibit dedicated to hobbyist costuming, and how it’s an institution in places like Pittsburgh.  If that happened, Uncle Kage would surely be one of the first asked to help connect furries and pro mascots. And it’s interesting that the NMHOF is close to Midwest Furfest (imagine an exhibit coordinated with the con.)

I contacted Kage and MFF about this. Here’s followup to the stories above.

From Raymond Entertainment Group

Mascot Boot Camp is run by NMHOF founder Dave Raymond (the original “Philly Phanatic”).   It’s in Kutztown PA- 3 days for $399.  Fursuiters, check that out.  And you can hire it to come to you (wouldn’t it be amazing to have such a workshop hosted by a con? Although cost per person would be huge.)  Check Dave Raymond’s group of companies for a look at professional mascot building and more – Raymond Entertainment Group.

Furry sports fans on national TV – have you seen this going around as a popular meme? (Tip: Chakat Shorttail.)

Here’s the story from 2014: Dallas Stars Fans Dress Up as Furries, Taunt Bruce Boudreau With Taco Sign. Hockey fans loved it on Reddit’s r/hockey. And here’s some reaction from Reddit’s r/furry. Find Vermy Fox and Dario Mouse on FurAffinity.

Uncle Kage answers a few questions about The Mascot Hall of Fame.

(Patch:) Do you think there will be any outreach to furries, directly or subtly?

(Kage:) I have no way of knowing. It would be nice if someone out there recognized that there is a fandom built up around anthropomorphic animals, and that mascotting is a perfect example of the genre.

(Patch:) The San Diego Chicken made a fantastic Guest Of Honor at Anthrocon, can we look forward to more?

(Kage:) It’d be lovely if he would return to join us. Perhaps in 2017, when we are planning a baseball theme.

(Patch:) Is this part of mainstreaming furries, with stuff like Disney’s Zootopia?

(Kage:) Furries are already mainstream. The rest of the world just hasn’t caught on yet.

I met the chicken!

Q&A with Kodi, MFF media contact and Director of Programming & Marketing.

(Patch:) Have you guys heard of the National Mascot Hall of Fame opening nearby in the Chicago area? Would you have anything to do with it?

(Kodi:) I was aware of the hall of fame opening, though we didn’t have anything to do with it – such a small percentage of our attendees perform in costume (it’s a large number, but not normally more than 25% of con attendees)

(Patch:) Do you think it will bring interest in what furries do, or even involve them?

(Kodi:) I think it could certainly interest some of our attendees, though I don’t expect they would ever formally involve us – their hall of fame seems to be more tailored to sports mascots, not amateurs.

(Patch:) Anthrocon’s GOH was the San Diego Chicken who is credited as making sports mascots popular.  Has MFF had anyone similar, or will you?

(Kodi:) We were thrilled to see that Anthrocon was recognizing the San Diego chicken! I think he’s a stellar example of true professionalism! Midwest Furfest prides itself on first and foremost, recognizing the achievements and leadership within our community directly – I would never say never, but at least right now, our focus is more directed at recognizing achievement within the fandom

(Patch:) Would you agree crossover of furry and mainstream stuff seems to be growing? Have any other comment about that?

(Kodi:) I think there are certainly parts of the mainstream world that seem to recognize the fandom, and a lot of the hard work our performers, artists and businesses do (perhaps more now, than in previous years). However, I also think that’s a consequence of the growth of the fandom as a whole – we are becoming a larger entity, which invites more opportunity for ‘cross over’. Ultimately, Midwest Furfest’s goal is to continue providing education, fun and a really great event for our attendees. We aren’t directly focused on our growth, nor do we really spend a lot of time looking at how other fandoms or other parts of the community may choose to portray us. We truly believe that we have an exceptional group of staff and attendees that’s helped make our events a lot of fun, and we couldn’t be more appreciative!

Tomorrow: Cornbread Wolf talks about his hobby of fursuiting at sports games.

Roo and Tugs re-arranged the studio and put on their asbestos suits to prepare for this episode and preserve the history of the fandom - Burned Furries! We are joined by first hand witness to the events, Sophianna Katana, who joined the furry fandom in 1991. While she's no longer part of the furry fandom, it doesn't mean she doesn't have mesmerizing stories to tell. This is the story of the Burned Furries like you've never heard before. We also have a NEW segment, Space News, and Get Psyched!

Programming note: Due to the studio re-arrangement, we do have some small audio hiccups in this episode. We're sorry!



NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

Alix Dialca
Bluue Husky
Dronon, for taking it upon himself to prepare some notes for this episode to guide us.
Sophianna Katan, our guest! If you want to support Sophie in her efforts, consider attending the Bay Area Brony Spectacular (BABSCon).

Music

Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Century Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Some music was provided by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. We used the following pieces: Inspired . Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Get Psyched! Music: Fredrik Miller – Universe. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)

Next episode: What got you into the fandom? This is a listener suggested topic and we can't believe we haven't done it yet! So send us what got you into the fandom by August 9, 2016! S6 Episode 1 – I’m on FIRE! - Roo and Tugs re-arranged the studio and put on their asbestos suits to prepare for this episode and preserve the history of the fandom - Burned Furries! We are joined by first hand witness to the events, Sophianna Katana,

This we got from Deadline: “Former ToonBox exec Jay Ahn [The Nut Job] and animation industry veteran Chris Henderson [Disney’s 101 Dalmatians TV series] have launched Astro-Nomical Entertainment, a development and production company aiming to make high-quality independent animated family films. Its first project in the works is the feature film Mean Margaret, based on the children’s book by Tor Seidler [A Rat’s Tale, The Wainscot Weasel]. Mulan co-director Barry Cook is in talks to direct… The Mean Margaret books center on a cranky toddler from a family of nine who is taken in by two woodchucks and raised as their own among a community of wacky animal characters.”

image c. 2016 Astro-Nomical Entertainment

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Amy Wascher is a sculptor and mold-maker who works extensively with Super-Sculpey. Of late her subjects have been leaning towards pop culture in general, and cartoons in particular. And yes, that means funny animals too. Visit her web site, ClayBrushes.com, to see her current stuff plus what she’s working on now.

image c. 2016 by Amy Wascher

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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! It's a show with Patreon sponsor, Tobe the Otter! We talk about all sorts of crap. Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members! telegram.me/draggetshow Lastly, don't forget to check out our YouTube, where we have many extra vids, like a fireside chat. www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow/videos ep. 128 - Patreon Guest, Tobe! - Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us …

We are in the heart of summer. The pools are open, the grills are cooking, and for us writers, Sofawolf’s long running anthology Heat is OPEN FOR SUBMISSION for their fourteenth volume. One of, if not the longest, and the most prominent, anthology in the fandom; Heat is once again open for all of your erotic encounters. But outside of being an erotic anthology, Heat never does a yearly theme like its contemporaries like Roar, Fang, or Trick or Treat.

Heat does not, and has never had, a theme beyond “furry erotica.” Heat occasionally develops themes post hoc, like the Americana theme running through Heat 13. We didn’t choose those stories for being related to Americana: we chose stories because they were good and it turned out that the stories we chose had a lot to do with Americana.

Write the hot and sweaty or sweet and sensual furry story that you want to write. It doesn’t need to–and shouldn’t and can’t–be tailored to what we want.

There is only one thing the people on Heat want?

In brief: short, well-written furry erotica of all orientations with an emphasis on good story.

That is what we want to see in general, but there are certain things we want to see more of. A lot of the stories we get are straight or gay, have a male protagonist, have a young protagonist, have a canine protagonist, are set somewhere in contemporary America, or are fairly straight-forward romance story. Anything that moves away from this would stands out among our submissions.

We’d love to see more stories with a lesbian or bisexual focus. We’d love to see more transgender characters. We’d love to see more female protagonists. We’d love to see middle-aged or older characters. We’d love to see ourselves visiting different time periods or different locales or transported to whole other worlds. And we always love when our writers can mash together erotica with an unexpected genre. (I still think one of my favorites for this is Tempe O’Kun’s “The Case of the Gelatinous Gemstone,” which mixed erotica, comedy, and mystery.)

While kinks are allowable, remember that most of our audience is not likely to share that particular kink and therefore it should not be the primary focus of the story.

However, the editor of Heat, Dark End, points out that there are many common mistakes made when people submit to Heat. He recently posted a detailed blog about it on SoFurry, but if you choose to write for Heat, keep these things in mind to avoid these common mistakes. One of the biggest being, don’t make your erotic story just about the sex.

Failing to proofread is a surprisingly frequent mistake. We’ve seen some pretty egregious typos on the first page that make us really worried about a story.

A lot of the issues we see are related to story structure: stories that wait to get the conflict going until half-way through or that resolve the conflict on page two, stories that try to cram too much in eight thousand words, stories that are confusing, stories where the stakes are so low that we say “What, that’s it?”

By far and away, the most common issue is with writers not knowing how to write a story that makes use of sex but isn’t just about the sex. This is a big one. If I can remove the sex scene and nothing about the story really changes, then the sex isn’t as important to the story as it should be. To borrow a cooking metaphor, in a good story for Heat, the sex should be like a perfect sauce that brings together the rest of the meal together: it shouldn’t try to be the meat, and the potatoes, and the drink, and the dessert.

Dark End would know since he’s been working on Heat in some way since volume 10. Dark End has been apart of the Furry Fandom for over a decade, but only in recent years started writing his own stories and getting some of his shorts in Hot Dish and Heat, plus a host of hypnosis stories on his FA and SoFurry, which in this writers opinion is awesome. I have a thing for hypnosis. Don’t judge. His main work though is editing the various books Sofawolf makes.

I first started working as a story and copy editor on Heat with Heat 10, published in 2013. My duties started expanding, and by Heat 12 in 2015, I was the managing editor. These days my duties include reviewing submitted stories, choosing our final slate of stories, doing full editing work on around three of the stories, and doing a proofreading of the entire final volume.

That hard work has paid off since Heat Vol. 12 just won the Ursa Major for Best Magazine this year. Heat is a major work within the Furry writing community. As far as I can tell, it’s the one all writers want to be accepted in. It helped pave the way for other anthologies and opening the door for many Furry writers. Kyell Gold’s first published story was in Heat Vol. 1. There is a history Heat carries and Dark End couldn’t believe he’s the one in charged of it.

Gobsmacked. Thunderstruck. If you’d told me five or six years ago that I’d be doing this, I might have laughed. At that time, I was a guy with a couple of barely read stories on FA, and now there’s an Ursa Major Award with my name next to it. How did this happen?

I’ve seen how many readers, writers, and editors look up to Heat and, by association, me, so I’m surprised, but I’m also very honored. People trust me to do an important job and do it well. I don’t want to let them down.

At the same time, I am–perhaps surprisingly–not that stressed by the work on Heat. It’s an important work to the fandom and it has major status, yes, but we have a big team so that no one feels like they are the linchpin holding everything together. We also don’t feel the pressure to top what we did last year. We’re not competing with our past selves. We just want to put out a great book every year that shows off the talent of the fandom, and I think we’ve done that fairly well for the decade-and-a-half Heat has been in print.

So now you want to try your hand at writing for Heat. What are the basic rules to know?

Stories should be furry, erotic, and between 4 and 8 thousand words. There is some leeway on the word count, but don’t push it far.

DO: give us your whole story.

DO: edit it several times before sending it to us. Use spellchecker.

DON’T: expect to catch every mistake and typo. We know there will be some.

DO: use a standard font (Courier New or Times New Roman work best) and font size (12 pt is quite standard). Feel free to make use of the standard manuscript format, which you can find examples of by googling, but it’s not a necessity.

DON’T: overexert yourself on formatting. It will all be reformatted if accepted anyway.

DO: Be prepared to work with us on your story, including on possible major rewrites.

DON’T: simultaneous submission. If you submit it to us, don’t have it submitted anywhere else while we are considering it.

DO: feel free to use a pseudonym on your submission (although if we accept it, we will need to know your full name eventually).

DO: use your cover letter space to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you’ve done writing- and publication-wise, especially if you have never published with Sofawolf before.

The deadline this year is September 19th and is planned for release by next years Anthrocon. Payment will be at the rate of $0.01/ per word. You can learn more about the Do’s and Don’ts of Sofawolf’s submission page. But like I said, this is the anthology not only for stories, but poems and comics as well with their own requirements. There will be a lot of competition, but if you want to have a fighting chance, Dark End recommends this.

Pick up a volume of Heat and read through it. See the kind of stories we like to publish. A lot of eager writers don’t realize quite what we mean when we say, “We want a story, not just sex,” until they have read through an issue.

Talk with other writers. Share ideas. Ask for help beta-reading your story and offer to help beta-read other submissions. Visit the Furry Writer’s Guild; even I’m there… sometimes.

Good luck to all the writers and creators, old and new, who are submitting to Heat. May the best erotica win.

-Matthias

• Buy Heat on Sofawolf

A new publication from Create Space: Dinosaur HeRAWRsies — A Coloring Book for Dinosaur Fans of All Ages. “Fun and educational, this pun-filled collection features some popular dinosaurs as well as recent discoveries! Includes familiar favorites such as T. Rex and Triceratops, plus newly discovered dinosaurs like Aquilops, Tarchia, and Prestosuchus. Includes fun facts about each dinosaur, as well as funny visual puns and geeky references.” The title itself is a reference to The Dinosaur Heresies, a famous work of non-fiction by paleontologist and Red Raptor creator Robert T. Bakker. On the other paw, this new coloring book was written and illustrated by Chandra Reyer and Jennifer Nolan — and it’s available now in paperback on Amazon. You can also visit Ms. Reyer’s personal web site to see more of her fanciful illustrations and color works.

image c. 2016 Chandra Reyer / Jennifer Nolan

Hey there, Papabear,

It's DT here after quite some time!

Anyway, I'm just writing I guess as an update and a further question about what to do.

So... remember that guy I was telling you about who I was into and was into me, but stuck on his ex? Well a lot of time has passed, they broke up again last year and we started talking once again in October. Since then we've been getting closer and closer, seeing each other many times throughout the week.

We're getting closer and closer to a real relationship. He agreed to pick up the "dating" moniker and things have been.... well somewhat smooth.

We started having a few disagreements and he ended up getting angrier and angrier with what I was doing, so he ended up telling me a bunch of rules to follow and, despite me not agreeing with them, I agreed to follow. They were relatively simple, no RPing with my main 'sona (other sona's allowed), no pictures with my main sona with anyone else and not in YCHs unless topping. And no browsing FA without telling him about it or including him in some way. And he stalks my page so he knows if I was like faving something without him.

I don't agree with them, but I understand why he wants them. And they're not really that big a deal. So I agreed to them and have been staying with them, but the arguments keep happening.

Every now and then (about once a week or every two weeks), something will set him off and he'll fly off the handle, going off on me (always over text as well), sometimes insulting me, sometimes just saying I don't care about him or love him. Every now and then he brings up his ex as well. He can be pretty petty at times, and will even admit this. The most recent thing to set him off was during a misunderstanding when I thought he was asking to come over when in reality he was asking if I wanted him to go to Walmart with me. He asked me why I would think that and I mentioned "I dunno. second thoughts?" and he blew up in the course of 3 messages and such. Got him to calm down about an hour later and chill with me.

I always get him to calm down after a lengthy conversation. I'm pretty good at that. I let him know that we should compromise and try talking before letting emotions get out of hand, to call more often if tensions start getting high, etc. But he only seems to partially follow this. Instead he wants me to apologize and change something else about me, which I do. Each time.

I know it feels like I shouldn't be doing that, but it’s what calms him down and it usually is something I should have seen, but I don't like how almost every time is the "last" time and he's always "done" with me. It really is disconcerting. I'm trying my best and working on everything. It doesn't feel like he is, but he insists he is whenever I bring it up.

That's another issue. I want to bring things up with him, but the only time I really can are during these fights wherein he claims I don't stand up for him or care for him or agree with him on things. I feel like if I try to bring up anything, he'll get angry with me, and it’s just not worth it.

I feel like there are things I can't do without upsetting him as well. Like there are a couple parties this weekend I would like to go to and I have invited him. Told him he should come with, but he refuses to go to any furry party and anybody's house. And I know if I go he'll whine and be upset that I went, so I'm probably not going to go. Just chill with him instead I suppose. This has happened before.

I know it sounds bad. It does. But when these things aren't happening he's incredibly sweet, close, talkative. I love it and I feel like I do love him. It's just this is beyond frustrating and it's changing just so slowly. During the fights, he keeps saying he wants to just shut everything down in this un-official relationship, but I always end up talking him out of it, and saying something to try to change, to make it better. And that's pretty much the end of discussion until the next one.

The only other issue is sex I suppose. I mean, the sex is great. He can be a bit too bitey, but most of the time it’s great. I just wish I could penetrate. He likes to say "total top" but I dunno. He's pretty submissive emotionally. Doesn't seem to like things up the rear though, so looks like I'll have to wait.

Anyway, I'm just trying to figure out what to do I suppose. I do love him and he says he loves me. Says it and writes it down. I'm just getting really frustrated with this. I'm tired and it feels like I'm getting nowhere. And I've been changing so much. Doing basically everything he asks of me. What do you think I should do?

Thanks and have a great day!

-DT

* * *
 
Hi, DT,
 
What you’re dealing with here is a very insecure mate. When people are insecure about their relationships, one thing they often do is try to control their partner. They become fearful if they feel they don’t know what their partner is doing all the time, and they quickly become jealous. I don’t think I need to tell you that this is not healthy. You’re giving in to him all the time just encourages the behavior. What you are doing is bending over backwards all the time to make him happy. And how about you? Are your needs being met? They are just as important as his needs. You don’t seem overly happy in the bedroom, and you are restricted in what you are able to do socially, such as what events you are allowed to attend.
 
If you are truly determined to work on this relationship, then you need to bolster your partner’s self-esteem and trust in you. Some suggestions:
 

1. Take pains to give praise and say “thank you” for things he does for you and around the house.
2. Pick activities to do together to reinforce your bond.
3. Create friendships with people who are not “your friends” or “his friends” but “our friends.”
4. Be transparent. He obviously doesn’t trust your Internet activities. I would not hide what you’re doing from him. At the same time, I would not alter my behavior for him. If he doesn’t like what you’re doing online but it’s stuff you want to do, then there is a problem you need to discuss.

In my experience, I’ve seen all too many people compromise when it comes to a partner, often to the point where they have someone in their life who is verbally or even physically abusive. Why do they do this? Usually one of two reasons: 1) they are so afraid of being alone that they will take in anyone willing to be with them, or 2) they have such low self-esteem they feel they are not worthy of a better partner and that “this is the best I can do.” I think you should take a moment and consider if one of these might not be a possible reason you are with this guy. Sure, he can be sweet and loving (if you say so) but he is also controlling and distrustful. If you can’t get these issues resolved with him, then you should seriously consider other options.

Good luck!

Papabear