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woah, 2 weeks in a row!!! btw, come join us in the telegram chat! https://telegram.me/draggetshow We discuss bastards, c-words, alkali's work, and answer listener questions! ep 117 - Two In A Row! - woah, 2 weeks in a row!!! btw, come join us in t…

You gotta notice a story with an introduction like this: “Catland Empire is a graphic novel melding of a Phillip K. Dick story with a Saturday morning cartoon.” That’s how Drawn & Quarterly describe this new hardcover graphic novel by pop artist Keith Jones. “There will exist a future world where ‘human beings have become empty husks stripped of all memory when it comes to things like how to have fun and play games,’ or so says Mr. Space to his associate Mr. Time. The solution? Get the cats to teach humans how to have fun again. This is all the Cat People do with their lives. They are the fun and game masters. What follows is a tangled web of psychedelic science fiction blending anti-consumerism politics and intergalactic liaisons between cats and dogs, bitter enemies kept secret from each other to avoid a planetary race war.” Look for this new book to hit the shelves in early June.

image c. 2016 Drawn & Quarterly

Joke news is fun.

Dragoneer Trades FA Source Code For Magic Beans From Gypsy Peddler

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 25, 2016

The Hard Times is a punk rock version of The Onion. They put out some of the funniest fake news anywhere.

“No One of Any Gender Wants To Use Venue Bathroom”

Did you hear news controversy about sharing bathrooms with trans people?  Personally I pee on hydrants, so I don’t give a shit about where other dogs pee.

On a Furry topic, here’s a news story that reminds me of Poe’s Law (the internet rule that says that parodies of extreme views will be taken as sincere, unless you tell people it’s a parody.)

Willamatte Week: Getting a Grip on Furry Fandom and Species Dysphoria Blues.

“It’s 2016. Time to check your Cishuman privilege.”  Cishuman… ha ha it’s fake, right?

Poe’s Law might happen if someone talks about this.  It reminds me of a time when I praised someone using the handle SLUTTY WEREWOLF for having the funniest name. I adored the flaunty bluntness.  Then SLUTTY WEREWOLF saw me post about the absurdity of “Species Identity Disorder” and unfriended me.

The International Anthropomorphic Research Project talks about “Species Identity Disorder.”  It’s in their first published academic study, “Furries from A to Z (Anthropomorphism to Zoomorphism):”

“…that up to 46% of furries ‘may possibly represent a condition we have tentatively dubbed “Species Identity Disorder”‘.

The diagnosis of Species Identity Disorder, a term invented by Gerbasi, is defined by her as ‘…considering the self as less than 100% human and wanting to be 0% human [and] is often accompanied by discomfort with their human body and feeling that they are another species trapped in a human body‘. Gerbasi makes a direct comparison to Gender Identity Disorder.” – [Adjective][Species]: Furry Research: A Look Back at Dr Gerbasi’s Landmark 2007 Study.

Isn’t this usually called “make-believe?”  But they call it a “disorder” and compare it to transgender.  It was enough to provoke an entire criticism paper: (PDF) “Furries and the Limits of Species Identity Disorder: A Response to Gerbasi et al. Fiona Probyn-Rapsey.”  (And their own response to say nuh uh.)

To be honest, I don’t have a lot of time to read such things. But I did read an IARP member’s explanation that backpedals from a label and says they were just trying to test for some “subclinical levels” of dysphoria, using similar questions about gender identity.  Supposedly those could just translate to testing feelings about being human.

It sounds like using colors to measure inches.  Isn’t that a non sequitur?  The long explanation intuitively seems off, and the more wordy a defense gets, the worse it smells to me.  “Subclinical” smells suspiciously like “microaggression”.  Even if furs have some feelings about their species, how is it more than “make-believe?”

“Spacekin.”

Studies of feelings can share more in common with slippery marketing than practitioners admit.  Marketers can have a lot of success with methods to reach very wrong goals. (Over-relying on focus groups does that, like in this story about Coke reformulating to New Coke, a famous bomb, after focus group testing for answers they wanted.)  I wouldn’t be surprised if testing voluntary, contained groups at furry cons gets squishy results.

To be honest again, I really like some IARP members and some of the study knowledge, but don’t trust other parts of the work that strongly resemble defensive PR.  Specifically, I don’t trust minimizing sexy topics while they enjoy being a single media go-to source. Or having “family friendly” Uncle Kage as co-author on their first paper (with “species identity disorder” in it) and then reacting badly to another researcher not allowed at Anthrocon – with what appears to be politics.

That researcher was interested in furry-as-fetish, also drawing from a model, called “ETLE”. Find details in the link, and let me just suggest that the reason ETLE is controversial is because politics don’t allow anyone to compare transgender identity to fetish.

Don’t shoot the messenger, but if some people have fetish for playing as pets, how is it bad to suggest that some people might be mixed up with fetish for something as prosaic as gender?  You don’t want to insult, but it’s not impossible to have multiple explanations.

I hosted that researcher’s study announcement and it was fiercely criticized. I was unimpressed by one IARP member’s reaction of calling it “shameful.” It smelled like politics. (Nobody noticed, but then he overcame criticism to complete the study.)

That’s a LOT of background about the silliness of “Species Identity Disorder.”

Here’s a wrinkle to calling it silly.  Some outsiders bring it up to mock transgender, the way that anti-gay people say “what’s next, you want to marry your dog?”  They think feeling at odds with your own gender is a joke and sign of moral decay.

@Montel_Williams if I've species dysphoria and think I'm a bird, can I crap on your car, legally?

— Johnny Dub (@realjohnadam) May 23, 2016

That’s funny by itself but not so much if it’s mocking trans people.

If a guy marries a guy there’s nothing wrong with it, and if someone gender transitions that’s OK.

Some people actually do want to marry their dogs and that’s… never mind.  But at least dogs exist. Meanwhile I think “real” Species Identity Disorder wouldn’t be like believing your dog is in love with you.  It would be like believing your lawnmower is in love with you. Or your sci-fi novel.

I don’t think it’s logical to compare things like gay relationships to marrying your dog, or transgender to transpecies.  But sometimes it’s good to be illogical.

Emperor Norton

Boomer The Dog is a fairly famous furry and a Real Dog who charms audiences in the documentary “Fursonas”. He has a sweet personality in spite of nastiness he attracted for going on TV and “making the fandom look bad” (furryspeak for “Think Of The Children”.)

I have no idea whether he claims to be Otherkin or Therian or Trans-Species.  I just remember him speaking in Fursonas about feeling the Spirit of a dog. To me, that sounds like a spiritual kind of philosophy.  I don’t believe Boomer deserves any judgement about medical conditions.  I don’t believe he has one related to this, and don’t think he claims to. That’s the difference from a “disorder” label.

Boomer has always been an awesome dog to me.  To others, I might call him “The Emperor Norton of Furry Fandom“.  It’s not like I know him very well, but whether he’s spiritual or just living a philosophy, I support him to be a dog.

I’d rather be a dog than dogmatically follow politics and labels.

#Triggered at stereotype in header. Not all furs are sexy wolves https://t.co/ubVGs4N7Ur #SomeAreUnsexy #NotAllBespectacledWhiteNerdboys

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) May 25, 2016

Hello Everyone,

On tonight's episode we open with a discussion of a scientific study that shows how HIV can prematurely age the cells in your body by 5 years, according to one measure. Viro puts his PhD to use and gives a breakdown of what that means.

Our main topic is social anxiety — what is social anxiety, is it healthy or unhealthy, and what are ways you can reduce its effects and treat it? We answer these questions as well as give examples from our own lives of how we have overcome severe social anxiety issues and learned to embrace our own shortcomings.

This episode closes out our mental health month and we hope that you have been able to learn valuable tools with which to improve yourself and, in turn, your relationships as a whole. Remember: If you can't love yourself how in the hell can you love somebody else? (Thanks RuPaul!)

We end with a question on how to tell someone in an open relationship that you are only interested in their partner. Viro gives examples from his own life and Metriko talks about what happens when you don't talk about these things (hint: it's bad). 

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 020 Social Anxiety - Everyone experiences social anxiety but how can you overcome it?

Dear Papabear,

I’m a female, 24 years old. I'm a bisexual. For the first time, I'm falling in love with a girl. She is my best friend. Absolutely, I never think to have a romantic feelings with her because I think she is not attracted to me. I’ve known her for 5 years before I had feelings for her. I'm slowly falling in love with her because we had to work out of town for two months it makes me stay in same place. She is always around me, sending me flirting message, holding my hands, and teasing me. Her body language tells me she likes me (I think). I never noticed her before because she treated me like that. I'm falling in love with her. After that work, we still make a conversation with social media, meet up, have dinner, watching fil [?], running and playing badminton together. I can see she loves me from her eyes, her body language. Until I know she climbed up the mountain with her ex and her friend. I'm jealous, but I'm silence, and the other day she attended graduation of her ex. I'm very jealous, but I never tell her why. I just argue something not necessary with her. I still act nice with her, but the truth is I'm deeply hurt. I feel she is just playing on my feelings. Until one day she asked me to be a partner to work out of town again. I'm accepting that (actually, I'm still in love with her).
 
First month still be ok, but she is so bossy; she gets mad if I don't do what she wants; she’s always right that I know. Second month I totally can't help myself again with angry feelings. I'm like a bomb, I'm explode, I don't want to talk with her, make a line, we argue, I just feel hurt and I know she feels that too (maybe). We disclose until few months and close again when I'm moving up from her town. I have a dinner with her at night, I will go. I give her shoes because I know she really likes running. I work to get money to buy it (it's expensive), and don’t use my parents’ money, and then tomorrow she asked me to take her to the airport. I said "ok.” She bring me to the airport, and gave me a present: a box with butterfly decorations and a sketchbook (she knows I really like drawing; I often sketch her face), and a bag with embroidery of my name. I still communicate with her, until I wanted to come out. I asked her what her feelings were for me? Does she feel the weird feeling I have? She said, "I think I don't feel what you feel to me."
 
It so hurt when I read it. I didn’t reply to her message for 3 weeks, and then I decided to reply. I told her, maybe 2-3 years I have feelings for her. I can understand if she thinks it's weird. I try to change. I pray, read the Bible, go to church, but it doesn’t help me. I'm deeply in love with her. This is my first time being a crazy girl who loves a girl, and I told her I love her no matter what. I said, if she wanted make a line with me, I'm okay because it's her decision. She said she wants to be my good friend. I'm lucky not because my love is unrequited, but she accepts me being her friend no matter what. I know my place, and I said, “good bye," but she doesn’t want me to stay away. It hurts. She just doesn't understand it's hard for me to stay around her when she doesn't have the same feelings like me. And now I don't make contact with her for maybe 3 weeks. Yesterday, she posted 2 photos on Instagram, using the shoes I gave to her.
 
What should I do? Is she sending me a code like "I like you too; I miss you"? Or does she just like the shoes I gave her?

Thank you. Best regards,

Anonymous (Indonesia, age 24)
 
* * *
 
Dear Furiend,
 
So, as I understand it, this is a case of unrequited love. You love her in a romantic way, but she just wants to be good friends. Correct?
 
It sounds as if you have done all the right things. You have talked to her about your feelings and she has expressed her feelings back to you. I've gone through the same thing you are going through right now. I told someone I love that I wanted to be with him, and he told me that it wouldn't work out and we should just be good friends. He gave a number of reasons (none of which were insurmountable), and I knew they were merely excuses and he was just trying to let me down easy. Yet, I also believed him when he said he cared about me and liked spending time with me and being my friend. So, that's it; today we are good friends.
 
One thing we need to learn in this world is we can't always have something just because we want it. The second thing to learn is that if you don't get it, it is not the end of the world.
 
Believe it or not, there is more than one person in the world out there for you. If there weren't, it would be really hard to find that one person among the 7+ billion people out there, wouldn't it? The things you like about this woman are not exclusive to her. There are, I'm certain, other people with similar qualities--and one of those people will not only have those qualities but will also be open to having a romantic relationship with you. Someday, you will find that person.
 
Before you do, however, you will need to stop obsessing over the woman who just wants to be friends. If you pursue her energetically, you will end up chasing her away even farther. Instead, accept her friendship. Friendships can be wonderful, beautiful things and should not be dismissed lightly. Using the above example, I would never tell the guy who rejected me that I want him out of my life because I value what we do have. Another example: recently, sadly, I was on the other end of the story: I broke up with someone who really loved me. I knew he loved me and I cared a lot about him, but he was so obsessive and jealous about this love that I just wasn't ready for it at this time in my life. Unfortunately, I can't just be friends with him because he once told me he could not bear being in the same room with me and "just be friends." The only solution was to break it off entirely. Is that what you want? Because that is what will happen if you obsess about this other woman.
 
Judging by what you have said about her, a romantic relationship is not an option. Either accept her as a friend or, if you can't bear that, break it off completely. (I hope you will choose friendship). Drop the jealous act. Jealousy is an ugly green demon and will only hurt you. Leave yourself open to other possible relationships. Be open to love, but not possessive of it, and it will find you.
 
Good luck, dear,
 
Papabear

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com. 

Ursa Major Awards announced.

WE’RE #2! Awooooo!!!  “Best Magazine” went to Heat from Sofawolf Press. Next year, maybe Dogpatch Press can get #1 with a shameless award campaign with sexy fursuit pin-up poses. (As fursuiter on staff, it’s not that I don’t have standards… I would enjoy it just as much as anyone who wants to see it.)

Congrats also to Furries Among Us, edited by Thurston Howl, a nice success for a new small publisher.  Then there’s the interesting topic of “Best Website” for FurAffinity.

FurAffinity hacked – furry problems reach wider community.

VICE: “Another Day, Another Hack: Furry Site Hacked, Content Deleted.”  Flayrah reported loss of six days of data and how the problem is being addressed.

Source code for the FurAffinity site was gained through a security hole.  The code ended up on flash drives distributed at Biggest Little Fur Con, even left around at random.  Shortly afterward, personal accounts were accessed.  Some people who used passwords in common with other accounts (Google etc.) reported attempts to access those. Password reset was done for all users, locking some users out of their accounts if they weren’t linked to current email addresses.

Dogpatch Press got tips, although the info was already on this gossip forum.  There was also an informative link to a timeline of FurAffinity’s problems maintained by Eevee.

There’s a long pattern of problems.  But then it couldn’t have been easy to build a large fan-based site with a very shaky business model.  In my opinion, it shows outside stigma as much as inside mistakes, and a positive testament to fan commitment.

Furry Network launched to the public – do FurAffinity’s problems make opportunity for a game-changer?  

On May 12-15, Biggest Little Fur Con was host for a planned launch event for Furry Network.  It’s the new art site sparked by IMVU’s buyout of FurAffinity, and developed by the minds behind Bad Dragon, king of what I call the “shadow economy” of Furry fandom.

If we named two leading “institutions” rising out of grassroots, DIY fandom (“Big Furry”), the other might be Anthrocon, representing the “family friendly” light side.  Occasionally I bring up the 2012 rule change that blocked Bad Dragon from Anthrocon – a superficially tiny event representing a major schism between two fundamentally conflicting camps.  Their strange coexistence is the biggest drawback and strength of Furry. (It’s no mistake that the recent Fursonas documentary specifically focused on leaders of both.)

Game-changer is a hype term – which may be well deserved.  Furry Network appears to offer the first widely useable mediation system for payments and ratings to manage Furry business.  Flayrah recently had discussion about why Furry-specific auction sites only inhabit a small niche apart from activity hubs.  This would be the first fandom-specific site to bring it together.

Remember how FurAffinity’s “cub problem” kept it from having a relationship with a payment processor, preventing growth?  Whatever Dragoneer’s faults, he kept the site largely untamed with only modest compromise about content.  But that was natively an art site, not an adult business built in the face of outside stigma about “morality”.  Furry Network starts out with a robust payment system already in place thanks to a thriving market for Bad Dragon products.

We sure do - complete with support for adult works, buyer/seller protection, and dispute resolution in-house. :D https://t.co/c14ZScQbDB

— Furry Network (@FurryNetwork) May 19, 2016

Could a potential game-changer like this come from any other fan institution?  It’s why I say “porn saves.”

FurAffinity’s most recent drama isn’t the first time they faced a challenge from competition during a crisis. Last year Flayrah reported shedding users when the FurAffinity Forums broke away.  Now, security measures on FA (including new Captchas) have a suspiciously convenient side-effect.  Grab popcorn.

Hey everyone! We're sorry the importer isn't working - we looked into it, and it seems to be because the source site is in read-only mode.

— Furry Network (@FurryNetwork) May 21, 2016

“Announcing the Furry Writers Guild University!”

It may look like just another subforum, but it’s a home for online writing workshops sponsored by the FWG.

“What I’d love for the FWGU to become — with our members’ and supporters’ help — is a place where both new and experienced furry writers can come to learn about writing in a more in-depth way than just a single critique, where our experienced members can pay it forward by leading workshops for their peers and up-and-coming writers in the fandom, and where writers who don’t have the ability to travel to conventions and attend panels can get a little of that same panel experience online from wherever they are. If anyone (member or future member) would like to lead a workshop, we have a proposal form here you can fill out and submit.” – (Renee Carter Hall, “Poetigress”, FWG President 2014-2016.)

Furry Publishers twitter accounts collected by Fuzzwolf of FurPlanet.  A list of 14 publishers for furry authors to know.

______________

AMAZING FURRY NEWS COMING SOON – Zootopia Porn Parody As Popular As Real Thing In #7!

______________

Big Pharma Upset When Furry Hugs Proven Better Than Overpriced Pills

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 14, 2015

Con Rulebook Suggests Not To Party Until You Puke Inside Your Fursuit

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 14, 2015

Time Traveler Comes From 2022 To Stop Furry-Brony World War

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 22, 2015

Museum Of Furry's First Exhibit Is Uncle Kage’s Liver

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 23, 2015

Grumpy Old Man In Sleeping Gown Throws Shoe At Furry Orgy

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 22, 2015

Obama Commissions Fursuit So He Can Go Places Without Secret Service Hanging Off His Ass

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) October 22, 2015

 

1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?

My most recent published work is Huntress, the story of a young anthro lioness’ journey to become one of her people’s elite female hunters. Some of the character names and deities were taken from an old notion I’d had many years before to write a Watership Down-style novel about regular lions, but the story of Huntress was inspired by an episode of the National Geographic Channel’s show Taboo. It focused on the practice of “breast ironing,” where young women have to either painfully flatten their breasts so they can stay “girls” and keep going to school, or let their bodies develop, officially becoming women, and then be forced into marriage. The conflict of that choice stayed with me, and a more extreme version of it became part of the book.

2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?

The process can vary from project to project, but for longer works I usually make a few pages of notes brainstorming possible scenes, characters, elements, and so forth, which then turns into a list of key scenes. It’s a pretty flexible, organic type of outline, though, and things often get added, changed, or moved as I get into the writing. The other part of my process is that I try to work longhand for first drafts whenever I can, especially for short pieces; for a lot of different reasons, it feels better to me than composing with a keyboard.

3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?

I’ve always felt most at home in fantasy, whereas science fiction is more a place I visit the suburbs of but don’t feel comfortable venturing into the heart of the city. I like adding a touch of humor where I can. And of course, I like writing anything with an animal or animal-like character involved, or I wouldn’t be here!

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?

There’s a lot of me in Leya from Huntress — her longing, her drive, her perfectionism, and her questioning. I admit, though, sometimes I do feel like Dinkums from Real Dragons Don’t Wear Sweaters, wanting to be taken seriously as a fearsome creature of legend despite being pink, fuzzy, and cute. Whenever I feel like I should be writing some kind of gritty, edgy, epic trilogy that will win prestigious awards; whenever I feel like I’m just writing these silly, shallow little stories that will never really matter — yeah, that’s Dinkums.

5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

A lot of my influences aren’t technically (or primarily) authors, but when it comes to my furry fiction, it’s pretty easy to pick out the notable turning points on the timeline. I read Bambi around age 10 because I was curious how it compared to the movie — and found that in many ways I liked the book better. As I’ve read it again and again over the years, I’ve come to appreciate its reverence for the natural world and its adult sensibility that doesn’t resort to easy, sentimental answers. Later, books like Ratha’s Creature and Watership Down opened up the possibility of writing animal fantasy in a way that included culture and change (with or without humans being part of the mix). In late high school, I fell hard for the Redwall books, and though the formula eventually wore thin, that initial enchantment became a big influence on my first published novel, By Sword and Star (I wrote a whole blog post about that here).

Later on, around the time that I was getting into the furry fandom, I read S. Andrew Swann’s Forests of the Night and started to see possible ways to write the bipedal type of “furry” fiction, in addition to the more feral style of animal fantasy that I was already familiar with. Without question, my biggest influence among fandom works was a short story I discovered online, “Wings” by Todd G. Sutherland. That inspired my own story “Dog Days,” which then became my first story published within the fandom.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?

That would be Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy, which is probably the best contemporary YA book I’ve read since Laurie Halse Anderson’s Catalyst. Willowdean’s voice, emotions, and struggles ring true on every page, and for me there were a lot of smiles (and cringes) of recognition. It’s a rare book that truly can make me tear up at one scene and laugh out loud at another, but Dumplin’ managed both.

7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I’m an insatiable reader, rarely going more than a few minutes between books, so if I’m not writing, I’m probably reading. Lately I’m also enjoying adult coloring books as a way to relax using art, without the pressure I put on myself if I’m trying to draw or paint something original.

8. Advice for other writers?

The tl;dr version is: Keep writing, keep reading, keep learning. Do those three things and it’s impossible not to improve. The learning can be via critiques, classes and workshops, how-to books, whatever suits your situation best.

Which brings me to the other big one for me: When it comes to process, there’s no right or wrong way. You don’t have to write some certain number of words a day (or even write every day) to be a “real” writer, and you don’t have to follow someone else’s path to success (in fact, you probably can’t anyway). We’re all different. Don’t fall into the trap of feeling bad because you’re not doing what Pompous Successful Writer says you should be doing. Find what works for you.

9. Where can readers find your work?

The hub for everything is my website, http://www.reneecarterhall.com, and the best way to keep up with what I’m doing is to sign up for my mailing list. I’m also on Twitter as @RCarterHall (warning: I retweet a lot of cat pics), and I have galleries on FA and Weasyl as Poetigress.

10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?

It’s become something of a cliché answer for this question, but looking at the fandom as a whole, the level of creativity and enthusiasm is pretty amazing, especially considering how much of it is focused on creating original content and not just replicating or re-purposing something from a media source.

On a personal level, I love that there’s a place where I can share a serious story starring an animal character without worrying that it’s going to be automatically dismissed as weird or as something silly for children. As much as I love publishing anthropomorphic fiction outside the fandom, and as much as I want to see its audience grow beyond the boundaries of furry, it’s still reassuring to know that the fandom’s supportive space and audience are open to me as a creator.

 

Check out Renee Carter Hall’s member bio here!

Over the years there have been many, many illustrated editions of Kenneth Grahame’s seminal anthropomorphic work, The Wind in the Willows. Now IDW Publishing have brought forth a new edition — this time, illustrated by an artist who is himself well-known in the world of anthropomorphics. “Experience the timeless story of Toad, Rat, Mole, and Badger in a beautiful new hardcover designed and illustrated by New York Times Bestselling author and Eisner Award-winning creator David Petersen (Mouse Guard). Painstakingly illustrated over three years, this special edition features both color and pen and ink illustrations throughout and Petersen will be hand-signing each copy of the 1st printing.” Find out more over at IDW’s web site, and look for this new hardcover edition galloping your way this coming October.

image c. 2016 IDW Publishing

"Furries: The Documentary" is a somewhat narrowly released documentary also focusing on the furry fandom. Unlike the recently reviewed "Fursonas", we actually quite like it. Listen on to know why! Follow em on twitter to learn when you can see it in your area or online: https://twitter.com/furryfilm KnotCast Presents - "Furries: The Documentary" Review

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

Light: A Tale of the Magical Creatures of Zudukii, by T. S. McNally. Revised First Edition.
Syracuse, NY, Bounding Boomer Books, February 2015; trade paperback $9.99 (158 pages), Kindle $4.99.

Back in May 2015, I reviewed Light, by T. S. McNally. My review was generally positive, but I did have several complaints:

“Light is more or less worth reading, but this is one of those books where you have to grit your teeth and plow through leaden prose and grammatical errors on almost every page. There are no spelling errors, but was the novel proofread otherwise? There are plenty of obvious missing and double words, like “‘Brudder! You have my toffee?’ his [Garoo’s] young brother [a fawn] inquired as he leaning forward.” (p. 24), or “You were always were pretty bright.” (p. 31). Fangstro is constantly called a wolf; a canine. Wolves are canids, but are they canines? I can’t read the word “canine” without thinking of dogs.”

Since Light is published by print-on-demand technology, McNally has produced a Revised First Edition that corrects many of these mistakes. The date has not been changed, but the original first edition was 151 pages; this revision is 158 pages. The passage that I quoted on pages 136-137 is now on page 143. The specific errors that I pointed out have been fixed; but Garoo still has an unusually prehensile tail for a kangaroo, and the wolves are called canines, not canids.

Since most of the errors that I complained about are gone, here is my review again with those complaints gone.

“Magical creatures” are the operative words here. I usually divide anthropomorphic fiction into either furry or funny-animal fiction, depending upon whether the anthro animals show some semblance of reality as to species, or whether they are “animal-headed humans”. In Light, though, the inhabitants of Zudukii are totally, blatantly fantastic. It is rare when two characters, say a brother and sister, are the same species, and all are basically humans. A bear has an otter sister, who has a kangaroo boyfriend.

Actually, he’s not exactly a kangaroo. While Garoo is usually called a kangaroo, he is more accurately described (disparagingly) as a kangabuck, a kangaroo with antlers; the son of a stag father and a kangaroo mother. See the cover by Selkie. But most characters do not display a mixed heritage. They are either one animal or the other.

(Frankly, I thought that a kangaroo with antlers sounded ridiculous. But that was before I saw the fish with a reindeer’s antlers on the civic arms of Inari, Finland.)

Does Garoo hop or walk? The reader can’t tell. Does he have other non-kangaroo attributes? Page 29 says, “The crowd had grown to such a size that the kangaroo wrapped his tail around one of the posts as to keep himself from accidently falling into the water.” Kangaroo tails are not that prehensile.

Do the animals, including anthro birds, wear clothes or not? This is vague until page 31, when “Enveloped in a long green dress, a grey bushy form of a squirrel female […]” — although it’s still unclear as to whether all of the animals wear clothes or only some of them.

Light’s plot makes it a Young Adult novel. The adolescents of Emergant, a village in Land Province, are due to all board the Arcane, a religious/social river ship and sail to Omnigic village, the religious capital, where each will learn what magic Power he or she will receive – or none at all. Garoo, the son of Emergant’s Elder, the proudly antlered stag Bomeran, is widely expected to become his father’s successor. But Garoo stubbornly refuses to learn to fight, a necessary duty to defend the village – if it is not a contradiction, he might be called militantly pacifistic. Kareen, his tomboyish otter girlfriend, determines that if he won’t fight for himself, she will fight for him; even if this may make her more favored than him for the heir apparent. But Fangstro, the bullying wolf teenage son of Emergant’s previous Elder, plots to discredit both Garoo and Kareen to become the new favorite; a scheme that becomes more urgent on the Night of Transitions when it looks like Bomeran will be promoted to the Sage of the whole Land Province and leave for Floreinna, the Province’s capital; creating an immediate vacancy for a new Elder in Emergant. For most of the novel, it looks like Fangstro’s plans to make them both absent from the ceremony where the adolescents receive their magic powers will work.

The most interesting aspect of Garoo’s world is its slowly revealed history and social structure. The world has been undergoing a time of peace after the Tri-Societal War of a generation ago, but that may not last. Each of the four Provinces is devoted to one of the four elements – Land, Water, Fire, and Air. A Sage is responsible for a whole Province; an Elder for only one village within it. Describing more details would give away too many spoilers.

Light ends on a dramatic cliffhanger, with a “To Continue in Wind.”

1. S. McNally is a frequent contributor to Flayrah under the name Sonious, depicted as a kangaroo. If all his fursonas are put together, you get Tantroo Sonious McNally; but that’s still only a fursona. But it’s an active one. He has written short stories for furry anthologies, and this is his first novel.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

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

Transmission Lost, by Stefan C. Mazzara.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, September 2015, trade paperback $14.50 (unpaged [474 pages]), Kindle $6.99.

Transmission Lost is categorized as science fiction, not furry fiction. Its plot is very stereotyped, but one that a furry fan can enjoy. A human spaceman befriends an animal-like member of an alien civilization and brings peace and friendship to both cultures.

Jack Squier is a 26-year-old civilian cargo pilot with Stellar Horizons (“You have it, we’ll ship it! Lightspeed guaranteed!”) in the far future. The UN Navy, which seems to be part of a large interstellar human civilization (does UN still stand for “United Nations”?), is fighting against the alien feline Ascendancy, a.k.a. the Ailians. The UN Navy, due to running low on transport ships after ten years of war, contracts with Stellar Horizons in NYC to deliver combat supplies to the front. The route that SH gives to Jack cuts briefly through Ailian-controlled space, but he’s assured that he doesn’t have anything to worry about.

“‘The Star’s Eye is the largest cargo ship we have that still carries a one-man crew. Relax, Jack, you’re only gonna be in Ailian space for two realspace stops. The rest of it’s hyperspace until you get to the Antaeus sector. By then you’ll be well within friendly territory. Don’t worry about it. Besides, you hate working with other people, remember? Consider this a blessing.’” (p. [3])

The enemy is the Ascendancy, an alien interstellar empire somewhere around the Outer Milky Way worlds.

“First contact had been been made [when Jack had been sixteen years old] with the Ascendancy, an empire spanning several galaxies inhabited by the feline race of the Ailians. Looking as a cross between a ten-foot-tall human and Bengal tiger, the Ailians were strong, ruthless, and extremely protective of their territory. And as it just so happened, humanity had unknowingly begun to encroach upon that territory. Thus humanity had entered into war with the Ascendency, just as determined to expand their borders and claim much-needed resources as the Ailians were to retain them and take over human territory for their own.” (pgs. [3-4])

Mazzara writes very good space opera of the old-fashioned “Flash Gordon” variety, even if I do have serious reservations about spaceships blasting off for the other side of the galaxy from a spaceport in New York City. They have controls about as simple as 21st-century automobiles, too.

“‘Star’s Eye, you’ve got clear weather, and winds less than five kilometers per hour. You’re clear to take off whenever you’re ready.’

Jack strapped himself in, flexing his fingers around the dual joystick-type handgrips which served to control his ship. […] He flipped several switches and was rewarded with a strong thrum from the four engines as they powered on. With a press down of his left foot, the ship leapt off the spaceport tarmac to an altitude of a hundred meters in an instant.” (pgs. [4-5])

Naturally, Jack’s peaceful cargo run is interrupted by an enemy patrol boat; a one-being gunboat similar to but more powerful than his own. The space battle described seems modeled upon Battle of Britain dogfights, at really close quarters.

“Jack looked over as the Ailian ship pulled alongside his. While he was certain the pilot of the other vessel could see into his cockpit, Jack couldn’t see through the blacked-out viewports of the other. Nevertheless, he knew the enemy pilot was looking right at him, so he smiled and gave a jaunty wave. Fighting the nausea that was threatening to make him spew his guts all over his controls, Jack reached for the override switch that controlled the safeguards on his hyperspace engines.” (p. [8])

Jack’s shot-up ship emerges from hyperspace near an uncharted planet. He crash-lands. So does the equally shot-up Ailian fighter.

Jack’s preparations for leaving his wrecked spaceship to explore an unknown planet seem more like exploring a dangerous Southeast Asian jungle.

“Jack returned to his cabin, opening a locked compartment underneath the bed. Reaching inside, he drew out a belt made of military-spec webbed material. Attached to it was a holster, magazine pouches, a flashlight, and a small fixed-blade knife. Jack checked the holster out of habit. Fitted snugly inside was a matte-black .45 semiautomatic. The same one, in fact, that he’d carried as a pilot in the Navy. Jack enjoyed shooting and he’d kept up with it after retiring from the military. With ten shots in the magazine, one in the chamber, and four spare magazines n his belt, Jack would feel quite a bit stepping out onto an unfamiliar planet with it than he would have without it. He strapped the belt around his waist, and went back to the door.” (pgs. [11-12]. Note “door”, not “airlock”.)

And naturally he immediately meets the Ailian pilot.

‘Three meters tall. Pale orange, black-striped fur. A long tail, nearly half as long as the body was tall. Bipedal, two arms, carrying a rifle only vaguely similar to Jack’s own. Clad in a singed red flight suit, bright yellow eyes reflecting the firelight. Female.” (p. [12])

The female Ailian, who speaks English with what reads like a strong Russian accent, is Lieutenant Aria Me’lia. They have a stereotypical trek through the jungle/forest as reluctant allies, saving each other’s lives and bonding together. The exotic alien animals will be appreciated by furry fans, too.

“The larger animal howled in frustration as its prey escaped up the tree. Jack got a good look at it as it stood at the base of the tree, staring up at the escaped animal. The predator was huge, easily as big as Jack and maybe just a little bigger. Like the smaller animal, it had four legs, but the similarities stopped there. Twin tails extended from its haunches, each of them tipped with a wicked-looking short blade of what looked like blackened bone or horn. The blades glimmered in the firelight, shining with a natural polish. Each of the beast’s four paws ended in short, slightly curved claws. The most fearsome part of it was its muzzle, which was longer than a wolf’s and was filled with twin rows of sharp, shark-like teeth. The animal was covered with fur in a pattern of green, brown, and black, the perfect natural camouflage.” (p. [32])

and

“Jack opened his eyes and found himself face to face with a large dog-like creature. The blue-furred beast was gazing at him with five large green eyes arranged in a pentagon on its head, four nostrils flaring as it sniffed at him. It had been prodding at his face with one paw. Jack slowly raised his head, and the animal jumped back from him, spooked. Shying back several more steps, it turned and ran off into the distance.” (p. [63])

The trek includes having to climb a low mountain range. There’s a waterfall shower scene, of course.

“Aria was standing up in the waterfall, her face turned up to the cascade as she let the water flow over her. She was turned towards Jack, slightly to one side, but she hadn’t seemed to notice him. Inadvertently she was giving him quite the eyeful. Jack had already seen her nude a few times before, of course, when he was tending her wounds and in the tent, but that had been in close quarters and he hadn’t been bold enough, or interested enough, to look for more than a few seconds. But now the setting and her unguarded appearance was piquing his curiosity.” (pgs. [56-57])

By the time Jack and Aria do find help, they are more than just good friends. The “help” is of a dubious nature, however.

“‘Pirates.’ Jack said, the fear obvious in his voice. ‘That’s the insignia of the Scorpion Guild. Before the war started, they were the biggest threat to shipping in human space. They still operate throughout the war zone and all over the galaxy. They’re part of the reason that the military has a shortage of transport vessels. I bet that’s one they stole.” (p. [95])

This is barely a quarter of Transmission Lost. Plotwise, it’s a combination of well-worn newspaper comic-strip s-f and the “space empire” skullduggery that Edmond Hamilton used to churn out in the 1940s Captain Future pulps and novels like the 1949 The Star Kings. (Full disclosure: I loved The Star Kings. My junior high school library had it, and I must’ve read it a half-dozen times.) But Mazzara’s breezy, well-fleshed-out writing keeps it feeling fresh, at least as it relates to Jack Squier and his ten-foot-tall anthropomorphic tigress partner/mate (cover by Tyler McDonald). And when they get off that jungle planet and into the flow of Ascendancy society, and then the maelstrom of Ascendancy politics – well, there are enough ten-foot-tall tigeroids for everyone. If you like undemanding space opera adventure with furry aliens, you’ll like Transmission Lost.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon

We came across this announcement from Screen Daily: “Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (KFD) is handling world sales on animated feature Danny Diamondback, which Aardman Animation alumni Darren Walsh (Shaun The Sheep TV series) will direct. It’s the story of a young rattlesnake with a musical talent in his tail. The film is based on the children’s novella of the same name, first published by Harper Collins and written by illustrator and production designer Barry Jackson (How The Grinch Stole Christmas). Jackson has written the script and will be heading up production design on the project. Siege Train Studios’ Curtis Augspurger (Valiant), Matthew Hampton, and Cora Palfrey will produce the film alongside Jackson. Bibo Bergeron (Shark Tale) will serve as executive producer.” That’s one heck of a lotta veteran anthropomorphic talent on one project. No word yet on if the film is to be CGI or claymation. Guess we’ll find out after they give us a projected release date!

image c. 2016 Kaleidoscope Entertainment

Roo and Tugs are joined by Nuka once again as they explore the world of toxic parents in the context of furry. What are toxic parents? Should you be concerned about them? What do you do if you think you have one? What's the difference between toxic and abusive behavior? We read your emails, share personal stories, and more, as we explore this subject which is close to home for many. We also have continued Space News with Dr. Buzz Aldrin, a new old-timey ad, and some audio from Salt Lake Comic Con FanX 2016.


NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Special Thanks

Nuka, our guest from the IARP. Check out their research at www.furryresearch.com.
Leo the artist, for both sending email and the ident!
Timid Grizzly
Anonymouse
Snares
Niko, from our FanX 2016 audio archive!
Crystal Mountain Pony Con!

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!)
Topic opening: Mystery Skulls - Ghost. USA: Warner Bros Records, 2011. Used with permission.
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. 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: Our next episode is about FurAffinity. What is it? Why is it so popular? What does it do? What doesn't it do? Send your emails by June 2, 2016! S5 Episode 15 – I Live With Hexxus - Roo and Tugs are joined by Nuka once again as they explore the world of toxic parents in the context of furry. What are toxic parents? Should you be concerned about them? What do you do if you think you have one?

Join the cast sans one gryphon as they settle in to discuss the weeks news Episode -37 - Vox has evolved into....a shark!

FurEh Con Special! Join the crew at FurEh 2016 as they do their best not to destroy themselves on air and in front of a live audience. Also Kaar is here instead of Adoom for this episode Episode -38 - Live from FurEh, except recorded

What makes a scene? In writing, not that mess of animals who record this podcast. We discuss about how scenes are set up, what entails them, how to start one, end another and chain them all together.

 
Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:

@FangsAndFonts

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Fangs and Fonts

Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep66-Scene_it_Wrote_That.mp3

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Ep 66 – Scene it, Wrote it - What makes a scene? In writing, not that mess of animals who record this podcast. We discuss about how scenes are set up, what entails them, how to start one, end another and chain them all together.   Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, [...]

FurAffinity, the fandom’s biggest social website & art gallery, has once again had computer-related problems, being unavailable for several days, and later reverting back to older backups. With ever-delayed upgrades and occasional server issues, FurAffinity is famous for both its questionable stability, and its non-relenting established dominance over other similar websites.

A vulnerability in the widely-used library ImageMagick was exploited to obtain the full source code of FurAffinity, code that was later distributed anonymously on a handful of USB pen drives located throughout the Biggest Little Fur Con (Nevada, US). A later attack deleted user profiles, submissions, and others (source⇒).

FurAffinity community manager Dragoneer, as well as its staff, responded to worrisome statements by explaining the issue, and later restoring the website. The site remains until Monday 23rd in read-only mode while they continue their security audit. At the same time, traffic on Inkbunny and Weasyl has spiked considerably (source⇒). The more recent Furry Network website (link⇒) asks no invitation now to register, so anyone can make an account. It also has an extremely easy-to-use tool to migrate art & watches from FurAffinity.

In the short amount of time FurAffinity was fully functional after the attack, some users published journals on how to reach them or their art through other different websites. Some (source⇒) consider FurAffinity the “Microsoft Windows” of furry websites: while it’s not the best, it established itself at a key moment in time, so pretty much everyone uses it now either way. Except Microsoft Windows has never gone 10 years without a code rewrite.

If you continue to use FurAffinity, it’s strongly advised that you change your password to a unique string of characters, as there has been some attempts at compromising external e-mail accounts. This can only be done once the website stops being in read-only mode. Also, remember that all messages on the website, either private or public, are stored in plain text format (not encrypted). Artists should not rely on FA’s private message system to handle commissions.
 
 

 

Furry animator Fredryk Phox / Matthew Gafford has released A Fox in Space, an episodic show of Star Fox fan-inspired adventures. Star Fox is Nintendo’s main character from the videogame series Star Fox. Some call the character Fox McCloud (not anyone else but himself, see episode.) The show is a funny and authentic take on its universe, and it’s a surprisingly high-quality production despite the limited budget & staff involved. The first episode is close to reaching a million views on YouTube.

The project has a Patreon website (link⇒) and regular streamings of the whole creative process (link⇒).

Spanish furry audiovisual communications guy & announcer Ribbs (link⇒) has professionally dubbed the original English voices to Spanish (so now ‘Pew Pew’ sounds like ‘Pñao Pñao’, amongst other improvements.)

 
English (YouTube⇒)

 
Spanish (YouTube⇒)

 
 
 

Furrnion registration is now open! (link⇒) The Spanish furry convention will be held through the 27th to the 29th January 2017. Registration opened on May 1st at a discounted price (the discount will continue for an unspecified amount of time.) The convention will soon have a promotional video of fursuiters doing silly fursuiter things at the venue.
 

 

And now for something completely different! Korean furry blogger Basdog, at blog.naver.com/fueholic (link⇒), contacted FurryFandom.Es, interested in translating many of our articles to Korean! He runs a blog which is meant to give an inside view into the world of furry to those Koreans unfortunate enough to not understand English. Thus we are united in our wish to spread furry culture all over the world! We are adding Basdog’s website to our ‘Partners in Press’ section on the top right menu, along other furry news websites we use to document our own. To those interviewed here at FF.es, do not feel surprised to be sent fan comments in Engrish!
 

The entry News from the World (May 2016) appears first in FurryFandom.es.

Fuzz and Savrin are slightly less full of words than normal tonight. Only slightly. We discuss Things of The Week, try to differentiate between being sad and depression, talk about gut bacteria, get a BLFC con report, and discuss hookups at conventions and why they're so much of a thing. Like the show and want to toss a couple bucks our way? We have a Patreon! www.patreon.com/knotcast Episode 315 - Gateway Species