Feed aggregator

Hello Everyone!

This week we talk about After Dark Twitter, the whys, the hows, and the what not to dos. 

AD Twitter can be a great place for you to engage yourself -- and others -- in kinks, fetishes, and roleplay and can expand your sexual wheelhouse. That being said, there is a social contract involved when you engage in this type of activity, both as a "producer" and a "consumer". 

We discuss how to interact with people in a way that portrays you in a good light and allows you to embrace the fun, sexy side of the fandom. We also talk about the risks and ways to mitigate your naked body becoming a public attraction.

We also have a listener question about how to move on after the end of a possibly unhealthy relationship. 

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 013 AD Twitter Etiquette - AD Twitter is a playground for adult furries, but how should you behave in this type of sex-charged environment?

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

Cat Crimebusters, Part 1

Cat Crimebusters, Part 2

Cat Crimebusters, Part 3

Cat Crimebusters, Part 4

As far as I am concerned, all of the other “cat cozy” series with cat detectives are phonies. The only two that “sort of” qualify are (1) the Magical Cats Mysteries by Sofie Kelly.

Curiosity Thrilled the Cat. February 2011.

Sleight of Paw. September 2011.

Copycat Killing. May 2012.

Cat Trick. February 2013.

Final Catcall. October 2013.

A Midwinter’s Tail. October 2014.

Faux Paw. October 2015.

Kathleen Paulson becomes the young librarian of Mayville Heights, Minnesota, and is adopted by two stray cats whom she brings to the library as “library cats”. They are Owen, a tabby, and Hercules, a fat black-&-white “tuxedo” cat. Kathleen and her detective boyfriend Marcus Gordon invariably become enmeshed in a local murder, and she comes to suspect that Owen & Hercules have mysterious powers that help her solve the mysteries. Owen can apparently turn invisible, and Hercules can “walk through walls” – it’s impossible to keep him shut in or locked up. Plus they regularly “accidently” call her attention to clues, too often to be normal. Maybe the two cats do consciously supernaturally help Kathleen, but they’re still at best only supporting characters.

And (2) the three … Said the Cat Young Adult paperbacks by Louise Munro Foley.

“Thief!” Said the Cat. May 1992.

“Blood!” Said the Cat. July 1992.

“Poison!” Said the Cat. September 1992. (Not online)

This was an aborted (it didn’t sell) Nancy Drew-imitation series for junior-high schoolers starring 14-year-old Kiki Collier, a writer for the Pioneer Junior High student newspaper, The Courier, who solves mysteries with her huge, fluffy orange cat, Pumpkin, tagging along. Pumpkin has a psychic understanding of what Kiki needs, and he provides it. In “Thief! Said the Cat, Kiki is babysitting at the new district attorney’s house and is in the cellar when two thieves break in. The lazy Pumpkin becomes a biting, clawing hellcat and chases them off. Kiki must discover who they were and what they wanted (a hidden will). In “Blood!” Said the Cat, Kiki is an intern at the local Galliard Museum of Fine Arts, and she uncovers a conspiracy to replace valuable paintings with replicas. Pumpkin has a psychic talent for telling which paintings or sculptures are genuine or counterfeits. In “Poison!” Said the Cat, Kiki must solve the who and why behind the almost-fatal food poisoning of some of her classmates. Pumpkin knows in advance which foods are poisoned. But the cat is not a detective as much as he is a psychic protector of Kiki; a purring guardian angel who suddenly becomes a yowling, hissing demon to defend her or warn her of danger.

Foley has gone on to many other juvenile books, but only one series of interest to furry fans: the four Vampire Cat humorous fantasies for children in which fifth-grader Tracey Wilson rescues talking, shape-shifting cat Omar from a village of vampires who want him back. In My Substitute Teacher’s Gone Batty!, The Bird-Brained Fiasco!, The Phoney-Baloney Professor, and The Catnip Cat-Astrophe!, published from 1996 to 1999 by Torkids, Tracey and Omar fight Norman the vegetarian vampire’s attempts to recapture Omar.

There are many other “cat cozy” series, but as far as I can tell, the cats do not really help solve the crimes as much as they are just pets who tag along with the amateur detectives. The biggest fraud that I know of is the Jacques and Cleo, Cat Detectives trilogy by Gilbert Morris.

What the Cat Dragged In. March 2007

The Cat’s Pajamas. March 2007

When the Cat’s Away. July 2007

In this series that apparently also did not sell and was quickly aborted, two very distant relatives who don’t know each other – Kate Forrest and Jacob Novak – are named the heirs of an equally distant and unknown rich relative, under two conditions: they must live in and keep up her large mansion in White Sands, Alabama, a beach resort town on the Gulf coast, and they must care for her many exotic pets. The widowed Kate brings a 12-year-old son and her own two pet cats with her. Kate and Jake naturally fall in love. Jake is an ex-Chicago policeman and amateur author who gets a P.I. license in The Cat’s Pajamas. He does all of the real detection in the books.

Jacques the Ripper, a huge, surly Savannah cat who looks like a miniature black panther and likes to claw people, and Cleo, a pedigreed “ragdoll” who likes to drape herself over people, talk with each other. They’re constantly described as loving Kate and helping her and Jake investigate and solve the crimes. But their idea of helping is limited to bringing Kate the mice, lizards, birds, and whatever else they catch. Any investigating they do is just normal feline prowling about; their presences at the scenes of the crimes is contrived; and any clues they bat out to call attention to are strictly accidental. In What the Cat Dragged In, 12-year-old Jeremy is suspected of murder, and the cats inadvertently help Jake prove who really did it. In The Cat’s Pajamas, a movie company comes to White Sands to shoot a beach movie on location; Jacques and Cleo are written into the script because they’re so photogenic; and when murders occur on the set, they’re on hand as “actors” while P.I. Jake investigates. In When the Cat’s Away, the murders are at an international cat show in White Sands; Cleo is entered in it; and P.I. Jake is hired to solve the crimes. What’s more, Kate is a devoted Christian (as is the author), and all three novels are pulpits for blatant Christian sermons. Cat detectives? Phooey!

The Cat Who … series by Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, The Cat Who Turned On and Off, etc.) is one of the most venerable of all, with 29 novels between 1966 and 2007. But retired newspaperman Jim Qwilleran’s Siamese cat Koko never really helps detect anything. Koko may or may not be a mutation with extra whiskers, but his strange actions such as knocking particular books off a bookshelf are always interpreted by Qwilleran after the crime is solved, as clues that should have exposed the murderer earlier – sometimes before the crime was committed – if he had only known how to interpret them. Koko is never involved with solving the crimes.

Young librarians or bookshop or tea shop owners with pet cats seem to be especially popular. There are the Bookmobile Cat Mystery series by Laurie Cass with bookmobile driver Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat Eddie, and the Black Cat Bookshop Mystery series by Ali Brandon with young Darla Pettistone inheriting her late aunt’s bookstore and cat Hamlet. In the Second Chance Cat Mystery series by Sofie Ryan, Sarah Grayson’s rescue cat Elvis can detect lies. The Whales and Tails Mystery series by Kathi Daley gives Caitlin Hart both cats and dogs; her dog Max and assorted cats of the Harthaven (Washington) Cat Sanctuary plus the Coffee Cat Books bookstore/cat lounge/coffee bar. The Cats That … series (The Cats That Surfed the Web, The Cats That Chased the Storm, The Cats That Told a Fortune, three others) by Karen Anne Golden puts Katharine “Katz” Kendall and her late aunt’s five cats into murders in Erie, Indiana. The Klepto Cat Mystery Books by Patricia Fry feature veterinarian Savannah Jordan (she marries and becomes Savannah Ivey in later books) and her kleptomaniac cat Ragsdale who keeps dragging home clues. Savannah and her friends’ human love interests are the stars around the small, rural town of Hammond, but Rags has plenty of feline and equine friends. In novel #10, PAWtners in Crime, Rags is joined by a feline partner, Koko (no relation to Lilian Jackson Braun’s Koko).

In the Wonder Cats Mystery fantasy trilogy by Harper Lin (A Hiss-tory of Magic, Pawsitively Dead, Cat-astrophic Spells), Cath Greenstone, her cousin Bea, and her hippie aunt Astrid run the Brew-Ha-Ha café in Wonder Falls, Ontario, next to Niagara Falls. They are all secret witches, and each has a cat (Treacle, Peanut Butter, and Marshmallow) with “the magical ability to communicate with her telepathically”. Except that the cats aren’t magical at all. The modern witches can read all animals’ minds. Their cats are not familiars, just ordinary pet cats. They are too feline to be interested in solving the murders. Cath or one of the others may dredge up an important clue from realizing what their cats saw, but the cats have not consciously detected. In the Black Cat Detective Culinary Cozy Mystery series by S. Y. Robins (The Death Next Door, Gone Missing, Cold Death, all three published in February 2016), young Milly Dupont who runs a “quiet little tea shop” in the tiny village of Wirkster with her black cat Edgar and her employee (and boy friend) Callum Davidson, get involved in murders. In the veddy proper Oxford Tearoom Mysteries by H. Y. Hanna, young Gemma Rose’s quaint Oxford, England tearoom, her tabby cat Muesli, dashing young CID detective Devlin O’Connor, and Gemma’s matchmaking mother become involved in such mysteries as A Scone to Die For and Tea With Milk and Murder.

There are too many other cat cozy mystery series to list them all.

– Fred Patten

Looks like the mutual orbiting of Titan Comics and Dreamworks Animation continues…! Now they bring us Puss in Boots, a new full-color series hitting the shelves later this month. From the preview over at Flickering Myth: “Short of money and with a long milk tab to pay, Puss answers an advert that takes him out to sea with a cranky old owl on a pea-green boat. But if you think you know how this fairytale ends… think again! Flying fur balls and derring-do abound! See you on the poop deck! The Adventures of Puss in Boots is written by Max Davidson (Home, Simpsons Comics) and Chris Cooper (Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Excalibur) with art from Egle Bartolini (Penguins) and Dave Alvarez (Looney Tunes, Animaniacs).” Read it, if you dare!

image c. 2016 Titan Comics

This week’s episode is all about balancing your writing life, with your working one. Bonus topics include: What makes writing racist/prejudice, authors who are/were racist/prejudice, and various insights into our convoluted lives.
Send us your feedback, questions, concerns, complaints:

@FangsAndFonts

Facebook.com/FangsAndFonts

Fangs and Fonts

Click below to Listen http://www.fangsandfonts.com/FnF/Episodes/Ep63-Work_Life_Balance.mp3

Download here | Open Player in New Window

Ep 63 – Work Life Balance - This week’s episode is all about balancing your writing life, with your working one. Bonus topics include: What makes writing racist/prejudice, authors who are/were racist/prejudice, and various insights into our convoluted lives. Send us your [...]

Two Old Furry Fans, Episode #3a: In which Mark and Rodney talking about fun furry findings at Disneyland, the world confronts the appearance of Star Wars and The Rescuers, and Mark starts to write furry science fiction. So just what is a skiltaire, anyway?

Download file | Size: 110M

TOFF Episode 3a

[Editor’s note: we first published Whiskey Sour in 2013, which included an introduction by the poet, Lunostophiles. Lu also curated the first [a][s] poetry collection, in 2015. I love Whiskey Sour. Read it, wherever you are, and be transported. ~~JM]

Whiskey Sour

We cup our claws,
Our talons,
Our nubby, rum-soaked fingers round flimsy cups
Thrust high in praise of the bacchanal;
Of deities borne through chants whispered into bottle caps,
And gods reincarnated with too-loud laughter.

And we, members of a growing cult
That malingers like a skulking formaldehyde dream;
The clan of eternal headaches,
Of moist and sloppy lip-locks in bathrooms,
A brotherhood we did not know we had joined–
All hidden behind locked hotel room doors
Dangling signs to ward away housekeeping just one more day.

The tingling fingers of siren cocktails draw shadows on our eyes,
Their clarion songs promising personality,
Conviviality,
New and absent friends cast in the fires of a molotov.

The party floors reek of high-proof happiness by Thursday’s end;
A massive, sharp-toothed plague that grips us
Like beef bourguignon with the red overflowing,
And in its powerful jaws
Forces from us a vomit of glee.

—–

In my naivete, my swollen days of Massachusetts autumn,
When life was a marbled haze upon my eyes,
New to the north, new to adulthood in its bleak daylight;
It is here I was first thrust headlong into the convention scene.

The smiles of the rogues,
The shade-beings,
Frothing like the head of a fresh-poured Guinness,
With arms outstretched as great bows with no arrows.

“You’re here!” they cried, they shouted!

“You’ve made it!”

“No more are you doomed to a life
Where what you know of us are pixel silhouettes,
Spectres and creations of fervent, bored imaginations
Illuminated to life upon LCD screens.
No more will you play the most dangerous game
With mouse cursor and hyperlink,
A man on wild safari for a beast no one has caught!”

The lobby was Kublai Khan’s pleasure dome,
Husky and dense with delights:
Shrieks of absences making hearts grow fonder
And the soft hum of happy chatter.
This was the soundtrack of a grin.

And this Morphean utopia,
All swathed in furs and memetic shirts,
Laid itself before me prostrate like a lover waiting.
And somehow, despite having never charted these waters,
I spread my fingers wide, the rays of a distant star
Upon the china white body of this vast world made flesh,
Feeling blind corners and sharp elevation changes.

And in my mind, this monolithic and precise relief
Fit jigsaw-snug into the jagged-edged,
Razor-toothed pockets of the conspace–
Just like I knew it would.

—–

The size of the party means you’re having more fun!
Kiss the elbow of the man next to you
(Though you aimed for his lips
And your trajectory erred),
Caress the obliques of a stranger–
Any stranger!–
They know you in spirit.

We pack ourselves tighter into a four-person cubicle,
Sardines with no oil or water,
Just marinating for the main course.

We keep laughing, we writhe our bodies;
We roll our heads, unattached, through the marathon hallways,
Down the stairwells and across the pool chairs,
Colossal sound extricating itself from our maws thrown wide with venom;
Venom and veracity.

Keep laughing, you fools! This is of import!–
Don’t let’s talk, don’t let’s converse.
Imbibe, my comrades.

Imbibe!

—–

Acquaintences met, acquaintences made,
And now a believer in the throes of transubstantiation
I rose from the fairgrounds,
Making careful, tiptoe steps into the elevator
As if wary of nightengale floors.

Rising, rising! like the wind through a flue,
Then left in the dim hallway of an upper floor;
A babe in the clasp of some darkened bosom.

A friendly face?
There, past the ionic columns of pizza boxes,
The tenuous styrofoam skycrapers
And sunken pagodas erected in the conquest of General Tso;
There, through the chalky dark mist, I wandered,
Unaware that this was the land of the forgotten;
This was the desert Moses lost himself in for forty years,
Or a world Euclid would have wept at the sight of.

Hand-scrawled signs on the closed doors,
Effegies of animal-men in cartoon hysterics,
Voiced by a backmask reveille–
Were they speaking?
No, they were barking; mad creatures
All scraping claws on cage bars,
Aching for an exit of this perverted zoo.

A smile across the hall–
My brethren!
They ushered me from the dark and dreary path
And into their light-filled embraces,
All hearth and home.

On the desk, a lanyard graveyard,
Piles of forgeries laid waste in private
To mingle in a flat-ironed spiderweb;
And looming over us all was the altar,
The godless instrument for impassioned debauchery;
A boozy glass harmonica.

I was handed a cup.

In downcast gaze, I saw myself in the milky mirror,
An endless pit just below the surface film.
Its jaws gaped, a chasm, an abyss,
A lion awaiting the head of its master
(And I with no whip or chair).
The drink plumed personality from its depths,
Swarthy and succulent,
Sugar and spice…
…And the hooch was quite nice.

As if I had exchanged lives with a desperate man
Lost in the Sahara, carrying a dry canteen,
Upon seeing the liquid I erupted with need
And the drink disappeared in a fit of magic.
The cup hung as a red flag upon my body,
Too obvious to notice,
Waving defeat in the cold October air.

My thoughts grew hairline fractures, fit to burst at the seams;
The cup was refilled;
And I’d’ve rather rinsed than repeated
But is it not unkind to turn down one’s host?
The steps to a new and baffling dance snuck on through,
A sway and a hop I had hidden,
Shoved under blankets;
Sandwiched between floorboards.

I guzzled, I glutted,
I quaffed and I chugged and I drank.

—–

Deaddog, deaddog,
Come out to play.
The boy’s in the meadow,
The girl’s in the hay.

The boy’s at the toilet,
The girl’s at the sink.
Deaddog, deaddog!
Just one more drink?

—–

A name, a curse,
Scratched, tattooed in dismantled English,
Tight gypsy glyphs in thick-line Sharpie on cheap red plastic
As if this chalice of consumption,
This cup of infinite holding was mine forever.

But it’s never quite ours forever, though;
Never just quite.
When all the rum, all the gin, all the mixers run dry
And down to the floor we descend in a daze;
When corpses of bottles are strewn on the desktops,
Under beds,
Across suitcases unpacked;
When we have constructed mass graves and catacombs to coquetting
which overflow the trash bins;
Tremendous and terrific mountains to excess
Unfit for us to scale–
More appropriate, as knackered as it is,
To set it aflame like a phantasmagoric funeral pyre,
And let acrid smoke curl through the room and asphyxiates us.

When this death waltz has begun,
We stare from the valley of drunken stupor,
Cross-eyed and infantile,
And we gurgle out our sorrows, intoning our distates,
And the once-bright laughter falls pallid and flat;
Fetal fallen angels neck-deep in Hell’s detritus.

It is possible to reverse transubstantiation–
In those moments, it is possible to eat your own halo.

The spark of newness rubs away quick,
Like the silver ink on a fresh credit card.
Deep in the cavities of the room parties,
Shadowed under the awnings and eaves of hedonism
(May Dionysus his name be praised into the porcelain shrines!),
And the towering she-wolves we suckle from–
Romulus and Remus ad infinitum–
Inside these wounds we lose the virgin edges,
We claw our way into the light of day
And hiss at the sun.

I do not want to become a parody of intelligence.
I do not want this to be our brave new world
Filled with the vapor trails left by regret,
Bitterness smothered in cold flame.
I will not be baptized into the Church of the Dead Soldier:
Not by mother vodka.
Not by father whiskey.

Yet still, I raise a toast–
In a smaller, finer glass–
To friendships forged in the fandom’s smithy;
A fandom sought out by outliers and outcasts–
Those without names and those with too many.
I will laugh a real laugh,
A room-filling sound that is never too loud,
Fringed with the fragile lace of mirth.

And high above us, the dirty angels of the rooms
Pray to their patron saints to let them see the afternoon.

For unlike we folk awake and alive,
They have not learned how to hide their halo
Just behind their backs–
Just out of reach from the cold and clammy hands
That still crush the plastic party cups into cadavers.

No, they have no place for their goodness,
And hide their glow in the bottoms of cocktails;
Just around the far side of the martini olives
That gaze upon them and despair.

And in that moment,
With the very eyes of their consumption cast outward?
Just smile back, take a sip,
And make it the last.

At least for the night.

April’s Book of the Month is another double feature, this time showcasing furry fiction by two of the fandom’s up-and-coming authors.

First, The Latte Segment by Zoe Landon:

“Sarah Madsen is a modern young rabbit with a cozy urban life. A yuppie, perhaps, though she’d disagree with the label. After all, yuppies don’t hang with eccentric artists in beat-down studios, much less date them. And they don’t get pushed out of their apartment by profit-hunting developers, forced to pick between an impossible market and an unsustainable rent.

As she hunts for a new place to live, she learns how her comfortable lifestyle is seen by those around her. Some are sympathetic and kind, some cold and indifferent, some jealous and hostile. None can relieve her frustration from knowing that her easy life is slowly slipping out of her control. She’ll take control anywhere she can find it, but not everyone appreciates her attempts to help. Not even herself.

A story of class and success in the millennial age, The Latte Segment explores how well we can trust others, and ourselves, to do the right things in our lives — or, to do anything about them at all.”

Available in ebook and paperback from Amazon.

Next up is In Honor’s Shadow by Skye Lansing:

“What use is honor without victory?

The Wolf Clan stands divided amid a bitter civil war. For years the noble Hayashi Family has struggled to wrest control of the clan from their rivals, the Hitomi, but one disastrous battle has exhausted their power. Now every warrior within Hayashi territory must decide what role they shall play in the upcoming conflict.

Shiro, the magistrate of an unimportant village, is tasked with a dangerous mission to stop the Hitomi Family’s army. Lacking supplies, troops, and support, he knows any direct confrontation is doomed to failure. Only through guile does he stand a chance against the forces arrayed before him.

Meanwhile, Hayashi Seiko seeks to throw off the oppressive mantle of courtly life by joining her brother in the field as a proper onna-bugeisha. She leapt at the chance to prove her worth as a soldier upon hearing that the war had turned against her family, but can she really escape the politics of a society that reveres duty and honor?”

Ebook available from Amazon and all other major retailers; you can find all the ordering links at the author’s website.

The annual awards of furry fandom are open. Getting an award is only a pat on the back… the real reason is to gather things that furries love, and promote them as a creative community. Don’t be sad if something you love isn’t on the list or doesn’t win an award, because it’s not so much a contest as a celebration for everyone.

Or maybe I’m not revealing the Ultimate Power of the award before I ask this…

Please vote for Dogpatch Press for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine.

The precious award will be mine!  Actually ours.  Fred Patten’s writing makes it possible to put out a post every week day.  Managing the editing and writing other original articles is really hard work.  It’s basically a part time job.  Not just for me, but also with help from Pup Mathias and great guest posters (most recently Dronon.) It’s a team effort to maintain an info source this active.

So please do give a minute to vote, and throw one our way if you liked or shared any article from here in 2015.

Fred shares more…

Voting for the 2015 Ursa Major Awards, for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of the 2015 calendar year in eleven categories, is open from now until April 15.  The awards will be announced at a presentation ceremony at What the Fur 2016, in Montreal, Quebec, on May 20-22, 2016.

The eleven categories are: Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture, Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short or Series, Best Anthropomorphic Novel, Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction, Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work, Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story, Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip, Best Anthropomorphic Magazine, Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration, Best Anthropomorphic Game and Best Anthropomorphic Website.

Voting is open to all! To vote, go to the Ursa Major Awards website and click on “Voting for 2015” at the left. You will receive instructions on how to register to vote. You do not have to vote in every category. Please vote in only those categories in which you feel knowledgeable.

This final ballot has been compiled from those works receiving the most nominations that were eligible. Please check the dates of publication next year to make sure that your nominations are only for works published during the calendar year (January through December) in question.

Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture

Live-action or animated feature-length movies.

• The Good Dinosaur (Directed by Peter Sohn; November 25)
• Inside Out (Directed by Pete Doctor and Ronaldo Del Carmen; June 19)
• The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (Directed by Howy Parkins; November 22)
• The Peanuts Movie (Directed by Steve Martino; November 6)
• Shaun the Sheep (Directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak; February 5)

Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short or Series

TV series or one-shots, advertisements or short videos.

• Danger Mouse (Directed by Robert Cullen; Season 1 episodes 1-16)
• Harvey Beaks (Directed by C. H.Greenblatt; Season 1 March 29 to November 15)
• Littlest Pet Shop (Directed by Joel Dickie and Steven Garcia; Season 3 episode 17 to Season 4 episode 9)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Directed by James Thiessen, Jim Miller, Denny Lu; Season 5 episodes 1 to 26, April 4 to November 28)
• Tiger’s Eye (Audio Drama Podcast) (Directed by Alexander Shaw; episodes 1 to 25, May 13 to October 29)
• We Bare Bears (Directed by Manny Hernandez; Season 1 episode 1 to episode 25, July 27 to November 19)

Best Anthropomorphic Novel

Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.

• GeneStorm: City in the Sky, by Paul Kidd. (Kitsune Press; May 19)
• Heart Behind the Mask, by N.”Karmakat” Franzetti. (Smashwords; May 4)
• In a Dog’s World, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productions; July 9)
• Tiger’s Eye, by Alexander Shaw. (CreateSpace; November 5)
• Windfall, by Tempe O’Kun (FurPlanet Productions; July 9)

Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction

Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry and other short written works.

• The Analogue Cat, by Alice “Huskyteer” Dryden. (in The Furry Future; FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
• Lunar Cavity, by Mary E. Lowd. (in The Furry Future; FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
• Pocpsin, by Ursula Vernon. (in Apex Magazine, #68, January 6)
• Thebe and the Angry Red Eye, by David Hopkins. (in The Furry Future; January 15)
• Tow, by Watts Martin. (in The Furry Future; January 15)

Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work

Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and convention program books.

• Furries Among Us, edited by Thurston Howl. (Thurston Howl Publications, essay anthology; July 4)
• The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten. (FurPlanet Publications, short story anthology; January 15)
• Inhuman Acts, edited by Ocean Tigrox. (FurPlanet Productions, short story anthology; September 24)
• The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, by Mary E. Lowd. (FurPlanet Productipns, short story collection; September 24)
• ROAR volume 6, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (Bad Dog Books, short story anthology; July 9)

Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story

Includes comic books and serialized online stories.

• Endtown, by Aaron Neathery. (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• The Golden Week, by Douglas Kim. (Internet; January 2 to December 24)
• Lackadaisy, by Tracy J. Butler. (Internet; Lackadaisy Congregation to Lackadaisy Inspiration)
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, by various. (IDW Publishing; Issues #27 to #38)
• TwoKinds, by Tom Fischbach. (Internet; January 4 to December 23)

Best Anthropomorphic Comic Strip

For newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.

• Carry On, by Kathryn Garrison. (Internet; January 2 to December 30)
• Doc Rat, by Jenner. (Internet; January 1 to December 31)
• Housepets!, by Rick Griffin. (Internet; January 2 to December 30)
• Peter & Company, by Jonathan Ponikvar. (Internet; page 223 to page 243)
• Savestate, by Tim Weeks. (Internet; January 7 to December 30)

Best Anthropomorphic Magazine

Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.

• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet; January 5 to December 24)
• Fangs and Fonts Podcast. (Internet; podcasts #37 to #56)
• Flayrah, edited by crossaffliction and GreenReaper. (Internet; January 2 to December 31)
• Heat, edited by Black Teagan, Dark End. (Volume #12; Sofawolf Press; July 9)
• In-Fur-Nation, edited by Rod O’Riley. (Internet; January 1 to De ember 31)

Best Anthropomorphic Published Illustration

Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee table portfolios.

• cover of EuroFurence 21 Program Book by Kenket. (September 26)
• cover of Lost on Dark Trails by Rukis. (FurPlanet Productions; January 15)
• cover of ROAR volume 6 by Teagan Gavet. (Bad Dog Books; July 9)
• front cover of Tiger’s Eye by Antonio Torresan (Amazon, November 5)

Best Anthropomorphic Game

Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.

• Armello. (League of Geeks; September 1)
• Five Nights at Freddy’s 3. (Scott Cawthorn; March 2)
• Ori and the Blind Forest. (Moon Studios; March 11)
• Undertale. (Toby Fox; September 15)
• Yo-Kai Watch. (Level-5; November 6)

Best Anthropomorphic Website

Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works; galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.

• Culturally F’d. YouTube Channel; furry videos)
• E621. (Furry fandom art community site)
• FurAffinity. (Furry art specialty site)
• SoFurry. (Furry artist/writer community)
• WikiFur. (General furry information/history)

​Good afternoon, Papabear:

I'm a new member of furry community, and from what I've seen so far everything looks amazing, However since the last few months I may have discovered the "adult" side of the furry fandom and by that I mean the furporn. I have never seen something like these and from what I have read in your answers to other people's letters, you know everything that is about the fandom and so here is my question. 

Is the furporn considered in a sense bestiality and since I have seen it does that mean that I have seen and committed the sin of bestiality? And if it wasn't, could you please tell me in what capacity does this furporn begin to enter the domain of bestiality like I saw what I think people call "feral and anthro yiffing" together and it is bothering me due to my Catholic background. So if you could please give me your honest opinion of my situation that would be incredibly helpful .... so in case you need anymore details please feel free to ask any question and thank you in advance for your help

Anonymous
 
* * *
 
Dear Furiend,
 
I guess we should start with some definitions here, just to be clear. Bestiality is committed when a human has any sexual relationship with an animal, ranging from actual intercourse to masturbation, to naked rubbing (frottage). A second definition of bestiality means "cruel and depraved behavior," but that's not as relevant here. Zoophilia, which you don’t mention, is feeling aroused by the thought of sex with an animal and having sexual desires for such animals.
 
It doesn’t sound like you are aroused by the images you saw, nor have you committed a sexual act with an animal, so, no, you have not committed a sin of bestiality in my opinion anymore than a man who accidentally sees a nude image of a woman in, say, an advertisement is guilty of adultery. Don’t worry.
 
Are there images of bestiality and zoophilia in the fandom. Yes, there are, and “feral and anthro yiffing” would likely qualify since anthros are quite similar to human beings. If you don’t like seeing such images, you can easily avoid them and still be part of the fandom. You can even join Christian furry groups online. Also, if you are not familiar with this, if you go to FurAffinity there is a button at the top right side of the page that says “SFW.” SFW means “Safe for Work,” which means it will automatically filter out any explicit images on your screen and leave you with the more wholesome images without fear of stumbling on the other stuff.
 
I hope you will stay with the fandom and enjoy the more G-rated stuff. There’s lots of it and many good authors and artists who are clean.
 
Hugs,
Papabear

This is the final of three days of animal-themed poetry by Renee Carter Hall. Renee is curating the 2016 [adjective][species] Poetry Collection, which is open for submissions until 22 April.

The Unicorn at the Zoo

They put it among trees and rose bushes,
ringed a dry moat with an iron fence.
They’re still not sure if it’s
male or female; the ultrasound
goes to static and freezes every time.
They tried to test its blood,
but the silver serum in the tube
swirled and shimmered into nothing.
They held a contest to name it anyway,
and a third-grader won with Moonflower.
Tourists gather at its enclosure with
strollers and cameras,
whinny at it like a horse,
hold their children up to see.
In their snapshots, it is only
a vague white blur, a bit
of pearly horn here, a hint
of cloven hoof there.
The gift shop has no postcards of it,
but the plush horned ponies sell out every week.
The keepers aren’t sure what it eats.
Some say the flowers, but they’re untouched.
Some say water, some say air.
Some say love, but they’re laughed at
by people who feel guilty for it afterward.
The keepers hold somber meetings
with scholars and art historians.
Every day they worry it seems a bit thinner,
its coat a touch paler, more translucent.
The words on the sign at its enclosure
are starting to fade.
Sometimes the zoo director stands
before it in his three-piece suit,
slow tears tracing the lines of his face.
Some say he’s only thinking about
the money he might lose.
Others aren’t so sure.

Pulse

The world
drifts.
Bear sleeps
beneath snow

in the deep dreaming,
the warm dark
of fur and tooth.
Within,

spring’s cubs
slumber, lulled
by the slow rush
of blood and breath.

Outside, the cold
a lullaby;
inside, her heartbeat
a promise.

(Readers can find more of my poetry, on various subjects, at http://www.reneecarterhall.com/poetry.html)

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

Soldiers of Ice, by David Cook. Map. (Forgotten Realms – The Harpers, Nº 7)
Lake Geneva, WI, TSR, Inc., December 1993, paperback $4.95 ([2 +] 312 pages), Kindle $7.99.

There are anthropomorphic novels hidden among the authorized books of popular fantasy-role-playing games. Case in point: TSR’s 1987 Forgotten Realms spinoff of Dungeons & Dragons.

According to Wikipedia: “Forgotten Realms is the name of an imaginary fantasy world that exists somewhere beyond the real world. The setting is described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and seemingly supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, the Earth and the world of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected. As time passed, the inhabitants of planet Earth have mostly forgotten about the existence of that other world—hence the term Forgotten Realms.”

The Forgotten Realms merchandising includes well over two hundred novels and short fiction anthologies from 1987 to September 2012, in hardback and paperback editions, from TSR, Inc. (Tactical Studies Rules) and its successor, Wizards of the Coast (including one by furry author Paul Kidd, The Council of Blades). Soldiers of Ice by David Cook, the seventh in the subseries about The Harpers, features the fierce doglike gnolls of the valley of Samek.

“A semi-secret organization for Good, the Harpers fight for freedom and justice in a world populated by tyrants, evil mages, and dread concerns beyond imagination.” (blurb)

“In a snow-bound valley, beyond the aid of even the Harpers, a lone village sits in the path of the relentless advance to ice and the fleeing gnolls, pushing ever southward. Of all the Harpers, only the headstrong Martine of Sembia refuses to abandon the gnomes of Samek to their fate.” (another blurb)

The tomboyish Martine of Sembia is a novice Harper, an acolyte of the foppish wizard Jazrac in the Harper center in Shadowdale. Martine has been getting low-level messenger assignments, and is impatient for some more dramatic mission that will demonstrate that she is ready for full Harper membership. She sees her chance when Jazrac asks her to go to the far northern wastes of the Great Glacier with a talisman that he has prepared, to close an ice volcano dimensional rift.

“’Sometimes things cross over and enter our world. If it’s only one or two of these elemental creatures, it’s not much our concern, but if the rift should expand, it could prove to be a danger. You’re going to go up there and seal it.” (p. 12)

Martine assumes that she can easily fly north on Astriphie, her loyal hippogriff mount; a journey of about a week toward increasingly sparsely inhabited lands and suspicious peoples.

“By this subterfuge, Martine passed through Damara and found herself at last flying over the snowbound ridge of an isolated valley, the last before the walls of the Great Glacier itself. Samek, it was called, home to a village of gnomes, or so the garrulous frontiersman farther south had claimed. ‘Be the last outpost afore the wilds,’ he swore. ‘Mebbe they can guide you to the glacier, though ‘tain’t a harder-headed batch than them little folk. ‘Taint got no trade, an’ they put up with no truck at all from outsiders, big folk especially.’” (p. 19)

Martine lands in the valley of Samek, claims hospitality from Vilheim, the only human settler living there, and asks him to introduce her to the village of gnomes.

“The object of their courtesy was a little man who stood no taller than Vil’s waist […] Despite his stocky build, Martine knew the little man was actually lean for one of his kind. Airy strands of long white beard escaped from the top of the collar […] The gnome’s face seemed ancient, reminding Martine of a shriveled apple. The doorkeeper’s rheumy red eyes were barely noticeable behind his bulbous nose, a pronounced characteristic of his race. Tikkanen’s nose was limned with thin red veins and colored with age spots.” (pgs. 31-32)

Martine asks the gnomes to guide her to the Great Glacier. They decline, but Vil volunteers. Martine and Vilheim, flying on Astriphie, notice a tribe of fierce gnoll warriors at the base of the glacier; the real reason that the gnomes do not want to move further into Samek. The ice volcano on the glacier is more dangerous than Martine expects; Astriphie is killed, marooning her and Vil. The latter returns on foot to the gnomes to get supplies, leaving Martine alone to carry out her mission.

Martine does, but is captured by soldiers of ice, invaders from the other side of the dimensional rift.

“Towering over both of them, a good two feet taller than Martine’s five-foot frame, was an overgrown version of the mephit that had captured her. The beast had the same armor-sheened skin, smoothly flowing over its body to taper off into sharp-edged flares. The icelike carapace rendered the creature insectoid, even though it stood like a man. The look was further enhanced by the fact that its frame was overly thin and elongated […] The creature’s head was triangular, tapering at the chin into a beard of icicles that grew out of its flesh. The barbed ridge of its brow was crusted with more of the same, veiling the deep pits of its eyes. A mouth, small and precise, set below two narrow slots that were its nose, gaped eagerly, revealing a formidable line of spinelike teeth.” (pgs. 70-71)

The cold-blooded creatures dub Martine Hot-Breath because of her warm-bloodedness.

“‘Vreesar, I captured it,’ the mephit boasted with a prattling squeal. The ice-bred imp sprang forward to show off its conquest […] ‘It breathes smoke and steam, hot enough to burn me, but I captured it.’ With these words, the mephit danced about in triumph, waggling its long claws overhead. ‘I captured the Hot Breath! Me!’” (p. 71)

Martine uses her burning warm breath to escape from Icy-White and the other mephitis (ice imps), and is promptly captured by the gnolls. It is at this point that the novel gets furry.

“The leader tore back its parka hood and sniffed the air in suspicion, its glistening muzzle quivering to catch the scents of the night. Its black lips curled back from yellowed fangs as it barked orders to the others. […] The five dog-men acted quickly to take control of their prize. […] ‘What do we with it?’ the smallest gnoll in the group yipped finally. The fur of its hide was still raw beige and downy. It was barely more than a cub, Martine guessed. […] None of the hyenalike men ever once slowed its pace or suggested concern for the struggling human.” (pgs. 78-79)

The hunting pack take Martine back to their longhouse which blends into the snowy moraine at the glacier’s base.

“The fire illuminated a tangle of furry bodies that covered the floor, a carpet that drew back before the blast of winter air that accompanied her entrance. Tawny, spotted arms stretched curiously while muzzles raised to sniff the new scent that had suddenly intruded upon them. Ears twitched; fleshy lips curled back from needle-sharp fangs.” (p. 81)

Martine is about to be killed and eaten by the Burnt Fur [!] tribe when she is saved by Krote Word-Maker, their shaman.

“Martine’s first impression was of a skeletal mockery of a living thing, even of its own kind. He appeared emaciated, with a sunken muzzle and bony pits for eyes. […] From this distance, Martine could see that fully half his taut face was etched with tattooing. Two purple-black scars radiated from one eye, the first cutting a wedge from his matted hairline, the other running down the length of his muzzle.” (pgs. 84-85)

It is obvious to Martine that there is a tribal power struggle going on between the shaman and Hakk Elk-Slayer, the burly chieftain and Brokka, his chief hunter; and that Word-Maker wants to save her for his own ends. Since the alternative is the Burnt Furs’ cookpot, Martine plays along with Word-Maker’s scheming, although his immediate ploy to keep her alive is to persuade chief Hakk to make her part of his harem.

Martine and Word-Maker have just become uneasy allies when the ice warrior leader, Vreesar, arrives to kill Hakk in combat and take over the Burnt Furs. Martine and Krote Word-Maker escape to the village of the gnomes, but Vreesar leads the gnolls after them, on his first step in world conquest and to get Martine to reopen the rift so he can call for more ice soldiers. A grand battle develops of everyone: ice soldiers, gnolls, gnomes, wizards, and Harpers. Of importance to anthro fans is that the focus always remains on Martine and Krote. At first bound by mutual self-interest, they gradually develop a grudging respect for each other that turns into real friendship.

Soldiers of Ice is slow getting started as an anthropomorphic novel, but once Martine joins the gnolls, there are plenty of descriptions of the dog/hyena-man tribe. The original paperback is long out of print, but still available cheaply as a used book, and there is a new Kindle edition.

The somewhat confusing cover by Fred Fields shows Vreesar, the ice elemental (dark blue; he is always described in the novel as icy white), and Martine looking at the body of a gnoll warrior.

– Fred Patten

• On Amazon
• ISFDB.com entry

 

New Members

Welcome to our newest members Shaun “Gnarl” McGrath, Arian Mabe, Jeeves the Roo, Eric M. Witchey, and KC Alpinus!

Member News

It’s awards season, so first of all, congratulations to all our members whose work was nominated in the Ursa Major Awards and the Cóyotl Awards!

In book news, Kyell Gold has released Black Angel, Over Time, and the collection Twelve Sides. In short fiction news, Mary E. Lowd’s “High School Dogs” (a prequel to her novella In a Dog’s World) is now online at Deep Sky Anchor, and issue 2 of A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature is now available, featuring stories and book reviews from several FWG members.

In crowdfunding news, there are 21 days left in Jess E. Owen’s Kickstarter for By the Silver Wind, Book IV of the Summer King Chronicles.

If you’re into gaming/RPGs, check out Paul Kidd’s A Fistful of Quidloos and Heroes of Morhost, and if film/comic reviews are your thing, Dronon has published several recently at Flayrah. Like poetry too? Check out Weasel’s poem “Midnight’s Starving” in Yellow Chair Review.

(Members: Want your news here? Start a thread in our Member News forum!)

Market News

Upcoming deadlines: The anthology Gods With Fur closes May 1, and issue 3 of A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature is open until May 15. For conbook deadlines, we have five conbook listings with deadlines ranging from April 15 to May 1; check out all the details at our conbook page.

New markets: Poets, get your work in before April 22 for the second [adjective][species] poetry collection. Full guidelines here. For short stories, we have a new listing for The Society Pages, an anthology seeking stories exploring “civilized furry society.” The deadline is June 1, but you must submit a query before sending your story; see their guidelines for full information.

Remember to keep an eye on our Calls for Submissions thread and our Publishing and Marketing forum for all the latest news and openings!

Guild News

Voting is now open for this year’s Cóyotl Awards! Voting ends July 1.

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us in the forum shoutbox for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Eastern and Thursdays at 12 p.m. Eastern. More info on the Coffeehouse Chats is here. (Remember, our forums are open to everyone, not just FWG members. Come register and join the conversation!)

Elsewhere on the Internet, we have a Goodreads group with a bookshelf featuring books by our members. Feel free to add any members’ books we’ve missed so far (see the instructions here on how to do that). We also have a Telegram group, and you can find more info on that and a link in this thread.

Remember, we’re always open for guest blog post submissions from FWG members — it’s a great way to help out fellow writers. See our guidelines for the details.

Have a creative and successful month! If you have news, suggestions, or other feedback to share, send an email to furwritersguild@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

More new stuff found at WonderCon last month: Houndstooth is a new self-published comic written by Kristen Brown and illustrated by Sam Rusk in a monochrome wash style. “Houndstooth follows the adventures of Bandit, an orphaned boy who exists in an animal’s world, along with his fellow human and best friend, Pan. The only adventure Bandit has ever wanted to have, are the ones printed inside his favorite books. But fate brought an unwanted adventure to his feet when Pan is kidnapped! Her only hope of rescue is Bandit and a couple of unlikely tag-alongs.” Issues are being released bi-monthly, both in physical (paper) form and on-line at Comixology.

image c. 2016 by Sam Rusk

Tonight on unfurled we discuss a man innocent of charges being claimed guilty anyway, a turtle gets the rock star treatment and a boat being publicly named! Listen in and enjoy our sultry tones molesting your ears. Episode -43 - Fuck a door

This is the second of three days of animal-themed poetry by Renee Carter Hall. Renee is curating the 2016 [adjective][species] Poetry Collection, which is open for submissions until 22 April.

Comanche

I had seen enough of battle.
Again and again I had carried the man into the fighting,
into the storm men make that nothing survives.
Now the thunder was gone, and their bodies
lay scattered, pale and still, across the field.
Only the river moved.

I went toward it–careful,
so careful, where I put my hooves.
At last I stood by the water, too exhausted
even to swish the flies from my wounds.
I felt nothing.
I was ready to die; I was hoping
it might be as if I were a foal again,
before I knew bit and bridle,
before I carried any weight.

Then they found me.
And they called me brave.

They made me remember.
Every parade, every ceremony took me back,
made my scars burn like half-healed wounds.
When they cheered me, I heard only
the cries of the fallen.

They gave me the best of everything,
made me the pet of the cavalry,
the mascot of the fort, the symbol
of courage and honor in defeat–
never thinking that all I wanted

was sunlight on my mane,
a mare to groom with gentle teeth,
the scent of grass instead of fear and gunpowder,
and the peace of that slow, cool river
to wash all the blood away.

February 1: Groundhog Goes to the FoodMart

Mrs. Fox, pushing her cart
in her best Sunday dress, string of pearls
at her red throat, reminds him
of the tenderness of spring chickens,
gives him a smile, white and sharp.

The Rabbit family crowds the cereal aisle.
As he chooses a plain cylinder of oatmeal,
Mother Rabbit says hello, steers the small talk
toward the petunias she’s planning
to brighten up the burrow,
the rows of cabbages and carrots
Father’s mapping out for the field.
The kits tug on Groundhog’s overalls, eyes bright,
whispering to him, one more snow,
one more afternoon of sledding, one more fort,
one more snowbunny with mittens for ears.

Sleepy-eyed Bear shuffles in, only nods
when anyone speaks, gets in line
with a quart of milk and a canned ham.
His bleary gaze meets Groundhog’s,
and he adds a can of coffee, economy size.

Groundhog waits in line, stares at the tabloids
while the chattering squirrel cracks gum
and rings up the shoppers ahead.
He feels their eyes on him, all watching as if
he could melt the gray slush outside with a glance,
could give them warmth and new life on a whim.

Even in this harsh fluorescent light,
he will not look at his feet.

(Readers can find more of my poetry, on various subjects, at http://www.reneecarterhall.com/poetry.html)

Cathair Apocalypse: “A post-apocalyptic drama where humans are extinct and cats have risen to rule the wasteland left behind by their former masters.” That’s the description from the creators of this new full-color comic book series — which combines photo-realistic GGI backgrounds and props with actual photos of the creators’ cats! It’s up on line at Taptastic, plus the creators have their own web site where you can purchase the first collection (By Cutlass Or Corsage) as well as t-shirt and other goodies.  Not made out of cat hair, thankfully!

image c. 2016 Cathair Apocalypse

​Hello Papabear!

I'm in quite a dilemma here, and I will try to make this short and sweet.

I commissioned a seemingly talented yet not very well known fursuit maker for a fullsuit in April of 2015. We agreed in writing of a deadline for December of 2015. I was given excuses all up to a month before the deadline, then was told that I was not going to be receiving my product. I understand, life happens. I was cordial and kind and gave no issue. It is now 3 months past deadline and I still have absolutely no update on the progress. I wholeheartedly believe it has not even begun. I was not told of supplies being purchased or work beginning on it.

Now, I don't mind waiting. I really don't. My issue is, that I have now come to learn a few concerning facts after I have commissioned them. I am behind a list of 20+ other paid off fullsuit/partial commissions, all of which seem to have no significant progress for months now, as shown by their public queue and social media. Instead, they are working on side projects that are not in the queue, namely pre-mades so they can make a little more money. I have also learned that they have a pretty bad habit of frequently asking urgently for money because of emergencies, yet buy unnecessary luxury items that same day such as art, plushies, or expensive fursuits, as proven by a few people. I have also spoken to people personally who have had bad experiences with this person. I have lost a lot of trust in this maker because of this.

They also have a reputation of refusing refunds in full, or adding on "service fees" or refusing chunks of the refund for "work completed" with no proof or real basis.

I have proof of all payments sent, along with corresponding messages to go with them. I have proof of commissioning the fursuit, the deadline, the missed deadline, them admitting that I will not be receiving my product at the intended time.

I have not yet asked for a refund, as this person has a reputation for becoming hostile and blacklisting and creating loads of drama once a refund is requested. I have personally been witness to this. I want to make this as smooth and quick as possible. I would like to take this to small claims court, but my only issue is, we live in completely different states quite far apart and I am unsure of what to do to keep them from going off the deep end and me losing out on money that I trusted to them, when I fully believe that none of it has even went to supplies or creation of the fursuit. I just don't know where to go from here.

Any advice is greatly and sincerely appreciated.
 
Anonymous (age 24)
 
* * *
 
Dear Furiend,
 
Sadly, what you are experiencing is nothing new and is a good example of what not to do when commissioning a fursuit. Sounds to ol’ bear you only heard about this maker’s bad rep after you started experiencing problems. Did you not research this person before sending money? That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was not getting a written receipt for the money you sent, although it sounds like you have some email proof, which is something, at least. Mistake number three was sending, apparently, ALL the money to the fursuit maker up front. Respectable fursuit makers only ask for a deposit to pay for materials and then ask for the rest upon delivery of the completed fursuit. Now you are not only out part of the money but all of it. It has been suggested by some furries that one solution would be to set up an escrow account, but this seems needlessly complicated and also means the fursuit maker would not have money for materials at first.
 
You mention small claims court. That’s a good idea, but, as you noted, works best when you and the maker are in the same state. When we’re talking different states, then it gets hard, especially since pretty much every fursuit maker I have heard of does not operate an incorporated business. That leaves you with having to get to the maker’s state and suing there, which is not very cost effective, or trying to sue out of state. From the legal sites I have looked over, intrastate small claims judgments are mostly restricted to cases regarding things like real estate, property damage, or suing an actual business that is an incorporated entity (here's some information about small claims in other states: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/small-claims-book/chapter9-2.html). Again, the informality of traditional fursuit commissioning makes this severely problematic, as far as I know. Then again, I’m not an attorney (anyone?); you could hire an attorney, but good ones will cost you as much as the fursuit or more.
 
So, then we get into the subject of reviews. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if there were a review site such as Angie’s List or Yelp for furries? Turns out, there are. They are still in the process of being developed, but one is here on Tumblr http://makersdatabase.tumblr.com/, and another is being worked on here: http://fursuitreview.khat.us/ with a more up-to-date version on FurAffinity:  http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fursuitreview/. Papabear is pleased that there are furries out there going to the trouble and time to try and help their fellows in what can be a frustrating process.
 
Here are a couple possible ways to proceed:

1. Try the “let’s start over” approach. Contact the fursuit maker and suggest that you begin the commission anew as if you were just now asking for it. Ask them to print, sign, and mail you a receipt acknowledging your payment and specifying a completion date for the project. Since you are of legal age, this can be considered a legal contract of sorts. Have them include in the contract exactly what you will be provided for the completed project. Tell them you want a realistic deadline, and that you will be patient and wait for that date before taking any other steps.
2. If you just want this debacle over, contact the maker and tell them you are tired of waiting and wish a full refund. Tell them that if they give you any lip about it, that this will be reflected in your review on one or both of the above review sites. However, if they are cooperative, you will not post a negative review of their work and let bygones be bygones. BUT! If they give you the money back (or if they don’t) and begin trashing you all over the Web, then you will compose a scathing review of their work and warn people not to commission with them or else risk being attacked by this unprofessional fursuit maker.

 
Always start off trying to be nice as possible and giving the person a benefit of a doubt, but don’t be afraid to fight back. If enough people do, this fursuit maker will soon become so notorious that they will never receive any more commissions, and that will be deservedly so. It really irritates me that there are such dishonorable people out there, but there it is.
 
Good luck,
Papabear​