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I'm pretty sure their is a limit..like..once you go fast enough you hit plaid..then everything is uninspired fox oc's and lotion bottles.

submitted by soundwave145
[link] [79 comments]

submitted by KarlPilkington
[link] [12 comments]

• DracoSyndrome ($35-$70): http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3329986/

• Almasy ($25-$75): http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3825277/

• Wolfthings ($30-only 2 slots left!): http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6963109/

You guys know the drill! And if you guys have any feedback whether you like/dislike the new date, just let me know!

And I've noticed that the past couple ones have been somewhat expensive, so I wrote myself a note to find cheaper ones for next week!

submitted by LeatherHog
[link] [3 comments]

The Rise of the Red Shadow
By Joseph R. Lallo
Cover Art by Nick Deligaris
439 pp., $2.99 (ebook), $16.00 (trade paperback)
Amazon Publishing Services/CreateSpace

From the 1950s up through the 1980s, the paperback original dominated genre fiction. Some became undeniable classics—the Ace Science Fiction Specials included the first publications of Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Wild Shore—but most aimed less at dazzling critics than at presenting rousing adventure tales. They might rarely be your Favorite Book Ever, yet if you got hooked on an author—or a series—you’d grab title after title.

Unless you’ve got the next Dresden Files, though, major publishers aren’t interested in those kinds of titles anymore. This has opened a gap for self-published and small press ebooks to fill. Series like Annie Bellet’s The Twenty-Sided Sorceress and, closer to home, Phil Geusz’s David Birkenhead septology would fit beside 1980s stalwarts like Diane Duane and Alan Dean Foster. Amazon and Goodreads are full of well-loved series—far more than there were in the paperback’s heyday, and once inflation is accounted for, at lower prices.

One of those series is Joseph R. Lallo’s The Book of Deacon, a trilogy starting with a novel of the same title. The Rise of the Red Shadow is a standalone prequel described as “Book 0” of the trilogy, telling the origin story of one of Deacon’s side characters: a “legendary assassin and mythic hero” named Lain, a malthrope—an anthropomorphic fox.

The story opens as slavers tracking down a runaway discover his body next to that of a female malthrope’s, evidently having killed one another in a struggle—likely to protect her young kit. Humans consider Malthropes to be monsters:

Stories told of them carrying off children and raiding livestock. The creatures were the villains of more than their share of bedtime stories, and were always a safe thing to blame for your problems if you weren’t happy with your lot in life. One of the few things that the north and south halves of the continent could agree upon was that wiping the creatures out would be an improvement. Thus, a price had been put on their heads—or, more accurately, their tails. Slicing the tail off an adult and handing it in to the authorities would net you a small fortune in entus, the silver coins that lined the pockets of the more well-off Tressons.

This passage simultaneously reveals both a virtue and vice of the writing. The milieu has been extensively developed, its breadth and depth rivaling sword and sorcery classics. (Lallo’s Tressor is more reminiscent of Lankhmar than Middle-Earth.) But in countless passages like the one above, the story pauses for a moment to give us background. While introducing readers to a complex and unfamiliar world is always tricky, it sometimes feels like Lallo has avoided the “As you know…” problem by constantly stopping to hand us reference cards.

The reward for young malthropes calls for capturing them alive; the slavers give the baby to a plantation owner as a “discount” on an older, sightless slave. Over the course of the novel’s first act, Blind Ben finds himself the de facto caretaker and defender of the “mally” as the young fox rapidly grows and, to anyone paying attention, shows himself to be at least as smart as any of the humans around him. When the plantation passes into the hands of the original owner’s incompetent son, he takes his own business failings out on his slaves—including the aging Ben. Stricken by sorrow that turns into rage, the nameless malthrope becomes a one-fox revolt against his masters.

Without delving too much farther into spoiler territory, the rest of Red Shadow follows the malthrope through distinct episodes in his life as he seeks his purpose in life, focused on the words of his mentor Blind Ben: “without a purpose, there can be no worth.” Sorrel, a female malthrope he meets shortly after his escape, teaches him about his race and how to survive outside of human society in feral fashion; a network of legally-sanctioned assassins who act as bounty hunters affords him work, but also sets up a nemesis in the criminal kingpin Duule; a mysterious land of refugees hidden behind a cave of legendary danger leads him to the perfection of his fighting talents. Along the way, Teyn—as Sorrel names him—picks up both his new name and his nickname, the “Red Shadow.”

Some of the supporting characters—most notably the volatile Sorrel, but also Ben and the fairy Fiora—pop off the page. The stoic and emotionally stunted Teyn is well-drawn, but while he develops tremendous prowess and gains important insights, his character arc doesn’t have much curve to it. The villains are appropriately mustache-twirling but stay flat, with one exception: an early scene introduces two generals in “the kingdom formerly known as Vulcrest” and tells us of prophesies that clearly set them in opposition to Teyn. This is a great sequence, defining their characters quickly, setting up intrigue, and priming us for a fantastic faceoff. If that faceoff arrives, though, it doesn’t happen in this book. The novel ends without Teyn being aware of their existence.

The disappearing villains—presumably major players in the full trilogy—signal a problem for anyone coming to Red Shadow cold. The novel’s payoff is clearly meant to be Teyn coming into his role as Lain for The Book of Deacon. To readers who are already fans, this may be enough, but that payoff isn’t in this book. Each of Teyn’s adventures has its own set of tensions and thrills, and each ends with an important epiphany that shapes his outlook. Yet there’s little urgency to the whole affair. He does what he does until events make it impossible for him to keep doing that, then he does something else. He has long-term goals, but he’ll get to them when he gets to them. The story is less a quest than a picaresque; you’re curious what happens next, but you rarely feel like you can’t put the book down until you know.

While this makes it hard to recommend The Rise of the Red Shadow on its own, it’s good enough to inspire interest in The Book of Deacon itself. Lallo’s prose is solid—infodumps not withstanding—and, again, the worldbuilding is impressive. (Tressor may not be a world you’d want to visit, mind you; while it may not qualify as “grimdark,” not a single character in Red Shadow has a happy life. Teyn’s circumstances may give things a more dire pall, but the opening scenes of The Book of Deacon don’t paint any more a hospitable picture.) Even though I found the novel slow, it brought back fond memories of going through fantasy paperbacks like popcorn during my high school and college days.

submitted by Verok_the_Dragon
[link] [5 comments]

submitted by Verok_the_Dragon
[link] [13 comments]

http://original.livestream.com/aurora_sareii?t=495777

Going to be setting up in a couple minutes, running until approx 3pm MST (5 hours long)

Today's stream will contain the following:

-Monster designs -Kaijusona Bash WIP -Hybrid creature requests -Headshot requests -SFW stream

Please no RP (I've caught it at the end after I've left the stream, please don't), otherwise come hang out while I do dumb stuff.

submitted by Sareii
[link] [4 comments]

What's up everyone??

submitted by Jack_Wolf_741
[link] [13 comments]

(Note from Patch: Thanks to poppa bookworm for formatting. Fred’s review was held for a while, because the author didn’t feel comfortable about criticism in it. There was opportunity to revise the book itself, but that didn’t happen for months, so now we’re putting it out anyways.  Honestly, I think the book concept sounds really fun […]

She has always been a character referred to by both readers and creators alike with a warm fondness, yet with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, both Erica Henderson and Ryan North have fleshed out Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl into a more complex and rounded character beyond the knowing jokes and geek trivia lists. This issue rounds of the first arc and last issue of the surprise hit of the year before she returns in October with a new number one and juggling the responsibilities of college and her position on the New Avengers team. She goes from well-liked comedy character to star of two books in only eight issues.

Norse menace Ratatoskr’s plans finally come to fruition as she continues to turn people against each other using their own insecurities and mistrust. Our heroine and her friends race to put a stop to her smack talk and save the world. Throughout its first seven issues the series has always had an emphasis on nonviolent conflict resolution, which might sound counterintuitive for a superhero book, but North makes it work. Leading Squirrel Girl and company to seek out more creative methods for dealing with her would-be foes makes for a far more interesting read. It’s the perfect series for anyone seeking non-stop action and adventure without the dull repetitiveness of the bif-pow superhero slugfests. Oh sure, Squirrel Girl isn’t afraid to throwdown with the best of them when push comes to shove. Even when shove comes to out and out brawling, but in true Marvel fashion she’s currently slugged more of her fellow heroes than she has villains. This issue is no exception. With New York under the threat of destruction yet again, Doreen and her team set about finding ways to defeat an enemy who can turn the strength of the Earth’s heroes against them.

A comic can live or die by its supporting cast, or lack thereof and North and Henderson know this adding some of the most interesting creative and flat out funny additions to the 616 in years. Koi Boi and Chipmunk Hunk are hilarious and great new characters but it’s the no-nonsense Nancy Whitehead, who finds herself Doreen’s roommate, who is the particular standout. With Earth’s mightiest heroes having succumb to Rataskrs poisonous whisperings she takes center stage helping out the Asgardian heroes, once again using brains not brawn. The moment when she cuts through the overly complicated superhero dramatics to point out the single, simplest solution is one to behold. Even Tippytoe gets development. After sulking on Nancy’s shoulder throughout the conflict she makes the the ragtag team of animal themed superheroes that they need to make more of an effort to include her and communicate. She also offers great physical comedy in a book already packed with panel upon panel worth of humour.

North continues to be as inventive as ever with his writing employing the kind of tricks and touches that wouldn’t look out of place in his equally loved run on Adventure Time. His use of seemingly offhand throwaway jokes returns in this issue as Nancy’s headcanon, fanfiction creation Cat Thor comes to life with the aid of Asgardian’s resident trickster god in some of the funniest moments this issue. I’m sure a cosplay of an in comic cosplay that will surely end the world as we know it must only be a few days away at most. It’s an overwhelmingly positive book that North and Henderson have created and truly what comics should be about. Writing Squirrel Girl as an defiantly upbeat character who sees the very best in people, even villains, is a welcome change from the norm and her rousing speech towards the end of the conflict with Ratatoskr is most definitely one of the best examples of the positive power of comics.

Henderson’s art is on top form again, this time around getting to draw a few more heroes including her brilliant renditions of Thor, Odinson and Spider-Man. I’d urge North to write bigger and bolder team up issues in the future if only to see Henderson tackle all the Marvel Universe’s myriad numbers of characters on the page in her own playful and distinctive style. At the very least can we petition Marvel to enact a company wide initiative, like Jim Lee’s redesigns at DC, only with Henderson revamping the whole universes street wear? Seriously, off action superheroes and their friends have never looked so fashionable. In early issues her artwork focused mainly on the characters, some panels left with just solid coloured backgrounds.

While this worked give the book a fresh and bold feel to it, this time around she draws drawing some of her most complex pages so far including a stunning Asgard resplendent in it’s mix of futuristic cityscape and Norse flourishes. Let’s not forget the character design for new adversary Ratatoskr. Angular and menacing she has been a great villain and a seamless way to link The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Thors together. Coincidentally, Ratatoskr’s Wiki page has already been updated as predicted in the issue, but unfortunately not to inform us of what a big baby she is.

An amazing finish to the first arc of Squirrel Girl’s adventures, Marvel’s decision to keep the same creative team in the wake of its company wide shake up means we will get to see more rodentine stories when she returns in October in both this title and taking on a bigger role in the going on the newly reformed Marvel Universe.

She has always been a character referred to by both readers and creators alike with a warm fondness, yet with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, both Erica Henderson and Ryan North have fleshed out Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl into a more complex and rounded character beyond the knowing jokes and geek trivia lists. This issue rounds of the first arc and last issue of the surprise hit of the year before she returns in October with a new number one and juggling the responsibilities of college and her position on the New Avengers team. She goes from well-liked comedy character to star of two books in only eight issues.

Norse menace Ratatoskr’s plans finally come to fruition as she continues to turn people against each other using their own insecurities and mistrust. Our heroine and her friends race to put a stop to her smack talk and save the world. Throughout its first seven issues the series has always had an emphasis on nonviolent conflict resolution, which might sound counterintuitive for a superhero book, but North makes it work. Leading Squirrel Girl and company to seek out more creative methods for dealing with her would-be foes makes for a far more interesting read. It’s the perfect series for anyone seeking non-stop action and adventure without the dull repetitiveness of the bif-pow superhero slugfests. Oh sure, Squirrel Girl isn’t afraid to throwdown with the best of them when push comes to shove. Even when shove comes to out and out brawling, but in true Marvel fashion she’s currently slugged more of her fellow heroes than she has villains. This issue is no exception. With New York under the threat of destruction yet again, Doreen and her team set about finding ways to defeat an enemy who can turn the strength of the Earth’s heroes against them.

A comic can live or die by its supporting cast, or lack thereof and North and Henderson know this adding some of the most interesting creative and flat out funny additions to the 616 in years. Koi Boi and Chipmunk Hunk are hilarious and great new characters but it’s the no-nonsense Nancy Whitehead, who finds herself Doreen’s roommate, who is the particular standout. With Earth’s mightiest heroes having succumb to Rataskrs poisonous whisperings she takes center stage helping out the Asgardian heroes, once again using brains not brawn. The moment when she cuts through the overly complicated superhero dramatics to point out the single, simplest solution is one to behold. Even Tippytoe gets development. After sulking on Nancy’s shoulder throughout the conflict she makes the the ragtag team of animal themed superheroes that they need to make more of an effort to include her and communicate. She also offers great physical comedy in a book already packed with panel upon panel worth of humour.

North continues to be as inventive as ever with his writing employing the kind of tricks and touches that wouldn’t look out of place in his equally loved run on Adventure Time. His use of seemingly offhand throwaway jokes returns in this issue as Nancy’s headcanon, fanfiction creation Cat Thor comes to life with the aid of Asgardian’s resident trickster god in some of the funniest moments this issue. I’m sure a cosplay of an in comic cosplay that will surely end the world as we know it must only be a few days away at most. It’s an overwhelmingly positive book that North and Henderson have created and truly what comics should be about. Writing Squirrel Girl as an defiantly upbeat character who sees the very best in people, even villains, is a welcome change from the norm and her rousing speech towards the end of the conflict with Ratatoskr is most definitely one of the best examples of the positive power of comics.

Henderson’s art is on top form again, this time around getting to draw a few more heroes including her brilliant renditions of Thor, Odinson and Spider-Man. I’d urge North to write bigger and bolder team up issues in the future if only to see Henderson tackle all the Marvel Universe’s myriad numbers of characters on the page in her own playful and distinctive style. At the very least can we petition Marvel to enact a company wide initiative, like Jim Lee’s redesigns at DC, only with Henderson revamping the whole universes street wear? Seriously, off action superheroes and their friends have never looked so fashionable. In early issues her artwork focused mainly on the characters, some panels left with just solid coloured backgrounds.

While this worked give the book a fresh and bold feel to it, this time around she draws drawing some of her most complex pages so far including a stunning Asgard resplendent in it’s mix of futuristic cityscape and Norse flourishes. Let’s not forget the character design for new adversary Ratatoskr. Angular and menacing she has been a great villain and a seamless way to link The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Thors together. Coincidentally, Ratatoskr’s Wiki page has already been updated as predicted in the issue, but unfortunately not to inform us of what a big baby she is.

An amazing finish to the first arc of Squirrel Girl’s adventures, Marvel’s decision to keep the same creative team in the wake of its company wide shake up means we will get to see more rodentine stories when she returns in October in both this title and taking on a bigger role in the going on the newly reformed Marvel Universe.

submitted by Lukar115
[link] [3 comments]

I'm off to the DMV to get my license renewed. I'll be back here in the afternoon :3

submitted by CloudTheWolf
[link] [43 comments]

submitted by alterino
[link] [2 comments]

http://thestefidelly.tumblr.com/post/126723063346/aaand-heres-my-latest-offering-dialogue

Check out my Dialogue Packages! Each package includes - a turnaround sheet of your character/fursona - a gif of them talking with subtitles - a video of them talking with subtitles AND audio

So you basically get an animation AND a useable ref of your fursona/character. Sound good? Yeah? Yeah.

I'd also appreciate any help with spreading the word on this, and if you have any questions feel free to comment or email me or whatever. Thanks a bunch :)

submitted by stefidelly
[link] [9 comments]

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

My latest project is a new novel that I’m working on called Stargazer, the sequel to my 2013 novel Summerhill. In the course of writing Summerhill, the nature of the setting kept expanding and growing more complicated, and I realized I’d need more than one book to fully explore it. This time around, I’ve flipped the dynamic a bit: this is the story of Katherine, one of Summerhill’s traveling companions from the first book, and now he’s her sidekick, which will hopefully let me tell a fun story that’s sufficiently different to its predecessor. I’m posting the first draft to Patreon (for free!) as I’m writing it, too, so readers can follow along as the story takes shape.

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

For me, it depends on whether I’m working on a novel or a short story. For novels, I tend to have a central theme and central conflict in mind, I start writing a first draft, and about halfway through I stop to outline the rest (and after I complete that draft I look at the whole thing and re-outline it so that it makes better sense). When it comes to short stories, usually those ideas are simple and self-contained enough that I can just hop onto the page, play around with them, and see where they go (which sometimes winds up being ‘nowhere,’ but that’s thankfully pretty rare!).

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

I suppose I’m quite fond of writing stories where I really get into someone’s head, for better of for worse, and show the reader what makes them tick. Even the nicest person you know has issues they’re dealing with and sometimes thinks nasty thoughts about certain things, and even a complete jerk can be relatable or sympathetic on some level, and so I think it’s fun to explore that sort of thing, and to leave the reader with some thoughtful insights. That, and I like to use fantastical backdrops to explore otherwise mundane, everyday issues, because then you’re giving the reader something fun and different while also giving them something they can personally relate to.

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

This is a tough one! If I had to pick one, though, I’d probably have to say Arkady Ryswife from my novel The Seventh Chakra — not because I’m an artificially augmented super-spy ferret, but because his entire core conflict is doubting his own capabilities and putting too much pressure on himself for fear of letting down others, and those are both things I can personally identify with a whole lot.

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

I drew a lot of inspiration early on from the works of David Weber, particularly his Honor Harrington series, when it came to laying out large, convoluted plots and interweaving setting and story without having to resort to info-dumping on the reader. Nowadays my style doesn’t really resemble his at all, but I learned a lot about long form structure and plotting from those books. Kazuo Ishiguro’s wonderful novel The Remains of the Day was a great example of how feature an unreliable narrator in addition to showing how a slow and subtle buildup can still reach a devastating conclusion, and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas was just monumentally inspirational for how diverse one single author’s writing can be within a single work.

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

David Mitchell again, with The Bone Clocks. It’s a masterful look at an individual’s life from so many different perspectives, and a story that goes from banal to surreal in a way that’s hard not to be impressed by.

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

My big hobbies include tabletop roleplaying, amateur photography, wine, and Star Wars (honestly a lot of my time goes to Star Wars in some form or another).

8. Advice for other writers?

Read. Read, read, read. Read things that you like, read things that are outside your normal area from time to time, read things by your peers and by people who inspire you, but read. It’s such a fundamental part of being a good writer that it can often be too obvious, and it’s something I see get ignored all too often. You can’t be a good concert pianist if you don’t listen to music, and you can’t be a good writer if you don’t read stories. So read. Read short stories twice; you’d be amazed how much different the experience can be, even if it’s only been a day. Learn to identify what you like and what you don’t like, and then try to discern why you do and don’t like those things.

9. Where can readers find your work?

My novels are all available on Amazon if you search for me by my people-name, and of course directly from the furry publishers themselves: FurPlanet and Sofawolf Press. My short stories are available on FurAffinity, where my username is ‘Rikoshi,’ and I’ve had stories published in numerous anthologies, such as New Fables from Sofawolf Press and ROAR from FurPlanet.

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

Honestly, just the sheer amount of creativity that this fandom has bundled up in with itself, and I think it’s important for people to not lose that spark of imagination. We’re not all writers or artists, but we’re all here because we’ve got a fantastic propensity for make-believe and suspension of disbelief; sometimes it’s serious, sometimes it’s silly, but it takes all kinds and I’ve never come back from a convention not feeling energized to write something, whether it was a larger project or just some quick thing.

Check out Kevin “Rikoshi” Frane’s member bio here!

submitted by dreamingwanderer
[link] [29 comments]

submitted by jroy101
[link] [2 comments]

submitted by kentkentkent
[link] [26 comments]

If you'd like to comment or PM me refs of your 'sonas or characters and a brief description of what kind of sketch you'd like then I'd love to give them a go! (No promises on it looking great) Any kind of sketch and i'll give it a go, headshot, full body, action pose, I'm even willing to do NSFW stuff if you want, I just need stuff to draw!

I'll be working on these for the next few weeks so don't be disappointed if you don't get a sketch in the first couple of days :) If I get a lot of requests then I may not be able to do them all, but keep your comment here and I may come back to it in the future! Also I'm more likely to spend time on a drawing if the character/request is interesting or inspirational, so expect different qualities in the sketches :P

Once a drawing is finished i'll reply to your comment with an imgur link unless you want the drawing to be private, then PM me.

I look forward to drawing your awesome characters and hearing feedback about them ^-^

submitted by Lunatic_Pangolin
[link] [24 comments]