Coming in July from Universal: an R-rated comedy about a teddy bear who says s*** and f***. You are supposed to be 17 or older to watch this trailer.

This delightful booklet is a companion to the author’s The Aphorisms of Kherishdar, published in March 2008. To repeat what I said in my review of that booklet, “Kerishdar is the empire of the Ai-Naidar people; tall and slender tailed felinoid aliens of a society that spans five worlds and several thousand years, with laws and customs that have served us for as long as we have walked these earths. (pg. [1])” That booklet contains twenty-five short-short tales “designed to illuminate these customs and unwritten traditions”.

The Admonishments of Kherishdar are twenty-five more very succinct tales illustrating what Kherishdar society demands in the cases of transgressions against society. Fada (improper guilt) – dashalin (covetousness) – enil (non-conformity) – emeth (cutting; lack of empathy) – noshan ekain (vanity) – diqut (rape) – navel (child abuse) – mesiln (criminal negligence) -- and similar grievances. Not crimes, exactly, but violations of Kherishdar social mores.

CreateSpace, May 2009, trade paperback $20.00 (xi, 57 [+ 1] pages, some color; self-illustrated); eBook $2.99.

I can't believe that nobody has posted this here yet! Coming June 8.

Regular Show is a finalist for the 2011 Ursa Major Award in the Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Short Work or Series category, which makes this Wired interview with the TV program's creator, J. G. Quintel, of interest.

Wired: I guess this is my follow-up fan service question: Rigby is a raccoon, and while he can stand and walk upright, he often runs on all fours like a quadruped. By the same token, Mordecai is a blue jay: can he fly?

Quintel: I have seen that question many times! I don’t think he’s ever going to fly… in the way that I think people are hoping he will fly. I think he’s the shape of a bird, but I don’t like to think of his so much as a bird as a person. He’s a person. The same thing with Rigby, although he does get down on all fours to run because it looks pretty cool.

I don’t know that Mordecai would be able to escape a problem just by flying.

Wired: If it serves the plot, Mordecai can fly.

Quintel: Yes, pretty much. I think the only place where it will ever be acceptable for him to fly is in that live action short that we just released through Facebook.

Maggie Hogarth’s Jokka s-f stories, featuring the tri-sexed scaly aliens of the planet Ke Bakil, made their debut in the short story “Money for Sorrow, Made Joy” in the Strange Horizons weekly online s-f magazine on November 26, 2001. Six further Jokka short stories followed to 2010; notably including “Unspeakable”, the third, also published on Strange Horizons on November 4, 2002.

“Unspeakable” was a finalist for the 2003 Spectrum Award¹ in the Short Fiction category, and was included in the Strange Horizons: Best of Year Two anthology. There have been more Jokka short stories since 2010.

Are the Jokka sufficiently Furry for Flayrah? Ever since Furry fandom voted overwhelmingly for Avatar over Fantastic Mr. Fox for Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture in the 2009 Ursa Major Awards, it looks like anything alien is Furry enough. The Jokka have scales, manes, tails, moveable ears, and fangs; they drool venom; they lay eggs as well as having live births (their biology is VERY bizarre), and they look enough like bipedal horses that at least one reviewer has described them as “horse-like” despite their illustrations by Hogarth (and the author should know). Yes, that seems Furry enough.

“The Worth of a Shell”: North Charleston, SC, CreateSpace, October 2009, trade paperback $15.00 (394 [+ 1] pages, map), Kindle $3.99.
“Clays Beneath the Skies”: Tampa, FL, Stardancer Studios, June 2011, trade paperback $15.99 (xii + 183 [+ 1] pages), Kindle $3.99. Illustrated by the author. Foreword by Susan Marie Groppi.