When perusing written news articles about furries written outside the fandom you’ll usually run into the typical faire. Some articles will talk about furries and try and introduce their unknowing audience to what the fandom is. Others will talk about the local convention in town and why the denizens will be seeing all these costumes about. Heck, some will not even be about the fandom at all and will just be using the term to talk about pets or the band Super Furry Animals.

However, 2017 has started off on a very interesting foot as two articles showed up on the feed which don’t take the tired and treaded routes. Both looked at pieces of the fandom and their relationship to the recently inaugurated president, Donald Trump and what he stands for in society in general.

One article from Slate covered a Kyell Gold book and discussed how the virtues with in could counter Trump. The other, from Motherboard, describes another piece of fandom and their alt-right tendencies and pondering if crass anonymity can lead to crass actors acquiring power.

So let’s go over these two articles and what they have to say about furry fandom.

Red Devil, a sequel to Kyell Gold's Green Fairy, is both the second volume of his Dangerous Spirits series, and part of his Forester series (Out of Position, Isolation Play, Waterways, Bridges and others), set in an alternate contemporary America inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Solomon Wrightson, the homosexual teenage wolf who was the protagonist of Green Fairy, is the best friend of Alexei Tsarev, the fox protagonist here.

Alexei, a young Siberian in the States on a student visa that expires in two months, hopes to impress the Vidalia Peaches semi-professional soccer team enough to become a member.

If they sponsored Alexei, he could apply for a visa that would allow him to stay in this country indefinitely. (p. 3)

Besides being good athletes, everyone on the Peaches is gay. Alexei has only recently come to the States from his hometown of Samorodka, Siberia, partially to play soccer but really to escape the brutal anti-gay attitude prevalent in Siberia. (Gold is clearly using Siberia to refer to all Russia in this anthropomorphic world.) Alexei misses his sister Caterina, with whom he was especially close. They were exchanging letters, but she has not answered his last few missives. Alexei is sure that their abusive parents are preventing her from writing.

Alexei is rooming with Sol at the house that Sol shares with Meg, the mannish teenage otter from Green Fairy, in Sol’s room where his portrait of Niki, the murdered 19th-century fox transvestite is hanging. Alexei, who semi-believes in ghosts, already is influenced by the spirit of his great-grandmother “Prababushka”, whom he feels may have followed him to the States to protect him. In addition to worrying about Cat back in Samorodka, and getting onto the Peaches soccer team to stay in the States, Alexei has developed a crush on one of the Vidalia amateur players, Mike, a friendly Dall sheep; but the insecure, withdrawn Siberian fox is always being shoved aside by Kendall, a more brash and self-assertive pine marten also on the local amateur team. Alexei is unsure whether Mike is just being polite to Kendall, or if he really prefers the more outgoing marten. Or whether Alexei should continue to concentrate on his feelings for Mike, rather than looking for another boyfriend in Vidalia and the States’ more open and relaxed straight and gay sexual atmosphere.

Illustrations by Rukis, St. Paul, MN, Sofawolf Press, January 2014, trade paperback $19.95 ([iii +] 269 [+ 2] pages), Kindle $9.99.

The Furry Writers Guild’s annual Cóyotl Awards are now open for voting by all members of the guild in good standing. The Cóyotl Awards were founded in 2012 to recognize excellence in anthropomorphic literature and promote quality writing within the furry fandom.

Voting will last until August 31, and winners will be announced at this year’s Rainfurrest.

The nominees are:

Isiah reviews Kyell Gold's latest novel, "Red Devil", set in his Dangerous Spirits universe.

Divisions is set in Kyell Gold’s Forester universe (Waterways, Green Fairy, Winter Games, etc.), and is the third in the series featuring the tiger Devlin Miski and the fox Wiley Farrel (Out of Position, 2009, and Isolation Play, 2011). The series is narrated in the first person by both Dev and Lee in mostly alternating chapters.

Each novel documents a year in their life. In Out of Position, 2006, the two seniors at Forester U. meet, become secret lovers, and at the conclusion Dev, on Forester’s football team, becomes the first “out of the closet” football player. Isolation Play, 2007, starts immediately after Out of Position and deals with the aftermath of Dev’s and Lee’s revelation: Dev’s hostile teammates, shocked parents of both, a reporter determined to use them in a sensationalistic story, and facing life after graduation.

Now in Divisions, 2008, Dev and Lee pursue equally their professional careers, their personal lives, and the results of their open homosexuality.

Divisions is a romance novel intended for an adult audience only and contains some explicit sexual scenes of a primarily Male/Male nature. It is not for sale to persons under the age of 18. (publisher’s advisory)

Sofawolf Press, January 2013, trade paperback $19.95 (xvi + 367 pages; on Amazon). Illustrated by Blotch.

Twelve-times Ursa Major Award winner Kyell Gold has announced his withdrawal from the Best Novel and Best Short Story categories this year, and for "a few more going forwards", to ensure that other authors win:

There is precedent in other awards for frequent winners stepping back. One of the people on the Ursa Major committee told me that in a musical award, when someone wins three years in a row, they are retired from that category by the award. That's not how the Ursas work: they have been very hands-off and admirably resistant to public opinion. When Stan Sakai won the Best Comic award multiple years running, they assured people that in time, other comics would win, and they were right. In response to my multiple wins, they have assured people that, in time, other authors will win.

I have no doubt that they are correct, given the profusion of talent in the fandom. In fact, each of the last two years I have been convinced I would not win one of the two awards (perhaps neither). But I have also observed that it would probably be better for the writing scene if that day comes sooner rather than later.

UK furry convention ConFuzzled has named Kyell Gold as its second Guest of Honour for 2013. Gold is a prolific and popular furry author whose work includes the Out Of Position series and contributions to Heat. (See Flayrah's coverage.)

Gabapple, furry artist and creator of the webcomic Dangerous Cute, was the first 2013 GoH to be announced.

ConFuzzled 2013 will take place Thursday 30 May–Monday 3 June in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

Isiah had the chance to interview most of the contributors to annual adult anthology Heat 9, published by Sofawolf; some could not be reached. Related interviews: Whyte Yote & Alastair Wildfire – Camron & Vantid – Alopex – Huskyteer – Kandrel & Scappo – Tempe O'kun

Isiah Jacobs: Good evening, Nimrais, thank you so much for joining us tonight! It's nice to have you on the show! Kyell, always a pleasure!

Nimrais: Good evening, it's a pleasure to talk to you two!

Kyell Gold: Likewise! Thanks, Isiah, for setting this up.

Isiah Jacobs: Obviously, you two produced content for Heat 9 this year; a story called "Rewind". Before we discuss the story itself, I'm just curious. Have you two heard of each other before this?

Kyell Gold wrote The Silver Circle as his first entry into the paranormal romance genre. As such, it is not a category-anthropomorphic novel as much as a category-werewolf novel, or a category-transformation novel. But it is Furry enough to please most anthro fans.

Valerie Creighton, a mid-level career businesswoman in her mid-thirties, has just had a mini-nervous breakdown. She is recently divorced from her husband who never did support her; she is trapped at a large corporation where she watches men all rise to executive positions above her; and when one more big account is handed to somebody else (male), she blows up at a company conference and rants until she gets a nosebleed. Martin, her supervisor who, despite not promoting her, clearly does not want to lose her, suggests that she take two weeks leave to relax, and even offers to let her use his vacation cabin at Lake Wahya.

Val, who is taking her maiden name of Michaels back, arrives at the lakeside grocery store just in time to encounter two unusual men; a taciturn older man with a thick Eastern European accent and a silver ring on his middle left finger, and a handsome man about her own age whom the storekeeper clearly does not trust. The next day, kayaking out to a little island in the midst of the lake, she finds the just-killed body of the older man with his throat torn out, and the other man dying with two silver-headed arrows in him.

This is a mature content book. Please ensure that you are of legal age to purchase this material in your state or region. (publisher’s advisory)

FurPlanet Productions, June 2012, trade paperback $11.95 (vii + 141 pages), Kindle $4.99.

Isiah sits down with Kyell Gold to discuss his latest novel, recently reviewed by Fred Patten.
Isiah's comments and questions are not to be taken seriously.

Isiah Jacobs: Welcome back to the show, Kyell! It's nice to have you back!

Kyell Gold: It's a pleasure to be back!

Isiah Jacobs: So, your first publication for the year was back in March, with the release of Green Fairy. I assume it's a story about a gay environmentalist?

Kyell Gold: That's an excellent guess, but most people think about absinthe first, especially with the theme of FWA being "Moulin Rouge".

Isiah Jacobs: In fact, half of Green Fairy takes place at the Rouge.

Kyell Gold: A little less than half, but yes.

Isiah Jacobs: But your story and the convention wasn't the only things with the Rouge-like themes. Rukis also came out with Red Lantern AND both your story and hers were released at FWA. So that's triple the dose of Moulin Rouge, AND you were both guests of honor. Was all of this planned?

Isiah takes a closer, in-depth look at his recent reviews.

Isiah reviews The Silver Circle by Kyell Gold, after his recent interview.

The winners of the 2011 Ursa Major Awards for the best anthropomorphic literature, artwork and websites published in 2011 were announced June 2 at a ceremony during Califur VIII.

1,782 ballots were cast in this year's voting, an increase of almost 30% on last year.

Only the winners were announced at the ceremony. However, due to a policy change voted upon by the ALAA Committee, the vote order of all nominees is available on the UMA website.

Read on for results. The story includes contributions from Fred Patten.

I was preparing this announcement, but GreenReaper has given away part of it on Newsbytes.

Fred Patten, who has been writing Furry book reviews since 1962, and who edited the first anthology of anthropomorphic short fiction, Best in Show, in 2003, has edited two new anthologies of anthropomorphic s-f & fantasy that will both premiere in June 2012.

1. Already Among Us: An Anthropomorphic Anthology, will be published by Legion Publishing of Birmingham, AL on June 4. It will be available in a $18.95 hardcover and $9.99 trade paperback (x + 390 pages) [now $13.49], and $8.99 Kindle version, with a wraparound cover by Roz Gibson.
2. The Ursa Major Awards Anthology: A Tenth Anniversary Celebration, will be published by FurPlanet Productions of Dallas, TX. It will go on sale at Anthrocon 2012 on June 14, as a $19.95 trade paperback, x + 380 pages, with a wraparound cover by Blotch.

This is the last interview for a while, I swear! I had the pleasure of interviewing Kyell Gold on his latest publication, 'The Silver Circle'. My questions and comments are not to be taken seriously.

Isiah Jacobs: Good evening, Kyell Gold! Thank you so much for joining me tonight. It's nice to have you on the show, at last!

Kyell Gold: Thanks! Glad to be here.

Isiah Jacobs: So, you've recently come out with your latest book, The Silver Circle. I assume that's a term for some sort of gay cult?

Kyell Gold: Actually, you are correct. It's an underground society of homosexual activists that was formed in northern Germany in the late 1800s to attempt to bring back the Holy Roman Empire. But that's not what this book is about. In this case, it's an allusion to the moon, and the metal silver, because the book is about werewolves.

Isiah Jacobs: But having read it, it has more than just werewolves, doesn't it Kyell?

Kyell Gold: It does. It also includes female characters. It even stars a female character.

Isiah Jacobs: And a straight relationship.

Kyell Gold: Potentially two, in fact.

Isiah Jacobs: Who are you and what have you done to the real Kyell Gold?