Furry Writers' Guild

Thief of Song Blurb, and Blurbs in General

by M. C. A. Hogarth

 

Here’s the blurb for Thief of Songs! Someone on Twitter asked me if I had any tips for blurb-writing, and this seems a good time to talk about that. Particularly since, unlike a lot of people, I actually enjoy blurb-writing. (Yes, I know. I am crazy.) The most memorable advice I ever received on this topic was from agent Don Maass, who gave a short lecture on “the elevator pitch” while promoting his book Writing the Breakout Novel. I don’t remember the book, but I do remember the pointers about pitching. Pitching, he said, is about “capturing interest, not telling the story.” It should include the three essential components: character, setting, and conflict. And it should answer the question: “Why should I care? What’s the emotional appeal?”

So the heart of blurbing, for me, is identifying the central conflict, the character most affected by it, and then ending with a leading question/statement that invites the reader to find out more.

In Thief’s case, the conflict in the story is Amet’s problems with the lowlands. He is the character most affected by that conflict. And the leading question is whether he’ll be willing to set those problems aside to love a lowlander. Easy peasy! But the art of blurbing is making those answers as succinct as possible, while also as exciting and mysterious as possible. Think of movie trailers: they give you only enough set-up to understand why you should care about the outcome, and then tease you by not revealing the ending!

Here’s the fun part of it for me, then: I want the whole thing to fit in 3-5 sentences. Fewer is best!

So, some more examples for deconstruction. Here’s Mindtouch‘s: Setting: The entire first sentence gives this context.
Character Most Affected: Jahir (who shows up in sentence #2).
Description of Conflict: the second part of the second sentence (“unprepared for… etc.”)
Leading question: “Will the two, etc etc.”
Sentence count: 3

Here was a rough one for me, the Black Blossom blurb: Conflict: First sentence!
Character Most Affected (or at least, most prevalent because Narration): “the gentle Calligrapher, etc…”
Setting: The third sentence.
Leading question: The last two sentences.
Sentence count: 4

Now, here’s an interesting exercise. When the sequel to Flight of the Godkin Griffin came out, both Sofawolf (the print publisher) and I wrote blurbs for it without consulting one another. It was a difficult exercise because we’re introducing the final book in a series, which means we have to allude, at least a little, to the first. And we handled it in very different ways! Here’s Sofawolf’s blurb:

Sent to oversee the most recent territorial acquisition in the Godson’s empire, Mistress Commander Angharad finds herself in an unexpected position. Rather than smoothly assuming control from the outgoing governor, she finds herself in opposition to violent factions of the occupying forces, the corrupt governor she is replacing, and unexpectedly even the Godson himself.

No doubt her unplanned adoption as the champion of the conquered province of Shraeven and the chosen vessel of its many native Gods has something to do with her sudden fall from favor.

Certain that Shraeven holds the final key to the empire’s goal of breeding a God of their own, the Godson himself arrives to regain control of the province. Angharad knows that a lasting peace will only come from a diplomatic solution, but with the Godson’s behavior becoming increasingly erratic, she is no longer sure he is capable of reason.

The Godson’s Triumph is the conclusion of the fantasy military adventure started in Flight of the Godkin Griffin, and takes Angharad to the brink of war with her own country on her way to truly understanding the Gods and the empire’s dedication to emulating them.

Meanwhile, here’s the one I wrote:

Mistress Commander Angharad Godkin hates politics… so of course, her ruler the Godson sent her to replace the Governor of barely tamed Shraeven province. She hates religion, so naturally, the native gods began to plague her the moment she arrived. And since she hates both, the gods started playing politics—and the politicians began playing at godhood. In Flight of the Godkin Griffin, Angharad, a creaky old veteran of the Godkindred Kingdom’s many wars of conquest, was dragged out of retirement only to discover her newest assignment—to rule a province in peace—might finally be the death of her. She certainly wasn’t expecting to face off against her own monarch in a battle that will decide not just her own fate, and not just the fate of Shraeven Province… but of the world itself.

The Godson’s Triumph returns us to the world of Angharad Godkin and her comrades and concludes their epic journey. But who will be left standing when the fires burn out?

The last piece of advice Maass gave was to “use one of the following words in your last sentence: love, heart, dream, journey, fortune, destiny.” I don’t follow the letter of this law, but you can see clearly what he’s aiming for with it: you should be pitching a hero’s journey to the reader, a story that really grips your heart. It has, as modern audiences can now say, ALL THE FEELS. If it doesn’t have all the feels, why bother? And if your overall blurb doesn’t operate on that level, it’s not going to connect to as many people as you hope.

So, in short:
1. Keep it short.
2. Keep it punchy—now is not the time to downplay the conflict.
3. Identify the most important conflict and the character grappling with it and put them on center-stage.
4. Give enough setting information that the conflict makes sense/feels urgent.
5. End with a question/invitation to find out more.

I am not the best blurb-writer in the world, but I think I do passably at it, and I enjoy doing it. If you have questions, leave ‘em here and we can continue deconstructing the process. Or if you have examples of great blurbs you like, bring them here!

This post first appeared at M. C. A. Hogarth’s blog. The original post can be found here.

 

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

My most recent projects are my novels Cora and the Dreamer and its upcoming sequel Through the Glass Wall.  This series is starkly different than any of my previous works for a number of reasons.  Taking place for the first time on an alternate modern day Earth, they feature relatable real world characters and events inspired directly from my own life.  It’s also at its core a romance, which is a first for me, and centers around a young, strong, independent female protagonist–a character I very much enjoyed creating.  Also marking a change in this series are the crazy, abstract ideas I’ve thrown into it–one character is literally a god on Earth–grounded by life-like characters, emotions and the series’ central romance.  It was a fun and unique puzzle when I started writing Cora and the Dreamer.  I said to myself, “I have this person with god-like powers who can do practically anything he wants.  While that sounds fun, and it is, how do I keep this story grounded, personal, and relatable to readers?”  The solution to that was Cora Everton–the humble young art student, a mere mortal in every sense of the word, and the crazy romance that blossoms between the two.  It’s through her eyes that readers experience the story and all of its roller coaster emotions and antics.

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

My writing process is sporadic.  I will take notes to help my memory, but essentially I have pictures in my head of scenes I want to include in the future, all while I try to pull the story along the course to get to those scenes.  Sometimes it works out, but sometimes my characters have a mind of their own and go their own way.  I listen to what the characters would do and how the scenes are going and adapt as necessary.  The path may be wayward, and I may have to go back and edit and smooth things out, but I find where I’m going in the end.

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

My favorite kind of story to write is the one I’m currently writing.  If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be writing it.  If you ask me now or any time in the future which of my books is my favorite, I will always tell you that my current is my favorite.  If I didn’t honestly believe that my current is the best story I’ve ever written, I wouldn’t follow it through to the end.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? This question is tricky.  I love the character of the Dreamer, the aforementioned ‘god-like’ character.  He’s essentially a glorified cartoon in real life, with the ability to do almost anything he wants as long as it amuses him.  It’s led to the creation of some very amusing set pieces and interactions.  But the character I most identify with, myself along with my readers, is Cora the humble art student.  She’s a great character, very intelligent and strong and fun to write, and seeing and experiencing the madness the Dreamer is causing is even more interesting when viewed through someone normal, having to bear witness to it.  She’s my favorite character to date.

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

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower influenced the character of Caleb Everman, who appears in prior books of mine, and makes appearances in Through the Glass Wall.  Other inspiration came from web comics that had a good idea for a story but failed to deliver on good content.  The inspiration for both the Dreamer and Cora Everton came from various dreams I’ve had over the years.  Picturing myself with the ability the fly, such as the Dreamer often exercises, is a reoccurring theme that translates well into this story.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? I massively enjoyed the graphic novels Dreamkeepers by Vivid Publishing, available here: http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/ 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I busy myself with gaming culture and select YouTube channels or Twitch streams.  My younger self enjoys hearing about the games that my modern day self often doesn’t have the patience to experience firsthand.  Listening to others discuss it and keeping in the loop appeases both.  I also happen to really embrace the story and ideas behind the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ games, but I’ll be caught dead before I ever actually play them.  Too scary for me.

8. Advice for other writers?

Write.  Think afterward.  Thinking can ruin a good story.

9. Where can readers find your work?

My newest, constantly updated stories, including Cora and the Dreamer and Through the Glass Wall are here: http://www.protagonize.com/author/CWithey.  My published works are available through Melange Books: http://melange-books.com/authors/cawithey/.  I am currently querying for a publisher to represent Cora and the Dreamer on the marketplace.

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

I embrace the maturity of a good story, one which happens to include furries.  My novel Savagery and the Dreamkeepers series are both excellent examples of intelligently written stories that explore mature themes and topics, which also happen to include anthropomorphic characters.  Breaking the stereotypical mold of ‘animal people are for cartoons’ is a very satisfying thing to see.  Dreamkeepers especially does an excellent job of this.

 

Check out C. A. Withey’s member bio here!

For those of you headed to Further Confusion this weekend, don’t forget the FWG Meet & Greet scheduled for Friday from 3:00 – 4:30 PM (Marriott: Blossom Hill I). Our members Huskyteer, Chipotle, Franklin Leo, and Mary Lowd will be on hand for discussion about the guild, our Cóyotl Awards, and more!

 

Subconscious Themes

by R. A. Meenan

 

Let’s start by looking back to the last English class you took… For some of you that’s way back in high school. For some it was a college level class. Some of you might actually be in an English class right now.

Now think of some of the things you did in that class. Chances are, if you analyzed any kind of literature, you looked into the subconscious mind of the author in order to better understand why he or she wrote the literature that they did.

For example, why did Shakespeare write Hamlet? Many people claim it’s because Shakespeare’s own son died young. Or why did Ray Bradbury write Fahrenheit 451? It’s a well known fact that Bradbury feared that technology would take over our way of life and become so ingrained in our culture that we would one day stop learning.

Literature classes often encourage looking into the author’s mind while analyzing their work. But what about our own work?

We often write themes that we didn’t intend. People who read our books or short stories will get things out of the writing that we never thought possible.

When you look a little deeper into it, those themes become obvious. But those are just themes. They are large overlaying elements to a story. They generally take huge chunks out of the story. It’s what the story is “about” if you will.

But what about smaller elements? What about story elements that pop up unexpectedly? How does your subconscious affect your writing?

I learned something about my writing the other day. Let me explain a little.

The other day I was listening to a song that talked about the fantasy of childhood and the reality of adulthood. One line of it really struck home because it spoke about fathers. It said,

“My father said…
Don’t you worry, don’t you worry child,
See heaven’s got a plan for you,
Don’t you worry, don’t you worry now…”

So on and so forth.

I don’t know how many of you know, but my father passed away when I was only 12. My mother, by choice, did not remarry, so I haven’t had much in the way of father figures.

As I daydreamed about the song (I often daydream stories and events from my novels or with my characters while I listen to music) I realized something… None of my major characters have much in the way of father figures either.

Six of my major and important characters without fathers. That’s a lot.

And it got me wondering. Did I do that on purpose? Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? Is this a way for my mind to cope with the fact that my father is dead?

I wasn’t sure, until I took it a step further. Two of those characters above (I’m not saying who) get their fathers back. Is that my mind telling me it wishes my father could come back?

I know I didn’t do that on purpose. My father died a long time ago. I don’t really think about it much, at least on the conscious level. It’s really interesting to see how my subconscious has played a role in my writing. And I know this isn’t the only example of such.

Do you have subconscious themes in your writing? Take a look at your own writing. Look at a novel, a short story, or whatever, and see if you can find your own subconscious working on elements in your story. This could be based on previous experiences, events in your childhood, your preference in writing or reading… all kinds of things.

Good luck!

This post first appeared at R. A. Meenan’s blog. You can see the original post here.

 

January’s Book of the Month, Spirit Hunters – Book 1: The Way of the Fox, is written by FWG member Paul Kidd.

“There is a vessel without sides, ever full, yet ever empty.
There is a river without end. Ever still, yet ever flowing.
Fathomless, it is the origin of all things…”

The Sacred Islands: A medieval land of noble samurai and animal spirits. Of scheming nobles, of magic and ancient mystery.

Kitsune Sura, a wandering fox priestess, assembles a group of would-be monster hunters. Penniless and carefree, they travel from palaces to villages, seeking out dangerous mysteries.

A fox, two samurai and a shy and gracious rat go forth on a career of bizarre adventures. The Spirit Hunters battle ghosts, tangle with magic and delve into terrifying puzzles. They must even survive the horrors of kitsune cuisine.

These are the first three adventures of the Spirit Hunters saga. Bright, funny and exciting – these are tales of cunning monsters, flashing swords, stalwart samurai, faithful rats – and the rather dodgy antics of a fox.

Spirit Hunters:
Delightful romps in a gorgeous magical Japanese otherwhen.

“Trust me – I’m a fox!”

Ebook available from Amazon. Print version available from Lulu.

 

New Members

Welcome to our newest member R. A. Meenan!

Member News

Gene Breshears’ story “The Luminous Pearl, or the Second Tail of Sora” was published in July in North American Fur and is now available online.

Renee Carter Hall released her holiday ebook Wishing Season (Amazon / Smashwords) and also has anthro-themed stories in the first issue of STRAEON and in Stories in Future Tense: The 2015 Word Branch Publishing Science Fiction Anthology.

Huskyteer’s ebook Learners, featuring two short stories, is now available from Bad Dog Books and Amazon (US / UK).

Rose LaCroix’s novel The Linen Butterfly (sequel to The Goldenlea) is scheduled to debut at Further Confusion this month. Check out the cover here!

Mary E. Lowd’s space opera fable “The Little Red Avian Alien” was published in Luna Station Quarterly.

Patrick “Bahumat” Rochefort has launched his new web serial From Winter’s Ashes and will begin regular updates this July.

James L. Steele’s novel Huvek is now available as an ebook, and his short story “The Cable” appears in Abandoned Places.

And our associate member Weasel has two poems in the holiday anthology To Hold a Moment Still and also has a story in the latest issue of the literary magazine Earth Is Huge And We Are All On It.

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

Market News

Several anthologies currently remain open with spring deadlines — check out our Paying Markets page for more info, and remember to keep an eye on our Calls for Submissions thread and our Publishing and Marketing forum for the latest news and openings!

Guild News

Members — we’re open for guest blog post submissions for 2015! Good exposure and a great way to help out your fellow writers. See our guidelines for the details.

Need a beta reader? Check out our critique board (you’ll need to be registered with the forum in order to view it).

Remember, our forums are open to everyone, not just FWG members. Come register and join the conversation!

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Eastern, Thursdays at 12 p.m. Eastern (but no chat today because of the holiday), and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern — all held right in the forum shoutbox. More info here.

That’s all for this month! As always, send an email to furwritersguild (at) gmail.com with news, suggestions, and other feedback, or just comment here.

 

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

On the top of my list currently is a novel-length collaboration with a good friend. The working title is Forging Rust. Chapters are being posted on several sites as I get them done. After everything is completed, the novel plus some bonus material might look for a publisher, but I need to get it finished first. This work is actually a roleplaying series my friend and I started as a change of pace from the normal setting we had been using. After it went on for a while, it became apparent that we were building a larger plot line and the friend made a comment on how it might be fun to novelize the story. Reworking the sessions from chat into prose and filling in gaps has been taking me more time than I had originally suspected, but it’s also been satisfying.

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

I usually start out being some level of an outliner with a work. Even with short stories, I like to have an idea of where I’m going. Sometimes it is just a concept of characters, how things look at the start and where the ending needs to be. Sometimes it is a closer to a detailed outline. But I have something in mind that’s at least an image of a rough outline.

That said, while writing, I’ve had things change from the original plan completely. I may come up with something new to add or just feel that something works better a different way. Sometimes a character will just write itself, it seems. I usually let these adjustments happen, even if it means having to make big changes to the earlier parts, which – for some stories – tips me further towards a “pantser” while writing it than an outliner.

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

Adventure. I enjoy the concept of exploring new things and overcoming obstacles (you’ve always got to have problems to face and find solutions for.)

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? I think I’ll have to go with Randy, the character narrating the series For Every Door that Closes. To be fair, that’s kind of an easy answer, though, as the concept required me to put a lot of myself into the character. To some extent, the author is in most of their characters, but Randy was based a lot more off of me than most. 5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

I have read enough different authors that I know I will miss some, if for no other reason than because it’s hard sometimes to see what all is influencing yourself.

Let’s start with the author that got me into reading adult-level books seriously. When I was young, the family traveled many weekends, and I had taken up grabbing whatever romance the parents had along just to help burn time sitting in the vehicle. I never really got into those. They were above my level and other than expanding my vocabulary through learning words in context, I don’t think I got much from doing that. Seeing me read the larger books, however, did make my parents get me a gift box of the first three Xanth novels by Piers Anthony. This got me hooked on science fiction and fantasy as I got newer books of this prolific author and also looked for older ones.

I’m going to include Chris Claremont in my list because a lot of his comics (Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants in particular for me) showed how side characters were characters too, as well as how many plots and sub plots it was safe (and unsafe) to juggle. While prose is different than comics, there’s plenty of aspects that carry over between them about good writing.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan and Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind both refreshed my love for epic fantasy, as well as made me recognize the different forms that fantasy tropes could take. In this way they both recharged my desire to write, even if I eventually got frustrated with the series that followed them.

Laurell K Hamilton has shown me how both romance and eroticism can work and be a part of more serious plots and characters. When she does the mix right, it’s a great novel. She’s also shown me how too much of those good things can overpower a novel so that the reader is left wishing something other than sex and relationship drama happened. Certainly there’s a balance that works, but doesn’t always get hit.

Within the fandom, Phil Geusz gives great advice at con panels as well as writing a good story. He gave me a small confidence boost about approaching publishers when I was hoping to start that process.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? “Really loved” is hard for me. I tear through lots of books. While I have ones that I occasionally find and don’t enjoy, I rarely have one that wows me greatly. While I know I occasionally have a book that I can’t put down, I can’t remember which title I did that with last. I just got through with The Undead Pool by Kim Harrison, which I greatly enjoyed. The series has had ups and downs, but this one was well done. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I read a lot. I play games either on PC or console from time to time – though I don’t always play them well as I’m usually more interested in the story aspect of them than developing killer skills. I enjoy the occasional walk, especially if I can drag a friend along. Roleplaying – either table-top or online through one or another messaging service – is a favorite pastime, though technically there’s writing in the chats.

8. Advice for other writers?

I’m not going to just go with the “always be writing” advice, not because it isn’t the most important thing, but because it is something most writers should hear and remember all the time already. That is certainly good advice, and the first step is always getting something written.

I would also say that while having an end goal of getting published can be great, don’t forget to have closer goals as well. There’s a lot of steps between first word and getting published, and a lot of folks get discouraged about the end goal long before they reach it. So always have a closer goal that is a step on the way.

For me the NaNoWriMo taught me a lot of tips for getting a word count out and done. The writing is rough, but it gets done. No matter what size I’m writing, I find it is important to focus on the writing and worry about editing after it is all done. Editing while writing distracts and can make you re-write the first part twenty times. Even if I KNOW I have to make changes to something I already write, I find it more constructive to jot a note down to do it later and keep on with the first draft.

Once a writer has a first draft of any size, it’s time to edit it, which can be a drag. But you’ve written it all already, so doesn’t it deserve to be polished? Once you’ve polished it, if you have folks you trust to do a read over to look for what you’ve missed (because you almost certainly have missed things), isn’t it worth having other eyes look over it to make sure all the rough edges are smoothed out? Then you have to share it with a larger audience – either posting or publishing. And after you have put a lot of work into this by this point, so there’s no reason to be shy.

My final advice is to listen to criticism, but don’t consider all criticism gospel. No one can please everyone all the time, and trying to do so will only lose your own unique voice. There will be things you can take and use constructively, which will be good. There’s things that won’t be designed to help, and it’s okay for that person to not have found your work to their liking, so don’t take it personally.

9. Where can readers find your work?

Links to where to find my published work are gathered at https://bamaddux.wordpress.com/ (I really need to start updating it again.)

As Reserved Rodent, you can find my work at the following sites.

https://reserved-rodent.sofurry.com/ I’ve been with SoFurry longest, so it has my complete short story listings.

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/reservedrodent/ There’s formatting I have to do to get my stories to look like I want them to on FurAffinity, so not all of my older stuff has made it here. I do my best to get the formatting done for this site as I post new stuff to others, so it’s not falling behind. This is also the site where I could follow the Acceptable Upload Policy and post all of the comic book issue I did long ago when I uncovered it recently. It’s not exactly furry, but still was able to slip in.

https://inkbunny.net/ReservedRodent/ I’ve only recently started posting on this site. It has chapters from my current project, Forging Rust, but other than getting all of those added, I’ve not gone further back. It will continue to get updates of new chapters and stories the other two sites get, so long as they fall under the Acceptable Content Policy.

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

I love how wide a range the fandom has. It’s full of many different creative people who like the concept of furry and bring it to life and into others’ lives in so many varied ways. You don’t have to like everything about the fandom, but you absolutely can find many things that you do appreciate, and likely find new friends with similar interests along the way.

 

Check out B. A. Maddux’s member bio here!

What Can Goodreads Do For Me?

by Huskyteer

What it is

Launched in 2007 and acquired by Amazon in 2013, Goodreads is a social network for readers and writers. Like Facebook, but for books. Bookbook, if you will. Users can search for books in the extensive database, for the most part user-created, and add them to their ‘shelves’. If the book you’re after isn’t listed, you can do your part by adding it. There are three default bookshelves, ‘Want to Read’, ‘Currently Reading’, and ‘Read’, but you can add as many custom shelves as you like; ‘Crime’, for example, or ‘Non-fiction’, or perhaps ‘Comfort Reads’ or ‘Really Bad Books’.

It’s strangely satisfying to have a record of what you’ve read, with statistics and word clouds for your shelves. If you feel the need to gameify your reading experience, you can sign up for a challenge like ‘read 50 books in a year’. Every time you log in, Goodreads will tell you how many books you’ve got through and how far behind or ahead of schedule you are. Other bits of fun include literary trivia questions, polls, and daily quotes from writers.

As well as keeping track of what you’ve read, you can follow your friends to see what they’re reading and reviewing, and leave comments. I’ve had many a Goodreads discussion over books I might otherwise never have suspected someone I know had also read.

Looking at your friends’ shelves is one way to find new reading matter, but there are also communities for fans of particular genres, as well as for readers from one particular area or with a common interest. There’s a reasonably active furry community, Furries!, as well as the more general Anthro Fiction group. Goodreads also offers recommendations based on what you’ve read, and lists of the top books in a particular category, which can be as broad as ‘Best Young Adult Books’ or as specific as ‘M/M Cat-Shifters, Feline Aliens, and Other Feline Humanoids’.

When you finish a book, you can add a star rating and a review, tweet the fact that you’ve finished it, and recommend it to friends (Goodreads even suggests friends who might like it, given their tastes). All of this is optional, of course, but if you loved a book, this sort of thing can really benefit the author. Which brings me on to:

Goodreads for writers

Here’s where things get interesting. Once you’re signed up as a Goodreads Author, you have a number of options for promoting your works and interacting with your readership, most of which will cost you nothing but time.

Learn more about your readers and how your books are doing by visiting the page for one of your books. Here you can see who’s read it, who’s marked it as To Read, and any ratings and reviews. Who are those people? What else are they reading? These could be valuable clues to help your marketing strategy. See whether your book is featured on any lists, and what else is on there. Add it to some lists yourself (sneaky!).

Goodreads offers a number of configurable widgets, so you can show off your reviews on your own website, or add a button next to your book so passers-by can add it to their To Read list. They even provide the API if you really want to get down and dirty. And if you don’t mind giving away something for nothing, it doesn’t take much more effort to upload a free sample of your work as an ebook.

Medium-level effort, now. If you already have a blog, you can hook it up to your Goodreads account quickly and easily (mine feeds off my LiveJournal). If not, you can blog straight to Goodreads. Blog posts keep your page looking new, and pop up on your followers’ homepages to remind them you exist.

As an author with a Goodreads account, whenever you’re listed as the author of a publications, you’ll get ‘Goodreads Author’ in brackets after your name. This tells readers than they can come and bother you right there on the site, declare themselves your Fans, interact, and ask questions. If you activate the ‘Ask the Author’ option, users can ask you questions through the site, which you can then answer and display on your page. Or not, if it’s a question like ‘why is ur riting so rubbish’. No fans yet? Goodreads provides several preset questions for you to answer and post. Kyell Gold-esque levels of popularity? Announce that you’ll be open for questions on a specific topic, like your soon-to-be-released next book, for a limited period only. That should ‘generate buzz’, as Goodreads is so irritatingly fond of saying.

If you’re prepared to invest money, you can pay to advertise on the site. With the ability to target a specific audience, and stats to look at, this might be an interesting route to pursue, although I haven’t tried it myself. You can also give away copies of your book. Everyone loves a freebie, so a listing on the Giveaways page is a good way to familiarise a lot of readers, albeit cheapskate ones, with your name and cover. You will have to pack and post the books yourself, and hope your winners enjoy their prizes enough to write a review and spread the word.

See the Goodreads Author Program page for more information and ideas.

How to join

Joining Goodreads as a reader is as simple as registering a name, email address and password, and you can also sign in using Facebook, Twitter, Google, or your Amazon account. For authors, it’s a little more complicated, and takes slightly longer.

You’ll need to sign up for a reader account, if you haven’t already. Then find a book that gives your name as the author (co-author, editor, contributor and so on are all fine too) and click on your name. You’ll see an almost empty profile page with a link near the bottom: ‘Is this you? Let us know’. Click the link  and a verification request will be sent to the Goodreads team. Within a few days – often hours – your reader account will be merged with your shiny new author account, which you can then update. If your book hasn’t been added yet, just add it yourself.

And when you’ve signed up, come and be my friend!

 

December’s Book of the Month, Abandoned Places, is edited by FWG member Tarl “Voice” Hoch, features stories from several members, and is being released today at Midwest FurFest.

From stories about being abandoned in the heart of civilization to stories about forced abandonment for the sake of science to how abandoned places affect the mind, the stories in this anthology cover a large range of genres and types of abandoned places — each one with their own little piece of personal horror lying among the ruins, ready to strike when you least expect it.

Features the following stories:

Empathy by Rechan
Belief by Bill “Hafoc” Rogers
Stared Too Deeply by T. D. Coltraine
The World Within by John Lynne
Sleepwalking by Adam “Nicodemus” Riggs
All that Glitters by Ianus J. Wolf
One Shot of Happy by Roland Jovaik
Who’s To Say by David Ramirez
Prospero by Patrick “Bahumat” Rochefort
Darwin’s Future by Taylor Stark
Rainfall by Kandrel
Piping by Tarl “Voice” Hoch
World’s Biggest Dragons by Ryan Campbell
Scratch by Ben Goodridge
The Cable by James L. Steele
Under the Mountain by Tonin

Cover art by Kappy. Story illustrations by Silent Ravyn.

Pre-order from FurPlanet.

New Members

Welcome to our new members T. S. McNally, Ajax Baback Coriander, Dronon, and our newest associate member Weasel, of Weasel Press!

Member News

In media-related news, M. C. A. Hogarth was interviewed for Publishers Weekly, and Tempe “Tempo” O’Kun was interviewed on Prairie Public radio.

Book birthdays! Vixyy Fox’s Reach for the Sky is now available in print format from Weasel Press, Jay has released his latest novel Impossible Magic (sequel to Axinstone), available from Jaffa Books, and Michael H. Payne has released Neighbors.

In anthology news, Abandoned Places is now available, edited by Tarl “Voice” Hoch and featuring stories from Rechan, Bill “Hafoc” Rogers, T. D. Coltraine, John Lynne, Adam “Nicodemus” Riggs, Ianus J. Wolf, Roland Jovaik, David Ramirez, Patrick “Bahumat” Rochefort, Taylor Stark, Kandrel, Tarl “Voice” Hoch, Ryan Campbell, Ben Goodridge, James L. Steele, and Tonin. (If any of you non-linked guys are actually members under a different name, my apologies — the various pen names can be kind of tough to keep up with sometimes.) You can see all of FurPlanet’s new and upcoming releases here.

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

Market News

Upcoming deadlines: The Rabbit Valley anthology Fur to Skin: Straight Up closes to submissions on December 30, and the erotic lesbian shapeshifter anthology Song of the Wilds closes on December 31 (details on both can be found on our Paying Markets page).

Just opened:  Applications are open for Sean Rivercritic’s “Furry Novel in 20 Voices” project. Full details here. Spaces in that project are reportedly filling up fast, so get yours in soon if you’re interested.

Guidelines for the Rainfurrest 2015 anthology are now available here.

(As always, remember to keep an eye on our Calls for Submissions thread and our Publishing and Marketing forum for the latest openings and news!)

Just added: You can find Weasel Press listed on our Novels and Other Works page of the Furry Writers’ Market.

Guild News

The ebook version of Tales From the Guild: Music to Your Ears is now available from Rabbit Valley! (The ZIP file includes PDF, mobi, and ePub formats, without DRM.)

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. Eastern, Thursdays at noon Eastern (starting this week), and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern – all held right in our newly upgraded forum shoutbox. More info here. (Remember, our forums are open to everyone, not just FWG members. If you haven’t stopped by yet, come register and join the conversation!)

Members — want to write a guest blog post for us? See our guidelines.

That’s all for this month! As always, email furwritersguild (at) gmail.com with news or suggestions, or just comment here.

 

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

My most recent published story was “Da Capo al Fine” in the latest issue of Heat. It is from my Hotel at the End of the Road setting, a distant future where humanity have created artificial lifeforms called “metas” that live for only three years but can pass their memories on from generation to generation. When I wrote my first story in this setting, I created a lot of rules to make the story work, not really thinking too hard about the greater implications of each rule. Later, I found myself going back to those rules and wondering if they could be broken, or what would happen when they did. One such rule said that metas could not just copy their memories into a near identical body in order to preserve their identity. “Da Capo al Fine” was inspired by wondering how I could break this rule. So I had to figure out both why the rule would be broken (the main character is a famous meta actress, and the Hotel wants her fame to continue past one three-year lifespan) and what impact breaking this rule would have (she begins to have trouble distinguishing between the present and her memories).

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

I’ve done both ways. It really depends on the story. “Da Capo al Fine” was pantsed, because I wanted to really be in the moment with my protagonist, seeing what she saw and letting her attention drift into her memories in an organic way. “The Moment at Eternity”, my first published story, had to be carefully outlined, because it jumped between three different timelines, and I needed to be sure that the order of the scenes made sense.

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

Cerebral, “what if” sci-fi.

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

Laika. She was originally created for a bit part in the story “Unnecessary Monsters”, but she burst into the plot and made it all about her. She’s a cruel, conniving, sadistic monster who knows that if she stops being a monster, even for a moment, it could destroy her family and everything she loves. I don’t identify with her because I am similar to her, but I understand where she is coming from and why she does what she does far better than any other of my characters.

After all the crap I’ve put her through, I really just want to give her a hug.

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

Within the fandom, Nathan Cowan was a big influence on my writing. His Foxforce novels directly inspired my Hotel at the End of the Road stories, and it was seeing him get published in Will of the Alpha that convinced me to send “The Moment at Eternity” to Sofawolf. I’d also point to Gene Breshears and M.C.A. Hogarth.

Outside the fandom…wow that’s hard to say. I read a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy novels as a teen that have kept my imagination churning ever since. Books like Foundation, Fahrenheit 451, The Dispossessed, and Redwall.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? I recently went through a collection of Agatha Christie short stories (I don’t remember the title off-hand). It had both mysteries and some of her paranormal stories. While seemingly an odd pairing, they fit quite well in the same anthology. The paranormal stories were mystery stories of a different kind, written with a lot of the same techniques used to build tension and drive the story forward. Of course, it’s also great to see the Queen of Crime herself craft a mystery story in a few short pages. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

Recently, I have been trying to increase my appreciation of fine dining. I could probably survive on frozen pizza every night if I had to, but I’ve been pushing myself to try new things, explore new cuisines, and take a walk on the wild side of food.

8. Advice for other writers?

Hah, that’s a dangerous question to ask an editor. I’ll stick to a few short points that I think would help a lot of stories I see in the slushpile.

Know what your story’s conflict is, and make sure the reader knows what your story’s conflict is on the very first page.

Even in a short story, let the protagonist develop. If they aren’t affected or changed by the events of the story, I’ll wonder why I wasn’t reading a story about someone who was.

If you are going to bring up religion or politics, be respectful.

9. Where can readers find your work?

On my FA page at www.furaffinity.net/user/darkend, in Hot Dish volume 1, Heat volumes 10 and 11, all by Sofawolf Press.

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

The creativity. There are so many unique worlds that furries have developed. Sometimes these are just small variants of established settings , but sometimes they are brand new ideas, taking a look at how our world would be different if different species (or many species) roamed the planet.

 

Check out Dark End’s member bio here!

The Art of Writing Flash Fiction

by Sarina Dorie

 

If a short story falls under a thousand words (1500 words in some markets), it is considered “flash fiction” or “micro fiction.” With a number of new markets out there publishing flash fiction: Penumbra, Daily Science Fiction and Flash Fiction Online being a few among many, it is a plentiful market to send to. Because writing short, succinct stories is a skill I wanted to develop, there is a high demand for flash fiction, and it takes less time to write flash fiction than a long story (in theory), I decided I wanted to take a stab at it. When Daily Science Fiction opened about three years ago, Wordos, my speculative fiction writing critique group in Eugene, Oregon, decided we wanted to dissect flash fiction in order to hone our skills and see what makes a short-short story work. It isn’t surprising that because of our critiques and dissections, quite a few writers from our critique group went on to sell flash to Daily Science Fiction.

What we noticed about these stories is that they were tightly written, limited details, often had an interesting idea, a twist or punch line at the end, and were emotionally powerful or shocking or funny. The format these stories had been written ranged from someone was telling a story to a friend, in the form of a letter or letters in an epistolary fashion, were written like a fable, joke or essay, or used some other unusual writing device to tell a story. Many of these stories weren’t even traditional stories in the sense that there was a character arc, plot or conflict. Still, there was something that happened in each “story” that made it a catchy, edgy or worthwhile. These are just my observations, as well as some that I remember from members of Wordos. My advice to someone genuinely interested in breaking into the flash fiction market is to read and analyze lots of flash fiction and decide what it is about each piece that made the editor choose it.

As a result of studying the market and trying to think in the “short” mindset, I wrote about twenty flash fiction stories in a few months. Some of them I submitted to my critique group and got feedback on, some of them I later turned into slightly longer short stories, and some of them I left unfinished because there wasn’t enough there to create a story—but I didn’t feel guilty about not finishing because they were so short and I considered them experiments. Though I had been submitting stories to magazines for several years, it was my flash fiction stories that first sold. The four pieces I first sold in 2011 were “Zombie Psychology” to Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, “A Ghost’s Guide to Haunting Humans” (which won the Whidbey student choice award), “Losing One’s Appetite” to Daily Science Fiction and “Worse than a Devil” to Crossed Genres. From there, I went on to sell slightly longer short stories as well as more flash. After building up my resume with short stories, I sold my novel, Silent Moon, and then my novella, Dawn of the Morning Star.

Whether it was the short format that enabled me to practice my writing skills more often, or the feedback I got that helped me improve before going on to longer pieces, this process worked well for me. Is your process working for you? Would writing something shorter help you become more succinct in your skills?

 

 

Sarina Dorie brings to her writing background experience working as an English teacher in South Korea and Japan, working as a copyeditor and copywriter, and reading countless badly written stories. Sarina’s published novel, Silent Moon, won second place in the Duel on the Delta Contest, second place in the Golden Rose, third place in the Winter Rose Contest and third in the Ignite the Flame Contest. Her unpublished novel Wrath of the Tooth Fairy won first place in the Golden Claddagh and in the Golden Rose contests. She has sold short stories to over thirty magazines and anthologies including Daily Science Fiction, Cosmos, Penumbra, Sword and Laser, Perihelion, Bards and Sages, Neo-Opsis, Flagship, Allasso, New Myths, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and Crossed Genres, to name a few.

Her science fiction novella Dawn of the Morningstar is due to be published with Wolfsinger Press next year. Silent Moon is currently available through Soul Mate Publishing and Amazon.

For more story problem remedies, editing tips and short story writing advice, go to Sarina Dorie’s website at: www.sarinadorie.com/writing

 

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

My most recently published anthropomorphic project is the short story “Prospero” for Tarl “Voice” Hoch’s horror anthology, Abandoned Places. I’m really fond of taking genre tropes and subverting them. In this case, I started with the common trope of “furries through genetic engineering” and went further than humanity. It’s a cautionary tale about the consequences of humanity trying to use science to distance itself from nature, and how you can’t out-think instinct.

The story is presented as a letter home from a pygmy marmoset, the titular Prospero. He’s genetically engineered to be hyper-intelligent, and was sent out into space to function more or less as a biological component of a larger computer system. Just a piece of the machinery that’s more efficient and economical to launch and operate than silicon for the tasks anticipated. So humanity casts a hyper-intelligent social primate out into the void, alone, and neglects to ask him if he even wanted to go, or for that matter, if he’d want some company along the way. And humanity pays the price for this.

With a theme being “Abandoned Places”, I can’t think of anywhere more lonely and abandoned than the silence of deep space.

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

I’m a “seeder”. Stories tend to come to me with a climactic scene popping into my head fully formed. From there, I have to outline, plot, and write forward and backward from that point, to understand both the circumstances that led to the dramatic scenario I envisioned, and its consequences.

I’m trying to get better about starting my stories from the beginning, once I have the climactic scene in mind. In fact the project I just finished for SofaWolf’s Hot Dish anthology is the first I set out to to rigorously write from the beginning.

Before writing, I’ll play music I consider relevant to the pieces I’m working on, as I envision scenes. Once the writing starts, though, I work in silence and solitude as much as possible. My typical writing window is ninety minutes to two hours. Chemically, one to two standard drinks of alcohol, three to five of caffeine, in that time period, keeps the words flowing. On a good day I can turn out five thousand words in those two hours.

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

Pornography for the heart. In a past life I’m pretty sure I wrote soap operas and melodramas. I delight in making my beta readers bawl their eyes out in a reading, and then laugh out loud, or otherwise react unconsciously. A room full of beta readers being silent? That’s a story without punch.

My goal is to move my readers emotionally. I write stories about flawed protagonists who earn their scars, and not all of them are worn with pride. Some are just worn because they were wounded. I like my villains to be the protagonists of their own stories; everyone brings their own stakes and reasons to the table.

I also love taking cliches and common tropes and twisting them in on themselves, subverting them, taking the reader on uncomfortable journeys they’re glad to have taken.

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

I think all of my characters are drawn from a combination of ideals and internalized experiences. I don’t think I identify with any of my characters, but some I’d want to call role models. I believe in a genre where so many Mary Sue-esque ‘fursonas’ abound, the more you can distance yourself from that kind of vanity, the better you’ll write and the more you’re going to learn about yourself in doing so.

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

Peter Watts. When I was a blushing young author, I met him not long after I’d read Blindsight, gushed about it, and indicated I was a writer myself. He was kind enough to take the time to shatter me, with one simple question: “Oh yeah? How many hours a day do you write?”

I was poleaxed. I’d felt really proud about a few hours a week here and there, when the mood struck. He made me realize that if I was going to be a professional writer, I had to treat it like a profession. Treat writing like bricklaying: A bricklayer doesn’t get paid to think about laying bricks. He doesn’t get paid to talk about laying bricks. He gets paid for laying bricks. So be a brick-laying motherfucker. I write one to two hours a day now, four or more on weekends.

For books that influenced my work, in the anthropomorphic genres, I’ll give a shout-out to three:

The Cold Moons, by Aeron Clement. Anthropomorphic fiction at its finest and most heartbreaking, exploring the lives of badgers enduring a holocaust during the larger badger culls conducted by the UK government in the 1970’s. Anthropomorphic tales where almost everyone dies tragically? Powerful stuff, it was probably my first exposure as a kid to the idea of anthropomorphic characters where their animal natures mattered.

The Color of Distance, by Amy Thompson. (That’s Edd Vick’s wife!) I confess, this book has ruined me utterly on 99% of the alien world contact sci-fi stories out there, because hers was the first (of very, very few) stories I’ve read that acknowledged stark scientific realities like anaphylaxis when a body encounters unknown proteins. She wrote a believable, spectacular story series about encountering aliens who have high biotechnology and next to no ‘regular’ technology, who communicate using their skin via chromatophores in a combination of visual and gestural patterns. Anthropomorphic skin-colour changing tree frogs with a profound culture and high biotechnology at their disposal innately? Awesome.

Mouseguard, by David Petersen. I love everything about this concept. Scaling up the adventure by scaling down the heroes. Who needs dragons when you’re a mouse facing down a crab, or a snake, or a fox? It’s a world where the arrival of a moose is a wonder on a genuinely titanic scale. For my money, Mouseguard is the best thing happening in anthropomorphic fiction right now. We need more work that celebrates anthropomorphic characters at their scale, and at their nature.

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

Our Deathbeds Will Be Thirsty, by Shane Koyczan. I’m enamored with spoken word poetry, and I can only hope and pray that one day I’ll have the lyrical command of words that Koyczan does. He’s got the power to make me laugh and then make me sob uncontrollably in less words than I’d use to order a meal in a restaurant, and I love him dearly for it.

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

Parent with three kids and a full time job, I don’t have much free time to spend! But I do spend a lot more time than I should writing on role-playing MUCKs. I consume a lot of media, music in particular. I drink and rate a lot of beer on Ratebeer.com, play a lot of video games. For exercise I swim, lift weights, ride my bike, and shoot my bow at the archery lanes.

8. Advice for other writers?

Borrowing once more from Peter Watts: “Anyone who can be discouraged from writing, should be.”

Become someone who cannot be discouraged from writing. Embrace every bad review, every critic’s opinion, every editor’s rejection. Treat every rejection letter that includes tips on improving your story as the solid gold it is. Someone out there cared enough about your story to want to help you make it better. The very least you can do is honor that.

Accept that unless you are extraordinarily hardworking and lucky, you will probably never make your primary living off of writing. But the harder you work, the more prodigiously you write and submit, the more chances you have to get lucky. Remember that you are surrounded at all times by competition that is hungrier than you. Write better than them, write more than them, and submit it.

Don’t marry a genre. Furry writing alone will never pay your bills. You might love your fantasy epic only to find that crappy romance or cookbook you did ghostwriting for paid your bills five times over. You might discover to your horror, as I did, that you enjoy writing for a genre that you hate reading. Technical writing pays my bills, and it is wholly soulless work, but it funds my ability to write stories with soul.

9. Where can readers find your work?

Sofawolf’s Heat issue #3, various conbooks (most recently Camp Feral! featuring “All The Future’s Stars”) and the forthcoming Abandoned Places anthology by Tarl “Voice” Hoch. I’ve also submitted to Sofawolf’s latest Hot Dish anthology, so we’ll see if that gets accepted.

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

For all that the base of the fandom is a rather juvenile sea of tropes and pop culture, there’s always people ready to rise to the challenge, and elevate the rest of us through it. Furry fandom has much deeper roots than it remembers, but there’s always a cycle of rediscovery going on, and modern classics being made today that will be fondly remembered fifty years from now.

 

Check out Patrick “Bahumat” Rochefort’s member bio here!

Aesop Continues To Inspire

by Carmen K. Welsh, Jr.

 

Why are we driven to use non-humans in our stories? Why do we create characters based on inanimate objects? Why do we feel the need to personify, or, anthropomorphize ideals and abstractions? Why was I driven to animal cartoons? Why did public TV nature shows become an influence? Why did the struggle between life and death fascinate me as a six-year-old? Why would popular shows such as “Wild America” foster in me the need to tell stories?

My answers came during the formative junior high years, when, isolated from the rest of my classmates for having interests they did not share, and thus, bullied, I found refuge in a collection of Aesop tales in the school library. Yet, the significance of the fables never rang more true than when I spent hours reading the volume each time in my junior high’s library. I was so enthused by these fables on complex human ideas; I immediately created a booklet of my own, penning and illustrating notebook paper before binding the little pages with a stapler.

Now, I was already familiar with the great philosopher of animal fables showcasing human folly. For voracious readers, we will see the same stories pop up, over and over, ‘The Fox and the Grapes’, ‘Dog in the Manger’, ‘Spider to the Fly’, and the ‘Crow who needed to quench his thirst’ as well as ‘The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs’. There was also ‘The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ and ‘The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf’, or what many know as ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’. We understand these tales because they tackle moral issues: greed, lust, desire, humility, and arrogance.

Last, but certainly not least, Aesop’s influences continue to surprise me. For several years, I’ve been listening to different East Asian and some South Asian music. Years ago, it was Japanese pop tunes. Nowadays, it’s Korean-pop. While watching a Korean news program, they ended the segment with two music videos. I fell in love with the song called Oops! By G.NA and featuring Ilhoon of BTOB.

Since the news showed the video in the middle and most of the end, my curiosity was piqued and I jumped to YouTube.com to watch it in its entirety.

It is a wonderful song, G.NA is a fun vocalist to listen to, and Ilhoon, the rapper, is fast and furious. While watching the video, I learned from other YouTube commentators that it is the story about a young handsome man who has a silver tiger cat. When he leaves her for the day, the cat crawls under his bed sheets and emerges as a woman (G.NA)!

After luxuriating in her human form, she eventually puts on new clothes and goes clubbing. Her owner is there, and their eyes meet. She sidles up to him, and they touch noses, before she flits home, leaving him dazed and confused.

Once back in the house, she gets back into the nightclothes she first emerged as a human before the owner comes home.

Can’t tell who is more surprised, but, she grins at him like a minx, and he is more than thrilled to find the mysterious girl from the club in his house. The next morning, he’s in bed and his hand is seen stroking the cat.

Wow, this reminds me of an Aesop fable! I thought.

When I shared the video and my comment, one of my Facebook friends sent back that “C, you are special”. But who could blame me? I flipped through my modern edition of Aesop, and found the story I compared to the K-Pop video. It was “Venus and the Cat”!

Another YouTube commentator ‘liked’ my comment and told me she/he enjoyed Aesop fables too. Is it any wonder many of us enjoy anthropomorphic stories? In the act, we create new tales that are updates of ancient myths and weave new lessons for new generations.

In conclusion, I cannot choose a single Aesop favorite, or 10 favorites. I will, however, choose a particular tale that probably has more adaptations and incarnations than many of the other fables, and that is “City Mouse, Country Mouse”, or, originally known as “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”. Why this fable? Well, Aesop’s use of animals as symbols appears to have made huge impressions on its readers, or the stories would not have lasted for thousands of years.

A country cousin leaves his rural home to visit his slicker city kin. Mayhem ensues, with the country mouse rushing back to a world that, though no less dangerous, is familiar and makes sense. This appears to run rampant in the amount of ‘fish out of water’ themes prevalent in many films and books. Please do yourself a favor, and read “City Mouse, Country Mouse” in any adaptation. As with this and many other Aesopic tales, you will appreciate its message more with each reading and/or retelling.

 

November’s Book of the Month, Improbable… Never Impossible, is written by FWG member Vixyy Fox and illustrated by Cara Bevan.

“Improbable… Never Impossible is a gentle story about love. It is a children’s story of old with a life lesson of good morals, good reading, and beautiful art like you have never seen. In a crazy mixed up hardened asphalt world it is also a reminder to adults that they were once young with an imagination that could envision anything they wished. Worlds where animals could speak and dressed like people were common place to their hearts. Within the mind’s eye they found a wonderful and safe place where a cat and a mouse could come together in only a way that two hearts were meant to join.

“Come know this place again and find the child you were… never really grew up at all.”

Order from Rabbit Valley.

 

New Members

Welcome to our new members Arcane Reno, Yannarra Cheena, and Andres Cyanni Halden!

Member News

Trick or Treat Volume Two: Historical Halloween is now available from Rabbit Valley, edited by member Ianus J. Wolf and featuring horror “tricks” from Huskyteer, Jason “Houston” Walther, NightEyes DaySpring, Slip-Wolf, Bill “Hafoc” Rogers, and Tarl “Voice” Hoch, as well as erotic “treats” from Whyte Yoté, Chris “Sparf” Williams, Roland Jovaik, and Ianus J. Wolf.

Vixyy Fox has teamed up with artist Cara Bevan to bring us the children’s book Improbable… Never Impossible, also now available from Rabbit Valley.

Renee Carter Hall will be the writer Guest of Honor at Rainfurrest 2015. (And she still find it weird talking about herself in third person in the newsletter.)

Check out Paul Kidd‘s Indiegogo campaign for the GeneStorm RPG.

Associate member Jay was interviewed over at The Dragons’ Geas.

Feel like listening to a werewolf love song? (Who doesn’t?) Check out Daniel Lowd’s “Walking in the Moonlight” on YouTube.

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

Market News

Upcoming deadlines: Further Confusion’s conbook has a deadline of November 15 (details at our conbook page), and the Rabbit Valley anthology Fur to Skin: Ladies First closes to submissions on November 30 (details at our Paying Markets page).

Just opened: Furry sports anthology to be published by Jaffa Books – see the guidelines here. (Remember to keep an eye on our Calls for Submissions thread and our Publishing and Marketing forum for the latest openings and news!)

Guild News

Doing NaNoWriMo this month? We’ve got a thread for that. And if you’ve got something you need a beta for at any time of year, we have a critique board in our forum (you’ll need to be registered with the forum in order to view it). Remember, our forums are open to everyone, not just FWG members. Come register and join the conversation!

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. Eastern and now Saturday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern — both held right in the forum shoutbox. More info here. (On a related note, we have new conduct guidelines for the shoutbox; please be sure to have a look here before you chat.)

Members — want to write a guest blog post for us? See our guidelines.

That’s all for this month! As always, send an email to furwritersguild (at) gmail.com with news, suggestions, and other feedback, or just comment here.

 

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

My most recent story is a little something I’ve been working on called Vancouver Midnight. A lot of my stories are set in Toronto in my Lakeshore Universe, but for this I wanted to do something a little different. Since Vancouver is my favorite city, I wanted to write something that really showcases the love I have for traveling, what it’s like to be in such a wonderful place, and the sort of…grief you feel about having to leave. It’s a special kind of story, one that I haven’t really written before.

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

I’d definitely say an outliner. I plan almost everything out before I get to writing. Sometimes stuff just comes to me spontaneously while I’m actually writing (and that’s an amazing feeling), but the majority of the story is stuff that I actually plan out. I do this, because I like to have some direction, and I like to know where I’m going. Otherwise, with me being the easily distracted kind of person I am, I can end up losing sight of what I’m trying to do with this story or that story.

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

Contemporary romance dramas. By far.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? My Border Collie, Ian Morlen. He’s probably my most popular character. I feel like he’s me in so many ways; very down to earth, but stubborn, often conflicted, sometimes at odds with himself or his friends. The relationship he has with his boyfriend Jamie Readon (Golden Retriever) is something I wish I had. 5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

Within our fandom, probably Kyell Gold, by far. He writes exactly the kind of stuff I like to read. I mean in terms of just subject matter, he nails it. Romantic dramas are a huge part of his repertoire as an author, and the way he writes them is mesmerizing. If I have to cite books specifically, I would say Out Of Position and Bridges impacted (and influenced to an extent) me the most.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? Probably Kyell’s Science Friction. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

That’s quite a question. I’m also a dancer, a DJ, and a voice actor, so those take up quite a bit of my time. So much so that writing often takes a backseat, which is why I haven’t actually written much this year. I also love movies, TV, and video games. And with the limited free time I have outside of work and school, it’s a real balancing act trying to handle so many passions and hobbies.

8. Advice for other writers?

Write. Read. I can’t stress enough that if you want to be a good writer, you have a to read a lot. You have to see what good writing looks like, analyze it, find out why another writer does this or does that, and how it adds or takes away from their story.

9. Where can readers find your work?

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rahne/
https://rahne.sofurry.com/

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

That fact that we’re such a big community brimming with so many ideas and tons of creativity. That so many people can come from different backgrounds, all over the world to appreciate one thing, and that unlike other fandoms, all the content comes specifically from within, from us. We’re not a fandom that exists because of a particular TV show, video game, or movie. We exist because of an appreciation for something, a concept, an idea; one that means a little something different for everyone within, but one that we all appreciate nonetheless. We have writers, DJs, artists, fursuiters, voice actors, videographers, musicians, all sorts of “talent” that contributes and fuels our fandom in one way or another.

Plus, where can I dress up as a big sexy dingo, go crazy at the dances of a fur con, and have it be welcomed by everyone there?

 

Check out Rahne Kallon’s member bio here!

Sniffing Out An Agent

by Huskyteer

 

Everyone seems to be a writer, these days, and everywhere – at least, every town in the UK – seems to be having a Literary Festival. The second week in September, it was the turn of Battersea, in South London, and among the many events offered to readers and writers in the area was an ‘Agent-Led Dog Walk’.

Approaching a literary agent can feel intimidating. It’s a relationship that may last the whole of an author’s writing career, so it’s important to get things off to a good start. Yet agents are busy people who may not have time to spare for answering questions while they’re at work, and may not feel like it during their leisure hours. Nobody wants to come across as pushy, or be That Writer who backs an agent into a corner at a party and shoves a manuscript under their nose, but many of us have things we’d like to find out.

The dog walk was a chance to chat with an agent in a less formal environment, while also getting some exercise and having some fun. There’s nothing like a dog for creating an informal atmosphere and a topic of lively conversation. The £5 event fee would go to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

As a dogless writer, I’d happily have signed up for a charity dog walk even without the additional carrot (or bone) of chatting with an agent. Besides, perhaps dog-friendly agents would be more receptive than the average to my talking-animal stories? I went along to find out.

The Sunday of the walk turned out to be a beautiful morning, and a couple of dozen literary hopefuls gathered in Battersea Park. We were introduced to the four dogs and their agents, then we split into groups for an hour of walking and talking.

I had checked the agents’ websites beforehand, but none of them stood out as the perfect match for my writing, so I went by dog. My pick was Maisie, who had brought Jo Unwin of the Jo Unwin Literary Agency. She (Maisie) was a medium-sized brown dog with setterish ears who looked like a bundle of high energy fun. Sure enough, I was to spend much of the next hour throwing an increasingly soggy and ruptured tennis ball and remembering every now and then that I probably ought to be networking or something.

Jo very fairly made time to talk to each of us individually, and we also sat down as a group to drink coffee, ask questions and receive advice. I also seized the chance to bestow some scritches on Maisie, who was initially glad of the rest after jumping in and out of the duck pond but quickly grew bored with all this talking.

Some of what we were told was familiar to me from my obsessive reading around the submissions process, but it made a big difference hearing it in person. I might not be able to reproduce that experience, but here’s what we learned:

 

• Be professional. Find an agent who works with your genre, and address them by name in your cover letter.
• Identify what’s unique about your book. Imagine you’re in the pub, talking about a book whose title you can’t quite remember; what’s your book’s “that one with the…”?
• Sell yourself – but be relevant. List publications, prizes, and any background information that shows you’re especially qualified to write the book you’ve written, but don’t talk about your lifelong dream of being a writer, or how much your kids loved the book.
• Should you say your book has series potential? That depends if it does; is what you’re planning a true sequel, or are you too lazy to think of a new scenario, or too fond of your characters to let them go?
• Only submit when you think your manuscript is as good as it can be. It won’t be, but don’t send a draft you know is flawed and expect an agent or editor to leap at the chance of sorting it out for you.

 

As well as a deeper knowledge of what agents might be looking for, and how they like to be approached, I’ve gained an opening should I ever have a project I feel would be a good fit for Jo (“It was so lovely to meet you on the Battersea dog walk. I was the one who threw the ball for Maisie over and over and over again”). It was also lovely to swap notes with other local writers on works in progress and how far we’d come.

You might not be lucky enough to find a similar event in your own neighbourhood, but if you’re involved in a local arts festival, why not try setting one up? And if you’re a literary agent with a canine friend, consider turning your daily dog walk into an opportunity to help up and coming authors while also publicising your agency. The writers will thank you, and so will your dog.

 

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

For my furry writing, I’m in the process of revising a novel set in the same fantasy world as my short story “Irula’s Apprentice,” but a couple of generations later. In this world, I envision what a society of intelligent lions might look like if one takes existing lion behavior as a given. It’s also been interesting to see how a leonine society might take on different dimensions depending on the setting.

The novel is in a lot rougher shape than I’d like it to be, but I’ll be looking for a publisher when I get it in a shape that I like.

With my non-furry work, I recently had a piece of flash fiction accepted for publication that combines aspects of the Cthulhu mythos with the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. A science fiction story will soon be released by the Wily Writers podcast.

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

Most of my stories have a fairly long period of rumination, where I’m working out story issues in my head. I tend to do a lot of research, which I may or may not use in my writing. I try to write a first draft as quickly as I can; sometimes I have a broad outline, sometimes I know what I want to do in the next couple of sections. And sometimes I just write to see where the characters and concept will take me. I try to revise as best as I can, and then try to get beta readers involved before I make a submission-ready draft — although deadlines don’t always allow me to exercise the full process.

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

Most of my stories tend to be speculative fiction of one sort or another, with horror and dark fantasy predominating lately. Often my stories focus on individuals thrust into extreme situations and how their choices wind up making or breaking them. World creation is important, and I hope I do it reasonably well, but in the end I want the characters to be most important.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? I would probably say Raalfarinoor from my lion novel. While I don’t think he’s a Mary Sue/Gary Shrew, there are a lot of ways he represents an idealized version of myself. His courage, his integrity, his humor and his curiosity are all something I strive for.

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

I tend to draw from a number of influences, depending on the nature of the project I’m working on. My earliest influences include C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Norton Juster’s Phantom Tollbooth, and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. Later influences include G. K. Chesterton, Charles de Lint, Cordwainer Smith and the haiku poets Basho and Buson.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? I absolutely loved everything about Andre Norton’s Breed to Come. I highly recommend it to all readers of science fiction. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I’m a very avid reader, reading somewhere between one and two novels a week. I like nonfiction too, but that generally goes a little more slowly. I also enjoy spending time with my wife and playing with our cat.

8. Advice for other writers?

ABW: Always Be Writing. One hundred percent of the stories never written are never read. You can fix just about anything in the rewrites, if you have something to fix. Leave out the boring parts, or at least delete them in the rewrites. Learn what makes a good story by reading good stories. Take the time to revise your work. And never stop writing.

9. Where can readers find your work?

I was very fortunate to have audio versions of two of my furry stories produced by Anthro Dreams. I mentioned “Irula’s Apprentice” earlier. “C.Moira’s Choice” is an homage to the science fiction of Cordwainer Smith. Anyone interested in my non-furry stuff can get in touch with me via Twitter (@haikufictiondju) or my blog: http://haikufiction.blogspot.com.

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

I’ve always appreciated how accepting the furry fandom is. You decide what species and gender your fursona is, with almost infinite possibilities. You decide how furry you are as an individual — are you an artist, a writer, a fursuiter, a lifestyler, a fan? Some combination of all of the above? You choose, and the furry fandom accepts the you that you choose to be. I’m aware of no other fandom that is that accepting.

 

Check out Donald Jacob Uitvlugt’s member bio here!

Common Mistakes Among Writers

by Sarina Dorie

 

When we go to a job interview, we wear our best suit, come with a list of references, and might even remember to put on deodorant. At least, we do if we want the job. When we format a manuscript, self-edit a novel, or polish a book before sending it off to an agent or editor, we strive to present it as though we are professional writers who know what we are doing. At least, we do if we want to be published. Whether a seasoned writer, or someone just starting out in the writing process, there are weaknesses we don’t always recognize in our skills. We get into ruts with grammar, formatting or stylistic “rules” we learned early on in high school writing classes that are bad practices in professional writing. Learn the common mistakes so you can recognize when you make these in your writing so you can avoid them.

 

Five Common Mistakes

1. The manuscript isn’t in manuscript format

Short stories have a particular format and novels have different requirements. Additionally, some publishers have very specific variations from the standards that a submitter must be aware of. The number one cause listed on editor, agent and magazine websites for writing to be rejected is not reading the guidelines.

2. Grammar errors and inconsistencies

Sometimes a simple spell check will suffice. Other times, one needs to look up rules that are unfamiliar. Some rules of grammar are meant to be broken, but it is important to start with foundational knowledge and break a rule consistently if one chooses to do so. Classes, critique groups, peers and beta readers can help.

3. The mechanics of the story are broken

Sentence structure is unvaried, past and present tense rules are not consistently followed, or there are various typos not covered under grammatical errors that make the manuscript a chore to read. It is common to find long sections of dialogue without dialogue tags, setting information lumped together, chunks of unbroken interior monologue or sensory information in one section, and long expanses of exposition in others. The story might be all, or large sections of, telling.

4. The story itself is broken

The premise is unbelievable, the idea is trite or overdone, or the plot has no story arc. Maybe the characters are so unsympathetic the reader can’t get into the story or the writer has gotten a vital piece of information wrong that affects the story. This can be pretty important if an author is writing a paranormal romance with werewolves and the characters and plot don’t reflect accurate, wolf-like traits.

5. The story is boring

This usually means it lacks conflict. It might also be because there is no hook in the beginning, or it could be because the reader doesn’t understand or care about the characters’ motivations, feelings or situation. The reader needs to be emotionally invested. Sure, it might just be because the reader isn’t the author’s target market, but even romance readers can be persuaded to read a mystery if they care about the characters or a mystery reader can read a romance if they are invested in the plot.

 

Sarina Dorie brings to her writing background experience working as an English teacher in South Korea and Japan, working as a copyeditor and copywriter, and reading countless badly written stories. Sarina’s published novel, Silent Moon, won second place in the Duel on the Delta Contest, second place in the Golden Rose, third place in the Winter Rose Contest and third in the Ignite the Flame Contest. Her unpublished novel Wrath of the Tooth Fairy won first place in the Golden Claddagh and in the Golden Rose contests. She has sold short stories to over thirty magazines and anthologies including Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Cosmos, Penumbra, Sword and Laser, Perihelion, Bards and Sages, Neo-Opsis, Flagship, Allasso, New Myths, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and Crossed Genres, to name a few.

Silent Moon is currently available as an ebook through Amazon and will be released in print next month.

For more story problems remedies, editing tips and short story writing advice, go to Sarina Dorie’s website at: www.sarinadorie.com/writing