Furry Writers' Guild

October’s Book of the Month is edited by FWG member Ianus J. Wolf and includes stories from members Ocean Tigrox, Bill “Hafoc” Rogers, Renee Carter Hall, Tarl “Voice” Hoch, Roland Jovaik, and Huskyteer.

“Keep your dials tuned as we join the RVO Radio Theatre for adventure, mystery, and danger!  Dive deep into the jungles of South America where the temple’s gift may not bring what you wish in The Ruins.  Then, jump to the Wild West of America as a badger determines who is the predator and who is Prey.  But don’t go too far as a group of intrepid Army Rangers battle a foreign threat to America more dangerous than the evil mastermind’s ‘robots’ in Rocket Canyon. And this next tale of an Aussie gal with a heart of gold and fists of iron battles the Nazis in The Bouncer and the Didgeridoo of Awakening. And join our poster girl, the rough and tumble Tesla Mae and the Lost Tribe. Don’t take too long to dock your airship, because evil cultists are trying to destroy Boston in Jericho Tanner and the Ebon Star. Find out who is the destroyer of worlds and who is the fox that can save us all in Savior.  And finally wrap it all up with a trip across the pond and the high flying aces in Flight of the Fire Dragon! Stay tuned, listeners, for more adventure!”

Featuring stories from:

• Tym Greene
• Ocean Tigrox
• Bill “Hafoc” Rogers
• T.S. McNally
• Renee Carter Hall
• Tarl “Voice” Hoch
• Roland Jovaik
• Huskyteer

Cover by Quel.

Order from Rabbit Valley.

 

New Members

Welcome to our new members Nathanael “Friday” Gass, Mars, Jess E. Owen, Tony Greyfox, and Ocean Tigrox!

Member News

Tristan Black Wolf took first place in SoFurry’s “Summer Adventures” writing contest with his story “Solstice.”

Renee Carter Hall‘s “The Bear with the Quantum Heart” was reprinted in Allegory, and her ebook “Real Dragons Don’t Wear Sweaters” is now just 99 cents at Amazon and Smashwords.

The first FWG anthology, Tales From the Guild Volume 1: Music to Your Ears, was published this month by Rabbit Valley, featuring stories from members Michael H. Payne, Mary E. Lowd, Huskyteer, Sean Rivercritic, Mark Neeley, Mars, Nathanael Gass, and Jess E. Owen, and in Rabbit Valley’s new anthology Pulp!: Two-Pawed Tales of Adventure, you’ll find stories from members Ocean Tigrox, Bill “Hafoc” Rogers, Renee Carter Hall, Tarl “Voice” Hoch, Roland Jovaik, and Huskyteer. You’ll also find work by our members in this year’s Rainfurrest charity anthology, Furtual Horizons, which includes stories from Tarl “Voice” Hoch, Ocean Tigrox, Kyell Gold, and Friday, among others.

With a title like “Pegacornus Rex,” how can you not check out Mary E. Lowd’s latest story in Daily Science Fiction? She’s also the new editor for ROAR #6 (more about that in Market News).

New releases from FurPlanet for Rainfurrest also include Kyell Gold’s Dude, Where’s My Fox? and Rose LaCroix‘s Escape from St. Arned.

Finishing up this month’s news, Michael H. Payne’s Morning, Noon & Night is now available for Kindle, Dwale has posted a new poetry bundle to FA, and our associate member Jay has been confirmed as a special guest at FurDU 2015.

(Members: Want to make sure your news gets included here? Start a thread in the Member News forum!)

Market News

Upcoming deadlines: Get submissions in to World Weaver Press’ Corvid anthology by October 31, and the deadline is November 1 for submissions to The Furry Future. (Full info and links to guidelines at our Paying Markets page.) The Midwest FurFest conbook also has a November 1 deadline (details at our conbook page).

Just opened: Two new anthologies forthcoming from FurPlanet — ROAR #6 with a theme of “scoundrel,” and an untitled noir anthology. Rainfurrest has also announced next year’s charity anthology theme, “Sword and Sorcery.” (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

In case you’ve been under a rock (any rock-dwelling fursonae out there?) or just weren’t paying attention under Member News, our first anthology, Tales From the Guild Volume 1: Music to Your Ears, is now available from Rabbit Valley. Support the guild and pick up your copy here! (Ebook coming soon.)

The Cóyotl Awards for 2012 and 2013 were announced at Rainfurrest this past weekend. You can see the list of winners (and links to the nominee lists) here. Congratulations to all our winners and nominees — and remember, if you know of something published this year that deserves our attention for next year’s awards, come tell us about it in this thread!

We remain open to guest blog posts from members! See the guidelines here.

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.

And if you’ve got something you need a beta for, we have a critique board in our forum (you’ll need to be registered with the forum in order to view it).

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

One last question…

If a coyote howls and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

 

The Cóyotl Awards ceremony was held last night at Rainfurrest. Congratulations to all the winners!

2012 winners:
(Full list of nominees at http://coyotlawards.org/2012-2/)

Best Novel: By Sword and Star by Renee Carter Hall
Best Novella: Reach for the Sky (The Battle of Britain – a novel of Lt. Corn Book 1) by Vixyy Fox
Best Short Story: “Chasing the Spotlight” by Tim Susman (published in ROAR Volume 4)

2013 winners:
(Full list of nominees at http://coyotlawards.org/2013-2/)

Best Novel: God of Clay by Ryan Campbell
Best Novella: Indigo Rain by Watts Martin
Best Short Story: “Fox in the Hen House” by Mary E. Lowd (published in Dancing in the Moonlight)
Best Anthology: Hot Dish #1 edited by Alopex

And if you’ve read something great so far this year that you think members should take a look at for the 2014 awards, come tell us about it in this thread:

http://www.anthroaquatic.com/forum/index.php?topic=326.0

 

 

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

My most recent publication was the pair of poems featured in the anthology Will of the Alpha. They were sort of an on-the-fly kind of pair but I think they came out nicely.

Current projects include a piece that I am going to submit for Heat that I’m hopeful about. I’ve had it proofread by a friend who adored the piece. Inspiration for that actually came from a role-playing game of all places but definitely took on a mind of its own after I began.

I’ve also got a set of novels I’m brainstorming about right now. One of them I’ve started and restarted probably seventeen times now. I just start getting into it and then hating all of it. Hopefully that will rectify itself soon though.

The theme behind it is acceptance. It’s going to have a lot of self-doubt for the main character to work through and the environment itself will help set the stage for key events in the plotline. Without giving too much away now I will say it’s about a woman named Rachel, otter, and her relationship with a mysterious woman whose name I haven’t nailed down yet. She’s a possum. The working title for the project is “Storm Warning” so take that how you will.

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

A lot of getting frustrated and starting over. Random fits of creativity where I actually produce something halfway decent and planning that just sits around until I remember it exists.

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

Poetry, by far, is one of my favorite things to write. I love dark romance as well. Something about tapping into the darker aspects of human nature that people deny themselves is just exciting. Looking into the primal, the brutal, the things that make you really empathize with the main character.

Not to be all doom and gloom I do quite enjoy writing lighthearted pieces. While not my best written piece my favourite tale to date is “Fitting Roles.” It’s silly but nice.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? Can I point out the stories involving my own sona? Those aside, however, I do relate to a few characters. I’d rather not say who though and let others figure it out for themselves. 5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

Watership Down was a big one for me. The way Richard Adams conveyed the supernatural aspect while maintaining this world where you genuinely want the main characters to survive was fantastic.  I have looked at books like Silverwing as well. Oh, and the novel Blood and Chocolate is one of my favourite sources when dealing with the idea of shapeshifters.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? That’s a tough one honestly. I’ve taken up reading a lot of creepypastas lately as well as several short stories. In terms of actual books I have recently been reading through Bewitching the Werewolf. I’ve also been rereading the Out of Position series by Kyell Gold. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?

I help run a werewolf game with friends and do other LARP games as well! It’s a great creative exercise.

8. Advice for other writers?

Keep writing. Write anything; even if you think it sucks. The more you write the better you get. You will write hundreds and hundreds of lackluster pieces before finally getting to the point where you start getting really good. Just keep working on it.

9. Where can readers find your work?

The easiest place is on FurAffinity under the username Lapso.

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

The diversity and ability to be whoever and whatever you want.

 

Check out Elijah Lapso’s member bio here!

Just a reminder for those of you headed to Rainfurrest this weekend that the Cóyotl Awards ceremony will be held Friday night at 7 PM, where winners will be announced for 2012 and 2013. (And for those of you getting to the con on Thursday, there’s also going to be an FWG meet Thursday night at 7 PM – all are welcome, so come find out more about who we are and what we do, and just get a chance to hang out with other writers.)

Thanks to Mary E. Lowd for hosting both events!

 

Anthropomorphic Diversity

by Lauren Rivers

 

When writing anthropomorphic fiction, one of the major elements is determining the species and the variety of your cast members. One of your first decisions is should they all be of the same race. While it may be to your fancy to have an entire cast of foxes, the positive side to this is that you can delve into the variations of the species. You can discuss the habits of different types of foxes such as fennecs versus the red fox, as well as highlight cultural differences much in the way that science fiction does with aliens and racial situations. An example would be a story where fennec foxes are considered exotic and used for slave labor, or a case where arctic foxes are racially profiled and perhaps have a unique ability the others do not, such as the creation and manipulation of ice. This also comes with a downside for people that don’t like how foxes tend to be overused within the fandom.  They could be turned off by the fact that your characters are all variants of the same species. Additionally, one should consider that in a situation where the entire cast ‘looks the same’ from a general perspective, individual characters may have a harder time standing out.

Another possibility is centaurs or any characters with a humanoid torso and animal lower half. The positive side to this addition is that you can more or less make up your own rules as to the species and what they are like. For one, they are capable of more physical action than most normal anthropomorphic characters, though most of the issues with centaurian species are logistical. If you include centaurs, then cars, furniture, group travel, everything must be modified for the existence of centaurs. Adding an extra two feet to some of your characters can slow you down if you do not have a plan in mind for your four-footed cast members.

Let’s not forget about humans themselves. The plus side to the involvement of humans in furry stories is that non-furries may enjoy the story simply for its own merits. Humans are easiest for people outside of the fandom to understand, and logically so. If you want your story to be more broadly accepted, consider a partly human cast. Be wary of using the humans only on the side of evil though, as the ‘evil humans versus good anthropomorphic characters’ plot line is a frequent staple in furry fiction. It may be seen as ‘one of those stories’ in the same way that comas on soap operas are often not taken seriously.

Finally, a species-diverse cast is yet another option. If you have every cast member a different species, or at least no more than two of any one type, you maximize the chances that every reader will find at least one species they enjoy. Additionally, it gives you more variety in descriptions. For example, if there is only one bovine character in your story, they will be easily recalled and will more quickly establish themselves in the reader’s mind. The pitfall with this approach is that you may have more characters than you can handle, if you attempt to fit too many species into your zoological odyssey.

As a writer, you clearly have many choices for how to populate your world. The choice is of course, up to you. However, bear in mind that you must know what kind of story you want to tell before you begin the casting process. Being aware of this will often do most of the work for you. Think of the characteristics each type of anthropomorphic being will add to your story and then decide if they’re the right one for you. If you’ve done your planning properly, it should seem as if most of the decisions have been made all by themselves.

 

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

My current project is a three part fantasy series called Chaos Awakens.  Book one, Servant of Steel, and book two, Crown of Steel, have already been published and I’m hacking away at the third book currently (SOMETHING of Steel).  My goal is to have it published by the end of the year.

This series was inspired by my love of dark anti-heroes and epic conflicts.  I really wanted to create a world that was gripped in the late stages of its own demise, and to tell the story of the people who became heroes not out of choice, but out of necessity.

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

I’m the sort of writer who likes to dive right into a project.  I’ve tried outlining in the past, but I find that the process of outlining causes me to fall into formulaic story arcs.  It’s far too easy to become systematic when you’re basically making a list of key elements of your plot.  Instead, I build the story up in my mind, take notes on key points I want to include, and then start writing from the beginning. While I’m working I’ll reference my notes here and there, change them, rework plot details, and often scrap large portions of my original plans.  Everything in service to the story.

When you’re reading one of my books you should never be bored.  If I re-read something and it’s dull, I throw it out.  It’s actually a chaotic process.  I wouldn’t recommend it at all.

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

I’m a huge fan of fantasy, but I really like to throw in elements of horror.  I like to be scared, and I like to scare other people.  It’s intoxicating.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? This is a difficult question.  I’m always tempted to pick the current lead from my long-term project because, at any given moment, that is the one character I need to identify with the most.  For my current series I’ve spent a lot of time in the head of my lead character, Xandrith.  We share a degree of dark humor and bitterness, but he also differs from me in a lot of ways.  The lead from my previous trilogy, The Hungering Saga, was probably closer to my actual personality.  He could be a real bastard at times.   He tended to let his emotions lead his actions, and I have to admit I do that more than I should.  I guess I identify with him, Lowin, the most.

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

Stephen King, Clive Barker, David Gemmell and Gene Wolfe.  King and Barker were huge horror influences.  I started reading their books when I was about twelve, and I read mostly horror until I was about sixteen and someone handed me a Dragonlance Kingdom book.  I had never read fantasy before that.  In fact, I had considered the entire genre to be nothing but fluff.  Heh, well, I read dozens of the Dragonlance books, and then I couldn’t get enough of the genre.  Gemmell showed me that heroes could be dark and gritty, and Wolfe showed me that fantasy and sci-fi could be elevated to a form of artistry beyond what was generally expected from the genre.  I think my writing is closer to Gemmell’s than it is to Wolfe’s, but Wolfe gives me a level of prose to shoot for.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? I have had so little time to read lately, but I would say that the last books I read that really, really captured my attention were the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.  That man is brilliant and prolific, two traits that rarely go well together. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time? I’m a gamer and a movie lover.  Lately my time away from Word has been spent playing Guild Wars 2.  Excessively.  I might have a problem. 8. Advice for other writers?

Writers write.  If you want to get better, then keep writing.  I’ve had quite a few people ask me how I managed to get my writing to the level that it is today, and the simple answer is that I practiced all the time.  Even before I was making a living writing I wrote every single day.  If you want to get better, you have to practice.

9. Where can readers find your work?

My work can be found on Amazon.com.  Just do a search for “Heath Pfaff” and my work will pop up.  You can also check out my Facebook fan group.

I frequently give away e-books, audiobooks, and sometimes even hard copies of books when I have them.  Come join the fan page!

10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom? Furry folks tend to be incredibly accepting and inviting.  I have met some of my very best friends in this fandom, and some great partners in crime.  All of my books have had covers drawn by furry artists because they are awesome, talented folks.   My favorite thing is that first thing, though.  No group is more accepting.  None. Not-a-one.

 

Check out Heath Pfaff’s member bio here!

Professionalism Among Furry Writers

by Tarl “Voice” Hoch

 

I was reading a review for Children of Steel and overall the review was well done, but at the end the reviewer had the following to say:

On a final note, and I debated on whether or not to bring this up in my review but decided that it was warranted, the book does need some editing for grammatical issues (apostrophes, commas, etc.). While it wasn’t enough to really detract from the story, it did recur enough that I felt it should be mentioned. (source)

What bothers me about this review, is that the reviewer states that they considered not bringing up that the book had editing issues. In something like the Furry Fandom, in published books (electronic or print) editing should be taken seriously. We as writers and editors in this fandom are responsible to try and present the best material possible, especially when people are paying upwards of $20 for a print copy ($10-$15 for ebooks).

Bad editing should not be expected. Nor should bad grammar and punctuation. Nor should they be glossed over. Yes, there will always be those mistakes that are missed by the author, editors, and publisher. However, an effort should be made to produce the best material possible. If there is a problem with the editing, that should be stated in the review, not debated over. We are no less accountable for our works than furry visual artists are to theirs.

I once did a few My Little Pony pieces of art back when that fandom was young. I was very proud of them, despite the fact that I knew the lines were not as clean as they should have been. Still, I posted them and waited for the responses. What I got were a lot of comments about my line work and how I should have vectored them like the show itself did. So what did I do? I looked up vectoring and applied it the next time I did artwork. Clean lines are equivalent to proper grammar/punctuation/spelling.

There is a large debate over furry fiction becoming mainstream. As the fandom continues to garner more and more public interest, we as writers within the fandom should strive to be as professional as possible. If we want our works to stand out and to be presented as OUR works (not our fursona’s), then we should treat our field as professionally as possible.

Just because we are ‘Furry Writers’ does not mean that we should hold ourselves any less accountable to the quality of our work.

 

This post first appeared on Tarl “Voice” Hoch’s blog on Goodreads.

September’s Book of the Month is edited by FWG associate member Fred Patten and includes a story co-authored by member C. Alan Loewen.

Anthropomorphic animals have been imagined for as long as stories have been told. This is especially true of science fiction, where the endless possibilities of alien worlds make fertile ground for creativity.

 Contained in these pages are stories from across the spectrum of science fiction, ranging from 1950 to 2013, and featuring feathers, fur, and scales. Each creature is a unique blend of humanity and the alien. Childlike or savage, independent or autocratic, they come in all sizes and shapes. Some are recognizable as reflections of humanity, while others are strange and wild creatures that defy description. All of them ask the same question: What kind of creatures will we find when we go to the stars?

The anthology features eleven stories:

• “Mask of the Ferret” by Ken Pick & C. Alan Loewen
• “The Inspector’s Teeth” by L. Sprague de Camp
• “Specialist” by Robert Sheckley
• “In Hoka Signo Vinces” by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson
• “Point of Focus” by Robert Silverberg
• “Novice” by James H. Schmitz
• “What Really Matters” by Elizabeth McCoy
• “Kings and Vagabonds” by Cairyn
• “The King’s Dogs” by Phyllis Gotlieb
• “A Touch of Blue: A Web Shifters Story” by Julie Czerneda
• “Fly the Friendly Skies” by Bryan Feir

Cover art by Roz Gibson.

Order from FurPlanet.

 

The first FWG anthology, Tales From the Guild, Music to Your Ears, is now available from Rabbit Valley!

There are few things in this world that can invoke the range of emotions that music can. It can bring its listeners close together; it can drive its listeners apart. It is a core mechanic in what makes us human, but what about in those that aren’t quite human? Tales From the Guild, Music to Your Ears features a collection of stories from veteran and newcomer authors alike that span several universes but show that no intelligent creature is immune to the power of music.

Featuring stories by Furry Writers’ Guild members:

• M.H. Payne
• Mary E. Lowd
• Huskyteer
• Sean Rivercritic
• Mark Neeley

And soon-to-be members:

• Mars
• Nathanael Gass
• Jess E. Owen

Cover by Ifus

Contents:

• Echoes From the Consort Box – Mark Neeley
• Deep Down Among the Dagger Dancers – M.H. Payne
• Sugar Pill – Mars
• Nocturne – Nathanael Gass
• Night of a Thousand Songs – by Jess E Owen
• Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out – Huskyteer
• Shreddy and the Silver Egg – Mary E Lowd
• Melody of a Street Corner – Sean Rivercritic

Available from Rabbit Valley.

 

New Members

Welcome to our two newest associate members, Isiah Jacobs of FurReview and Jay of Jaffa Books!

Member News

M. C. A. Hogarth released the coloring book Not in Need of Rescue and the audio version of Rose Point.

The print version of Blood Type: An Anthology of Vampire SF On the Cutting Edge, which includes a story from Tarl “Voice” Hoch, is now available from the publisher.

Paul Kidd‘s new book Spirit Hunters Book 1: The Way of the Fox is now available as a paperback from Lulu and an ebook on Amazon.

(Members: Want to make sure your news gets included here? Start a thread in the Member News forum!)

Market News

Deadline is September 30 for submissions to Heat #12 and Hot Dish #2! (More info and links to guidelines at our Paying Markets page.)

Editor Fred Patten has just announced a call for submissions for a new anthology, The Furry Future, to be published by FurPlanet, with a submission deadline of November 1. Full details are here in our forums.

Guild News

Voting is now closed for the Cóyotl Awards, and the winners for both 2012 and 2013 will be announced at the award ceremony later this month at Rainfurrest.

Our first anthology, Tales From the Guild Volume 1: Music to Your Ears, will be available for order soon! Watch this space. :)

We remain open to guest blog posts from members! See the guidelines here.

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesday evenings from 7-8 p.m. Eastern in the forum shoutbox. It’s an informal way to check in with your weekly writing progress and goals.

And if you’ve got something you need a beta for, we have a critique board in our forum (you’ll need to be registered with the forum in order to view it).

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.

One last question…

Unicorns or dragons?

 

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

My most recent completed project is a short story called “The Darkness of Dead Stars.” It was inspired by what I’d read about the ultimate fate of the universe and eschatology, though beyond the basic premise, it didn’t start to come together until I’d seen Von Trier’s film “Melancholia.” As with “Melancholia,” mood and atmosphere take priority over realism. This was necessary for my story because there yet remain unanswered questions in physics that make it impossible to determine certain details about the future of the universe; we just don’t have the data right now. However, I hope it will all sound feasible at the time of reading.

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

I usually let an idea bounce around in my head for months, even years before putting down any of it. That shouldn’t be taken for planning, though, as the plot is never more than roughed out when it comes time to write. Once it gets to that point, I alternate between daydreaming and trying to articulate those daydreams. I try to edit as I go as much as possible.

Once a rough draft is completed, it goes through a couple of rounds of editing, then I try to leave it alone for a few months. After that, I decide if the story should be scrapped, edited further, or completely rewritten.

For poetry, I employ automatism at first and clean it up as I go.

In both cases, the germ is usually something retained from hypnagogia.

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

I have the most fun writing things that are completely absurd. Think “Looney Tunes” logic, but sordid, morose and infused with my personal symbology. It’s rare that I venture into this territory, though.

4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why? That would vary, but the easy answer is “Aunty Fjola.” We’re both struggling with afflictions, though her ailment is as much physical as it is psychological, we’ve both also had to readjust from a life that was fairly bustling to one that is more passive and sedentary. 5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?

Watership Down is the book that made me want to write seriously. I read it when I was eighteen or so, I had been writing poetry for years then and liked to think I knew what I was doing. Nope! I was humbled and resolved that someday I would be able to write something that good. I’ll let you know if it happens.

Orwell’s 1984 was also a big influence, I’ve read it many times. Terry Pratchett is someone I haven’t been reading very long, but he’s already made an impression. Neil Gaiman, William S. Burroughs, HP Lovecraft and Khalil Gibran also deserve mention, as do others I’m forgetting.

6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved? “Loved” isn’t a word I would normally use, but… Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. It’s rare for a book to make me laugh aloud, but this one did, more than once. 7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time? Well, I like to spend my free time attended by nymphs in the pleasure gardens, but as this occurrence would be charitably termed “uncommon,” I mostly enjoy reading and taking in movies and music these days. The woods are nice, but we don’t have them here. I will always stop whatever I’m doing to watch rain or windstorms, that’s my favorite. 8. Advice for other writers?

Always strive to improve. Always do! Your art is not so small that you’ll ever want for room to grow.

9. Where can readers find your work? http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dwale/ Has mostly rough drafts, but there are some more polished ones. Persons are also welcome to contact me directly. 10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?

Furries are some of the most open and accepting people. No one’s worried about the skeletons in your closet, no one’s trying to look cool…or at least, no one’s succeeding! We have our share of unpleasant types, every fandom does, but there are some truly wonderful people who make it all worthwhile.

 

Check out Dwale’s member bio here!

Just a reminder for members that voting for the 2013 Cóyotl Awards is now open and will remain open through August 31:

http://coyotlawards.org/voting/

The winners for both 2012 and 2013 will be announced at the award ceremony at Rainfurrest in September.

 

 

Writing Furry Speculative Fiction

by Mary E. Lowd

 

My favorite books as a kid were all about talking animals. As I got older, it got harder to find those sorts of books. Sure, there’s the occasional piece of science-fiction with animal-like aliens or off-beat literary novel from the point of view of an animal, but, mostly, talking animals are seen as kid-stuff in our culture. So, when I set out to write a serious, hard science-fiction novel featuring talking otters as the main characters… Well, I was breaking new ground as far as I knew, and I had to make up the rules as I went along.

Since then, I’ve learned that there’s actually a name for the genre of fiction I was craving, and there’s a whole community of readers, writers, and publishers who’ve put a lot of thought into how that genre works. I was ecstatic when I discovered the furry genre. Finally, I wasn’t alone, writing about otters with spaceships.

There are a couple of different kinds of furry fiction. Perhaps the most mainstream is ‘the secret life of animals.’ These stories are usually set in our normal world — talking animals co-exist with humans who are simply unaware of the dramatic tales unfolding around them. (E.g. Watership Down by Richard Adams and Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.) Animals in these stories are often only slightly anthropomorphic. They can think and talk like humans, but they’re otherwise normal animals.

The other extreme of furry fiction features animals who are so thoroughly anthropomorphized that the differences between different species have become largely aesthetic, possibly metaphorical. Foxes date bunnies; elk work in office buildings with mice. Instead of co-existing with humans in the normal world, these anthropomorphic animals replace humans. In this kind of fiction, the different animal species are merely different flavors, adding texture and color to characters in a simple short-hand.  (E.g. Maus by Art Spiegelman and Save the Day by D.J. Fahl.)

When writing speculative furry fiction, it’s possible to fall into these extremes. You could tell the story of the first colonists on Mars from the point of view of their pet cat. Or, the first colonists on Mars could be cats with no explanation given for their furriness. However, I love the stories that fall in-between, and, I like it best when those stories have an answer to the obvious question: why can the animals talk?

This question has been explored so much by the furry writing community that some people feel it doesn’t matter anymore, much like the question of faster than light travel in mainstream science-fiction. How does the FTL drive work? Who cares? It just does. However, the type of FTL drive in a sci-fi universe determines the sorts of stories that can be told there. Similarly, the type of anthropomorphic animals determines a great deal about a sci-fi universe’s history and culture. So, it’s worth knowing the tropes.

The oldest trope is parallel evolution. See, those golden-furred, feline bipeds who live in family groups with one male figurehead where the females do all the work… Those aren’t lions. They’re aliens. From a different planet. They just happened to evolve to be really similar to lions. (E.g. The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh.) This is a great trope. It’s easy to use and widely accepted.

Another answer to the question, ‘why can the animals talk?’, is that they were genetically uplifted by humans. (E.g. Startide Rising by David Brin.) This is my personal favorite. Of course, it raises its own question of ‘why?’ Were we designing soldiers, slaves, or simply companions? Are they treated as equals? If so, did they have to fight for their rights? How long did that take? Different answers to these questions lead to wildly different universes. If we were designing soldiers, then the talking animals are probably larger, predatory species. (E.g. Forests of the Night by S. Andrew Swann.) If we were designing obedient slaves, they  might be dogs or a docile species like bunnies. (E.g. Ship’s Boy by Phil Geusz.)

A final possibility is that the animals actually are humans who have drastically modified themselves. (E.g. The Book of Lapism by Phil Geusz.) In this case, the species of animals will be chosen by individual characters for personal reasons. Individuals who choose to modify themselves so extremely are likely to be rich, eccentric, socially outcast, or part of a fringe subculture.

And, of course, all of these answers can be adapted easily to fantasy universes by replacing science with magic and scientists with wizards.

As you can see, explanations have been developed that will fit anthropomorphic animal characters into almost any piece of speculative fiction. And, from fantasy to space opera to near future hard sci-fi, most speculative fiction can benefit from the color and texture added by a few talking animals. Besides, they’re just fun to read.

So, now that you’ve learned the basic tropes, go forth and add anthropomorphic animal characters to your speculative fiction!

 

This post first appeared on Jester Harley’s Manuscript Page.

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

My most recent project has been weeding the garden. Aside from that, I have been writing a lot of short stories. I was really excited my story, “Day of the Nuptial Flight” came out in the July/August Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, a story someone called “alien, insect erotica.” I recently sold a series of 7 stories/paranormal love advice columns to Daily Science Fiction. Imagine Dear Abby meets the bogeyman.

The project I know I should be working on is Shadows and Starlight, the sequel to Silent Moon. The first book in the series came out with Soul Mate Publishing this year as an e-book and will be coming out as a print book on Amazon next month. The first book is a gothic mystery with werewolves and a Jane Eyre feel to it. The sequel will focus on one of the “wolfmen” in the first book and his relationship with a shapeshifter who resembles shadows and starlight in her true form. It has been really hard to find the time to finish editing it when I have been successfully writing and selling short fiction. It’s all a balancing act on the tightrope of time management!

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

I think I am something in between. I really like writing character and dialogue, possibly influenced by early play writing classes in college, but I know if I don’t make a plan, my characters will and that might not make the best story. Outlining means less cutting later, but it also takes away from the joy of spontaneity. It is a difficult balance. More tightrope walking.

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

I love to write about magic and I like to write about relationships. I heard a writer once say that all romance is a kind of magic and that might be why many of my stories lean toward romance.

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

Arg, that is so hard. I went to art school to be an illustrator and one of my teachers once said all portraits are self-portraits and all paintings are of yourself—whether you intend it or not. I think I put something of myself in every character and the ones I don’t are the flattest and least alive. Usually when I write about school teachers those are the characters that are the most authentically myself because I am putting direct experiences into my writing. The characters that are aliens or outcasts or monsters that I write about feel symbolic of my experiences living overseas because I was an alien in those circumstances.

When a friend and I were discussing my beauty and the beast obsession, most recently seen in “A Monster and a Gentleman” which came out in Hot Dish this year with my pseudonym, I wondered what that meant about my mindset and mentality toward men and women and gender roles. My friend said that actually she thought I thought I was the monster, not the beauty. That gave me a different perspective. I think this really came out in Cassia in Silent Moon. I identified with the struggle for acceptance and self-acceptance of being a monster/flawed/an outcast.

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

So many! I love classical literature, romance, fantasy and mystery blended with these subjects. Some of my favorites include:

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Eyre

Tale of Two Cities

Wuthering Heights

The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Count of Monte Cristo

Austenland

The Passion

The Promise

Harry Potter

The Host

Twilight

Imzadi

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

Tuck Everlasting

Shades of Milk and Honey

Dresden Files

Sookie Stackhouse Series

Stephanie Plum Series

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

The Hunger Games. I really like how much I cared about the protagonist and sympathized with her.

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

When I am not writing, I spend my time sewing new creations as a fashion designer, teaching and performing belly dance and concocting experimental food that may or may not be edible.

8. Advice for other writers?

Don’t quit your day job. Ha ha! It takes a long time to become a career novelist. I have been writing since I was 6, submitting writing and attending writing workshops since I was 18 and more seriously starting to submit starting eight years ago. Four years ago I sold my first short story. At this date I have sold over 40 short stories, and two novels. Although I am selling to markets that pay better as I become a better writer, it takes a long time to establish a career.

9. Where can readers find your work?

The best place to find free stories is on my website:

sarinadorie.com

My novel Silent Moon is up on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Moon-Sarina-Dorie-ebook/dp/B00GHLBDTI

Dawn of the Morningstar, my alien and puritan romance, is up on Smashwords.com. Next year it will be up on Amazon when WolfSinger Publishing republishes it.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/267911

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

Mary E. Lowd—also known as Ryffnah, author of Otters in Space. She introduced me to the furry genre.

http://marylowd.com/

Check out Sarina Dorie’s member bio here!

 

Why I Review

by Tarl “Voice” Hoch

 

For those that follow either my Smashwords or Goodreads accounts (or my Facebook and Twitter for that matter) will know that for the last year or so I have been reviewing any and all books that I read. No matter what they are, be they religious texts to fiction novels, I head over to the sites when I am done and rate them, plus give them each a review.

Someone once asked me why. Why do I review, and why is it so damned important to me that I do?

The fact is, it helps the community, it helps the writer, and it helps the purchaser.

In all of my time doing this, I’ve tried to stick to the constructive criticism model I learned in University. Say something nice, then something that needed improvement, and then something nice. Though I didn’t see very many students following this model in my art classes, I saw just how effective it was when someone actually followed that guideline. I’m also happy to say, except for two or three books, I have been able to stick to that formula.

You see, reviewing helps writers. It helps them to know what they could improve upon in their story. If only one person says something, then it’s kind of pointless. But if you have ten, or twenty, or fifty people saying that your pacing is choppy, then you know what you need to work on. It also gives you to know what worked in your story as well. If everyone raves about how hot your sex scenes are, then you know you don’t need to work on them, and can concentrate on the stuff that DOES need work.

But as mentioned, reviewing also helps purchasers. I have taken novels and short stories off my wish list because of poor reviews. Let me make this clear before I continue, they have to be GOOD reviews. Well thought out, well spoken, before I will listen to them. None of this “IT WAS AWESOME!” crap. Anyway, if someone has commented on a novel being terrible due to the ending, or the pacing, or grammar, or whatever, then I am more likely not to get it. Not only does it save me money, but it also saves me frustration at the author when I read it (and hopefully lets the author know what they need to work on).

And last, reviewing helps the community. Be it writer, or be it furry, reviewing works constructively lets authors know you’re reading their material, it gets knowledge of a book or anthology out there, and it lets the culture grow and evolve in a positive manner. Without reviewing, everything would just sort of stagnate. No one would get feedback, besides sales authors wouldn’t know if people were reading or enjoying their material, and no one would be able to improve upon their work.

In the end, I review because as a writer, it helps not only my community, but it helps other writers to improve their craft. I try to give as detailed reviews as possible and try to be fair and honest with each one I give. I’m not perfect, and there have been reviews where words fail me and I have to put something down. But for the most part, I try to explain the best I can what I liked and didn’t like about each and everything I read.

So that is why I review everything I read.

I suggest you do the same. It helps a lot of people out when you do, especially if you take the time to make it detailed and you give it in the constructive criticism format. Not all books are perfect, because no writer or editor is perfect. But that said, no book is ever complete crap either, and there is always something positive to say about a story (though I’ve come across a couple where I honestly couldn’t think of anything good to say, and those two stories still bother me because of that).

In the end, the brief time it takes to actually type out a short review is so minor compared to the benefit to those it touches, that there really isn’t a reason why you shouldn’t be reviewing the stuff you read.

 

This post first appeared on Tarl “Voice” Hoch’s blog on Goodreads.

 

August’s Book of the Month is by FWG member James L. Steele.

Humanity has gone to the stars, split and fused the atom, colonized hundreds of worlds, and rejoiced at first contact with alien life. Until the killing started.

Man has been at war with the Kesvek for over forty years. Nearly indestructible, relentless in battle, and unwilling to negotiate, the reptiles constantly push forward. Colony after colony has falls, and the human race can do little but hold them back. Humanity knows very little about their enemy.

The Kesvek plan to change that.

There is much to learn, and the Kesvek are willing to teach.  So long as humans can survive the process, mankind will discover what caused the conflict, and what is required for peace.

No matter the cost.

Order from FurPlanet. (Mature content.)

 

New Members

Welcome to our newest members Eduardo Soliz, Franklin Leo, Cadence, and Slip-Wolf!

Member News

Huskyteer recently participated in a short story reading at Kirkdale Bookshop as part of the Sydenham Arts Festival, and her story “The Wolf’s Holiday” was voted the audience’s favorite. You can read more about the evening at her blog. She also has a poem in Far Off Places, Volume II, Issue II (Sartorial), available here.

Kandrel’s Pile is now available as a digital edition from Rabbit Valley.

M. C. A. Hogarth published the children’s book Vinny the Armadillo Makes a Friend, the e-book Some Things Transcend (sequel to Even the Wingless), and the audiobook edition of “Broken Chains.”

Mary E. Lowd’s story “The Hand-Havers” appears in the October 2014 issue of Analog.

And yours truly (Renee Carter Hall) has a flash piece, “How Mother Rabbit Lost Her Name,” in Lakeside Circus. (Definitely not a children’s story.)

(Members: Want to make sure your news gets included here? Start a thread in the Member News forum!)

Market News

Some deadlines coming up fast: You’ve only got until August 4 to submit to the Fur Reality conbook, and both FANG and Will of the Alpha 2 close to submissions on August 31. There’s also an August 31 deadline for the conbooks of Oklacon and Furpocalypse. (See our Convention Books page for the rundown.)

Markets now open to submissions: Heat and Hot Dish, both from Sofawolf and both with a deadline of September 30 (see our Paying Markets page for details and links). The VancouFUR conbook is now open as well.

Guild News

Members, there’s just one week left to get your votes and nominations in for the Cóyotl Awards! Voting for the 2013 awards and nominations for the 2014 awards both end August 8. The 2013 voting form (for works published in 2012) is here, and the nomination form for 2014 (works published in 2013) is here. If you have any trouble getting to the Cóyotls website, you can also send your votes and nominations via email to [email protected]. (Don’t know what to nominate from 2013? Check out our recommendations thread.)

We remain open to guest blog posts from members! See the guidelines here.

Want to hang out and talk shop with other furry writers? Come join us for the Coffeehouse Chats, Tuesday evenings from 7-8 p.m. Eastern in the forum shoutbox. (Sometimes later than 8 p.m. if we really get going!) It’s an informal way to check in with your weekly writing progress and goals.

And if you’ve got something you need a beta for, we have a critique board in our forum (you’ll need to be registered with the forum in order to view it).

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.

One last question…

Between Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s been a decent summer so far for fans of anthro characters. Who’s your favorite anthro movie character of all time? (Okay, you can list a top 5 if you can’t narrow it down to one!)

 

For those who don’t know: I’ve been a full-time professional writer for 30 years now. Authored computer games, tabletop games, novels, comics, and have been working hard at breaking out into feature film and TV. I’ve been a part of furry fandom since 1986, and wrote the first furry novels written from within the fandom: “MUS OF KERBRIDGE”, “FANGS OF K’AATH”, and “A WHISPER OF WINGS”.

 - And I’m still writing!

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

Well – I’ve just finished writing the first book in a new series called “Spirit Hunters”

- “SPIRIT HUNTERS Book 1: The way of the Fox”.

This is a novellisation taken from a huge ‘furry’ television series I have written. The stories are wonderful ‘Samurai Ghostbusters’ tales set in a sort of magical medieval Japanese otherwhen. The starring character is a wonderfully lackadaisical, devious, charismatic fox priestess. We follow her story as she battles monsters and unravels intrigues – somehow flitting along the path to wisdom. These are delightful tales that all link together into a great, sweeping story arc full of adventure, love and action.

I’m releasing this book in the next few weeks. I wanted create something the furries would love. Hopefully it will be a big hit amongst the furry community.

Previous to that, I have just finished a titanic 4 book series called  ‘Effectuators’ – deliciously ormolu tales set in London in 1869. Ancient mysteries and weird creatures – and a deliciously bewitching main character.

I’m also now just finishing up a new furry roleplaying game. So far, it looks gorgeous!

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

For me, writing is a calling – not a job. I do it because I have to. It’s what I do.

I tend to spend a while fretting and taxing myself to come up with ideas – covering the room with notes, scribbles and drawings. I push hard – often too hard – adding to ideas bit by bit, until one starts to gel. I then sit down and start to flesh that idea out into a full project.

A lot of what I write comes from very extensive research. This can be physical experience, or deep research. So – research is all a part of the development. I make a story plan, but it is very generalised: the story will write itself in its own way. Once I have the feel properly set in my head, I start writing and just let it flow.

I find the writing stage to be full of fun. I research as I write, and let the piece try to find its voice. But it is a very hard grind: 12 hours a day for months and months.

I am extremely disciplined and driven. I forge forward diligently to the end of a project, and utterly exhaust myself. The trouble is, when I’m not writing and creating, I become horribly restless and depressed. So I have to fling myself straight into another idea.

I’ve been doing it for 30 years, working all that time as a full-time professional writer. I’ve never earned a dime doing any other work.

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

I’m a romantic. I love stories filled with cunning and cleverness, heroic deeds and adventure. Love and friendship. Stories with heart. Stories with humour. Stories that entertain.

I do love to write good action scenes – fights grounded in the real.

And I love to make a visual world – something full of colour and vista. Something the readers can close their eyes and see. 

One thing I take pride and delight in doing is in creating strong female characters. Many of my books star a female lead character. I’ve always felt that genre fiction does a terrible disservice to female characters. I take a great joy in trying to redress the balance.

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

Wow. Hmmm – I love them all.

I have utterly loved Kitsune Sura, the main character from SPIRIT HUNTERS. Having written 53  TV movie scripts starring her, I guess I live in her head and she in mine. She embodies the foxly ‘virtues’ so beautifully. Fiercely loyal to her friends – scornful of authority, derisive of pretension, reveling in the beauty and the motion of the world – a weird branch of Taoism all of her own. She’s a delight.

Brilliana Stetham from the EFFECTUATORS novels is another favorite character of mine. Prolix and stylish and wonderfully devious. A total delight to write! She has that terrible parade of esoteric knowledge and weird ghoulishness that I’ve always adored.

The ones I love most are extremely ‘human’ – strong and passionate, and made all the more beautiful because of their unique flaws.

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

Hmmmmm -

Jack Vance’s work. Jack’s beauty of expression, his use of vocabulary – the delicious, seductive way he painted his visual and sensual landscape. Those are just unparalleled.

Bernard Cornwell’s work taught me a great deal about how to write action sequences.

And Patrick O’Brian! His delicious narratives and his skill for turning the golden phrase are such an utter joy. The way his characters reveal themselves through their dialogue (and in the prose surrounding that dialogue) is simply marvellous.

Oddly enough: Sven Hassel! Sven’s ability to spin a yard – to just tell a rollicking good tale of larceny and engaging roguish characters was a very early lesson in how to tell a good story.

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

Hmmm – I always re read my old favourites.

For absolute pure love: Mary Renault’s “THE LAST OF THE WINE”. This is just an absolutely riveting, haunting, passionate novel. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is an utter masterpiece. Elevating, ennobling – and it will definitely make you cry.

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

I’m a manic, dedicated wargamer and role playing gamer. We do tabletop RPG’s every weekend (and I’ve been doing that since the 1970’s!). I paint lead figures. I’m a history fanatic, and constantly read military histories, social histories, books on uniforms and equipment. I utterly adore it. One of my most enduring loves is armour – I’ve been an armour historian  since I was about 9!

Travel. I utterly love to travel – to wander. I’ve been so very, very poor this last decade that I haven’t gotten to wander the way I normally love to. Got to Rome last year, though, due to bizarre luck!  Just wandered ancient sites in Italy with my bag over my shoulder and my Akubra on my head…

I’m a senior student with the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu (“Transmitted directly from Heaven, Katori Shinto Shine Style”), studying with the Sugino dojo. I’ve been a dedicated student there for about 11 years, doing Japanese sword, naginata, staff and spear. Katori is the oldest of the Japanese schools, teaching medieval fencing styles.

I run, do weights, ride my bike.

Oh – and I’m a costumer! I make costumes and fursuits for the sheer joy of it!

I am also extremely kind to bugs. I adore little creatures. I usually keep an eye on local mantises and little insects, lizards (and given where i live – the Bandicoots). I’ve sometimes raised dragonfly larvae in little ponds.

8. Advice for other writers?

If you’re going to do it, then DO IT.

- Be ready to embrace poverty. Doing this properly is a full-time job.

- Do not expect reward. Do not court awards. Do not judge your worth by the paycheck. Write because it is a joy. Write because you want people to see the stories and be entertained.

-And enjoy the fandom. Be a part of it! It will always be there for you when things are darkest.

9. Where can readers find your work?

I’ve taken to self publishing my books. Far, far more satisfying than eternally crawling up to publishers.

My books are all out on Kindle as e-books, and on Lulu for print-on-demand.

My Dungeons and Dragons novels, Gammaworld Novel, etc are all available via Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast, and can be found in games stores and on amazon.com.

You can find all my schtuff linked at:
http://paulkidd.net/kitsune-press/

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

Furry fandom is a creative fandom! Other fandoms just ‘appreciate’ – but we build. All furries are creators – whether we write books, paint artwork, or just imagine amazing characters and fursonas. It engages us all in an active creative environment. I love that.

Being with furries is always buoyant and joyous.

Furries are not broken – they’re just gently fractured!  ^_^

Seriously – furry fandom is the family I choose to have. They ‘get’ me – i get them.

I love furry fandom. I will always be there for the fandom. These are my people.

 

Check out Paul Kidd’s member bio here!

 

Why Furry

by Frank LeRenard

 

It’s one of those extremely difficult, often tiresome, and seemingly ubiquitous questions in furry fiction: why use anthropomorphic animals and not just humans? And I see all manners of mental acrobatics going on amongst all of us in trying to answer it. We’ve come up with some decent excuses along the way: simple stylistic choice, a means to bring up complicated issues like racism without offending, etc. But it’s a tough question to answer effectively, because in the end the reason may simply be that we think anthro animals are cool.

But there’s a sort of hidden tradition embedded in furry lit, something a bit more penetrating and philosophical than what usually comes to mind.

So, we homo sapiens spend an awful lot of time trying to understand ourselves. All of the so-called great literature of our day seems to be focused on that nebulous concept we call ‘the human condition’. I’m sure part of this quest stems from the general idea that humans are super special, something new and interesting in the universe, the most intelligent creatures of Planet Earth and masters of all that surrounds us. So in our sometimes overly simplistic thinking, we try to reconcile that idea with the well-known fact that humans also often act like completely irrational beings, fighting and killing over stuff like jealousy or love or power (so-called ‘animal’ things), and this confuses us and makes us ponder what truly makes us human.

But really, as time has gone on, a lot of things have become clear. For one, we aren’t the center of the universe. The universe, in fact, has no center because it exists as a kind of geometry for which a center is impossible to describe. We’re not the center of our own solar system, either; the sun is. And the more we study our neighbors, those other ‘lower’ species that inhabit this little planet with us, the more we start to realize that we’re even pretty closely connected with all of them, too. We share many behaviors with other animals: crows can use tools, elephants display empathy, octopi can figure out how to open jars even if they’ve never seen one before. Maybe the time has also come for us to admit that we’re not the center of the Earth’s ecosystem either.

So what do we as a species do in this new realm of apparent purposelessness? It seems a bit of a depressing existential quandary to deal with. But, you see, this isn’t the only way to think of it. Because in this realm, what’s really happening is that we’re finally starting to perceive the ‘other’.

One of the most famous photographs ever taken was an incidental one nabbed by Bill Anders in 1968 while he was on the moon, which was later dubbed ‘Earthrise’. He admitted that getting the shot wasn’t even in the plan at the time; just one of those moments where you turn around and think to yourself, ‘Oh, that’s cool. I should take a picture of that’. But it resonated deeply in the public. It was the first picture of Earth taken from another world. A first outside look at the place where we all live, a giant blue marble set against a deep black backdrop, a splash of color juxtaposed with the dreary cratered grayness of the moon’s surface. Earth in its proper context.

But the topic here is anthro characters in fiction. You see, it’s hard to build a complete picture of something if you’re living inside it. This is as much true for humanity as it is for the Earth or the Milky Way galaxy. The fact that we are the only species we know how to communicate with on a fundamental level is problematic in that respect, because we can never really gain an outsider’s view of our own species. And so we’re left with this conundrum, this constant effort to learn more about ‘the human condition’ by peering at it through human eyes.

But fiction is bigger than that, because it relies on this thing we have called ‘imagination’. Maybe we can’t see ourselves as we truly are from our current vantage point, but we can always pretend. In our imagination, we can sit back and take the long view, look at the Earth from the moon.

There are other options than anthropomorphized animals, of course. Aliens, magical beings, robots, etc. But at some point, if you get too far out there, the whole picture just starts to look like a barely visible blue dot amongst billions and it loses its impact. You don’t want to get so far out that you can’t even find the thing you were supposed to be trying to understand. Who knows how aliens might even think? Do they have bifocal vision, hearing organs, stomachs? Do they see better in visible light or infrared? Do they see different wavelengths as colors? Do they communicate through speech, chemical signals, vibrations in the ground, what? And robots can pose a similar problem, assuming we’re the ones programming them; they either have this simplistic, binary manner of thinking that ends up generating seemingly bizarre solutions to common problems (see: a modern robot trying to enter a car; there’s a video of this somewhere), or else they just end up thinking themselves superior and take over the world.

But I already mentioned that there’s a nice midpoint that’s readily available: other animals. They’re different, but we have common ground. We know they exist, too, and we’ve taken some time to study them, so you don’t have to start completely from scratch. Plus, we all evolved through fairly similar pathways, even think in similar ways about certain things, yet our biologies and brains are distinct. It works out very well for the imagination, as a little spark to step out of the realm of being human, but not so far that your whole audience (who is, until further notice, always going to be human themselves) can’t relate to it. Why not exploit this? Because talking animals are kiddie stuff?

Of course, that’s the point I’m making. They aren’t, or at least they don’t have to be. You want to explore ‘the human condition’ like all great literature is apparently supposed to do, you do it from the outside. And there’s this great resource sitting right beside us that we can exploit for that purpose. Use it.

Or else just do it because anthro animals are cool, I guess.