Furry Writers' Guild

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another FWG interview! In honor of Asian American And Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we’ve reached out to several Asian furry authors to gain their perspectives on writing, every day life, and more. Today’s interview features Robert Baird.

Robert has been writing and posting stories within the fandom for over seventeen years so there’s no denying their experience. They were born in the United States but are currently residing in Berlin. With the introductions finished, let’s get on to the interview.

FWG: What would you say makes a good story?

Robert: I tend to gravitate towards stories with characters I can relate to, I think. I think a good story should be able to put the reader in someone else’s shoes. Not necessarily just to see new places or have new experiences, but even seeing the familiar through someone else’s eyes. I like that kind of intimacy, I think.

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single piece of literature right now, what would it be?

Robert: Okay, talk about being put on the spot. I’ll lead in by saying that I’m not sure there is one single piece of literature that I think will resonate with everyone, or maybe that is important for everyone to read, I find that I come back to A Canticle for Liebowitz often. I find something evocative in the idea of rebuilding, and perhaps also in the idea that we, as readers, might be aware of the cycles of history and I guess perhaps to break them.

FWG: Speaking of history, how would you say your heritage has affected your writing?

Robert: That’s also been cyclical, I guess I would say. Growing up, I never really thought too much about other cultures, and definitely not really my own. My dad was very “American,” I guess—things like Japanese folklore or observations weren’t much of a part of our lives. That fell to my mom to be a bit more interested.

As an adult, though, I’d say I’ve become a bit more aware of the way that other cultures are portrayed in popular culture, and I’ve made the effort to be more conscientious about that myself. It is less, if you follow, so much my heritage makes me want to write about Setsubun as it is that it makes me not want to write about other cultures in a way that is… “flattening,” for lack of a better word?

FWG: Trying to make sure you’re accurately depicting other cultures, making them interesting and engaging so people understand their significance. Something like that?

Robert: Yeah. It sounds funny to even describe dad as “assimilated”—he’s second-generation, we had a very “American” kind of childhood. And so it really wasn’t until fairly recently that I started to realize the kind of subtler ways that representation matters.

Even in furry, I think — maybe because of its crossover with anime and perhaps some of the more exoticizing science fiction — there is a disconnect between, I guess, the reality of a culture and how it’s portrayed. Which from a writing point of view, that also means there’s so much nuance that gets lost. It’s almost like a reduction to the most monolithic common denominator.

FWG: Is there something you’ve learned about Japanese culture through your explorations as an adult you notice people tend to get wrong often?

Robert: I think, bluntly, there can be — or there was when I was in college, maybe; perhaps it’s started to fade — a sort of putting it on a pedestal, or treating Japanese culture as sort of aspirational, in a way that masks some of the maybe less savory aspects? I guess the converse is true as well, though.

Americans in particular tend to view East Asians, I think, as pretty well integrated into the American fabric. I was in my 30s when I realized that my grandparents’ names weren’t actually “Mary” and “Harry,” or that Japanese immigrant weren’t allowed to naturalize until the 1950s. That’s not something my dad talked about. As I said, there’s just a lot of nuance that makes for a great of complexity.

I think the way that cultures get reduced to evocative imagery or interesting stories also masks the extent to which that presentation is a deliberate construct. My dad and his parents were on their way to being interned before a white farmer decided he could use some extra help. But I never really heard about that. I heard more about my relatives who served in the 82nd Airborne at Normandy. That’s part of a deliberate process of constructing one’s own history.

FWG: On another tough issue, a lot of discussions have begun in the United States surrounding the Stop Asian Hate movement. As someone not living in the states, have you been forced to deal with any of the unfortunate bigotry people have been facing since the beginning of the pandemic?

Robert: So. Yes. But—and there’s a significant “but” here—the character of it is a little different in Europe, or at least in Germany. I’ve definitely had people warn me about parts of town it’s best not to go to, but for the most part it’s been subtler. Not overt dislike or even overt racism but more an awkward lack of familiarity.

That said, I know acquaintances here who’ve gotten some slurs or, you know, COVID-related accusations thrown at them on public transit, say. And I have, thankfully, not had to experience any of them.

FWG: Would you have any suggestions on how other authors (or any of our readers) can be allies and support Asian people during this time?

Robert: So I’ll say that in general I’ve been very fortunate, both here and in the United States. Most of it was sort of playground-level nonsense. I’d say that kind of points at my answer to your question.

Two things. One is that, if you’re a kid of the 90s, like I am… y’know, I grew up on the Internet, in this kinda “don’t be so sensitive” environment. I would say do your best to genuinely consider the impact of things that you’d otherwise be inclined to dismiss as harmless or “just joking” or whatever. It adds up, and the thing is, it doesn’t have to. We could be better about that.

The second thing I would say is to remember that cultures are not monolithic. There is no one “Asian-American experience.” I would venture to say there’s not even one “Pacific Northwestern half-Japanese-American experience.” We should always expect to see diversity, and to look for the empathy that lets us understand that there are millions of Asian-American voices and none of us speak for all of us.

So we should strive for the empathy to listen without needing what we hear to be an answer, or a canonical explanation— just another picture of that complex patchwork that is any and maybe especially one that has been in the spotlight so harshly but at the same time gets viewed as “the model minority.

FWG: Any last things you’d like to tell the folks reading?

Robert: No, I would say “thank you” to you for reaching out. And I would say to readers, I hope I’ve said something you can take home as useful or helpful. But also, that not everyone will agree, probably! And you should expect that! I do!

And I think it’s a constant project to, y’know, keep our ears perked to hear why, and listen. I try to do that myself, and to remember that the world is complex, that it is always better to err on the side of compassion, and that I hope we’re all getting better at it.

We would like to thank Robert once again for letting us interview them! You can find their work on their website, Writing.Dog, and follow their adventures in life on Twitter @matrioshkadog. We hope you enjoyed this interview and will tune in next week to see the next author we have to feature. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

Welcome back once more for another monthly newsletter! “Wait, don’t these usually go out on the first of the month?” Yes they do, but we waited an extra day so we could share this exciting announcement!

We have had many authors ask for a tool to help advertise being open for commissions. At the same time, we’ve seen many fans of furry literature coming to Guild spaces asking for people to buy them from. So we got to work with the help of some friends in the Furry community to make it happen.

The Furry Writers’ Guild has teamed up with The Dealer’s Den to add the Writers Outlet to the Dealer’s Den Network of chats! The Dealer’s Den has been a staple as the auction website of the furry community for many years so we’re incredibly excited to have their expertise as a partner on this project.

This will be a place to post advertisements for taking custom commissions, openings for markets to write for, selling published works, and for anyone on the lookout for good furry fiction. Please check out the chatroom to see everything it has to offer.

You can find all kinds of submission calls for Furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open.

• Selections of Anthropomorphic Literature: Vol 2 – Deadline: May 15th, 2021
• Queer Monsters Anthology – Deadline: May 15th, 2021
• Untethered – Submissions Open June 2021
• Werewolves VS Suburbia – Deadline: June 1st, 2021
• Furs With Benefits – Deadline: June 1st, 2021
• Less Fur-Milliar Spaces – Deadline To Commit: June 1st, 2021
• Werewolves Versus: Suburbia – Deadline: June 1st, 2021
• CRINKLE: A Littles Anthology – Deadline: June 15th, 2021
• The Rebel Diaries: An Anthology -Deadline: June 30th, 2021
• Furward Slash: A Furry Adult Techno-Horror Anthology – Deadline: November 30th, 2021
• Pirating Pups – Deadline: November 30th, 2021
• The Nightmurr Before Christmas – Deadline: October 1st, 2021
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

Make sure to not miss the 2020 Coyotl Awards Presentation! It will be taking place on Saturday, May 8th at 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern/6PM UTC. Please visit the Coyotl Awards website to get further details. We look forward to seeing who you all voted for.

One last thing: this month is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. In honor 0f this, we’ll be featuring interviews with several Asian authors this month on our blog. Be sure to check these out to gain some new perspectives on the craft of writing and learn the bit about the heritage and culture of some of our guild’s finest authors.

Keep staying safe and offer yourself kindness when drawing on those creative capabilities during these tough times.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

Welcome back once more for another monthly newsletter! Normally we release these at the beginning of a month but seeing as how April 1st is incoming, we thought it might be safer to send this out early. So let’s get to it!

First: we are in serious need of volunteer staff. For the guild to continue growing, we need folks to help fill in positions. We have a need for chat admin staff for future projects, folks with experience in website maintenance, and have been in need of a dedicated Public Relations Officer for the past year. To be able to keep making bigger projects happen, we need that extra help to keep things running smoothly. Please contact me on telegram (@LiteralGrill), Twitter (@Linnturong), or on the FWG Discord if you are interested in volunteering.

Don’t forget that the 2020 Cóyotl Awards are now open for votes! The ballot can be found here. Voting closes on April 30th so make sure to get those votes in ASAP. For those interested, we compiled some interesting stats about the award for its 10th anniversary that can be found on the FWG Blog.

Next, we would like to welcome our new Markets Manager: Vincenzo “Halfbloodcheetah” Pascuarella! Any members or publishers that know of new markets that would be good fits for furry authors should contact them with details to keep our Furry Writers’ Market up to date.

Finally, we are proud to share the 2020 Oxfurred Comma Flash Fiction Collection is now available for download for free to anyone that wants a copy! It’s available in multiple formats and can be downloaded on Smashwords.

You can find all kinds of submission calls for Furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open.

• Shark Week: Ocean Animals – Deadline: April 30th, 2021
• Selections of Anthropomorphic Literature: Vol 2 – Deadline: May 15th, 2021
• Untethered – Submissions Open June 2021
• Werewolves VS Suburbia – Deadline: June 1st, 2021
• Furs With Benefits – Deadline: June 1st, 2021
• Less Fur-Milliar Spaces – Deadline To Commit: June 1st, 2021
• CRINKLE: A Littles Anthology – Deadline: June 15th, 2021
• Pirating Pups – Deadline: November 30th, 2021
• The Nightmurr Before Christmas – Deadline: October 1st, 2021
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

One last thing this month. As of today, those interested in running for guild officer positions should post in the appropriate section of the forum between now and April 30th in accordance with our Code of Conduct. We encourage anyone interested in helping promote anthropomorphic fiction to run and help make the guild stronger than ever before.

That’s all for now, so until next time: may your words flow like water.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

The votes have been tallied and we now have the nominees for the 2020 Cóyotl Awards! Voting takes place until April 30th and is open to all FWG Members and Associate Members. The ballot is available here. Here are your 2020 nominees!

BEST NOVEL

• Love Match (Book 3) by Kyell Gold
• Ritual of the Ancients (Changing Bodies: Book 1) by Ian Madison Keller
• Disbanded (Serpentia Book 1) by Frances Pauli
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

BEST NOVELLA

• Rightful Salvage by Frances Pauli
• What Makes a Witch by Linnea Capps
• Dude, Where’s My Pack? by Kyell Gold
• Soup of the Moment: A Tale of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen

BEST SHORT STORY

• “The Battler” by Cedric G! Bacon in Even Furries Hate Nazis
• “Water” by Utunu in The Voice of Dog (Audio part 1, part 2, PDF)
• “Summer Strawberries” by Mary E. Lowd in The Voice of Dog (Audio)
• “Nazis Should Never Be Normal” by Nathan Hopp in Even Furries Hate Nazis

BEST ANTHOLOGY

• Difursity: Stories by Furries of Color edited by Weasel
• Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements Vol. 1 edited by K. C. Alpinus
• Boldly Going Forward edited by Sean Gerace
• Even Furries Hate Nazis edited by Kate Watts

BEST OTHER WORK

• The Voice of Dog (podcast) hosted by Khaki
• Fox Spirit: A Two-Tailed Adventure (interactive novel) by Amy Clare Fontaine

The awards have a long history having spanned over ten years. There are have been many works nominated in that time — 152 total. We thought that with the vote open this year we might share a few fun statistics and facts about the award with you all.

• 2020 is the first year a new category has been added to the awards since 2013.
• The 2011 awards separated SFW works from NSFW works for voting.
• Only three authors have ever had two pieces up for votes in the same category during a single year: Sarina Dorie for Best Short Story in 2012, Renee Carter Hall for Best Short Story in 2013, and Alopex for Best Anthology in 2013.
• Kyell Gold has had the most works nominated for Best Novel at six novels (eight if you count his works as Tim Susman).
• Kyell also has been nominated for Best Novella the most times with five nominations but is closely followed by Frances Pauli with four nominations.
• The authors most nominated for Best Short Story are Mary E. Lowd and Sparf tied at three stories.
• The late Fred Patten has edited the most nominated anthologies for Best Anthology with a total of four.
• Gre7g Luterman is the only author to win a Cóyotl Award, a Leo Literary Award, and an Ursa Major Award in a single year for the same work (Fair Trade in 2019).
• Renee Carter Hall has won the most Cóyotl Awards with a grand total of four. She is also the only author to win two awards in a single year, which happened during the inaugural 2011 Cóyotl Awards.

Hopefully these fun facts were as illuminating as they were entertaining! Don’t forget to be a part of Cóyotl Awards history by voting for our current nominee. Until next time, may your word flow like water.

Before we begin today’s interview, we would like to offer a content warning for those do not which to see anything related to ABDL, Babyfurs, or similar subjects. We would also like to remind people of our Code of Conduct and our expectations for members and prospective members to be kind and respectful. This will not be a place to debate the merits of ABDL — this will be a place to learn about writing for a niche community and get tips for marketing from an expert. Anyone wanting a better understanding of the ABDL community can find a general primer on it here.

Welcome back once again FWG Members and readers! Today we have the opportunity to share a unique perspective on writing with you all thanks to our interview with CK Crinklekid. This forty-two year old author lives in North Central Florida and works for a marketing agency that specializes in sever-figure and eight-figure business.

In his off hours, he writes fiction and poetry predominantly with science fiction of fantasy themes. In his even more off hours, he writes anthropomorphic adult fiction and erotica for the ABDL (Adult Baby/Diaper Lover) and Babyfur communities. His work has been published in various genre publications including Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine and is the author of the BabyFur novel The New Job: The Diapered Adventures of Maxwell Covington.

With the introductions out of the way, let’s get on to the interview!

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

CK: Honestly, I think characterization is one of the most important elements of any good story. Your characters need to be as close to living, breathing, three-dimensional people as you can get them. The more whole and fleshed-out their characterization is, the more readers will love (or hate, or fear!) them. I find that really compelling characters do half the work of writing the story for me, because if I truly understand who my characters are, what motivates them, what their strengths and weaknesses are, then it’s much easier to have them interact with each other and with the main plot elements in a believable way.

I think that applies to any kind of fiction, whether it’s sexy adult fiction or high adventure. Real people are made up of lots of different elements: I can be sweet and fun, I can be grumpy on my bad days, I can be petty when I’m really annoyed. It’s that multifaceted part of us that makes us who we are, and I think the closer you can get your characters to mimic that, the more the reader will care what happens to them. Your villain shouldn’t be evil just to be evil… that’s too one-dimensional. Real-world villains never see themselves as the bad guys. And the heroes can be noble and brave while still having their own personal demons.

FWG: Can you tell us a bit about your novel?

CK: It’s definitely firmly within the fetish erotica category, but I really want it to be more than that. The main character, Max, is a nineteen year-old golden retriever who has recently gone off to college, and he has struggled for a long time with his sexuality and his kink interests. Out of boredom, he applies for a help wanted ad, but the job he’s offered turns out to be far, far more than he expected. In accepting the job, Max is forced to confront things he has been suppressing for a long time, including his interest in the ABDL fetish.

I wrote the cast of the story to be a broad exploration of masculinity in all its forms. There’s an effeminate drag queen, a trans man, a real bully… the characters run the gamut. In part, the book was my effort to have my own personal “kink reckoning” with myself, and in part it’s giving me a chance to really explore what masculinity means to me.

I’ve always had an interest in the ABDL kink, but it was something I really struggled to accept within myself. And I’ve struggled with my own gender identity as well; I’m a cis guy but I don’t really feel like I identify well with other cis guys and “traditional masculinity”, but I also don’t identify as female. So, in a sense, Max’s adventures are really a way for me to better understand myself and where I fit into the world. And my goal is that other “weird little queer boys” will find some comfort in my stories in a way that I wish I’d been able to have when I was younger.

FWG: So you wrote something within a niche (Furry) for an even more niche audience (ABDL). Yet you’ve been able to sell 189 copies of the book in 8 months since its release. Were there any unique challenges marketing something with what most would consider to be a very small audience?

CK: Challenges AND opportunities, I would say. The biggest challenge that I’ve experienced was the fact that I came out of the blue as a virtually unknown writer within the niche, so building an audience had to start from scratch. I did have a few people within the ABDL community who have followed me over from my YouTube channel, but that was a pretty small audience to start out with.

However, the opportunity to marketing to a very small niche is that they’re really hungry for great content. There aren’t a lot of professional writers who write for them, and so they definitely want content. The challenge is making them aware that I exist.

That’s where I’ve been fortunate. I’ve made a lot of amazing friends who have helped spread my story around through word of mouth, and that got the attention of the organizers of Babyfur Con. They invited me to host a panel at their most recent virtual convention, where I got to sit alongside some truly amazing visual artists within the Babyfur community, like Marci, Wen and Jadefox. If you know anything at all about the Babyfur community, you probably know those names because they’re each just amazing, legendary artists who draw Babyfur art.

The convention panel was a huge success and really got my name out there, and it just keeps spreading as more and more people discover my novel. It makes me super proud and SUPER appreciative.

FWG: Having the opportunity to participate in a panel like that seems like an amazing promotional opportunity. Are there other avenues like that you would suggests authors explore if they want to promote their works?

CK: Step one is to understand who your audience is, who would most appreciate the content you’re creating. Then step two is to go meet them where they are. You could do things like reach out to the hosts of podcasts relevant to your audience to see if they’d be interested in doing a collaboration or an interview. Definitely network with other content creators who are creating content for your audience too; I can’t tell you how many doors have been opened for me by other amazing writers, YouTubers, podcast hosts, magazines, etc.

And then the most important thing is to make sure that what you’re writing, you’re writing from the heart. Write for yourself first, because that authenticity comes through in your writing. If you’re telling a compelling story, whether it’s lesbian lizard erotica or a deconstruction of capitalism through a cosmic horror allegory, your audience will appreciate your work more if you’re writing your truth. That resonates with people and can build word-of-mouth buzz that can take you far.

FWG: As someone who works in marketing for a career, are there any other general tips you could offer authors of publishers to make it easier for potential new readers to find their works?

CW: MAKE. A. WEBSITE. I can’t stress enough how important that is. Especially as we move into the second year of pandemic lockdown, online is everything. A single central hub for your writing looks professional, and it allows you to bring in new readers through search engine optimization. It also gives you a link you can put into your social media profiles to direct readers to learn more about you. It doesn’t have to be anything too complicated, and services like Squarespace or Wix make it very easy to design something that looks professional. But a website is practically a must, even if it’s just a single page that links to other sites where you host your writing (like DeviantArt or FurAffinity).

The other thing I would suggest is to be as active as possible on social media. People appreciate someone who is engaging and accessible, and having a strong social media presence can help you network and meet people to get your message out. Try to avoid being overly “self-promoting” though. That reads as inauthentic. Just be your genuine self and engage with other people in a natural way. That matters so much!

FWG: All authors have had to deal with people who dislike their works at times, or even downright trolls. With the nature of ABDL as a fetish, have you had to deal with this? If so, how have you gone about handling it?

CK: Oh, for sure. There’s this ongoing assumption in the vanilla world that ABDL = pedophile, which simply isn’t true. But there’s definitely pushback that the community has to face all the time, as unfortunate as it is. Honestly, the biggest thing is to remember that someone who is throwing shade or hating on you is usually doing so from a place of fear and not understanding. It’s no different than how rock & roll used to be “the devil’s music”, or how Catcher In The Rye was a “banned book”. People who lash out usually do so from a place of ignorance, and I think it’s important to remember that and try not to take it personally.

With that said, I firmly believe that it’s not the victim’s responsibility to educate their bully, either. So, it’s important to know what your options are and to use them; muting or blocking the person from contacting you and, if necessary, reporting harassment to moderators is always a tool you can use.

In my case, part of why I struggled for some 20 years to come to terms with my AB (adult baby) interests was because I thought people would look down on me for it. And you know what? Some people probably do. But at this stage in my life, I’ve learned that… well, frankly I don’t care what other people think of me. I like myself, and that’s something I really wasn’t able to honestly say through my 20s and early 30s. I feel like taking pride in yourself takes all the power from the bullies, and so generally speaking what little negativity I’ve gotten from others has bounced right off.

FWG: As this is likely many Furry author’s first exposure to things like ABDL, if you could tell them one thing about it and the Babyfur community in general, what would it be?

CK: That it’s just like any other fandom. For some people it’s sexual, for others it’s just a fun hobby. Some people take it to 11 and live 24/7 like toddlers, while others just dip a toe in. It’s a diverse, wonderful community of brave, amazing people. And it is NOT anything like it is so often portrayed in shock media. But the most important thing to know is that it’s a bunch of grown adults who enjoy things like diapers and toys and colorful clothing, and it has nothing at all to do with real children. It probably seems weird to someone outside looking in, but the same could be said for just about every other community, fandom and kink on the internet.

FWG: Anything else you’d like to tell our readers?

CK: Keep writing, and always write the things that matter to you. Your best writing will always be the writing you do for yourself and then share with others. And don’t give up! If my weird little super gay furry kink novel can find its audience, you can too!

We would like to thank CK for sitting down to chat with us and offer his unique perspective and expertise. He can be found on Twitter @CKCrinklekid and more information on his writing can be found on his website. You can purchase his novel, The New Job: The Diapered Adventures of Maxwell Covington, on Amazon. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

Hello Furry Writers’ Guild! I know it’s a bit silly to call this a guest post, but I was hoping to take of my President hat for a moment to write a post for the blog on a personal experience and I thought that it would be far more fitting. Recently, an anthology I am involved in editing had its submission call reach a larger audience of folks who haven’t worked with traditional Furry publishers before and it caused quite a stir.

I help maintain the Furry Writers’ Market so I see all the submission calls put out by the community. This call didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. However, gaining these fresh perspectives from outside eyes showed me there are ways we could try to improve submission calls in the community to help attract more authors to write for anthologies.

I want to personally thank Personalias, Daddy Wuffster, and CK Crinklekid for opening up these discussions. I hope the information I can share with you all here can help all of us find new ways to improve the anthology process. With the preamble finished, I’ll get to the good stuff!

New Authors Don’t Know About Furry Publishing Standards

I say this not as an insult, but more of as a fact that somehow we’ve all been missing. We as authors, publishers, and editors, are used to the general process involved here. This isn’t the case to people brand new to the writing scene in general or those looking at submitting to an anthology for the first time.

For example, it’s standard for anthologies to include a section about the authors where they can promote themselves. We may know this, but an outside observer would have no clue. When we lack this transparency, even if accidentally, it’s easy for someone to look at a submission call and feel like something shady is happening. With this in mind, here are some of the things I was directly told would be awesome to see in submission calls from outside observers.

• The anthology payment is placed prominently on top of the call, not buried after explanations of stories that are being looked for.
• Mentioning the promotional section for authors.
• Stating the period of exclusivity for stories.
• Stating if stories can can use their stories as the basis for other works like sequels or continuations.
• Directly state how stories should be formatted for submission. (My number one question from new authors as President is how do I format submissions. A link to the Standard Manuscript Format could help with this.)

These suggestions made a lot of sense to me and I am positive there are more things that we take for granted but outside observers would have no clue about we don’t explicitly mention. The potential to make submissions more attractive to submit to through transparency and clarity is something we all should consider.

Payment For Anthology Stories

This will not be a debate on payment for anthologies being too low. Furry publishers cannot feasibly offer SFWA rates of eight cents per word and be able to reasonably continue production. A half cent per word has been standard for some time and some projects like Difursity have even managed to offer higher rates. In general, compensation for anthology writing has been on the rise as of late in terms of flat rates and contributor’s copies offered which is an exciting prospect.

Now, several anthologies have offered contributor’s copies as payment for their work as the only payment. This can make a lot of sense as many authors end up buying a copy of the book they are in and want a copy. With many anthologies being passion projects made more for authors than readers, this makes a lot of sense. Sometimes, the flat rate that could be offered would be less than the cost of buying the book in the first place, so to those in the community this makes sense as payment.

However, it’s easy for this to look like this is a typical vanity press scam to those who aren’t familiar with the process. This became very apparent when this became a discussion on Twitter with people upset authors were being paid “in exposure” but becoming more understanding once the situation was better explained to them. With this in mind, I was given two suggestions to improve on this.

• Have publishers offer either a contributor’s copy OR monetary compensation (author’s choice).
• Allow authors to buy the anthology at cost (or at least at a discount).

This would make it easier for outside observers to see authors are not simply being paid “in exposure” which is good optics for everyone involved. Making contributor’s copies easier to purchase could also benefit publishers and authors as well. Cheaper books create the potential for authors to purchase copies for giveaways (which grows both the publisher’s and the author’s audience) and provides another perk for authors in terms of payment. For those who writing is mostly a hobby, being able to buy copies of the book they can share with friends and family at a better price point would help bridge that gap between half a cent a word and a full eight cents per word.

Making Submissions More Attractive To Independent Authors

As previously mentioned, many Furry authors write as a way to engage with the fandom, promote Furry literature as a while, and enjoy their hobby. The goal isn’t always to make a big profit or get famous. However, plenty of authors are able to make livings (or at least have an impressive side hustle) purely writing commissions, running a Patreon, or getting donations from stories on gallery sites.

Traditional publishers cannot manage to offer the lean production a single self-published author can when producing their work and that is understandable. However, we need to realize that as it stands many anthology submissions calls would be a detriment for some of these authors to submit to.

If an author is making less on their anthology story than they would get writing a commission, what is the value in submitting to a publisher? Maybe it’s the prestige of being featured in a very competitive anthology or an easier chance to win awards. Maybe it’s just wanting to see a story in a printed book.

However, even the best furry anthologies don’t sell more copies than the views more popular authors can get on stories posted to a gallery website like FurAffinity or SoFurry. If we cannot pay them the rates for commissions and even a free story is going to offer them more exposure to a general audience, it’s reasonable for these authors to think their time is better spent writing elsewhere. This makes it harder to attract the best talent to anthologies to write, which would in turn boost anthology sales and allow publishers to pay more.

I wish I had ideas on how to do this — sadly I don’t. I’m willing to admit when I don’t have answers to a question. However, if publishers, authors, and editors all work together and brainstorm, I’m positive we can find solutions. Perhaps the Guild hosts a round table to discuss these ideas or these talks take place across whatever social media and chatrooms people participate in. It doesn’t matter where they happen, I just hope that they do so we can find ways to keep bringing Furry literature to even greater heights.

I hope everything I wrote today was useful and at least a little entertaining to read. I would like to remind everyone that while I may be the Guild President, I am perfectly capable of being wrong on a subject. If you disagree with anything said here, I want to hear that feedback (or any feedback) so I can gain more perspectives. Learning from the amazing members of the guild and those who strive to join us someday has helped lead to many improvements for us and I hope this editorial can lead to discussions that help make the Furry writing community as a whole stronger.

— Linnea Capps

Welcome once again to another FWG Newsletter! We’ve had a busy month here at the Guild so let’s get on with the news.

First, we would like to recognize that the Ursa Major Awards are now open for voting! We hope Furry authors, editors, and fans of Furry works of all kinds go vote for their favorites. The voting form is available here.

Two projects associated with the FWG are up for awards and we would like to encourage our members to consider giving them their vote. The first thing is that From Paw To Print is nominated for Best Non-Fiction Work. Compiled by Thurston Howl, this collection of essays features multiple guild members and is a marvelous resource for anyone wanting to get into Furry writing.

Profits from the sale of From Paw To Print are donated to support the FWG as well, so we would love to see it get some serious recognition on an awards stage. For those who haven’t picked up a copy, it is available here from Bound Tales Press.

The second is the Furry Writers’ Guild Blog which is nominated for Best Anthropomorphic Magazine. Those who have enjoyed posts like our Black History Month spotlights, interviews with authors and editors, and even things like this newsletter should consider giving the blog their vote. A win would be wonderful for the Guild and make our blog an even more powerful promotion tool for members of the FWG.

Speaking of the blog, this month we featured four separate Black Furry creatives there. We hope those who have yet to check out these interviews will give them a look — there’s a lot to be learned from them.

• Black History Month Spotlight: Ryuukiba
• Black History Month Spotlight: Rhyner
• Black History Month Spotlight: Cedric G! Bacon
• Black History Month Spotlight: Kirisis “KC” Alpinus

Remember, we now have our Promotion Tip Line to submit to if you have new releases coming out, so don’t hesitate to fill that out so we can feature your book in our next newsletter! Here’s a new release we spotted this month:

• The Captain’s Oath by Rick Griffin

You can find all kinds of submission calls for Furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open.

• Shark Week: Ocean Animals – Deadline: April 30th, 2021
• Selections of Anthropomorphic Literature: Vol 2 – Deadline: May 15th, 2021
• Furs With Benefits – Deadline: June 1st, 2021
• Less Fur-Milliar Spaces – Deadline To Commit: June 1st, 2021
• CRINKLE: A Littles Anthology – Deadline: June 15th, 2021
• Pirating Pups – Deadline: November 30th, 2021
• The Nightmurr Before Christmas – Deadline: October 1st, 2021
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

One last thing this month: Don’t forget to nominate works for the 2020 Cóyotl Awards! The nomination deadline is March 15th so time is running out. It’s one of the perks of guild membership to nominate, so exercise it! You can nominate works here.

I know that it’s the anniversary of COVID-19 lockdowns for many people, so I want to remind everyone to take care of themselves and keep working hard to stay safe. Anniversaries of traumatic events have been shown to cause extra stress for people, so make sure to give yourself some kindness in whatever ways you can. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

Welcome back everyone! As February comes to a close, we wanted to share our final interview with a Black furry creative in honor of Black History Month. Today, we’ll be speaking award-winning editor and author extraordinaire Krisis “KC” Alpinus!

Kiri has edited books like Claw: Volume 1, Species: Wildcats, and Soar: Volume 1 and also freelances as a Narrative Designer for several dating simulators and digital comics. She has also done work as a Cultural Consultant and Sensitivity Reader for various entities and authors. She is a graduate student of Political Science, a political activist, and in her own words, “An openly and unapologetically Black woman.”

With our interviewee properly introduced, let’s get on with the interview!

FWG: What is your favorite work that you have written?

Kiri: All of my works are my favorites. I put them out into the universe because they are works of my heart and I love each and every character as if they had sat down with me and told me their narratives themselves.

If you’re looking for what works that I think would be most representative of me, I can recommend “Power & Pleasure” in Give Yourself a Hand or, more blatantly, “No Dogs” in Roar: Volume 9.

“Power & Pleasure”, while a NSFW story, is a testament to feminine sexuality, but also finding one’s own sexuality and surrendering yourself to it. I wanted to tell a story about a woman who has come into her own and is guiding another’s discoveries by explaining her own insecurities regarding sex and pleasure. Though the main antagonist in this story is the embodiment of pleasure or hedonism, I found that I enjoyed exploring how relinquishing yourself to pleasure or the things that please you ultimately shape the person you become…or, it at least opens you up to the possibilities or questioning what you’ve been told. I also enjoyed creating a character that didn’t define themselves by their gender identity or sexuality; they defined themselves by what pleased them or what felt good to them.

 “No Dogs” is the result of talking to a few friends up here about the American South’s brand of racism and how it starts at a young age. I related to them how I and a few other Black kids had been slurred in elementary school by a classmate and his punishment was being sent to his teacher’s classroom, while we were often disproportionately punished for minor infractions.

I also was beyond pissed at how in this very warm, accepting fandom, we still have organizations that have very bigoted people in leadership positions and we have people denying that bigotry exists at all in the fandom, let alone in places that are designated “safe spaces” for people who have been historically marginalized. It infuriated me how it felt that in some matters, furs in my own, chosen community could put the life of a Black person below that of a dog. And yet, it happened and I got to see it with my own eyes. So, using the tools that I had available to me at the time, I showed how it feels to be a young, marginalized person who has to face bigotry and prejudice and still manages to rise above it.

Plus Staffordshire terriers are so sweet.

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Kiri: Some will say it’s characters. Others will say that it’s the plot that makes it a good story. I’m of the mind that it’s a lovely mix of the two. One of my favorite tv shows to watch is Scandal, by legendary show writer, Shonda Rhimes. That show has some of the best plots that make my little politically-poisoned mind squeal. Elections tampering, infidelity, covert governmental organizations, and a love story that set my fuzzy soul on fire, but these plots would have been nothing without dynamic characters that made me love them and made me tune in each week to see what happened to them as they advanced the plot. They had agency, backstories, and were all beautifully flawed in ways that made them relatable.

Stories NEED that mix. I need to care about your characters to become invested in your plot. I need the plot to do something that makes your characters come alive. I’m a very much “in my head” person, so as I said earlier, I need your characters to seem real enough that it feels like I’m getting sucked into that world and everything that happens outside of it stops. In a world that has gone crazy with inequality, greed, diseases, and mounting bigotry, when I’m done fighting against this, I need something that helps me to escape.

When I write, I try to give that feeling of immersion and make my characters so realistic, so that even if they’re an alcoholic, polyamorous lesbian tigress with silver fur, it feels like you should know her (and scream at her to get her life together). I need your story to give me a sense of immersion that is not easily broken, not even in the bathroom (I’m a habitual bathroom reader).

FWG: What does Black History mean to you?

Kiri: When I was younger, Black History was a month of discovery and a showcase of Black excellence. I was shown poets, authors, innovators, scholars, movers, and shakers. I felt a sense of empowerment and kind of special. I thought that this was OUR time, a time where we mattered more than just being slaves and oppressed people. It showed we were complex, resilient, and talented people. I used to love Black History Month.

Now, it feels like one long, drawn-out performance and whataboutisms. Every year, there’s a growing group of “very stable geniuses” who adamantly ask, “why is there a Black History Month? Why isn’t there a ‘Mexican’ Heritage Month (Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month is Sept. 15 – Oct 15) or an Asian Heritage Month (May)?” Or my personal favorite, “what have Black people done to have an entire month?” (That’s the reason for the month, friend.)

But still, there’s also the acts of random performativity that really just irritate me. I see so much kente cloth and invoking of Dr, Martin Luther King Jr. that I get physically ill. It’s all just a show. While things are a bit better now than they were in Dr. King’s time, we still have a long way to go. I can still get killed for driving while Black, walking while Black, being Black in my own home, or worse, being Black while minding my openly Black business. I mean, how far have we really come? The destruction of “Black Wallstreet” aka the Tulsa Race Riots or the destruction of Rosewood aren’t mentioned. Hell, people who live in Tulsa, OK didn’t even know about the riots because of how suppressed information surrounding it was, but it’s our history. It’s American history that should be told.

Honestly, I’m kind of sick of the saccharine version of Black history that is made palatable to the White moderates. Well, it’s not that palatable because apparently, some people can opt-out of Black history teachings. Funny, when I was in school, I had to learn about every racist traitor of the Confederacy that owned people who looked like me and debated the humanity of my ancestors, but some kids can be opted out of learning about the contributions and sacrifices Black Americans made for this county. Can’t say that I’m surprised that people think we came here of our own volition and were happy to do so, but boy am I disappointed.

FWG: Do you feel that your Blackness has affected your writing?

Kiri: I mean, my Blackness affects everything that I do and how people see me, so not sure how it wouldn’t affect my writing. It’s who I am and what I was raised around. It’s my culture and my history. When I write, I write for Black audiences about issues that Black people have, but under the illusion of strictly writing anthropomorphic creatures. I am glad to have non-Black eyes on my stuff because it challenges the norm, but I do like having an anthropomorphic fantasy that Black people can somewhat relate to.

FWG: Do you feel that issues in the outside world affect your writing in the fandom?

Kiri: The issues inside of this fandom affect my writing, let alone those outside of it. As I mentioned earlier, when I wrote “No Dogs”, I was quite pissed about how Black people being murdered by cops was a ho-hum, but animal abuse was abhorrent. There’s nothing that makes you feel ignored by your fandom than logging onto Twitter and seeing someone who is con staff of a rather large con call your people “thugs” and “animals”, but want the head of a woman who abused a dog. I mean, you can both be disgusted by animal cruelty AND the over-policing of Black bodies. I do it every day.

I pretend to be a dhole* on the internet, but when I turn off my phone or shut down my computer, I am still a Black woman. When I create these stories, I create them as a Black woman and when I talk to people at furry cons, it’s not as a red dhole, it’s as a Black woman. A disabled, light-skinned, opinionated-but-honest Black woman. Any and everything that affects me under those categories are things that affect me inside of this fandom and sadly, I don’t have the complexion for the protection from those things. I’m not awarded that escapism here.

Furries are people and just like people, they bring their biases and prejudices with them, but sadly Black people and other PoC have to deal with them. We can’t be dogs, cats, frogs, or dragons on the internet. We’re usually having to justify our existence to the nearest sparkle dog who doesn’t understand what rights we’re exactly missing.

So, to answer your question, yes the issues in the outside world affect my writing in the fandom because the fandom does not exist in a vacuum where we’re all cute, fluffy animals who hold hands, sniff each other, and hug it out.

I don’t even dream in that color.

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be and why?

Kiri: Fiction: It would be Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Zora was a wonderful writer and helped preserve a lot of Black traditions through her writing. I remember watching the movie Oprah produced and it blew me away. It was one of the things that awakened me to my own powers and abilities as a Black woman.

Non-Fiction: Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall. Read it and you’ll know why I recommended it.

FWG: Do you have any projects incoming you’d like to tell people about?

Kiri: Unbreakable Anthology has a couple of sequels in the works, so check those out. Buy my book Soar: Volume 1. Lots of good fantasy from various cultures and backgrounds. Vote for me in the Coyotl’s and the Ursa Majors. (Shout out to the folks who recommended Soar for the Leo’s.)

FWG: Any last words for our readers?

Kiri: Pet dholes. Drink mead. Save dholes (Like please, save the dholes.)

We would like to thank Kirisis once more for sitting down to answer all of these questions for us. You can find her on Twitter @SwirlyTales and we highly recommend checking out the projects she has worked on.

As this is our final spotlight for the month, we would like to encourage all of our readers to check out all of our interviews in this series. Supporting Black creatives and learning about Black perspectives isn’t something should not just take place during just one month — make sure to keep expanding your knowledge. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

Hello again everyone! It’s February, so in honor of Black History Month, the FWG wanted to feature interviews with Black authors, publishers, and creators within the furry fandom. Today we’ll be interviewing Cedric G! Bacon, the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher at Thurston Howl Publications.

Those familiar with furry writing have likely seen his written works in Infurno, Furries Hate Nazies, or Thrill of the Hunt. He is particularly known for his horror stories though never turns down opportunities to work outside his usual comfort zone.

With the introductions out of the way, let’s get onto the interview!

FWG: What is your favorite work that you have written and favorite work you have published?

Cedric: I’m actually going to separate this into three answers, hahaha. The first two are my written/published, and then one that I’ve published for someone else.

For my own favorite work that I’ve published it’s a tie: the first would maybe be “Yule Carol” in 12 Days of Yiffmas (Red Ferret Press). To give a summary, it’s a Christmas themed story set in Japan and focuses on a vixen named Kiyohoko missing her deceased husband Heath terribly. Thus, on Yule Eve, she performs a ritual that binds his spirit into the physical plane, albeit briefly.

I took inspiration from the Bon festivals with this one and a lot of creative license in terms of the traditions, but the end result became very satisfactory and for being an early attempt at erotica, it was probably one of my most successful due to having dark elements and not outright horror, but also having characters that are just genuinely likeable, without having to force the reader into liking them, and I tried to make it appear as believable as possible. Definitely one I recommend to readers but because it’s in an erotic collection, definitely for the adult readership!

Second favorite story that I’ve written and published, it’s “The Battler” from Furries Hate Nazis. I’ve always been a fan of boxing and wrestling, and I’ve always wanted to do a story featuring either sport. It ended up becoming that “The Battler” (which was partly inspired by the story of Salamo Arouch and also being set in the universe of The Adventures of Peter Gray by Nathan Hopp) was that story, and it gave me an opportunity to say something about anti-Semitism and racism in the 1960s.

The final act fight scene between my Jewish boxer Mickey and the Nazi antagonist Vilm was probably the most cinematic writing I’d ever done, and definitely had to look at the various motions and movements from sources like Christy Martin’s fights and the old boxing anime Ashita no Joe.

For my answer on favorite written but not yet published, that would be “Poyekhali!” which will be appearing in ROAR 11. It’s a little bit of alternate history, but largely inspired by the Soviet space program that launched human beings into orbit. The main thrust of the story is inspired by Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, but I also take bits from others who were there, and even created an anthro version of Laika. But the reason I liked this story so much is because it used so much of my favorite themes—strong women in the leading roles, history, action, and research—and I can’t wait for everyone else to read it soon too!

And for my favorite work that’s not my own but one that I’ve published, I think that would be Fire-Branded Leather by F. Gibbs. It was the first long form work I ever edited and so it was great having a great writer to work with and break the ice, learning communication and listening skills along the way. First in a trilogy (with the second book, Cold Trailing, out now and the third on the way!) I can’t say enough how much I’ll always stand by this book. 

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Cedric: For me, I think a good story the sum of a bunch of different parts. When I sit down to write, I always try to think of the things that could click: the characters for one, setting for another, dialogue for yet another, and the plot that I’m hoping to tell with the story. Sometimes, even with beta reading and positive feedback, the story may not land…that doesn’t necessarily means it was a terrible story because as well known, there are a lot of intentionally terrible stories that actually did get published (looking at you Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey), but one that just didn’t hit right with a reviewer or an editor doth not a bad story make. But the key ingredient I think in this literary bouillabaisse is the writer having the confidence and believing in the story to really make it good: its that having the faith in the characters and having a solid track as you’re moving from point A to point B to point C with the plot, and the dialogue is firing on cylinders with you, you just have this knowing feeling that “Hey, this is actually turning out pretty sweet!” 

FWG: What does Black History mean to you?

Cedric: It’s most definitely the acknowledgment of the achievements made by folks that don’t get that shine too often. Yeah, we do celebrate the achievements of Amelia Earhart for example and her most definitely defining pioneering career as an aviatrix, but how many know about Bessie Coleman, who was the first woman to be an African American and Native American pilot? Or the recently passed Charles Saunders, whose novels and stories of the heroic Imaro gave a blackness to the fantasy genre that’d previously been dominated by writers (Lovecraft, most notoriously) who often relegated the black character to a stereotype.

I’d be the first to admit that I never knew much about Black History growing up, besides the big stuff that you learn in school. The good stuff, the stuff that really makes one take notice, didn’t come to me till much later, or learning how many sacrifices were made to retain one’s pride (Muhammad Ali telling the draft board to stuff it saying he wasn’t going to Vietnam—in a famous rebuttal—when he did, which stalled his boxing career for a long while is one example to think of) in order to make movements for a race that’s been marginalized for centuries due to being a couple shades darker than their friends and neighbors.   

FWG: Do you feel that your Blackness has affected your writing? How about your work in publishing?

Cedric: I think it’s informed how I shape certain characters and situations, most definitely. In “The Battler” for example, I made the narrator a black man who has to deal with the racism of his fellow humans but also that of the furren (borrowed once again from Nate Hopp for an anthro species) who will deign themselves uplifted from humans and especially a black man like my narrator. That the boxer he trains is an anthro and Jewish was a nice thing to write because it’s two people who come from different backgrounds but don’t care and are just happy to have each other in their lives for this experience… It’s just the hope I always have but have been disappointed on in reality.

The experience of having one’s differences made front and center has happened to me a number of times, from the drive-thru at McDonald’s all the way down to relationships, and internally that feeling of being like an outsider looking in is something that isn’t forgotten. And then that feeling that if I spoke up and out then the consequences could either be dire or fatal depending on the circumstances. There’s a lot of wrong that’s out there and few speaking on it, and the ones who do are just the worst types who are only speaking on it and chasing clout. 

Since becoming the top bat at THP, I’ve continued our namesake’s mission to always look out for marginalized voices that are speaking and saying what they have to say as loud as possible. And not only that but taking ownership of their stories and not having them told by someone without that background or knowledge—despite the well intentions, I must say. And you know, as a publisher I’ve had a chance to really get to know what is happening and the voices that are out there. And I’ve come to the realization that there’s no such thing as everything and everyone “having a place” and firmly do reject what the status quo has made of things. The status quo will protect shitty—if I can say that, if not censor haha—views and coddle the ones saying them, and that’s just not cool. 

I want our authors—our BIPOC, our women, our trans—to feel that they can speak on those issues that have affected them and not feel afraid to say them. I want them to say “FUCK YOU” to the Karen at Target that was acting out on them and not using their preferred pronoun. I want them to tell their story and be proud and stand up and be counted and know that they all do exist and ain’t going anywhere.

FWG: Do you feel that issues in the outside world affect your writing and publishing in the fandom?

Cedric: I believe so! I’d only be regurgitating my viewpoints above so I’ll be shorter here, but I think a combination of growing up reading superhero comic books and literature gave me an intense dislike whenever I read or see or hear about injustice being done. I was also raised by strong women so I have a fondness for a woman that takes no shit from a man, and if I may use this spot to say so, I very much welcome submissions from women in the fandom to send their works, whatever the genre, on over! 

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be and why?

Cedric: That would probably be Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. It was the first time I truly felt I was reading about a character just like me, not just because the main protagonist Atticus Turner was a black young man in mid-1950s America, but also because he was a black young man who’d grown up loving the stories of Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and other white writers who often denigrated people of color in their stories and grappled with that dichotomy, just like me.

The novel upends the expectations that the weirdness of Lovecraft et al was just that of the white man, and Ruff ties in a lot of the racism that was happening across America with the weirdness occurring to Atticus and his family, dispensing with Lovecraft’s whole thing of making characters white, upper-class academics and intellectuals and showcasing Atticus and his black, working-class and very close-knit family who approach the horror, are summarily frightened, but try to approach it logically and without Lovecraft’s whole trope of beginning scared, staying scared, and then going crazy afterward. 

That it was made into a TV series last fall on HBO should be another feather in its cap for interest. There were a bunch of deviations from the novel in the adaptation, but I think with that translation from prose to visual, it really helps enhance the theme and messaging and allows for the story to go deeper than the novel did (for example, dispensing with two male characters and adding more women to the cast really does a further one-up) and also creating further horrors and atrocities of that Jim Crow era in the United States at that time.

FWG: Do you have any projects incoming you’d like to tell people about?

Cedric: The conclusion to F. Gibbs Fire Dog Trilogy in The Eastern Horizon for one! Another conclusion is the third book in Stephen Coghlan’s furry sci-fi series GENMOS (Genetically Modified Species) entitled Conclusions. We also have the anthologies The Furry Game Show Network, Beneath the Suit, Howloween Vol. 2, Difursity Vol. 2 coming soon and as we speak we’re going through submissions for iPawd and edits for The Howling Dead. So far, the beginning of the year is looking quite up for Thurston Howl Publications!

FWG: Any last words for our readers?

Cedric: Just one! Tell your readers to never give up on their hopes and dreams. Writing is hard, goodness knows it is, but it’s just like anything else: time, effort, patience, and a little bit of persistence. Make your messaging clear and concise and don’t sweat about all that stuff about compared to so and so and such and such. Stand on your own two feet first and do your best on your own first, and all that good accolades will follow!

We would like to thank Cedric once again for taking the time to sit down and talk with us. He can be found on Twitter @batced. We hope you’ll join us again next week for our final interview with a Black creative within the furry fandom for Black History Month. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

Hello again everyone! It’s February, so in honor of Black History Month, the FWG wanted to feature interviews with Black authors, publishers, and creators within the furry fandom. Today we’ll be interviewing Rhyner — a Black/Mexican transmasc queer dragon who hosts the What The Fuzz?! podcast which interviews furries of color to ask “real questions to dig into the people under the fur.”

In the world of furry writing, Rhyner actively updates Rhyner Writes, a blog where he discusses general topics for furry audiences. He was also a member of the inaugural Oxfurred Comma Inclusivity Award committee.

With this in mind, just one last thing from Rhyner before we get to the interview — “Please keep in mind: no one person can represent an entire group and that includes myself. I can only speak to my experiences and shared experiences as a mixed person. One story doesn’t paint the picture.”

FWG: What is your favorite work that you have written?

Rhyner: Normally you’d think it’d be a story I’ve written, but honestly nothing I’ve written has ever given me as much joy as the articles I have up on my website. The one in particular that folks seem to love is about overcoming anxieties to chat with others over Telegram or forums. While it’s something incredibly small it means a lot to me to be able to help someone with something that is so easily overlooked.

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Rhyner: A “good” story to me is a plot driven by realistic, grounded characters. They can have fantastical powers or be facing the annihilation of the universe, but if they don’t have relatability it’s not going to keep anyone invested in what’s going on. For instance “Breaking Bad” and “A Silent Voice” are wildly different stories that have pretty much nothing in common. Why am I so drawn to the plight of some old boomer selling meth on the side? Why do I care about what happens to some deaf girl? It’s because I can understand their struggles, and I latch onto them little by little. We see them at their worst, we see them do terrible things, but we see them do great things too. It’s that heavy helping of humanity that makes a story resonate with me no matter how recycled the plot itself is. But hey, if you want to throw some lore in there too it sure wouldn’t hurt!

FWG: What does Black History mean to you?

Rhyner: Black history at this moment means to me… Retreading my footsteps. It means going somewhere I’ve been before but things don’t look the same. People like me who grew up in “liberal California” were told racism was over when MLK gave his speech. We were told they desegregated schools and everything was fine after that. The Civil War being fought over slaves? “No, of course not! That was about states’ rights.” Since the start of June I’ve started to learn the real history. The resurgence of BLM flooded my timeline with things I never heard about before. The MOVE bombing, the rise and fall of Black Wallstreet, mass incarceration, and the list goes on and on. It’s painful to have to go back and re-learn your own history. Like getting bleach out of your clothes. But I’m glad to learn and I’m hungry to learn more.

FWG: Do you feel that your Blackness has affected your writing?

Rhyner: Yes. Normally I’d say it wouldn’t, but I have to write every script for my podcast. It wasn’t easy to come to terms with the fact that people will treat me differently simply because I’m black, but thanks to this Summer I quickly understood how the world saw people like me. I’ve had to make it clear why these things affect me since it could very easily be my black mother or black roommate or black best friends that end up meeting an unfortunate and untimely demise. With that in mind, going forward with writing outside of the scripts I don’t think I could go back to writing with a main character who doesn’t face similar struggles. 

FWG: Do you feel that issues in the outside world affect your writing in the fandom?

Rhyner: Yes. Although racial issues specifically really only pop up in the scripts for my podcast as mentioned before I find themes of social anxiety to be a prevailing topic amongst my blog posts. There isn’t a lot of furry literature to my name, but the stories I have started out there on SoFurry that aren’t just, well, erotic have themes of feeling unable to connect with others. 

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be and why?

Rhyner: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. It is nothing short of incredible how much information and thought was put into the careful articulation of every page in this book. It paints a massive, overwhelming picture of what black people are facing and have been facing in the United States from the start of slavery to now. It painstakingly goes over how the drug war started, how it was used as a weapon against black people, and what effect it’s had on us today. It’s a must read if you care about civil rights. Period. 

FWG: You interview a lot of BIPOC furs for your podcast. Have they ever mentioned furry writing or publishing? If so, what kinds of comments have you gotten about it?

Rhyner: Yes, some have. For example one guest known for his outlandish NSFW drawings, is also something of a storyteller. I thought to get his perspective on why writing tends to be overlooked in the fandom and he remarked that it was quite simple, really. Fursuits and art are instantly satisfactory while reading a story takes time – time that could be spent looking at 30 or more pictures in the same time span. It’ll be continually be difficult to get noticed as a writer in the fandom. All we can do is make it easier to get the works out there and put it front and center. 

Another guest on the show described the struggles of starting up a furry driven publishing business. Despite this, I found his drive to be inspiring. After all when forced to compete with Sofawolf, Furplanet, and others – why not have some fun with it? 

FWG: Is there anything the furry writing community could be doing to be more welcoming to Black creators?

Rhyner: The best thing the furry community can do is to be open and uplift. Be open to the storylines brought on by BIPOC creators of all backgrounds. If you’re a publisher, feature black creators during black history month, Indigenous furs during their month, and so on. If you’re a reader and happen upon a story you enjoy that’s from a black person or another person of color be sure to share their work.

Don’t be afraid to call out bigotry when you see it.

FWG: Do you have any projects incoming you’d like to tell people about?

Rhyner: Well, What’s The Fuzz?! Is available on all platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and you can see the full list on my website again rhynerwrites.com anything else I’ve got cooking will be posted up on my Twitter @whatsthefuzz_

FWG: Any last words for our readers?

Rhyner: 2020 was a hard year for everyone and BIPOC individuals in particular. Police brutality raided our timelines. Ignorant questions cornered us at every turn whether it be at the mall, at work, or at home. The audacity of it all. To shepherd BIPOC people, as a monolith, into the role of reluctant teacher to quench the curiosity of the average white moderate. 

In the end, we were expected to dust ourselves off and bounce back like nothing happened. Everything changed, but also nothing changed at all. It’s 2021 now. 

Don’t shield the racist in your group chat. Ban them. Keep Nazis out of furcons, group chats, furmeets – everything. They have no place in this fandom and never will. Don’t just use the hashtag #BLM to make your account prettier. Act on it. We need people to understand the difference between an anti-racist and the person who says they aren’t racist. 

My advice to you? Check out blacklivesmatters.carrd.co sometime and look through the educational resources. There are articles, books, movies, TV shows, documentaries, plays, interviews, audiobooks, and more about the topics of racism in all of its ugly, insidious forms. 

Don’t forget that no BIPOC person owes you an education. You have everything at your disposal to educate yourself. Looking forward to seeing you at Howlfest. Take care.

We would like to thank Rhyner once again for taking the time to sit down and talk with us. We hope you’ll join us again next week as we interview another Black creative within the furry fandom. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

Hello again everyone! It’s February, so in honor of Black History Month, the FWG wanted to feature interviews with Black authors, publishers, and creators within the furry fandom. Today we’ll be interviewing Christopher Weartherall, known in the fandom as Ryuukiba.

Ryuukiba is a wusky writer living in Denver who has been a part of the furry fandom for eleven years. His love of word building what a society would look like if it were ran by anthropomorphic animals lead him to begin writing stories in his own world called Fauhna following the fuzzy creatures that live there.

With the introductions out of the way, let’s get on with the interview!

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Ryuukiba: In order to create a story that is moving and impactful, a writer must find ways to creatively express the dynamic nature of experience. Whether the tale is wholly fantasy, or driven by realism, each story is defined by the novelty and intensity of the experiences of it’s characters.

There are many ways to foster a level of dynamism that makes a story excite and enthrall the reader. Some authors focus on gathering experiences from reality, while others focus on conceiving experiences that transcend it.

FWG: What does Black History mean to you?

Ryuukiba: The history of Black communities is varied and expansive. Around the world there are many microcosms of black experience shaped around different cultures and environments. While the spread of our communities about the world was initially involuntary, a hallmark of black experience is how our people take what we are given and find way to make it our own, to make it better. Throughout history, Black communities have pioneered groundbreaking advances in art, science, and social reform, no matter the adversity we have faced due to discrimination and oppression.

The study and appreciation of black history should be focused around this ability, and not the lamentation of past transgressions. Black history month is a grand opportunity for those outside our communities to acknowledge and embrace the power black people wield. Through this acceptance others can recognize the black community as something more beyond the myriad misconceptions that have been developed over the centuries.

FWG: Do you feel that your Blackness has affected your writing?

Ryuukiba: There are many elements of my experience that influence my writing, such as my status as a furry, and my experience as a member of the LGBT community, but my Blackness is not typically at the forefront of my mind when going through my creative process. I focus instead on cultivating stories that explore different realities from many perspectives, seeking to highlight the diversity of experience and the beauty of individuality.

FWG: Do you feel that issues in the outside world affect your writing in the fandom?

Ryuukiba: Most definitely! Although our experience’s in the fandom distinguish us from the rest of society in a way, a key element of the fandom is finding ways to exploit and reform elements of the outside world to suit our own purposes.

Furthermore, I find it exciting to use my writing as a sounding board to conceptualize how the issues we currently face will affect the times to come. Through the furry lens I can explore modern conflicts from a perspective unlike our own, mirroring it, or warping it to reflect my own idealized future.

FWG: Tell us a bit about your book. What was your favorite moment when writing it?

Ryuukiba: Sheath and Felix is a Novel about two gay floofs who fall in love, only to be unwittingly dragged into a conflict of unfathomable proportions when Sheath learns that he is the son of the creator of the universe and it is his destiny to save all of creation from imminent doom.

I started writing the tale as a series of short stories on DeviantArt in 2011 and over the years the vignettes added up to become a novel. I quite enjoyed the process of worldbuilding for the tale. The extended multiverse I ended up creating around it is filled with fantastical elements such as luminous beings borne from mysterious crystal, an occult society that makes sacrifices to an interdimensional leviathan, and an insane twin deity so powerful it could destroy reality in the blink of an eye. Using these and other elements I plan to intertwine future writings with the tale and its sequels.

FWG: If you could convince everyone to read a single book, what would it be and why?

Ryuukiba: Brave New World, by Adolus Huxely is an intriguing exploration of human motivation. It paints a picture of a world where everyone’s purpose is known from the moment of birth and society has reached a state of near perfect design. Alongside this utopian fantasy exists a world where some cling to the traditions of the past. Either out of personal desire or obligation, these “savages” have little comprehension of the “perfect” world outside their borders, and when one of them is introduced to the brave new utopia it is realized that true contentment may not be found in indulgence, peace, and purpose alone.

FWG: Do you have any projects incoming you’d like to tell people about?

Ryuukiba: I am currently in the process of writing the sequel to Sheath and Felix, in which Sheath continues his journey to discover his true potential and avert near certain doom amidst a civil war that has broken out amongst the people of his world.

In addition to this I am working on worldbuilding for a series called NeoTerra which will focus around the version of earth found in my multiverse. The series will tell the tale of an intergalactic war which happened between the Fauhnans of Fauhna and the Humans of Earth from the perspective of Octavia, a Transfemme professor of History living in the year 12822.

FWG: Any last words for our readers?

Ryuukiba: There are many elements to human experience that are combined in various ways to create each and every individual in existence. For as long as history has been written, we have found reasons to spark enmity over differences small and large. Now, more than ever, it must be emphasized that it is through the shared embodiment of our uniqueness that we can excel most as a civilization. If we continue to distract our minds from discovery and creation with enmity and strife, we will lead ourselves on a path to near certain doom.

Each and every one of us must make room in our experiences to express our own uniqueness and accept the uniqueness of others. through this exchange of our personal gifts we will foster a culture of admiration and acceptance that will lead us into a new era of curiosity and discovery.

We would like to thank Ryuukiba once more for sitting down to chat with us. Readers can learn more about the book by visiting the official Sheath & Felix website. Be sure to visit next week for another Black History Month interview. Until next time, may your words flow like water.

Welcome back everyone! We hope you’ve all been able to keep safe and get some good writing in. We won’t keep you long with the introductions, let’s get to the point of the newsletter — guild news.

Don’t forget that nominations for the 2020 Cóyotl Awards are now open! Nominations will be open until March 15th at midnight, Pacific time. Make sure to get those nominations in. Not sure what to nominate? The Cóyotl Awards Reading List should give you plenty of good ideas. 

With Black History Month in February, we intend to do our best to feature interviews with Black authors, publishers, and creatives within the fandom. As long as there are no scheduling snafus, we have lined up four amazing people we hope you will enjoy hearing for. In case you missed them, here are our interviews from last year.

• Black History Month Spotlight: Copper Sphynx
• Black History Month Spotlight: PJ Wolf
• Black History Month Spotlight: Jakabe T. Lope

If you have enjoyed posts like these on our blog, you could help us win an award! We qualify for an Ursa Major Award as Best Anthropomorphic Magazine. Nominations are open until February 13th so consider showing the guild some support.

Remember, we now have our Promotion Tip Line to submit to if you have new releases coming out, so don’t hesitate to fill that out so we can feature your book in our next newsletter! Here’s the new release we spotted this month:

• The Vore Studio edited by Joel Kreissman from Bound Tales Press

You can find all of the open markets for furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open.

• Beast Volume 1 – Deadline: March 1st 2020
• Shark Week: Ocean Animals – Deadline: April 30th 2020
• Selections of Anthropomorphic Literature: Vol 2 – Deadline: May 15th 2020
• The Fox Spirit Book Of… Love – Deadline: Unlisted
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

A couple of final things month! First, we would like to congratulate James L. Steel for winning the Furcon Flash Fiction Competition! You can read their story here. We also interviewed Jafan Tafari about their latest book, Spin The Bottle, on the FWG blog. We hope you’ll take the time to give both of these a read!

I wish you all a fantastic February and hope until we meet again, your words flow like water.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

Yesterday, the United States Capitol was overrun in what can only be called a terrorist attack by fascists attempting to overthrow the US Government. The Furry Writers’ Guild is in no way a political organization. However, during times like these, the Guild must take a stand and speak out against hateful ideologies.

The Furry Writers’ Guild is an inclusive organization. Our members come from many countries and many walks of life — and we celebrate that diversity. It is one of our greatest strengths.

As our Code of Conduct says: 

The FWG welcomes and supports all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to, participants of any age, experience level, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, ability/disability, gender identity and expression, sexual identity and expression, or level or type of participation in the furry fandom.

We oppose — and will take action against — any behavior that supports hatred. We will not accommodate hate speech, for doing so is no defense of free speech. It only silences the speech of others, and we cannot and will not turn a blind eye to bigotry no matter how artfully it is coded.

To make it perfectly clear: If you would denigrate or demean another person based on ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality, gender, disability, or lack of means, the FWG is no place for you.

Our Code of Conduct includes a section on reporting inappropriate behavior. I will personally guarantee, if I receive a message regarding dangerous conduct from someone currently in Guild spaces, that our staff will take it seriously and will be swift to act.

We have shown support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the past and will continue to support authors, publishers, and anyone else who is a part of a marginalized community. We always want our members to feel safe and to do our best to uplift their voices. If the Guild can do better in this regard, please get in contact with me or any member of the Guild Administration right away — it’s a top priority.

We know the world is a scary place right now so we want to make sure good stories can keep being released into the world. We hope our members and all furries will do their best at this time to support one another and speak out to support those who need it most. Stay safe out there, friends.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

Content Warning: This interview contains discussions about adult works that include the topic of vore content.

Welcome back everyone — it’s time for our first interview of 2021! Today we sat down to interview Dajan Tafari, the author of the recently released Spin The Bottle from Fenris Publishing. Dajan is a lion furry who joined the fandom back in 2012 and was once the type to lurk while making pencil drawings in the fandom. Five years ago he began writing and drawing vore content and the rest is history.

With our introduction out of the way, let’s get to that interview!

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Dajan: Well I guess that depends on what you mean by “good.” I’ve read stories that were badly written that I enjoy, and I’ve read well-written works that were a slog to get through. When I write, I tend to prioritize the emotional arc. I know I’ve done a good job with a story if I’ve made my readers feel something: happiness, relief, grief, laughter, anger. I ask myself, what contributes to that final catharsis.

Everything is just one brick in the road that takes the reader to that moment to maximize the emotional impact. I want to read a story that affects me similarly. I want to be moved. The stories that move me are the most memorable, and I’d say that is the most important thing for me when judging if a story (either mine or someone else’s) is “good.”

FWG: You wrote what is likely the first vore focused novella out for the furry market. What got you interested in writing a vore story?

Dajan: Well personally liking vore is a big part of it. Most of the stories I’ve written for FurAffinity were in the vore kink, and I’ve done a fair number of commission vore stories. There’s a lot of great vore art out there, but a good vore story is harder to find. Because vore is such a niche community, often times people have to take what they can get. So you see a lot—and this is more true for non-furry vore writers than furry vore writers by my estimates—of flash fiction single scene stories that are made quickly to satisfy quickly. You get a lot of carbon-copy flashes without much substance.

The problem with that is you miss out on all the stuff that can make erotica so engaging: the tension, the anticipation, the relationship itself. A good vore story has that. Some of the best vore stories I’ve ever read are actually quite long; ten thousand words or more.
I write the kinds of stories that I want to read myself. Most of my works available on FurAffinity are pretty long for short stories. I like to take my time building up to the actual indulgent scenes.

Erotica is all about feelings: arousal, tension, suspense, anticipation, and release. And so writing erotica in general lets me really focus on that emotion-centric writing process. My long stories earned praise that told me that I was doing something right. People would comment on the length and say in one way or another that it contributed to the enjoyment.

I think vore is an especially unique kink that can become incorporated into the world of the story itself. The way the rules of vore operate in a given scenario can influence the genre of the story. The way the society treats it can open up so many doors for plot. I’ve always been fascinated by the unique pred-prey relationships that can be afforded by furry fiction that you can’t see in human stories.

Vore lets me tell unique stories, and so after having moderate success in my freelance work, going to furry conventions and seeing people unashamedly buying vore-related art packs and merchandise from other artists, and then managing to have a vorish story published in Rechan’s and KC Alpinus’s “Thrill of the Hunt” anthology, made me want to go all the way. It made me realize that there’s not just a market for longer stories in the vore fandom. There’s a market for vore in the furry fandom.

When I started writing “Spin the Bottle” I imagined it would just be a short one-off story, maybe six to ten thousand words, but I became really invested in the characters while writing their earlier scenes, and I wanted to see how far I could take this. Once I was about thirty thousand words in, I knew this was the piece that I could take all the way. So I added some more vore scenes to help with the pacing, added a couple more characters to flesh out the arcs, and after a few months of rigorous edits and helpful feedback from my boyfriend, I had a working draft that I started to send to various furry publishers.

FWG: What challenges came with writing about a niche kink? Were there any concerns on if a publisher would pick it up?

Dajan: Oh there definitely was that concern. The furry fandom is wonderfully sex-positive in most regards, but you don’t want to push kinks on people, especially unsuspecting editors. So I started by reaching out via email to the various furry publications. They all have those emails listed to ask for submission guideline clarifications for a reason after all, so I started by just reaching out to see if it was even something they’d accept. It saved everyone a lot of time and potential discomfort. In the end I found two that were willing to publish vore writings at all, so the project basically had to get shelved until they opened for submissions. It’s just like writing any other book, except a single rejection would cut your prospects in half.

FWG: With those kinds of challenges in mind do you think it’s worth it for other authors to try and take on other specific niches similar to vore in their writing?

Dajan: I definitely think they should if for no other reason than to prove that niche material sells. The entire furry fandom is a living example of the good that can happen when people with a niche interest can come together and inspire each other to make great things. I doubt that what I wrote will do for vore what 50 Shades of Gray did for BDSM, but it’s a nice pipe dream. The furry fandom gets stronger when we share more unique stories not less.

When I submit non-erotic stories for publication in the fandom I often see that little blurb in the submission guidelines of “No foxes at Starbucks.” There’s already a desire to break away from clichés. What better way to do that then to open up more publications to these kinks? If more people are writing those stories, and more people are supporting those writers, I think the spaces will be made in one way or another to let non-traditional kink erotica have its place in the fandom. The furry fandom is already such an immense buffet (pun not intended) so why not strive to add one more side dish?

The barrier to entry is high right now, but I hope that if other erotica writers try to carve out the space for their work then maybe that barrier can whittle down over time. I hope that this is the start of a trend and not a lucky outlier, but time will tell. Personally I would love to fill my bookshelf with vore books by the authors I like. Writing is writing, but having something bound in paper adds a certain amount of legitimacy that I’d like to see extended to more furry authors

FWG: So do you have any other future projects in the works? A sequel to your already successful story?

Dajan: I always have future projects. “Spin the Bottle” IS going to get a sequel. The working title is “Truth or Dare” and it will pick up where the first book left off. As I mentioned before, I love exploring pred-prey relationships, and I’m looking forward to fleshing out—or I guess you could say fattening up—the world and side characters as well as exploring the notion of consequences, the effects and aftershocks of the first book’s events.

I also have a book of vore short stories in the works as well as adapting an old unfinished miniseries of mine into a book. And that’s just the erotica. I’ve got plenty of short stories, poems, and non-furry books to write that will keep me busy for a long time to come.

FWG: Would you have any advice for people who might want to write a vore story for the first time?

Dajan: I guess that depends on if the writer is into vore or not. If you’re into vore, you’ll know what you like (and there’s a lot of versatility to the kink). And because there’s so much versatility, if you aren’t into vore, if you’re approaching the kink as an outsider, you want to do your research. The aesthetics of vore tend to be obvious: big bellies, belches, bulges; you know, the three Bs. If you don’t know the nuances of what makes those things sexy (or comforting for my asexual vore-lovers), then you’ll step into the cliches that won’t spark joy.

In erotica, emotion is so critical. To go back to those infamous single-scene stories with no sense of build-up, I don’t typically come away feeling much of anything, especially arousal or satisfaction. So many of them are just, “Mean guy stomps in, says something demeaning to the prey, gulps them down, and then says something else demeaning.” It’s superficial. I’m not saying that those stories are made by people who aren’t in the vore community, but there are a lot of people in the vore community who wouldn’t make those pieces their go-to content, and outsiders who want to try their hand at the craft of vore stories would need to do their homework BECAUSE many people want more than that out of their vore stories.

I think any successful vore story needs to have some sort of arc to it (even if it’s something simple). It doesn’t need a big extravagant plot, but there needs to be a set-up, conflict, and pay-off whether physical, ethical, moral, societal, etc. Talk to vorephiles and come to them with a sense of curiosity. Even if you’re already into vore, talking to other vorephiles is critical. What one person might find sexy, another person might find offputting. Knowing turn-ons and turn-offs is especially necessary when doing freelance writing for others. And learning about the ins and outs of the fetish from other people can often enrich your own appreciation of it. Try to build a sense of community if you don’t have that. Make friends who you can talk to about it. Sharing and bouncing ideas off each other is great for inspiration and developing stories in the early stages.

Spin the Bottle wouldn’t have gotten as far as it did without my boyfriend and other good friends in the vore community to help edit and expand it. Talking to people about your ideas and desires, the things you want to try, other ways to approach the kink, and what you both love about other stories you’ve read is one of the most important things you can do to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the kink and its community so that you can create works that will bring satisfaction to others. No writing can happen in a vacuum, and that’s especially true for vore.

FWG: Any last things you’d want to tell our readers?

Dajan: So as I mentioned above, one of the things I love the most about vore is the versatility of it and the unique affordances that such predatory dynamics can add to the world and the story. If you aren’t into vore, definitely do some research and learn more about it. I think the kink is widely misunderstood. So I actually would encourage non-vore furries and non-vore non-furries to read vore.

The anime Beastars has been making waves in the furry fandom (and outside the furry fandom), and while I would argue that that isn’t vore, it does create a tense and intriguing story that can only be told with the predator/prey dichotomy of a furry world where civilized people consume each other. Vore can put a less grotesque spin on those dynamics.

I’m happy to say that two of my best friends who are not into vore or even furries at all both read my book and even though they don’t share the kink or even fully understand it, they enjoyed the story for what it was. One of them was even kind enough to write a glowing review about its plot and characters for my publisher’s newsletter (anonymously of course). Because vore is a kink and also a unique storytelling device, I would love to see it garner more legitimacy in the furry fandom rather than pushed aside as “the weird fetish.” I’m sure it will be a long time coming before it’s acceptable in the mainstream, but even if you aren’t aroused or comforted by the content, I think there’s a lot to be gained for “normies.”

I set out to publish the first printed vore book (that is to add not self-published), and now that I succeeded, what I want most of all is to see other people enjoy it for the merits of its story and characters that exist beyond the kink, and so it gave me great pleasure to see the Furry Writer’s Guild advertise Zarpaulek’s Vore Anthology (in which my next short story “Coming Out” will appear) over the summer and give more public attention to this sort of content, and I’m incredibly thankful that you took the time to sit down and have this chat with me.

Vore is a kink, yes, but (at the risk of sounding cheesy) there’s something magical and unique in the way it brings people together. After all, my boyfriend and I met online because he liked my vore stories and wanted to talk to me about them, and now we’ve been a couple for four and a half years. Somehow, writing in this niche kink on the internet has yielded some of my proudest successes and profoundest happinesses, and I look forward to keeping the momentum going and seeing not just where the vore fandom takes me but where I can take the vore fandom.

We would like to thank Dajan once again for sitting down with us for this interview. Digital and physical copies of Spin the Bottle are on sale now from Fenris Publishing. You can find Dajan to keep up with his future stories over on Twitter. If you’re a fan of vore be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the release of “The Vore Studio” when it likely releases sometime in 2021.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FWG MEMBERS! Congratulations, we all survived 2020 and made it into 2021. We’re glad that everyone has been able to keep safe, keep writing, and keep reading this year. Here’s hoping the next one can be a bit better. With that in mind…

The 2020 Cóyotl Awards Nominations Are Now Open!

This year, nominations will be open from January 1 until March 15 at midnight, Pacific time. Voting will take place from March 20 until April 30 at midnight, Pacific time. We highly encourage guild members to check out the Cóyotl Awards Reading List then go and nominate. Nominations can be done on the awards website.

We would also like to make people aware once more that discussions have been taking place about eligibility requirements for the guild on our forums and on our Discord. As it stands currently, the proposed requirements look as follows:

• You’ve had one short story, poem, or novel published in a paying qualifying market
• You’ve had two short stories or poems published in a non-paying qualifying market
• You’ve had sustained income from a self-published work, written commissions, comics writing, visual novel or interactive fiction writing, and/or a writing-based crowdfunding presence.

This will not be brought to an official vote until elections but we would like feedback before then so come join the discussion!

Remember, we now have our Promotion Tip Line to submit to if you have new releases coming out, so don’t hesitate to fill that out so we can feature your book in our next newsletter! This month we have a couple of new releases to share with you:

• Entanglement Bound by Mary E. Lowd from Aethon Books
• Dude, Where’s My Pack? By Kyell Gold from FurPlanet.

We also have two books to share with you that are up for pre-order:

• Freedom Ring by Frances Pauli from Goal Publications
• Symphony of Awakened Gods by Leilani Wilson from Goal Publications

You can find all of the open markets for furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open.

• Can You See Us Now? (Deadline: January 1st, 2021)
• Difursity 2 (Deadline: January 1st, 2021)
• iPawd – A Furry Music Adult Anthology (Deadline: January 10th, 2021)
• Beast Volume 1 (Deadline: March 1st, 2021)
• Fur-Milliar Spaces (Deadline: Marth 15th, 2021)
• The Fox Spirit Book… of Love (Deadline: Unlisted)
• #ohmurr (Deadline: Ongoing)

Fenris Publishing is currently open for submissions and Goal Publications will be opening for submissions on January 15th.

One last thing this month: we’ll be at FurCon 2021! We’ll be hosting four panels on writing for the convention as well as hosting another Flash Fiction Competition! The stories must follow the convention theme: FurCon Goes To Hollywoof and must be 250 words or less (titles not included). The winner will receive $25! Anyone interested in submitting should do so here before the panel takes place on Sunday, January 18th. Hope to see your stories there!

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” 

Hello there FWG members, it’s time for another monthly newsletter! Let’s get right down to business, shall we?

Usually, I save the part where I directly talk to you all until the end but we’re switching things up this month. I don’t want to talk about money, but I’ve got to bring it up. It isn’t free to keep the guild running. We are moving to becoming a 501©(3) and between running a convention and the Cóyotl Awards costs add up. Plus we have web hosting and a new logo… You get the picture.

The guild has never made mandatory dues and does not have plans to do so in the future. However, the guild keeps going thanks to donations from our members. A lot of you enjoyed Oxfurred Comma and the guild having more activity this year, and hope you will consider showing some support if able (2020 has been a hard year, we all know it).

If you can, please consider donating to the guild. We accept donations on paypal.

That’s all from me folks, we’ll show off the open markets and such as usual but until next time, stay safe, stay well, and I’ll see you next month. 

– FWG President Linnea Capps

Pre-Orders This Month:

• Dude, Where’s My Pack? from FurPlanet

Remember to submit to our Promotion Tip Line to have your books included in this section.

You can find all of the open markets for furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open:

• The Howling Dead (Deadline: December 15th, 2020)
• Can You See Us Now? (Deadline: January 1st, 2020)
• Difursity 2 (Deadline: January 1st, 2020)
• iPawd – A Furry Music Anthology (Deadline January 10th, 2021)
• Beast Volume 1 (Deadline: March 1st 2021)
• Fur-Miliar Spaces (Deadline: March 15th)
• The Fox Spirit Book Of… Love (Deadline Unlisted)
• #ohmurr (Deadlines Ongoing)

Hello there FWG members, it’s time for another monthly newsletter! We have a lot fewer releases and other bits of our usual news to cover this month, so let’s make our focus be on important guild activity.

First, we’ll make this quick: It’s NaNoWriMo! Want to try and write a novel in just a month? The FWG Discord has an official channel for the challenge and we’ll be trying to run some writing sprint challenges as well. Be sure to check it out if you’re interested!

Second, some of our most exciting news to date: It was one of the biggest promises I made when running for guild president, and thanks to a stunning donation to the guild to cover costs, the Furry Writers’ Guild will be becoming a 501©(3)! We intend to keep you all as updated as we can throughout this process, but the short version is this will allow us to offer a LOT more services potentially to members of the guild.

Things like helping provide discounts to certain writing-related services, offering a NetGalley program (similar to the SFWA), potential blog book tour services developed, and potentially even publishing guild anthologies. This is of course the VERY shortlist and not a promise yet, just things that look possible to do. We promise to offer more details as they are available.

With this in mind, we thought it was a good time to get some feedback on the guild. We have done a lot this year from our Suggested Reading List to Promotion Tip Line and even Oxfurred Comma! Still, we as a guild want to do more. We want to know what kinds of things guild members want so we have a better idea of what we can provide and to figure out where to put resources or recruit volunteers to help make things happen.

So we have created an official Guild Feedback Form we wish for you all to fill out (this includes non-members of the guild as well). It begins with a few very basic questions on guild activity followed by more direct questions on potential programs or fun activities we have considered running. You can skip the latter questions if you simply want to provide direct feedback, but we would love to hear what you think!

Here is the Guild Feedback Form. We will be looking at submissions for this through the end of November, so make sure to get your thoughts in soon!

Guild Feedback Form

One last thing, don’t forget about our ongoing discussions on requirements to join the guild.  We invite you to discuss this on the forum as well as on Discord in our guild feedback channel and on Telegram. We want to manage guidelines to support all the furry writers we can, so help us make that a reality!

Have you backed and/or submitted to Difusity 2 on Kickstarter? Let’s support BIPOC furry authors and make sure this gets funded.

• Difursity 2 from Thurston Howl Press

Remember, we now have our Promotion Tip Line to submit to if you have new releases coming out, so don’t hesitate to fill that out so we can feature your book in our next newsletter! 

You can find all of the open markets for furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open:

• Dogbumps Academy of Wayward Wixards (Deadline: November 1st, 2020)
• 1921: Furries In Fedoras (Deadline: November 1st, 2020)
• Dancing With Devils (Deadline: November 30th, 2020)
• Electric Sewer 2: Boogie Nights (Deadline: December 1, 2020)
• The Howling Dead (Deadline: December 15th, 2020)
• The Reclamation Project: Year Two (Deadline: December 31st, 2020)
• Can You See Us Now? (Deadline: January 1st, 2020)
• Difursity 2 (Deadline: January 1st, 2020)
• iPawd – A Furry Music Anthology (Deadline January 10th, 2021)
• The Fox Spirit Book Of… Love (Deadline Unlisted)
• #ohmurr (Deadlines Ongoing)

I’ll close this with a little talk about Oxfurred Comma. For the guild’s first-ever attempt at an online convention, all of the feedback you have shared so far has told us we managed quite the success! There are of course hiccups for us to iron out as well, but one of the most common questions we received was: Will this happen again next year even if conventions return in person?

We want to let you know this is a resounding YES. In fact if possible, this may become a twice a year online writing retreat of sorts as many people requested we should attempt to do something like it more often. We discuss this in the feedback form so don’t forget to fill that out!
Also, all of the panels minus one (we’re working out exporting issues) are now available on YouTube. If you couldn’t watch a panel live, we highly reccomend you check them out!

With so much happening in the world this month and COVID-19 cases on the rise in many places, now more than ever be sure to keep safe and allow yourself time to rest when you need it. We want to be able to read your stories for years t come and that can only happen if you’re cautious and we all help one another. Stay strong, do your best, and reach out if you need some help. Let’s all meet here again next month.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

That’s right folks! We’re keeping this one short and sweet. Oxfurred Comma begins today and we want to see you attend the first ever online convention that focuses purely on furry writing. Let’s hit the quick bullet points!

• All panels will be streamed live on the official FWG Twitch channel
• You can find the convention schedule on the Oxfurred Comma website. All times shown are in PST.
• You can find the Dealer’s Den either on the website or visit the LIVE version on the FWG Discord!
• Don’t forget to check out the Author’s Corner as well! So many cool projects and stories to see there.
• Invite your friends and share with the hashtag #OxfurredComma

That’s it! We hope to see you all there enjoying this fun weekend of furry writing!

Hello there FWG members, it’s time for another monthly newsletter! Let’s dive right in because we’ve got a lot to cover!

If you’ve somehow missed it, Oxfurred Comma, an online convention for furry literature, will be taking place from October 17th to 18th in conjunction with Furry Book Month. Here are some of the other important dates you have to look out for:

• Panel Submissions Deadline: October 7th
• Dealer’s Den Submissions Deadline: October 7th
• Author’s Corner Submissions Deadline: October 7th
• Flash Fiction Contest Deadline: October 13th
• Slam Poetry Reading Signups Deadline: October 15th

We want to especially encourage panel submissions currently for the convention. We have the opportunity to take more specific writing panels than most conventions can offer. So share with the world your expertise, let us hear you read from your latest book, or do whatever else you can think of! 

We also want to let you know that NSFW panels WILL be accepted so long as they follow Twitch guidelines. The short version: if you’re offering educational content and not showing pornographic materials on screen? You’re likely good to go!

We are also proud to announce that Oxfurred Comma will also be presenting the Oxfurred Comma Inclusivity Award (OCIA). This award will be given to a person that has done work to advance recognition for marginalized peoples and groups within the furry writing community. We hope this will be a strong step in the guild’s continued work in uplifting marginalized voices within the furry community.

Finally, we have one last reminder about our ongoing discussions on requirements to join the guild.  We invite you to discuss this on the forum as well as on Discord in our guild feedback channel and on Telegram.

With guild business out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff! We featured another two members this month on the blog for interviews that we hope you check out.

• Ana Vallens on Furry, Reporting, and Patreon Guidelines for Adult Content
• Khaki on The Voice of Dog and Recording Stories

We’d love to take this opportunity to mention we would love to feature more interviews like this, as well as potential guest posts on writing tips for our blog. Please contact a guild officer if you would be interested.

We saw a few new releases cross our path this month you might want to check out including:

• The Female Trackers (Poached Parody) by P.C. Hatter
• The Sky Fires by Frances Pauli
• Soup of the Moment: A Tale of BARSK by Lawrence M. Schoen

There’s also a kickstarter currently running for Difursity 2! Let’s support BIPOC furry authors and make sure this gets funded.

• Difursity 2 from Thurston Howl Press

Remember, we now have our Promotion Tip Line to submit to if you have new releases coming out, so don’t hesitate to fill that out so we can feature your book in our next newsletter!

You can find all of the open markets for furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open:

• Oxfurred Comma Flash Fiction Contest (Deadline: October 13th, 2020)
• Reclamation Project: Year Two (Deadline: October 31, 2020)
• The Vore Studio (Deadline: October 31, 2020)
• Dogbumps Academy of Wayward Wixards (Deadline: November 1st, 2020)
• 1921: Furries In Fedoras (Deadline: November 1st, 2020)
• Dancing With Devils (Deadline: November 30th, 2020)
• Electric Sewer 2: Boogie Nights (Deadline: December 1, 2020)
• The Howling Dead (Deadline: December 15th, 2020)
• Can You See Us Now? (Deadline: January 1st, 2020)
• Difursity 2 (Deadline: January 1st, 2020)
• iPawd – A Furry Music Anthology (Deadline January 10th, 2021)
• The Fox Spirit Book Of… Love (Deadline Unlisted)

We also want to let people know we need more stories for Microfiction Monday as we’re almost out! So get those submissions in here. 

I would like to end this month’s newsletter with a special request. Both Can You See Us Now? and Difursity 2 opened for submissions this month. For BIPOC writers reading this, I would love to encourage you to submit. For those that aren’t, I want to ask that you promote the submission calls in any spaces you can. Here is a tweet about Can You See Us Now? and one for Difursity 2. 

I want the word spread to as many people as possible so that the resulting slush pile will be massive beyond all reason. Let’s all take this time to help uplift marginalized voices and help them share their stories. Keep well, stay safe, and keep on writing.

– FWG President Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps

Welcome back to another FWG interview. Today we’re featuring Khaki from the Voice of Dog. Don’t know the Voice of Dog is? Ever wanted to learn a bit about recording your own stories? Then read on and enjoy the interview!

FWG: For those that may not know you, tell our readers a bit about yourself.

Khaki: Hey! I’m Khaki. I used to go by “Alex Vance”, and I’ve done a lot of things in this here fandom, except Fursuiting and Con Staff.

I founded Bad Dog Books, FANG and ROAR, wrote and produced the graphic novel series Heathen City (and won an Ursa Major for it!), guested on the Furry Basketball Association and Bad Dog Book Club podcasts, and was privileged to be asked as Guest of Honour to Rusfurence in Moscow, JFTW in Bristol and CesFur in the Czech Republic.

Nowadays I’m a professional photographer, and at furry cons you’ll always find me with my trusty camera and a big dumb grin.

FWG: What do you think makes a good story?

Khaki: Oh dear. What makes a good meal? Not the wine or the dessert, though they can diminish or lessen the experience!

I think the thing that a story is most dependent on is its characters. They don’t have to be “people”, but they have to be interesting, comprehensible, and real — which is to say, as a reader, you can feel when a character only exists to further the plot, and isn’t fueled by internally consistent motivations, even if you don’t yet know what those motivations are.

Now, if only it was that easy to recognize while you were writing them…

FWG: From your introduction, it’s clear you’ve been involved in the world of furry literature for a long time. Can you tell our readers about The Voice of Dog and what inspired you to start the project?

Khaki: I retired from writing some years ago — nothing dramatic, I just fell out of love with writing. I still missed it in the years that followed, but I realized it wasn’t the writing itself I missed, but rather the furry writing community. And I’d also enjoyed doing story readings for the Bad Dog Book Club, but when that podfaded, I didn’t really have an outlet or impetus any more.

The Voice of Dog was, however, born from the COVID-19 pandemic. Early March, we were all feeling uncertain, and powerless, and stuck at home and isolated, and I knew some folks were feeling that much more than I did, and I felt powerless to help them.

It was rather spontaneous, honestly. I told my friend Rob Baird “Hey, I want to Make Something today. Can you give me a story to read?”

I was looking for something to do with the extra time I got now I didn’t have to commute every day, and specifically to do something that could give people a sense of hope, community and courage, however small.

I shared my reading of Rob’s Story, which was “Bad Dog!”, and an excellent story about defiance and courage in the face of systematic oppression. And I wanted more. I asked other writers for stories, anything they wanted to share, as long as they ended on a high note.

I picked the cheapest, easiest podcast host I could find to spend more time making it and less on overhead, and started releasing stories every day. I wanted my fellow furries to have something to enjoy, or to look forward to, or at the very least, to know that someone out there cared enough about them to make something every single day.

Of course, it was also a great way to give furry writers a boost and broaden their audience, so even after two months of 7-days-a-week podcast episodes, and the New Normal started to become clearer, I knew I wanted to continue.

Now there’s three stories a week, but they’re still passionate, excellent, diverse and, crucially, there’s no bummers.

FWG: Can you tell us a bit about the organizational process needed to put out multiple episodes a week?

Khaki: Certainly! Obviously I care about gear, like a good microphone and pop filter, but the challenge for this project wasn’t just cleanliness or even narration quality. I had to be able to produce multiple episodes a week, so comfort and convenience were also high priorities.

I’ve made submission templates, which authors fill out when they submit a story to The Voice of Dog, which includes stuff like their introduction, links to their credits, pronunciation guides and character voice descriptions, which saves a lot of overhead.

I have my recording set-up refined so that I can speak into my microphone while reading comfortably from my screen, with good posture to aid breathing.

FWG: Recording so many episodes must take a lot of editing. Do you have any techniques to help reduce the time it takes?

Khaki: I make a lot of errors! Mispronunciations, or losing my place in the sentence, a wee catch in my throat or the eternal struggle to do character voices consistently and authentically.

To save myself from the overhead of editing each recording afterward, I do the editing while I record; a technique called punch-and-roll recording. When I make a flub, I move the playhead in my recording software back to the beginning of the sentence. When I hit record, it first plays back the last five seconds of audio, so I can mouth along, and remember my intonation and breathing rhythm, and then immediately start speaking.

The edits aren’t always perfect, but they’re quick; I can record a single story in a single one-hour session, and that’s important when you have to produce several a week, every week.

FWG: What is one of the biggest challenges when trying to record the podcast?

Khaki: The biggest challenge is… quiet. Outside my room there’s a street, where there are often children playing, or adults talking, or cars driving past. Most of my recordings are early in the day, before it gets busy.

FWG: Can you offer any advice to someone interested in recording stories?

Khaki: When people ask me for advice, as a photographer, on which camera they should buy, I usually advise “one that you’ll have with you every day” and that’s the same for anyone who wants to learn to do this. If you have a budget, don’t spend all your money on the most expensive microphone; consider investments that make your life easier. An extension cable for your headphones, a desk arm so you can easily position the mic. A riser to put your computer’s screen higher, so you can read it more comfortably while recording.

All those things are sources of stress, and the listener can feel those in the recording, even if they can’t hear them explicitly. When I record a story, I’ve made sure I’m physically and mentally comfortable, and ready to enjoy the story. I’m in a headspace where I’m genuinely eager to talk to the listener again, and I’m excited to see how the story will go.

I believe that makes story readings enjoyable to listen to. Just like music, as a listener we’re empathetic to the experience that the narrator or musician conveys, both through their performance and through their actual emotions. When I sit down to record, I do so with genuine love in my heart, for the story I’m reading and the listener who’s going to enjoy it.

FWG: So do you think anyone reading this, with a little effort and research, could record their own audiobook or story if they wanted to engage that way with readers?

Khaki: Certainly! I know several writers who’ve done just that — of course Mary E. Lowd, who reads short pieces on her Deep Sky Anchor podcast and recently Madison Scott-Clary started her podcast Makyo Writes, for the same purpose. Oh, and Huskyteer, Altivo Overo and Rob MacWolf have all read their own stories on The Voice Of Dog.

I know some people are uncomfortable with the sound of their own voice, or worry about speech impediments (I have a slight stammer myself), or that they don’t think they’re good enough actors to do character voices and accents.

It takes practice and exercise and a love of learning — much like writing itself! But I’m pretty sure that anyone reading this can make great readings of their stories that are a delight to listen to, if they’re willing to put a little time into refining and practicing.

Nobody starts out great, but as writers, we know that all too well. But it’s fun to do, and very rewarding.

FWG: Would you consider doing voice work for any authors who might still feel too intimidated to record for themselves?

Khaki: That’s one of the purposed for The Voice of Dog! That’s my baby, so I’m selective about the stories I accept; their length and tone in particular.

But I’m in talks with at least one writer, to do an audiobook version of their in-progress novel later this year. And I made an open offer on Twitter regarding the upcoming Oxfurred Comma furry writing convention: if there are writers who want to do a panel that includes a reading of their work, but they’re uncomfortable or uncertain about doing it themselves, I’m happy to do the narration for them, either live or pre-recorded, depending on when their panel is.

I always want consider stories before I narrate them of course, even outside of my podcast. It is, after all, my voice speaking those words, and I wouldn’t want my voice associated with something I don’t stand for. This goes for professional voice-over work I’ve done as well, for commercials and training resources. I’ve turned down paying jobs because there were things in the script that I didn’t want to say.

But I’ve done some 120 episodes of The Voice of Dog now, and I’ve never rejected a story for being “objectionable”. I’ve been amazed at the furry writing scene’s maturity and responsibility, and the breathtaking diversity of perspectives and stories, it’s truly wonderful.

But yes, to your question — yes, I’d certainly consider doing voice work for other authors.

FWG: Any last things you’d like to tell the readers?

Khaki: Getting back in touch with the furry writing community after a decade or so has been so wonderful, and I want to thank you all for being part of that. The young folks and the old folks, the patient and the passionate, the carefree and the contemplative, I’m proud to be among you and make another modest contribution to furry fiction.

I can tell it’s been too long since I retired from writing, because I struggle to find the right words to convey just what you all mean to me. So I’ll take advice I’ve given often myself, and steal someone else’s. In the words of Michael, the angel from The Good Place:

I’ll say this to you, my friend,
with all the love in my heart
and all the wisdom of the universe:
Take it sleazy

We would like to thank Khaki once again for the interview! Be sure to check out The Voice of Dog and if you’d like to hear more of Khaki’s wonderful voice you can check out Cover My Ass where Khaki and his friend K pretend to review a book they haven’t read every week. Until next time, may your words flow like water.