Furry Writers' Guild

It’s been a busy start to the month for the FWG, so apologies for the slight delay in getting the blog out!

Not only have we closed for submissions on Blood and Water (39 submissions in total, and we’re already getting stuck in to reading them!), but the Coyotl Awards have also closed for nominations. We’re currently collating the numbers now, with an announcement on the finalists and voting to begin tomorrow.

With both of those happening, it should also not be forgotten that April is the start of the election period for FWG officers. Any FWG member is eligible to stand for any of the five officer positions, with an election to be held for each if more than one nomination is received.

All candidates should declare their intention to stand for election in the designated thread on the forums: https://forums.furrywritersguild.com/t/guild-elections-2024-2025/2463

Details about the election will be shared in early May if one is required. All candidates have until April 30 to declare their intention to stand.

With so much happening that is already known, there is not much else to discuss on the blog this month so I will keep it short.

I also wish to remind you that we are open for guest blogs across the year. Topics can relate to anything around the furry writing community or furry writing as a whole. Submissions to the blog can be made at this link:

https://forms.gle/icEUzYtZQ5tFE6w47

As usual, we have the current open markets:

F/F Non Erotic Anthology – Deadline August 31st 2024
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest and upcoming releases from guild members:

Kelpie Thrall, by Frances Pauli. Released March 3rd 2024.
Quicksilver, by Anastasia Spinet. Released March 6th 2024.
Far Flung, by Utunu. Released July 3rd 2024.

If you are a Furry Writers Guild member and have an upcoming release you would like shared on the blog, please feel free to let us know!

We can’t wait to get through the submissions for Blood and Water. Also keep an eye out for the opening of the voting period for the Coyotls!

Until next time, keep safe and happy writing.
J.F.R. Coates

by Chase Anderson

Seeing your story rendered in ink and paper is a goal for many writers, but how do you make that happen? The business of publishing can seem opaque and intimidating. There’s a lot you’re expected to know, and the purpose of this blog post is to equip you with the tools and knowledge to get your writing chosen by editors for publication.

0 | Is this the right path for you?

Every writer has different measurements of success, and that’s okay. Just like how there’s writers who can’t imagine ever self-publishing their story, there’s writers who can’t imagine the opposite.

So, you need to ask yourself: do I want to go through this process? Is this the best thing to do for me and this story?

Fanfiction won’t be published, for legal reasons, and your story might fit a niche so specific that all your readers only exist on FurAffinity. Multi-media pieces, interactive fiction, and other hybrid works inherently limit where they can be published.

Traditional publishing doesn’t make you a “realer” or “better” writer than someone who doesn’t, and that’s important to remember.

1 | Have a piece to publish

You can’t sell a story if you haven’t written it! Make it the best possible version you can, and then get feedback from your fellow writers and make it even better. The amount of editing a publication will do is likely minimal, focusing on making your grammar and punctuation match their “house style,” not fixing the ending.

Once that’s done, you need to make the files you’ll be submitting. 90%+ will ask for—or expect—“standard manuscript formatting,” which means Shunn’s standard modern formatting [link: https://www.shunn.net/format/story/]. You’ll put your legal name on the top left and your byline (pen name, fandom name, etc.) under the title. Save the file as a .docx and name it something like [My Awesome Story – John Smith].

Make a copy of that file and remove your name from the title. Remove all the personal info from the document (byline, personal info on page 1, and name in the header). This is an “anonymized” version of your story, which some markets request to limit bias caused by assuming the gender, religion, nationality, etc. from a person’s name or where they live.

Some places will ask for something different, like a PDF file or the font to be in Courier. Make a separate file and save it to another folder so you don’t constantly fiddle with the main file (and forget to change it back!)

2 | Find a market

This can be an anthology, a zine, a literary journal, a website, an eBook, a podcast…I’ve even seen places that publish stories as games on Telegram or performances on stage. The all fall under the term “market.”

There’re several resources for finding markets:

• The Submission Grinder
• Duotrope (costs money)
• Chill Subs
• The Short List
• The Furry Writers Guild Discord + Website

The last one is for furry-specific markets, of course! Writing communities like forums or local clubs share opportunities with their members. If you find a market that’s perfect for a friend’s story, send it to them! Build up your fellow writers instead of seeing them as competition.

Once you find a market, look for the submission guidelines (could be under “about” or called “writers guidelines”) and see what genres, tones, subjects, and wordcounts they’re looking for. Some markets are very narrow—especially anthologies—and others are very broad. If you’re unsure if your piece fits the tone or subject matter, sub anyways! The worst they’ll do is say no, and they’ll never say yes if you don’t give them the chance.

Some places accept AI-generated writing, use AI-generated artwork, and/or require writers to pay a fee with their submission. Some markets have strong political opinions or are tied to specific groups. Whether or not you want to submit is up to you. Would you be proud for your story to be in that market? Is this market promoting ideas you’re okay with? When your story is published in a market, they profit from it. Are you okay with them benefiting from your (under/unpaid) labor?

Finally, some markets only publish stories from specific writers, such as women, LGBTQIA2S+ folx, POC/BIPOC, people with neurodivergences or disabilities, immigrants, or inhabitants of certain countries. They may want to amplify certain voices or they need to publish a certain percent of, say, Canadians to get a grant from the Canadian government. It’s up to you if you feel like you belong to one of those groups. And if you’re not a member of one of these groups, please don’t lie about it. There’s plenty of markets out there.

3 | Submit your story

You’ll need to find a couple bits of important information from the guidelines:

• The method of submission (email, Moksha, Submittable, their own form, etc.)
• Any specific requests for the file (file type, anonymized, etc.)
• Wordcount (It’s okay if you’re above/below the limit by a word or three)
• When you can expect to hear back from them (can be specific date or after X days/weeks/months)
• Payment (if it’s not listed, it’s probably unpaid)
• What rights they want (I’ll go into further details about this in the acceptance step)
• If they accept simultaneous and/or multiple submissions

Sometimes, you might encounter something you don’t like, or isn’t a good fit for your story, so it’s okay to pass on a market at that time.

A simultaneous submission is when you have open submissions to multiple markets for the same piece. Many places accept them, but those who don’t usually have good reason. If you’re caught secretly simsubbing, it won’t make the editor happy, and that’s not something you want. If a market doesn’t say either way, you could assume they’re okay with it, but it doesn’t hurt to do some googling or even asking them on social media.

Multiple submissions are having multiple open submissions at the same market, for multiple pieces. This is expected with poetry, and some flash fiction (1,000 words or less) markets, but is almost always forbidden for longer works. If a market doesn’t mention either way, you should assume they’re not okay with it.

Most places ask for a cover letter. It’s nothing like the one for a job or a query letter for a novel. It’s so simple, I have an Excel script to write one for me!

Dear editor,

Please consider “MOVE X TO Y2K” (1500 words). It has been previously published in the Further Confusion 2023 conbook on January 12, 2023 and I have the rights to have it reprinted elsewhere.
I have stories published in The Razor, One Universe to the Left, and Another Name for Darkness.
Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Chase Anderson

It’s the bare minimum needed to help an editor make a decision and track your submission in their system. No explaining your story, no begging for an acceptance. Don’t overthink it.

If the story hasn’t been published before, you can state that if you want. Most markets consider a piece previously published if it’s on your website, social media, a display site (FurAffinity, Wattpad, etc.), a chapbook with a print run of only 20…if the story has ever been “out there” for people to find and read, it’s been published, even if you’ve since taken it down. Sharing a story with a critique group or private writing forum does not count as previously published, as it’s not available for anyone to find.

If you don’t have any previously published work, that’s also okay! You can leave out that part. If you have several, pick the most important/impressive two or three and say “and elsewhere” or the like. It’s also okay if you want to keep your “fandom” writing separate from your “professional human” writing. So if you submit to Asimov’s Science Fiction, you don’t need to tell them you’ve been published in a furry anthology if you don’t want to.

Some places will want a “brief bio.” This is in the third person, about you, and either up to 50 or 100 words. Write both and keep them on hand. Here’s my <100-word bio, as an example:

Chase is a weird, queer, digital storyteller who writes weird, queer stories. He dropped out of chemical engineering to pursue a journalism degree and escape calculus. He draws inspiration from biology, chemistry, medicine, history, and whatever his neurochemicals are doing today. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he handles eCommerce integrations, marketing, spreadsheet wrangling, and identification of his coworkers’s backyard birds. Find his writing and more at chasej.xyz

You can list all the places you’ve been published, your job, your hobbies, anything that might be interesting about you. You don’t have to say the exact city, state, or even country you live in. But you should include where people can find you online!

I know this feels like a lot, and some of these requests seem silly. But markets must sift through hundreds, if not thousands of stories to pick a dozen or so to publish. Breaking or ignoring a rule might give them a reason to reject you and move on to the next thing.

4 | Wait

This is what most of your time will be spent doing. Some places will get back to you in a few days, others a few months. A couple places even take a year or more. Databases like The Submission Grinder aggregates data from many submissions to calculate average response times. Sometimes these are a lot longer or shorter than what a publisher says. So, wait until the longer of the two passes before you do something about it.

As soon as you submit something, you should record it. The minimum should be the name of the market, the name of the piece you sent, and when you should expect to hear back (calculate the specific date instead of writing “in 90 days”). Feel free to add whatever other data points you feel are important. Use a spreadsheet, a notebook, whatever works for you. You don’t want to accidentally simsub or multisub or send the same piece to a market twice.

In the submission guidelines, you might have seen something about querying. This is when you ask for the status of a piece:

Dear editor,
I would like to inquire about the status of my short story [story title] submitted to [publisher] on [date].
Thank you for your time.

Chase Anderson

They might say “We’re working on it” or “it’s being held for additional consideration” or even “our records don’t show your submission, internet gremlins must have eaten it.” Which happens sometimes, and it sucks, but all you can do is send in your piece again and reset the counter.

Some markets won’t respond if they reject your piece. This also sucks, but publishing is a lot like job hunting. You will be ghosted, so try not to take it personally. A market might also not respond to you because they closed shop. Check their website and social media to see if they’ve posted anything in the past 12 months. If not, you can assume you’ll never hear back.

But while you wait, don’t keep refreshing your inbox. Go do something else, like writing your next story! It’s very easy to obsess over the data and hype yourself up that a long wait means it’ll likely get accepted when there’s no reason to think that.

Pick a day of the week or month where you’ll spend an hour or so looking for new markets and checking up on your old submissions. Even if you only have one piece out and it’s not being simsubbed, you can make a list where to send it next. You also might find a brand-new market with a theme or prompt you really like, which will inspire you to write something new.

5 | So, you got a rejection

It’s going to happen. A lot, probably. I even got one while editing this! And it might hurt, and that’s okay. And it’s possible to drive yourself into an anxious mess by reading too much into a rejection. Here’s the one I just got (with names removed):

Dear Chase,

Thank you so much for submitting to [market]! While your submission was not selected for publication, we sincerely appreciate the time and trust it took to send your work our way, and hope you’ll keep us in mind for future work.
Take care and, as always, keep writing!

Warmly,

A. Person

This is a “form rejection,” which is going to be most of your rejections. “Doesn’t meet our needs” or “wasn’t quite the right fit” or “not what we’re looking for” is vague, and that’s by design. And not every place will say “best of luck placing it elsewhere” or “we hope to see more from you.” That doesn’t mean they hate you or your story! There isn’t any secret to glean from these, it’s not that deep.

But if you get a personalized rejection, that’s a good sign. They took the time to say specific things they liked about your story or what they think can improve it. That isn’t permission to send in a revised version of the story, unless they explicitly say so.

You might even get a “We loved X, Y, and Z, but there is only so many spots, and, unfortunately, we have to pass on this.” This means you probably made it to the very final round. And this is a very good sign! Your story is a good one to get that far. It’ll find a home soon.

You might disagree with criticism in a personalized rejection, and that’s okay. Just because an editor didn’t like a part of your story, it doesn’t mean everyone won’t like it. Editors have personal tastes, and not every story is going to land with every person. But if they highlight an issue and you feel it’s a valid criticism, feel free to revise your story to address it.

It does get easier the more rejections you get. But they can still hurt, a lot. It might be a piece you’re really proud of, or one you wrote specifically for that market, or you’re having a bad day and this is the fifth rejection you got that afternoon. It happens, and that’s okay. Do something nice for yourself. And, remember: it’s all about having the right piece end up at the right editor at the right market at the right time. It can take dozens, if not hundreds of no’s before you get a yes.

6 | You got an acceptance!

You may now jump up and down and post a bunch of emojis in the group chat.

Once you’ve calmed down, let’s read the acceptance email closely. Are there edits they want first? Is there a specific date they plan to publish it? How about a contract?

I know that sounds scary! But you probably don’t need a lawyer, especially for the amount of money going on here. Unpaid markets might not have contracts, but you’re going to want one for larger amounts of money. At least get information about payment, publication dates, and needed editing in writing.

Here’s some terms you’re likely to see in a contract, and what they mean:

• First [X] rights: This market will be the first place to publish this specific piece in [X] way. These are more valuable than reprint rights and pay out more.
• English/Spanish/etc. rights: The right to publish the piece in the English/Spanish/etc. language.
• Serial rights: The right to publish your piece in a periodical (i.e. a magazine or newspaper)
• Anthology rights: The right to publish your piece in an anthology.
• [country/region] rights: The right to publish a piece in a certain country/region.
• Worldwide/global rights: Thanks to the Internet and eBooks, this is a lot more common. It means anyone in any country can buy/read your story.
• Audio rights: The right to adapt your story into an audio format, like an audio book or podcast.
• Perpetual/archival rights: The piece can be accessed for forever in some way. Theoretically; the website might go down some day or the publisher goes out of business. This is common with websites and print on demand books.
• Exclusive [X] rights: This market will be the only place that can publish your piece in [X] for a specific period. If your piece comes out on January 1 and there is a 6-month exclusive period, it means no other place (even your own website) can publish that story until July 1. There’s usually an explicitly stated exception for “best of” anthologies.
• Non-exclusive [X] rights: You’re free to publish your piece in other markets in [X] as much as you like…as long as no one else is requesting exclusive rights at the same time, of course.
• Reprint rights: This story has already been published elsewhere.
• Contributor copy: A free copy of the publication that’s sent to you. Very common with magazines, but might not be possible if you live in a different country than the publisher.

They’re probably going to stick a bunch of those into one string, like “First English worldwide serial and audio rights,” and that just means each of those things apply at the same time.

If there’s something in there you don’t like or have questions about, don’t be afraid to ask the editors about it. Or other writers. Don’t sign something you don’t understand or don’t feel okay with signing.

Example: There is a Buzzfeed spinoff YouTube channel that I shall not name who was requesting people submit stories for one of their series. They want you to sign off your rights when you submit the piece (), and they want rights to the work in perpetuity (normal-ish enough), across the universe (), and the ability to make derivative works () and they won’t need to pay () or even credit you () for it. Did I mention they didn’t even pay you for the story in the first place?

As you can imagine, the stories they got were terrible and/or written by staff members of the channel. Why should a writer do free labor to submit a story that could be turned into a movie that makes millions of dollars and they receive neither payment nor credit for it? If a place has an awful contract and they won’t change it, or there’s anything you don’t like, you can turn them down!

If your story was simultaneously submitted, you’ll need to withdraw the story from other markets. I usually wait until I get a contract I am okay with signing before doing this, in case it falls through. Submission systems will have a button to withdraw, but in other situations, you’ll need to send a withdrawal email. Check the submission guidelines page for an email address. If there isn’t one, you could use the submission email address.

Here’s a template for a withdrawal email:

Dear editor:

I would like to withdraw my short story “A Cool Title” from further consideration, as it has been accepted elsewhere. I submitted it to you on DATE, 202X.
I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Chase Anderson

Ask the editor when you’re allowed to publicly announce the acceptance. Some want to keep the table of contents private until it’s settled, others are cool with you telling people ASAP. Once you get the okay, post to your heart’s content!

7 | It’s publishing day!

Your story is now out in the world! Now it’s time to tell everyone about it!

• Your social media channels (Facebook, Twitter and Twitter alternatives, FurAffinity, etc.)
• Your website (either as a blog post or a listing on your bibliography)
• Your mailing list.
• Communities you’re a part of, like the Furry Writers Guild, your local critique group, etc.

Include a link to where people can read or buy your story and a little tidbit about it to draw them in. If there’s any relevant content warnings, it would be kind to include them, too. Save a copy of the publication for yourself, in case the website ever goes down, and save the link in a spreadsheet or bookmarks folder so you can find it quickly in the future.

Final Thoughts

I know this seems intimidating, but once you’ve prepared your materials, it’s actually quite easy. The worst part is waiting.

But don’t stop everything while waiting for a piece to sell. Write the next story, and the next, and the next one. The more stories you have, the more submissions you can send, which means more opportunities for one of them to become an acceptance. Plus, with every piece you write, you get better as a writer, which further increases your chances of getting published.

Publishing can be a real emotional roller coaster; without those lows, the highs won’t feel as sweet. And once you get off, you’ll want to run back to the line again. Try to bring some friends along to make the wait go by quicker.

And so in a flash, the shortest month of the year has been and gone. Welcome to March, and the theoretical end of winter (or summer if you’re like me in the south!).

I know we were hoping to have the Coyotl Awards open for nominations at this stage, but there have been a couple of behind the scenes snags preventing this. We are hoping to have this resolved as soon as possible – nominations will be running until April, so there is still no shortage of time to have this resolved.

Update: The Coyotl Awards are now open for nominations. See here for more information: https://coyotlawards.com/2023-coyotl-awards/

Part of the reason for this has been the recent resignation of Maddison Scott-Clary from running the Coyotls. Maddie has been magnificent in keeping the Coyotls running over the last few years, but she has announced her intention to step down after completing her commitments to finish off the 2022 awards. The 2023 awards are primarily being handled by the FWG officers, but we will be opening up for a volunteer to take on Maddie’s role as the Coyotl Chair. To put yourself forward as a candidate, simply message myself (J.F.R. Coates) on telegram or discord.

Maddie has done a fantastic job with the Coyotls for a few years now. We look forward to having her successor in place to start the preparations for next year’s awards.

Everyone at the guild is hoping for the best for one of our members. Kirisis (K.C. Alpinus) has been hospitalised in Sweden while attending Nordic Fuzzcon. Her husband, Ocean has been providing updates on Twitter. We’re all hoping the best for Kirisis. I am sure any well-wishes would be gratefully received by Ocean in this difficult time.

I also wish to remind you that we are open for guest blogs across the year. Topics can relate to anything around the furry writing community or furry writing as a whole. Submissions to the blog can be made at this link:

https://forms.gle/icEUzYtZQ5tFE6w47

As usual, we have the current open markets:

Tales From The Guild: Blood And Water – Deadline March 31st 2024
F/F Non Erotic Anthology – Deadline August 31st 2024
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest and upcoming releases from guild members:

The Enigma Letters, by Harry Wozzeck. Released February 3rd 2024.
Kelpie Thrall, by Frances Pauli. Released March 3rd 2024.
Quicksilver, by Anastasia Spinet. Released March 6th 2024.
Far Flung, by Utunu. Released July 3rd 2024.

If you are a Furry Writers Guild member and have an upcoming release you would like shared on the blog, please feel free to let us know!

As soon as we have the nominations open for the Coyotl Awards, we’ll be sure to update this blog and share it on our socials. Keep an eye out for that announcement!

Until then, keep safe and happy writing.
J.F.R. Coates

For those who don’t know you, can you introduce yourself and your work?
Hello! My name is Cedric G! Bacon, or occasionally Batced but primarily by the former. I am a writer and editor, former publisher of Thurston Howl Publications, and you might’ve seen my work in things like Furry Trash, Foxers and Fur-iefs, Lost in Time, Leave the Lights On, ROAR 11, and Thrill of the Hunt. I’m something of a bat-of-all trades, writing where an idea takes me, but I’m probably best known for horror and erotica, sometimes merging both.

Do you see a difference between diversity of authors and diversity of characters? Or are they intrinsically linked? Are there any common failings you see amongst furry fiction?
I think usually when you’re writing about diversity it helps to have knowledge of the subject so that your character would ring true instead of seeming like a trope or a just a stock character plucked from your brain’s casting call. I remember reading the book Trigger Warning by William W. and J.A. Johnstone (never mind the fact that William Johnstone, famous for his western novels, had been dead for almost twenty years when that book came out and so his relative uses the older man’s name on “new” work) which was replete with condemnations of the higher education and even diversity classes, which are shown to be ridiculous and coddling and rewarding for the most minimal of efforts, including a scene where the “protagonist” is made to feel shame for being a war veteran. I think the author—whom I suspect is someone in their 60s—just regurgitated whatever it is they’re spoonfed through far-right media and believed that that’s what diversity and especially the need for diverse conversation, is really like, and after reading I was just left uncomfortable that there are people who would rather retain the status quo as it is instead of trying to make changes to broaden diverse opportunities where there might not be any.

As welcoming as furry fiction is, I do think there is this absence that keeps diversity from being much wider than it is. There are some truly well meaning individuals but it’s almost like not enough gets spotlighted or put out and it is a shame really. Part of that also falls on those who could have a voice and a platform but do not use it, or perhaps have used it and are burnt out by it. That I can understand due to how hard it can be trying to make the conversation happen and you’re met by many walls and find you can’t quite cross the bridge you’d like to make inroads. Little by little it will get better I feel as more will come to the fandom and wish to write stories that do showcase more voices that you would not typically find, but it does take time. Which I also do think is on our side.

Do you believe progress has been made in the last few years?
Slowly and surely it has, but not nearly enough. When we ran Difursity Volume 2 through THP, our turnout was not as plentiful as we would’ve liked. However, I think we do have many essayists and non-fiction writers coming into the fold who have many things to say and ideas, so where Difursity Volume 2 did not have as much widespread reach as its predecessor, it did get a lot of ideas going for some that “Hey, I can express myself and my thoughts on this topic without fear of being shut down for being ‘uppity’.” I would love to see some more of that happen, and I would gladly do my part as well to get the engines roaring on more diverse volumes and work in the furry fiction community.

Does the degree of anonymity of a fursona being your public face help or hinder your goals as an author in the furry community?
I think engagement and talking with others and making connections helps in the furry community, as a lot of interactions do tend to be behind screens and keyboards so that face begins merging with the real person behind the fursona, so that even if your fursona is a winged canine-dragon creature and that’s not who you are offline away from the furry community, it doesn’t really make anyone who is already a fan or coming to know you think different about you. Your goals, I think, are what you want of them, and for me in the furry community, my goals were at the start to get back into writing after a long spell away, make connections with my peers, share some ideas with said peers, and learn new things along the way…maybe about the craft I’ve devoted a chunk of my life to or even about myself and my own worldviews. But as for if that degree of anonymity has helped or hindered those goals? I think they have helped, but it had to take a lot on my part to let any masks or walls come down and trust the other parties I conversed with, same as I imagine it would be for them when talking to me. It would only hinder if I was not able to do that and trust my peers and open up when needing help or advice, or actually developing friendships with a few I’ve been grateful enough to meet in person.

What do you think is the most important thing for a writer to do when considering diversity?
Patience. Absolutely the most important thing to keep in mind. If a writer is thinking about diversity, think first about what means and don’t make any assumptions and just do the first thing that you think you may know about diversity. Look around, talk to folk who have more experience or have some insight about their own struggles for diverse conversations.

There is this whole thing about “woke” but it’s a corruption of what it actually meant to be woke, in that it means keeping one’s eyes open at all times to the situation be it to the injustices racial, social, or political (and that’s a clue that anyone who is using the term to slag something that they don’t like with the most bad faith argument, you know that is someone to definitely side-eye). But when I say that it does matter to stay woke, it means exactly what it was supposed to mean, especially when thinking about diversity and ask yourself as that writer about why is there so much anger among marginalized communities and voices, and especially to stay woke and read the room to know that even though the answer may be complicated to discover, you as the writer will have an understanding about diversity and that need for more diverse voices instead of ones that regurgitate points that do not challenge anything or make efforts to make changes.

What book featuring diverse characters and/or written by a diverse author would you most recommend to people?
Not a book though it was based upon a book, so I’m going to cheat a little here, but I do think many should check out the 2020 HBO series Lovecraft Country, inspired by the book of the same name by Matt Ruff. By title alone would probably be put off by it due to the legacy which surrounds author H.P. Lovecraft and his very loud statements on race both in his letters and in his fiction, but that is actually something that is worked to the show’s advantage, as the main protagonist is a young black man who too has to grapple with being a fan of Lovecraft while knowing full well Lovecraft might not have enjoyed having him as a fan.

Executive produced by a woman of color in Misha Green, and with one of the producers being Jordan Peele, it already ticks of the box of diversity in a big way, but goes a step further with its cast, with Jurnee Smollett (whom I rather enjoyed as the real star of Birds of Prey when shy played Dinah Lance/Black Canary) alongside Jonathan Majors, Michael K. Williams, Jamie Chung, it furthers having diverse voices and roles with its focus on a young black man (played by Majors) and his family’s life in 1950s America, which is stark and uncompromising in its vocal disdain for people of color (loudly at that time, muted but still unfortunately in existence now) and right off the jump in the first episode, you have a scene involving a chase out of town by a lynch mob and threats of being lynched by racist policemen when the protagonists don’t leave a sundown town by the required time.

Rather than be a straight adaptation of the novel, the series makes many, many changes by giving more roles for women and dropping some plotlines that were wayward in the novel and making things streamlined and tight. But one of the things that I did find to be a triumph was using the 1921 Tulsa race massacre as a major plot point, but the intriguing parts are the character development in this one episode that focuses on family, homosexuality, abuse, and how sometimes the roots of generational evil isn’t found in some dusty old tome like the Necronomicon, that it can be found within us as the individual unless we break the cycle. The show is violent, brilliantly choreographed, uncompromising in its language and historical framing (another episode takes place during the funeral for Emmett Till, and while we in the modern age can’t quite comprehend the real horror and drama of what happened to him, much like the Tulsa massacre using it in fiction I hope inspires the curious to look further and read and remember and equally never forget, hoping it doesn’t happen to someone else), sexuality and identity, all packed within ten episodes that, four years later, I still think was the greatest TV show on the subject of diversity I’ve ever watched.

And finally, where can we find your works?
I’m in the process of getting them uploaded to furaffinity and SoFurry, so just stay tuned for that eventual update. In the meantime, if you have these in your bookshelves, find me in:
Ironclaw: Book of Legends (“The Black City”)
Furry Trash (“One Night Last Summer”)
Slashers (“Komakino”)
Thrill of the Hunt (“Silhouettes”)
Foxers and Fur-iefs (“Getchoo”)
Lost in Time (“Spear and Fang”)
Leave the Lights On (“Wormwood”, “Old Garfield’s Debt”, “The Shambler in the Dark”)
The Electric Sewer (“The Jack”)
Species: Wildcats (“Wanderlust”)
Howloween (“Venus in White”)
Howloween 2 (“Upon Thy Grave”)
Swept Under the Fur Rug (“Ikezu”)
Furmiliar Spaces (“El Scorcho”, prequel to “Getchoo” in Foxers and Fur-iefs)
The Furry Cookbook (“The Flower of Carnage”)
ROAR 11 (“Poyekhali!”)
Furries Hate Nazis (“The Battler”)
12 Days of Yiffmas (“Yule Carol”)
Paw-ly Love (“Catch a Wave”)

February may be the shortest month of the year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fit plenty in! We’ve already received plenty of submissions for the guild’s upcoming anthology Blood and Water, but for those of you still working on your stories,. there’s still just under two months left to get your submissions in!

The furry awards season is well and truly underway, with all three awards now open at various stages.

Nominations for the Ursa Major Awards are open until February 17th: https://ursamajorawards.org/nominations.htm

The Coyotl Awards Reading List is open until February 16th, with Nominations then opening on February 19th. https://coyotlawards.com/2023-coyotl-awards-reading-list/

The Leo Awards are open for Nominations until March 1st: https://furrybookreview.com/leo-literary-award/

We will also be opening up the blog for guest writers over the course of the year. We have one lined up for Black History Month with a couple more hopefully to come. Do you think you have something to contribute to the blog? Topics can relate to anything around the furry writing community or furry writing as a whole. Submissions to the blog can be made at this link:

https://forms.gle/icEUzYtZQ5tFE6w47

Not sure about a blog, but have plenty of ideas for short stories? Check out the open markets we are aware of:

Tales From The Guild: Blood And Water – Deadline March 31st 2024
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full

Please also check out the latest and upcoming releases from guild members:

Evolution Eye Floater, by James L. Steele. Released January 9th 2024.
Empathy (The Fate Series), by Flash Kitterson. Released January 26th 2024
Far Flung, by Utunu. Released July 3rd 2024.

If you are a Furry Writers Guild member and have an upcoming release you would like shared on the blog, please feel free to let us know!

Keep your eye out for a couple of guest blogs this month and to come throughout the year.

Until next time, happy writing!
Stay safe.
J.F.R.Coates

I had to check that I had the year right, but we are here in 2024! From everyone here at the guild, I hope you had a pleasant Christmas period and new year, however you choose to celebrate or not.

The start of a new year is always an exciting one, filled with plans and expectations for the twelve months to come. It’s no different for us at the FWG! We also have several plans which we are hoping to set in motion that will allow the guild to better serve the furry writing community.

The first of these is one that we have already announced – we are finally bringing out a third anthology! Tales from the Guild in 2014 with Music To Your Ears, and was followed up with World Tour in 2018. Six years later, and we’re back with Blood and Water! We are now open for submissions and will be until the end of March. See the entry below in the market updates for more information.

Secondly, we plan on opening up the blog to more guest authors. This can include author spotlights, essays, and other content. The spotlight with Joaquin Baldwin was received well last year, as were the spotlights we ran for Furry Book Month in 2022. We will be opening up for submissions for general blogs – aiming for at least one guest blog per month – as well as topical ones during months/days of focus, such as Black History Month, Pride Month, and International Women’s Day. This list is not exhaustive, so if you think your blog idea fits with any topical day, week, or month, send it in to us and we can make judgements on whether it is appropriate to feature. Note: the blog itself does not need to be strictly related to the topical focus – so long as the author is a part of the relevant group.

Submissions to the blog may be made through the following form:

https://forms.gle/icEUzYtZQ5tFE6w47

We hope to share more updates and news with you as the year progresses – and that will of course include the Coyotl Awards! Start getting your list of eligible works together, as it should not be long before we have the Reading List ready to go. Authors may submit their own works to the Reading List for the consideration of the FWG Members who will then nominate works to the shortlist.

Didn’t have anything ready for the Coyotls this year? Perhaps you can find a home for a short story to become eligible for next year!

Indulge – Deadline January 31st 2024
Get Wild – Deadline February 1st 2024
Tales From The Guild: Blood And Water – Deadline March 31st 2024
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full

We also have a few recent releases from guild members to check out!

Peace And Love, by Huskyteer. Released December 1st 2023.

Evolution Eye Floater, by James L. Steele. Released December 14th 2023.

Axinstone (10 Year Anniversary Edition), by J.F.R. Coates. Released December 26th 2023.

Impossible Magic (10 Year Anniversary Edition), by J.F.R. Coates. Released December 26th 2023.

Fate of Three (10 Year Anniversary Edition), by J.F.R. Coates. Released December 26th 2023.

As always, guild members, if you have something coming out soon, send it our way so we can include it every month!

I am really excited to see what 2024 can bring. I hope that your writing plans come to fruition. All of us at the FWG are interested to see what you can come up with!

Stay safe.
Happy writing.
J.F.R. Coates

It’s finally time for another Tales From The Guild! It’s been many years since our World Tour, so we’d like to officially announce the third anthology edited by the Furry Writers Guild – Blood and Water! This anthology will be published by Fenris Publishing.

Previously, we have had Music To Your Years, themed around music, and World Tour, themed around travel.

Blood and Water will be themed around family – those bound by blood and the family we choose and find. Give us your best families – those that are perfect and wholesome or those dysfunctional and chaotic! Families can be defined by blood and shared relationships, or they can be the close friends we develop through hardship. However your family works, we want to see it! We are looking forward to seeing what stories you can create that fits in with this theme!

The editors for this anthology are all guild staff: J.F.R. Coates, K.C. Shaw, Resolute, and Scribbles Cheetah.

What are we seeking:

• Short stories up to 6000 words in length. (Anything more than this, query with the editors).
• Stories must be furry/anthropomorphic in some capacity.
• Stories must be themed around ‘family’ in some capacity – though interpretation of this theme is open.
• Stories should not be explicit in adult content. The anthology is aiming for PG13/M content. Let the editors know if you’re not sure how your story will fit.
• Stories can be of any genre, so long as they fit with the overall theme.
• We do not want any stories that portray topics like racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, etc in a positive light.
• Previously unpublished stories are significantly preferred, but reprints may be considered if the story is right.
• Authors do not need to be a FWG member to submit.

Other important details:

• Stories should be sent by email to furwritersguild@gmail.com – with the subject line Blood And Water – [Story Title] in a .doc or .docx format. Please include your name on the first page only.
• Multiple submissions are allowed – up to three per author. A maximum of one story per author will be selected. Please no simultaneous submissions.
• Payment is 1c/word.
• Submissions open 1st January 2024.
• Submissions close 31st March 2024.
• All stories should receive a response by 30th April 2024.
• Expected release will be at Megaplex or MFF 2024.
• Publication for this anthology consumes the First Worldwide English rights for your story. Exclusive Digital and Print rights for a period of twelve (12) months following the first date of publication are required, and non-exclusive worldwide rights to digital and print publication of the Work in perpetuity.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Happy writing!

And here we are, at the end of the year! December is here, and NaNoWriMo is behind us. I hope everyone participating was able to hit their targets – even if it wasn’t the 50,000 words. Any word written is one more than you had before!

There isn’t much news for the guild at the moment, though I certainly hope to start bring out a few of the updates and changes we have planned in 2024. Feedback will soon be requested over initiatives such as Oxfurred Comma, the book bundles, and the possibility of opening up to guest blogs.

I look back on the last few years as being president of the FWG and I am certainly satisfied with the progress made, but there is still a long way to go before the work is done! I hope next year will take another few big steps forward.

Did you work on some short stories during NaNoWriMo that need a home? Check out the open anthology market calls:

Night of the Howling Dead – Deadline December 8th 2023
Indulge – Deadline January 31st 2024
Tales From The Guild: Blood And Water – Deadline March 31st 2024
Androids and Dragons – Deadline When Full
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

Need a new book before the end of the year? Perhaps a last minute Christmas present? We have you covered with some new and upcoming releases:

The Price of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Released November 14th 2023.

One Universe To The Left, featuring Chase Anderson. Released November 17th 2023.

Peace And Love, by Huskyteer. Available for pre-order. Released December 1st 2023.

Evolution Eye Floater, by James L. Steele. Released December 14th 2023.

Until next year. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, no matter how you do (or do not) celebrate it.

Keep safe. Stay writing.

J.F.R. Coates

Quietly now – it’s NaNoWriMo, and many writers are hard at work on completing the annual 50k words in a month challenge! Best of luck to those of you who are taking part – either with the official goal, or with your own targets. Just remember, any amount of writing is more than you had before!

Of course, with NaNoWriMo here, that means Furry Book Month has come to an end. I hope readers and writers alike were able to find some new books – especially through the book bundles the guild ran. We will be in contact with the contributing authors soon to pass on their royalties.

We will also soon start to open discussions about the possibility of restarting Oxfurred Comma next year, to determine what the members of our community would like to see, and if the event is feasible going forward. Either way, it is likely that some change of format will be required to ensure that we don’t have a repeat of this year’s attempt.

For those trying NaNoWriMo a different way and trying out some short stories instead of novels, there are some open markets that may provide some inspiration:

Altered States: Draconic Desire – Deadline November 30th 2023
Get Wild – Deadline December 1st 2023
Sniff – Deadline December 1st 2023
Night of the Howling Dead – Deadline December 8th 2023
Indulge – Deadline January 31st 2024
Androids and Dragons – Deadline When Full
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

And if you’re looking for some inspiration in the form of recently released or upcoming books, then we have you covered as well! Who knows – maybe your current project will be listed here soon.

The Price of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Commander Annie and Other Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Peace And Love, by Huskyteer. Available for pre-order. Released December 1st 2023.

For those of you who bought books during Furry Book Month, your journey may not be over yet! If you have enjoyed reading what the furry writing community has to offer, please let people know! Either through reviews, recommendations, or contacting the authors directly.

Until next month, happy reading and writing!
J.F.R. Coates

Not all furry works are created by those within the community. Sometimes, those out-of-fandom creators can find their way towards our wonderful community, and sometimes they like what they see so much that they decide to stick around! That is very much the case with today’s author spotlight – Joaquín Baldwin.

Joaquín was kind enough to answer a few questions about his writing process and works. I hope you find them insightful and interesting!

For those who aren’t familiar with you, did you want to introduce yourself and your novel?
You might know me better for posting dank Zootopia memes, or for my work at Disney or in animated shorts, but I’ve been working on my own novels for quite a while now and trying to make this my main, big project for the next several years. Wolf of Withervale is the first book of the Noss Saga, an ambitious epic told in six parts (all six books are fully written, don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging). It’s an intrinsically queer story, the kind of tale I wanted to read growing up (although this is an adult novel, not YA, but that wouldn’t have stopped young me). It deals with a magical mask, with themes of transformation, of the nature of consciousness, of gender and identity. It’s a very sex- and size-positive series, but it also has all that you’d expect from an epic tale of massive scope.

What is your writing process like? Do you outline and plot, or are you a pantser?
I’m in the middle. I outline key events I want to get to (including the ending), so I know what I’m telling is something that will go somewhere important, and then I write linearly from start to finish trying to reach those moments. In my outlines I don’t know much about the characters I’ll encounter, except a few, so I’m always surprised at who shows up and what their personalities are, and sometimes the assholes end up taking primary roles and screw up my plans, making me have to reshuffle certain things in my outlines. I enjoy those surprises, but I also need structure. Key moments to me can be a philosophical debate, a romantic thing, a time of self-discovery, a big battle, a death, an arrival at a key piece of information that will unravel the next stage in the adventure. It varies a lot, but it’s those chapters I just can’t wait to write, so once I get to them they pour out truly fast.

The first few days of writing a novel can be the most exciting and daunting part of the writing process. How easily did the first idea for The Noss Saga spawn into a functioning story? Where did that initial spark of an idea come from?
There are many ideas put together into one here. There is one core idea that came to me at 4 am on October 3rd 2020, that core piece tied all my other ideas together into something I could use for worldbuilding at a scale I had not considered before. I didn’t sleep much after that 4am dreamlike moment, and just kept planning around this new idea, then told myself I’d start writing on November 1st to coincide with NaNoWriMo (that’d give me enough time to mull it over, plan a bit, while also forcing me to actually start and not put it off forever). I don’t know where the idea came from. I’m a light sleeper, I wake up all the time at night and semi-hallucinate as I try to fall back asleep. It just came, unprompted. What was that core idea? I can’t tell you because it’d be a massive spoiler, but it has to do with the way the magic of Noss works.

What was the most enjoyable part of creating this series?
The epiphanies. Like that 4am one mentioned above, I had many others where things just clicked together, where a big story problem was solved (often between 2am and 4am, unfortunately), and it feels so great to have that happen. Often it also happens while writing, during those moments of pure flow where something clicks in place and it makes it look like I had planned setups and payoffs for ages just to get to this point, but it just happens in the spur of the moment and it brightens my day.

What was the most challenging aspect?
Giving up on having a life. I started this at the start of the pandemic, which at that time made it easy since there was no going out anywhere anyway. But it’s been consuming every moment of free time I have. I watch only a handful of movies a year, one or two TV shows at most, zero videogames, been going out on fewer photo roadtrips (what kept me sane before this all started), etc. I’m doing too much in too short a time, and it’s taking its toll.

Which authors or specific books have most influenced your work?
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
As obvious as this may be, I have to include this here. I read it when I was 15 years old, and I immediately fell in love with the world as much as with the characters.

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King.
King’s series adds a grittier tone to fantasy that I truly enjoyed. The tone through a lot of the Noss Saga borrows from it. Even the very first line in my prologue echoes the first line of The Gunslinger!

The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin.
Orogeny, the magic system in this series, greatly inspired me to create my own magic system based on strict rules leaning more toward sci-fi than traditional fantasy. Incredible series that tackles themes of racism and climate change.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany.
I don’t recall enjoying this thick book, but I’m still thinking about it. It’s weird, it’s visceral, chaotic, and I can’t even explain what it’s about. It’s a love it or hate it book, or perhaps both.

The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
Reading Borges is knowing you’ll never write as well as Borges. These short stories are much larger than the scant pages they inhabit, and their imagery is elusive in their clarity. It’s poetry in prose. Read them in the original Spanish if possible.

Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.
This series tackles sociological issues in a compelling way, and evolving through time. It’s the best kind of sci-fi, already starting big but then getting so big that you could never had seen it coming.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
A different kind of post-apocalyptic story. In the Noss Saga I explore similar themes of discovery about what was left behind by an ancient world, and how future generations reinterpret old norms and technology.

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan.
Sagan in general taught me to be a skeptic, to think with clarity and reason, but also to be a dreamer. Despite there being a “magic” of sorts in my fantasy world, it is tightly grounded in scientific concepts.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter.
The prevalent themes of consciousness and self-awareness in my saga are tightly linked to me reading this intimidating book. It is, to this date, my favorite non-fiction book of all time. It tries to explain consciousness from as close to a scientific way as can be approached, while playing mindtricks on the reader in increasingly more complex self-referential ways.

Imajica by Clive Barker.
Barker’s writings never hold back. He simply digs into his guts and pulls out the imagery that is needed, the emotions that are most raw. This book is huge in scope, and how it deals with sex and gender was refreshing, honest, uninhibited.

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman.
Another series that ties magic to tightly grounded scientific concepts, while still allowing itself to remain whimsical when needed. The animal and anthropomorphic aspects of the series remain a strong influence in what I crafted with Noss.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
The kindness of Gaiman is what strikes me most about his writing. His observations, his knowledge, his way of crafting myths of myths always come from a place of empathy and understanding. Sometimes when I’m stuck editing my own work, I try to read it in Gaiman’s soothing and mellifluous voice, then I find where the pacing is off.

The Kingkiller Chronicle Series by Patrick Rothfuss.
Rothfuss’ voice is lyrical, flowing effortlessly. His worldbuilding is entrancing, and his magic system solid and engaging. Being a debut author himself, it became a big inspiration for me to keep on pushing with my own work.

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende.
A more lighthearted kind of fantasy written for young adults. As in Noss, this one deals with hidden worlds and the beauty of nature.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
Another poetic voice that hit me deeply. Beautiful imagery, iconic, mythical, made of so many snippets of other stories and voices but tying them together perfectly. My favorite fiction book in the last decade.

Xenogenesis Series by Octavia E. Butler.
Sci-fi that cleverly deals with sex and sexuality, as well as how the hierarchical mindset of humans ultimately become self-destructive.

Contact by Carl Sagan.
The movie was cool, but it’s an abbreviated thought. The book is vast, reaching to an idea so big and mind-blowing that was not possible to put into the film version. Although Book 1 in my series starts relatively small in scope, by the sixth book things do expand to unexpected places.

A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir by Donald Worster.
There is a character in Book 1 clearly inspired by Muir in his demeanor, philosophy, and even voice. This is a great introduction to Muir’s life and his life-long struggle to preserve wilderness.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The man knows how to craft magic systems and write action sequences.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman
Unbounded curiosity. I often try to recreate that sense of wonder and discovery in Noss, and how joyful and exciting things small and things big can be.

What is the last book you read that you really love?
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Pure poetry, visually mesmerizing.

What character of yours do you most identify with? And why?
It’s gonna be pretty obvious that Lago, the protagonist, is the closest. Gay, loves big bears and big guys, loves adventure, the stars, is kinda nerdy. But he’s not me. I put a lot of myself into all the characters I write, even the villains. Particularly with the villains I think that’s important, since it’s a way for me to make them more real and not just caricatures.

Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?
*cries at the mention of “free time”*

I used to have a life…

My biggest hobby is nature photography, but I haven’t had a chance to do it that often lately. It’s the perfect excuse to explore the world and see remote places you normally wouldn’t get to. My husband and I like to roadtrip and just wing it as we go, mostly skipping the touristy crap and getting lost on smaller roads, finding the good stuff.

You were embraced by the furry community after Zootopia. How much do you credit this community for shaping this book, and for wanting to see it through to the end?
A huge amount! As I said on the Acknowledgments page of the book, “In particular, thank you to my fervent furry following, who taught me to be courageous enough to be myself, to write a story that speaks my truth. You inspire me.” I’ve always enjoyed anthro art but wasn’t involved with the community till Zootopia, and that changed my path entirely. There’d be no Noss without the fandom.

Do you have any advice to give other writers?
Set a starting date between now and, say, 3 months from now. No more. Then start writing that day. You’re never ready to get started until you get started, so you have to take that first step. From there, it’s just a matter of consistency (I won’t say “write X amount every day” because I know people have different ways of working, and my own is for me alone, you have to find what works for you).

What types of stories would you like to see other people write more of?
I’d like to see more stories that feel consequential. An event, an opus, a grand orchestrated epic that has a purpose and it’s not just a way to sell books or to wing it from side story to side story. To me, themes of discovery, of the beauty of the natural world, of diverse ways of thought, those are the things that fascinate me. Sexuality and sex written in a natural, nuanced and revelatory way can be amazing.

It’s still early days, but what is next after The Noss Saga? Are there more stories waiting to be told?
It’s a huge world! I have ideas for stories that take place during certain events of the six-book series, and also ideas for a sci-fi story set in the same world but thousands of years in the future. There’s also the possibility of a tabletop RPG game, card game, and other things of that sort, but I promised myself I would not jump onto those things until after Book 6 is out, otherwise they’d become distractions. I want this project to last till I’m gone and after. I have too many illustrations to do, too many characters to design, too many more maps to add details to.

Most importantly of all, where can we find your work?
At https://www.joaquinbaldwin.com/

And also find me on Bluesky, at https://bsky.app/profile/joabaldwin.com, where I post stuff about what I’m working on. And you can also find me on that other website but who wants to go there any more? Screw that other website.

Illustration by Ilse Gort (aka Caraid).

Please do check out Joaquín’s new book – and I hope some of the answers he has provided has helped discover something a little new about your writing process – or given you some great new books to read from his fantastic recommendations.

I am hopeful to bring back more of these author spotlights in the future – either from similar Q&As or guest blogs, or any number of possible avenues!

Until next time. Enjoy the remainder of Furry Book Month and share those great furry stories.
J.F.R. Coates

It’s that time of year! Furry Book Month is here, where we celebrate the wonderful skill and talent on show within the furry writing community. We have a few things planned that we hope will uplift furry writing and give new readers the chance to explore the wonderful worlds our writers have to share.

We encourage every writer – and reader – of furry fiction to share your experiences on social media with the #FurryBookMonth hashtag so we can get some visibility on the best of our community. Is there a book you read recently that you loved? A new release or an old favourite? Share it with everyone! Are you an author with something new and exciting, or a promotional sale? Share that too!

For this month, let’s get the conversations happening around furry fiction.

To help get things started, we have two book bundles this year for you to enjoy. Like last year, we have a general bundle with 9 books by our members, but this year we have also added an 18+ bundle with titles of a spicier persuasion. They are both available on Gumroad at a pay-what-you-want (minimum purchases US$10 and US$7 respectively), with all proceeds being split evenly with each contributing author and the FWG.

You can pick up the General bundle here: https://furrywritersguild.gumroad.com/l/FurryBookMonthBundle
It features books from:

Tales of Feathers and Flame – John Bailey
The Fifth – Saylor Ferguson
A New Life – B. Kozer
Horizon: Salvaged Heroes – Joel Kreissman
Throwback – Frances Pauli
Aces High – J. Daniel Phillips
The Dragon’s Paladin – Justin Lee
Gryphon Insurrection Boxset 1 – K. Vale Nagle
Lost Inside the Blue Line – Herr Wozzeck

You can pick up the 18+ bundle here: https://furrywritersguild.gumroad.com/l/FurryBookMonthBundle18
It features books from:

Bringing Down Upworld – Kandrel
Harmony – Flash Kitterson
Edax Sapiens – Kadon L. Peterson
Gods For The Machines – Morpheuskibbe
Royal Red – K.C. Shaw
CCS – Tagenar

We hope you’ll check out these great bundles for a fantastic price. They will be available for the duration of Furry Book Month!

Oxurred Comma

Oxfurred Comma was created to fill the gap left behind by in-person conventions when the pandemic started to create lockdowns. When those conventions started to return, the consensus was to continue Oxfurred Comma – both to provide an outlet for those who felt unsafe returning to the physical conventions, but also to give furry writers a space of their own.

The last two years have definitely seen that interest remain in running this online convention. That interest appears to have dwindled for 2023.

The last opportunity to organise the Oxfurred Comma panels has now been and gone, and there simply have not been enough panel submissions to create any meaningful schedule.

As such, Oxfurred Comma will not take place this year.

I will discuss what has changed and what we can learn from this with the FWG staff, and we will then open things up to the membership base as a whole to determine whether we will make another attempt in 2024, or if we will consider the needs and desires for the convention to have faded.

Please not that, as it was always a part of the convention, the flash fiction contest will also not take place this year.

Thank you to those of you who did submit an entry to the flash fiction contest or a panel. With conversations to come over the next few months, we will share our plans for what role Oxfurred Comma may play in the future.

But Furry Book Month isn’t about dwelling on bad news! We have plenty of exciting things to come over the next month, and that includes anthology calls! There are a couple of new ones that have opened recently, so have a look through the list and see what options there may be for you.

Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars – Deadline October 15th 2023
Halloween Microfiction – Deadline October 16th 2023
Altered States: Draconic Desire – Deadline November 30th 2023
Get Wild – Deadline December 1st 2023
Sniff – Deadline December 1st 2023
Night of the Howling Dead – Deadline December 8th 2023
Indulge – Deadline January 31st 2024
Androids and Dragons – Deadline When Full
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

Furry Book Month is also a great time to pick up a new read! Check out the latest and upcoming releases here.

Angel, by R.A. Meenan. Released September 20th 2023.

The Price of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Commander Annie and Other Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Peace And Love, by Huskyteer. Available for pre-order. Released December 1st 2023.

We hope you’ll join us in sharing the best of what furry writing has to offer. Share your thoughts about your favourite books – leave plenty of reviews and start up conversations about what furry writing means to you! We hope you’ll enjoy the book bundles.

Until next time.
Happy writing.
J.F.R. Coates

We come to September, the final month before Furry Book Month and Oxfurred Comma! Preparations are going on in earnest behind the scenes, but there are still things you can all do as well! We are open for submissions for the furry book bundles and the flash fiction contest! We are also opening our call for panellists to present at Oxfurred Comma. More information on all of this below.

Oxfurred Comma Panels
Panel ideas can now be submitted! We have the option to run panels live or pre-recorded, and can be run around any manner of writing topics! Please submit your panel ideas for approval to this form: https://forms.gle/5nYCQgUQTTpS3oCv8

Oxfurred Comma will run October 21/22, so if there are any time or date preferences for running live panels, please let us know in the form. Looking forward to seeing your great ideas!

Flash Fiction Contest
The flash fiction contest is unthemed again, so your 500 word furry stories can be about anything you can imagine! Entries can be sent in with the following link: https://forms.gle/GnSdDTrneyjWsDye8

You do not need to be a FWG member to submit an entry. All entries should be kept to a PG-13 rating. Just one entry per person.

Novel Bundle
We are open for submission for two novel bundles – one adult rated and one PG-13. This one is open for FWG members only, and priority is given to those authors who were not included in last year’s bundle, and we will not consider novels that were included last year.

Both novel bundles have the same entry form: https://forms.gle/CeB2D4QNQMrZLGSYA

As with last year, the bundles will be made available on Gumroad for a pay-what-you-want (minimum price of $10), with proceeds split evenly between all contributing authors and the FWG. Please get in your entries for this before Sunday 24th, as we want the bundle to go live on October 1st.

Social Media
To update on our post last month, the FWG is now set up on both Mastodon and Bluesky. We haven’t yet started the long process of ensuring we are following all of our members, but you can join us on the two platforms with the links below.

Mastodon: https://furries.club/@furrywritersguild
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/furrywritersguild.bsky.social

If flash fiction is a little short for you, then don’t fret! We have a few new short story openings this month.

Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars – Deadline October 15th 2023
Altered States: Draconic Desire – Deadline November 30th 2023
Get Wild – Deadline December 1st 2023
Sniff – Deadline December 1st 2023
Night of the Howling Dead – Deadline December 8th 2023
Indulge – Deadline January 31st 2024
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

We hope you will also check out the following upcoming and recent releases from our members.

Clade, A Post-Self Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary. Released August 2nd 2023.

Werecats Convergent, by Mark J. Engels. Released August 21st 2023.

Angel, by R.A. Meenan. Released September 20th 2023.

The Prince of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Commander Annie and Other Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

From all of us at the guild, we are looking forward to Furry Book Month in October. We hope you’ll join us for a great month of celebrating furry fiction.

Until then.
Happy writing.
J.F.R. Coates

Sorry for the slightly late blog – I got distracted with the Women’s World Cup matches every evening.

Why yes, I do also have some important writing projects I’ve been procrastinating from, why do you ask?

We do have some new to share, though! Furry Book Month and Oxfurred Comma are rapidly approaching, so it’s about time to start sharing some of what we have planned.

Oxfurred Comma
Everyone’s favourite online furry writing convention will be back for another year! We will be running the convention on Twitch on October 21/22 – save the dates! Exact times TBC but expect it to run through the day on a USA schedule. Those interested in running panels are encouraged to let us know as soon as possible – with details on what your panel will be and who will be taking part. Panels can be pre-recorded or run live.

Send us an email or message one of the guild staff directly for more information on running panels.

Flash Fiction Contest
As always, we will also run a flash fiction contest with the winner announced at the conclusion of Oxfurred Comma. Exact details are still be finalised in terms of theme and how to submit. Keep an eye on our socials for more details to come.

Novel Bundle
The story bundle we ran last year was a great success, so we’re keen to do it all over again! But this time we’re intending on doing something a little different – we’re planning on two bundles! One will be a general rating like last year, and a second bundle will be for more adult-rated content.

As it was last year, we will be opening this bundle up to all self-published works by FWG members. At this stage, we have not had the necessary discussions with publishers to include any works published by them. Send us a message if you’re not sure.

Novels included in last year’s bundle will not be considered at all for this year’s bundles. Authors included last year may submit separate novels, however we will be prioritising new authors who were not included in the 2022 bundle.

Submission details will be shared soon. Like last year, this bundle will be available for a limited time during Furry Book Month.

Social Media Update
While not related to Oxfurred Comma or Furry Book Month, it is still an important situation to address. Twitter has been going through an… interesting time recently, and users are starting to leave in larger numbers. So that the FWG can maintain a strong social media presence, we are currently in the process of shifting to other platforms. It is unlikely we will fully leave Twitter at this stage, but we are in the process of setting up a Mastodon account, and should soon be getting onto Bluesky as well.

Once these two sites have been set up, we will approach guild members to get details on their accounts on these platforms – we want to keep track of all members if and when they depart Twitter!

That’s about all for the news updates this month, but there are still plenty of anthology calls open, including a few new ones from FurPlanet!

Feisty Felines and Other Fantastical Familiars – Deadline October 15th 2023
Altered States: Draconic Desire – Deadline November 30th 2023
Get Wild – Deadline December 1st 2023
Indulge – Deadline January 31st 2024
Indecent Exposure – Deadline When Full
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing

We also invite you to check out the new and upcoming releases from guild members:

Gnoll Tales, by NightEyes DaySpring. Released June 30th 2023.

Fang Volume 11, edited by Sparf. Released July 1st 2023.

In The Light Of The Dawn, by the Furry Historical Fiction Society (featuring multiple FWG members). Released July 1st 2023.

The Red Vixen After Dark, by Royce Day. Released July 1st 2023.

The Dry Spell, by Ryan Loup-Glissant (Slip Wolf). Released July 1st 2023.

Clade, A Post-Self Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary. Released August 2nd.

The Prince of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Commander Annie and Other Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

We’re all looking forward to seeing your ideas for panels at Oxfurred Comma, and we hope to soon see your submissions for the novel bundle and flash fiction competition.

Until next time.
Safe writing.
J.F.R. Coates

And just like that, we’re halfway through the year.

Many of the guild’s writers and publishers have just come back from Anthrocon, where there were many new book releases (check out the bottom of this blog), and we hope many sales! If you picked up a book or two at Anthrocon, please share some pics of your haul with us – and the publishers and authors! Don’t forget to leave a review as well!

There isn’t much guild new to share this month, though I am expecting a bit more at the start of August as we begin preparations for Oxfurred Comma and Furry Book Month. Expect some developments there to come soon.

The guild officers have also been in discussion with other ways to produce more content and opportunities for guild members. Stay tuned for more news here.

We have also been keeping a close eye on the situation happening on Twitter. For a long time, Twitter has been the FWG’s primary social media outlet. We are keeping our options open at the moment and will be looking to expand to another location – Mastodon and Bluesky are looking like the likely options at this stage. We will continue to maintain our presence on Twitter.

Once we have accounts set up on the new sites, we will begin the process of finding guild members already present on those platforms.

For those who don’t worry about failing social media sites, there are always short story opportunities! Please check out the current open calls.

Get Wild – Deadline September 1st
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
Zooscape – Reoccurring submission windows.

There were also plenty of new releases during the Anthrocon weekend. These are the ones from the FWG members – though there were plenty of other new books to enjoy!

Gnoll Tales, by NightEyes DaySpring. Released June 30th 2023.

Fang Volume 11, edited by Sparf. Released July 1st 2023.

In The Light Of The Dawn, by the Furry Historical Fiction Society (featuring multiple FWG members). Released July 1st 2023.

The Red Vixen After Dark, by Royce Day. Released July 1st 2023.

The Dry Spell, by Ryan Loup-Glissant (Slip Wolf). Released July 1st 2023.

The Prince of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Commander Annie and Other Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

From everyone at the FWG, we hope that the second half of the year can build upon the first six months.

Until next time.
Safe writing.
J.F.R. Coates

May certainly felt like a busy month with all three furry writing awards getting announced.
It was also an important month in the greater writing sphere, with the WGA strike in USA filmmaking, with possible actors strikes to follow. The FWG put out a statement earlier in May supporting this strike. Part of the purpose of the FWG is to benefit furry writers, and we stand in solidarity with other writing communities and organisations trying to do the same to their writers.

Once more, the FWG would like to offer congratulations to everyone who was a finalist and winner in the three furry writing awards throughout the month.
These awards help to showcase the massive talent on display in the writing community – it is no easy feat to get nominated as a finalist, especially given the quality of works that didn’t even make it that far. The winners and finalists should be proud of their achievements.
For those who missed the awards ceremonies, you can catch up on the finalists and where to find them on the FWG’s wrap-up posts.

Ursa Major Awards – Coyotl Awards – Leo Literary Awards

Each year, these awards seem to get more competitive. We can’t wait to see what works get nominated for the 2023 awards. They are sure to be as good as ever.

Perhaps a short story in one of these open calls will get a nomination? You won’t know until you submit!

Get Wild – Deadline September 1st
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
Zooscape – Reoccurring submission windows.

There are also a few recent and upcoming releases from guild members.

HIV Isn’t Poetic, by Jonathan W. Thurston-Torres. Released May 3rd 2023.

Don’t Ask Me If I’m Okay, by Jessica Kara (Jess E. Owen). Released May 16th 2023.

Werecats Emergent, by Mark J. Engels. Released May 20th 2023.

Sun Runner: A Five Herds Story, by Frances Pauli. Released May 31st 2023.

Gnoll Tales, by NightEyes DaySpring. Available for pre-order. Released June 30th 2023.

Fang Volume 11, edited by Sparf. Available for pre-order. Released July 1st 2023.

In The Light Of The Dawn, by the Furry Historical Fiction Society (featuring multiple FWG members). Available for pre-order. Released July 1st 2023.

The Red Vixen After Dark, by Royce Day. Available for pre-order. Released July 1st 2023.

The Dry Spell, by Ryan Loup-Glissant (Slip Wolf). Available for pre-order. Released July 1st 2023.

The Prince of Thorns, by Tim Susman. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

Commander Annie and Other Adventures, by Mary E. Lowd. Available for pre-order. Released November 14th 2023.

We hope writers and readers alike have found something to be inspired by with the awards last month. We look forward to hearing about what you are writing over the remainder of the year.

Until next time.
Safe writing.
J.F.R. Coates

The final furry awards of the year are the Leo Awards, which were announced earlier today. Once again, we present the winners here for you to check out.
Winners are listed in bold – note that the Leos are structured differently. They do not award a ‘Best in Category’, rather they award multiple per category that reach a certain threshold of quality as determined by the panel of judges. Therefore, multiple winners (or indeed no winners) can be listed per category.

Novels
Red Pandamonium (Chaos Menagerie #1) by Roan Rosser
Full Circlet by Frances Pauli
Scars of the Golden Dancer by NightEyes DaySpring
A Furry Faux Paw by Jessica Kara
Lost Inside the Blue Line by Harry A. Wozzeck
Toledot by Madison Scott-Clary
Mouse Cage by Malcolm F. Cross

Novellas
The Otter’s Wings: A Labyrinth of Souls Novel by Mary E. Lowd
Royal Red: A Cozy Fantasy Adventure by K.C. Shaw

Anthologies
ROAR 11, edited by Ian Madison Keller
When The World Was Young, edited by The Furry Historical Fiction Society

Short Stories
“Octopus Ex Machina” by Mary E. Lowd
“What Gold Smells Like” by Frances Pauli
“Let Him That Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate Of His Own” by Rob MacWolf
​”Lids” by Utunu
“Mark of the Stranger” by Casimir Laski
“Vagabond” by Tiberius Rings & Fruitz
“Hanging by a Thread” by Nenekiri Bookwyrm

Poems
“The Homecoming of Daniel Usherswell” by Rob MacWolf
“In the Night Among the Cedars, In the Shelter of the Mountain” by Rob MacWolf

Nonfiction
“Furry Fiction: The Squishy Edges and the Heart” by Mary E. Lowd

Book Covers
ROAR Volume 11, by Fresaboba
Mouse Cage, by Pye Parr
When the World Was Young, by Heskynn

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for the Leo Awards – and thank you to Furry Book Review and the panel of judges for bringing us the Leo Awards.
The Furry Writers Guild hope these awards have helped to motivate writers to produce something for next year’s awards – and has given readers something new to consider.

We’re here again – this time for the Coyotl Awards! We just finished streaming the awards live on Twitch, but for those who missed it or wanted to return to check out the winners, we have them for you right here!
The winner for each category is marked in bold.

Nominees for Best Novel:
Scars of the Golden Dancer by NightEyes DaySpring
Red Pandamonium by Roan Rosser
A Furry Faux Paw by Jessica Kara
Mouse Cage by Malcolm F. Cross

Nominees for Best Novella:
Royal Red: A Cozy Fantasy Adventure by K.C. Shaw
The Otter’s Wings: A Labyrinth of Souls Novel by Mary E. Lowd
Fox and Troll Steal Math by Jeff Reynolds

Nominees for Best Short Story:
“Lids” by Utunu
“Let Him That Speaketh Fate to Men Have No Fate of His Own” by Rob MacWolf
“Coyote Woman Sings the Blues” by Marissa James
“Mark of the Stranger” by Casimir Laski

Nominees for Best Anthology:
Tales of Feathers and Flame edited by K. Vale Nagle and John Bailey
When the World Was Young by The Furry Historical Fiction Society
ROAR 11 edited by Ian Madison Keller
Winter of Wonder: Fauna edited by Andrew Ferrell

Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2022 Coyotl Awards.
We are all very eager to see the stories and anthologies in 2023 to see what is nominated for next year.
There is still one more furry award to come this year – we will be sharing news about the Leo Awards when we get it.

The online ceremony for the Ursa Major Awards just took place on YouTube. For those who wish to watch the stream to find out the winners, you can relive the ceremony here.
For everyone else, we have compiled together the finalists below. The winners will be marked in bold.

Best Anthropomorphic Music
• Another Railway Day, by Nonnie, album, November 23.
• Can Opener’s Notebook: Fish Whisperer, by Vylet Pony. album, Feb 22.
• Cute Cervid Vol. 1, by CUTE CERVID (various artists), album, December 2.
• idaidaida, by ida deerz. album, June 3.
• Visiting Narcissa, by Patricia Taxxon. album, June 3.

Best Website
Online collections of art, stories, and other creative and/or informational works. Includes galleries, story archives, directories, blogs, and personal sites.
• e621, reverse image search for the furry community
• Fluffle, Furry art and stories
• Fur Affinity, Furry art and stories
• Kemono Café, Furry webcomic hosting
• Wikifur, Furry wiki

Best Game
Computer or console games, role-playing games, board games.
• Cult of the Lamb (Developer: Massive Monster, Publisher: Devolver Digital; Aug 11)
• Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series (Developer: Monkey Craft, Publisher: Bandai Namco; July 8)
• Lookouts (Developer:ParanoidHawk and ColDoggo, Publisher: itch.io; March 31)
• Stray (Developer: BlueTwelve Studio, Publisher: Annapurna Interactive; July 19)
• Tunic (Developer: Andrew Shouldice, Publisher: Finji; March 16)

Best Illustration
Illustrations for books, magazines, convention program books, cover art for such, coffee-table portfolios.
• Ais05, Dragon Party, (Twitter, October 18)
• Caraid, Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary, (Twitter, August 18)
• Jacato, Wind Watcher (Twitter, March 3)
• Wildering, Space Boy, (Twitter, December 1)

Best Magazine
Edited collections of creative and/or informational works by various people, professional or amateur, published in print or online in written, pictorial or audio-visual form.
• Deep Sky Anchor, edited by Mary E. Lowd. (Internet; May to December)
• Dogpatch Press, edited by Patch Packrat. (Internet; January 12 to September 30)
• Flayrah, edited by GreenReaper, Sonious, and Dronon (Internet; January 1 to December 29)
• InFurNation, edited by Rod O’Riley. (Internet; January 1 to December 30)
• Zooscape, edited by Mary E. Lowd (Internet; Issue 14 to 16)

Best Comic Strip
Newspaper-style strips, including those with ongoing arcs.
• Carry On, by Kathy Garrison Kellogg (Internet, January 4 to December 30)
• Duncan & Eddie, by Chevril. (Twitter; January 1 to December 26)
• Foxes In Love, @foxes_in_love. (Twitter; January 1 to December 21)
• Part Time Dragons, by Part Time Dragons. (Internet; Dragon Bite Meat to The Disturbing Side Effects of Immortality)
• The Whiteboard, by Doc N. (Internet, January 4 to December 23)

Best Graphic Story
Includes comic books, and serialized online stories.
• Slightly Damned, by Chu. (Internet, pages 1038 to 1081)
• Sonic the Hedgehog, written by Evan Stanley and Ian Flynn, art by Aaron Hammerstrom, Evan Stanley and Adam Bryce Thomas. (IDW; issues 48 to 55)
• Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing; issues 25 to 31)
• Usagi Yojimbo: Lone Goat & Kid, by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing; issues 1 to 6)
• The Whiteboard: Sherlock Holmes, by Doc N. (Internet, October 3 to December 23)

Best Non-Fiction Work
• Art, Furries, God, by Patricia Taxxon. (YouTube, video; Jul 6)
• Furries & The Ethics of Cringe Culture, by Kurtis Connor. (You Tube, video; September 30)
• Furry Fiction: The Squishy Edges and the Heart, by Mary E. Lowd. (Deep Sky Anchor, article, December 5.)
• Ursa’s Major Issue – Confident self-promotion vs humble passionate skill, and a voting system’s favoritism, by Sonious. (Flayrah, article; June 9)
• Who Runs The Internet? Furries, by Dylan Reeve. (The Spinoff, article; January 11)

Best General Literary Work
Story collections, comic collections, graphic novels, non-fiction works, and serialized online stories.
• Circles: Volume 4, by Andrew French, Scott Fabianek, and Steve Domanski. (Fenris Publishing, collection, Febuary 21)
• ROAR: Volume 11, Edited by Ian Madison Keller. (Bad Dog Books, anthology, July 1)
• Usagi Yojimbo Origins, by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing, trade paperback collection; volume 2 to 4)
• Usagi Yojimbo (Trade Paperback), by Stan Sakai. (IDW Publishing, trade paperback collection; Tengu War to Crossroads)
• When the World Was Young: A Prehistoric Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary. (The Furry Historical Fiction Society,anthology, December 1

Best Short Fiction
Stories less than 40,000 words, poetry, and other short Written works.
• Bears & Bravery, by Gre7g Luterman (illustrations by BearHybrid). (The Bear Minimum patreon; April 5)
• Draught Horse, by Huskyteer. (ROAR 11; July)
• Null, by Elise Zoe Heider. (Google Docs; April 10) Mature Audiences
• The Otter’s wings, by Mary E. Lowd. (ShadowSpinners Press; October 15)
• The Swift-Footed Darling of the Rocks (Do NOT Actually Call Me That), by Marie Croke. (Zooscape; issue 14)

Best Novel
Written works of 40,000 words or more. Serialized novels qualify only for the year that the final chapter is published.
• A Furry Faux Paw, by Jessica Kara. (Page Street Kids; July 26)
• Brothers At Arms (The Zyearth Chronicles Book 2), by R.A. Meenan. (Starcrest Fox Press; February 14)
• Mouse Cage, by Malcolm F. Cross. (Fenris Publishing; July 13)
• Scars of the Golden Dancer, by NightEyes DaySpring. (Dancing Jackal Books; March 4) Mature Audiences
• Toledot (Post-Self #2), by Madison Scott-Clary. (Self; January 21)

Best Dramatic Short Work
One-shots, advertisements or short videos.
• Horns (Directed by FattyDragonite; December 9)
• The Legend of Pipi (Directed by Julia Schoel and Birgit Uhlig; Jul 16)
• Monkey Wrench – The Ghost Egg (Directed by Joshua Palmer; Jul 18)
• Tales From Scorchwater Valley – The Rhino and the Redbill (Directed by Alex Henderson; February 15)
• Tales of Zale – Flickering Lights (Directed by Sif Savery; September 7)

Best Dramatic Series
TV or YouTube series videos.
• Bluey (Created by Joe Brumm; Season 3 (Part 2))
• Helluva Boss (Directed by Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano; Season 2, “The Circus” and “Seeing Stars”)
• The Owl House (Created by Dana Terrace; season 2 episode 11 to season 3 episode 1)
• Tuca & Bertie (Created by Lisa Hanawalt; Season 3) Mature Audiences.
• Zootopia+ (Directed by Trent Correy and Josie Trinidad, Season 1)

Best Motion Picture
Live-action or animated feature-length movies.
• DC League of Super-Pets (Directed by Jared Stern and Sam Levin; July 29)
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado; December 21)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Directed by Jeff Fowler; April 8)
• The Bad Guys (Directed by Pierre Perifel; April 22)
• Turning Red (Directed by Domee Shi; March 11)

Congratulations to all the finalists and winners of the Ursa Major Awards.
Join the Furry Writers Guild live on Twitch at 6pm PST May 29th to find out the winners of the Coyotl Awards!

The Furry Writers Guild aims to improve conditions and opportunities for all furry writers. This is why we stand in solidarity with the WGA and the writers striking to improve working conditions in the film & TV writing industry.

During this time, there may be temptation for independent writers to step up and fill the gaps created by striking writers. Should writing in the film & TV industry be a long term ambition, then the FWG cautions our members against breaking the picket line and negotiating any writing role with struck companies. Even a seemingly-innocuous meeting may lead to complications with future WGA membership.

For more information on the rules around the strike, please see the WGA’s page here.

Everyone at the FWG hopes this strike comes to a swift and satisfactory conclusion for the writers of the WGA.

We’re back for another year!
There have been no need for elections again this year as all incumbent candidates went unopposed. Due to this, your team of guild officers will remain unchanged for the 2023-2024 period. We are:

President: J.F.R. Coates
Vice President: KC (Kate) Shaw
Treasurer: Watts “Chipotle” Martin
Public Relations Officer: Resolute
Markets Manager: Vincenzo “Scribbles Cheetah” Pascuarella
Cóyotl Awards Chair: Madison “Makyo” Scott-Clary

We are all very happy to be continuing for another year, and look forward to helping expand the reach of the Furry Writers Guild during the next twelve months and beyond. Given there was no opposition in the nomination period, we hope this means our members are all happy with the work we have been doing!

May is usually the time when all the furry awards are announced, and this year will be no exception. The Ursa Major Awards closed for voting on March 31st, and the announcements for the winners are expected early this month. There is no date confirmed yet, but we will keep you aware of any updates when they happen!

The Coyotl Awards closed for voting recently. Maddy is in the process of finalising the votes and we are confirming how we will be presenting the awards. This will most likely be a livestream ceremony hosted through our Twitch channel. Details and dates to come.

There currently aren’t any updates on when the Leo Awards are expected to be announced, but these are usually a few weeks to a month behind the other awards, so may not be announced until next month. You all know the drill now – we will share updates when we know more information!

A note on the Ursa Major Awards – they are currently requesting any donations, no matter how small, to keep the awards going. If you are in a position to do so, please consider leaving a donation to help this award continue for many more years to come. Details can be found here.
We would also like to remind readers and writers alike about the launch of our Patreon page. Through this, we hope to ensure the guild is able to cover its own costs, as well as taking on the costs of the Coyotl Awards, which have previously been taken on by the award chair. This could allow us to expand the impact of the awards, giving us more options in the future to make them bigger and better in all aspects.
We hope that our members will consider the Patreon page as a way to provide voluntary dues in the absence of any regular membership fees, and that readers can use it as a way to benefit furry writing as a whole. We are grateful for any support that is given, and in the future we will look to ways to reward that generosity with more tangible benefits.

There are a number of anthology calls still open throughout May, with one closing within a week of this post going live. If you’re stuck for writing ideas, these may help spark that creativity.

Dog Save The King – Deadline May 19th
Get Wild – Deadline September 1st
This Is Halloween – Deadline When Full
Furry Femdom Erotica – Deadline When Full
F/F No Erotic Anthology – Deadline When Full
Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
Furry/Lovecraftian/Erotic/University Themed Anthology – Deadline When Full
Beyond Their Pale – Deadline When Full
#ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
Zooscape – Reoccurring submission windows.

Please also consider picking up one of the following pre-orders or recent releases from our fantastic members:

A Zookeeper’s Guide To Dating, by Roan Rosser / Ian M. Keller. Released April 4th 2023.

HIV Isn’t Poetic, by Jonathan W. Thurston-Torres. Released May 3rd 2023.

Don’t Ask Me If I’m Okay, by Jessica Kara (Jess E. Owen). Available for pre-order. Released May 16th 2023.

Werecats Emergent, by Mark J. Engels. Available for pre-order. Released May 20th 2023.

As always, if you are a FWG member and have a new release you would like added, please get in contact!

On behalf of all FWG officers, I would like to say thankyou to the members for trusting us to continue our leadership for the next twelve months. I hope we can repay that faith and help expand the guild and better the state of furry writing for everyone.

Until next month.
Stay safe and happy writing.
J.F.R. Coates