Kevin Frane, author of The Seventh Chakra (nominated for an Ursa Major Award in 2011) returns this January with a new novel called Summerhill. Fur Planet will release it in both hardcover and softcover, starting at Further Confusion in San Jose. “Summerhill is a dog with a problem: he isn’t exactly sure who he is. Living alone in a desolate world as its only inhabitant, he has no memories of his previous life—only the tantalizing clue that the answers he seeks may lie with a mysterious woman named Katherine, the hostess on a cruise ship that sails between dimensions. But Katherine has problems of her own, and if Summerhill wants her help in unlocking the secrets of his past, he’ll have to help Katherine deal with hers. Together, the two will travel to different worlds, different times, and different universes in a journey where each new stop has both fantastic discoveries and deadly threats in wait, and where the rules of reality can change as easily as weather.” Check out Fur Planet’s Live Journal to pre-order a copy.

The Species of Blessing Avenue consists of three short stories: “The Species of Alone” and “The Species of Rivals”, published by Smashwords in June and October 2010, and “The Species of Triumph”, published here for the first time. All three feature Israel Kevinson, a hunky and gay teenager who lives on Blessing Avenue.

From the start, you couldn’t tell that this was anthro fiction. And it isn’t, exactly.

Sometimes I get philosophical when I’m dealing with the jocks, especially when I’m holding one of them by the ankles, suspending them over the toilet. This is what my dad calls a ‘swirly’, but seeing as how he’s old I can’t hold it against him for knowing such a corny name. Anyway, the reason for my getting all Socrates-like is this: a bully is someone who preys on those who are weaker, right? Well seeing as how I’m preying on the bullies who think they can pick on my friends, does that make me a bully? I don’t think so, and neither do my friends. Maybe I’ll take a class on it when I go to college because questions like that make me think. (p. 3)

There are references to Izzy’s mothers blonde hair, and to bodybuilding and martial-arts videos with Arnold and Jet Li. It’s not until p. 17 that Izzy turns into a lion – he’s a werelion!

Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, May 2012, trade paperback $9.95 (78 [+ 1] pages)

This is subtitled Freedom City, Book 2, and it does start soon after the last events of Freedom City. Familiarity with the events in Book 1 will definitely help, but Manifest Destiny stands well on its own.

Freedom City is an artificial city but a real country above international waters in the Caribbean Sea, about a hundred years in the future. Taking as a model the 20th-century “pirate” offshore radio stations located on abandoned marine platforms, Freedom City was constructed by those fleeing the confiscatory socialistic laws of the United States.

Freedom City declared its independence and operates under libertarian principles. Its freedom to allow the development and application of scientific and technological research, as opposed to the increasingly restrictive Public Safety laws of other countries, has made Freedom City a technological and industrial leader, but a social pariah among other nations; particularly the United States which even denies that Freedom City is a nation.

They’d tried to impose their crippling self-imposed limits upon us as well, and worked damnably hard at it. The USA had hampered Freedom’s construction every step of the way, and still claimed from time to time that we were an illegal outpost of Americans created as a haven by the evil rich solely in order to evade fair taxation and social responsibility. (Freedom City, pgs. 6-7)

“Manifest Destiny; Freedom City, Book 2”, by Phil Geusz. FurPlanet Productions, June 2012, trade paperback $19.95 (294 pages; on Amazon).

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

Fred Patten, who has been writing Furry book reviews since 1966, and who edited the first anthology of anthropomorphic short fiction, Best in Show, in 2003, has edited two new anthologies of anthropomorphic s-f & fantasy that will both premiere in June 2012.

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

My questions and comments are not to be taken seriously. For more on the anthology, see FurPlanet's submissions page.

Isiah Jacobs: Good evening, Mr. Hoch! Thank you so much for joining me tonight. As I understand it, you are the editor for an upcoming furry horror anthology themed around abandoned places. Why did you decide to do this?

You know the type of place. Your footsteps echo, you feel all alone. Why is everyone gone? Are there survivors? What happened?

Voice: I decided to do a furry horror anthology because I am a huge horror fan and love horror fiction. But when I looked around your average convention table, the genre was lacking within the furry fandom (only two books that I know about). So I made a mention on Twitter about wanting to do a horror anthology, and got a huge response from the furry writers, so I decided to helm the project. If this is successful, I would love to do it as an annual thing, a new horror theme each year.

Dangerous Jade is a work of anthropomorphic fiction for adult readers only. (publisher’s rating)

Actually, although there are some torrid romantic scenes and a lot of adult language here, it is all standard M/F sex between consenting adults; less X-rated than many mainstream novels or R-rated motion pictures.

This is also #4 in FurPlanet’s new Cupcakes line of works shorter than novel length. Dangerous Jade is “only” a novella, but it delivers a complete and satisfying story.

Illustrated by Meesh. Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, January 2012, trade paperback $9.95 (vii + 81 pages).

Bad Dog Books has become an imprint of FurPlanet, as announced yesterday by BDB founder Alex Vance. [Ryffnah]

BDB had already contracted printing to FurPlanet, and Alex expressed hope that the move would facilitate the distribution of BDB works as e-books:

This is something I’m personally very excited about, as it’ll make our portfolio of furry fiction more convenient and accessible to modern readers.

The change is not expected to impact the release of BDB's fiction anthologies FANG and ROAR #4, but does reduce the diversity of furry publishing venues.

FurPlanet is celebrating the deal with a $5 sale on existing BDB titles, which appears to stack with an existing 10% off coupon.

Looking to stock up on presents for the holidays? Several furry retailers are participating in 'Cyber Monday', including Rabbit Valley (15% off $100 or more, in-stock only, to Dec. 1, code 'Cyber2011'), FurPlanet (15% off everything, 'FOXES') and FetishZone (NSFW; up to 50% off).

Bad Dragon had (NSFW) 40% off black, medium-firm toys for Black Friday, but sold out; a 10% global discount remains in effect for the next ten hours. [scottbob3/reddit]

Argaea is Kyell Gold’s Renaissance-like fantasy world of a rich, multispecies anthropomorphic culture, introduced in his 2004-5 short novel The Prisoner’s Release.

The world has been developed in Gold’s three novels and one short fiction collection, Volle, Pendant of Fortune, The Prisoner’s Release and Other Stories, and Shadow of the Father. Now here are five new short tales of Argaea.

Four of the five tales are set during, or are connected to, Gold’s four previous books. The fifth, “Stolen Away”, is a new story that Gold says will be expanded in the future.

Like the earlier Argaea stories, these have a very strong homoerotic element that has FurPlanet and Rabbit Valley restricting sales to adults (18 or older) — although Amazon.com (possibly misled by Sara Palmer’s innocent cover) have no such restriction.

FurPlanet Productions, June 2011. Trade paperback $11.95 (viii + 161 pages); Kindle $5.99.

FurPlanet is pleased to announce that we'll be distributing the new movie, Bitter Lake, to the U.S. market. If you have not heard about it, please check out the trailer and their website.

Bitter Lake – an EZwolf and Shay co-production – recently premiered at Eurofurence, and the screening was a smash hit. Everyone at FurPlanet is excited about the movie; we couldn't be happier about helping to bring it to furry conventions across the U.S., and to FurPlanet.com.

More information and an order page will come soon. We estimate the DVDs will be in stock by late September, so keep your eyes on this space for more info when the time comes!

Bad Dog Books and FurPlanet are proud to announce that all BDB books, including Kamui's new full-color art tutorial Work In Process, will be discounted by $5 until the end of April.

The BDB catalog on FurPlanet can be browsed here: http://furplanet.com/shop/category.asp?catid=118

Up till now the only two distributors offering the FurNation Anthology Issue #6 were Rabbit Valley and United Publications. I decided this weekend after getting three emails in a row to go ahead and offer Issue #6 through FurPlanet.com also.

We have a stockpile ready to go and we are going to start offering same day shipping beginning this week.

Here is a direct link to the magazine:

http://furplanet.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=45

We also have several other great furry content creations on sale at FurPlanet. Please look around and see if something else catches your eye:

http://FurPlanet.com

Sincerely,

Nexxus