Seattle’s first Furry conventions began in 1998. There were eight annual ConiFur Northwests, growing from 275 to 525 attendees, before they self-destructed after the 2005 event.

Rainfurrest (or Rainfurrest Anthropomorphics International) was first held in 2007 to be ConiFur’s replacement. It seems to be more successful; Rainfurrest has grown from 370 attendees in 2007 to 1,420 last year.

Practically all Furry conventions have souvenir “conbooks”, and two or three short stories by members are a feature of these. Rainfurrest 2011 decided to take this a step further.

Dallas, TX. FurPlanet Productions, September 2011, trade paperback $10.00 (108 pages).

Seattle area furry convention Rainfurrest has issued a call for entries for this year's charity anthology. [tip: earthfurst]

The group is looking for G–PG short stories of 5,000–8,000 words under the theme "Steam Punk, Weird Science/mad science". Draft submissions are due by February 2.

Proceeds are to go to the upcoming convention's charity. Contributing authors will receive a copy of the book.

2011's entries were collected in Stories of Camp Rainfurrest, with stories by Gene Armstrong, Sorin, Garret Biggerstaff, Daniel and Mary E. Lowd, Ryan Hickey, Kandrel, May Kay Biggerstaff, James Stringer and Trey Jackson, illustrations by Balto and Sarah Alderate, and a cover by WerePuppy.

Progress is being made on the Cóyotl Awards, a juried award for furry fiction to be run by the Furry Writers' Guild, with the first winners announced at Rainfurrest 2012 next September.

While some details remain private to guild members, preliminary rules have been published. The award is currently to be presented in General and Mature sections for the best Short Story, Novella (over 7500 words) and Novel (over 40,000 words).

Each member may submit five nominations to each category for works they are uninvolved with to a five-member council, rating them on plot, character, setting and literary merit; the four works with the highest weighted average will be voted on by guild members.

The award was floated as an alternative to the Ursa Majors in June 2010. Extensive debate followed to define 'literary quality' and the recognition or differentiation of mature work.

I wasn’t as proactive as I thought I would be, and I’m pretty sure I missed a couple posted during the first of September, so apologies there. Otherwise, here was last month’s Newsbytes.

This Rainfurrest 2011 newsletter covers upcoming staff meetings; the closure of pre-registration on September 7; notice of available hotel rooms in the Clarion; website updates (including the current events grid); art jam, art show and artist alley announcements; information on the campfire sing-along and a notice of cancellation for the Guinness Book of Records attempt.

This newsletter covers RainFurrest's first annual kickoff BBQ, an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest collection of plushies, the selection of Beetlecat as a guest of honour and Love-A-Mutt as the convention's charity, announcement of an alternate hotel, requests for staff and conbook submissions and details of the artists alley and art show.

Do you like being on stage? Do have a skit or a song you want to perform? Or perhaps a great fursuit you want everyone to see? Then sign up for the Rainfurrest Variety Show!

The Rainfurrest Variety Show is more than just a masquerade, it's a chance to really strut your stuff - even if you don't have a fursuit! One grand prize will be given to the best act, but there will be awards for all participating acts. So don't be shy - you get stuff!

In this Newsletter...
------
Hotel News
Events News
Registration News
Artshow News
Conbook News
Flickr Group
------

Folks,

Due to technical difficulties with our former webmaster, our address has changed to www.rainfurrest.net, please do us a favor and spread this around, as well up update your own bookmarks.

Also Folks, if you can, Mention Rainfurrest when you put out the link..

---
Robert Johnson
Rainfurrest Marketing and Publications Lead
---

Introduction -

I want to introduce you all to RainFurrest, the new Furry Convention for the Pacific Northwest. This convention is being put together by one of the most talented and creative set of convention staffers I have had the pleasure of working with.

This convention is going to be doing some new and innovative things, although it doesn’t show in this newsletter, it is in the works, and will be in succeeding newsletters, so without further delay, may I give you...

RainFurrest
August 24th-26th, 2007, Seattle, WA
http://www.rainfurrest.com

In This Edition...

---
Guest of Honor Info
Hotel Info
Con Book Info
Registration Info
Dealers Info
Art Show Info
Events Info
RainFurrest needs you.

Forwarded for a dear friend of mine who is planning the replacement for Conifur.

His Email is trapa@firstlight.net

Hello everyone,

My name is Trapa, and I'm the co-chair of the RainFurrest convention happening this August in Seattle. My staff and myself have been working extra hard to make sure that this event happens. So we'd like to inform you about our current status.

-- About the con
-- Registration
-- Hotel
-- Staffing
-- Events
-- Dealers Den
-- Art Show
-- Con Book