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Fandom history book "Furry Nation" to be previewed at Anthrocon by author

Edited by Sonious as of Tue 27 Jun 2017 - 06:57
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FN.jpg Those attending Anthrocon this year that have an interest in non-fiction works about our little fandom will not want to miss the session I am hosting on Sunday, July 2nd to preview my book looking at the history of furries, Furry Nation. The book gives this "greymuzzle" freelance writer's perspective, having been in the fandom since 1988; a journey which all began with a surprise invitation in the mail to something called a 'furry party' being held at a Philadelphia Sci-Fi convention.

Furry Nation tells the story of the fandom’s birth and growth, from the earliest “funny animal” comic book fans and convention organizers to the worldwide fandom it is today. Artists, fursuit builders, and fans of all stripes are profiled, and of course our rocky relationship with the Hollywood animation community is also examined. In the book’s final chapter a genetic scientist discusses the possibility that genetic therapy will someday transform humans into actual anthropomorphic animals. Furry has indeed transformed many lives, including my own in ways I never expected— personal experiences that became a part of Furry Nation.

My goal for this piece is to attempt and write an accurate history of Furry as seen from the inside to counteract the biased or clueless coverage the more mainstream observers. I started working on Furry Nation in 2008, but it wasn’t until 2014 when a literary agent agreed to present my in-progress manuscript to publishers that I was presented with a deadline. Three years later Furry Nation: The true story of America’s most misunderstood sub-culture will be released in October by Cleis Press, a mainstream publishing house.

If you're interested, then be sure and remember to attend my panel at Anthrocon this Sunday, July 2nd at 10:30am called Furry Nation: Writing the Book on Furry Fandom.. I’ll read portions of the manuscript, describe the challenge of writing it, and trace its evolution from idea to finished book. The event will end with a Q&A session followed by raffle for a free copy of the book.

See you in Pittsburgh!

Comments

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Congratulations on your publication.

On a similar topic, I will also be having a panel on Saturday at 9:00pm with crossaffliction going over non-fiction writing/journalism https://anthrocon2017.sched.com/event/AsON/furry-non-fiction-and-journalism

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I feel frustrated that my book about furry conventions – “Furry Fandom Conventions, 1989-2015” – will apparently not be available at the largest furry convention.

http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-1-4766-6381-4

However, “Symbol of a Nation”, my latest original fiction anthology, will be. Get it at the Goal Publications table in the Dealers’ Den.

https://goal-publications-storefront.squarespace.com/shop/symbol-of-a-nation

Fred Patten

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I'm doing one on my own at 5 pm Thursday on writing reviews, so check that one out as well!
https://anthrocon2017.sched.com/event/AsMM/how-to-write-a-review

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Hope both of these will be taped and uploaded somewhere! Would love to see 'em.

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Would like to, but am making no plans at the moment.

Probably don't count as media (http://www.anthrocon.org/node/11/anthrocon-standards-conduct-v371#media) per se, but then we don't don't count (it's kind of the point of the panels, after all).

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"Desiring Change" video'd & uploaded my session to YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNj07d0hvzs

Audio is very weak, unfortunately; you're going to have to listen closely - sorry.

- Joe

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(Video now deleted: no need to watch a talk about a book, when folks can -- and should -- just go read the book)

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Dammit, missed it - sorry :-(

- Joe

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Are you going to be at Midwest FurFest? I'm writing track lead, and I'd be glad to have you do a panel on non-fiction/journalism if you're attending.

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I will honestly have to get back to you on that because I'm really going because I'm nominated for an Ursa Major and the con scene and crossie have historically not had a great track record; this is literally the first convention I've attended in 13 years (also I am poor and two cons a year, even at opposite ends of the year, are an expense I may not be able to realistically afford). Then again, maybe I'll have fun for once and decide to hell with it, so, like I said, I'll have to get back to you, but the invitation is flattering!

Edit: Wait, that was in reply to Sonious, ahaha, is this embarrassing?

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I'm only now thinking about MFF; promoting "Furry Nation" totally occupied me from the beginning of the year until it was actually published this month. The MFF website said their programming schedule was all filled up; I wouldn't mind participating in a panel if I do decide to go.

- Joe

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Do share how your panel goes, wish I could be there to see it.

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After several days of computer problems, finally able to log on from the Breuger's Bagels here at the Omni Hotel in Pittsburgh... Your session sounds good, hope I'm able to make it!

- Joe

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I got three people at the review session; this flustered me more than a large crowd would have, and I think it was a disaster of a rambling monologue. However, the three attendees were nice and said it was helpful, which means a. they were telling the truth and it was helpful to them or b. one of my main points was that, in a small community like furry, it's important not to completely discourage people trying out new things, and they at least got that lesson!

The double with Sonious went much better, I feel.

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Cons..
I'm not familiar with the author.
The website for the book immediately opens with the standard, bad definition of furry.

Pros..
It's a big book about the furry fandom.

Also I am curious to see what the genetic scientist (it's a geneticist) had to say since that's something I used to keep having to tell people to forget about.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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[comment removed on request]

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Not knowing him isn't a major con, just weird. But it depends what circles people move in.

As for the definition, definition 1 is the standard definition of furry which is a bad definition. The furry fandom is not just about anthropomorphism. In fact a large part is about zoomorphism, attributing animal traits to humans. Creating a fursona is not anthropomorphism; it is taking animal attributes and applying them to a person. I pointed this out years ago that a proper definition for furry must take into account that it is a combination of human and animal traits. Definition 3 has that so I don't know why they wouldn't have taken it further.

See here for more details: https://www.flayrah.com/3541/opinion-redefining-furry

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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[comment removed on request]

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Nah, the media emphasis on the wrong things is something else. I was more concerned with internal discussions.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Here is a comment that I wrote five years ago. At the end, I asked, “Joe Strike, what has happened to your book on the history of furry fandom?”

Fred — Mon 16 Jul 2012 - 00:25

Yes; well, to repeat something that I wrote four years ago for Rowrbrazzle ...

There is one project that I have abandoned: writing Animal Masks, the “real book” history of furry fandom. Joe Strike asked at the beginning of January if I would object if he wrote such a book, if I was not going to. Not at all. Since someone asks me every couple of years what happened to my history, here is the sad story.

My Animal Masks book never really got started. Mike Curtis at Shanda Fantasy Arts got the idea for the book in 1997 and asked me to write it. I was enthusiastic about writing a Furry Fandom equivalent of the histories of s-f fandom like Sam Moskowitz's The Immortal Storm and Harry Warner Jr.'s All Our Yesterdays, and I agreed to write it. I also told him that Moskowitz's and Warner's books had each taken ten years to write, and that I would try to finish mine sooner than that but it would still probably take at least five years to do all the in-depth research, interview furry fans throughout the world by correspondence, get photographs & other illustrations, etc. Curtis promptly sent out press releases announcing that the book would be published in two years:

Coming in 1999:

Animal Masks: Anthropomorphics As Modern Totems, the first history of our field, written by Fred Patten.

This is from a ConFurence 9 (January 1998) convention report by Watts Martin:

The History of Furry Fandom panel was also interesting, although it was mostly stuff I already knew. Its host was Fred Patten, who's putting together a book for publication next year called Animal Masks that will be a fifteen-year history of the fandom, apparently a coffee-table compendium useful both to give older fans a clear idea of where the fandom actually came from and to be an introduction to new fans. This is a welcome idea; some of the complaints batted about relating to fan behavior, online and off, trace back to people having very little idea what furrydom really is. The very small number who are ongoing problems seem to take a perverse pride in having no interest in the fandom's history, though--but I suppose the book really isn't aimed at fuggheads. It was also nice to see Mark Merlino at the panel looking relatively relaxed, a state I don't think I've seen him in for years.

This is a letter that I wrote published in Mike Glyer's File 770 #127, November 1998, when I had just stopped giving the project top priority but still planned to write it eventually:

The Fur Frontier

Fred Patten agrees, "Yes, I am writing a history of furry fandom, and Joe Rosales is also planning a 'Brian Aldiss' history of furry/talking animals in popular culture." But he feels that Taral's comments about these projects, quoted in File 770:125, while accurate in general are erroneous in detail. Neither Patten nor Rosales feel their books are "revisionist" views of the same topic, any more than one would claim that Aldiss' The Billion-Year Spree is a revisionist view of Harry Warner's All Our Yesterdays. Rosales will focus on literature and popular culture, and Patten will chronicle furry fandom.

Patten will only supply a broad overview of the history before moving on to his main topic, furry fandom:

There is an Egyptian tomb painting ca. 1500 B.C. of a lion and a gazelle playing whatever the Egyptian equivalent of checkers was. This is a bit more indisputably 'funny animal' than animal-headed gods, or neolithic cave paintings of what might have been anthropomorphized animals but could equally well have been tribal shamans dressed in animal skins. Parables featuring talking animals can be traced from the tales of Aesop and Terence through the Medieval ballads of Reynard the Fox to the refined literary fantasies of the 18th century French Court and the 'Uncle Remus' Afro-American folk tales of the 19th century. (And don't forget the Monkey King tales in the Orient.)

Anthropomorphics have especially proliferated during the most recent 200 years, with the popularization of talking animals in children's' literature (Lewis Carroll, etc.); talking animals in political cartoons (which predate Thomas Nast's Democratic donkey and Republican elephant); advertising mascots like Tony the Tiger and the Trix rabbit; movie and newspaper funny-animal stars like Krazy Kat, Mickey Mouse and Pogo Possum; and so on. I will summarize all this in a very broad overview as the Introduction to my history of organized furry fandom. Rosales will concentrate entirely on the history of talking animals through 5,000 years or more of popular culture.

My thesis is that furry fandom coalesced out of sf fandom and comics fandom, blending elements from both of them and achieving its own critical mass in 1983/1984. The first clear signs of the independent furry fandom were the creation of its first apa, Rowrbrazzle, and the decision by some fans to self-publish furry comic books because there seemed to be enough fans of stories with talking animals to support them (as distinct from earlier attempts to self-publish comics which had to hope for sufficient sales from the general public alone.) Some key titles in this evolution of 'furrydom' were Cutey Bunny (which first appeared in October 1982 but attracted attention during 1983), Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger novels starting in mid-'83 (influential in establishing funny animals as respectable reading for adults), and the Rowrbrazzle apa and the comics Albedo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Usagi Yojimbo all during 1984. Critters and Captain Jack weren't until 1986.

Rowrbrazzle started in February 1984. Since it was specifically an apa for writing and drawing funny animals as a genre and discussing the new fandom that was forming about them, it is a handy landmark to say that 'furry fandom existed at this time.' I do not claim, as Taral implies, that furry fandom was started by the birth of Rowrbrazzle. But I have asked whether anyone can supply an earlier date that can be clearly identified as belonging to furry fandom, as distinct from being an isolated furry event within sf fandom (such as the preview of the Watership Down movie at the 1978 Worldcon) or comics fandom (such as R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat in 1968 or Marvel Comics Howard the Duck in 1976); and so far nobody has.

Considering that the worthwhile histories of fandom such as Sam Moskowitz's The Immortal Storm and Harry Warner's All Our Yesterdays and A Wealth of Fable have each taken about a decade to write, I will be very surprised if my book (working title: Animal Masks) is ready for publication as soon as next year.

In 2001 Edd Vick offered to publish it as a MU Press book if I ever finished it, but by then I considered the project dead for the reasons given in this unpublished interview:

Interviewer: You mentioned a history of furry fandom in the book [Best in Show]. Can you tell us about it?

Fred: Since it was in the Afterword, it was of necessity only a very brief summary. In fact at one time around 1998, Mike Curtis of Shanda Fantasy Arts wanted me to write a complete book–length history of Furry fandom, to be titled Animal Masks. I said I would do so, but it never got done for two main reasons. In the first place, I told Curtis it would probably take about five to ten years to do, assuming that it would take about as long as the histories of science fiction fandom that were done. Sam Moskowitz’ The Immortal Storm, his history of science fiction fandom in the 1930s, and Harry Warner Jr.’s All Our Yesterdays, his history of fandom in the ‘40s, both took between five to ten years to write. But Shanda Fantasy Arts wanted to publish it right away. I said, "Well, it’s impossible to write a detailed history like you want that fast." And Curtis said, "Ok if you can’t do it right away then we’ll get someone else who can." I think they announced who their next writer would be, but the book never came out.

The other problem was that so many fans were hostile to the idea. In science fiction fandom even Sam Moskowitz, who was feuding with practically everybody when he announced he was doing his book, got lots of cooperation. Everybody sent him lots of information, and answered whatever questions he sent them. But when I was asking furry fans outside of Southern California for the history of furry fandom in their areas, which I was not personally involved with, they said “Why should we help you? We’ll write our own history that’d be better than anything you could do. We’ll refuse to give you the information, and when your book comes out without the information we’ll tell everybody how incomplete it is.” Someone accused me of being a phony furry fan because I did not wear a fursuit. So I reported to Shanda Fantasy Arts that any history I would write would be very incomplete. Actually, I could have tried to work around the obstructionists, but I was also getting more and more requests to write articles about anime and manga at the same time, and Shanda insisted on getting the furry history immediately, so I just gave up on it. Anyhow, the history that was in Best in Show was so brief that I was able to summarize without having to go into detail. I could just say there are a lot of furry activities such as fanzine publishing, fursuit making, holding conventions and so on, without having to give lots of names and dates.

Another sort of – I don’t know whether you would call this a problem or not in furry fandom, but more science fiction fans used their real names, or if they used nicknames their real names were pretty well known. Like you could say that Jack Bristol was really Jack Speer but he did most of his fan activities using the name of Jack Bristol. Ted Johnstone’s real name was David McDaniel. But too many of the furry fans have only their fannish names known; and obviously phony names at that. I at least would find it difficult to do a serious history about people who are only identified by names like Gizmo, Vixyy [sic.] Fox and Hyperwolf. So I guess that was another problem with writing a detailed history of furry fandom.

Yet another reason why it would have been very difficult to write a history of Furry Fandom comparable to the histories of s-f fandom in the 1930s and 1940s was that the s-f fans of that time were paper hoarders, not only of fanzines but of correspondence. When Moskowitz and Warner asked for historical information for their books, fans could loan them original letters and old fanzines that included names & dates, detailed convention reports six and eight pages long, and so forth. Too much of Furry Fandom's history took place over the Internet and nobody has a "hard" record of it; and fans' ideas of convention reports today is a one-page "I went to the con and it was a lot of fun". My preliminary questions got too many answers of, "Gee, that happened a long time ago, and I don't remember the details."

Most of what I knew about furry fandom’s history is covered in my 1996 Chronology of Furry Fandom in Yarf! which is now on WikiFur. Since WikiFur started a couple of years ago, it has added historical details that I never knew. So a history of furry fandom is even more desirable today than it was ten years ago; but – especially since my stroke has put me into bed and made it impossible to juggle old fanzines, correspondence, conduct interviews, etc. – I am not the one to write it. Good luck, Joe.

Joe Strike, what has happened to your book on the history of furry fandom?

Fred Patten

I guess we know now.

Fred Patten

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And of course, a fursuit is the image chosen for the book cover.

Of course.

Well, I'll be...

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I still like the original cover better.

http://dogpatch.press/2016/12/19/book-furry-nation/

Fred Patten

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Better, but why label BoJack "furry"? I mean, it is an inside word for "featuring humanimals as mains", but if a creator does not say his/her works is furry, is it really morally right to call it a furry work?

Well, I'll be...

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I'm guessing that would be a reason to move away from the cover, I mean. I guess it would sort of be fair use, but using another's work in a cover like that would really be grey area if the original creator was unaware of it being used on a book cover on a topic that is only tangentially related.

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A good point.

Fred Patten

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The cover featuring Bojack was a speculative effort, and I would of course sought Netflix's approval before using it for real - but when the publisher and I decided to go with the fursuit cover it became a moot point. (I visited Moot Point on vacation last year - some beautiful views from there.)

You have to admit, a super-close up of a fursuit head staring directly at you is more attention getting than a bunch of different pictures crowding a book cover - and if it encourages a non-fur to buy the book, they'll learn all about the different aspects of Furry beyond the suits.

- Joe

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Uh... yes. Whether the creator says its furry or not doesn't change whether it actually is furry or not.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Like I said in another comment here, I consider anything anthropomorphic to be furry; the idea isn't so much to bring mainstream anthropomorphism "down" to our level, but to raise us up to the same level as Bojack or Cats or Zootopia - that Furry is expressing the same creative instinct as those shows. Personally, I don't think furry art etc. is a less valid form of self-expression because the're personal and not commercial efforts.

- Joe

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It's a problem when fursuiting is emphasised above everything else as it is not representative of the furry fandom as a whole but that does not mean that all use of a fursuit is bad. It doesn't sound like the book is misrepresenting furry as being only about fursuits and there is nothing wrong with its use of a fursuit. It might even work to the fandom's advantage to use a familiar symbol to attract attention if the book itself provides a balanced portrayal of what goes on.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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I actually think fursuiting is impressive. It takes great skill to make them, and even greater skill to NOT look like a fool in them. But again, the percentage is too low to be an accurate representation.

Well, I'll be...

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A way to look at it that they are basically the same art, both creatively and performatively, as the mascot at a sporting event. There, the costume and performer's job is to attract the attention of thousands of people who have very likely paid good money to pay attention to something else.

So, I mean, they're attention getting. Kind of like the purpose of a book cover.

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What he said.

- Joe

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The worst thing you can do with an internet dating profile is lead with something like "I'm nice and funny and love to laugh." Show don't tell, you just told someone else you're boring with no substance.

Should a book about dating show people on computers, or a date? Should a cook book show an oven, or the food?

A fursuit shows something furries do that nobody else does the same. Nothing else shows that and complaining is just kind of unflattering about the complainer.

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Depends. Is it about RL dating, or the ever-more-frequent online dating? Eventually we'll all be like the Solarians.

If we want to "show, don"t tell", we should put cheesecake on the cover, and the good stuff inside. Instant bestseller, and 100% true! ;-)

I think what people are concerned about is that fursuiting is only part of the fandom, and only done by some. Kinda like having a book about religion in general with a cover just featuring Christ on a cross. Or Buddha.

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Wouldn't a book about religion in general be like a book on many fandoms in general... a fursuit wouldn't make sense for a cover.

A book showing just a christ on a cross would be a bible. There's lots of other stuff in a bible but doesn't that cover make sense?

For a furry bible about all kinds of stuff, I get the complaint, I just think it's kind of lame. Sour grapes that suits are more popular than writing or art when those things have more activity than ever, with multiple specific publishers. They just have to make room for new things and deal with saturation. Others do art, writing etc but the suit is unambiguous for who it's about.

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Well, there'll be a little cheesecake on the *back* cover - a small picture but a nice one of a furry babe by Kacey Miyagami. ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kacey )

Once we/they decided to just go with the fursuit head close-up cover I insisted we represent furry art on the back cover so that aspect of the fandom would be represented as well. Again, the hope if people pick up the book because of the cover, they'll be curious enough to read the back cover & come across said furry babe.

- Joe

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Check out Fred's link to the original cover, which pictured what I consider the three "legs" of Furry: art, suiting and mainstream anthropomorphism, which I consider "furry." I use the word to describe anything anthropomorphic, not just fan creations. I realize not as many furs' idea of furry is as broad as mine.

In hindsight, which I talk about in my session, that cover was just way too busy; you need a single, striking (no pun intended) image to attract peoples' attention - and for better or worse, the suits are what most non-furs think of when they hear the word "furry." The idea is to get them to pick up up the book and learn there's more to Furry than the suits. (I repeat several times in the book that suiting is actually a minority interest in the furry community.)

- Joe

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I think the cover design so far is a smart decision. @JoeStrike I'll be pleased to cover the final product at FurryFandom.es

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Great - thanx!

- Joe

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Joe sent me a copy of the book, so I didn’t have to wait for Amazon to send it. After seeing the small size of the book (but very thick) – 5” x 7.9” – I agree that the new cover is better than the original. The details of the original would be much too tiny to see.

Fred Patten

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Yes, I realized that as well - I wasn't expecting the book's cover dimensions to be that small. (And the 2016 Anthrocon photo of 2000+ fursuiters at the bottom of page 174? You'd need an electron microscope to make out any individual suiters!)

Another reason the original cover wouldn't have worked: There wasn't any room to include mainstream anthropomorphism, a fair amount of which was already written. (The manuscript was overlong as it was.) I'll cover the subject in the sequel - assuming there is one...

- Joe

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Well I've pre-ordered this now.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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I've never been 100% for the cover but I'm still looking forward to owning the book.

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I'm waiting semi-paitently for this book. For the first time in my life I believe this might be something we can give to mundanes to say "here, this is furry" and if you have any other questions about it, just ask.

On a side note I HATE AMAZON. I ordered your book plus 2 other things in order to get free shipping, and they waited a week before shipping the other items because I don't have "Prime". Every other online purchase I make, the item ships either the same day, the next day or sometimes the day after that. In this day and age 7 days is unacceptable without an excuse. I would (probably) like to buy more copies of your book, but I will not buy them from Amazon.

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They should be available from the publisher, Cleis Press, but maybe not at Amazon's discount.

Fred Patten

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Thank you. I don't mind paying a little more. ..I've basically boycotted Amazon for years for the exact reason I mentioned. The only reason I bought from them now is because of this book. ..I really want this book =^.^=

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Hello. I'm just writing to give an update. ...I didn't cancel my preorder because they took my money the day after release. But it has now been 14 days since release and Amazon still says "preparing for shipment". ...From what I've read about Joe Strike, I think I want to buy more of his work. But this delay by Amazon (which IS deliberate) absolutely solidifies my stance of never buying from them again.

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Amazon.com must have copies in stock because I received one just today. You might want to chase them up about it.

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Same thing for me. Ordered from Amazon.de. Was supposed to arrive on Friday but instead I got email saying that they still haven't got it in stock. I haven't got any other emails yet.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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Thank you for giving confirmation. Oddly enough, I live in the USA and we have the same problem.

Should I just cancel my Amazon preorder and buy from another source? Do you have experience with those companies? What is your overall opinion?

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I have no idea. I haven't had an issue with Amazon before and I don't know where else I could easily get it. It's not really urgent though so I will probably just wait. If you're in the US then finding a different source should be easy.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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If you go to -

http://www.furrynation.com/buy-the-book

- there are links on that page to Powells in Portland OR and barnes & noble (bn.com) as well as Amazon. I know there are a lot of people who don't care for Amazon, which is why I included those two sellers.

Also as you'll see there if you buy the book via that page I'll send you a free copy of the "Komos & Goldie" comic book created by myself and Oliver (who commented above).

- Joe

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I checked on the Amazon.de site. I originally ordered it from Amazon itself but they are offering it being dispatched from some German book depository which supposedly has 10 left. So I cancelled my Amazon order and just reordered it using the other supplier which should take ~2 weeks. Kinda weird but seems to be an Amazon problem.

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~

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I replied to Rakuen's comment, but here it is again in case you don't get to see it below:

If you go to -

http://www.furrynation.com/buy-the-book

- there are links on that page to Powells in Portland OR and Barnes & Noble (bn.com) as well as Amazon. I know there are a lot of people who don't care for Amazon, which is why I included those two sellers.

Also as you'll see there if you buy the book via that page I'll send you a free copy of the "Komos & Goldie" comic book created by myself and Oliver (who commented above).

- Joe

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Thank you for the link. I actually visited the site before I made my purchase. I would have chosen another option but at the time I was also looking for a paw print trailer hitch cover. The one I decided on was only available through either eBay or Amazon. So, since I wanted your book too, I bundled it all through Amazon. ..My mistake lol.

Here's the paw print trailer hitch cover
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GP3B3BQ/

...And the lock I bought with it. It's better than most, and actually is fairly well designed, but I think I'm gonna drill holes so I can use a long shackle padlock.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T9N6DRI/

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The damn thing looks very cool, even if you don't have a trailer to use it on. I see there's no shortage of other paw-themed merchandise available via Amazon; I'm tempted to get a set of paw cufflinks, except I don't have any shirts with french cuffs to wear them with.

- Joe

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You know, I actually have a set of Esso Tiger cuff links. I don't have any shirts or sport jackets to wear them on either...but I just had to have them lol.

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Ok, there's alot of bad press going around. I see it, but I keep my distance. THIS is just fur art lovers. Leave your political stuff at he door!

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I mean, I'll give you my Esso Tiger cufflinks if you want them.No compensation requested or wanted. I'll deny I even know your name. ...So, do you want my cufflinks?

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Wow, that's fantastic- thank u so much! :-) :-) :-) I'll PM you my contact info.

- Joe

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BTW, I bought a hardcover copy of the Skyrim Strategy Guide when I bought Skyrim for the Ps4 (i've played it before and I'll play it again. Just like Okami and a few others). That book came from Barnes & Noble, and it arrived dammaged. There was NO protection whatsoever inside the box! All 6 corners of the book were damaged. I know I can't prove that, even with pictures because I was stupid and didn't document it properly, but the fact remains that Barnes and Noble didn't adequately package my purchase.

...Take pictures or video, preferably video, of unboxing and every other step including power-up and test. (uncut, single session) because when you get something, large or small, from any source, including large corporations or individuals, they will try to screw you. ...Document everything! At some point you'll be glad you did ;)

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My Amazon order came though, but I didn't pre-order (and I had ordered other things as well)

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Joe’s “Furry Nation” and my “Furry Fandom Conventions” are both nominated for the new Leo Awards in the Nonfiction category. Since the Leos will be decided by a panel of judges instead of by popular vote, you don’t have to choose between them.

https://furrybookreview.wixsite.com/blog/leo-awards

Fred Patten

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About the author

Joe Strikeread storiescontact (login required)

a writer and Alligator from New York, NY, interested in cartoons, cartoons and more cartoons (both animated and drawn). also sci-fi/fantasy films and detective novels

Animation journalist, longtime fur and author of Furry Nation: The True Story of America's Most Misunderstood Subculture.

I'm the real-life 'kid in a candy store' - the one my parents ran in Brooklyn until I was 13. I was marinated in the pop culture stew of comic books, Warner Bros & Fleischer cartoons on TV and kids' matinee films I saw every weekend. I've always had a love of animation and of characters like Bugs and Pepe LePew, and often wished I could join them in their world - a sign of incipient furriness right there.

I worked for years in TV promotion at Bravo and then Sci-Fi Channel before going freelance. Since then I've written about animation and sci-fi/fantasy films for mainstream publications and scripted an episode of the Nick Jr. TV series Wow Wow Wubbzy!

I blog under the name "The Miscweant" on the animation industry website awn.com. I've written the kids'/furry novel "The Incredible Hare" and host occasional audience-attended conversations with animation professionals at various NYC locations under the umbrella title "Interview with an Animator"

I didn't discover furry so much as furry discovered me via a flyer I received in 1988 out of the blue for a 'furry party' at the Philcon sci-fi convention. No one had to explain it to me - I knew exactly what I was looking at and that I belonged there. I contributed to the furry 'zine Rowrbrazzle for years & now post on Fur Affinity as "Comus". I also fursuit as the dapper but sinister Komodo dragon "Komos."

So yeah, I've been part of the fandom since its earliest days - but don't call me a 'greymuzzle' or I'll punch you in *your* snout.