It's official! Midwest FurFest 2001 will be held on November 16-18th 2001, at the Sheraton Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois. We're returning to the same weekend, and the same hotel as last year, and we're looking forward to providing more of the fun and excitment of last year's convention!

We're also very proud to have Mary Hanson-Roberts and Jessica 'Ginger' Willard, as our first two confirmed Guests of Honor! Mary Hansen-Roberts is probably best known to furry fandom for her epic comic, 'Here Comes a Candle'. Originally serialized in Furrlough, it is now available from Shanda Fantasy Arts as a single trade paperback. Mary's art also appears at many furry and SF convention art shows around the US, and is always a popular seller. Jessica 'Ginger' Willard is a former wizard of Furtoonia MUCK, and is another fan favorite artist, best known for her 'Falstaff' character. Jessica also works at Wolf Park http://www.wolfpark.org, one of Midwest FurFest 2000's charities.

We'll have more guest announcements in the future, so keep your ears perked and your eyes trained on our website. Hope to see you at the convention!

I heard the rumor before Further Confusion, and it's true: Issue #12 will be the last issue for the popular G-rated fanzine, Pawprints. Editors Conrad 'Lynx' Wong and Jordan 'Greywolf' Peacock will be moving on to other things. Click on 'read more' to see the info sheet they put out for FC, and check back to Flayrah later to catch my interview with Lynx.

After over a week, 700 visitors, and over 80 registered users, Flayrah.com is chugging along fairly well. We acquired a logo about mid-week, courtesy of Jen Hayden...thanks! Some of you have emailed me with niggling little code bugs, and I've noticed a few myself. Some of these I've been able to fix, many I haven't. The developer of the weblog code I'm using is promising a large bugfix release early next week; I'm hoping this will fix many of the problems, and I'll be rolling it out on Flayrah.com as soon as I can. Unti then, thanks for the support!

This was posted earlier, but it's worth noting again after Further Confusion...Padwolf Publishing has released World Tree, a new furry roleplaying game. The website is at www.world-tree-rpg.com, and you can also read Flayrah.com's interview with creators Bard Bloom and Vicki Borah-Bloom. Did anyone get a chance to play the demos at FC?

Posted by Zuri on alt.fan.furry: "Well it took some doing, but the first issue of CFM is now avaliable for
purchase online or by mail order. Act quickly, as only limited
quantities are avaliable.

Please go to CFM's Website for futher ordering information.
http://www.pathwayz.org/CFM/order.html

Borrowing a bit of style from Slashdot...

Bahumat writes: "In my exploration of furry artworks, particularly serialized comics, both online and on paper, I find that there are a few comics out there who's writers and artists combine so well, that not only is the comic an enjoyable read, but the characters seem -real-, as opposed to merely archtype characters. Few titles and series seem to grab my attention and interest as well as these rare few that make me forget the characters on paper are merely that; characters. To me, in some cases, they seem like living, breathing extensions of a slightly surrealistic mirror of the world in which we live."

"The two titles that immediately spring to mind? Shanda the Panda, and Sabrina Online."

Anyone out there care to contribute their chosen titles, and experiences?

I posted this story on a new wolf subspecies, the eastern North American wolf, on the old Cornwuff Press newslog, last month. I think it's interesting enough to revisit, here.

Simba wants you to attend Feral! Read on, to find out how to attend "...the
fourth year of the world's premier furry summer camp event!"

Darrell Exline posted the following on alt.fan.furry: "Well, we're still working out the logistical details, but The ConFurence Group can now say that we have THREE (yes, *three*!) furry conventions to brag about.

Adding to our existing "ConFurence" each April (Southern California) and
"CritterConDiego" in July (San Diego), The ConFurence Group is proud to announce that it is now also an organizational part of "ZonieCon" (Tucson, Arizona) in October.

This is something I've been discussing with some of the staff members of
ZonieCon since last October's convention (ZonieCon 3) and I believe that it is a good fit within the goal of The ConFurence Group. Our exact position within ZonieCon's staff is still being nailed down, but is likely to be limited to handling pre-registration, structuring the business model, and helping to organize the convention running process.

The ConFurence Group's mission statement has always been "To promote
anthropomorphic fandom related events" and helping to host ZoniCon certainly fits the bill.

Watch our website at http://confurence.net for more de-tails as they develop"

I like the old 'B' science fiction movies, the sort that used to be considered drive-in movies in the late 50s/early 60s. These are hard to find anymore, either on tape or on television. I've recently found two good sources for them, however:

"Tapes of Terror"
http://www.morticiasmorgue.com/tot.html

"Sinister Cinema"
http://www.sinistercinema.com

Furry Spring Break is a new furry convention, taking place March 2-4, 2001 in Orlando,
Florida. Click below for a full update on how their convention is proceeding.

Conifur Northwest recently posted their latest Coontrax newsletter to alt.fan.furry. Click below for the full text.

Baen Books now offers a selection of complete science fiction novels in electronic format for free. It is the Baen Free Library, where you can read any of the novels online or download in your choice of five different formats: HTML, MS Reader, Palm, Rocket eBook, and RTF.

KGTV in San Diego is reporting a serious fire at the The Escondido Humane Society's animal shelter. 125 dead animals have been discovered, along with 85 survivors after a fire late Saturday night. Estimates to rebuild the facility are as high as $5 million. Donations are being solicited. Check the websites for details.

In 1998 a comic strip began known as Satin & Silk, based on a pair of female skunks stranded on Earth. This strip was then joined with other strips and was lost for a short time amidst them, put on the backburne. Satin and Silk has now resumed, and is being updated three times a week along with other strips starring the sister skunks on Cyantian.net