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Hi! Allow me to introduce myself.
I have been lurking on this community for about five years, so I figure it's best to introdce myself. My sona is Lyle, a lunatic wolf who is an accomplished bomb maker and moonlights as an ice cream man. I am English, have an identical twin brother and just like acting crazy over the Internet.
submitted by Kibbly[link] [31 comments]
The Cat, by Pat Gray – Book Review By Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
“Here is another of my reviews that was published ten years ago, edited in a manner that I didn’t like. This is my original review, so it’s a bit different from the printed version.”
The Cat, by Pat Gray.
Sawtry, Cambridgeshire, UK, Dedalus Ltd., March 1997, trade paperback £6.99 (124 pages).
U.S. edition: Hopewell, NJ, The Ecco Press, November 1998, hardcover $19.00 (124 + 1 pages).
“A dark comedy with universal appeal, The Cat is the Animal Farm of the post-communist 1990s,” says the American dust-jacket blurb, while a Scottish review of the original British edition says that, “Gray’s reworking of the Animal Farm concept brings in a post-Thatcherite twist.” Animal Farm may live forever, but is The Cat really a modernization of Animal Farm for Britain of the 1990s?
“Chez Maupassant” is the typical British suburban home of the Professor and Mrs. Professor, their pet the Cat, and the presumably unnoticed Rat and Mouse. All live very comfortably, since the Professor is a gluttonous slob who leaves rich food everywhere.
“The cheesecake seemed to glow, luminous and fantastic, as the Professor skillfully slid it off its plate and cradled it in his large hand to prevent it breaking apart as his mouth closed in upon it. A look of childish pleasure crossed the Professor’s face, then a look of guilt, then he rammed the entire cheesecake into his mouth and began to eat.” (pg. 11)
The pampered Cat, the brash Rat, and the peevishly ineffectual Mouse (the latter two living under the house or within its walls) are best friends. Unfortunately, the Professor dies of a coronary three pages into the story (though leaving the fridge open). The animals are mildly distressed, but see no reason to fear a change in their lavish lifestyle — until Mrs. Professor moves to Brighton, leaving the Cat behind.
“‘Moved out, eh!’ said the Rat, drying his paws, and replacing the towel in its pouch. ‘Lock, stock and biscuit barrel. Just like that. I knew she would. Cat! What are you doing here anyway? Mouse said you were in Brighton.’
The Mouse saw the Rat appraise the Cat’s downtrodden air in one swift glance, and saw him note the slight dusty pallor that now clung to the Cat’s normally glistening coat.
‘Cat’s been told he’s got to f…f…f…end for himself,’ said the Mouse significantly, regaining his voice.
‘Fend for myself,’ repeated the Cat. His eyes were veiled and hurt. ‘I mean I don’t know on what.’ The Cat shrugged expressively at the spot where the fridge had stood, its position marked by an oblong scatter of sticky crumbs and bright-coloured linoleum.” (pg. 36)
As the animals realize that they must fend for themselves, their friendship is strained by basic instincts:
“Some memory of upbringing stirred in the Cat’s mind: rats were dirty, rats were diseased. Although the Rat wore a waistcoat, the Cat believed he could still smell the drain and the outfall. The Cat began to wash himself very slowly. The wind strengthened, whistling in the silent telephone lines that reached from beneath the eaves of ‘Chez Maupassant’, making them sing.
‘Now see here Cat,’ began the Rat, edging himself closer, his tail nonchalantly laid out behind him in a perfect, motionless line.
‘I don’t have to talk to you,’ said the Cat jumpily. The nerves in his forepaws twitched uneasily, making the fur flex as if a fist were being clenched inside a warm winter mitten.
‘We need an understanding,’ said the Rat.” (pgs. 28-29)
The three tacitly agree on a personal nonaggression pact. Instead, each tries to win the support of the animals in the nearby houses and fields. The Cat appeals to their self-interest in a Capitalistic manner, selling them individual portions of ‘Chez Maupassant’’s garden (which he has no rights to), while the Rat (with the intellectual Mouse in tow) harangues them about animal solidarity like a Labour leader:
“The Mouse busied himself setting up a small card table while the Rat paced to and fro, folding the notes for his speech into various shapes […]
‘There’s a few of them here, at least,’ said the Mouse. The animals stood, stamping their feet, and coughing in the cold; a few Moles, a gang of field-voles, the Mouse family from the house next door, and some creatures from the meadow beyond the fence that the Mouse took for squirrels.” (pg. 47)
The Cat decides that since humans have all the benefits, he will impersonate them. He learns to speak English by imitating radio broadcasts, and charms Mrs. Digby, the next-door neighbour. He orders new furnishings for ‘Chez Maupassant’ over the telephone using the Professor’s credit card:
“‘Where’s he getting it all from?’ whispered the Mouse.
‘This is fraud. Classic short-termism. It won’t last. We’ll be back to square one in no time at all,’ said the Rat grimly, his eyes following each new item as it appeared, and was tallied by the Cat (who would remark from time to time that this or that item might have been slightly marked in transit, or be worth a few bob, or perhaps be needed in a different shade of beige or pink.)” (pg. 84)
But it does last. Eventually the Cat carries his faux humanism too far, trying to drive a car and getting smashed up. The book ends with the Cat having returned to cattitude as Mrs. Digby’s pampered pet, while the Rat with the Mouse as his secretary take over running the run-down, unsaleable ‘Chez Maupassant’:
“The Rat yawned. The Mouse poked the fire by his feet. The Rat sighed. It had been another very tiring day, he thought. The Rat sighed again. As time went on, he was finding the administration of the garden harder; the constant rows and arguments which seemed to erupt about the exact needs of field voles, or the special requirements of pregnant moles, arguments which were not only dull, but exhausting to resolve. He would try to make fair decisions, but everyone would complain, and then he would change his mind, and then …” (pg. 123)
A British Animal Farm for the 1990s? Well, the easy life under the Professor can be taken as the strong economy of the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. But Thatcher was succeeded in 1990 by John Major, also a Conservative, until 1997, the year that The Cat was published. The economy may have gradually declined, but there was no big disaster that caused a dramatic capitalist/labour split. So where is the Orwellian parallel? In any case, The Cat is undeniably a sophisticated talking-animal fantasy, and an exceedingly British one, at that.
Chaaaaarrrge!! Awesome group commission with a bunch of my Furry buddies, by Jan @tigerknight! \^-^/
Hello! May as well introduce myself.
Hey there son, i'm Lunar4. I've been lurking here and with the fandom in general for a long time, at least 4-5 years. Thought i may as well say hi.
My main sona's a fox called Dex, he's a mechanic that moonlights as a vigilante. I'm English, and trying to keep the well-spoken englishman trope alive and well. Things have been going pretty good for me, and yeah.
submitted by Lunar4[link] [20 comments]
Help cheering up
I just utterly ruined the next couple months via forgetting something really important. Consiquences are gunna hit me tonight.
How do i stop being utterly ticked off at myself and being depressed today
submitted by TwistTheCat[link] [11 comments]
Santa's a beaver...and a bit of a jerk.
Member Spotlight: John Van Stry
1. Tell us about your most recent project (written or published). What inspired it?
The ‘Portals of Infinity’ series is my most recent project. It’s about a guy who discovers these portals that link all of these different realities together and his adventures as he deals with different realities, gods, goddesses, and champions. Book six just came out in October.
I can’t point to any one thing that inspired it, as it was actually inspired by a lot of different things. Mainly I was looking for a story that could be serialized and this was what I came up with after a lot of thought. I’ve been rather surprised by how well it has been received.
2. What’s your writing process like? Are you a “pantser,” an outliner, or something in between?
I guess something in between; when I start a story I usually have the beginning, the end, and a scene or two written down. But somewhere around the second or third chapter, once I have a feeling for the story, I’ll sit down and write a full outline. However, I do update the outline if necessary. Only the original plot points I started with don’t change.
3. What’s your favorite kind of story to write?
I actually prefer to write first person singular (and yes, that probably wasn’t what you meant when you asked that, right?) I guess I prefer stories with action and adventure, but it’s really hard for me to narrow it down, because many of my stories rarely have a single ‘kind’ to them, I tend to mix it up. I write SciFi or Fantasy predominately, but I’ve written Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and even a few odder things.
4. Which character from your work do you most identify with, and why?
This is actually a tough question, partially because I’ve got a lot of stuff out there now, as I have a few pen names. I guess I identify a little with Raj, from my book Children of Steel, because we’re both pilots, and we’re both martial artists (though I don’t teach or fight anymore), but I also identify a bit with Mark from The Hammer Commission as that story did come from a dream I had many years ago.
5. Which authors or books have most influenced your work?
That’s a very long list. Roger Zelazny definitely influenced my writing style; Robert Heinlein influenced my love of science fiction and the idea of capable heroes. But also Tolkien, Asimov, Roger Sterling, Lackey, Webber, Dickson, Capote, Zahn, Norman (Lisanne, not the Gor guy), McCaffrey, Correia, and the list goes on. I used to read a lot and I had a lot of authors who I really liked.
6. What’s the last book you read that you really loved?
I guess the last one I read that I really loved was Off Leash by Daniel Potter. It was a ‘Rollicking good yarn’ (sorry, but how often do you get to use the word ‘rollicking’ these days? Couldn’t pass it up). I write full time now, so I don’t get to read as much as I used to, but I came across this book via the board here after talking to Daniel, and I really had a great time reading it.
7. Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time?
Right now? Fallout 4. Though I do wrench on my motorcycles and ride them whenever I can. I also play bass guitar, pretty much every day. I keep a couple set up next to my writing desk with a practice amp for when I take breaks.
8. Advice for other writers?
STORY! Always put the story first. People want to read a good story; they don’t want to be preached at. This isn’t to say you can’t have a viewpoint, or a ‘message’ you want to convey, but the story must always come first. If you don’t have a good story, you won’t sell any copies. The next piece of advice? GET PAID. As Larry Correia says, make that the first line in your business plan.
Another thing I would say is don’t overprice your work. No one is going to pay bookstore prices for an unknown ebook author, especially a self-published or micro-press one. 5.99 is too much, you should all be looking at 2.99 to start. Yes, you make more money on a 5.99 book, but 70 percent of 1 or 2 sales is a lot less at 5.99 than 70 percent of a thousand sales at 2.99.
Last of all, SciFi is not a big market; it’s actually a tiny market. Fantasy is bigger, but Romance is the biggest. If you like writing Romance, then you should write in that market, as you’ll find success a lot easier than in the other markets, and you can charge higher prices for your work. Furry is a very tiny, microscopic market, so it’s no wonder that the only authors doing well in it are writing Romance. There is also a huge prejudice against anything remotely furry in mainstream fiction, except for Paranormal Romance, which if it isn’t vampires, it’s pretty furry.
9. Where can readers find your work?
Amazon. I went exclusive with Amazon last year, because being in the Kindle Unlimited program was a good financial decision for me. I may start going ‘wide’ in 2016, depending on what Amazon does with that program going forward, but right now Amazon is THE place to buy and sell books. The other booksellers out there on line don’t understand the business, and are failing at it.
10. What’s your favorite thing about the furry fandom?
The friendships mainly. Back when I first got started in the fandom and was more active I made a lot of friends with a lot of the other creative folks. I still know quite a few writers and artists and talk to them occasionally. These days I’m not very active in the fandom anymore, I show up at a con or two, maybe log into a muck for a few minutes to check my mail, and that’s about it.
Quiet Falls - Chapter Eight - Psychological Horror Story - NSFW for blood, gore, and other horror themes
It's been a while since I finished a chapter of this. I never abandoned it or anything, I just had a massive writer's block and I was trying to get through a big rewrite of the early chapters. (Thanks to /u/IWishIWasATurnip for helping with that, now the first 30 pages look good instead of reading more like an eight-year-old writing an essay)
The rewrite's still not done, but I have a new chapter so anybody who wants to read from the beginning just has to keep in mind that the beginning is good, the middle is pretty meh, and then it gets better towards the later chapters. Well, it's all subjective but you know what I mean.
Quiet Falls, all eight chapters in one Google Document
As always, the document's in comment mode so you can point out things you want to... well... comment on. Feedback is very appreciated, and don't feel the need to speak softly to me; I can take pretty harsh criticism.
One thing I just want to say, is that I have had the story vaguely planned since the beginning, it was always leading in this direction it just took a while to get there. This paragraph won't make sense until you read the chapter, but, yeah.
submitted by AdvancedAzrielAngel[link] [2 comments]
I love this community
I'm saying right now that this will be long. I'm stressed, these past few weeks haven't been kind to me and right now I'm finding ways to stay awake because I'm freaking out about having my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. And I'm like fucking terrified of normal dentist visits so...as far as I'm concerned tomorrow I get to visit Hell. So right now I'm thinking happy thoughts. And this community came to mind. Pretty much everything that has made me happy in the past year has stemmed from this community, this post will explain why.
I've liked Anthro art since I was a kid. I loved that animated Robin Hood movie, and of course there's also Fox and the Hound, the usuals...
In Junior High, my friends were all about The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson was the best. I agreed, I liked it, but I always liked Anubis the Egyptian figures more. It was also around this time I actually found internet porn, so... I didn't actively seek out adult furry art, but I did frequent "Writing.com" and found a few stories with werewolves that ended up being "18+", you can guess at the details...
Then highschool started, I got more involved with internet communities because I wasn't exactly accepted in the "Real" ones aside from marching band. I learned that furries were actually a group. I didn't really participate though because of the negativity I heard about them, which ended up being false I later learned.
I did entertain the thought of my own "fursona" though, despite even attempting to distance myself from the furry groups. Though after a while highschool life went on, I forgot about furries and "fursonas" for a while... Until I learned about online role-playing.
I wanted to get in on this. It would be like DnD or something fun like that! So I looked up a few roleplaying websites, asked around on another subreddit and someone suggested F-list.
At the time, I was unsure about the whole thing. I made an account anyways, a human character. Then I found Chakats. I like big cat species, and I love centaurs, and Chakats are pretty much a mix of the two. 10/10, would totally hug one.
So, I made a new character, a Chakat named Tempest. And I roleplayed a bunch, I kept it 13+ for a while before I started trying new things, I won't post any details though. If you're that curious, PM me or something I guess.
Fast forward a few weeks, I've logged on enough to make a couple friends. One of them introduced me to their special little group and I fit right in. Even though it was online, it was nice to have this. And no, I didn't become a recluse, I still went out with my friends too, I just started spending less time on YouTube and more time on F-list and Skype.
One of the people in that little group... We became close. And I don't mean that our characters became close, though they certainly did, but... We, the people behind the characters... Every day since then, we've texted each other, called, had video chats when both of us had time... So lets fast forward to right here and right now.
It's been almost two years. We have yet to see each other, I have never held their hand and they've never held mine, I've never seen them without a screen between us... So, this summer, I'm going to see them. The only reason I haven't gone yet is because of time and the fact my parents are doing everything they can to keep me at home for the holidays, but during summer break... I won't have ANY obligation to stay at home, and I can say "I'm going to see someone in another state for a couple weeks or so." and it won't be that big of a deal.
And I'll get to finally see them. I know it might not work out, I think I'm prepared to accept it if it doesn't, after all I still have the pleasant memories, right? It might not work, but there's a chance that it could. And I'd take those odds every day.
I don't know if they browse reddit at all, if they do then chances are they're not subbed here... But if they are, they know this post is about them if they see it. In case they do... Love you, babe.
And as for the community here, as weird as it sounds furries kinda got me through highschool. F-list came into play when I was older, almost graduated, but the friends I met there really helped me get through the harder times. And of course, the person in question that I've been crazy about... I wouldn't have met them if not for this community.
You guys rock, and I'm actually happy that there's a group like this one, and that I'm a part of it (even though I'm a lurker).
EDIT: I guess I'll post an update after my wisdom teeth are taken out. Why not?
submitted by WickedTemp[link] [33 comments]
Starting 3D Model + 3D Print of my fursona
Soooo little backstory here, I am currently going for animation at a tech school and they have a few 3d printers at student disposal..
You can probably guess one of few ways a furry artist can go from here
So anyway I'm working on designing, meshing, sculpting, rigging, and posing a 3D model of my plentiful Tigress gal~
She's cute on paper, I hope that translates well to 3D...
https://i.gyazo.com/1528a9b5bb46c6c3ae899faa9bb681e6.png (slight NSFW)
I plan on getting a full body 3D print of her, could be up to 12 inches tall and I'll be charged only by material. Pretty nice deal, I say! I hope to get many weird looks from the staff
Anways, I hope to make updates on her progress if anyone's interested-
submitted by BagelCo[link] [2 comments]
I just got my fursona portrait!
Thoughts? Opinions? http://imgur.com/61aRbPM
I absolutely love it.
submitted by shibbzs[link] [8 comments]
Dream Parallax - S01A11 Bokko's Swinging Licks
Hello there ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to another act of Dream Parallax! It's been a while, yes, and we here feel that you might not really remember what has been going on. So! Let us bring you up to date, shall we?
For Those Who Came In Late... For those new to the show, a quick summary should be given: Ahkin Setun, a dangerous and cunning rabbit who used to work for the Empire of Camelot’s military before being excommunicated and exiled for meddling with “Dark Magic”, had come into possession of “Frankie and Friends' Family Diner” and four Android-Animatronics, which he later named Animatrons: Frankie the Bear, Bokko the bunny, Hook the pirate fox, and Tammy the chicken. After they successfully overcame the infamous Lunarian thieves known as The Fruit Ghosts he claimed one of their members, Berry, as his own and transformed him into the effeminate server of all things cold, Blue Berry. The restaurant had a grand re-opening, and enjoyed a large success. But a worker attempting to steal was caught and kicked out...and ended up returning that night to exact vengeance along with three of his friends, all three of whom were captured by Frankie and friends. The worker, Dash, attempted to battle Ahkin and was defeated, and his friends were turned into the newest additions to the staff. On the brighter side of things, Niko Linni, Tamagi Stardust, and Razzle Joestar, all three associates for the multimedia giant The Last Apostle Puppetshow, have been going about their normal business, and ended up meeting new friends in the form of Christine Rhoades, Victoria Anderson, and Kacey Caddell. They were invited by Christine herself to The Rhoades Mansion where the Mayor of Eastcoast, Sir Jonathan Rhoades, lives. It was a fine, if not a tad bit mysterious, visit. But one must wonder...what will happen when Niko Linni and Friends come into conflict with Ahkin's dark designs?
In Tonight's Act, Act 10 “Bokko's Swinging Licks”, we find Frankie and Friends doing a routine show for all of the guests where Frankie, Tammy, and Bokko must overcome one of Hook's games. An accident during Hook's departure leads Ahkin and Jikan to discovering something that should be best forgotten, and two children decide that it would be good fun to pick on Hook after the show. Hopefully they can avoid getting the attention of a certain purple animatron rabbit…
Should you wish to begin the series from the beginning, you should check out the Prologue. We also have a Serial Index available for anyone who may want to jump to a particular act. Read something that sounds like you've heard it somewhere else before? Check out the Reference Sheet, which is updated as new Acts are posted.
submitted by nikolinni[link] [comment]
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