Bookcrossing.com and Too Far Press have teamed up to distribute over 1000 copies of Wild Animus (Advance Reader Version). The book is about a Berkley college student who decides that he no longer wishes to be a human, but a Dall Ram by the name of Ransom. The book follows his attempts in the literal world and the world of print to break thru to the Furry side.

They pay the postage and ship worldwide. The author, Rich Shapero, seems unaware of a Furry community, and may be even somewhat autobiographical.

A planned publicity stunt ala a giant Easter egg hunt, with copies of this book as the eggs across the world is likely to send some of the spotlight Furryward.

Here's a list of the programming panels, entertainment events, and contests currently scheduled for CACE 2004, along with a brief description, broken down by day. A few panels are still to be confirmed, so look back here later for an update, including some new topics, full descriptions, and a programming grid with exact times. Please note that all programming topics and the contents of the panels are subject to change.

From Doodles: "For those of you unfamiliar with who Kate Worley is, she's one half of the team that brought "Omaha The Cat Dancer" to life, an act which brought _me_ into this fandom. So you can imagine how much of a debt I owe her and Reed Waller.

This is all being cross-posted from the Cat-Dancing-with-OMAHA Yahoo Group with permission, and I'll let Reed and Kate say most of it. First, Reed posted this on 4/21/04:

The news is not good. After a short period of stability, just long enough for her to start getting some strength back and think about writing, Kate's cancer has flared up again. She is back in rad and chemo as of today, and more treatments. This despite the increased risks of repeated radiation to the spinal column, but there's really no choice."

Hey Y'all!

Did you know that RCFM just got it's very own domain? YES! Now the site URL is so easy to remember, at http://www.rcfm.net

I just wanted everyfur out there to know that we're getting *really* close to having all the preparations for RCFM 2004 up and ready to roll for Memorial Day weekend. The events are lining up pretty well, the FOOD is getting organized and the website is just amazing, now that Tallyhawk is doing it instead of me. :D

A.D.V. Manga just sent me the following press release with a note asking if I thought Furry fans might be interested in this new manga title? They are aiming at the Spiegelman - "Maus" market. The street date is July 27; the price is $9.99.

Apocalypse Meow vol. 1 (of 3) by Motofumi Kobayashi

Ages 13+

Graphic Novel/Manga/Military

TPB, 5 x 7 7/16, 146 pages

ISBN 1-4139-0017-8

What?! Rabbits are fighting in the Vietnam War?! That’s right—the characters of this pseudo-historical account of the Vietnam War are rabbits, cats, and other animals representing various nationalities involved in the war. It’s the story of the life and adventures of the Special Operations unit lead by Sergeant “Perky” Perkins. The reader will experience and feel the danger and life or death excitement of the battlefield alongside Perky and his rabbits as they face terrible battles in the jungles of Vietnam. A remarkable synthesis of gritty realism and fable-like characters. Apocalypse Meow is a unique masterpiece!

You Sonic freaks are going to love this. It's a bittorrent tracker dedicated entirely to Sonic the Hedgehog stuff.

BBC Online reports that the British Big Cats Society has compiled evidences which seems to corroborate the growing number of sightings of lynx, leopards, and pumas in the South West of England, and has called for a serious study of the problem by appropriate public agencies.

Well, there's now less then 2 months until the opening of CACE 2004, and we're working hard to put the finishing touches on what is looking to be our best year yet!

Midwest FurFest is pleased to announce our third Guest of Honor for our fifth year.

David Gilbert is the creator and artist for the King Features Syndicated comic strip 'Buckles'. His strip was created back in 1996 about a dog and his owners and is now shown each day in over 100 newspapers. You can see archived strips of Buckles at http://www.bucklescomic.com or at http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/buckles/about.htm.

Early this morning, Flayrah.com was hacked by by person or persons uknown. The hack consisted of a news article posted under my name, and some minor defacement of the site. I do not know if any further damage was caused. If you notice anything further out of the ordianary, please email me. I will shortly be updating Flayrah.com's codebase to the latest release of PostNuke; this will hopefully plug any security holes that the hacker may have used. Thanks for your patience.

Aureth
Publisher, Flayrah.com

Final ballots for the Ursa Major Awards were mailed on 2 April. Many votes are coming in, but we are also getting several envelopes returned by the Post Office as "undeliverable". The reasons on the P.O. stamps are mostly "Moved; no forwarding address", "Undeliverable as addressed; unable to forward"; and "No such address". These are ballots that were requested by attendees of Conifur Northwest last September, so some of them have apparently moved since then. We may have misread some of the handwritten addresses on other requests.

If any of the following fans who requested a ballot read this notice, please send your mailing addresses immediately to fredpatten@earthlink.net, so we may re-mail your ballot to your current address while there is still time for you to vote.

This goes for anyone else who would like to vote for the 2003 Ursa Major Awards. Send your request for a ballot with your mailing address to fredpatten@earthlink.net. The paper ballots each have an individual security code, so it is not possible to vote by e.mail.

Gregg Baker
Patrick E. Bright
James James
Craig Lavaller
Thomas Looney
Trey McElveen
Dan Moesel
Vanessa Pridgen
Stuart A. Royan
Chris Sefton
Chad Shoose
Tiger Wolf

Delek Dragon! (Can anyone here translate the Hebrew?)

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for the Anthrocon 2004 conbook is less than a month away!The Anthrocon conbook offers a fantastic forum for artists and writers to showcase their talents to their peers. To make contributing artwork to the conbook easier, an FTP site is now available. Our theme this year is "Summer Games." Complete conbook submission guidelines and instructions on how to connect to the FTP site are available by sending an email to conbook@anthrocon.org. Deadline for submissions is April 30, 2004. We look forward to hearing from you! Cordially, Anthrocon Press Services

Repentent Republicans vote for Gay Penguin in 2004!

True, this nonaligned, amphibious alternative to conventional choices for President may be incapable of abstract thought. Then again, his inability to sign documents would ensure an absence of policies such as job outsourcing, the Iraq War, and a constitutional amendment defining marriage. See Gay Penguin's public stances on these and many other issues in this cleverly done satirical piece.

"Gay Penguin 2004. Because he's not Bush."

Trickster

Hey Y'all!

Head Cat KO here, and let me tell you that it's been one heck of a month of Meet planning here in Huntsville!

We've got most of the details squared away, the website is almost complete and the site is about to have a whole new look as well...