I had to check that I had the year right, but we are here in 2024! From everyone here at the guild, I hope you had a pleasant Christmas period and new year, however you choose to celebrate or not.
The start of a new year is always an exciting one, filled with plans and expectations for the twelve months to come. It’s no different for us at the FWG! We also have several plans which we are hoping to set in motion that will allow the guild to better serve the furry writing community.
The first of these is one that we have already announced – we are finally bringing out a third anthology! Tales from the Guild in 2014 with Music To Your Ears, and was followed up with World Tour in 2018. Six years later, and we’re back with Blood and Water! We are now open for submissions and will be until the end of March. See the entry below in the market updates for more information.
Secondly, we plan on opening up the blog to more guest authors. This can include author spotlights, essays, and other content. The spotlight with Joaquin Baldwin was received well last year, as were the spotlights we ran for Furry Book Month in 2022. We will be opening up for submissions for general blogs – aiming for at least one guest blog per month – as well as topical ones during months/days of focus, such as Black History Month, Pride Month, and International Women’s Day. This list is not exhaustive, so if you think your blog idea fits with any topical day, week, or month, send it in to us and we can make judgements on whether it is appropriate to feature. Note: the blog itself does not need to be strictly related to the topical focus – so long as the author is a part of the relevant group.
Submissions to the blog may be made through the following form:
We hope to share more updates and news with you as the year progresses – and that will of course include the Coyotl Awards! Start getting your list of eligible works together, as it should not be long before we have the Reading List ready to go. Authors may submit their own works to the Reading List for the consideration of the FWG Members who will then nominate works to the shortlist.
Didn’t have anything ready for the Coyotls this year? Perhaps you can find a home for a short story to become eligible for next year!
As always, guild members, if you have something coming out soon, send it our way so we can include it every month!
I am really excited to see what 2024 can bring. I hope that your writing plans come to fruition. All of us at the FWG are interested to see what you can come up with!
It’s finally time for another Tales From The Guild! It’s been many years since our World Tour, so we’d like to officially announce the third anthology edited by the Furry Writers Guild – Blood and Water! This anthology will be published by Fenris Publishing.
Previously, we have had Music To Your Years, themed around music, and World Tour, themed around travel.
Blood and Water will be themed around family – those bound by blood and the family we choose and find. Give us your best families – those that are perfect and wholesome or those dysfunctional and chaotic! Families can be defined by blood and shared relationships, or they can be the close friends we develop through hardship. However your family works, we want to see it! We are looking forward to seeing what stories you can create that fits in with this theme!
The editors for this anthology are all guild staff: J.F.R. Coates, K.C. Shaw, Resolute, and Scribbles Cheetah.
What are we seeking:
Short stories up to 6000 words in length. (Anything more than this, query with the editors).
Stories must be furry/anthropomorphic in some capacity.
Stories must be themed around ‘family’ in some capacity – though interpretation of this theme is open.
Stories should not be explicit in adult content. The anthology is aiming for PG13/M content. Let the editors know if you’re not sure how your story will fit.
Stories can be of any genre, so long as they fit with the overall theme.
We do not want any stories that portray topics like racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, etc in a positive light.
Previously unpublished stories are significantly preferred, but reprints may be considered if the story is right.
Authors do not need to be a FWG member to submit.
Other important details:
Stories should be sent by email to furwritersguild@gmail.com – with the subject line Blood And Water – [Story Title] in a .doc or .docx format. Please include your name on the first page only.
Multiple submissions are allowed – up to three per author. A maximum of one story per author will be selected. Please no simultaneous submissions.
Payment is 1c/word.
Submissions open 1st January 2024.
Submissions close 31st March 2024.
All stories should receive a response by 30th April 2024.
Expected release will be at Megaplex or MFF 2024.
Publication for this anthology consumes the First Worldwide English rights for your story. Exclusive Digital and Print rights for a period of twelve (12) months following the first date of publication are required, and non-exclusive worldwide rights to digital and print publication of the Work in perpetuity.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Happy writing!
And here we are, at the end of the year! December is here, and NaNoWriMo is behind us. I hope everyone participating was able to hit their targets – even if it wasn’t the 50,000 words. Any word written is one more than you had before!
There isn’t much news for the guild at the moment, though I certainly hope to start bring out a few of the updates and changes we have planned in 2024. Feedback will soon be requested over initiatives such as Oxfurred Comma, the book bundles, and the possibility of opening up to guest blogs.
I look back on the last few years as being president of the FWG and I am certainly satisfied with the progress made, but there is still a long way to go before the work is done! I hope next year will take another few big steps forward.
Did you work on some short stories during NaNoWriMo that need a home? Check out the open anthology market calls:
Quietly now – it’s NaNoWriMo, and many writers are hard at work on completing the annual 50k words in a month challenge! Best of luck to those of you who are taking part – either with the official goal, or with your own targets. Just remember, any amount of writing is more than you had before!
Of course, with NaNoWriMo here, that means Furry Book Month has come to an end. I hope readers and writers alike were able to find some new books – especially through the book bundles the guild ran. We will be in contact with the contributing authors soon to pass on their royalties.
We will also soon start to open discussions about the possibility of restarting Oxfurred Comma next year, to determine what the members of our community would like to see, and if the event is feasible going forward. Either way, it is likely that some change of format will be required to ensure that we don’t have a repeat of this year’s attempt.
For those trying NaNoWriMo a different way and trying out some short stories instead of novels, there are some open markets that may provide some inspiration:
And if you’re looking for some inspiration in the form of recently released or upcoming books, then we have you covered as well! Who knows – maybe your current project will be listed here soon.
For those of you who bought books during Furry Book Month, your journey may not be over yet! If you have enjoyed reading what the furry writing community has to offer, please let people know! Either through reviews, recommendations, or contacting the authors directly.
Until next month, happy reading and writing! J.F.R. Coates
Not all furry works are created by those within the community. Sometimes, those out-of-fandom creators can find their way towards our wonderful community, and sometimes they like what they see so much that they decide to stick around! That is very much the case with today’s author spotlight – Joaquín Baldwin.
Joaquín was kind enough to answer a few questions about his writing process and works. I hope you find them insightful and interesting!
For those who aren’t familiar with you, did you want to introduce yourself and your novel? You might know me better for posting dank Zootopia memes, or for my work at Disney or in animated shorts, but I’ve been working on my own novels for quite a while now and trying to make this my main, big project for the next several years. Wolf of Withervale is the first book of the Noss Saga, an ambitious epic told in six parts (all six books are fully written, don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging). It’s an intrinsically queer story, the kind of tale I wanted to read growing up (although this is an adult novel, not YA, but that wouldn’t have stopped young me). It deals with a magical mask, with themes of transformation, of the nature of consciousness, of gender and identity. It’s a very sex- and size-positive series, but it also has all that you’d expect from an epic tale of massive scope.
What is your writing process like? Do you outline and plot, or are you a pantser? I’m in the middle. I outline key events I want to get to (including the ending), so I know what I’m telling is something that will go somewhere important, and then I write linearly from start to finish trying to reach those moments. In my outlines I don’t know much about the characters I’ll encounter, except a few, so I’m always surprised at who shows up and what their personalities are, and sometimes the assholes end up taking primary roles and screw up my plans, making me have to reshuffle certain things in my outlines. I enjoy those surprises, but I also need structure. Key moments to me can be a philosophical debate, a romantic thing, a time of self-discovery, a big battle, a death, an arrival at a key piece of information that will unravel the next stage in the adventure. It varies a lot, but it’s those chapters I just can’t wait to write, so once I get to them they pour out truly fast.
The first few days of writing a novel can be the most exciting and daunting part of the writing process. How easily did the first idea for The Noss Saga spawn into a functioning story? Where did that initial spark of an idea come from? There are many ideas put together into one here. There is one core idea that came to me at 4 am on October 3rd 2020, that core piece tied all my other ideas together into something I could use for worldbuilding at a scale I had not considered before. I didn’t sleep much after that 4am dreamlike moment, and just kept planning around this new idea, then told myself I’d start writing on November 1st to coincide with NaNoWriMo (that’d give me enough time to mull it over, plan a bit, while also forcing me to actually start and not put it off forever). I don’t know where the idea came from. I’m a light sleeper, I wake up all the time at night and semi-hallucinate as I try to fall back asleep. It just came, unprompted. What was that core idea? I can’t tell you because it’d be a massive spoiler, but it has to do with the way the magic of Noss works.
What was the most enjoyable part of creating this series? The epiphanies. Like that 4am one mentioned above, I had many others where things just clicked together, where a big story problem was solved (often between 2am and 4am, unfortunately), and it feels so great to have that happen. Often it also happens while writing, during those moments of pure flow where something clicks in place and it makes it look like I had planned setups and payoffs for ages just to get to this point, but it just happens in the spur of the moment and it brightens my day.
What was the most challenging aspect? Giving up on having a life. I started this at the start of the pandemic, which at that time made it easy since there was no going out anywhere anyway. But it’s been consuming every moment of free time I have. I watch only a handful of movies a year, one or two TV shows at most, zero videogames, been going out on fewer photo roadtrips (what kept me sane before this all started), etc. I’m doing too much in too short a time, and it’s taking its toll.
Which authors or specific books have most influenced your work? The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. As obvious as this may be, I have to include this here. I read it when I was 15 years old, and I immediately fell in love with the world as much as with the characters.
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. King’s series adds a grittier tone to fantasy that I truly enjoyed. The tone through a lot of the Noss Saga borrows from it. Even the very first line in my prologue echoes the first line of The Gunslinger!
The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin. Orogeny, the magic system in this series, greatly inspired me to create my own magic system based on strict rules leaning more toward sci-fi than traditional fantasy. Incredible series that tackles themes of racism and climate change.
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany. I don’t recall enjoying this thick book, but I’m still thinking about it. It’s weird, it’s visceral, chaotic, and I can’t even explain what it’s about. It’s a love it or hate it book, or perhaps both.
The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges. Reading Borges is knowing you’ll never write as well as Borges. These short stories are much larger than the scant pages they inhabit, and their imagery is elusive in their clarity. It’s poetry in prose. Read them in the original Spanish if possible.
Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. This series tackles sociological issues in a compelling way, and evolving through time. It’s the best kind of sci-fi, already starting big but then getting so big that you could never had seen it coming.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. A different kind of post-apocalyptic story. In the Noss Saga I explore similar themes of discovery about what was left behind by an ancient world, and how future generations reinterpret old norms and technology.
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. Sagan in general taught me to be a skeptic, to think with clarity and reason, but also to be a dreamer. Despite there being a “magic” of sorts in my fantasy world, it is tightly grounded in scientific concepts.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. The prevalent themes of consciousness and self-awareness in my saga are tightly linked to me reading this intimidating book. It is, to this date, my favorite non-fiction book of all time. It tries to explain consciousness from as close to a scientific way as can be approached, while playing mindtricks on the reader in increasingly more complex self-referential ways.
Imajica by Clive Barker. Barker’s writings never hold back. He simply digs into his guts and pulls out the imagery that is needed, the emotions that are most raw. This book is huge in scope, and how it deals with sex and gender was refreshing, honest, uninhibited.
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman. Another series that ties magic to tightly grounded scientific concepts, while still allowing itself to remain whimsical when needed. The animal and anthropomorphic aspects of the series remain a strong influence in what I crafted with Noss.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The kindness of Gaiman is what strikes me most about his writing. His observations, his knowledge, his way of crafting myths of myths always come from a place of empathy and understanding. Sometimes when I’m stuck editing my own work, I try to read it in Gaiman’s soothing and mellifluous voice, then I find where the pacing is off.
The Kingkiller Chronicle Series by Patrick Rothfuss. Rothfuss’ voice is lyrical, flowing effortlessly. His worldbuilding is entrancing, and his magic system solid and engaging. Being a debut author himself, it became a big inspiration for me to keep on pushing with my own work.
City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende. A more lighthearted kind of fantasy written for young adults. As in Noss, this one deals with hidden worlds and the beauty of nature.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Another poetic voice that hit me deeply. Beautiful imagery, iconic, mythical, made of so many snippets of other stories and voices but tying them together perfectly. My favorite fiction book in the last decade.
Xenogenesis Series by Octavia E. Butler. Sci-fi that cleverly deals with sex and sexuality, as well as how the hierarchical mindset of humans ultimately become self-destructive.
Contact by Carl Sagan. The movie was cool, but it’s an abbreviated thought. The book is vast, reaching to an idea so big and mind-blowing that was not possible to put into the film version. Although Book 1 in my series starts relatively small in scope, by the sixth book things do expand to unexpected places.
A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir by Donald Worster. There is a character in Book 1 clearly inspired by Muir in his demeanor, philosophy, and even voice. This is a great introduction to Muir’s life and his life-long struggle to preserve wilderness.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson The man knows how to craft magic systems and write action sequences.
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman Unbounded curiosity. I often try to recreate that sense of wonder and discovery in Noss, and how joyful and exciting things small and things big can be.
What is the last book you read that you really love? The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Pure poetry, visually mesmerizing.
What character of yours do you most identify with? And why? It’s gonna be pretty obvious that Lago, the protagonist, is the closest. Gay, loves big bears and big guys, loves adventure, the stars, is kinda nerdy. But he’s not me. I put a lot of myself into all the characters I write, even the villains. Particularly with the villains I think that’s important, since it’s a way for me to make them more real and not just caricatures.
Besides writing, how do you like to spend your free time? *cries at the mention of “free time”*
I used to have a life…
My biggest hobby is nature photography, but I haven’t had a chance to do it that often lately. It’s the perfect excuse to explore the world and see remote places you normally wouldn’t get to. My husband and I like to roadtrip and just wing it as we go, mostly skipping the touristy crap and getting lost on smaller roads, finding the good stuff.
You were embraced by the furry community after Zootopia. How much do you credit this community for shaping this book, and for wanting to see it through to the end? A huge amount! As I said on the Acknowledgments page of the book, “In particular, thank you to my fervent furry following, who taught me to be courageous enough to be myself, to write a story that speaks my truth. You inspire me.” I’ve always enjoyed anthro art but wasn’t involved with the community till Zootopia, and that changed my path entirely. There’d be no Noss without the fandom.
Do you have any advice to give other writers? Set a starting date between now and, say, 3 months from now. No more. Then start writing that day. You’re never ready to get started until you get started, so you have to take that first step. From there, it’s just a matter of consistency (I won’t say “write X amount every day” because I know people have different ways of working, and my own is for me alone, you have to find what works for you).
What types of stories would you like to see other people write more of? I’d like to see more stories that feel consequential. An event, an opus, a grand orchestrated epic that has a purpose and it’s not just a way to sell books or to wing it from side story to side story. To me, themes of discovery, of the beauty of the natural world, of diverse ways of thought, those are the things that fascinate me. Sexuality and sex written in a natural, nuanced and revelatory way can be amazing.
It’s still early days, but what is next after The Noss Saga? Are there more stories waiting to be told? It’s a huge world! I have ideas for stories that take place during certain events of the six-book series, and also ideas for a sci-fi story set in the same world but thousands of years in the future. There’s also the possibility of a tabletop RPG game, card game, and other things of that sort, but I promised myself I would not jump onto those things until after Book 6 is out, otherwise they’d become distractions. I want this project to last till I’m gone and after. I have too many illustrations to do, too many characters to design, too many more maps to add details to.
And also find me on Bluesky, at https://bsky.app/profile/joabaldwin.com, where I post stuff about what I’m working on. And you can also find me on that other website but who wants to go there any more? Screw that other website.
Illustration by Ilse Gort (aka Caraid).
Please do check out Joaquín’s new book – and I hope some of the answers he has provided has helped discover something a little new about your writing process – or given you some great new books to read from his fantastic recommendations.
I am hopeful to bring back more of these author spotlights in the future – either from similar Q&As or guest blogs, or any number of possible avenues!
Until next time. Enjoy the remainder of Furry Book Month and share those great furry stories. J.F.R. Coates
It’s that time of year! Furry Book Month is here, where we celebrate the wonderful skill and talent on show within the furry writing community. We have a few things planned that we hope will uplift furry writing and give new readers the chance to explore the wonderful worlds our writers have to share.
We encourage every writer – and reader – of furry fiction to share your experiences on social media with the #FurryBookMonth hashtag so we can get some visibility on the best of our community. Is there a book you read recently that you loved? A new release or an old favourite? Share it with everyone! Are you an author with something new and exciting, or a promotional sale? Share that too!
For this month, let’s get the conversations happening around furry fiction.
To help get things started, we have two book bundles this year for you to enjoy. Like last year, we have a general bundle with 9 books by our members, but this year we have also added an 18+ bundle with titles of a spicier persuasion. They are both available on Gumroad at a pay-what-you-want (minimum purchases US$10 and US$7 respectively), with all proceeds being split evenly with each contributing author and the FWG.
Tales of Feathers and Flame – John Bailey The Fifth – Saylor Ferguson A New Life – B. Kozer Horizon: Salvaged Heroes – Joel Kreissman Throwback – Frances Pauli Aces High – J. Daniel Phillips The Dragon’s Paladin – Justin Lee Gryphon Insurrection Boxset 1 – K. Vale Nagle Lost Inside the Blue Line – Herr Wozzeck
Bringing Down Upworld – Kandrel Harmony – Flash Kitterson Edax Sapiens – Kadon L. Peterson Gods For The Machines – Morpheuskibbe Royal Red – K.C. Shaw CCS – Tagenar
We hope you’ll check out these great bundles for a fantastic price. They will be available for the duration of Furry Book Month!
Oxurred Comma
Oxfurred Comma was created to fill the gap left behind by in-person conventions when the pandemic started to create lockdowns. When those conventions started to return, the consensus was to continue Oxfurred Comma – both to provide an outlet for those who felt unsafe returning to the physical conventions, but also to give furry writers a space of their own.
The last two years have definitely seen that interest remain in running this online convention. That interest appears to have dwindled for 2023.
The last opportunity to organise the Oxfurred Comma panels has now been and gone, and there simply have not been enough panel submissions to create any meaningful schedule.
As such, Oxfurred Comma will not take place this year.
I will discuss what has changed and what we can learn from this with the FWG staff, and we will then open things up to the membership base as a whole to determine whether we will make another attempt in 2024, or if we will consider the needs and desires for the convention to have faded.
Please not that, as it was always a part of the convention, the flash fiction contest will also not take place this year.
Thank you to those of you who did submit an entry to the flash fiction contest or a panel. With conversations to come over the next few months, we will share our plans for what role Oxfurred Comma may play in the future.
But Furry Book Month isn’t about dwelling on bad news! We have plenty of exciting things to come over the next month, and that includes anthology calls! There are a couple of new ones that have opened recently, so have a look through the list and see what options there may be for you.
We hope you’ll join us in sharing the best of what furry writing has to offer. Share your thoughts about your favourite books – leave plenty of reviews and start up conversations about what furry writing means to you! We hope you’ll enjoy the book bundles.
We come to September, the final month before Furry Book Month and Oxfurred Comma! Preparations are going on in earnest behind the scenes, but there are still things you can all do as well! We are open for submissions for the furry book bundles and the flash fiction contest! We are also opening our call for panellists to present at Oxfurred Comma. More information on all of this below.
Oxfurred Comma Panels Panel ideas can now be submitted! We have the option to run panels live or pre-recorded, and can be run around any manner of writing topics! Please submit your panel ideas for approval to this form: https://forms.gle/5nYCQgUQTTpS3oCv8
Oxfurred Comma will run October 21/22, so if there are any time or date preferences for running live panels, please let us know in the form. Looking forward to seeing your great ideas!
Flash Fiction Contest The flash fiction contest is unthemed again, so your 500 word furry stories can be about anything you can imagine! Entries can be sent in with the following link: https://forms.gle/GnSdDTrneyjWsDye8
You do not need to be a FWG member to submit an entry. All entries should be kept to a PG-13 rating. Just one entry per person.
Novel Bundle We are open for submission for two novel bundles – one adult rated and one PG-13. This one is open for FWG members only, and priority is given to those authors who were not included in last year’s bundle, and we will not consider novels that were included last year.
As with last year, the bundles will be made available on Gumroad for a pay-what-you-want (minimum price of $10), with proceeds split evenly between all contributing authors and the FWG. Please get in your entries for this before Sunday 24th, as we want the bundle to go live on October 1st.
Social Media To update on our post last month, the FWG is now set up on both Mastodon and Bluesky. We haven’t yet started the long process of ensuring we are following all of our members, but you can join us on the two platforms with the links below.
From all of us at the guild, we are looking forward to Furry Book Month in October. We hope you’ll join us for a great month of celebrating furry fiction.
Sorry for the slightly late blog – I got distracted with the Women’s World Cup matches every evening.
Why yes, I do also have some important writing projects I’ve been procrastinating from, why do you ask?
We do have some new to share, though! Furry Book Month and Oxfurred Comma are rapidly approaching, so it’s about time to start sharing some of what we have planned.
Oxfurred Comma Everyone’s favourite online furry writing convention will be back for another year! We will be running the convention on Twitch on October 21/22 – save the dates! Exact times TBC but expect it to run through the day on a USA schedule. Those interested in running panels are encouraged to let us know as soon as possible – with details on what your panel will be and who will be taking part. Panels can be pre-recorded or run live.
Send us an email or message one of the guild staff directly for more information on running panels.
Flash Fiction Contest As always, we will also run a flash fiction contest with the winner announced at the conclusion of Oxfurred Comma. Exact details are still be finalised in terms of theme and how to submit. Keep an eye on our socials for more details to come.
Novel Bundle The story bundle we ran last year was a great success, so we’re keen to do it all over again! But this time we’re intending on doing something a little different – we’re planning on two bundles! One will be a general rating like last year, and a second bundle will be for more adult-rated content.
As it was last year, we will be opening this bundle up to all self-published works by FWG members. At this stage, we have not had the necessary discussions with publishers to include any works published by them. Send us a message if you’re not sure.
Novels included in last year’s bundle will not be considered at all for this year’s bundles. Authors included last year may submit separate novels, however we will be prioritising new authors who were not included in the 2022 bundle.
Submission details will be shared soon. Like last year, this bundle will be available for a limited time during Furry Book Month.
Social Media Update While not related to Oxfurred Comma or Furry Book Month, it is still an important situation to address. Twitter has been going through an… interesting time recently, and users are starting to leave in larger numbers. So that the FWG can maintain a strong social media presence, we are currently in the process of shifting to other platforms. It is unlikely we will fully leave Twitter at this stage, but we are in the process of setting up a Mastodon account, and should soon be getting onto Bluesky as well.
Once these two sites have been set up, we will approach guild members to get details on their accounts on these platforms – we want to keep track of all members if and when they depart Twitter!
That’s about all for the news updates this month, but there are still plenty of anthology calls open, including a few new ones from FurPlanet!
We’re all looking forward to seeing your ideas for panels at Oxfurred Comma, and we hope to soon see your submissions for the novel bundle and flash fiction competition.
And just like that, we’re halfway through the year.
Many of the guild’s writers and publishers have just come back from Anthrocon, where there were many new book releases (check out the bottom of this blog), and we hope many sales! If you picked up a book or two at Anthrocon, please share some pics of your haul with us – and the publishers and authors! Don’t forget to leave a review as well!
There isn’t much guild new to share this month, though I am expecting a bit more at the start of August as we begin preparations for Oxfurred Comma and Furry Book Month. Expect some developments there to come soon.
The guild officers have also been in discussion with other ways to produce more content and opportunities for guild members. Stay tuned for more news here.
We have also been keeping a close eye on the situation happening on Twitter. For a long time, Twitter has been the FWG’s primary social media outlet. We are keeping our options open at the moment and will be looking to expand to another location – Mastodon and Bluesky are looking like the likely options at this stage. We will continue to maintain our presence on Twitter.
Once we have accounts set up on the new sites, we will begin the process of finding guild members already present on those platforms.
For those who don’t worry about failing social media sites, there are always short story opportunities! Please check out the current open calls.
There were also plenty of new releases during the Anthrocon weekend. These are the ones from the FWG members – though there were plenty of other new books to enjoy!
May certainly felt like a busy month with all three furry writing awards getting announced. It was also an important month in the greater writing sphere, with the WGA strike in USA filmmaking, with possible actors strikes to follow. The FWG put out a statement earlier in May supporting this strike. Part of the purpose of the FWG is to benefit furry writers, and we stand in solidarity with other writing communities and organisations trying to do the same to their writers.
Once more, the FWG would like to offer congratulations to everyone who was a finalist and winner in the three furry writing awards throughout the month. These awards help to showcase the massive talent on display in the writing community – it is no easy feat to get nominated as a finalist, especially given the quality of works that didn’t even make it that far. The winners and finalists should be proud of their achievements. For those who missed the awards ceremonies, you can catch up on the finalists and where to find them on the FWG’s wrap-up posts.
Each year, these awards seem to get more competitive. We can’t wait to see what works get nominated for the 2023 awards. They are sure to be as good as ever.
Perhaps a short story in one of these open calls will get a nomination? You won’t know until you submit!
We hope writers and readers alike have found something to be inspired by with the awards last month. We look forward to hearing about what you are writing over the remainder of the year.
Furry Writers’ Guild 