Another month of the year has passed by. This month was Pride Month, and I hope people enjoyed reading the Pride Month Spotlights that were featured over the last few weeks. The Furry Writers’ Guild is blessed with so many members who identify as LGBTQ+, so in truth there could have been any number of people interviewed. We at the guild encourage everyone to continue supporting LGBTQ+ people and causes.

For this month’s newsletter, there will be three main topics to cover.
– The Leo Awards winners.
– Open anthology markets.
– Book promotion opportunities.

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The Leo Awards are run by the Furry Book Review. They are a little different to other awards as there is never one single winner of each category. Instead, the awards seek to honour and highlight all exceptional furry fiction. As a consequence of this, all nominations that pass a benchmark score across a panel of judges is considered a winner of the award. This can be shared amongst the entire field of nominations, if all are considered worthy. (Note: I was one of the judges for this year’s awards, which were judged in March/April.)

The winners for the 2020 Leo Awards were as follows:

Novels

Disbanded, by Frances Pauli

Entanglement Bound, by Mary E. Lowd

Qoholeth + Gallery Exhibition, by Madison Scott-Clary

Fox Spirit: A Two-Tailed Adventure, by Amy Clare Fontaine

Whip and Boot, by Herr Wozzeck

Ritual of the Ancients, by Ian Madison Keller

Symphony of Hunted Truths, by Leilani Wilson

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Novellas

What Makes a Witch, by Linnea Capps

Rightful Salvage, by Frances Pauli

Spin the Bottle, by Dajan Tafari

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Anthologies

Difursity, by Weasel

Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements, vol. 1, by KC Alpinus

Sensory De-tails, by Thurston Howl

Burnt Fur, by Ken MacGregor

OhMurr, by Weasel

The Haunted Den, by Tarl “Voice” Hoch and Thurston Howl

The Electric Sewer, by Thurston Howl

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Short Stories

“The Battler” by Cedric G! Bacon in Even Furries Hate Nazis

“The Fire in Her Claws” by Mary E. Lowd in Daily Science Fiction

“Paths” by Kyell Gold in Sensory De-tails

“Water” by Utunu in The Voice of Dog

“Summer Strawberries” by Mary E. Lowd in The Voice of Dog

“Loving You is Wrong” by NightEyes Dayspring in The Voice of Dog

“Ember in the Night” by BanWynn Oakshadow in SPECIES: Wildcats

“Sharp” by Thurston Howl in Electric Sewer

“Keep Breathing” by Karter Mycroft in Zooscape

“Too Much Play” by TJ Minde in Give Yourself a Hand

“The Pine Lesson” by Ian Madison Keller in Ironclaw: Book of Legends

“These Are the Days of Our Lives” by Weasel in Sensory De-tails

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Poems

“On Meeting My First Fur” by Chazz Chitwood in Furry Slut

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Nonfiction

“Furry Erotica and Pornography: Art, Sex, and the Self” by Katav in From Paw to Print

From Paw to Print, compiled by Thurston Howl

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Book Covers

Disbanded, by Ilya Royz

Once Broken, by Nomax

Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements, vol. 1, by Jonas Jödicke

When a Cat Loves a Dog, by Idess

Furry Slut, by Jessica Hart

Fox Spirit: A Two-Tailed Adventure, by Paola Tuazon

Purrgatorio, by Joseph Chou

Please support these wonderful writers by clicking through the links and buying what stands out to you. Trust me, they are all deserved winners!
Nominations are also open for the 2021 Leo Awards.

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As always, the Furry Writers Market is the go-to place to find out which markets are currently open for submissions. Here is a quick rundown of the open calls.

• Untethered – Deadline: July 15th 2021
• Wolves Gay – Deadline: July 30th 2021
• Furward Slash: A Furry Adult Techno-Horror Anthology – Deadline: November 30th, 2021
• Pirating Pups – Deadline: November 30th, 2021
• The Nightmurr Before Christmas – Deadline: October 1st, 2021
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
• Zooscape – Reoccurring submission period.
• Isekai Me – Deadline: When full.
  
  An important note to add as well: The Submission Grinder now has a search category specifically for furry calls. This will mean another important tool in finding furry-specific anthology calls.

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The Furry Writers’ Guild is also looking for books to promote.
If you are a guild member who has a book release coming up, then please get in contact with us so that we can help share this news through our social media outlets. We will be keeping an eye out for new books ourselves, but if you don’t want us to miss it, send us an email or message and we can make a note of it.

For now, we will only promote self-published books if they are from a guild member. All books through a publisher will be considered. This scope may well change in the future, so keep checking back to our social media feeds and blog posts for more information.

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The second half of 2021 is upon us. Things may not have been easy so far this year, but hopefully the next six months will see a gradual return to a better normal.
Keep writing, keep reading. Make it all furry!

J.F.R. Coates

Hello everyone!

Just a quick post for those of you who have been unaware of the recent developments with the guild, we now have a new president and vice-president.

Firstly, I would like to thank Linnea for all the hard work put in during the last year. The Furry Writers’ Guild has really improved as an organisation in this time. We hope to maintain this momentum.

For those who do not know me, I am J.F.R. Coates. I will be assisted by Kate Shaw as my VP. We are both looking forward to seeing how we can help further the guild, as well as maintaining the work put in during the last year. We do not want to see the guild taking any steps back, even if the steps forward we make may be small.

Over the next few days and weeks, we plan to set a firmer vision of what we want to achieve over this term. If there are any thoughts and suggestions for where you – the members – wish to see the guild go, then we are very happy to hear you! Please do contact us, either through the guild email or twitter accounts, or feel free to contact me directly via telegram at @JayFR.

I am aware the June Monthly Update has not gone out. I’ll get my head around everything involved with the transition, and aim to have something out during the week.

Thank you for reading. I am looking forward to this task of leading the Furry Writers’ Guild.

Here’s to a successful year ahead!

It’s been a while since there’s been a blog post here, and we don’t “peel back the curtain” too much. So let’s pull up a chair and chat.

In mid-2017, the FWG presidency passed from Watts Martin (“Chipotle”) to Madison Scott-Clary (“Makyo”) without an election, as Makyo ran unopposed. Watts became the FWG’s first vice-president, and for somewhat arcane technical reasons, Renee Carter Hall (“Poetigress”) became the FWG’s first treasurer.

A few months later, though, Makyo resigned for personal reasons, and Chipotle—that’s me!—took over the office of president again in late September.

So. Let’s talk about where the FWG is, and what we’d like to do in 2018.

Our growth has slowed recently, but we have over 150 members, and the furry publishing scene has changed dramatically in the last couple of years:

• We have more publishers than ever! Along with stalwarts Sofawolf, Rabbit Valley, and FurPlanet, we have Thurston Howl Publications, Weasel Press, Goal Publications, and more.
• FurPlanet’s Argyll imprint is making inroads with mainstream SF readers, launching novels The Tower and the Fox and Kismet beyond the furry con circuit.
• The Coyotl Awards have been recognized outside furry fandom. Lawrence Schoen’s Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard, a Nebula nominee and Coyotl winner from Tor (the largest genre publisher in the world), mentions the Coyotl win in the paperback release.
• After a long drought, we’re starting to see more periodical short story markets, rather than just anthologies.

The VP, according to the FWG bylaws, doesn’t do a whole lot, and the President probably does a little too much. Makyo didn’t get to update the blog with the traditional monthly posts—the Book of the Month and the member news updates—and I haven’t done it since myself. There are a few reasons for that.

First, let me be honest: I wasn’t prepared to step back into the president’s role, and I’ve been playing catch-up for months. I’m not proud of that, but I’m working to fix it.

Now, though, let me be candid. Those monthly member news posts are a lot of work for, according to the analytics, very little engagement. The number of people who’ve asked about why we haven’t done one since July is zero. So at this point, I’m not inclined to resume them, and will instead focus on keeping the web site market listings up to date.

We do need to get back to doing Book of the Month posts, and those will resume later this month. We’re also scheduling a guest post, and I’d like to start getting more of those, as well as producing the occasional focused article like the contract post from 2016. (By the way, if you’re one of the—two, I think—people who send in an unused guest post, we’ll finally be in touch.)

Beyond that, I’d like to kick off a couple other long-delayed initiatives.

I’ll talk about others later, but here’s the big one: we need to find a way to allow self-published authors into the FWG. I recognize that the Guild is loosely modeled on the SFWA (SF & Fantasy Writers of America), and the FWG’s original intent was to push a notion of professionalism in furry writing. But is someone who had two stories accepted by nonpaying markets more “professional” than an indie author selling thousands of copies? Right now, our rules say yes.

The SFWA accepts self-published authors now (in no small part due to the work of FWG member—and former SFWA VP—M.C.A. Hogarth), using revenue-based qualification: your self-published title must make a minimum of $3000 in one 12-month period, the same amount as it would need to have earned in royalties from a traditional publisher. We could just follow that lead with a smaller amount (say, $250 or $300)—that’s essentially how our present-day qualifications came about. But is that the right approach?

This rubs against some underlying questions about just what the Guild should do. The SFWA came into existence to advocate for writers with—and when necessary, against—publishers. Realistically, even if we wanted to, we’re not in a position to do that. But if we’re not a writers’ union, are we aspiring to be one? And what are we now? “The FWG is elitist” is a common knock from non-members; are we? Or do we just have to accept that any organization with membership qualifications, rather than being open to all, will be seen as “elitist” by some?

If you’re reading this (especially if you’ve gotten this far), you’re interested in this topic–so please join us on the FWG Forum or the FWG Slack Workspace, where most of the discussion happens. (If you’re not familiar with Slack, it’s a private chat system; it’s not like signing up for a new social network like Twitter or Facebook, but more like signing into a private IRC server.)

Apologies for doubling up this month. It’s been a bit hectic!

New members

We had two new members join the FWG in May, and two in June: welcome to Tyler David “T.D.” Coltraine, Tom “Killick” Mullins, Jelliqal, and Terry Michael Gildow! If you’d like more information about joining, read our membership guidelines.

2016 Cóyotl Awards

The 2016 Coyotl Awards, the literary awards voted on by the Furry Writers’ Guild Members, were awarded May 28 at Furlandia in Portland, Oregon. Winners were:

• Best Novel: The Digital Coyote, Kris Schnee
• Best Novella: The Goat, Bill Kieffer
• Best Short Story: “400 Rabbits,” Alice “Huskyteer” Dryden (appearing in the anthology Gods With Fur)
• Best Anthology: Gods With Fur, edited by Fred Patten

The Cóyotl Award web site has the full list of nominees and video of the ceremony.

Member news

Madison Keller’s book Dragon Fried Cheese, the third in her Dragon Tax series, was released in May.

Werewolves vs. Fascism contains stories by several guild members, including NightEyes DaySpring, Amy Fontaine, Gullwolf, Mary E. Lowd, Televassi, and Allison Thai.

Frances Pauli’s story “Interviewing Dora” appeared in Daily Science Fiction in May, and her flash piece “Owning the Dragon” appeared in Flash Fiction Online in June.

Mary E. Lowd’s story “True Feast” appeared in the first issue of Typewriter Emergencies, the “furry lit” magazine from Weasel Press. In addition, her story “An Aldebaran Sugar Cookie for Star Shaker” appeared in Fantasia Divinity Magazine and her flash piece “Birthday” appeared in Every Day Fiction.

Allison Thai’s flash story “Tucked in the Folds of Our Eyes” was accepted at Remixt Magazine, and her story “The Same Within” was accepted to Wolf Warriors IV.

Bruno Schafer’s story “Divide Between Light and Shadow” was accepted for Wolf Warriors IV.

CopperSphinx’s illustration and poem were printed in Furlandia 2017’s program book.

New markets

The third volume of Civilized Beasts, the furry poetry anthology, is open for submissions. Payment: copies only (profits are donated to charity). Deadline: November 1, 2017. Editor: Laura Govednik. Publisher: Weasel Press. Details.

A Sword Master’s Tale is an anthology looking for furry stories whose primary characters are expert sword-wielders. (All genres are acceptable if those conditions are met). Length: 3,000–12,000 words. Payment: ½¢/word. Deadline: November 1, 2017. Details.

Typewriter Emergencies is an ongoing market (published twice a year worth highlighting again). Payment: 1¢/word. Deadline: September 29, 2017. Publisher: Weasel Press. Details.

We update the listings on the FWG web site fairly frequently, so check to see what is (and isn’t) listed there:

• Paying short story markets
• Non-paying short story markets
• Novel/novella markets

Also, Thurston Howl maintains a Google Calendar with submission opening and closings for both furry and “furry-friendly” anthologies.

Remember to keep an eye on the Calls for Submissions thread on the forum, as well as other posts on the Publishing and Marketing forum!

Odds and ends

The Tuesday Coffeehouse Chats continue to take place on the FWG Slack channel, while the Thursday chats continue to take place on the shoutbox.

As usual, we’d like to keep recruiting you to the FWG Goodreads group: add things to our members’ bookshelf (see the instructions here on how to do that), start conversations, draw rabbit ears on other authors’ head shots, and so on.

Have a terrific month! Send news, suggestions, feedback, and cute fursuit pictures to furwritersguild@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

New members

We had one new member join the FWG in March, and one associate member. Welcome to Blarginator, and to Adam Kellogg of Taomerle Publishing Association! If you’d like more information about joining, read our membership guidelines.

Member news

Miriam “Camio” Curzon, TJ Minde, Jaden Drackus, and Skunkbomb have had stories accepted into Fang 8. Jaden’s story “Prelude to Adventure” also appears in the Fur The More program book.

TJ Minde, Mary E. Lowd, and Madison Keller will appear in the Arcana tarot anthology edited by Madison “Makyo” Scott-Clary. In addition, Madison had a story accepted into Roar 8, and Mary’s story “Missing: Friendly Spook” appeared in the April issue of Fantasia Divinity.

Allison “Sibir” Thai also has a story forthcoming in Roar 8, as well as in Symbol of a Nation and Werewolves vs. Fascism.

Kris Schnee’s novel Thousand Tales: Learning to Fly is now available from Amazon.

CopperSphinx’s poem and illustration will appear in Furlandia 2017’s convention book.

Sean Rivercritic was interviewed by the “South Afrifur Pawdcast” (link goes to audio on YouTube).

If you’d like to be listed here, please post your sales/publications to the Member News section of the FWG Forum! It’s the primary source for these news bits.

New markets

There are no new furry-specific markets that we’re aware of that opened in April (although there’s at least one that’s opening in May: check the forum thread linked below). We update the listings on the web site fairly frequently, so check to see what is (and isn’t) listed there:

• Paying short story markets
• Non-paying short story markets
• Novel/novella markets

Also, Thurston Howl maintains a Google Calendar with submission opening and closings for both furry and “furry-friendly” anthologies.

Remember to keep an eye on the Calls for Submissions thread on the forum, as well as other posts on the Publishing and Marketing forum.

Odds and ends

It’s election season! The FWG election is underway, slightly late but on schedule to wrap up on time. Currently, there’s one candidate declared for president (Makyo) and one for VP (Chipotle, the current president). The declaration period runs through the end of this week, May 12th. Check the forums and Twitters for more information.

Thanks to Sean Rivercritic of Anthroaquatic (and a past FWG president and current forum administrator), the FWG now has a forum dedicated to offering Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of member works.

The Tuesday Coffeehouse Chats continue to take place on the FWG Slack channel, while the Thursday chats continue to take place on the shoutbox.

As usual, we’d like to keep recruiting you to the FWG Goodreads group: add things to our members’ bookshelf (see the instructions here on how to do that), start conversations, draw rabbit ears on other authors’ head shots, and so on.

Have a terrific month! Send news, suggestions, feedback, and Zootopia emoji to furwritersguild@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

New members

We had five new members join the FWG in March—welcome to Ellis Aen, Sisco Polaris, Mark Engels, James Stone, and Halfbloodcheetah! If you’d like more information about joining, read our membership guidelines.

Member news

Frances Pauli published The Earth Tigers, the first book in her Star Spiders series, in early March.

Jako Malan’s novel ReWritten is now available for pre-order from Goal Publications.

Rechan’s short story collection Intimate Little Secrets is now available from FurPlanet.

Mary E. Lowd was interviewed by “dark fiction” blog ShadowSpinners, and wrote a guest post for them: “When Furry Fiction Meets Dark Fiction.”

If you’d like to be listed here, please post your sales/publications to the Member News section of the FWG Forum! It’s the primary source for these news bits.

New markets

We’ve updated the markets on the FWG web site, cleaning out closed/defunct markets and adding a few new ones. Check out the additions and ongoing markets:

• Paying short story markets
• Non-paying short story markets
• Novel/novella markets

Also, Thurston Howl maintains a Google Calendar with submission opening and closings for both furry and “furry-friendly” anthologies.

Remember to keep an eye on the Calls for Submissions thread on the forum, as well as other posts on the Publishing and Marketing forum.

Odds and ends

The Tuesday Coffeehouse Chats continue to take place on the FWG Slack channel, while the Thursday chats continue to take place on the shoutbox.

As usual, we’d like to keep recruiting you to the FWG Goodreads group: add things to our members’ bookshelf (see the instructions here on how to do that), start conversations, draw rabbit ears on other authors’ head shots, and so on.

Have a terrific month! Send news, suggestions, feedback, and coyote treats to furwritersguild@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.