Hello everyone and welcome to Furry Book Month – the time of year when we celebrate the skill and achievements within the furry writing community. Over the course of the next month, we have Q&As with a number of our community, from authors, publishers, and reviewers. We hope you will enjoy the insights these give into the furry writing process, and that you will support our writers and publishers.

During the month, we will also be using our social media channels to draw attention to any new releases, pre-orders, or sales that often occur in October. Follow us on Twitter if you are not already doing so and get all the latest news from the writing community.

Of course, the biggest part of Furry Book Month will be the return of Oxfurred Comma. We’ve updated the website with all the information about this year’s edition. Panels are still open for submissions, with a schedule going up next week. We hope to bring you an entertaining and informative event, with content coming from a variety of different people.

There are still a few short story markets to keep an eye on, with a few seasonal anthologies nearing the close of submissions dates.

• Oxfurred Comma Flash Fiction Contest – Deadline October 14th
• Pirating Pups – Deadline November 30th
• FURWARD SLASH: A Furry Adult Techno-Horror Anthology – Deadline November 30th
• Felis Futura – Deadline December 31st
• Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
• Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
• Zooscape – Reoccurring submission period.

A few of our members also have books newly released, or soon to be released. These are the ones we’ve noticed recently. (And of course, if you think you should be on this list, let us know!)

Furry Fiction Is Everywhere, by Mary E. Lowd and Ian Madison Keller. Released September 10th 2021.
Also available in the NaNoWriMo Tools Storybundle.

A Swordmaster’s Tail, edited by Tarl Hoch. Released October 1st 2021.

A Wildness of the Heart: Limerent Object and Other Stories, by Madison Scott-Clary. Available for pre-order. Released November 1st 2021.

Resistance, by J.F.R. Coates. Available for pre-order. Released November 5th 2021.

Heretic, by J.F.R. Coates. Available for pre-order. Released November 5th 2021.

C.A.T.S.: Cycling Across Time And Space: 11 Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories about Bicycling and Cats – an anthology featuring guild member Alice Dryden. Available for pre-order. Released February 8th 2022.

That may be all for the newsletter, but there is plenty more to come over the next month! Come back to the website every day for Q&As from our talented authors, check out our social media feed, and of course, pop in to our Twitch channel on the 16th and 17th for Oxfurred Comma.
It’s going to be a great month. We hope you enjoy it all.

Stay safe. Keep writing.
J.F.R. Coates

This will only be a short one this month. We’re moving ahead with our plans for Oxfurred Comma – there will be plenty of blog posts and Author/Publisher Q&As going out through the entire month in October, and we’re also starting to get together a list of panels to run at the convention itself.
Of course, as with last month’s blog, if you wish to run a panel at Oxfurred Comma, then please do get in contact with us, as we’d love to hear from you!
Over the course of the next month we’re going to start announcing some of what we have scheduled, so keep an eye on our Twitter feed – as well as any announcements shared in the Discord or Telegram chats.

As always, there are plenty of short story markets open for submissions. Here are the ones we’re aware of, and think would be good fits for furry writers.

• Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth – Deadline August 7th
• Arthropoda – Deadline August 7th
• SFWG’s Nightmare Fuel – Deadline September 15th
• The Nightmurr Before Yiffmas – Deadline October 1st
• Pirating Pups – Deadline November 30th
• FURWARD SLASH: A Furry Adult Techno-Horror Anthology – Deadline November 30th
• Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
• Children Of The Night – Deadline When Full
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
• Zooscape – Reoccurring submission period.

Some of our members have had books freshly released, or are now available for pre-order. If you are a guild member and would like to be included in this section in the future, please remember to get in contact with us – we unfortunately will miss some!

Zooscape – Issue 12 available to read for free.

Stories are a vaccine for the soul, teaching your heart and mind to recognize different forms that lives can take, different ways of being.  When faced with the completely unfamiliar, we can panic, uncertain of how to react.  When the complete unknown is a deadly virus, that uncertainty of how to react can kill us.  When the complete unknown is simply a person with a different life story, a different way of seeing things… that uncertainty can make us hard-hearted and cruel. Literal vaccines are good for the body.  Metaphorical vaccines are good for the soul. So, read these stories, and share them with anyone you know who might like them. Also, get vaccinated, and tell everyone you know who’s medically able that they should too. We’re all part of one flock.  We must take care of each other.  We must learn to be kind, both with our hearts and actions.

Furry Fiction Is Everywhere, by Mary E. Lowd and Ian Madison Keller. Available for pre-order. Released September 10th 2021.

Have you ever read a book or novel and wondered why they even bothered to make certain character(s) in the book something other than human? Want to avoid that in your own work?
There are some simple steps you can take to make your anthropomorphic (or furry) characters stand out on the page. This guide will walk you through step-by-step how to build a believable furry species, world, and characters.

C.A.T.S.: Cycling Across Time And Space: 11 Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories about Bicycling and Cats – an anthology featuring guild member Alice Dryden. Available for pre-order. Released February 8th 2022.

Has your cat been plotting to take command of your spaceship? This and other important questions are tackled in the 11 science fiction and fantasy stories in this volume, told variously from the perspectives of humans and cats. A bicycle designer finds an exciting new technical challenge on a planet inhabited by felines. A wise cat tries to convince an excited puppy not to chase cyclists. On Mars, a cat helps save the life of their human after a quake. In other stories, a student must live with the consequences of magic gone awry, a cat contrives to go on a bicycle trip, a police robot learns empathy, a captured tiger lashes out, and a young sphinx finds her wings. 

Resistance, by J.F.R. Coates. Available for pre-order. Released November 5th 2021.

Book 3 of the Reborn series.
Centaura is not the safe haven promised to Twitch. A growing power threatens the fate of the planet itself. Twitch finds himself thrust directly into this plot, forced to take action against an enemy that is painfully familiar to him. With Captain Rhys Griffiths missing, it falls on Twitch to fight. He must become a greater starat than the one he was when rescued from Ceres. As his allies fall around him, Twitch needs to stand strong and tall against the familiar hatred. He must uncover the strength hidden within every starat.

Heretic, by J.F.R. Coates. Available for pre-order. Released November 5th 2021.

Book 4 of the Reborn series.
Rhys has been abandoned on Pluto, cast off by Snow for learning the truth about Amy and her Starat Freedom Union. Their target is clear. Terra is in mortal danger and Rhys is the only one who knows about the coming peril. But he is just one starat, voiceless in an empire of ignorance. Rhys must find new allies to help him as he delves back into the heartland of the empire, desperate to save the people who would rather him dead. If he is to succeed, he must uncover the secrets behind the empire and the Vatican on Mars. All the while, a familiar torment stalks him.

That’s all for this month’s newsletter. Please do send in panel ideas for Oxfurred Comma. We’re really excited to see how the second year goes. We hope you are as well.

Be safe. Keep writing.
J.F.R. Coates

We’re starting to move quickly through the year now. In just two months time, we will see the return of Furry Book Month – a celebration for the furry genre that will go through the entire month of October.
This year will see the return of the Furry Writers’ Guild’s most ambitious project to date – Oxfurred Comma. We will be back for the sequel, and this newsletter will go into some of the details about what the second edition will look like.

What?
Oxfurred Comma is an online furry writing convention, run by writers for writers.

When?
October 16-17th 2021! Exact times are not yet certain, but it will probably run to a similar format to last year, where each day ran from mid-morning to late (US time).

Where?
Online! Specifically, the FWG’s Twitch channel. There will also be plenty of discussions happening on our Telegram and Discord groups, so be sure to join those as well.

Who?
Everyone! Everyone is welcome to attend the online panels, readings, and other events. All writers – guild members or otherwise – are invited to contribute to the events as well. If you have something interesting to share, whether that’s a book reading, a panel about writing, or something else entirely, you are welcome to propose an event. Details below.

Why?
Oxfurred Comma was specifically set up last year to provide furry writers with the opportunity to network, sell, and otherwise share knowledge in a safe, online space with the cancellation of all in-person conventions because of COVID19. While some conventions are starting to return this year, we made the decision to continue Oxfurred Comma because it gives writers a much bigger platform than most conventions manage.
More than that: everyone thoroughly enjoyed last year – of course we’d bring it back for some more!

Panels and Events
A convention is made by the quality of the panels and other content.
The Oxfurred Comma staff will be providing some of that content, but we can’t do it all ourselves! We will be asking anyone who feels like they have something interesting or important to offer to the community to contribute.
If you have a good idea for a panel about any aspect of writing – let us know!
If you have a new book coming out soon and would like to do a short reading – let us know!
If you have a writing podcast and would like to do a live show during the convention – let us know!

If the response is anything like last year, then we may not be able to fit in everyone’s panels, but we shall do our best! So that we have enough time to work out a proper schedule, please send in your panel ideas by August 31st.

Please send any panel requests through to the FWG email, or directly to myself (J.F.R. Coates) on Twitter, Telegram, or Discord.

Dealer’s Den
We have not yet finalised just how we will be going about the Dealer’s Den this year. We feel that this was possibly the weakest aspect of the convention last year, and we will be working out how to improve it for this year – or a potential replacement. We absolutely want to provide people and publishers with the opportunities to promote and sell their work.
More details will come here!

More?
We are, of course, always happy to hear more thoughts and suggestions on how to make Oxfurred Comma a great success. If you have any ideas on things that can be done – be it specific events you’d like to see or whatever – then please get in contact with us. We are always happy to hear what the community thinks – after all, this convention is for you!

Of course, this isn’t all about Oxfurred Comma. We’re also bringing you the deadlines for all the anthologies we think would suit our members. Some of these deadlines are pretty close, so better get writing!

• Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth – Deadline August 7th
• Arthropoda – Deadline August 7th
• SFWG’s Nightmare Fuel – Deadline September 15th
• The Nightmurr Before Yiffmas – Deadline October 1st
• Pirating Pups – Deadline November 30th
• FURWARD SLASH: A Furry Adult Techno-Horror Anthology – Deadline November 30th
• Isekai Me! – Deadline When Full
• #ohmurr! – Deadline: Ongoing
• Zooscape – Reoccurring submission period.

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 (in most circumstances, a book published through a publisher will qualify for FWG membership). This scope may well change in the future, so keep checking back to our social media feeds and blog posts for more information.

That is all for this month’s newsletter. We’re all excited for Oxfurred Comma, so please start sending in those thoughts and offers for panels and other content. We can’t wait to see what this wonderful community is able to do.

Keep safe. Keep writing!
J.F.R. Coates

Welcome back once more for another monthly newsletter! This is going out a little late due to the change in presidency, which also means that things might be a little light on new information for this month.

June is, of course, Pride Month. There have typically been interviews done with writers who are lgbtq+, and I do not intend for this month to be any different. Obviously, things are a little delayed due to the hand-over, but I intend on reaching out to writers over the next few days in order to get some Pride Month spotlights released. If you believe you would make a good person to spotlight, please reach out to us.

You can find all kinds of submission calls for Furry writing in our Furry Writers’ Market! Currently, these markets are open.

• CRINKLE: A Littles Anthology – Deadline: June 15th, 2021
• The Rebel Diaries: An Anthology -Deadline: June 30th, 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.

Note that Zooscape will, as of the December 2021 issue, be a fully professional rate, as dictated by the SFWA. This means 8c/word on all accepted submissions, up to 5000 words.

As with the previous update, we are currently still finding our feet with this new role. Over time, we plan to have plenty more information included in these updates. New book releases will also be included with the anthology openings.

Until then, stay safe in these difficult times. Get vaccinated if possible and keep writing!

J.F.R. Coates