Through out the month of October you may have been seeing a special hashtag around twitter of people talking about Furry books more then usual. That is because we are in our first official Furry Book Month. A way to both celebrate the Furry writer community as well as promote just how diverse the community has gotten. You would be amazed how some people still only view the fandom with only three publishers: Sofawolf, Furplanet, and Rabbit Valley. But we have expanded to around eight with newcomers like Thurston Howl Publications, Goal Publications, and Weasel Press; bringing with them new voices and new stories with the same fluffiness or scales or feathers we love.

The Furry we have to thank for getting this event off the ground is Husykteer, a well-known and active member in the writer community since 2010. She began by posting stories on SoFurry, but by 2012 got published in both Roar 4 and Heat 9. Since then she has continued to put out quality work.

So far, I’ve had short stories and poems published in a number of anthologies; most recently Gods with Fur, Claw the Way to Victory and Inhuman Acts. My short story ‘The Analogue Cat’, which appeared in The Furry Future, won the 2015 Ursa Major and Cóyotl awards for short fiction.

I’d love to get some books out there with my name, and mine alone, on the cover! A novella, Peace & Love, should be coming out from FurPlanet soon.

But how did the idea of Furry Book Month come about? Anyone who has been around the FWG forums knows that the writer community, while growing, is still under appreciated in many aspects. So there has been a growing want to promote the community more to get people to check out their work.

In 2015, Furry Writers’ Guild member Rechan challenged the FWG forum to read a furry book, or several, during October. This grew into the idea of promoting books in the wider furry community during October 2016.

The Furry Writers Guild for those not in the know is dedicated ‘to promote quality writing in anthropomorphic fiction and to inform, elevate, and support its creators.’ It’s the go to place for Furry writers.

A lot of authors and publishers check in on the Furry Writers’ Guild forum, which is a great way to find out what’s going on, meet people and get help with your writing. It’s free to join and you don’t need to be a Furry Writers’ Guild member: http://www.anthroaquatic.com/forum/index.php

Huskyteer got in contact with a lot of author and publishers to see if they can help out with the mouth by offering special discounts. Which if one of the biggest reasons you haven’t read a Furry book is because of the price then this mouth is made for you with books selling at discounted prices to discounts ranging from 20% to 50%.

Several publishers and authors were generous enough to get on board with special offers, which you can find here: https://furrywritersguild.com/furry-book-month/

Those are some of the benefits that come with Furry Book Month, but that still may make you wonder why should we care about Furry Books?

Furry is a very broad term in literature. The only rule is that all or some of the characters are anthropomorphic animals. There’s furry romance, furry science fiction, furry mystery, comedy – whatever genre you’re into, there’ll be something to your taste.

Anthropomorphic animals are universally accessible (that’s why they’re in so many children’s books). A lot of readers find they can relate to a furry character more than to a human.

In fact, Huskyteer got motivated to write from discovering the Furry Fandom.

When I found the fandom, I had no idea there was such a thing as furry fiction. When I found out, I knew this was something I definitely wanted to be a part of. I’d dreamed of being a writer all my life, but I never expected to get into it through something I did for fun.

Writing often feels like a poor relation to art within the fandom, because it’s less immediately accessible. You know at a glance whether you like a piece of art. A book takes more effort, but finding a book you love, that speaks to you about yourself and your life, is so rewarding. I want more furries to have that experience.

I can relate to that since when I discovered Kyell Gold’s Waterways stories online it helped me not only come to terms with my own sexuality, which I talked about in detail here, but has inspired me to get into writing again. Huskyteer wants you to have that same experience of finding the joy of Furry writing and how there are some many options to choose from.

I’m a relative newcomer to the writing community, but in the five years or so I’ve been involved, I’ve seen it really take off. There are a lot of new names writing to get published, several new furry publishers, like Weasel Press, Jaffa Books and Goal Publications, and many more anthologies of short stories are published every year, giving more writers a chance to get published and offering readers a wider choice.

The month itself has already had some success for its first year.

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about furry books on Twitter and on Goodreads, writing reviews, sharing recommendations, and posting photos of their purchases. It’s been great to see readers, writers and publishers discussing books together, and the #FurryBookMonth hashtag spreading! Let’s hope we can make Furry Book Month an annual event.

I believe it will. So go on and check out the discount page to see what publishers are offering, check out the hashtag to see which books spikes your interest, write a review, tweet about it, share it, discuss it, join FWG. The only way people know something exists is through people talking about why they love this so much. Thank you Huskyteer for providing us with a chance to so people why we love Furry books so much. Till next time. Be awesome. Be amazing. Be you.

-Matthias

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