Hey guys,

So A couple days ago Furoticon, the furry card game, published a piece of writing I did for them. I've been a big fan of the game for a long time and I'm pretty excited about this!

It's a spin-off from the game's tie-in novel, but no prior knowledge of the characters is necessary for the short piece. It is pornographic, too.

http://furoticon.com/getcards.php#DAAVIN2

So, I'm having a little auction for the furry collectable card game, Furoticon. If you play, or were interested in starting, read on!

I've been sitting on a collection of all four 1st Vanilla Starter Decks for a while now. That's the original edition of the game, out of print. There is no other way to get these decks anymore. All four sealed decks, still in their plastic wrap.

Need some more of those awesome double-GP havens? New to the game and missed out on those old decks? Missing a card from one of them? Especially for Male and Female, you're not likely to get many other chances on these!

I'd prefer to sell them as a set so please don't make offers on individual decks; if I change my mind I'll repost. Seeing as the female deck that went up for auction on the Furoticon site went for over $50 I'm looking for a descent amount on these. I'd use one of the furry auctioning sites but they honestly don't seem to get much traffic, so I'm only going to do that if I don't get any good responses here in, like, a week.

I'm looking for bids on these during the next week, starting at $100 for the set of 4 decks (That's barely over their original cost, so it'd be pointless to start at, like, a buck). After a week, unless something comes up, I'll arrange payment with the highest bidder.

Also, I am perfectly happy to take furo's (the game's online currency) instead of money. I'm just going to spend it all on more Furoticon anyway, so really, a furo transfer is actually preferable; it'll get to me faster!

P.S.: If you want to make a bid but don't want to do it publicly, send me a note or an e-mail and I'll post the new raised limit without your name attached.

P.P.S.: The actual auction is on the Furoticon forums, at http://furoticon.com/forums/viewtop.....f=9&t=2618 but if you don't have an account you can also post here and I'll handle it like anonymous bids.

I was forwarded this by a writer friend the other day, and if you care about good writing it's a good read:

http://chronicle.com/article/50-Yea.....-Grammar/25497

The writer is a pretty important person on the subject, too, not just some internet crank. I agree with him wholeheartedly; the greatest failing of writing instruction in the US is that instead of actually teaching rules we teach shortcuts and stylizations that will only occasionally be right.

Incidentally, if you have a hard time with grammar and want to learn better, grab a copy of the Scott Foresman Handbook. It will teach you the real rules in a fairly simple manner. I know grammar can be really hard to wrap one's head around, especially when it's so buried in obscure lexicon, but if you want to write well it is essential to understand.

Hey guys, just letting you all know, I'll be attending Further Confusion! I live fairly close now, so of course I should! Probably just driving from home for it each day, though. Anyway, I won't be in the alley or whatever it is they call it, just attending.

If anyone does find me, well, there'll be a big surprise! Let me know who you are and I promise you'll get a prize for your troubles. I hope I meet some new folks there! It's a whole different convention crowd for me!

Hey guys, so that sounded a bit ominous, didn't it? No need to worry, this is nothing bad.

So, when this whole Evil Petting Zoo thing started (yeah, hasn't been too active for lots of reasons, but it's not dead) I had thought it best to start a new account for it and keep my previous furry identity a secret. Basically, I was afraid someone would get pissed at us, like a rejected artist or something, and I didn't want my reputation to get hurt. Down the line, though... I've found I don't care and I'd much rather just be able to share things like characters and writing between my identities.

As such, I am confessing that I am actually  Lafitte over at FA. I'll include a link at the bottom of the journal. I know, not as exciting as if I was a big name artist, but hey, I'm an artist! Part of this also means I'll be starting to do art for my own stories now and then. I might even bring some of my own characters into them. We'll see!

Second, I've been doing a lot of writing that isn't Evil Petting Zoo. I did a little back on the Lafitte account, and I've been writing things for publication in furry anthologies lately, which has so far all been rejected (not going to start any rabble rousing over it, though, it was their choice and they had their reasons). Some of it I have other plans for, such as expansion into novels and what not, but mostly I'm just going to put them up online now. Which is here. I'll mark such stories as not EPZ, but I hope you'll all want to read them, too!

I also plan to start writing some personal settings, as in serialized stories, that aren't EPZ related. As much as I love EPZ I want to write other genres sometimes, and I hope you guys want to read more genres. In the end this means way more writing from me.

So that's it for now. Expect stories to be posted soon, and thanks to everyone who's stuck with me!

Also, find my art account at either...

www.furaffinity.net/user/lafitte

inkbunny.net/lafitte

Hey guys, I know it's been a long time since you've heard from me or EPZ in general. Like, super sorry. There's lots of reasons for it and it basically breaks down to... EPZ needs to change a bit or we can't keep it up. It costs a lot of time and money and currently we aren't making much of anything back. We'll be around again, but bear with us, please.

Now then, I will be at Youmacon this weekend! I'll be working for the convention, in registration, so I won't be selling things or anything like that. However, if any of our fans are going and would like to hang out with me, send me a note! Also, if you need help with something at the con, also send me a note. I won't be able to get online a ton but at least once a day I should check in here. If I get a note from someone I'll give them my contact information for the convention.

Hopefully at least one of you fantastic furs will be there! I'd love to finally meet some of you!

Man, I like... never do things like this. But I was thinking, hey, maybe you folks actually would like to know a little bit about me!

1. What is your natural hair color?

Like a lot of German-descendants I was born towheaded (super extra blonde) but it changed to brown later.

2. Where was your ID pic taken?

ID pick like icon? Cause that's art. On my ID? Well... Hayward, California's licencing office.

3. What's your middle name?

Benjamin

4. Your current relationship status?

I am engaged to be married.

5. Honestly, does your crush like you back?

Crush? Singular? Well, my biggest crush is marrying me so I think so.

6. What is your current mood?

This weird anxiety I get for a few days after I post anything, where it's like... how many people read it? Has anyone else liked it yet? Why aren't they commenting? Did they hate it? WHY WON'T THEY LOVE ME???

7. What's the color of your underwear?

Today... let's go with the Ironman underwear (I haven't gotten dressed yet...), so red and gold!

8. What is one thing that makes you happy?

Physical affection. Back rub, head scratching, even stroking my arm. I'll get so blissful I just, like, turn off.

9. Who was the last person you cuddled with?
My fiance! Whom, by the by, is the inspiration for Freya from our stories.

10. If you could go back in time, and change something what would it be?

I would have changed my behavior during my second year of grad school. I flaked on some things then and it caused me some serious trouble.

11. If you MUST be an animal for ONE day?

We're furries... look at my icon.

12. Ever had a near death experience?

Oh my yes! Skull fracture with hematomas in my brain, hypothermia out on a river during freezing rain, a fever bad enough I was hallucinating in the middle of a blizzard... and that's not even counting, like, the semis I barely avoided getting run over by.

13. Something you do a lot?

Read. I have a lot of hobbies but the others take work. Even video games I have to set things up, set aside a block of time and then work against the challenge. Reading is so easy and calm... I'll usually do it before anything else.

14. What's the name of the song stuck in your head right now?

Would anyone believe that I honestly have no song stuck in my head at all?

15. Who did you copy and paste this from?

 candywolfie

16. Name someone with the same b-day as you?

Noam Chomsky, a super-boss linguist and political-economic theorist.

17. When was the last time you cried?

Last Friday, just a little. Fiance told me something sad.

18. Have you ever sang in front of a large audience?

Sang? Oh hell no... I don't sing pretty.

19. If you could have one super power what would it be?

Shape changing.

20. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?

Hair. Which is funny, because I won't be able to remember what it looked like later unless it was super-notable.

21. What's your biggest secret?

I... don't know. I'm a pretty honest person, really. I guess who I am outside of EPZ.

22. What's your favorite color?

Blue

23. When was the last time you lied?

I can't remember the last outright lie I told without it being a joke. If omission counts, this morning and it was very small.

24. Do you still watch kiddy movies or TV shows?

Sometimes, but not all that often.

25. What are you eating or drinking at the moment?

It was coffee and taquitos a couple hours ago.

26. What's your favorite smell?

Blueberries

27. If you could describe life in one word what would it be?

Revolution!

28. When was the last time you gave/received a hug?

This morning.

29. Have you ever been kissed in the rain?

Sure.

30. What are you thinking about right now?

Car tires.

31. What should you be doing?

Writing I guess. I have a few things I should be working on.

32. What was the last thing that made you upset?

Roommate got home from work, plopped down on my bed while I was sitting on it working, and just like... fell asleep. It was like, first I'm busy, second this is not your bed!

33. Do you like working in the yard?

Hahaha... yard. I live in a city. I'd like to have a yard to like working in!

34. If you could have any last name in the world, what would you want?

Roosevelt. So I could claim I was one of them.

35. Name 5 things in your closet:

Three servers, a box of board games, a box of VHS tapes, some wigs, and a bag of bondage equipment.

36. Do you act different around your crush?

Yes! Way, way happier!

37. When was the last time you slept with a stuffed animal?

Every night. There's, like, thirty on my bed. I usually cuddle with this giant, fat sugar glider plushy my fiance got me for my birthday once she's fallen asleep.

38. How many times do you take a shower a week?

Showers are at least twice a week and anytime I'm going to go out and do something. Don't freak out, though, because I take frequent baths. I like to lay in there, soothing my muscles and reading, then cleaning when I'm tired of my book.

39. Do you brush your teeth everyday?

Word.

40. Have you ever said something stupid in front of your crush?

Many, many things.

41. Have you ever watched a hockey game?

Not even once.

42. Do you lie about your age?

Never have.

43. Ever been jealous about something stupid?

Often. Jobs, skills, physical attributes...

44. Do you pick your nose?

Man, I know everyone's going to lie on this one... so I'm not. Yeah, it happens. Sometimes it's just so uncomfortable and blowing your nose isn't working.

45. What's the one food you hate?

Pickles. I've come around on most things. I used to hate mushrooms, swiss cheese, tomatoes... and I've at least partially come around on all of them. But pickles taste rancid acid to me, even the supposedly sweet ones.

46. What's the one junk food you cant live without?

Cookies. Followed closely by ice cream, donuts and corn chips, but cookies will full on murder my better judgement.

47. How old were you when you found out Santa was fake?

The hell if I know. That was a long time ago for me! I'm old kid!

48. Have you ever blown your nose and looked inside the napkin?

Well... yeah. Do people even bother pretending they don't?

49. Describe your favourite underwear you have?

The Ironman underwear. They're briefs, which I usually don't like, but they have Ironman's face right on my crotch. I feel so boss wearing them!

50. Did you lie in any of these questions?

Surprisingly no.

Hey guys!

So, I'm planning on going to FC. I won't be there in any official capacity for EPZ, just to enjoy myself. Little bad news, though; I've lost my place to stay. I'm also rather low on spending money and all of the rooms I've seen available are a bit more than I could put down. As in, it would be far cheaper to drive there each day.

But I thought maybe one of you nice folks might have cheap roomspace (for two)? Or perhaps some other help they might be able to extend?

Hey, I don't know how many people have actually stopped to ponder it, but you may notice that our characters are digitigrade yet there's often talk of shoes, and I'm sure that might be hard to imagine for many folks.

Well, this isn't a piece for us but I just stumbled on this and it's a great example!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9624889/

Our friend and one of my favorite artists,  coffinberry, is taking on commissions... for charity! She suffers from Endometriosis and has decided to donate half of what she makes from these commissions to an organization working toward a cure/better treatment of the disease. This is especially touching because Coffinberry isn't exactly rolling in the dough herself.

The commissions are character busts presented in a snowflake, a cute idea and perfect for the season. The sort of thing that would make a great gift, in fact! And you have the satisfaction of knowing you've helped sick people in need.

Her commission journal is this way: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4036247/

Hey everyone, I wanna chat for a minute!

I'm going to be doing a lot more writing here now, like one or two stories a month, and I want to ask again what sorts of things you'd like to see!

We try to keep away from the really niche stuff, like things that can scare off some people, though that rule went right out the window with the Halloween story. So I'm thinking, if there's a strong enough response, we might reconsider some of those darker/more niche things.

But more importantly, what are you craving more of? Am I not doing enough gay stuff? Not enough straight? Do you want more gender-bender stuff? Not enough bondage lately? Any species you really wish would show up? Any characters you'd love to see more of? This writing is as much for you as it is for EPZ and I want to know what you want to see!

I've also wondered if there might be some opportunity here... and I hate to sound all mercenary, but here we go. I had that little mini-contest a few weeks back where if you won, I'd put you in my next story and if you won really well, I'd get some art done of you in the askblog. Well, no one won that but I think there might be something to this. Sort of like when artists have those "your character here" auctions.

Would anyone be interested in paying a small fee to be included in a story, or is this not really something anyone would be interested in? Like, start cheap and you could be a small character but the more you paid the more important your role would get. I totally understand if no one's interested, but then... I never really thought people would go for "your character here" commissions either and I was wrong about that.

Hey guys!

So, I thought it would be fun to have teeny little contest. Nothing huge, like a kiriban, but something. As a reward I will include your character, by name, in my next story as one of the secondary characters. Like I said, nothing huge.

The story I uploaded last, The Roaring Girl and the Silent Woman, has two BIG references in it. Who can tell me what they were first? I'd prefer not using google or something, though.

Even though I know there's a good chance this'll go unguessed here's a bonus, just in case we have a connoisseur in the house! Guess this one and I'll have  akimoriaoi do a piece of your character in our ask blog.

Thee's a third, much harder reference... and google won't help you with it. The play they're performing is based loosely on a real play and there's a big clue hidden in one scene. What play did I base it off of?

Good luck!

Come on by,

http://askepz.tumblr.com

And join in the fun!

Hey everyone!

We are making on of those Tumblr Ask Blogs that are all the rage with the kids.  akimoriaoi, whom you may remember was doing our daily sketches last year, is going to be doing the art for it and we'll start posing stuff up in about a week, I'll give you the link when it's all set up. All of our responses will get reposted on  evilpettingzoo, too, so if you don't have Tumblr you'll still see them.

We need questions from you, though. That's right, YOU, right now! Just post them right here in this journal, or note me, or e-mail me or whatever, as long as I get them I'll consider it fair! Ask anything, really, anything at all! You can ask embarrassingly personal things! You can ask boring, mundane things! You can be way too personal, or ask stupid questions, or even just send some gibberish, we'll still probably answer it, unless we don't have time!

As per usual, we'd like you to say who it is you're asking: see our list of characters here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6743548/ and if you want to ask us as a whole, or you can't find someone on there you're looking for, just ask anyway! We'll figure it out! Just give us something or this is going to be REALLY boring....

Peace.

Hey everyone!

So I made an account over on sofurry. I've heard writing does very well over there and the advertising can't hurt us. If you use them, too, well... I guess you don't need to watch me both places, but I'd appreciate it anyway!

robur.sofurry.com

Hey guys, my home is fine and I'm back in it. The fire never got close enough to even cause smoke damage.

As for EPZ, well, we have some cool stuff coming in the near future. I know for a while there we were really lagging; barely any new art, only a couple stories, and those daily sketches never re-appeared. On the other hand, we had our first comic coming out (and the last page is still coming) so that was pretty cool.

Coming up, though, there's stuff coming. The first thing to look out for is character sheets: we have a template for them and now we'll be having them out now and then over time. We've been getting new commissions worked on, too, and you'll be seeing some whole new artists doing stuff for us including one I'm very, very excited about and have wanted with us from day one! You should go see  coffinberry and give her some love for me!

Those daily sketches are also getting cancelled because they're getting replaced with something better! We're going to start up a tumbler with  akimoriaoi where we'll just be putting up sketches every day or two but if you ask us questions, well, you'll get answers. Yeah, it's really an askblog but we'll do art even if you don't ask any questions. We'll be reposting that stuff on here, too, of course but you'll have to be on tumblr to ask questions.

We have some other things in the works, too, but I'm going to keep those to myself for now. Sorry we've been slow, hopefully RL will be a little kinder to us now!

Hey everyone, I don't tend to talk about my real life much... I prefer to keep it away from the internet. I'm breaking that rule this once, though. I live near a wildfire that, today, has gone from raging out of control to raging out of control in my direction. In the space of a day we went from having not lost a single building to neighborhoods burning.

So I'm getting away. I'm going to stay with my parents before the evacuation actually reaches my apartment. I'll have internet access but I can't take most of my stuff, so we'll see how active I can be. No promises.

Thanks everyone for watching, I hope I can be back soon.

Hey, guys, first off I just posted up another story. It's another really long one. It wasn't what we'd planned for the next story but I just got it with this sudden burst of inspiration and had to do this one.

Now, I had been planning on doing a non-gay story next because I don't want to alienate our fans who aren't into the gay stuff. Really... sorry straight dudes. I promise the next one won't be so gay.

I just picked up several new watchers today and I don't really know why all of a sudden... but thank you, to the new ones and old. It's humbling, really - I've only recently started posting my writing and each and every person who reads it is a huge boost to my confidence. I, of course, have been writing for years but for college, academic papers and the like, not fiction. I'm so happy that I'm managing to please readers even with my first efforts!

I know writing isn't considered nearly as important as art here, and I can't say I'm not the same way ( I LOVE looking at art) so I'm doubly happy that I'm getting readers. You guys are wonderful!

I also need to thank  dungeonmaster again for trusting me with this; he hadn't seen any fiction I'd written before I started doing this for him, so that was a big act of faith on his part.

So I've been working on the next story in the Evil Petting Zoo series (gay porn again, sorry for those who aren't into the dudes) and yesterday I finished the rough draft. And it's over 8,500 words. Fuck....

These things keep on getting longer:

The first story (Dress Rehersal) was 6,495 words. That's about mid length for a short story.

The second story (A Draught of Disobedience) was 6,492 words. Three words shorter even, still a good length for a short story.

The third story (The Professional Touch) was 8,289 words. This is actually well over the generally accepted limit for a short story. I let it slide and didn't think much of it, though. There was a lot of actual story going on there and it's porn interludes that really pushed it over limit.

Now this fourth story is 8,584 words in just its rough draft. For the record, I generally add more in after the rough draft. In this case, I do believe I'll have to cut things out. I imagine the reason might seem a bit arbitrary, though.

See, while many disagree on exactly how long a short story should be (4,000-8,000 words, or 1,000-9,000, etc) the most commonly accepted and useful guideline comes from the "Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America" and is under 7.500 words. This is important both because it's widely accepted for publishers (from what I understand, at least) and because science fiction is where most of my serious (non-porn) writing attempts are taking place.

Obviously, on here it doesn't much matter how long I make things so long as they don't stop being interesting, but I'm worried that I'm loosing the ability to just write a short story and stretching things out too far... into the nearly unpublishable Novella range.

Except there's no action...

So yeah, today is my birthday. Mostly I'm spending it packing but, still, birthday. Yay!

This account won't be going anywhere, though.

I'm announcing that a central account for this whole bondage thingy I'm working on is now started up, over at  evilpettingzoo and you should go give it a watch there. I'll explain what this means:

Evil Petting Zoo is the actual, I dunno, company or startup or whatever we want to call it. It's this bondage goods store for furries but it's also home to the art and writing and this little narrative universe we're building that's centered around bondage culture. That account is going to be sort of the big thing. The nice finished pieces of art will be going over there, for instance.

And also, for the time being (when our real site gets all put together this will shift over there) we'll also be posting daily sketches by one of our staff artists,  akimoriaoi and the very first will be going up in the morning. In fact, I'll be putting it up right about the time I'm done with this journal! And yes, there'll be a sketch every single day. It's going to be pretty rad.

This also means the way I use this account is going to change a little. See, first things first, I'm not going to put as much of the art up here. Mostly resource art, like character sheets, but I'm going to let the Evil Petting Zoo page handle the big, nice pieces. The stories will be getting posted over there, too, but I'll be keeping those up over here as well. In fact, I'll be posting more unofficial things; test pieces, joke stories, little asides... and I'll be inviting you all to help drive where these stories are going. You are the audience and I want to provide you with stories you'll enjoy!

Well, I hope you all follow over to the EPZ Account. It'll have our first little treat for you soon here!

So... I'm a bit drunk. We got, like, some chocolate wine and I drank, like... 150% of it. Because I'm a champ. And then... I had a brilliant idea.

So... I'm working on a goofy Christmas story, and then a run of three new stories about the side characters from the previous runs. But I thought... hey, I should get some feedback.

What would people like to see in the stories? Like, boy on boy? Girl on girl? Het? What kinks? I mean, obviously bondage will play into most all of these things to some degree, but what else?

Crossdressing? Abuse? Pegging? Humiliation? Showtunes? What gets you guys off?

Really, thank you so much! I had never really posted my writing around the site and had always heard stories got practically no attention in these parts. Now, I can't say they're getting as much attention as, say,  whiteraven90's piece that I put up but they're getting a sizable amount all the same. In fact, they all have far more views than I have watchers, so it's not just the few of you who actually are following me, though thank you for that as well! I've also picked up some favs on them which is awesome.

Interesting bit in the stats, the M/M story has a strong lead in the number of views while the F/F piece has more favorites. The straight story (if you can really call it that) is tied with the M/M story for favorites but has only a fraction of the views of either other story. An interesting spread of interest.

While, of course, gay is very popular in our heavily gay/bi fandom, lesbian work is primarily of interest to straight men, so the fact that a lesbian story is getting more views than a straight story strikes me as odd. My first thought was, well, maybe it's because the title says "feminization/crossdressing" which is far more popular with gays then straights but I only added that bit later because even within a day the difference in views was staggering.

I am a little sad because Grace and Juli are my favorite couple by far, so I'm going to put a link to it here in the hopes people will click on it and give the story a read: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6847143/

 dungeonmaster and I will be at Midwest Furfest this weekend, so if you're going to be there be sure to come by the dealer's room and see us!