So, I'll be open for story commissions, soon. I'm going to try to do them short-n-sweet: sticking to Short-Story length and less (6,000 words maximum).

Honestly: I'm facing a near-future loss of my job. The company I work for is probably toast within a month-and-a-half.

I have a house to make payments on, meds that need buying on a regular basis, and I'm over 50.

Many places will not hire someone over 50 ... especially when there are tons of younger (read "cheaper") front-end developers out there.

So, here's what I'll be opening for:

Drabble (100 words) ... $5 ($10 for adult)
Flash Fiction (100-1,000 words [usually less than 750]) ... $20 ($25 for adult)
Micro Fiction (1,000-3,000 words) ... $50 ($75 for adult)
Short Story (3,000-6,000 words) ... $100 ($150 for adult)

Also...

If you need an editor, I am also available. Based on (roughly) 275 words/page and $5.00/page (for short stories) I am also skilled at editing short stories at roughly 4,000 words or less. For larger works, I'm willing to work out a specific quote based upon the size of the writing.[/quote]

Well, I didn't finish NaNoWriMo this year. I'm about 4,000 words short.

Considering, however, that I started over halfway through the month, that's pretty good. If I combine the words I wrote for my abandoned story, there would be about 60,000.

But I'm going to keep writing anyway.

I'll finish the story "UnCONventional" hopefully by the end of the year.

I'm within 4,000 words of finishing part one of three and, well, if I keep up at this pace, I might be able to finish parts two and three by New Year's.

We'll see!

I got this by way of  Draco-Rex and made some modifications for tabletop RPGers for games like Pathfinder and D&D.

Let's play the FA RPG. here's how you figure out your stats:

You pick your own class.

Level = how many years you've been on the site.

Health/hp = how many watchers you have/your level x (total watchers divided by 100) (rounded up)
Defense/AC = total comments you've gotten/10 + total earned comments divided by 500 (rounded up)

Finally, if a visual artist:
..... MP/Spell Slots per Day -or- (if not a caster) To-Hit Bonus = total faves in your gallery/your level x (total gallery faves divided by 10,000) (rounded up)

If any other kind of artist:
..... MP/Spell Slots per Day -or- (if not a caster) To-Hit Bonus = total faves in your gallery/your level x (total gallery faves divided by 1,000) (rounded up)

Or, if anyone else:
..... MP/Spell Slots per Day -or- (if not a caster) To-Hit Bonus = 10

I am a 15th Level Spellsword with 816 hp, an AC of 13, and 39 spell slots/day.

How do you stack up?

Like  CashewLou, I now have a Pillowfort account!

Monsters, creatures, deep and dark, with eyes of pestilent flame,
Walk in skins, far from their own, to poison righteous aims.

Down the streets with tattered souls: burning in the night,
Pulling strings - hissing lies - so others take their fight.

Maladapted, twisted, small: weaklings through-and-through,
Beat them, bind them, burn their goals 'til daylight shines anew.

1:00am, CDT, May 31st, 2020
the Twin Cities, Minnesota
Sylvan Scott

"α to ζ: Origin Stories" finally here and has a Bonus Story!

As you know, I've been working on a variety of super-hero tales, both action-adventure and slice-of-life. These stories take place in a universe I call "α to ζ". I released the first story in the series for free and made the remainder only $1 apiece! Well, with the fabulous assistance and commission work of  rjbartrop, I finally have a complete cover set (both front and back) and have posted the compilation on Smashwords for only $4.99! That's seven tales in all, including the bonus story, "Prologue, ex post facto"!

But wait: there's more!

Also included are two of the reference maps of the world-setting that I used while writing the stories as well as a complete index and reference for each character, organization, and location mentioned in the stories! I've also added a brief rumination on the nature of super-heroes and made sure to include thumbnails of each of the individual covers including a  Wom-Bat cover for the new story!

I'm very proud of my work and really want you to enjoy these stories. So, please: head on over to Smashwords and buy your copy, today! You can get a high-rez PDF or just about any digital format you would like! Also, please rate, review, and share news of my stories ... I would love as many folk as possible to hear about this collection!

You can find "α to ζ: Origin Stories" at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1006513!

Enjoy!

I've decided to drink the Kool-Aid, uh, Ko-Fi.

Buy Me A ☕Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/sylvanscott

Hey there, geek-o-rinos! I'm testing out this cross-platform posting app, "PostyBirb". I'm seeing if I can make a post, across all my accounts, and have it show up, normally.

I found out about this from my friend, Dook, and downloaded the app from http://www.postybirb.com/.

Okay: here's hoping this works and, shortly, I see posts start appearing!

Test: OVER!

Yours,
Sylvan

Posted using PostyBirb

I need some recommendations for artists who would be available for me to commission for cover art.

I'm looking for comic-book-style covers for some short stories (several of them) and, also, for the main cover of a combined anthology. These would be full-color and follow the dramatic type of artwork normally associated with comic book covers (multiple characters, backgrounds, close-ups, etc...).

I may also be looking for internal, greyscale/black-and-white single-character or dual-character poses to highlight each tale.

Please: leave comments, below, along with information you may have on how to reach out to the artist in question.

If you, personally, are an artist interested in what I've descried, please Note me with your prices. I'm not sure full-color cover art will be viable for short stories that I plan on selling for $1 apiece but I'd like to know what sort of prices are both realistic and respectful of your time and effort as an artist.

Thank you!

Yours,
Sylvan

I don't know exactly what to say other than "I'll miss you, hon".

 Cetas had been struggling for some time: both while he was taking care of his beloved mother and, later, once he grew ill with his own sickness. I have heard that he died yesterday, the 20th of June, 2019, and it was suprisingly sudden. He was trying to fight an infection while he was in the hospital and, in the end, succumbed.

I'll miss you so much, sir. You were a good man with a deep heart.

Yours,
Sylvan

I must confess I'm very scared; very nervous.

I've wanted to make a living off of my gaming and fantasy creations ever since I first discovered the joy of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons back in 1979. But despite trying my hand at it a couple times, I always allowed myself to get discouraged by the fearful prophesies and warnings of family and my own doubts. I was always terrified that I would never be able to afford a home, afford a life, if I tried this.

And, so, I would attempt small creations here and there, but never actually tried making a life for myself in the gaming industry. I was convinced I couldn't make it work.

I let fear rule me.

Honestly, fear still does.

But I'm 51, now. I've got more grey in my beard than brown. And despite having been published once (the Chill gaming module, "UnDead & Buried") and created many stories on my own, I've never taken the risk to try this, seriously.

And, so, I've created my first Patreon.

I'm not quitting my day job. But I'm trying to create things and make money doing it.

I've also published my first gaming supplement over on DriveThru RPG: "d20 - A Few Extra Skills".

And...

Damn, I'm scared.

I want validation. I want it worse than all those stand-up comedians who say they want validation. And I'm still suffering through all my mental problems and anxieties. I don't have my life figured out.

But if I don't try this, if I don't take the chance, it'll be another 30 years and I'll be in the grave having never tried.

I don't like uncertainty. I don't like fear. I don't like being hated, ignored, loathed, or dismissed as "not good enough".

But I can't let my fear that my unrealistic desires will never yield good things for me. I have to try!

I don't know if I can do this.

I honestly don't.

But I have to give it a shot.

Yours,
Sylvan (Dave)

I'm now on Patreon! Welcome to my Worlds!

Basically, I'm hanging out my shingle and creating gaming supplements and fantasy stories.

Please take a look, subscribe, and share what I've put out there!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/welcome-to-25445025

(Okay, honestly? I'm a tad nervous about this. I really, really hope folk like this and can understand what I'm hoping to achieve with this. I'll still be doing some adult work, here and there, but for the time being I'm using this Patreon to explore the other parts of my life. I hope this attracts a bit of attention and you can share word of my risk-taking, stepping-out...)

Yours,
Sylvan

Good day, all,

It's been a minute, hasn't it?

I thought I should update folk on my commission status and, also, share a very positive story with you all.

Recently, I got a note from  Dash007 asking me about my commission status. This young fan is fairly new to such things but had already researched my rates and had a solid idea in mind of what he wanted.

It was more than I could really do at this time.

But you know how "Artists Beware" works, right? Well,  Dash007 deserves the exact opposite: "Fans Applaud".

This gracious furry was certainly disappointed that I could not take his commission at the moment but he completely understood. He was polite, professional, and a very kindly dude. Fellow writers and artists: he is an honorable person who approaches commissions with a mature understanding of how they work. He will respect you!

At a time when we hear horror stories about entitled or obsessed fans, I thought I should share this piece of gold ... that there are some really great folk out there in our community: folk whom I look forward to working for, doing a commission, at some point in the future.

As for my commission status, I've not posted much, recently.

I started work on a series of stories, several of which are finished and about twice as many are still in-progress. It's a series of super-heroic adventures and I'm looking to get them published, perhaps as part of an anthology. This is, mostly, what's been taking up my time. I have also been continuing to flesh out one of my fantasy world of Talvali/Skylands and build it in Pathfinder 1st Edition's system, perhaps for sale as well. These two projects have been taking up most of my time and are, largely, why I turn down most long-form commissions, these days.

Besides that, I suffer from both anxiety and depression. I'm 51 years old as I write this; two-thirds of a year from 52, to be precise. I'm not in very good shape, physically, and have felt very tired for a long, long time. I've lost jobs in the past and been lucky to stay employed through the recent Great Recession although, looking ahead, I worry about that. These days, I'm doing front-end XHTML, jQuery/JavaScript, and CSS coding for a retail space. I honestly don't have any interest in learning more languages, either. As I said before: I'm tired. The depression and anxiety certainly don't help. I'm on meds for those (as well as asthma, allergies, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and a lot of other fat-guy ailments) but I still have very little drive. It's hard to work on my stories and gaming projects as it is.

This is not an excuse but it is an explanation of why I really can't take many commissions unless they really spark my interest: something that's not happened in a very long time, now. And, even then, I wouldn't take one unless it was very short: under 1,000 words. This would be something I feel I could do for the commissioner without leaving them in the lurch. (I'm not speedy.)

So, to bring this back around to the positive side of things,  Dash007 really made my day even though I couldn't fulfill his request. He was respectful and positive: a really solid, good fur!

Everyone: try to be more like him!

And, for those who want to follow me on various places, here are where I post most stuff:

Twitter - Sylvan_Scott
Dreamwidth - Joshuwain

See you guys, later!

Keep in touch ... I'd like to remain one of those venerable grey-muzzles who helps out the newcomers to our fandom while still staying fresh within and because of it!

And, again: thank you to  Dash007! You helped make this old fur feel respected!

Blessed Be,
Sylvan Scott

[list][*]one[*]two[/list]

[list=1]
[*]list item 1
[*]list item 2
[/list]

The finish line is just ahead: it's in sight and you can make it! Participation is part of what makes every convention memorable. You don't have to win but, by participating, you feel more like a winner with each step!

Write something for the Iron Pen contest and submit it to ironpen[at]furrymigration.org by 10pm Friday night. We're even providing you with a Google Docs template, too, that you can clone or download, fill-out, and email to us! Yep, it's that easy!

You can read the rules, here: https://www.furrymigration.org/even.....-ia/iaip-2018/ or just read this synopsis:

Your work must:

1. Be no longer than 1,000 words (story or poetry),
2. Include either the concept of “Migration” or a “native Minnesota species” of anthro, AND
3. Include the “secret ingredient”, “The Finish Line”, in a prominent way.

So, show off! Demonstrate those skills! Have some fun!

See you at the con!

Yours,
Sylvan Scott
Iron Pen Organizer
Head - Tabletop Gaming

I've seen more complaints about what artists charge for commissions, lately.

I’d like to break this down a bit further.

Keep in mind, the following does not include any talk of trademark, ownership, re-print rights, or "sharing" on social media.

To own and maintain a small home in a moderately-pricey city, afford food, travel (gasoline/bus passes/etc.), insurance, taxes (usually self-employment is more expensive), and utilities you need roughly $40/hour if you are on your own. This is a (more-or-less) worst-case scenario.

All people, regardless of career, need to make this amount. If you are paying them less, you are saying that you think they should either not live in relative safety/security, should work longer hours, or are over-valued.

No.

No, they do not deserve living in poor conditions or onerous hours ... nor are they undervalued.

Next, consider a writer.

Drabble (100 words)
Flash Fiction (100-1,000 words [usually less than 750])
Micro Fiction (1,000-3,000 words)
Short Story (3,000-6,000 words)
Large Short Story (6,000-12,000 words)

Writing a story, even a commissioned tale where the basic plot is set-out for the writer ahead-of-time by the commissioner, isn’t like playing Mad Libs. They aren’t just typing down words. They are composing plot and structure. This is more than just paying a person to type at 90 words per minute.

A first draft, without edits, can be achieved in anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 words per hour. There’s usually a minimum of 2-4 hours/story, too, regardless of length (just to put everything into place and sort out the plot/dialogue/setting/etc.). Plus, the longer the story, the more work has to be done in making sure the story makes sense and all the scenes are well-balanced and logical in the larger context of the finished tale. Editing takes multiple sweeps with several hours or days of not looking at the story between those editing passes. A single editing sweep can take 15 minutes/1,000 words. Even without charging for time during which the author is not writing/editing but, instead, just contemplating or digesting their work for future modification before finishing it, we’re looking at a roughly doubling effect for each tier in story length.

You get, roughly, the following time costs (including edits):

Drabble: 4 hours
Flash Fiction: 8 hours
Micro Fiction: 16 hours
Short Story: 32 hours
Large Short Story: 64 hours

Now consider the living costs for the writer if they have no other job and need to make the aforementioned $40/hour. A short story should cost around $1,280 USD. That’s about .28/word. That’s what is needed for a writer to write without any other job.

Please note my own prices for commissioned tales are much, much lower than this. And I would need to have people constantly paying me for my work at the above rates before I could quit my job and still afford my small home, with a paying renter, in a nominal suburb of Minneapolis.

Sure, there are modifiers to these numbers and circumstances for the individual artist/creator. If a person lives with others who share the costs of living, they do not need to be paid as much to live in the scenario I list, above. They may live in a less expensive area or a smaller home. But they should not be required to do so just to sell you art. I know many artists who live with roommates or have spouses/partners working full-time just so they can work, equally full-time, to engage in their vocation. In those cases, sure: they may be able to charge less.

Again: you cannot expect them to possess such personally-beneficial conditions.

When you see an artist’s prices, it may be more than you can afford.

Save up.

Pay them as you would want to be paid.

I'm seriously asking this of you folk because I've been in furry and S-F fandoms for a lifetime and, since 1980 when I was in Junior High, have written (at least) 97 stories that I am aware of. Three of them are missing and probably lost for good. But ... how did I do all that? When did this all happen? Did I really write that many words in completed, finished, short stories? Sure, a lot of them suck (especially by my standards, these days) but they were still finished and representative of who I was at that time ... at that age.

On top of it all, this list doesn't include the CYOC stories or chapters I wrote. It doesn't include all the work over on writing.com that I created and contributed (and, later, was horrified to learn had been deleted along with my original account). It doesn't include all the email role-playing that I did with numerous people over the years. It doesn't include the shared-universe stories to which I submitted a chapter or two. It doesn't include any stories that I edited for other people. It doesn't include any NaNoWriMo creations.

It's all just ... short stories!

A decent percentage of it is porn, I freely admit. I was a horny bastard all those years ago. Sometimes, I still am. But a lot of these are adventure stories ... coming-of-age tales ... horror and mystery and thrillers ... emotional snippets masquerading as plot (but still possessing one) ... a few bits of fan-fiction...

73 of these stories are here on Fur Affinity. 16 of those are sample pieces of fiction that I did back in 2012 to demonstrate the types of commission work I would be able to do. 14 are some furry-related tales that I wrote long, long ago but eventually decided to share on this site long after their initial releases...

I ... I'm just stunned.

I'm finding this hard to fathom.

Here's the list. I ... I don't know what to do.

What should I do?

I'm ... overwhelmed.

So, uh, here we go, then ... the following is the list of all these stories that I've written during the past 37 years...


...published/released-into-the-wild...
The Long Walk [published in Fang, vol. 4], (Jan 14th, 2012)
Entrée [Released on SmashWords], (Mar 3rd, 2012)
In the Shadow of Titans [Released on SmashWords], (Dec 4th, 2013)
Nightlights [Released on SmashWords], (Oct 21st, 2013)
...released on Fur Affinity...
Dominance, (Jun 10th, 2006)
Keeping Busy, (Mar 4th, 2007)
Winter Thunder, (Dec 24th, 2010)
Lust For Sale: CHEAP!, (Apr 10th, 2011)
Christmas in NeverEarth, (Dec 18th, 2011)
Skylands: Large Living, (Feb 25th, 2012)
The Rose Petal Thief, (Feb 29th, 2012)
Beasts of Burden, (Mar 20th, 2012)
Skylands: Storm Warning, (Mar 23rd, 2012)
The Clockwork Changeling, (Mar 27th, 2012)
To Pay The Price, (Sep 24th, 2012)
A Little (More) Oral Action, (Sep 29th, 2012)
Beyond The Stars, (Oct 5th, 2012)
Strange Alchemy, (Oct 13th, 2012)
Hunted, (Oct 20th, 2012)
Depths of the Jungle, (Feb 11th, 2013)
Heroes of Ampsburgh, (Feb 25th, 2013)
Outskirts, (Mar 23rd, 2013)
Indelible, (Apr 30th, 2013)
Ironwolf (Furvengers: Assemble!), (May 8th, 2013)
Ant-Coon (Furvengers: Assemble!), (May 20th, 2013)
Werewolf in Another World, (May 31st, 2013)
Alabaster Emissaries, (Jul 28th, 2013)
Impact, (Aug 1st, 2013)
A Little Group Action, (Sep 18th, 2013)
Nightlights, (Oct 21st, 2013)
Colony at Cat's Paw, (Dec 7th, 2013)
The Dog Who Has Everything, (Dec 22nd, 2013)
Skylands: Hypoxia and Edema, (Dec 22nd, 2013)
Malgrave Wolves, (Dec 28th, 2013)
The Duelists of Menagerie: Puzzles, (Feb 2nd, 2014)
Beef Schtick, (Jan 25th, 2015)
Fragile Gods, (Feb 13th, 2015)
Inscrutable, (Feb 20th, 2015)
On Midnight Wings [Iron Pen Winner, Furry Migration, 2014], (Aug 29th, 2015)
Screams of Yesterday, (Nov 26th, 2015)
Final Migration [Iron Pen Winner, Furry Migration, 2015], (Sep 12th, 2016)
Volcanic, (Sep 24th, 2016)
Unique -or- "Ain't No Thing Like Me", (Jun 8th, 2017)
Reservoir, (Jun 11th, 2017)
Shrinking Spurts, (Nov 23rd, 2017)
The Yuletide Wolf, (Dec 9th, 2017)
Alternity: One, (Jan 9th, 2018)
...sample stories/short fiction...
Worth Any Price (sample story - drabble) - Transformation, (Sep 8th, 2012)
A Little Oral Action (sample story - drabble) - Shrinking, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Hunter Gatherer (sample story - drabble) - Micro, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Sacred Defender (sample story - drabble) - Macro, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Contraindications (sample story - drabble) - Hyper (male), (Sep 8th, 2012)
Trialware (sample story - drabble) - Hyper (female), (Sep 8th, 2012)
Armitage (sample story - drabble) - Growth, (Sep 8th, 2012)
The Last Hundred Yards (sample story - drabble) - Adventure, (Sep 8th, 2012)
The Quest (sample story - flash) - Adventure, (Sep 8th, 2012)
The Edge Of Nature (sample story - flash) - Growth, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Big Justice (sample story - flash) - Hyper (female), (Sep 8th, 2012)
Nonstandard Deviations (sample story - flash) - Hyper (male), (Sep 8th, 2012)
Night Mare (sample story - flash) - Macro, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Day In The Life (sample story - flash) - Micro, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Pranked (sample story - micro-fic) - Shrinking, (Sep 8th, 2012)
Karma (sample story - flash) - Transformation, (Sep 8th, 2012)
...finished but unreleased...
The Stranger and the Boy, (unknown)
Reflections and Empty Ice, (est. 1989)
September Kryptonite, (Sep, 2001)
Landscape, (est. 2003-2005?)
In the Shadow of Plovers, (est. 2003-2005?)
Vanguard: Clarity, (est. 2005)
Vanguard: Indoctrination, (est. 2005)
Vanguard: Time to Kill, (est. 2005)
Shadowrun: Wicker Man, (est. 2005-2006?)
The Interview, (Dec 12, 2006)
Skylands: Beauty in the Shadows, (est. 2008)
Skylands: Clouded Justice, (est. 2008)
All Mad, Here, (Jul 30th, 2014) ... released, finally, Nov 25th, 2017
α to ζ: Passersby, (Nov 6, 2017)
α to ζ: An Unexpected Harvest, (Oct 29, 2017)
α to ζ: The Measure of a Hero, (Oct 29, 2017)
...very old stories...
Fire Fish, (est. 1991)
Running Scared, (est. 1994)
Horse Sense, (est. 1995)
Lyon's Pub: Lone Wolf, (est. 1996)
Lyon's Pub: Final Curtain, (est. 1996)
A Witch on Christmas Eve, (est. 1996)
Catharsis, (est. 1997)
A Hard Knight's Day, (est. 1997)
From Beyond the Next Right Angle, (est. 1998)
Introspection, (est. 1998)
A View From Below, (est. 1998)
Welcome to Halfway, (est. 1998)
In Love and With the World at Their Feet, (est. 1999)
the Couriers, (est. 2012)
...old porn (from my USENET days)...
"the Size Club", (est. 1991-1993?)
"Small Problems", (est. 1991-1993?)
"Story In Progress", (est. 1991-1993?)
...missing...
"In The Second Beginning", (est. 1980/1981)
"Vanguard: Dead of the Night", (est. 1989)
"Morning in Errom-Dal", (est. 1990)

In case people are wondering why I may have unfollowed them of late, it's not personal. I'm trying to cut out fat-fetishizing images and posts from my feed. It's really getting under my skin. I had a really bad day, today, because of my weight and now all the emotions are pouring out as I'm getting ready for bed.

Following is what I posted over on Twitter:

Guys, I appreciate that in the furry community it's nice that some folk like us fatter furs but, please, try to like us for what's inside. I don't want to be your fetish. And, yes: I realize how hypocritical that sounds. But I just want to be loved for who I am.

Guys, I appreciate that in the furry community it's nice that some folk like us fatter furs but, please, try to like us for what's inside.

It seems I can only attract attention because of my weight. Please understand: it's due to a life of asthma and inactivity. It's lethal.

I just want to be loved for who I am ... not what I am. And I say this as a guy who has his own, physical fetishes. But I'm 50, now. Tired.

I've even encouraged it, tried to find love by embracing that which I hate about myself. It doesn't work. In the end it just makes me sad. I've ended up hating myself and still being alone.

Please, guys: I'm gay (technically bisexual, but that's a long conversation I don't need to distract from this post), over 30 (over 50, now), and fat. I have lots to offer. Please don't fixate on the thing I hate about myself.

More details on DreamWidth if you follow me, there.

Yours,
Sylvan

I don't draw. I have tried, but I just can't seem to pick it up.

But I write.

For years, I've loved the idea behind Inktober. This year, I decided to take it on as an artistic project of my own.

For Inktober, I plan on writing a story. Each day, I'm writing a single sentence of that story starting with the word that's been provided as a prompt.

I'm now two weeks in and I thought I'd share.

I'm not exactly sure where this is going but it works with the Hallowe'en/horror feels that this month provides.

---

Inktober 2017
JakeParker Inktober #Inktober #Inktober2017


Hemomancer
Inktober, 2017 by Sylvan Scott

100117

Swift as night on raven’s wings, the hemomancer approached Lakeview: silent as a wound, soft as cobwebs, threatening as a storm, and implacable as death.

100217

Divided by their loss, Arick, Sanderson, Byrne, and Milla left their high school stadium not knowing it would be the last time they would see each other’s faces.

100317

Poison ran between and through them: augmented by wagers made and secret loves exposed; their teams’ failures echoed their own - opening fissures unanticipated.

100417

Underwater within and gasping for breath, their mutual kinship and respect floundered: weakened and disoriented sufficiently for the hemomancer’s power to invade.

100517

Long shadows stretched out to swallow Milla as she turned from Byrne at the cemetery's edge, vowing to walk home between the graves rather than arm-in-arm with a cheater.

100617

Sword-sharp, the umbral patches of darkness swirled about her, muffling her screams, as they sliced her—reduced her—to naught but a bloody echo of her former self.

100717

Shy despite his outward bravado, Byrne kept walking towards home, guilt making him feel tight and small, ever smaller, until the cracks in the sidewalk loomed like canyons to swallow him up.

100817

Crooked thoughts echoed the crooked path Sanderson took, away from his lover—away from Arick—guiding him to become lost in labyrinthine corridors, mirror-smooth and haunted with the sneers and laughs of all those he had embraced yet never informed that the ring on his finger was a promise.

100917

Screech of tires, screech of an owl: both echoed eerily bringing Arick to realize he was alone on the path to his apartment yet, somehow, shadowed by something menacingly close.

101017

Gigantic, the hemomancer’s shrouded form stretched bone-yellow from the leafless bushes to rise-up before Arick, jack-o-lantern and dagger in his knotty hands.

101117

“Run” screamed his soul and run he did ... but only to find himself spiraling out of his body, drawn past blade and a jagged smile, into the candle-lit hollow of the ancient magician’s carved gourd.

101217

Shattered into a thousand fragments, the pumpkin, Arick’s soul, and the rite claiming each of the four former friends ended at the same cacophonous moment.

101317

Teeming carpets of insects—parasites and predators, alike—slithered and scuttled on the ceiling, walls, and floor of the ancient, damp cavern where the sacrificial spirits gathered following their executions.

101417

Fierce, with a tiger’s fury boiling within, the metal-edged fragments of shadow that used to be Milla spun together to become a shrieking column of pain and frustration: slashing at all around her but, mostly, at the cavern roof as if trying to dig herself free from the quartet’s dank, wet grave.

My Dad died sixteen years and three months ago. I miss him, terribly. But I will never forget him! And in those memories I find far more happiness than sorrow.

A Few Words In Memory Of My Father

Thank you to those who responded to my Journal, "You Got Humans In My Furry! You Got Furries In My Humans!". I appreciate your feedback on this. To elaborate on what was going through my head when I wrote that, here is my overview of an upcoming release. It is my next world-setting, "α to ζ".

I have finished story three and am still working out stories one and two. I've been sculpting this setting for just over a year after having seen and loved the world-building behind "Zootopia". This is very different from that world (with the exception that it's mammals only ... so far) and it includes Super-heroes and -villains.

In any event, this is the backstory:

“α to ζ” World Overview

“α to ζ” (aka “Alpha to Zeta” or “A to Z”) is my name for a story setting that encompasses magic, super-science, and costumed, super-powered individuals. The world is populated by humanoid animals including many humans. And although humans are the most numerous of species, they are only one of countless, intelligent, mammalian species.

It wasn’t always that way.

This Earth is like a funhouse mirror-image to our own, in which magic and science collided to retroactively re-write history and the biosphere. This was, basically, and accident that started mixing human characteristics into different mammalian species going back to the dawn of homo sapiens.

From the perspective of those in the present, restructured world, Earth has always had creatures “ascending” with spontaneous developmental characteristics. Humans spontaneously exhibited zoomorphic attributes and non-humans expressed anthropomorphic traits in a process dubbed “Spontaneous Morphic Evolutionary Punctuation”. It has heavily influenced how scientists in this “revised world”, view evolution.

But, the histories of Earth have been completely re-written.

Today, in the wake of over eleven thousand years of retroactive biology (and, also, history), the mixing of species has slowed down and settled into a vast biome in which “pure” humans make up only fifteen percent of the world population. There are still non-sapient mammals around but with hundreds, if not thousands, of anthropomorphic off-shoots. Place names and people may or may not have post-revision analogs. The changing of history has altered many people and erased others. However, the entanglement of particles in the present, spreading back into the past, has managed to keep many things the same.

In the contemporary world of “α to ζ”, magic and science are more exaggerated than in the original timeline. There is also a greater tradition of larger-than-life individuals attempting to influence the world through special abilities. This is at the cost of individuals who, before being ret-conned into the new world, would have been politicians, military leaders, religious icons, or business leaders. The more overt presence of disproportionate scientific discoveries and individual arcane ability has allowed for individuals to move forward without requiring as much assistance from others as they did before the retroactive temporal change. With a lesser need for organizations that would once have been seen as tools for implementing one’s individual plans, greater individualism is one side-effect in the ret-conned world history.

Out of this cauldron have emerged “supers” or “the costumes”: powered individuals who exercise their will in direct proportion to their unusual abilities. Super-heroes and super-villains are a worldwide phenomenon. They are made up of all manner of people: anthropomorphic mammals and humans, alike. Out of the world’s eight billion inhabitants, approximately point-zero-zero-zero-one percent (.000001 or 8,000 individuals) are powered, whether by science, mutation, or magic. Their origins may be intentional experimentation, random mutation, magical discovery, or just about anything else. But none of them know the truth: that, once, there were humans and only humans. This is the world after everything got changed.

But it's a world that they tower over like the titans of myth.

Many of their stories are set in Otawatapolis but others will reach much farther.

I hope this is of interest to you, all.

Question:

Do you automatically dismiss stories with furry characters if there are humans in it? Do you find there to be no good way to combine humans and anthros in the same world?

I'd like to know.

Most of my stories combine them.

I want to know if I'm annoying a sizable chunk of my readership.

Yours,
Sylvan Scott

On Twitter,  Dragonien posted a giant-dragon-growing varient on the famous poetry, "Tiger, tiger: burning bright..."

I responded:

Dragon, dragon: shrinking, sleight,
Like a dust-speck in the night,
What immoral lust, desire,
Could occupy thy fruitless ire?

I'm looking for a few, good furs.

Sylvan, here; I run Tabletop Gaming at Furry Migration. If you are coming to the convention, know that I would like to tap you for your power.

I'm seeking some tournament and large-scale events. Games like "Magic: the Gathering", Texas Hold 'Em (not for money ... not even for charity; sorry ... the state doesn't allow it), or RPG/War Game Tournaments. Heck, any big Card Game that you know will be fun for a large group of people!

What do you think? Would you be interested in running such an event?

Please, do!

Email tabletop[at]furrymigration.org and let me know! Spread the word around, too. Let other gamer geeks who are going to be in attendance know about the need!

Heck, have a discussion, here, in the comments: what games would you like to see at the con?

Yours,
Sylvan

After all these years on LiveJournal, their move to strictly Russia-based servers is not one I'm fond of so I've migrated over to DreamWidth. If you like a free-form platform for actually stylish and usable blogs, it's hard to go wrong with them.

Please feel free to follow me there: http://joshuwain.dreamwidth.org/

Yours,
Sylvan