What does it really mean for a story to be “furry” or “excellent”? Clearly, the answer to both of those questions is that it should be about puppies. But when I look at what’s been winning Coyotl awards recently, I see that some of the fiction has no puppies at all! Leopards and raccoons? Seriously?!
To help you with your nominations this year, I have put together a “puppy slate” of works from 2014 that have puppies in them. I may or may not have read all of these, and I may or may not be assuming they have puppies based purely on the cover.
Short Story: Cold Scent by Huskyteer. This is a story about dogs. Clearly, we need more stories like this.
Novella: Going Concerns, by Watts Martin, is about a cat and a wolf. It would be better if it were about a dog and a dog, but, sadly, this is as good as it gets in the novella category. (“Dude, Where’s My Fox?” has a picture of a wolf on the cover, but it loses points due to a title that emphasizes foxes instead of puppies.)
Novel: Red Devil, by Kyell Gold. This is a story about a wolf and a fox. I’m not sure that foxes count as “puppies,” but wolves are genetically similar to dogs and the main characters are relatively young. There are a few other novels that have dog or wolf characters, but “Red Devil” appears to have the largest percentage of puppy-ness.