Those who have read my anthologies have probably read Scott Bradfield’s short stories “Doggy Love” in my “Already Among Us” or “Pig Paradise” in “An Anthropomorphic Century”. He has had several literary satiric short story collections and novels published featuring anthropomorphized animals, notably “Animal Planet”, his parody of Orwell’s “Animal Farm” with all animals uplifted so that they can become money-spending capitalistic consumers.
He has just written to me to say that he wants to publish a collection about Dazzle, the talking dog, “Dazzle Resplendent: Adventures of a Misanthropic Dog”, eight short stories from “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction” and several literary magazines. I reviewed one of them ten years ago:
“‘Dazzle Redux’ is Bradfield’s second story featuring Dazzle, the talking dog. (The first, ‘Dazzle’, is in his 1990 collection, ‘Dream of the Wolf’.) Dazzle, now living as a feral dog in the mountains around Los Angeles with a complacent bitch and her pups, is happy; but could be happier if he would learn to just shut up!
“‘Maybe I’m not all I should be in the family skills department,’ Dazzle confessed that night to his erstwhile mate, Edwina. ‘But getting through to those kids of yours is like having a conversation with a block of wood, I swear. If I try to instruct them in the most basic math and science skills, they’re not interested. If I try to teach them which way to look when crossing the street, they’re still not interested. If I try to point out the most obvious cultural contradictions of multinational capitalism, why, just forget about it. They’re really not interested. If you can’t eat it or fuck it, it’s not important; that’s their attitude.’ (Etc., etc.; Edwina is sleeping through all this. pg. 31)
Finally despairing of trying to get his foster pups interested in geometry or Nietzsche or even not running with the local coyotes, Dazzle sets out to find his own father in the alleys and dumpsters of L.A.”
Bradfield (who teaches at a London university) wants to know if I know any furry-specialty small presses who might be interested in such a collection. FurPlanet? Jaffa? Rabbit Valley? Sofawolf? Let me know if you want to get in touch with him.