Furry Writers' Guild Forum

The Dogs of War

Publishing and Marketing
#1

FurPlanet Productions is announcing its next original short story anthology:

The Dogs of War; an anthology of furry military-themed stories.
Deadline: October 1st, 2016.

Wanted: original short stories (no reprints) featuring furries in military situations, preferably of 4,000 to 20,000 words. Lesser will be accepted. Longer … let’s discuss it.

These can range from actual warfare to peacetime training-camp scenarios (which may be humorous) to recruiting; from large division operations to small commando actions. They can range from funny-animal multispecies armies to armies of one species versus another; from fighting in animal civilizations to uplifted animal soldiers fighting in human wars.

The emphasis should be on military action, not politics; but as Clausewitz defined war as “the continuation of politics by other means”, a story may be heavily political as long as military action is at least threatened.

Despite the title, which is a Shakespeare reference (to Julius Caesar), we want stories with a variety of anthropomorphic animals; not just dogs.

Authors who want to contribute are urged to check with me (Fred Patten) first to make sure that story ideas are not too close to others already approved.

Payment: ½¢ per word upon publication and a contributor’s copy of The Dogs of War, a $19.95 anthology. Contributors may buy additional copies at a 30% discount.

Send submissions to fredpatten@earthlink.net.

#2

OMG OMG OMG!!!

ahem

Sounds great, Fred!

#3

This has certainly grabbed my attention.

#4

Hmmm… I wonder if I can slip “war” into the story I am writing…?

Great to hear Fred!

#5

Hmm. I actually have something for this.

#6

I’ll need to dig up an old idea journal, but I think this might be just the thing to get me back into writing o.o We’ll see if time allows.

#7

I have been writing something recently that should work for this. :slight_smile:

#8

I think I have a story already done that will work for this!

#9

I think I have an idea for this!

#10

What about a story about a soldier returning home?

Or am I missing the point entirely?

#11

I have an idea for this! :o This going to be tricky though for me, I know nothing about the military. To the Library!

#12

Vance: No, you’re not missing the point, or not necessarily. A story about a soldier returning home, glad to get out of the military, probably would miss the point. A story about a soldier getting out due to being traumatised by the horrors of war would be to the point. Or maybe it’s a cynical comedy; he’s been given a discharge because he’s such a foulup, but he doesn’t realise it. Or maybe it’s a more anthropomorphic story; he’s a prey animal, part of a failed experiment to make prey animals into fighting soldiers. It’s up to the writer as to how to handle it.

#13

Hmmm, I’ve got a “deleted scene” from one of my novel draft-in-progress that might be suitable, with a bit of polishing. It’s not so much about military tactics, more about the horror of war for the newly recruited, who are unprepared for what war actually means. I’ll have a look through it and see if it works well enough out of the context of the novel. The only problem is, I might decide to include a part of it in the actual final draft, although that seems unlikely since it does involve peripheral characters… And if it got selected, I could certainly work the story without it!

#14

Hello LemurKat!

That would be a happy problem to be had! And the solution is terribly easy: disclaimers.

You would not be the first author to sell off bits of work in progress and then have those same bits published in whole or in part or terribly altered into an unrecognizable form. You merely need to mention it in two places: the cover letter (…when bragging about publication credits) and the book (A small portion of this book appeared in Dogs of War as “Title” in a somewhat altered form).

Ta-dah!

Don’t be afraid to cannibalize your own work.

Good luck!
-The Typing Horse

#15

That’s exactly the phrasing I’ve been after. Thanks!

#16

LemurKat, your deleted scene about the horror of war sounds like it would fit the theme wonderfully. And the practice of publishing deleted scenes or expanding short stories in an anthology into a novel of your own is standard. Bram Stoker published a deleted chapter from “Dracula” as a separate short story, “Dracula’s Guest”. The oldest story in my first anthology, “Best in Show” from Sofawolf Press in 2003 was “Rat’s Reputation” by Michael H. Payne from FurVersion #16, May 1989, which was the oldest story worth reprinting from within furry fandom that I could find. (There were stories in earlier issues of FurVersion, but they’re bad.) Payne has recently rewritten “Rat’s Reputation” into a novel published by Sofawolf, with that short story as part of it but heavily revised. Watts Martin told me that the novelette “Tow” that he sent me for “The Furry Future” was an advance stand-alone prequel to a novel he’s writing, for publication next year.

So send me your deleted scene. If it’s chosen for publication, we can add a note in the Introduction or the About the Author that “this story is a deleted scene from LemurKat’s forthcoming novel”.

#17

I was going to mention Dracula’s Guest but Fred beat me to it!

Publishing an existed and deleted scene is also an excellent way to show who you are and what your style is all about to the world, it gets readers intrigued for more.

#18

So it won’t work for this anthology, but I had to delete a scene I loved from my latest novel because it just didn’t fit. I should rework it into a short story! Thanks!

#19

Would something about a cyber war be appropriate? I’m imagining a character being transmitted into a digital world for a mission where he/she is data and faces the psychological effects of this alongside having to complete the mission. I’m considering lots of inventive action for this that could not normally take place in a physical war where soldiers are in the field.

Would this be okay or would it be an automatic “no thank you”? Cheers!

#20

It sounds intriguing. Go ahead and try it.