Ladies and gentlemen, queers and breeders, readers and writers, welcome one and all to the Bad Dog Book Club. Welcome to forty years ago, which may be the last time a book club got off the ground without the help of a daytime TV show host. Skip and Toonces may not be Oprah, but they're literate and talkative and driven by something almost like a compulsion to share in the enjoyment of reading and writing. That is to say, we think they're a lot like you.
Like you, we here at the BDBC, aren't satisfied with the boxes for comment at the bottom of a submission page. If you ever grimaced when the English teacher told you to keep your response to one page, you've found good company here. Writing - good writing, bad writing - always deserves a more intimate approach than curt, cursory responses appended at the bottom of the text like calcium deposits. Without conversation, without activity, text stagnates.
Furry writing has been done a terrible disservice by its progenitors and consumers. Stories like a flicker into existence, pulled from their stasis in the digital landscape, rendered in brilliant light on your computer screen, and after you've read them, the page turns and the diodes rearrange and the text is only so much electric vapor. We barely let these stories make an imprint on our lives - they take up no space, they demand no time, they require no upkeep. We read them in vacuum tubes of our own design and wonder why it can be so difficult to identify with the material. We wonder why it can be such a trial to find something new and intriguing.
There are other people out there who wonder the same thing, and if all goes according to plan, the Bad Dog Book Club will be the iridescent light that attracts them all into a swarm or a frenzy. Yourself and a thousand others like you, all buzzing about the same thing, all sharing in the task of looting a text for its meaning like it was a broken shopfront window. Skip and Toonces will be happy to lead the masses in revolt against low standards and isolation.
Skip is a computer technician and Bad Dog Books editor whose keen eye for particulars rustles up hints of meaning and difference from between the words on the page. Toonces works in a restaurant and spends his time writing, and is always more than willing to ditch the finer details to claw himself bodily toward a bigger picture. Our listeners, hopefully, can fill in the gaps and settle any arguments before they become violent.
But what, exactly, are we going to be asking of you here?
1] Read the story. It will be posted in both ebook and audiobook when we post the podcast for the previous story. We'll also provide the full text on the blog.
2] Tell us what you think. Send us e-mail, comment on the blog, or hit us up on twitter.
3] Listen to the show. Skip and Toonces might work your insights into the discussion, and if not, you can always shout them down afterward.
No membership required. No need to bring a bottle of wine or make a cheese plate. Just furry lit as it's meant to be enjoyed.
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