Meeting 011: “A Non-Biodegradeable Fox” by Not Tube

Okay everybody, we had a good time talking about dongers and hoohahs and what have you, but now it's time to remember that we're all going to die and there's not a damn thing any of us is going to do about it, and if you can't deal with it, just go ahead and go crazy. Why not? It went well enough for Newberg, the aging taxidermist at the heart of this week's story from Not Tube. Inside his head, the chattering of stuffed animals fleshes out the various subsets of a broken man's mind.

We hope you enjoy the podcast! Sure hope it's better than swallowing yourself into the black and endless!

Meeting 010: “Buckets” by Jinxtigr

Jinxtigr serves up a sinful story of high-stakes lust and Skip gets a little emotional about it being our tenth show. Toonces is a little unnerved by the book club's first hetero story, but as always, there is always real estate for diplomatic relations between the breeders and the queers.

We hope you enjoy this week's meeting!

Meeting 009: “Carnal Shock” by Rahne Kallon

Rahne Kallon serves up a generous portion of pulpy goodness for this week's meeting so hot it had Skip driving distracted.  There is a certain playfulness with stereotypes and expectations, and a dalmatian discovers that there's a good reason for foxes to top every once in awhile. Or at least, they're certainly going to have to if we're going to whittle down the number of unsatisfied bottoms in this world.

We hope you enjoy the show, thank you to everyone who sent in their thoughts!

Meeting 008: “Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night” by John "The Gneech" Robey

John "The Gneech" Robey gives us a thrilling mystery to discuss for this week's show. Squash and Stretch, a pair of private dicks low on their luck, find a juicy case when a mink comes into the office, followed close on the heels by a nosy rat. Murder is the question, and the only clue is a lone note referencing a Beatles song- which just so happens to be Skip's favorite band.

We hope you enjoy!

Meeting 007: “Chitchester Gap” by Sedric and "Vignette from the Highway" by Lycanthromancer

We've got a pair of surreal stories to discuss, today. Sedric's "Chitchester Gap" presents a fantasy scenario, a public seduction by a doppelganger minus the goatee. And "Vignette from the Highway" by Lycanthromancer presents a symbolic, even cryptic fragment for the reader to digest and interpret. And also Toonces asks Skip if he can slob his own knob. Tune in for that, too.

We hope you enjoy the show!

Meeting 006: “Stasis” by Alflor

For the first time in the history of the book club, we have a guest host with us this week. Jay1743, as he goes by on FA, joined us in the studio - on the futon in my eight foot by eight foot room on the outskirts of DC - to discuss Alflor's disturbing sci-fi fic "Stasis." The themes of loneliness and isolation in the story were just too great, we had to invite a friend to keep us company.

We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Meeting 005: “On the Bright Beach” by Kandrel

As we continue further through the various meta-layers of fantasy involved with idealized stories about fake things, usually acted out in mediums that alter reality in their own ways, we get to the Bright Beach. It's easy to say that the Bright Beach represents something as basely sci-fi as Second Life. But the way the narrator separates the actions of the fantasy characters from the disembodied entities that control them gives the story that same strange sense of distance.

We hope you enjoy the discussion!

Meeting 004: “One Week” by Whyte Yote

Some of the best stories are simulations of the more sinful desires, and BDSM certainly falls into this category. While Whyte Yote offers up a story that is absent of the bondage or sado-masochistic aspects, he creates a story with a starkly defined dom/sub binary- and does it with a muted, even disaffected touch that enables vivid imagery. Issues of class and race (as far as they can be somehow projected upon furry animal pseudo fantasy-people, or whatever) give the story a special bite, one that can often cause conflict between writer and reader.

And for those who were looking forward to a little bondage: If I don't learn to stop futzing with my hoodie zipper during recording session, you can presume in future recording sessions that my hands are cuffed behind my back.

Meeting 003: “Thou Shalt Not Kill” by FuzzWolf

Maybe it's about time Skip and I come clean about something-

You see, we're- we're robots. We were programmed by Alex Vance to run the book club arm of his furry publishing empire. And while we hope you won't hold our lack of souls against us, it does explain the minor kink in our programming that causes us to identify so well with characters such as Unit JVCS3163- who you possibly know by his slave name- who skirt the line between real and unreal. Especially since that can be a rather potent source of some pretty steamy pulp. Which, as emotionless droids, Skip and I see as intriguing new territory.

If you haven't had a chance to read the story yet, here are the text and the audiobook, including  a free eBook copy you can take with you wherever you go.

Skip's Pokemon Story Challenge

I have thrown down the gauntlet, my friends, and issued a challenge.

As I'm sure you all know, I read furry porn. A LOT. And As a habitual reader of www.sofurry.com I notice that there are a ton of stories featuring Pokemon, and the sheer number of Pokemon stories has left me with a problem.

I really don't like any of them.

Now before you get up in arms, I feel bad about this! There are so many, and many are very popular, I feel like I should like them. Perhaps the main problem is that apart form catching the anime a few times I really know hardly anything about Pokemon. I don't know a Parasect from a Gangar (thank you Wikipedia), so if you write a Pokemon story that tells me that your protagonist is a Marowak, only more blue, well I have no mental picture at all in my head. It's hard to connect with a story when you have no idea who anyone looks like!

There are other issues to mind you, but I'm not sure I want to give everything away. Suffice it to say, I know crap all about Pokemon, find a way to reach me.

What's it it for you, might you ask? Well besides winning a potential convert, if there is a story that I feel is great and wins me over I am prepared to read your story for an episode of the Bad Dog Book Club. I am further prepared to force Toonces to listen to me tell him why I feel your story is great and why I was wrong about Pokemon the following week!

A little FAQ:
-Your Pokemon can be anthropomorphic or zoomorphic
-Your Pokemon can talk like people or be limited like most Pokemon (Bear in mind i think that generally characters that talk make for more interesting short stories, but if you can pull it off the other way, go for it!)
-I like Porn (we've covered this). I'd REALLY love it if you could do a great Poke-porn short story
-That said non-porn is fine too, but I think writing some great Pokemon porn is the harder challenge, so I'm gently nudging you that way...
-The contest deadline is March 31, 2011

So what do you say authors and Pokemon fans? You up to the challenge? Keep informed on the contest, send in your stories, and check out some great stories at http://baddogbooks.com/bookclub/

Ciao!

Meeting 002: “Double Blind” by Teiran

It's a pleasure to see you! We're so glad to see we didn't scare you away after the first episode. No- no, the stain definitely came out. Really, it- it only took a little club soda. But a little collateral damage is to be expected, I suppose, when you host these sorts of things. Have you read this week's story, Double Blind, by Teiran? It's a pretty keen thriller, those high-tech gizmos always fascinate me.

You might have heard the story as read by the wonderful Alex Vance, as well!

And don't forget to read our next story by the inimitable Fuzzwolf: Thous Shalt Not Kill, already available on our blog.

What We're Reading

The book club has just finished discussing "Thou Shalt Not Kill" by FuzzWolf, and now the book club is reading "One Week" by Whyte Yote.

--  The text of out next story is available on our blog.

-- An audiobook will be available 14 Marc.

-- The podcast of the text, as well as our next selection for the book club, will be available Monday, 21 March

Thanks for checking out the book club!

Why, hello!

Hey! You're the first one here. It's so nice to see you, come right in, but- but take those muddy shoes off, first. I don't mean to impose, it's just- well- we just got this rug cleaned, it cost a fortune. We had no idea it would come to so much. We went to this guy we see in these cheesy commercials during Caps games- Hadeed! You've seen them, too? Oh my God- that's crazy. You realize afterward- How does a rug cleaner afford to buy ad space during the Caps game? You realize it right around when the bill comes.

But anyway- sit down, please. We've got some cheese crackers, and slices of sausage, and I just got these chips in the mail- Hartley's, you ever heard of them? They only sell them around the little towns I grew up in, and I'd just die without them.

Oh, and did you read the story? You know, we were reading K.M. Hirosaki's "Sanguine & Clockwork." Don't be self-conscious if you didn't- you have plenty of time to page through it, and even if you only want to listen, no one's gonna press you. Just enjoy yourself. It's a great story, though, the fantasy stuff always gets me, and I just loved when that undead fox, Vico- I won't bug you with it just yet, you should be getting comfortable.

You must know Skip and the work he's done editing for Bad Dog Books, since I don't think we've met. I'm Toonces. I'm a writer, and I have no trouble considering myself a writer because only a true talent could be so unaccomplished. Skip's still getting a few things ready in the back. In fact, I'm going to go back and help. There's still so much to do! Don't be afraid to introduce yourself if anyone comes, and if you don't have a copy of  "Sanguine and Clockwork," you can have one of ours. Don't thank us, it's a great story but we've got plenty, we want to give them away.

Oh, and one last thing- yes- yes, you can just hand it over right here. That's a nice bottle of wine. So glad you didn't forget.

Anyway, make yourself right at home. Our house is your house. And thanks for coming to the first meeting of our book club!

busy, busy, busy

Well, I'm talking to nobody right now. I can practically hear the internet echo. If you're seeing this, you're probably one of only a few people. The blog is still a little disjointed, with patches of content missing like a half-conceived modernist painting. But it's a constructive environment, an environment of a project in process. It's a nice feeling, of having things come up out of nothing, as if you don't even notice the work you're putting into it.

But I do know that people are going to see this eventually so I feel as if I ought to at least explain who we are. I'm Toonces - I live in the future state of New Columbia, and my friend who you'll be hearing with me is Skip, a fellow situated just a few miles out. I'll be handling the bulk of the blog-side stuff - making sure you all have the stories to read for the next meeting, gathering up your reactions for us to work into the show - and Skip will carry me on the technical nonsense I could never understand.

In the dark echo of the internet I'm posting into now, you won't see this, but in the future you will see - along with our baptismal meeting of the book club - a post telling you where to read our next selection.

Thanks - and oh yeah- just don't ever forget to bring a bottle of wine!

-Toonces

Welcome to the Club

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.