The Dogs of War: military fiction anthology OPEN FOR SUBMISSION
by Pup Matthias
Art by SabretoothedErmine
War. War never changes. Obvious Fallout reference aside, and yet it’s a subject that our fandom never fully explored. Especially in an anthology, but that changes. The new war theme anthology The Dogs of War is OPEN FOR SUBMISSION. Headed by our own Fred Patten, this anthology, as stated, covers the topic of war, but that doesn’t mean every story has to be your typical “war” story.
These [stories] may be serious or humorous, featuring battle action or the boredom of peacetime, from grim battlefields to recruiting stations. Warfare from Bronze Age battles to Middle Ages warfare to far-future interstellar battles. Anything with a military or army (or navy) theme and animal characters.
You are free to tell your war story the way you want. You can do an All Quiet on the Western Front or a MASH. Do something modern or travel to the past or future. Plus any genre of your choosing from sci fi to fantasy to steampunk to whatever your creative mind can come up with. But that leaves us with a question. How did Fred come up with doing a war theme anthology?
Frankly, it was by accident. Wikipedia ran an 1876 political cartoon by John Tenniel about the then-current political/military tensions in the Balkans that was based on Shakespeare’s famous line about “the Dogs of War” from his Julius Caesar. I realized that none of the furry specialty presses had published an anthology of military stories yet. I proposed it to FurPlanet before someone else used the theme.
Of course most of you are familiar with Fred with his book reviews he does for the site, but the man has been around the Furry fandom long before Furries even had a fandom to call their own. He witness our fandom take shape right before his eyes.
I was already very active in s-f fandom. Furry fandom seemed at first to be just a specialty interest combining some s-f, some animation like Disney’s Robin Hood and Animalympics, and some comic books. I think that most of us furry fans of the 1980s were surprised when it continued to grow into a separate fandom.
He also produces many anthologies for the fandom. All ranging from Sci Fi like The Furry Future to Fantasy with Gods with Fur to more experimental themes like Five Fortunes. Fred is always jumping from genre to genre.
I have a wide range of interests. If something occurs to me that should make a good furry theme, and that a lot of furry writers should have fun with, I grab it.
I have read s-f anthologies since the 1950s, and I have been amazed by some of the themes for s-f anthologies that have been used. S-f stories about interplanetary postage stamps or postal delivery. S-f stories about hotels on space stations catering to a wide range of exotic guests. There are many that probably wouldn’t work for furry authors, but if they would, I’ll propose them to FurPlanet.
And for those keeping count, Fred has produced ten anthologies for the fandom so far. Eight for Furplanet, one for Sofawolf Press, and one for Legion Publishing. With much work under his name, Fred became an editor in the simplest of ways.
I just asked. I proposed a theme and volunteered to edit an anthology that fit it. FurPlanet has been very accommodating. I get a theme approved and send out a call for stories, which I edit. FurPlanet sets the word limit, pays for them and commissions the covers. I have had to reject a few good stories because I got too many, but FurPlanet has extended the maximum length more than once. The Furry Future originally had a maximum word limit of 150,000 words, and FurPlanet expanded it to 195,000 words so we wouldn’t have to leave anything out. I insist on proofreading the books before they’re published.
Along with seeing the fandom bloom, Fred has also witnessed how our small writing community expanded into the market it is today.
Art by NaruEver
It has definitely increased and improved. The period of paper fanzines, about 1990 to 2003, had several popular writers. The period of online writers from about 2005 on coincided with the growth of furry specialty publishers. Writers stopped writing for free for fanzines, and began posting their stories online or submitting them to furry magazines like Heat and New Fables, FANG and ROAR. Theme anthologies have proliferated. Furry writers have gotten more experience. The Furry Writers’ Guild was established. There has been an evolution from real names to pseudonyms like Ocean Tigrox and MikasiWolf.
Now you have a chance to add on to that history. Fred is looking for stories between 2,000 to 20,000 words with a focus on military action, you can have politics, but the action is the focus. Dogs are ok, but work to use species outside of the title. The stories are due by October 1st. If accepted, writers will receive ½ cent per word upon publication and a contributor’s copy and will be able to buy more at a 30% discount. Feel free to ask Fred if your story idea is different enough to stand out from the pack. Send your submissions and questions to fredpatten@earthlink.net
What are you waiting for, soldier? For your mommy to wipe your bum? Get those fingers typing, maggot! You have a deadline to meet. Charge!
-Matthias
Here is John Tenniel’s June 17, 1876 political cartoon in “Punch” that inspired my anthology. The line in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is, “Cry havoc! And loose the dogs of war!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Punch_-_The_Dogs_of_War.png
In 1876, the Ottoman Empire’s colonies in the Balkans were seething with revolution. It was commonly believed in Britain that agents of Tsarist Russia were stirring them up, and in this cartoon, Britain (which the British naïvely believed was the Policeman of Europe) warns Russia to hold back the provinces of Herzegovina, Servia (Serbia), Montenegro, and Bosnia (see the collars on the dogs) from attacking the fat man (the Ottoman Empire).
There were genuinely Russian agents in the Balkans, but Britain underestimated the real fervor there for independence. The Serbo-Turkish War for Serbia’s and Montenegro’s independence broke out less than two weeks later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian%E2%80%93Ottoman_War_(1876%E2%80%9378)
Serbia and Montenegro ended up as independent monarchies, but Bosnia became a province of Austro-Hungary. This led to the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a Bosnian terrorist sponsored by Serbians in 1914, which led to World War I, which led to the nation of Yugoslavia for most of the 20th century until it broke up in warfare in the 1990s. Moral: leave the Balkans alone; they’ll create enough trouble on their own.
For those who wonder, “Where do you get your ideas?”, this is what touched off “The Dogs of War” anthology.
What other rules are there for submissions?
See the end part about “stories between 2,000 to 20,000 words with a focus on military action”, then try asking Fred… fredpatten@earthlink.net
I am stretching “military action” as far as possible. A story could be about a soldier assigned to a recruiting office far from any action, maybe even in peacetime, trying to meet his quota of new recruits by accepting prey animals and trying to make real soldiers of them. Or for a more human-interest story, trying to dissuade a hyper-enthusiastic prey-animal youth who wants to enlist because he knows that the military system would be fatal to a prey animal.
What about mercenaries? Are those allowed?
Yes, mercenaries are certainly allowed. Try to make them genuinely furry, not just funny animals. Would a mercenary company of all or mostly predator animals accept any prey warriors?
Define “genuinely furry”, that seems rather vague.
Predator nostrils that don’t flare as they catalogue every smell. Prey ears that don’t swivel, constant sonar for danger. Fur that never notices how the breeze feels when it lifts and moves the individual hairs. Eyes of all species seeing the full human RGB spectrum…or total blindness at night. A bear that can pass up a tree with really rough looking bark and not not stop for a long back rub. A chimp that doesn’t like smashing things. An orangutan who doesn’t like putting them back together. An antelope whose horns don’t get predator blood on them because he is afraid to fight. An otter who forgets that the feel of water is more important than breathing. How about a vulture zen Buddhist nun meditating her mantras for the hours she can stay in that circular flight pattern with just the barest movement of the tip a a single feather now and then…
Genuinely furry…a reason for choosing the species you choose. A way of expressing those qualities of that species that touch you and make you choose them…then make them part of the core of the unique person you write…no two people will choose “snow leopard” for the exact same reason…the reason is the core…the core is what makes unique…unique is what makes memorable…memorable is what makes writing art.
It is deciding “jumping rat” and then spending hours lost on Google, forgetting that you were going to research them as you find out how many kinds there are, how different they are and how miserable an Australian Kangaroo Rat would be in the moisture rich environment of the rain forest…and then stumbling across “jerboa” and realizing that the world’s smallest jumping mouse (indeed one of the smallest rodents) would be your perfect ninja character.
Knowing the soul of the character whose story you are aching to tell, and then finding the perfect species to mate with it and make it whole, real, alive. Why are the paw pads of a tree climbing rodent softer than their ground dwelling close cousin?
“Genuinely Furry” has to be vague…until you define it, make it real and write it in a way that makes others able to feel “Viva la Difference!”
This is not intended as a lecture. Just an impassioned response from one of an infinite number of equally valid perspectives.
Dogs of War is in the birth canal and will be seeing light in less than two months. You can pant, push and get your butt off that bunk at the same time, and start making room in the footlocker for Dogs of War II stories. I won’t stand for them cluttering up the barracks just because you are in the field hospital suffering from exhaustion and a psychotic break from getting DoW out.
Bacchus is passed out, Pan in on a binge… Now, the lions, chimps, zebra and giraffes, et.al. are all geared up to kill something…and the vultures still want to crap on the enemy. Move it! Move it!
Thanks 🙂 Message me again when it’s out, I’ll tweet a link.
Dear Mr Patten I heard that you are looking for military style stories and I have a perfect character for you! My fursona named Steel who is a SGT in the army and is inspired by my grandfather who was in the military for 20 years. I’m not in the army but grew up in a military family so I honor the military with my fursona and his story, if can write you 20,000 or 2,000 words about him and his military life would gladly be the first to publish his story? Please contact me 6099693675 thank you for doing what you do you are amazing!