Dogpatch Press

Art by Open-Face

Halloween is upon us. The air is getting chillier, the leaves are changing, and our darkest thoughts start to bubble to the surface. While this isn’t a Halloween or even fully a horror anthology, this one offers a look at our own twisted minds to fulfill our most primal needs. And isn’t that what Halloween is all about? Thurston Howl Publications is proud to present its new demonic anthology, Seven Deadly Sins and they are open to your submissions.

The theme should already be clear to anyone with a passing knowledge of religion, but for those wondering what to base their story on…

Seven Deadly Sins has been a literary trope for centuries, popularized by Italian poet Dante. They are as follows: pride, greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, envy, and sloth. This collection will be divided respectively into the seven parts. We want to see anthro-animal characters at their darkest and weakest moments: at the whorehouse, at the chopping block, in the morgue, in the dining room with the candlestick.

Edited by Thurston Howl, the inspiration for the anthology comes from his own experience.

The inspiration for this anthology came from a personal struggle. Recently, I felt a smoldering rage toward a close acquaintance of mine who had a particular habit for causing local trouble. Instead of acting on that anger, I tried to pick apart whether what I was feeling: wrath…or envy…or even just an insult to my pride. Gradually, I thought of a couple of short story ideas for a few of the seven deadly sins, and then it hit me to edit a furry anthology with the theme.

Thurston Howl Publications has already featured some furry works, most notably their Wolf Warriors charity anthologies, which feature a mix of anthro works, as well as their Non-fiction collection, Furries Among Us. Seven Deadly Sins however will be their first full furry fiction anthology which, as Howl explains, is building upon what they have already accomplished.

…the past three charity anthologies [Wolf Warriors] we’ve published all had furry stories in it, especially the third volume, and I’ve already had the pleasure of working with many big furry authors in those anthologies as well as last year’s Furries Among Us. I really haven’t seen this project as too much different from those before. However, as we are expanding and growing within the fandom, so too will our opportunities for authors.

While the theme is based on the seven sins, the genre for your story is open to whatever you desire to explore.

The genres for the stories will likely rely heavily on the sin described. For example, I hope to receive a lot of horror submissions for Wrath and erotica for Lust. However, I expect that the genres will run the whole gamut throughout this collection as sins can pervade a vast number of scenarios.

And they are open to adult material.

It will just depend on the quality of the submissions.

So you figured out which sin you wish to explore. What are the requirements?

• Deadline is November 1, 2016.
• Word count is 2500-8000.
• Reprints are fine.
• Authors can send up to three stories.
• Authors will receive a free print copy of the book.
• Each story has to be based around one of the seven sins, and we will be regularly updating the list of received submissions’ themes on the guidelines website.

The book is expected to be release around January. The perfect gift for Valentine’s Day as Howl puts it cause nothing says love then watching fluffy animals succumb to their inner most desires. So get you paws a writing fluffer nutters, we have some debauchery to unless onto the world.

-Matthias