Tales From the Guild 2: World Tour is OPEN FOR SUBMISSION
by Pup Matthias
“Our world is one rich with diversity and culture, but how would civilized animals change that?”
That is the question Ocean Tigrox asks for you to write about in the upcoming anthology, Tales From the Guild 2: World Tour. Building from Tales From the Guild: Music to the Ears, the purpose of Tales is not just to have another outlet for Furry stories.
…we want to showcase great furry stories and show what we as a guild support. In addition to that, we want to help fund the guild while paying authors for their hard work. Thirdly, we’re using the anthology to help teach others about what goes into working a slush pile and editing an anthology.
This is what the Furry Writers Guild uses to help support themselves and showcase what they are all about.
In the words of the Guild itself, “The purpose of the Furry Writers’ Guild is to promote quality writing in anthropomorphic fiction and to inform, elevate, and support its creators.” The guild is there for others to come together to learn and support each other in our craft as well help promote our work and what we love about furry literature.
But how did the theme World Tour come about as the next entry for the book?
Because it was the guild anthology, we let the guild help out in choosing what theme to use. We had members of the guild suggest themes and voted on it. It was a very close vote with the runner up being “The Beast Within – Species issues within a modern world” which could be used for the next Guild Anthology theme.
“Ghost Ship” was the name of the warehouse in the inner city of Oakland, California. I’ve often visited the neighborhood under the booming overhead trestle of the BART train. The warehouse was zoned for business, but harbored a live/work space that was built under the radar of building inspectors. It was funded by parties and rent from people living in RV’s parked there. It was home for a collective of artists and musicians from the cultural underground of the San Francisco Bay area. Many were pushed out of previous homes by pressure of rising rents. These most expensive costs in the country are making a crisis for culture.
(Patch O’Furr:) Furries love plush like a fat kid loves cake. My friends do, anyways. That’s how I met Amy Brown, a non-furry crafter who specializes in plush objects on Etsy. I heard that she enjoyed commissions for fursuit props. It makes me happy when furries make friends like that! Amy mentioned weirder commissions, and that made me invite her to tell some juicy stories. (Mmm… carrot juice for everybunny).
Anthropomorphic: Mixing animals with human characteristics. Think of cartoons, Aesop’s Fables, werewolves, and much more. 
Mascots and costuming have been around forever. But furries are doing something new. They don’t just play with generic icons from myths and media. They add original fursonas and custom craft for everyone. It makes a subculture with personal expression beyond anything else.
Through out the month of October you may have been seeing a special hashtag around twitter of people talking about Furry books more then usual. That is because we are in our first official Furry Book Month. A way to both celebrate the Furry writer community as well as promote just how diverse the community has gotten. You would be amazed how some people still only view the fandom with only three publishers: Sofawolf, Furplanet, and Rabbit Valley. But we have expanded to around eight with newcomers like Thurston Howl Publications, Goal Publications, and Weasel Press; bringing with them new voices and new stories with the same fluffiness or scales or feathers we love.