FurRag Ninja Update

FurRag, the furry fiction archive which I had set up with the aid of a dear friend, has sadly gone untouched (visibly, at least) for over a year. Behind the scenes I've tried to kick-start the development numerous times, each time failing to find consistently available assistance in regards to the coding aspect. So I finally decided to give up looking for help, and teach myself some skills.

In the last few weeks I've been working on the update, which is reasonably radical, and tonight, after six or seven uninterrupted hours of toil (my eyes feel like hammers) the site's up and running. New features:

- Integrated review and rating system.
- E-mail notification option for nw stories from watched authors or collections -- or if someone leaves a review of your story.
- Separate, optional spaces for story notes, start and end notes for chapters, and summaries.
- Simplified ratings system (PG-13, Mature, Erotic).
- Hopefully properly cross-platform WYSIWYG editor (fingers crossed!).
- Co-authorship is now possible!
- Challenges.
- A new, more secure, hopefully spam-free forum.

And much else I can't get into. I'll be adding bits and pieces to the site as time goes on, incuding instructions as to how best to make use of its new features.

Ladies an gentlemen, after a year and a half of trying, I can finally, proudly, present to you:

FurRag.com.

Year of the Bad Dog

2007: The Year of the Bad Dog.

(this message is also available as an audio podcast at Baddogbooks.com!)

When things go quiet at Bad Dog Books, it can mean three things.

One: we're having a party and you're not invited. This doesn't happen nearly as often as we'd like it to. Alas!

Two: we're working very hard on something. This happens all the time. We wish we could have more parties, but between schmoozing, editing, wheeling and dealing we just don't have a whole lot of time to spend just drinking. Usually we end up drinking while working.

But there's a third option, too. That's when we're working very, very hard on things, so hard, in fact, that often we can't even drink. Can you imagine?

You don't have to. This is that eventuality. And we of Bad Dog Books, the hardworking yet comically underpaid Ben Goodridge and the money-grubbing, egomaniacal and always humble Alex Vance, are proud to reveal to you all the sweet, golden-hued fruits of our labours.

 

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Read on!

&

FANG For Sale!

After months of negotiating and wrangling, we can finally announce that FANG will be available from FurNation, starting in late February. This will be the pocket edition of FANG, compact and sleek as it always was intended to be -- and thanks to FurNation's cutting-edge equipment, we'll be able to change the price of the FANG books back to their original level.

In order to facilitate resale and ensure FANG's financial future, FANG Volume 1 was rereleased in pocket format at a staggering $29.99. While we at Bad Dog Books were more than a little surprised at the complete absence of complaint (one avid reader gave us the heartwarming confirmation that "It's worth paying for") we still felt it was too much to lay down for a book -- even one of this quality.

We are proud to announce that the FANG line henceforth will be sold for $19.99 per copy!

FANG Presents: Everybody Loves Luther

Alex has made no secret of the fact that "Bitch-Boy" by Badger was his favorite story in FANG Volume 1. In fact, he actually contacted the author for permission to use the story in the volume. This is contrary to FANG's basic principles, but, well, Alex was the editor. The boss, applesauce. He could do what he damn well pleased.

Aaanyway, Badger, also known as André Blaireau, had a few tricks up his sleeve, it turned out. Having long sleeves, Mr Blaireau's tricks were far too big to fit in any volume of FANG... So why kick other talented authors off scarce FANG pages when BDB was already gearing up to launch a line of novels by selected FANG authors?

Bad Dog Books is proud to present Everybody Loves Luther, the story of Adrian Drew, professor at Whiskey University and the young Dalmatian Luther Coachman who breaks him out of his mourning for his decesased lover. Throw in a frisky young couple, the tough queer Jesse Krolik and his easygoing partner Chip Rockwell and the various dramas life can throw at young and old alike... and Everybody Loves Luther is a worthy opening to the FANG Presents line of novels.

Gorgeous cover art provided by the spectacular painting talent of Grimal. Full-sized verison available at the Gallery at baddogbooks.com. Everybody Love Luther is available for $19.99.

Furry Weekend Atlanta

Yes, Further Confusion is just around the corner, but it's FWA where you'll find FANG on the table. FurNation will be stocking a lot of sleek black covers on their table. FANG Volume 1, 2 and Everybody Loves Luther (all for the marvellously affordable $19.99) will be available in decent quantities, so hopefully it won't sell out as it's done at previous cons.

Of course, I say 'hopefully'...

If you're planning to attend, and you're considering picking up a copy, do hop by the FurNation table early and beat the crowd, eh?

That said, if you're going to FWA, we'd love to hear it!

FANG Volume 5

Okay, the poor, hardworking writers among you have been reading all this promotional claptrap, wondering when we'd get to the really important stuff. Who cares about books that they can't write stories for? Who cares if anyone buys them or not? Think about the future, dude.

For those selfish individuals, here's the good news. The future is now, and it's called FANG Volume 5 .

Originally FANG's volumes centered around a particular genre. Partly this was a sneaky trick to ensure sufficient submissions. Alex thought it'd be best to choose a nice broad catch-all; surely some writers would have a story or two lying around that fit the bill.

Of course, that didn't turn out to be at all necessary. Not in the bloody slightest.

Ben, who has a pair of cojones the size of melons, has braved Alex's ego, which is the size of a small planet, and smashed preconceptions to go with something new. It's time to take risks with FANG and it's time to make authors work harder (lazy buggers that they are).

FANG Volume 5 will not have a genre. It will have a theme. You got it? A theme.

And Volume 5's theme will be:

Games.

That's it. Take it as far as you want or as close to the mark as you can. If you've written for FANG before you know that we value good writing even more than we value our own rules. Go nuts. Fly with it.

Just remember that your writing has to be really insanely good to convince us to overlook Obvious Oversights. That's why we've set up a new Advice section on www.baddogbooks.com. Read it, and stack your chances at making the grade.

Submissions will be accepted from February 1 to April 1. As always, submission instructions are available on the BDB website .

You'd better get cracking.

Final words

Was that enough to make up for the silent treatment for the last few months? We at Bad Dog Books sort of believe it is. As always, we're available for questions, comments, or anonymous donations of large sums of money at baddogbooks@gmail.com.

We've been working hard to make stuff happen and it brings us no end of joy to finally be able to reveal it.

FANG goes on sale through FurPlanet, and at Furry Weekend Atlanta. The first FANG Presents novel is coming out with a gorgeous painting by Grimal on the cover. FANG Volume 5 will be accepting new submissions with the theme 'games' from February 1 to April 1.

With kind regards from Alex Vance, head pot-scrubber of BDB, and Ben Goodridge, managing editor of FANG,

Bad Dog Books

www.baddogbooks.com

baddogbooks@gmail.com

(Now go and write a story or buy our damn books)

FANG

Okay, so big thanks to
johnnyk and
kensaro for helping to sell FANG Volume 1's new pocket editions.

johnnyk went to Eurofurence and flashed that pretty smile of his, foisting an impressive number of books on unwary citizens.

Then
kensaro took a bunch of copies to Feral, sitting down at a quiet little table to do some hawking (both of chicken and of books, nudge nudge, wink wink).

And you know what?

Forty minutes later he walks away from an empty table. Sold out.

You guys rock my world.

Oh, and to lay the question to rest...

BDB logo designed by:

BDB.com, FANG. Yeah!

So, www.baddogbooks.com has just been updated.

FANG Volume 1, pocket edition, is available now for $29.99 from http://www.lulu.com/content/406016.

A Mysterious Skydiving Cheetah may be lugging a bunch of the books to Feral. I could give you more clues about how to find him, but that would take all the hardship and misery and failure out of the event, and those are exactly the experiences that Feral attendees, as I have understood, obscenely crave.

Seriously though, check the site. Much toil and hard went into it, and it even has a *forum*, which means it's *real*! Yeah!

Logo get!

A very talented and hideously underpaid artist has been working for these past weeks to meet the cruel, tyrannical demands of his latest abominable client, yours truly. The result has stunned us all. BadDogBooks.com update to follow soon. Books soon after.

It Lives.

One year ago to the day, an enterprising, ambitious, ballsy (and gorgeous and brilliant, ed.) publishing visionary pestered you -- yes, you -- with the announcement that FANG was happening, and proceeded to babble about what this FANG was, anyway.

Or rather, what it was going to be. It was going to be a breath of fresh air to fan the flame of furry fiction. It was going to be brilliant. It was going to be gorgeous. Oh yes. Yes, yes. Yes indeedy. Of course it did indeed turn out to be all those things, and shame on you if you doubted that. And to prove itself better than so many other ambitious undertaking in our fuzzy little fandom that fizzle after the first issue, there was a second after that, with a third in development.

That last phrase is not the normal English idiom, but rather the ominous curse Microsoft mutters when asked about Windows Vista. Well, not very long; progress was made... and then halted due to the deterioration of the fingers on my paw, and boo hoo, some of you might sneer cynically. Honestly the majority response has been thoughtful concern and sympathy, and to answer that most common question: it’s a more or less permanent condition that will get better and worse as my life drags on.

Life!

Life is what was breathed into FANG with the unexpected intervention of a humble, hardworking furry author called Ben Goodridge. I’d been impressed with this individual when he submitted a very fresh, crisp story that impressed me so I demanded he write too more, and then a whole damn novel. And then he up and mails me, asking whether I’d like to let him run FANG.The gall! The sheer gall. “My daughter is sick -- Oh really? Would you like me to take care of her for you?”

My baby, suckling at another’s teat? I passed the test, though, and my possessive ego did not overrule my sense and dedication, and Ben, patient soldier that he is, whittled away at my insecurity and doubt until they were crumbs, For those of you who have experienced the force of my, say, affection for FANG, you understand what a monumental task that was him, and it was that chutzpah that finally convinced me he was the man for the job. We started hatching dreadful plots for world conquest when the sudden arrival of Anthrocon and the simultaneous anniversary of FANG’s first announcement took us completely by surprise. Who knew there were only so few days in June?

Like madmen we worked on some little things that every good launch needs: a new name (Bad Dog Books -- badass, huh?), a new site (www.baddogbooks.com -- fucking metal, yeah!) and a semipornographic postcard distributed at Anthrocon. Check ‘em out. So what’s the great news? Let’s see. FANG is now finally ‘the little book of furry fiction’, because the printer I use has developed the ability to print pocket-size books. The current and coming volumes are being reduced in size to be actually pocketable.

How awesome is it to have that sticking out of your back pocket. Just look at our fabulous lupine model Owen Zelazny; that’s how awesome it is sticking out of your back pocket. FANG is more expensive -- yes, yes, boo hiss, I know. Zip it. If it weren’t necessary I wouldn’t do it, and if you think I’m a liar and a money-grubbing charlatan you ought not to be reading this website anyway.

FANG is renamed, or rather renumbered. Volume 1G becomes Volume 1, H05 becomes 2 and confusingly 2FG becomes 3, finally arriving at logical numbering. See? Don’t I never take others’ advice. FANG continues. FANG Volume 3 (nee 2FG) is being finalized by yours truly, while Ben is primed to take charge of the new, fourth issue. So what comes next? Well, in a few weeks the revised edition of FANG Volume 1 is published, Volume 2 and the long-awaited Volume 3 (remember, that used to be 2FG) following soon after.

All the while, Ben Goodridge will be hatching the science-fiction-themed Volume 4 while I give the first few novels in the FANG Presents line (two by Badger, one by Teiran and another by Ben -- the dude is tireless) some much-needed attention. So yeah, it lives. Want to know more? Check out www.baddogbooks.com and sign up for the newsletter; cool stuff’s coming up. Oh, if you’re on the Osfer.com newsletter: technical inadequacy on my part means you have to sign up on the BDB website separately. Sorry! And I’m sorry I had to make FANG cost more, but dagnabbit, you know it’s worth it!