On April Fool’s Day 2018, I saw a call from Blood Bound Books, a publisher I’d worked with in the past (I have a story in DOA II) asking editors to pitch them an anthology idea, and, if they liked it, they'd pay all costs to produce it. Now, I figured it was a joke, considering, but I also figured why not? So, I proposed a “Furry” antho.
I had a couple of reasons for this: first, I’ve long been fascinated by what might motivate people to dress up as, and act in the persona (fursona, to use their nomenclature) of animals. I’ve never done it myself, outside of Halloween, but I know people who dabble, and I’ve been to conventions where Furries abound. SF/F cons are pretty open to just about any sort of lifestyle choices; it’s one of the cool things about them.
Furries have a reputation, especially among outsiders, of being sexually deviant, and we explore that aspect of the culture in these pages. But Furry culture is more complex than a sexual fetish. It’s a whole subset of society, with its own rules and etiquette.
The other aspect of this volume is the anthropomorphic animals. I have long been a fan of animals behaving as humans in fiction, and have written several stories along those lines myself. I wanted to explore some of the darker aspects of that as well, and found some delightfully twisted takes on it among the writers within Burnt Fur.
Well, it turns out that Marc and Joe weren’t playing an April Fool’s prank. They genuinely wanted ideas for anthologies, and they wanted mine. That’s how we got here, and I’m damn proud of how it turned out. I want to thank the folks at Blood Bound Books for taking a chance on a new (to them) editor, and on a strange, fuzzy idea. I want, also, to thank the staggeringly diverse and wonderful talent of the writers. I appreciate you trusting me with your work, and I hope you’re as happy with how it turned out. Finally, thank you, readers, for going on this wild ride with us.
Enjoy Burnt Fur. Pre-Order is Live
Ken MacGregor
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