Heathen City Is Coming

After several months of hard work, with the aid of an enigmatic financier and two criminally underpaid artists, Heathen City is rolling full steam ahead.

The first issue of this new comic, written by yours truly, illustrated by the insanely talented

ayato

 and colored by his partner-in-crime Distasty, this tale of gay sex, blood-chilling action and epic urban struggle will set a new standard for furry comics.

I've been a big fan of ASB and Circles, and Genus Male still gets me off, but it's time to raise the bar.

Feast your eyes on these promo desktops, and visit www.heathencity.com for more information.

Coming soon.

Now what on earth could that be?

Stay tuned...

Books a million

Folks, it always goes the same way.

You plan months in advance, really take your time to prepare and make sure everything's perfect. You keep quiet about it so you can surprise people with it.

Then, a few weeks before the deadline, something happens, or you discover something, that means that all your work is for nothing and you have to do it all over again. Whether this be book formatting, editing, webdesign, writing -- any and all.

Then, a week before the deadline, just as it seems as if you'll make it, it happens again. Start over.

Le sigh.

But we at BDB are indomitable. We knew that Anthrocon would be a big thing for us, and despite everything the Fates have thrown our way, we're actually ready for it. (This mail will only be a quick sum-up; I'll properly give a blow-by-blow when I've had some sleep. According to my calendar, I'll have time for that in about three years.)

• FANG Volume 3 is being published. FI-NAL-LY. It's taken a long time, but it's been worth it.


• FANG Volume 4 is also being published -- but it's changing its name, and will be published as ROAR Volume 1. Yeah, I know it's weird, but you'll understand when I get around to explaining it better!


• The Hero: a gay fantasy novel by Teiran Dragon, who also the popular High School Days series.


• El Burrito de los Muertos: gay erotica novel by Anré Blaireau, sequel to Everybody Loves Luther.


• White Crusade: Ben Goodridge manags to juggle his editorial duties at BDB with a healthy writing career of his own. I fought him tooth and nail for the rights to his debut novel, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi White Crusade. He objected because publishing it through BDB would make it look like he was self-publishing. I told him to hand over the damn book or he'd be out of a job.


• Website's been updated. I know people say that the baddogbooks.com website is revamped more often than it's actually updated, but you know what? I'm kind of proud of that. Behold: the majesty that is www.baddogbooks.com. Go look.


• Free Press Program. I babbled about this in the March podcast, and right after Anthrocon, it'll finally be ready for prime-time.


• All the books mentioned above are now available in Trade Paperback format, by popular demand, through BDB directly, and all will be available on the FurNation table in the dealer's room at Anthrocon this weekend while supplies last, so be quick! The usual $19.95, and worth every penny.


• All three authors of the BDB novels -- Teiran, André Blaireau and Ben Goodridge -- are going to be at Anthrocon, and may give book signings, so ask at the FurNation table when you can find them there, and keep a look-out! Writers love nothing more than to hear from the people who enjoyed their work.

Well, what do you know. Got it all done before Anthrocon. Only a day or two before, but still long enough to actually tell people about it. I'd like to thank Ben Goodridge, the good folks at FurNation, the new Mystery Editor that I'll tell you about soon, and of course you lot. Writers, readers, you know what I mean. Thank you for making BDB necessary, and helping us strive to make it something amazing.

More to come soon!

- Alex Vance
Editor-in-chief of Bad Dog Books

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...

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