Vinnie Answers Questions! June Edition.

Honestly, I do like talking about things I enjoy and sharing things about myself. Some time ago, I asked my friends on my socials for some general questions about things. Any things. And I got questions, all right! Quite a few! Some will have long answers, some may have shorter answers. Some I may not know how to answer, but I sure as heck am going to do my best! 😀

What was the first book you read that made you go “Oh, there’s room for the stories I want to write.”?

I started writing in middle school, and it has been quite a long time since that time. I would have to say that it might have been Encyclopedia Brown. I never wrote any mysteries though, so I would say the second closest would have to be the The Hunger Games.

What’s the most useful (for you) writing lesson you’ve ever learned?

Nothing is perfect. You can never do too much editing. Phantom Janitor was a HUGE part of me learning this lesson. To this day, I read over my story multiple times and ask others to help me pinpoint any flaws, holes, or mistakes. (I also learned to love my writing no matter how flawed.)

What’s your favorite bird+mammal combination for a gryphon? And if cheetah isn’t the mammal, what bird would you pair with a cheetah?

The obvious combo would be the cheegle (Chee/Eagle.) But if it wasn’t a cheetah, I think a shep would make a cute gryphon. A German Sheppard and maybe a hawk? Unsure as to how it would look for sure. But it sounds adorable?

What character have you written who has most surprised you as the author?

This is a fantastic question. As I think through a lot of my characters, I think the one that comes to mind the quickest is my character Emma. (>:3) I don’t want to say too much about her story. She’s a character that I created to be a bully. And as I was writing, I found myself really liking her character even though I wasn’t supposed to. I also surprised myself with Avery Winchester, one of the main characters from Nightmare at Elmwood College (>:3) and throughout both versions (Oops!) of the story there is a few scenes where his character shines the most. And I absolutely loved writing it.

Are there recurring themes in your work?

I was a kind of repressed queer person, so my work has been steadily getting gayer as I continue to write. I also write quite a bit of stories dealing with customer service and interactions had on the job.

What are your feelings on fanfiction? Do you think fanfiction has a place in the writing community/industry in general? Why or why not?

I think fanfiction is okay. I don’t read as much as I did in high school. I used to write fanfiction, but not like seriously. I think it’s a valid form of writing, as it takes effort to craft your own work even if it is based on other properties. A series I used to do on wattpad, Heroes Collide, is full of OC’s based in the DC Universe. I have my own version of a new generation of Titans.

What do you think of the Furry Writer’s Guild? What are its positive and negative aspects? In what ways do you think it can be improved for future generations?

I am a bit biased on this question, as I am the Market Manager for the FWG. I don’t interact much with the large groups of furry writers on discord and telegram. I tend to get anxiety in large chats. Most of the people I have interacted with as part of the guild are fantastic people, and I especially love the other moderators as I have gotten to work with most of them in the time I have served as Market Manager. I think it’s wonderful that the guild is a place where members and non-members can talk about writing and interact with one another. And it’s an amazing way to have a network of people who are familiar with your type of stories. I personally have not experienced any negatives from the guild, aside from my anxiety with large chat groups.

As a Market Manager — and an editor of two anthologies (so far) — I would love to see more furry anthologies. They don’t even have to be hella specific. There are some fantastic furry authors I (personally) didn’t know about until I edited those anthologies. Authors like that should have a chance to get their stuff out and published. I also think that the Voice of Dog podcast is a wonderful outlet for people to publish their work.

What is your favorite book/book series and why?

This changes all of the time. My current favorite trilogy is The Indian Lake trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones. This series is made up of “My Heart is a Chainsaw,” “Don’t Fear The Reaper,” and “The Angel of Indian Lake.” This series follows a young woman named Jade Daniels. She’s a horror fan who used horror as an escape as a teenager. As I am a huge fan of this series (and am not done with the last book yet) I don’t want to say much about the series other than, you should definitely read it if you like horror or slasher films. The series feels like a love letter to all the films you loved to scream along to.

Other series’ that I loved were The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Boxcar Children. And if you want to see some of my favorite furry books? I have a post for that!

Who are your favorite furry authors?

Most of my favorite queer authors are also my favorite furry authors, so NightEyes DaySpring, Utunu, Packwolf, Sol Harries, Ian Keller, Rob MacWolf, Tempe O’kun, Faolan, and like so many others. And like I also love all the Happy Howlidays authors and the Night of the Howling Dead authors.

What advice would you give a younger version of you?

I would tell myself to stop lying to myself, and to embrace who I am. Because no one else in my family will for a while. I’d also teach younger me how to reread my stories more than once. That really helps.

What’s your writing process?

I am not sure how much of a process it is, but lately I just start writing and work till the story is either done or burns me out. Then, if a story is done, I will read over it to make sure I like it. Then I will reach out to some of my friends and see if they’re willing to take a look. If I burn out on a story, I try to leave it alone, unless the muse is really tugging at me.

Have you noticed any upcoming trends in furry fiction that writers should be aware of?

We need to be very wary of A.I. People will try to exploit A.I. to do the work that authors like me put weeks, months, and years into. A.I. is usually trained off existing material. Art, music, writing, film. It’s getting out of hand and absurd, and I would like to think that creators who have been doing their crafts for a while understand how bad it is for creative communities.

What made you start writing? And what makes you continue?

I am worried that saying “I don’t know” here is kind of a lazy answer. But I am not actually sure what started my time as a writer. I know I started in middle school, but I can’t remember why. I continue because it’s something I genuinely like to do, and sharing my stories with people makes me happy.

What’s your favourite genre to read/write?

The easy answer here is furry! But I love writing and reading horror/horror-adjacent works. Self-aware zombies and werewolves have popped up in recent stories. So that’s fun! I have been branching back into romantic works though, so we’ll see how that goes for me.

Why did you choose a cheetah for your fursona? What were your runner-up options?

I think I chose the cheetah based on a build your own mutant (From TMNT) game I would play online back when I was homeschooled and didn’t want to do my school work. Scribbles kind of developed from there. I am not sure about runner-ups. I’ve thought about switching Scribbles to a bunny. (A.K.A Scribunn)

What do you enjoy reading on a regular basis, and how do you go about discovering it?

Well, I don’t read too often regularly as I am a bit busy with my new job, but when I get time. I shift between reading a furry books (Usually one by a friend) or horror novels with fun concepts.

Well, that was a lot of fun! Thanks for these questions! ^_^ I hope to do this again soon. Maybe in another month or two! It’s nice to share things like this with curious readers.