Best Motion Picture
Alpha and Omega
How to Train Your Dragon
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Toy Story 3
The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Editor’s Choice: You gotta go with How to Train Your Dragon on this one, right? Granted, Toy Story 3 is a far superior film, but it’s not a furry film. The other three films in the category are nowhere near as good, despite what certain dragons keep trying to tell me.

Best Dramatic Short Work or Series
Adventure Time With Finn and Jake
“Foxy Bingo”
Mongrels
“Orangina Naturally”
The Regular Show
Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention

Editor’s Choice: Honestly as long as anything but Foxy Bingo and the Orangina campaign win, I’d be fine. Yes, I know what fox was a dancing machine, and yes, god yes, that gay cougar is hot, but there is no way in hell the fandom should give an award to commercials for gambling and sugar water when some of the smartest written shows on television are in the same category.

Best Novel
Basecraft Cirrostratus by Justin Lamar
Descent by Phil Guesz
Otters in Space by Mary Lowd
Save the Day by DJ Fahl
The Seventh Chakra by Kevin Frane
Shadow of the Father by Kyell Gold

Editor’s Choice: Wow, this is an exciting year for novels, and I can see it being a close race. That said, I’ve got to go with The Seventh Chakra. It’s definitely the most ambitious novel on the list, and Frane pulled off an exciting original thriller, and one of the most unique novels I’ve read from the fandom.

Best Short Fiction
Bridges by Kyell Gold
“False Dawn” by Kyell Gold
“Felis ex Machina” by EO Costello
“Gerty and the Doesn’t-Smell-Like-a-Melon” by Mary E Lowd
The Peculiar Quandary of Simon Canopus Artyle by Kevin Frane

Editor’s Choice: I’m leaning towards Bridges in this category. It was one of those experiments that did something new, even if it was a bit… superfluous. It’s hard to argue the literary merits of writing the same spit-roasting scene three times, but hey, there it is. That said, Simon Canopus also has a cool experimental writing feel to is, as the Cupcake branded books tend to have.

Best Other Literary Work
Furpiled #4 by Leo Magna
Different Worlds, Different Skins edited by Will A Sanborn
Iron Claw Bestiary by Chris Goodwin
i.s.o. #1 by Vince Suzukawa
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by Dave Sedaris

Editor’s Choice: In any other situation I’d automatically say Dave Sedaris, but his latest book is actually one of his weakest, so go for one of the fandom made choices. Furpiled and i.s.o. both are cool for slice of life stuff, and the Iron Claw Bestiary is something that nerds tell me is pretty cool.

Best Graphic Story
Concession by Immelmann
Furthia High by QuetzaDrake
Cruelty by Rukis
Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler
Twokinds by Tim Fischbach

Editor’s Choice: Lackadaisy. No question. The others are good, but don;t really compare, except maybe Cruelty for it’s potential. Rukis has the art talent, and if she can tighten up her storytelling I can easily see her winning this award in the future, but not this year.

Best Comic Strip
“Broken Plot Device” by Lis Boriss
“Faux Pas” by Robert and Margaret Carspecken
“Little Tales” by Genesis Eve Whitmore
“Housepets!” by Rick Griffin
“Sandra and Woo” by Powree and Oliver Knörzer

Editor’s Choice: Everyone’s got a favorite, just pick one. They’re all good.

Best Magazine
Anthropomorphic Dreams Podcast by Will A. Sanborn
Heat #7 published by Sofawolf
New Fables Summer 2010 edited by Tim Susman
South Fur Lands edited by Bernard Doove
Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe edited by Gene Breshears

Editor’s Choice: I’m tempted to say go for Anthro Dreams because it might spur an entire Podcast category next year (God knows there are enough of them to warrant it). But there are so many great stories in New Fables that I can’t snub it. Go with that.

Best Published Illustration
Big Red: Lady Sings the Blues by Richard Bartrop
Cenotaph by Susan Rankin-Pollard
The Seventh Chakra by Kamui
Shadow of the Father by Sara Palmer
New Fables Summer 2010 by Mary Mouse

Editor’s Choice: All of these illustrations are fantastic and every one of them is deserving of the award. These are some of the best talent the fandom has to offer. Personally, Kamui’s The Seventh Chakra is one of the most eye catching covers I’ve seen. It also has an array of symbolism that tie it in with the book. Plus it’s bright fucking yellow.

Best Game
Disney Epic Mickey
Furry Basketball Association
Rocket Knight
Sam & Max: Season 3, Episode 1: The Penal Zone
Sonic Colors

Editor’s Choice: There’s only one game on here that is done by the fandom, for the fandom. I don’t care if you like basketball, or like roleplaying, the Furry Basketball Association is a beast that is fueled by talented and dedicated players. Add on to that, it’s fun to follow even if you’re not participating. That’s way cooler than an XBLA game about a franchise everyone forgot about.

Voting for the Ursa Majors ends April 17. Visit the official site to cast your vote.

Award winning furry author Kyell Gold was among the six finalists in the author category, a list of authors spanning three continents, including JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.

Gold beat out other famous authors such as Neil Gaiman, Meg Cabot, James Rollins, Nicholas Sparks, and Rick Riordan (as well as Hilary Duff, Justin Bieber, and the Jonas Brothers, who are authors now apparently).

“It’s incredibly flattering, and I really owe my fans for all the help they’ve provided to get me to this point,” Gold said. “It’s a testament to the popularity of the furry fandom that a furry author can get this much support.”

The Shorty Awards allows fans to vote for their favorite entrants via Twitter. A panel of judges, representing different aspects of social media, vote on the finalists, and pick a winner in each category who will be awarded at a ceremony in New York City on March 28.

The other finalists for the Shorty Awards can be seen here.

So yesterday, as a joke, I nominated prolific and well loved furry author Kyell Gold for a shorty award, the Internet’s most prestigious award show based around Twitter. Since then, fans have responded and continued to vote, and currently Mr. Gold is in 4th place. Right up there with the likes of Neil Gaiman.

This is, in my professional opinion, totally fucking sweet! Like, holy shit guys. You realize we could potentially win this thing if we put our minds to it?

So I’m telling you: put your damn minds to it!

GO VOTE FOR KYELL GOLD

This is not an endorsement of his abilities as an author (though he is very excellent), this is bigger than that. The furry fandom is a large part of the Internet, and definitely all up in the social media frontier. It’s about damn time someone recognized us.

Seriously. Go vote.

http://shortyawards.com/KyellGold

The sequel, Isolation Play, releases January 14, 2011 during Further Confusion.

The story picks up immediately after the events of the first novel, following Dev and Lee as they try to balance their relationship and football career. Not to spoil the ending of the first book, but the first chapter includes crossdressing, a coffee shop, a swift fox reporter that smells like scotch, and one groan worthy pun.

Blotch returned to do the cover for Isolation Play. Lee is on the cover, though Dev is technically not. There is, however, a young tiger cub. What does it mean? We’ll get a copy of it to show as soon as we can.

The novel is just a couple months away from release. We’ll have a review up before Further Confusion.

“Race to the Moon” (which many of you may know better as “that Kyell Gold story with no sex in it”), was chosen as a finalist for the Washington Science Fiction Association’s Small Press Awards, in the category of Short Fiction. A total of eight stories were selected as finalists.

What makes WSFA’s awards different from their contemporaries is that the voters read the stories without knowing the author or publisher. The association claims this removes bias and makes the works stand on their own merit.

“Race to the Moon” was submitted to the club last year by the publisher, Sofawolf Press. The story appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of New Fables, the annual short story collection Sofawolf publishes.

Gold is using the nomination as an example of fandom writing making the leap into the professional realm.

“I’m deeply honored by this nomination,” Gold said. “I think it validates what many of us have been saying about the writing in the fandom: that it is getting better and has a place in mainstream SF.”

The winner of the award will be announced during an award ceremony at the science fiction convention Capclave in October.

The WSFA, founded in 1947, is the oldest science fiction club in the Washington DC area, and one of the oldest science fiction clubs in the country. For the past 60 years the club has hosted numerous annual science fiction conventions, like Capclave.

The WSAF has a full list of the nominees on their website.

Best Novel: Out of Position by Kyell Gold
Best Motion Picture: Avatar, directed by James Cameron
Best Graphic Story: Concession by Immelmann
Best Magazine: Heat #6, published by Sofawolf Press
Best Other Literary Work: Draw Furries: How to Create Anthropomorphic and Fantasy Animals by Lindsay Cibos and Jared Hodges
Best Comic Strip: Housepets! by Rick Griffin
Best Published Illustration: Out of Position Cover by Blotch
Best Short Fiction: “Drifting” by Kyell Gold
Best Short Subject or Series: The Penguins of Madagascar, produced by Dreamworks Animation
Best Game: Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, for the PS3, developed by Insomniac Games

With two more awards under his belt, Kyell Gold has passed Stan Sakai as the recipient of the most UMAs.

The full list of nominees can be viewed on the Ursa Major Awards official website.

The story is about Simon, a fox and a wizard. He’s not the “expelliarmus!” or “You shall not pass!” kind of wizard, more of a historian/librarian. He’s also a bit of a social reject, which is a bummer since, according to Frane, wizards have a rather high social standing, and the town he lives in really only exists because they built it to be near a wizard.

His inability to pick up on social cues also makes him unaware of the love triangle forming around him with his raccoon assistant and a beautiful vixen that happens to be the mayor’s daughter. Not that he’s uninterested, he just doesn’t even realize people like him.

“Wizards live a long time, and he hasn’t stopped to think about love in a long time,” Frane explained.

The story is described as “lighthearted and whimsical, though not strictly a comedy” a point emphasized by a conversation between Simon and his assistant about recognizing when a lady is flirting that ultimately culminates in: “How can somebody this smart, be so stupid?”

The world Frane has created has been featured in other short stories, including “Sanguine and Clockwork” by KM Hirosaki in FANG Volume 3.

Something about fantasy books seems more romantic than contemporary settings, and it will be interesting to see Frane do a story that doesn’t revolve heavily around people dying a lot. While the story is a romance, this particular entry in the Cupcakes brand won’t be an adults only book (so no triple perspective three-way scenes).

Frane’s novella is set to release this year, either at Anthrocon in July, or RainFurrest in September.

This is actually a pretty big year for the awards, in the sense that someone as important as me is actually familiar with most of the nominees.

In the Best Motion Picture category I’m really curious to see if people will pick the best film on the list (which is Up by the way, don’t fucking kid yourself), or if Avatar or even The Fantastic Mr Fox takes it.

I’m pleased to see that two of the novels I listed in my Year in Review feature are nominated for Best Novel. Out of Position is a definite front runner, but David Benedictus’ revival of Winnie the Pooh in Return to the Hundred Acre Woods is a great story (though I’m not sure it’s even near 40,000 words). Also of note is Cheetah’s Win by Phil Geusz, which I read as part of Roar Volume 2 a little while back. Oh and who stuck a Patricia Briggs novel in there? I know that a hot were-coyote mechanic chick marrying the alpha werewolf and fighting a vampire queen sounds awesome– wait, no it doesn’t!

The Short Fiction category is stuffed full of great entries, all of which deserve the award. I really enjoyed “Moonthief” by Not Tube, it was one of my favorite entries in X.

I’m going to glaze over these next few categories (Housepets! is cute though).

Best Magazine is another category full of great entries. I wish I had read all five, but Anthro, Heat, and New Fables are all great magazines.

Best Published Illustration really needs to have the damn illustrations on display. Here, let me fix that for you:
“Gaia’s Strange Seedlike Brood (Homage to Lynn Margulis)” by Patrick Farley
”It’s Beautiful” by Jailbird
”Jazmyn” by Sara Palmer
”New Coyote” by Kenket
”Out of Position” by Blotch

I think the winner is pretty obvious.

How is it that only one of the video games on my Year in Review feature got nominated for Best Game? And why the fuck is G-Force on there? I swear to god, furries, you would probably vote Settlers of Catan as best game every damn year if they let you.

Now remember kids. Nobody wins unless you get out there and vote. And for those of you that think your vote won’t count, remember that the Ursa Majors have an abysmally low amount of participation, so just a few Livejournal entries and you too might one day tie Stan Sakai’s record for most awards.

Here’s what we know so far:

The novel takes place during the Butterfly Islands War, which gets alluded to multiple times in both Thousand Leaves and The Seventh Chakra. That also makes it another prequel, taking place before either of the previous books.

The story follows Ket, a red fox combat medic, serving the Joint Democratic Republic of Ridgecrescent and the Deepwater Archipelago. Without getting into spoilers, we know from Frane’s other novels, that Ridgecrescent and Deepwater are definitely not together in present day.

Ket is part of the 87th Canid Reconnaissance Platoon, so we can expect lots of canids, including one very familiar one: Sergeant Vasilis “Boots” Berzeviczy. The tough as nails wolf mentions the war multiple times, and its during the war that he gets his ridiculous nickname.

The Butterfly Islands War has been a bit of a mystery, and Frane said this upcoming book will finally explain what happens. The book sounds a bit like a furry Band of Brothers, which is another genre the fandom doesn’t see a lot of good work in. There’s no release date scheduled, but we’ll keep you posted on updates, since we plan to bug him constantly about it.

Authors Kyell Gold, Rikoshi and foozzzball have teamed up with furry publisher FurPlanet to produce a line of novellas, works of fiction that fall in that space between short story and novel. Full length novels are, as Gold describes them, cakes, and so the stories produced by the Cupcakes brand are the same flavor and quality, but in a smaller size.

The brand, which sees its first book in February, was created as a way to fulfill a noticed niche in the fiction market, one that both consumers and authors weren’t getting.

“My thinking has always been that novella length pieces have always been the most comfortable thing for me to write, and they are the single most difficult thing to do publishing wise,” Rikoshi explained. “They’re too long to get into an anthology, and until now they’ve been too short to do anything with on their own.”

What may make Cupcakes unique and appealing as a line of books is not so much what happens in the story, but who it happens to.

“One of the things that really ties our work together that we all really agree on and feel passionate about is that our stories are all, at the core, about the characters.” Gold said. “And for all three of us, character comes first. And that’s something that we really respect in each other’s work.”

“I think that most readers tend to value that sort of thing, but especially in the furry fandom, character is something that people just latch on to,” Rikoshi added. “Maybe more so than plot, more so than nuance, more so than theme, I think it’s the characters that pull people in.”

With the first book premiering at Furry Fiesta 2010, the authors plan to write four novellas a year, with varying themes and content ratings. Gold’s first story, Bridges is a modern day romantica story about finding love in a new city, whereas Rikoshi’s first novella is an all ages fantasy themed story about the social lives of wizards.

“We have a gay porn writer, a straight porn writer and a gay non-porn writer,” Gold joked. “Although our styles are distinctive, within the context of furry fiction they’re more similar than dissimilar.”

Bridges can be purchased at Furry Fiesta 2010, February 19-21 in Dallas, TX. It will be available shortly thereafter on the FurPlanet website.