Welcome to Issue 17:  Keeping the Lore We are the stories we tell.  As we tell them, they change who we are and who we become.  The stories we choose to hold on to — or can’t seem to let go of — shape ourselves and our lives. We need to make room in our stories for other ways of being, for other kinds of beings. For hope. For the possibility of change.  For growth. This is why Zooscape continues to exist and provide the world with stories, even in these weird and uncertain times.  We will continue keeping the lore. * * * Aged Plant Fibers and Ink by James…

Welcome to Issue 16:  Pain, Survival, and Love Pain, survival, and love.  These are cornerstones of life, art, and yes, furry art.  Because furry art and fiction is, at the heart, no different from any other art or fiction.  It’s beauty that humans create to try to reckon and wrestle with the harshness of the universe.  Furry art just happens to dress up in a fancy fur coat with tails and ears, or maybe a shimmering cloak of scales, or even butterfly wings.  But beneath those squishy edges, the heart beats the same. * * * Death is the Referee by Katlina Sommerberg Where Does It Hurt? by Amy Clare Fontaine…

Welcome to Issue 15:  Cats, Mice, and Mythology One year on my birthday, the devilishly smart orange tabby who was my best friend during childhood managed to sneak a dead bird into the house. He left it in front of my bedroom door as an offering. This is part of the modern mythology of cats — they kill small birds and rodents, especially mice, and bring them to their people as offerings. Cats value dead mice, so that’s what they offer as gifts. From a cat’s perspective, a dead mouse is the best possible gift you can get. Cats, mice, mythology. I have always related heavily to cats. In the…

Welcome to Issue 14:  Built to Last Furry fiction is as old as tales about gods turning themselves and others into animals, as old as fairy tales with animal helpers, as old as redwood trees, as old as the practice itself of telling stories.  We’ve always told stories about animals, anthropomorphizing everything around us, animating every corner of our lives with more life. Furry fiction is old and young at the same time.  The bright colors and colorful antics of animal characters naturally appeal to the youngest of readers, but those of us who stay young at heart never let go of our love for animal stories even as the…

Welcome to Issue 13:  A New Day A new day is dawning for furry fiction. Science-fiction was once a looked-down-upon genre, small and shoved off to the side, kept away from serious literature, back at the turn of the previous century.  Now, it’s a booming field, filling the airwaves with blockbusters. Well, furry fiction already has blockbusters.  Now it’s time to start labeling them.  If it’s about talking animals, it’s furry.  If it’s about talking dragons or gryphons or unicorns, it’s furry.  There is furry fiction mixed up all throughout the other speculative fiction genres, and readers who want to find it are ready to see it labeled properly under…

Welcome to Issue 12:  One Flock Stories are a vaccine for the soul, teaching your heart and mind to recognize different forms that lives can take, different ways of being.  When faced with the completely unfamiliar, we can panic, uncertain of how to react.  When the complete unknown is a deadly virus, that uncertainty of how to react can kill us.  When the complete unknown is simply a person with a different life story, a different way of seeing things… that uncertainty can make us hard-hearted and cruel. Literal vaccines are good for the body.  Metaphorical vaccines are good for the soul. So, read these stories, and share them with…

Welcome to Issue 11 of Zooscape! When the world is crushing in all around, what do you do?  How do you survive?  Perhaps, you find an animal to lead the way, or an animal to stay close by your side.  Or maybe, to survive the pain, you turn into an animal yourself. These stories are profiles of characters surviving in the space between their worst fears and their greatest hopes; characters surviving pain, making choices, and letting themselves discover the animal inside. * * * The Sewers of New York by Elinor Caiman Sands The Tech by James L. Steele Puss Reboots by Rachel Ayers Persinette by Elizabeth Walker Him Without Her and Her…

Welcome to Issue 10:  Coffee with Dolphins This issue of Zooscape would like to invite you to have coffee with dolphins, travel to Jupiter with dragons, and visit heaven with crabs.  Unfortunately, it can’t, because none of those things happen in these stories.  Oh, there are dolphins and coffee; Jupiter and dragons; heaven and crabs; but they’re all mixed up in a different order, and you’ll have to read the stories to find out what order they’re actually arranged in.  Think of it as a treasure hunt that will take you to outer space, the afterlife, and back again. * * * Dance of Wood and Grace by Marie Croke The…

Welcome to Issue 9:  True to Yourself Creativity… expression… transformation…  These are ways to be true to yourself.  Through creativity and expression, discover who you are in the first place, and once you know, hold tight to the truth of yourself, or transform yourself into the the person you’re really meant to be. All of the stories in this issue are about characters discovering who they are, holding firm to their principles, or finding ways to become who they’re meant to be. Maybe by reading them, you’ll find a part of yourself. * * * The Good Smell by Tim Susman The White Deer by Ian Madison Keller Shadowbox on the…

Welcome to Issue 8:  Tentacles, Talons, and Fins Tentacles, talons, and fins… these stories speak for themselves. * * * A Wake for the Living by Jordan Kurella Swift Shadow’s Solace by E.D. Walker Source and Sedition by Koji A. Dae The Starflighter from Starym by Tamoha Sengupta A Bitter Thing by N. R. M. Roshak Keep Breathing by Karter Mycroft Cepha by Eliza Master Dinos on Your Doorstep by Nina Kiriki Hoffman Philosopher Rex by Larry Hodges * * * As always, if you want to support Zooscape, we have a Patreon.  Also, we are once again open for submissions!