Important Note!
An earlier version of this month’s update was originally posted on Kickstarter as part of a campaign for Plott Hound, a new magazine featuring animal stories and speculative fiction.
Edited by Allison Thai and with a hefty supporting cast of first readers (including me!), Plott Hound will offer professional payment for stories and poems that put animals front and center.
The campaign runs through January 20th and is still less than half-funded. If you like animal stories and speculative fiction, please consider donating or spreading the word! Thanks. :)
Why Animal Stories?
Some of my favourite stories growing up were about animals. This, perhaps, isn’t surprising. Lots of kids’ books feature animal protagonists, right? Dog Man, anybody? Dinotopia? Richard Scarry’s Busytown? Babe?
But something we may not recognise is that there are tons of animal stories being told for adults, as well. And no matter their target audience, animal stories bring a lot to the table, from the imagination they encourage to the lessons they can teach us about our own lives as (human) animals.
So, in this post, I’d like to share some of the animal stories that I’ve loved over the years—and that you might too!
The Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis
I was born in the UK and, although I moved to the US at a young age, my grandmother frequently sent me fantasy books by British authors. In addition to the late, much-lamented Terry Pratchett, that included a few series of books by author Robin Jarvis. (I know, you were expecting a mouse-themed post featuring a British author to be about Redwall. But surprise! There’s more than one!)
One of these series was The Deptford Mice, featuring a group of mice who live in a house and their struggles against an evil, immortal cat god who controls hordes of sewer rats. Eminently readable and with a surprisingly high body-count, the books eventually lead to the plucky mouse protagonist, Audrey, trying to stop a plot to extinguish the sun and exterminate all life on Earth.
The best thing? All three books in the series were recently republished by Pushkin Press in the UK, with the glorious new cover illustrations featured above. You can pick up all three at Bookshop.org or other major retailers—although here in the US, it looks like they won’t be releasing until 2025.
If you’re a fan of animal stories like Redwall, plucky mice protagonists, or just dark fantasy stories that pit character you love against overwhelming odds, you’ll definitely appreciate these books.
Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai
A mouse averting the end of the world is a hard act to top. Fortunately, my next recommendation is Usagi Yojimbo, an anthro historical fantasy by Japanese-American artist and author Stan Sakai.
I first found these amazing comics at my local gaming shop in the mid-90s, and I’ve been a huge fan of them ever since, regularly re-reading my favourite stories of Usagi
(whose name means “rabbit bodyguard” in Japanese) and his friends and enemies. There are ninja, samurai, doomed lovers, regrets, found family, and other favourite tropes. And even though the stories are often violent and bloody, throughout it Usagi emphasizes the importance of holding on to empathy and care for our fellow creatures, even in the face of adversity. What’s not to love?
If Deptford Mice shows that the smallest amongst us can do big things, the Usagi Yojimbo books prove in spades that you don’t have to feature human characters to illuminate the best and worst aspects of humanity.
With its mix of high adventure, historical Japanese setting, and philosophizing, I would strongly recommend Usagi Yojimgo for anyone who loves intimate, episodic, character-focused storytelling with an epic scope—even if animal stories are not usually your thing.
The Fox Wife, by Yangsze Choo
“Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .”
This opening line is the perfect example of the compassion, conflict, and gentle humour that can be found on display throughout Yangsze Choo’s 2024 novel, The Fox Wife.
Set in early 20th-century China, the book follows a woman called Snow as she hunts for the man who murdered her child.
Oh, and as the title suggests, Snow is also a fox. Specifically, she’s a huxian, or fox spirit, capable of taking on human form along with doing a few other supernatural things. Despite her fox nature (or because of it?) Snow provides readers with an excellent view into human nature with all its sordid plotting, schemeing, and (yes) murdering.
Although Snow starts out motivated by revenge, and isn’t above using her powers and otherworldly knowledge to follow that path, the story very quickly becomes one of community, connection, and love lost and found. A great read, and a memorable one.
More About Plott Hound
Although the Plott Hound kickstarter hasn’t funded yet, I’m hopeful it will rally in the last few days. If you’re a writer who writes animal stories, or just a reader who enjoys them, please do consider donating or checking out the website, linked below.
Thanks again for considering!
Writing Update
I’ve been plugging away at my forthcoming Choice of Games game, Spire, Surge, and Sea. My deadline is mid-March, so it’s butt-in-chair time, big time!
Otherwise, I had a couple of publications in late December, one of which is original.
Record of Lumber Used in the Great Temple’s Main Hall
A lightweight in wordcount at just under 1000 words, “Record of Lumber Used in the Great Temple’s Main Hall” appears in The Archive from Sans Press, published December 26, 2024, and can be freely read online.
Here’s a blurb for the story, which contains transmogrification (so almost, sort of, an animal story?), deforestation, and the promise of a reckoning:
The empress wants a new temple, no matter the cost. The priestess thinks it hubris to tear down the trees that house the primordial spirits. As a storm rises, their childhood friend must decide where she stands.
One interesting thing about this story is that I wrote it with kishōtenketsu (起承転結) in mind. Kishōtenketsu is a Japanese method for structuring stories and arguments based on classical Chinese rhetoric and poetry. If you’re interested in learning more about that, check out this description of kishōtenketsu which I included in my overview on how to write flash fiction.
Seven Sapphic Sci-Fi Shorts
Also in December, I put together a short ebook called Seven Sapphic Sci-Fi Shorts. As it says on the tin, this is a collection of seven science fiction short stories that have sapphic protagonists.
All the stories in this collection are reprints, and it’s available to download for free, with an optional donation, at https://fujibeard.itch.io/seven-sapphic-sci-fi-shorts
A weird fact you may enjoy about this one is that the cover is hummingbirds because the bird with the glorious red tail is sappho sparganurus, part of the lesbiinae sub-family of hummingbirds. You can’t make this stuff up.
That’s all for this month. Hope you all are staying safe out there!