My Creative Writing Links

[Stories] [Poetry] [Writing Journals] [Publications Listings] [What's New]

Stories

One of my hobbies is creative writing, which many times is an extension of daydreaming for me: many of my idle thoughts and fantasies coming out on paper. My writing is mainly in the fantasy, sci-fi, and speculative fiction realms, with many of my stories involving anthropomorphic animals (more commonly know as "furries"). I'm interested in furries for two reasons: First, I find them to be exotic and aesthetically interesting, the combining of human and animal traits and forms. Second, they make good metaphorical tools for expressing various parts of the human condition. Many of my stories also have romantic overtones to them, and some of them venture into the realm of erotica, though I also deal with other emotions and ideas too. My writing does tend to be emotional, as my stories are very strongly character-based and driven.

For my erotica, I try to add stylistic and romantic elements to the stories, giving them more substance. However, not wanting to upset anybody's delicate sensibilities, I've clearly marked which stories are erotic, so they may be easily avoided (or just as easily found, depending on the readers' preference.) As some of my writing is erotic, I have registered this site with SurfWatch and Cyber Patrol, to help provide parents with control over what their children access on-line, without resorting to censorship.

My writing started out very embryonic, the first story being an experiment, with my delight at discovering that, yes, engineers can indeed write. The stories are listed in chronological order, so the writing quality vastly improves proceeding down the list. I've also revised most of my older stories, making them read much better. I left my first few ones alone though, to show how far my writing has come from its humble beginnings.

All of the writing here is copyrighted 1993-2002 by me. Please feel free to place links to it in web pages, or archive it on FTP sites, as long as the files are not modified and full credit is given to me. Publication, either in paper or electronic forms (e-zines, CD-roms, etc), without my consent is not allowed. I would also prefer that my work not be posted to any newsgroups, although posting links to my page is fine.

The artwork on this page is not my own. Several stories have accompanying illustrations provided by a few furry artist friends of mine. For all of the images here on my page, I've listed the artist and given a link to their e-mail address or web-page. These images are copyrighted by their respective artists, and may be passed along to others by electronic means without any form of alteration; hardcopies can only be made for personal collections. The artists ask that these images not be sold, placed on other sites, or published (either in hardcopy or electronic forms) without their express permission. These illustrations add a lot to my stories and I plan to continue to work more with artists like this in the future. My gratitude goes out to everyone who's done illustrations for me. Thanks a lot guys!

D7: Day of Judgment

A campy spoof of "The Terminator," with furry mutants running amuck on a college campus.

Reversal

A human's interesting contact with vulpinoid aliens.

Night Lovers

A story fragment involving a romantic encounter with a vampire.

The Experience

The effects of a near-death experience on a man lost in the depths of depression.

Heavenly Bodies (erotica)

A human abducted by lupinoid aliens finds it isn't an unpleasant experience.

The Loner

More than just a "shy guy meets girl" story.

A Griffin Story (light erotica)

Griffins don't always hunt solely for food…

A Griffin Story, Part Two

What started out as an unusual tryst grows into something much stronger.

In the Dragon's Lair (erotica)

A young knight-in-training's first romantic encounter… with an anthropomorphic dragon.

Learning to Fly

While living on the homeworld of winged felinoids, a human undergoes an operation to have fully-functional wings grown on his body.

The Journey

A human magically transported to a world inhabited by anthropomorphic felines embarks on an adventure with an exotic and alien guide.

The Tailor and the Princess

An experimental delving into the narrative style of fairy tales.

The Game of the Hunt (erotica)

A down-on-her-luck vixen is seduced by a debonair human, and gets involved with something much different than what she'd expected.

A Private Dance (light erotica)

A playful romantic interlude between two anthro felines.

All Debts Are to be Paid in Full

You never know who you might meet up with on those dark, rainy nights…

First Song

An experiment using a culture with a nature-based mysticism: one young lupine's rite of passage into adulthood.

Waiting Room

One man's experience with the afterlife.

Waiting for Her

He's waiting for their promised reunion… Will she show up to meet him there?

Changes

A different kind of werewolf story.

First Contact: the Rrakith

Mankind's first encounter with the Rrakith, an interesting race of anthropomorphic felines.

The Human-Rrakith Alliance

Detailed information on the Rrakith, a race of anthropomorphic feline hermaphrodites, covering many aspects of these aliens, their world and their culture, as well as their interaction with humans.

Snow Games and Backyard Diplomacy

Human-Rrakith interactions will have their occasional little bumps… and kids will be kids.

Joining the Chorus

A young rrakith's love of music helps her to overcome her shyness, sharing her singing with others, gaining a lot from the experience.

Dragons Are...

A knight escorting a lady through a forbidding forest meets up with a dragon.

Innocence Rekindled

Nearing the end of a life consumed with hatred and revenge, a griffiness gets a chance at her personal redemption. Although its plot is much different from the lyrics of the song, this story was partially inspired by the mood of Tom Waits' "You're Innocent When You Dream."

More Than Just a Failure

A human research scientist is forced to euthanize a fox morph, a tragic victim of a genetic-engineering experiment gone wrong. While not directly inspired by the song, I couldn't help but think of Rush's "Natural Science" while I worked on this story.

Tamara and the Storm Flute

Another fairy tale, this one with a mythic flavor to it too. A curious young dragon tries playing her father's magic flute, an enchanted instrument capable of controlling the weather, and must deal with the consequences of her actions.

Comparisons and Common Ground

A comparative study of human and rrakith religions, with personal touches to make it more interesting than just a textbook reading.

Making the Passage With a Friend (mild erotica)

A dingo youth alone in the wilderness, the test of passage to adulthood for his people, meets up with another person, an attractive female.

Faded Celluloid Dreams

A human meets an old vampire bat sitting alone in a small diner. A genetically-engineered exotic, cast for roles in Hollywood movies, he was once adored by millions, but now is all but forgotten. This story was inspired by both the Kinks' song "Celluloid Heroes," and also the film Ed Wood.

Send Lawyers, Guns and Money

A reckless young coyote playboy gets himself in trouble once again, and waits for his father to bail him out of his current mess. This story owes its inspiration to the song by Warren Zevon of the same name.

Briendon's First Hunt

A young rabbit on the verge of adulthood eagerly participates in his first hunt with the other men of his village.

The Morning After (homoerotica)

An experiment with writing homoerotica: a fox tries out his first time with another male, his close friend a snow leopard.

Chasing Inspiration

A whimsical and metaphorical vignette about getting re-acquainted with someone very close to me.

Turning Point

A chakat (cat-taur) grieves the loss of hir mate and finds the start of hir recovery from an unexpected source

Witch's Promise

A witch with the power of shapeshifting tries to seduce a simple village lad, making him her slave. Another music-inspired piece, this story owes its inspiration to the Jethro Tull song of the same name.

The Satisfied Mind

A human in love with a raccoon femme sadly realizes he must leave her. This story was partially inspired by the mood and lyrics to the Devo song it shares its title with.

The Scent of a Mephit

Despite the fact of her prevailing scent, a lonely skunk femme manages to find some romance in her life.

The Witching Hour

A cougar who'd left his wife alone returns to their home to find her gone, off to the meeting of witches, to join in with their ritual.

Night Swimming (mild erotica)

Returning to a place from his past, a secluded spot on a lazy river, a mouse is reunited with an old lover, an otter femme. This story was inspired by the R.E.M. song of the same title, a very beautiful somber and reflective piece that lent its mood to the story.

Making New Bonds (erotica)

This is a sequel to "In the Dragon's Lair". After spending some time with her, the young knight and his dragon lover must decide where to take their relationship.

Greytiger Saves Christmas

A chakat cub aids Santa by helping to pull his sleigh one Christmas Eve.

Finding Friendship Amidst the Winter's First Snow

A kangaroo from Australia, who's now working in the US, experiences the joys of snow for the first time.

A Little Help From My Friends

In this sequel to "Chasing Inspiration," after a long creative dry spell, my muse finds a clever way to get me started writing again.

The Reluctant Reindeer

A deer-morph gets himself talked into participating in a children's Christmas party, one in which he's the guest of honor.

Team Player

A fun little tale about one prospector's relationship with the dogs of his sled team.

Searching the Shore

A lonely fox has a strange encounter while he's sitting on an empty beach late one night. This was inspired by the beautifully-haunting Sinead O'Connor song, "Jackie."

The Watcher

An experimental piece, writing up a quick idea I had, and playing with a different style.

Kenny, Star of the Show (erotica)

Shamira, a skunk femme, and Abakan, a male squirrel, are spending a quiet evening with their friend Kenny, an adorable mouse who soon becomes the entertainment for the night, much to everybody's enjoyment.

Old Friends at an Exhibition

A quick little vignette about two old lovers meeting for a short reunion. Part of the inspiration for this was to try and do something with a mood similar to Billy Joel's song, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant."

An Empath's Good-Bye

This is by far the darkest piece I've ever wrote, yet even it has a kind of morose beauty to it. I'd been feeling sad and lonely when the idea struck me, though I need to mention that I was not in anyway near the mental state of the protagonist of this story. I was a little worried about showing this story, for fear people would read too much into it, but decided that it definitely was worthy of being shown. I'd also been listening to a radio story about some of the effects of anti-depressents and how they mellow your moods out, but also dull things in general and I could just imagine what it'd be like to have to be medicated long-term like that.

Hiding from the Moonlight

A quick little scene playing with an idea that I had.

Fox's Tutelage

A friend asked me to contribute to his publication of anthropomorphic historical-fiction. History isn't a strong suit of mine, but after talking with him for awhile, we came up with this idea which suited my writing style.

Caught in the Act

Playing with another quick idea I had, a shaggy-dog story, if you'll pardon the pun. A friend had asked me if I could come up with something for a fanzine and I was happy to have gotten the inspiration for this just a few days before the deadline. It'd been awhile since that happened.

Moonlit Offering (mild erotica)

I love autumn, standing out and looking up at the full moon on a quiet night, and interesting fantasy mythos, so I wrote this story which combined all of those. The myth was inspired by a story I read on-line a few years ago, "Dove's Gift" by Vettius. The setup at the end is a little hard to swallow, but it made for a fun story and fantasy.

Horseless Carriages are More Fun

A fun idea I wrote up for the AnthroCon book, using the theme of "invention."


Poetry

While my stories are based on neat ideas and daydreams, my poetry is almost always used to convey my feelings. Being shy, this is the easiest way for me to express myself, and many times it is also used as catharsis to work out of a bad mood or in response to a frustrating situation. A lot of my poetry is emotional, but some of it is just for conveying my thoughts and ideas, as well as a whimsical notion or two. As with my writing, the poems are listed in chronological order, so the style improves with time.

Technicolor Dreams

Creative Urge

Alone

I Am Not Allowed

I Have Never Said "I Love You"

In the Middle of the Night

On My Travels

Prostituted Life

Great Men

A Sucrose-Induced Rant

Generation Ex

Us and Them

There is no Normal


Writing Journals

In order to try and improve my creativity during dry times, I'm going to try this idea of working on writing Journals. Instead of getting bogged down on needing turn out a finished product and to have a story that's "good enough," I can just run with any old inspiration I get and see if it gets my creative juices flowing. Now some of these journals might be kept private for various reasons, but I'll post any that are worthy of showing here for some amusement or interest.

11/06/02: I Like Eggs

A really silly and innane idea that I found amusing to write up. The title and repeated utterance of the demon is from an inside joke between some friends of mine.


Publications Listings

I'm listing these publications where my work has been printed, not only as a little bit of an ego boost, but also in support of the people that have supported me, giving my work some exposure. These are all small-press productions, fanzines and webzines, and they need people's support to prosper, both from submissions and subscriptions (for the publications in print that is). So if you've liked what you've read on my page, please check out a few of these links and see if they pique your interest.

I've also worked to have two books, anthologies of my writing, printed: Technicolor Dreams and Further Dreams. In the future I may do an anthology of my erotica as well, though I'd need to get more stories written for that.


What's New - Page Updates Listing

In order to make it easier for people to follow my work, I've added this section detailing the changes to my creative-writing page. Here I'll list the changes, showing when new stories have been added. For the dates, I'm using the standard US mm/dd/yr notation.


I've gotten a good amount of feedback on my writing, and I'm always looking for more comments. It's always great hearing from new people, so please don't hesitate to send me mail and let me know what you think of my work.

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Will A. Sanborn - was1@shore.net