Geusz:

How did you first come to be involved in Furry?

   I’ve always liked anthropomorphic animal characters. My childhood was filled with Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Pink Panther, Snoopy, Tom & Jerry; some of my fondest memories are watching The Banana Splits with my father on Sunday mornings.

Geusz:

   It was in 1989, specifically at Noreascon in Boston, that I happened to bump into Jim Groat. He showed me his comics Equine the Uncivilized and Red Shetland, which I thought were very clever. They fit in with my longstanding affection for cartoon characters. I had never known that there was an entire fandom associated with them. The name ‘Furry’ was cute, too, so I decided to explore it a bit more. A friend told me about FurryMuck in 1991, and later that year, after finishing up my Ph.D. thesis, I decided to try it out. I’ve been there ever since.

Geusz:

   I’m not overly involved in ‘local fandom’. I have furry friends nearby that I hang out with, but I don’t do all that many local furry events. It’s mostly a scheduling thing. I tend to keep busy!

Geusz:

   I was attending ConFurence in January of 1998 when I was approached by Brian Harris, one of the organizers of what was then Albany Anthrocon. He extended the invitation for me to attend AAC-98 as Guest of Honor. I was tremendously flattered, having never been invited to be a guest at a convention before. I had been to AAC-97 and thought it was a promising little convention so I very eagerly accepted.
   As for what happened to make me chairman, I really cannot tell you. I don’t know myself. I started out as Guest of Honor and somehow walked out of the convention as Chairman. I think they may have slipped something into my drink.

Geusz:

   Anthrocon’s success is due entirely to its outstanding staff. They are headed up by a board of 10 people who put more heart and soul into running the organization than should be legally allowed. Add to that a commitment to providing attendees with what they want (to the best of our abilities), and you are bound to be successful.

Geusz:

   Thank you for your kind words! I really am just an old man who talks too much, though. Let’s see… it varies a bit from year to year, but it’s usually between 7 and 10. Of course, I’m a guest at only a fraction of those.

Geusz:

   I have the most admiration for conventions that are well run, show a genuine interest in giving the con-goers what they want, and are creative and resourceful. MegaPlex, Midwest Furfest, and Eurofurence are prime examples of that. Now, that’s not to say others are not. These three stand out, though, in the amount of sheer mad creativity they come up with each year.

Geusz:

What do you enjoy doing at cons?

   I enjoy telling stories, of course! I am a ham, after all. I also have an absolute ball doing auctions. The Eurofurence folks playfully call me the ‘Chief Pickpocket’. I also like doing panels and presentations. That’s the frustrated educator in me talking, I suppose.

Geusz:

   Oh, my! You’re asking for the weirdest of the weird? I think that would have to be a tie between being picked up by ominous agents of the Furry Intelligence Agency at Frankfurt-am-Main Airport, and being kissed on the back of the neck by a well-meaning but overzealous fan that I did not even know.

Geusz:

At many cons, you function as everything from an emcee to an auctioneer to a stand-up comic, often spending many hours a day on stage and in the public spotlight. Where and how did you learn to speak and perform so effectively in front of large groups?

   Simple: I was always class clown in school! That, and there were Vaudeville performers in my family line, and I’m pretty sure those genes got passed down to me. I guess I just have a knack for reading a crowd.

Geusz:

Geusz:

   How do I balance it all? As I said, I stay busy. I only have a very few free weekends out of each year to relax, and I usually end up spending those writing. Maybe this is the reason I don’t do many local fur events.
   I keep two nights of the week to myself. Tuesday night is ‘Movie Night’ at the home of some local fur-friends, although in Spring and Summer I am usually working on Anthrocon issues on my laptop there. Thursday night without fail is ‘Dinner at Mom’s’. My parents live locally, and I always go to their place for dinner on Thursday nights. They’re good folks.

Geusz:

It is often said that chatrooms and MUCKS, such as Tapestries or FurryMuck, are the real heart of furry fandom. Do you agree? Do you spend much time chatting on-line yourself? If so, what’s your favorite venue?

   FurryMuck, definitely. I still take time in the evenings to talk to folks or even roleplay a bit while I’m working on other things. Are they the real heart of Furry Fandom? At one time they were, I am certain, since it was the only way for people to get together. Now, though, there are venues by the dozen—IRC chat rooms, message boards, blogs, and so on—and there isn’t really a big centralized place where everyone goes. I think that makes conventions even more important now than they were in the past.

Geusz:

   Actually, as a writer, I am a terrible fraud. Everything I’ve ever published has been by invitation. I have never had a manuscript rejected. I feel quite unworthy to stand with other writers who have had to work very hard in some cases to get their work into print.
   I suppose I am proudest of Tweaked in the Head, which appeared in Mercedes Lackey’s anthology Flights of Fantasy (DAW Books, 1999). It was my first mainstream publication. It was really a rush walking into Borders, picking up the book, and seeing my name in it for the first time. My favorite story, though, is The Good Bird of Nanking, which appeared in Historimorphs II.

Geusz:

   All of my published fiction stories have been ‘furry’. I also have twelve or thirteen publications in scientific journals, but they make for very dry reading.

Geusz:

   Literature is the art form that I can create, but I have to confess that I like good old-fashioned drawing. Pictures paint a thousand words, as they say, and it’s a lot less work to look at a picture than to read a thousand words. Sadly, I’m guilty of the same attitude that makes many furry writers—myself included—feel ignored in the fandom. We might work for hours on end to write a really nifty story, but few if any people will actually read it, because readers can spend that same time looking at a thousand pictures.

Geusz:

Some furs feel that furry is a sort of also-ran fandom; that it will never be respected in mainstream society in the way that, say, science-fiction fandom has come to be. Others point to the continual increase in con attendance numbers, and believe that we are well on our way to ‘respectable’ status. Do you believe that furrydom will forever remain a fringe affair?

   No. Cartoon characters, anthropomorphic animals, are a huge part of our culture. I believe that it is only a matter of time—provided that we act responsibly when presenting ourselves and our fandom to the public—before people get used to it. There was a time when science fiction was considered strictly kids’ stuff, but now it is a very respectable literary genre. Look at anime: It’s only been about 15 or 20 years since it was barely known in this country, and even then only to a few select geeks. Now it’s everywhere, and growing.

Geusz:

Do you think we might someday have our own cable TV channel, just like the SF crowd currently does?

   I think we already do. It’s called ‘The Cartoon Network’.

Geusz:

And, to end on a happy note: What is the most wonderful experience or event that you’ve ever experienced as a fur, that only our unique fandom could make possible?

   Wow! Single incident? There have been so many. Meeting Stan Sakai, whom I’ve always admired? Riding in the back of a silver Mercedes on the German Autobahn with a police escort? Getting drunk with Dr. Forrester from MST3K?
   All of these are fun and will always be cherished memories. But I think I’m being perfectly honest when I say that the most wonderful experience has been to see Anthrocon grow as large as it has, and to know that I’ve had at least a small role in that. I don’t think I’d trade that for anything.