Author uses teen novel to provide look at furry community

Author Jess Owen sees very little difference between teaching and learning. To her, the combination of the two completes the writing experience.

“When I was a kid, my parents read to me and my sister all the time but we also were making up little stories for ourselves that we would share and build with each other,” Owen says thoughtfully. “But as for which one came first, it’s all a little blurred. Whether I learned to read or write first is a little bit of a chicken or the egg scenario.”

Luckily, being a self-published author of over 10 years and a frequent speaker for the Authors of the Flathead conference, means that she’s gotten pretty good at both.

“I just love to learn and I love sharing what I’ve learned with others,” Owen said. “And I think that I can really communicate that passion through this book.”

Owen is referring to “A Furry Faux Paw,” her most recent novel that follows a bookish, young high school girl who finds an identity in her local furry community, a subculture that builds its interests around the art, performance and interactions of anthropomorphic animal characters called “fursonas.”

The contemporary teen novel focuses on 17-year-old Maeve Stephens, who has to tiptoe around her hoarder mother’s mood and mess at home, but she slips away into MauveCat, her fursona, to be “the happy one.”

Owen says that her experience in writing fantasy novels, many of which center around anthropomorphic animals, gave her a good head start when doing the research for her newest book. The Whitefish author is best known for her fantasy series “The Summer King Chronicles.”

“One of the things that set me on the path to this book was that my first set of novels caught the attention of Montana’s local furry community,” Owen said. “I’ve gone to conventions and just got caught up with many of the writers, artists and creators who frequented them, so it was pretty easy to just immerse myself and be familiar enough to get to know the people and the community.”

Among the many events that fill Owen’s already busy schedule is book launch parties, as well as a speaking event in October for the Authors of the Flathead conference where she will talk about how to write for teens.

“They’re really an amazing organization and it’s such a privilege to return there to speak about such an important topic as writing for young people,” said Owen.

Owen is using her novel as a way to amplify her message of understanding and outreach to a group of people that she feels have yet to have the spotlight they deserve.

“One of the things that’s important to me as a writer is to write the world that I would like to see,” Owen said. “The furry community has gotten a lot of flack online over the years, and I just want to use this book as a means of showing how wonderful and creative these people are and to say to anyone who has ever felt like they don’t fit in, or that they’re a misfit, this is a space where you can feel like you belong.”

The novel “A Furry Faux Paw” is available online and in bookstores.