At Long Last…Furry & Flo 8: Big Bad Dad

It’s been long enough, hasn’t it? If you’ve been waiting and wondering where the HECK the final installment in the much-delayed and previously cancelled FURRY & FLO series (that you might’ve read when you were a kid or you know, read TO your kid(s)) you’re in luck.

It’s here: FURRY & FLO 8: BIG BAD DAD Click the link, download it, read it and let me know what you think!

Here’s the part in the blog post where I apologize for this taking so long. It’s been a long journey since FURRY & FLO 1: THE BIG HAIRY SECRET dropped. Like 2014! Isn’t that crazy? My kids were little(r) than they are now. My youngest (12) doesn’t care about reading anything but manga books about pirates and kung-fu guys. My oldest (16) is reading about every musical instrument you can think of. Times have definitely changed.

Anyway, some quick stuff about this book:

Umm…I was afraid to write it! I knew waaay back when I pitched the series to Capstone what I wanted the final book to be titled. Seriously, even that far back. This was when I thought the whole series would be like 12 books. I had a book planned with ghosts in it, one with a witch, another with a “hidden” floor within Corman Towers. But alas…plans change and series sometimes don’t do as well as a publisher would like. Kind of hard to compete with Marvel and Scooby Doo, I guess!

But yeah…the thought of wrapping this all up sort of terrified me. While FURRY & FLO 7: PORTAL BOUNCE was my way of getting our heroes out of the corner I painted them in, this book had to try and tie up all the loose ends and (hopefully) deliver an ending that seems worthy of the wait and build up the previous books set up. And I’m not going to say it’s just like the super popular books and movies where it’s hard to stick the landing for the ending.

But holy cow is it daunting!

I finished the draft earlier this summer and spent some time trying to fine-tune it as best as I could without an editor. I’ll say it now: I’m NO editor and those folks don’t get paid enough to try and wrangle my words into something much more polished than what I delivered. I liked how to book came out. It actually made my eyes water a little bit…or was that seasonal allergies? I sent out a call for illustrators and found an AMAZING artist who lives in Belarus who goes by the name HAPPI_SCMEPPIR. I think she captured the spirit and gave the characters a familiar but unique look that had me excited to put this whole goofy book together…finally.

So, my goal was to get this done by Halloween 2021. It’s been sort of looming over me for a number of years. Other (paying!) book deadlines became the priority along with some life changes, raising boys, surviving a pandemic and hunting ghosts kept putting Furry and Flo’s final adventure on the back burner. Were they excuses? Sure. Some of them were. The thought of this being the last installment is TOTALLY bittersweet. I’m going to miss those crazy kids and their wacky adventures.

And yes…this is it. If you’ve ever wondered how it all comes together, give it a read. Share it with others who may have vague memories about the girl who moved into the cruddy apartment building and lives across the hall from her best friend, a 3rd grade werewolf.

I hope you have a much fun reading it as I did writing it.

Thanks to everyone who reached out, wondering if I was ever going to get off my butt and get it done. You were a huge push in getting my butt into my writing chair and behind the keyboard.

Until then…

Holy socks!

  • Thomas