Artist Guest of Honor - Soulscape
Thea ventures from British Columbia with her vibrant colors and fluid action setting the stage for this year's theme. She loves dancing at discotheques as much as she illustrates characters within them, bringing to life the spirit of imagination.
Growing up with a fine artist and animated film influences, along with a generic love for nature, Thea was instantly knee deep in professional furry art upon the discovery of the fandom in 2008 with having drawn anthro art since her early teens. She pushes her artistic abilities with nearly every picture seeking to attain a level of excellence that has become recognised by the fandom.
Aside from an artistically inclined high school, Thea is mainly self taught through countless books, studies, and mentorship from her late mother to attain the skills she has today. She dreams of perhaps doing illustration and concept art for companies along with more education later in life, but is very content with the freelance industry that suits her diverse lifestyle and gives her opportunity to keep on improving. Her biggest challenge though, for her as an artist is to spread the message that every person has the power to overcome and thrive in their life with simply believing in oneself in levels deeper than can be easily seen.
Fursuit Guest of Honor - Temperance
Temperance lives in Western Canada with her husband and two cats. She spends her days making fursuits and drawing comic books, and spends her evenings playing video games and watching horror movies.
Temperance has been making costumes for over 10 years. When she began making costumes it was a learning curve of comic books, cartoons and video game characters. Back in 2008 she discovered the furry fandom while working as a vendor at a comic-con and spotted a fursuiter wandering the halls. She immediately decided she wanted to try and make one of "those animal costumes", and so began researching on the internet where she learned all about fursuits and the furry fandom. After completing her first fursuit, she instantly wanted to make another, and then another. It wasn't long after she learned her craft and became involved in the furry community that she began making fursuits for other people.
Temperance makes fursuits professionally through her art and costume studio, Komickrazi Studios. She has won various costume awards for her works including Workmanship and Performance at the world famous San Diego Comic-Con International Masquerade. Her work was also recently featured in a music video for the Australian band "DZ Deathrays".
Writing Guest of Honor - Fur Planet
FurPlanet is a furry-owned and operated small press publisher based in Dallas, TX. They publish and sell books, comics and art books in the furry community. FurPlanet has been in operation since 2004 and since 2008 has been owned by FuzzWolf and Teiran.
By using print-on-demand rather than traditional printing methods, FurPlanet is able to publish a broad range of titles. In 2012 alone they published 48 new releases and are on track to beat that record this year.
You can find FurPlanet in the dealers rooms of many furry conventions each year, including RainFurrest.
Since 2011 FurPlanet has been the publisher of RainFurrest's charity anthology.
FurPlanet's two mascots are Fez, the badger and Rory, the fox. Fez is a talented planning badger and handles the company accounting while Rory ships the orders and believes any problem can be solved with muffins!
FuzzWolf
FuzzWolf found the furry fandom in 1998 and has never looked back. Since then he's written numerous stories which you can find online, started the KnotCast podcast, been a founding member of the Furry Fiesta board, staffed several conventions, hosted many furmeets and become a publisher. He is passionate about promoting and growing the writing in the furry community and is honoured by RainFurrest's recognition of FurPlanet's publishing work.
Fuzz is originally from Scotland, but has lost his accent along the way and now lives in the Dallas area with his mate of many years, Teiran.
Teiran
Teiran is a writer and co-owner of FurPlanet. His most well-known stories are his series Fun at the Mall, Gryphon Thief, High School Days and his novel, The Hero. He is also the conbook staffmember for Furry Fiesta.
He is most often depicted as a wolf, but he has also been known to be a badger and occasionally a dragon.
Buck C Turner
Buck Turner has been hanging around the fandom in one guise or another since the late nineties. A sometimes artist, sometimes podcaster, and frequent editor, he's been working with FuzzWolf and Teiran for almost as long as they've been running FurPlanet. He's the editor of ROAR, a fixture at the convention table, and a leading source of brute labor.
Zia McCorgi
Zia McCorgi is a resident of Albuquerque, NM so he really enjoys the change of weather RainFurrest provides. He wrote the book Save the Day and FurPlanet hasn't let him go since. He enjoys knitting, walking his dog, baking and writing. He really hopes you stop by the FurPlanet table so he can tell you all about the fantastic books and comics they have.
Fandom Guest of Honor - Fred Patten
Fred Patten lives in Los Angeles. He got active in Science Fiction fandom in 1960 while in college, and in comic-book fandom in 1962. He has been on the committees or a fan guest of honor at many s-f and anime conventions. He has been in over a dozen Science Fiction and comics APAs and was the Central Mailer of CAPA-alpha, the first comics APA, from 1968 to 1972. He co-founded Japanese anime fandom in 1977 and Furry fandom in 1980. He was the Official Editor of Rowrbrazzle, a Furry APA, from 1989 to 2005. He attended all the ConFurences except one from 1989 to 2003, and all the ConiFur Northwests from 1998 to 2004. A major stroke in 2005 has left him paralyzed. Since then, he participates in Furry fandom from his hospital bed via computer e-mail.
He has written over 1,000 s-f and Furry book reviews. He was the Furry book reviewer for Yarf! from 1990 to 2003, for Claw & Quill from 2004 to 2005, for Anthro from 2005 to 2008, for Reynard's Menagerie in 2008, and for Flayrah from 2011 to the present. He also writes reviews of animation books for Animation World Network, and of general books for AmoXcalli. He co-founded the Ursa Major Award for the Best Anthropomorphic Literature and Art of the year in 2001, and has been active on its administrative board ever since. He is in the Furry Writers' Guild. He was inducted into the MiDFur convention's Furry Hall of Fame in 2012. He is the editor of three Furry short-story anthologies; Best in Show (2003), Already Among Us (2012), and The Ursa Major Awards Anthology (2012). He wshes that he could attend a RainFurrest.
Writing Special Guest - Phil Geusz
Phil Geusz is a furry author, working primarily in the transformation-story sub-genre. He's best known for his work in the The Blind Pig (TBP) storyverse, as well as for his books Transmutation Now!, The First Book of Lapism, Freedom City, Manifest Destiny, Wine of Battle, A Left-Handed Sword, Descent, Resisting Arrest, Spur, the David Birkenhead series, and Corpus Lupus. His TBP story Graduation Day appeared in the landmark anthology Best in Show, edited by Fred Patten; he also wrote the introduction to the transformation story section of this collection. His short stories appear in several mainstream collections. Phil is a notably prolific author-- in 2010 alone he sold five novels to three separate publishers. Three of them, the "No Oath Sworn" trilogy, were sold to a mainstream (non-fandom-related) house. Phil also has numerous other publication credits, served as Writing Guest of Honor at RainFurrest 2007, and has been nominated several times for the Ursa Major Award. His work has appeared many times on the Ursa Major Recommended Anthropomorphics List.
Within the furry world, Phil's fiction is posted almost exclusively through the Transformation Story Archive and Furry-lit Mailing Lists; he's been active on the TSA since approximately 1996.
Phil also founded the annual TSA-Bash, a sort of minicon for TSA-ers that has been held annually at various locations across the nation since 1998. In late 2012, Phil became a contributor for the furry site, [adjective][species], writing under the name Rabbit.
He can most often be found at Mephit Furmeet, in his home state of Tennessee, which he considers his "home con". He has served as Writing Track Coordinator for numerous cons, and immensely enjoys chairing panels and working with other furry authors at these events.
Music Special Guest - Fox Amoore
Fox Amoore will be soaring his way to his first ever RainFurrest from the other side of the planet, from bonnie Scotland. He joined the fandom in 2006 and has since risen to become one of the most widely listened to musicians within it.
He has produced several albums including "Feel" and "The Ballad of Midnight" and was the composer behind the entire soundtrack to the Bitter Lake film released last year. He has worked with numerous artists both as single releases for his songs and his albums, including AlectorFencer, Kaji, Nimrais, Tanidareal and so many more.
He has performed at numerous conventions including Eurofurence, where he raised thousands of Euros in charity alongside fellow musician Alexander James Adams and acclaimed author and musician Peter S. Beagle. He will be performing live at RainFurrest and infact at his first ever West Coast US Convention. He is very much looking forward to attending a convention he has heard so many good things about!
Outside of the furry fandom, Fox Amoore works as a full-time musician. He works or has worked as a Piano and Keyboard player in bands ranging from Jazz duets to original Progressive Metal bands. One band particularly of note is "The Get Back Band", a Paul McCartney tribute band that has seen him perform from The Cavern Club to The Alhambra Theatres. His work also involves composing, including being a part of the music production in the Nintendo Wii, iPhone and Android game "Order Up!" He currently has an artist sponsorship with musical instrument giants Roland and has featured in a number of popular Youtube videos, including Gotye's "Somebodies: A Youtube Orchestra".
Music Special Guest - Alexander James Adams
Using story and song, the Faerie Tale Minstrel leads his listeners into worlds of magic and music where anything can happen if you only believe. A steward of all kinds of animals, Alexander has rescued many a sad, furry creature and made it's day better. Come listen, laugh and cry to guitar or fiddle and become enchanted by the compelling voice of this storyteller. Make your day a brighter, better place and then spread the magic around!