Devon DeFrancesco

Hello! I'm Devon, the author and curator of this site. I've been in the furry fandom since 2000, when I had a project about bears, found gay bears, then found furry bears, and the rest was history. I've been writing since 1998, where I won a school writing competition in third grade and actually got the book published. I have a copy of it somewhere I think... Dunno, but it was a very long time ago. So regardless, I've been writing for a very, very long time.

I got my start in writing doing roleplay with people when I was far too young to be doing it, and then started writing stories for myself and for friends around 2004. In 2006, I was finally convinced to take on my first commission by a good friend of mine that I am still friends with to this day. I accepted after months of badgering, and from there? Just writing and writing and writing, for years. I wrote a lot more back then because I had that fire under me, and I wanted to create. I took to drawing, to writing, and everything else. I never put out what I drew and just let that skill languish for a long time, but I did come back to it from time to time just to keep that skill there. The urge to create is something so strong in me I dare say it defines me completely. In fact, I don't dare say it, I will say it; creating is the very definition of who I am.

My first furry convention was in 2008, but officially started attending them in 2010. By 2011, I was hooked on fursuiting and wanted one of my own. In 2013, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of my own, and from there I was just hooked. I've had ten fursuits since then, and will always have one or three of them in my closet from now until the day I go out. I will always love acting and performing for others, and the things I have done over the years in a fursuit have been some of the most rewarding things in my life. I cannot fursuit like I used to because of aging and the like, but there is something still just magical about putting a fursuit on and becoming a character that is not at all you.

In 2015, I stopped working full time to focus on my health and my writing. I was in a relationship that allowed this at the time, and so I really went to work on writing and going to conventions for talks and everything like that. My health had been deteriorating for years at that point thanks to bad genetics and worse taking care of myself in my early 20's, so I was focusing on getting myself better. I did get a little better for a time, but that wasn't going to last because my health problems were genetic; they were always going to become a bigger issue as time went on. Couple that with mental health problems that are also genetic, and I was always running on borrowed time. My shoulders were shot, I had a bad knee, my immune system was and still is laughably weak, and to top it all off? I've got a laundry list of diagnoses from phycologists that have really affected my life, and only gotten worse as time has gone on.

In 2021, on New Year's Day, I fell and tore everything in my left shoulder. Everything. Tendons, rotator cuff, all of it. I had 2 surgeries that year finally to fix the issues with my shoulders because of this, and the left side didn't heal correctly. There was another surgery to attempt to fix this, but it was all for naught. I am left with a barely functioning left side that has my hand going numb all the time, having shaking in my hand, and pain pretty much constantly from that joint. It was a very rough couple years after all those surgeries, as I had just gotten past a bout of surgeries for my kidneys that lasted 2 years and involved 8 kidney stones. Covid was also happening at this time, so I was all alone throughout all of this. It was the hardest part of my life, having to look down and know my body was betraying me at the ripe old age of 31. It was hell, for sure, and I did everything I could to come out of the other side.

I made it out though, and am starting to really recover mentally. I've got that fire back in me, I've learned to handle the pain and the struggle of dealing with a shaking hand, and I have really enjoyed starting over again in the fandom as a different fursona. That was part of what helped me pull through, reinventing myself as Devon. My old fursona, Sasuke, wasn't abandoned because of controversy or anger or anything, but because that fursona was the one that I joined the fandom with way back in 2000. 21 years with the same identity didn't feel right, as I was completely different from the ten year old, abused, scared, angry child that had made that character. So Devon is the new me. The new change to start over again, and the new thing that I am going to enjoy.

I've run panels at conventions since 2013. I've written commissions since 2006. I've recovered from surgeries that would break someone completely. I've traveled the country and seen almost all 50 states. I've delved into my gender identity, my being, and my psyche multiple times to try and find the best me. I've worked jobs that no one else I know can handle. I've handled being beaten down again and again and I'm still here.

So what can I create for you?

Oh yeah, and are you gonna finsih that snack?

The Fattest Author You Know