Kyell Gold's Blog, page 17

MFF!

So yeah, it turns out I’ll be at Midwest Furfest! Because this was very last-minute, I don’t have any panel obligations, so your best bet to find me is to check the Sofawolf table and the FurPlanet table, where I will be hanging around and signing, space permitting. I will also be exploring Chicago (outside the con) either Friday or Saturday, so check either my Twitter or at the tables where they will know when I’ll be around.

As always, you can bring books you already own, or buy books at the tables, and I’ll be happy to sign books, Kindles, footballs, whatever. The various tables should have all my new books from this year: Red Devil, The Mysterious Affair of Giles, Uncovered, and Dude, Where’s My Fox?

Looking forward to seeing you guys there!

Things That Make A Book

Sometimes you realize, “What this book needs is a secret society.” And that sends you down all sorts of paths and makes things more interesting.

Patreon Coming Soon!

Hey, I announced this in my newsletter and on FA, but just to catch you guys up: I’m putting together a Patreon page where people who want to support me can toss in money while I post the first draft of a novel much as I did with “Camouflage.” The differences: your funding will help support extra art and extra stories during the time I’m writing (if those levels are met), and in return you’ll get to sit in on chats with me, artist streams, and for some levels you will get the chance to have a character named in the novel or a story, and to vote on what world the extra stories (should they occur) will be in. Also, since the novel is about tennis, I’m hoping to have chats happen during some major tennis finals.

I’m putting together the last of the publicity materials for the page this week and next, but I thought I’d tell you a little about the novel. It’s about a black-backed jackal who comes to the US at the age of 14 to study tennis. He meets a cheetah who, a couple years later, becomes his first boyfriend; and he meets an uppity older cross fox who becomes his chief rival. In the meantime, he’ll be figuring out how to be friends with people you’re facing on the tennis court, how to live with his mother as his new friends give him lots of ideas about what it means to grow up, and (perhaps most importantly) how to be himself and still win tennis matches. There’s romance, sports, drama, and when the kids hit eighteen, there’ll be sex. If you liked “Waterways” and “Out of Position,” you’ll probably enjoy this story too, and I hope you’ll come to love Rocky the jackal.

Judgment Days

So as some of you know, I have volunteered to judge gay romance books for the Rainbow Awards this year (I won in 2009 for Out of Position and placed fifth in the Young Adult category for Green Fairy in 2012, but I don’t read for categories in which my books are submitted). Last year I read in the Paranormal Romance category, which included shapeshifter romances (primarily). This year I’m reading the Fantasy Romance category, and the books have been generally better than the ones I read last year. I don’t know if that’s because fantasy attracts better writing or if the books are just better this year, but there’s only been one book that I really didn’t enjoy.

The process of reading to review is a little different from just reading. If I’d picked up these books just to read them, I would’ve been focused mostly on how much I enjoyed the stories (and at least one I wouldn’t have finished). But when reading to review, first off, I have to finish, and second, I have to think about how successful the book was based on what the author intended. There were a couple of these fantasy books that weren’t exactly my cup of tea, but they were enjoyable reads, and based on what the author wanted to accomplish (as best I could tell), they succeeded quite well.

The other thing in reading in a field like this is a tricky line. I like seeing people do different things with stories and situations; something that feels fresh and new will score more points. But that’s not always what romance readers are after. Last year, for instance, the book I liked best finished lowest in the category of the ones I reviewed; the one I thought was most formulaic and least well written finished highest (I don’t think it won but I don’t remember). But you’re reviewing it from your own perspective and experience, too. There are certain biases you’re going to bring to a review, because you can’t help it. At least I know enough to say that if a book has a fox in it portrayed positively–anthro or non–then I’m more inclined to like it, and I can account for that in the review. In my report to the Rainbow Awards, there’s no space for “has a fox,” so I have to discount that when writing my reviews for the books. (There is a space for “quality of writing,” though, which makes me happy.)

So I read these six books and there is one I particularly liked for its worldbuilding and sort of for the characters. It includes a fox, but only very briefly; however it

Dude, Where’s The Rest of My E-Books?

Come Saturday, November 1, you’ll be able to get “Dude, Where’s My Fox” on Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Google, Kobo, etc. or, you know, soon after that depending on processing time.

The audiobooks that were in process are still in process. I’ll give you more news when I have it!

But what about Black Angel?

So yeah, if you missed the tweet, the book is done, a word which here means “the first draft has been written and nobody is allowed to look at it until I have done a revision.” Meg is the central character, the book is 136,000 words long (GF and RD both ended up right around 100K), and while I know I have a lot of work to do in the middle, I am pretty happy with it overall.

Here are answers to some questions I know you have:

Are Alexei and Sol in it? Yes.

Is Alexei still with Mike? Well, Mike is also in it. I’ll just say that.

Is Niki in it? Yes.

You mean actually Niki, or just the painting? Yes.

Does it include another story that takes place in another time? Yes.

When can I buy it? Well, that depends on how the revisions go and on Rukis’s schedule for the art. Earliest would be Anthrocon, but I think it’s more likely RainFurrest 2015, or possibly Rocky Mountain Fur Con if Rukis wants to be at the launch as well.

Oh, I was just going to ask if Rukis is doing the art again. Unless she reads it and hates the story, or breaks both her hands, or gets a better offer.

The last two books have gone to Paris and Russia (Forester versions). Where does this one go? I am just going to say that I did a lot of research into voudon (that’s the pretentiously correct way to say “voodoo” if you mean the actual religion and not the public perception of it) for this book.

When will the e-book be out? The month following the print release. Keep an eye on kyellgold.com/pubdates.html, which is right now sadly devoid of any upcoming books! I know, I’m working to fix that. There should be at least two next year: this one and a Cupcake, but I have like three candidates for a Cupcake and none of them are done, so I dunno when that’ll happen. Maybe at whichever of RMFC/RF this book doesn’t come out at. As always, subscribe to my once-a-month newsletter and you don’t have to worry about missing a blog post or tweet anymore!

What’s Doing in Foxtober?

If you get my newsletter, you already know some of this, but I have been quiet lately, so just an update.

I’m reading six books in two months as a judge for the Rainbow Awards, so that is keeping me busy. I’m also writing the end of Black Angel, which hopefully will be done fairly soon, so whenever I’m not writing, I’m feeling guilty about not writing. And I’m planning a Patreon announcement that will come hopefully in the next couple weeks…basically going to be writing a novel via Patreon, but there will be some artists collaborating with me, and the chance for bonus stories in existing worlds, chats with us, and maybe character cameos and stuff…it’ll be fun!

So that’s how I’m spending the best of all fall months. Not traveling, for once, which is a really nice change.

Writing Fights

The subject of the writing competition at RainFurrest was “Swords and Sorcery,” so it was perhaps predictable that a few of the stories were basically one long fight, and many included fights within them. A lot of the fights had trouble with pacing (given that they were written in 48 hours, most of them were first drafts, so it’s understandable), and so I thought I would give you guys a reference for a very well done story that is mostly about a fight, although the fight itself takes up only about a quarter of it. It’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Croxley Master,” and here are some points I took away from it:

* Note how the stakes for the main character are established right from the start.

* Note the way the culture of the area is conveyed in his encounter with Barton–some people are quick to throw a punch, but if you fight a man fairly, he bears you no grudge. This is one of the underlying themes of the story: rules and playing fair. Montgomery’s boss does not play fair with him despite his devotion to religion; the fight is subject to a number of rules; the community loyally rewards Montgomery’s participation in the fight even before the outcome. It’s helpful to have something like this in the back of your mind when writing a story. Even if you don’t pick it up on the surface, you note that there is a contrast between the monstrous Master who abides by the rules and the sanctimonious Doctor who does not (or does so only begrudgingly).

* Note how the mystique of The Master is built up before he is described.

* Note when we finally get the description how Doyle uses language to convey a sinister opponent. Words like “misshapen” alongside “Hercules” give the impression of a powerful monster.

* In the fight itself, note the pacing. The early rounds as Montgomery feels out his opponent and decides on a strategy are fleshed out; the middle rounds where he executes that strategy are summarized. The first key moment of the fight is drawn out in detail: his youth and inexperience are highlighted. Some time is spent on his recovery, and then the rounds after his return are summarized again. Then the final round of the fight is given a scene. The point here is that when there’s nothing new added to the narrative of the fight, Doyle summarizes for you, preferring to focus on key moments. It is the way I pace out football games in the OOP books (with more or less success) and sex scenes in other stories.

Hope this is an enjoyable and instructive read for you!

Dude, Where’s My E-Book?

Plans are to release “Dude, Where’s My Fox?” on e-book on baddogbooks.com sometime this week. I had not had time to prep the e-book before RainFurrest and this morning was taken up with story submissions, so it may not be October 1. Depending on the availability of the BDB team, it might not be until this weekend!

It’ll be in MOBI (Kindle) and ePub format, and as usual, will be up a month later on all the other stores.

Also stay tuned here and on the newsletter for exciting e-book news for the fall…

And Yes, Furries Are People

John Scalzi saying smart things about groups of people. He’s talking about atheists, but you could put any group in there (including “furries”) and it still generally works. Excerpt:

“I think internalizing the fact that no opinion/belief/enthusiasm inoculates either you or anyone else from the baser aspects of the human condition, or the larger social milieu in which we all exist, is probably a very smart thing to do. It helps manage the disappointment when the cool new group you find yourself with is eventually revealed to be full of flawed and fallible human beings, and it helps to free you from the initial desire to rationalize shitty behavior within a group merely for the sake of identity politics. And on the rare occasions when everyone in the group is actually good and decent, it allows you to appreciate just how nice that really is.”

I will just say that while the above is true (and we have all seen shitty behavior tolerated in the fandom), the last sentence is particularly true of the fandom. For whatever reason, the furries I meet are generally terrific people. There’s drama, sure, and people can get bent out of shape and angry and over-passionate, but you guys are pretty awesome in general. That’s why I’ve been sticking around for twenty-odd years and hope to stick around for many more.