Kyell Gold's Blog, page 31

Off to RMFC!

Heading off to mile-high Denver! See all you happy people at RMFC, or if you won’t be there, I’ll see you…sometime. In the meantime, mail and updates will be sporadic. Twitters from the road probably, and that’s it (even if my e-mail weren’t currently being fixed).

RMFC! and E-books!

Hey, did you guys know Rocky Mountain Fur Con is this weekend? Because I just remembered I have to drive there tomorrow! So yeah, I will be in the dealer’s room at the Sofawolf table, with Divisions and Green Fairy and Heat #10 and Hot Dish, and all the Sofawolf titles you have been looking for. I’ll be happy to sign things (as always, you can bring your Stack of Books if you want, but be courteous to other people who are waiting). Also my gruesome Comic-Con injury is healed, mostly, but I will show you the scar and tell you the harrowing story if you really want to know. Hopefully I can avoid bleeding all over the booth this time.

I’m also doing panels!

Novel Writing Saturday 2pm-3pm: I will talk about novels and my experiences writing them, and will answer your questions about novels!

Kyell Gold Reading Q&A Saturday 4pm-5pm: I will read from something that is not yet published! Also I will take questions about my books and my travels and eagles and gay rights and whatever else you like.

Learning To Love Editing Sunday 1pm-2pm: You have to love editing. I will help you figure out how.

Rukis and I do not have an “Adult Fiction” panel scheduled this year, but watch my Twitter feed and @KitSilver’s, because I just might convince Rukis to hang out in the bar area and do an informal writing panel if we can get an audience together. Or maybe one of the meeting rooms or something–we will see how it goes!

There are a couple other writing panels that look really interesting… “Constructed Languages and Worldbuilding,” Sunday at 2, and “Mainstream and Genre Writing From a Furry Perspective,” in between my two Saturday panels (3-4 pm), both of which have been of interest to me for the last couple years. Also, I think I know who’s running those, and if I’m right, then they’re sure to be good panels.

And e-books! For those of you who waded through all the RMFC stuff…or just skipped to the end…Divisions and Winter Games will both be available on all major e-book sites as of August 1, or close to it. You can of course purchase them both RIGHT NOW at baddogbooks.com, but if you have some reason for waiting (an Amazon Gift Card, or a partner who works at Kobo), your wait is nearly over. Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Apple will all have both books very soon. Google may have them soon as well; I should check and see if their upload procedure has gotten any better. But I’ll upload the books tomorrow morning before I leave, and hopefully they will be live on the 1st! Also, you should soon be able to get my books on Rabbit Valley’s site–I will post an announcement when that happens.

Exciting week! And of course, the OOP audiobook is now up on iTunes as well as Audible (no link because I am on a Windows machine here), and I will be reviewing “Green Fairy” this week, so that should be up by the end of August. Thanks to all of you who’ve already picked up OOP!

UN Human Rights Initiative

Thanks to Heraledro for the heads-up on this. The UN’s human rights office is launching an initiative to support gay rights around the world, in the face of lovely stories like Russia’s crackdown on LGBT people (but apparently gay athletes are okay for the Olympics, because we wouldn’t want a boycott, right?) and the many other stories you can read on this page.

Not sure there’s an action item here, but it’s nice to see almost half the world recognize that gay people are, y’know. People. In addition to being gay.

Russian names

(No, this is not about Russia’s persecution of LGBT people, although that is terrible.)

I ran a draft of Red Devil(*) past a Russian friend to make sure I’m not horribly insulting the Russian people or mangling their history somehow. This exchange amused me (it is paraphrased):

Him: The one thing I’d suggest is that you change the town name. It feels too made-up.

Me: Um. That’s a name I got off an actual Russian map.

Him: *looks it up* … oh. Well, that figures.

Which I guess is kind of like if I said, “No, you can’t name a town in Michigan after a car. That’s ridiculous.” If that’s the biggest thing so far, I feel pretty good about the book.

(*) Red Devil is the upcoming sequel to Green Fairy. Yes. There is going to be one. More on that as it proceeds!

Out of Position Audiobook is live!

I have been talking about this for a while, and I am proud to announce that today the audiobook of “Out of Position” (my first audiobook!) is available for sale at audible.com. It is narrated by Savrin of Knotcast (Jeremy Sewell) and is eleven-and-some hours long.

Because it is of interest to other authors, here’s how it came about: ACX is a website that matches narrators with authors (I have two more audiobooks in production with narrators I found through them). Savrin had done a recording of the first part of OOP (“In Between”) that I really enjoyed, and we’d kicked around the idea of him doing the whole book, but there wasn’t really a platform to create an audiobook with until ACX launched.

Fast-forward a year or two or three to Oklacon X (Oklacon is a terrific outdoor chill con that I was fortunate enough to be invited to and highly recommend to everyone) where Savrin was recording a live episode of Knotcast. Afterwards, he and I chatted a bit and I mentioned this ACX platform, and he thought he would have time to record the audiobook. He signed up when he got back and we did an ACX contract, and soon after, he started recording.

Making an audiobook is not simple, you guys. ACX estimates six hours spent working on the book for each hour of finished narration, and this is why you pay more for audiobooks. You’re getting the performance of the narrator in addition to the words of the author. So Savrin recorded the book, and in June, passed it to me to review and listen to. There wasn’t a lot I wanted to change–two or three minor things. He fixed them, and I approved it to ACX on July 2.

ACX has a validation process that they claim takes 14-21 days; in this case it was 22 (maybe 21.5 depending on when I actually hit the “Approve” button), but who’s quibbling? They set the price, they post the book to Audible, iTunes, and Amazon, and they record the sales. Savrin and I agreed on a Royalty Share contract, which means he and I split the royalties (approximately half of each sale, although Audible has member credits and a complicated formula to figure out how much we get when a member purchases the book with credits); it is also possible to simply pay the narrator ahead of time, in which case the author receives all the royalties. Narrators I was looking at requested around $3000 in advance for the book, which would have been difficult to come up with, so all my books are currently on the Royalty Share plan.

And now you can listen to OOP if you are one of those people who can’t sit down with a book anywhere! I’m really excited about this. I hope you’ll enjoy Savrin’s recording, and within a month or two, you should be able to get Green Fairy and Waterways, and eventually Bridges by the end of the year. If you liked Savrin’s recording, let him and me know. We’re hoping to get started pretty soon on Isolation Play.

If You’ve Written To Me…

I have tried to keep up with e-mail while traveling. But if you don’t hear back by, say, July 25 or so, feel free to drop me a reminder. E-mail piles up, and sometimes I file things away to answer later and then I get a spate of e-mails and forget, especially when I’m going to lots of different conventions. I’ll be at Comic-Con all this week and back home next week, so give me a couple days to catch up with things I need to respond to, and then remind me that yours is one of them if I miss it. Thanks for your understanding.

Comic-Con Is Here!

(In another day, anyway.)

So the last stop on Kyell’s Cross-Country Convention Campaign is Comic-Con in San Diego, and after this Kit and I get to go home. We had a blast at AnthroCon and a terrific ReaderCon, and now there’s a week of comic frenzy. But this will actually be a bit different for a couple reasons.

First, Kit and I have done this before. This is our x-teenth Comic-Con together, and our eighth or so exhibiting, and we kind of know the routine. Not just how to get the booth set up and what to expect, but where to eat, arranging dinners, and so on. It’s stressful still, but it’s more or less a known stress. AnthroCon and ReaderCon, while we weren’t selling there, were brand-new experiences and so there was the stress of figuring out simple things like “where do we get Starbucks in the morning?”

Second, I’m working more for Sofawolf here. At furry and SF cons, there’s the fun of meeting fans, but then there’s also the part of me thinking about doing panels, about meeting new people to work on projects with or to help with existing projects, whom should I talk to about the books, and so on and so forth. Here at Comic-Con I’m doing the same thing but with someone else’s books, mostly (mine a little bit), and so it’s different.

That said, I’m still going to be signing stuff if people want signatures, and Sofawolf will have my books at the table when I’m there, which will be Wednesday night, Thursday and Saturday morning, and Friday afternoon. And I’ll likely be floating about at other times too. We’re at booth #1236, same as the last few years, right near Penny Arcade in the Webcomics section. If you’re around, you should come by and say hi! Follow my Twitter for updates.

Comic-Con is always fun–Kit and I think everyone should do it at least once in their lives. We’re really happy that we get to do it every year. Can’t wait to get started!

NYC Appearance This Thursday!

That’s the day after tomorrow, as I’m typing this. I’ll be at ThinkCoffee at 248 Mercer St. (between 3rd and 4th) in NYC at 7 pm on Thursday 7/11. Kit and I may have a small number of books for sale (under the table, shh) and some Fox Pride/Wolf Pride/Tiger Pride pins if you would like to snag them. Please do not bring me Coke Zero or any other beverages–this is a coffee shop, and the way we can thank them for letting us gather here is to buy beverages from them. Also maybe snacks! Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing all you fine people and maybe reading a bit of something if we have the chance.

AC Schedule

Looking for me at AC? Here’s where I’ll be.

Friday–

12-1:30 At the Sofawolf booth ready to chat with fans and sign books!

1:30-2:30 At my Ten Ways To Improve Your Writing panel.

2:30 – 3:30 At Fox Amoore’s concert if I can get in.

3:30-6 Back at the Sofawolf booth. Bring your books and your cash or credit card to buy new ones!

6:30 – 7 At the Iron Author Rules presentation. Come find out how to make me sad that words were invented.

7 – 8 At my From Amateur to Pro panel. With hopefully a special secret guest!

10-12 At the Adult Writing Basics panel with Ianus, Ashe, and Rukis. You know you want to be there.

 

Saturday

11-2 At the Sofawolf booth again! This may be a good time to come say hi.

2-3 At the Kyell Gold Reading/Q&A. I hear he’s going to read from an unpublished work and you get to decide what…

3-6 In the dealer’s room yet again. This is the last block of time that you will definitely be able to see me here, so come by if you can! I may also lurk around the FurPlanet table to sign copies of my books there, including that new one.

9-10 pm At the Novel Ideas panel. Tips and tricks about writing novels, maybe? Who knows? Why not come around and see?

 

Sunday

I’ll be away in the morning but will try to make it back to the Sofawolf booth by 1 or 1:30, and will be there until:

3-4 At the Submit and Publish panel.

4-5:30 I will be reading the Iron Author entries and cursing one name more loudly than the rest. Find out who it will be!

 

Follow my Twitter (@KyellGold) for updates during the day and also some amusing commentary. I hope to see lots of you guys at the panels and in the Dealer’s Room!

Hot Comic!

If you’re looking for something new at AC (aside from my new Argaea story), check out Sofawolf Press’s Heat 10! It contains what I think is my first published comic script, a collaboration with the talented Keovi (she drew the pictures, OBV). We had fun with the characters and I think it came out pretty good (mostly because Keovi art!).

I will be posting my AC schedule later when wifi happens, but keep watching the Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates! I will be either in panels or at the Sofawolf table all con except perhaps Sunday morning when I have more family obligations.

See you all tomorrow! Maybe tonight!