Kyell Gold's Blog, page 37

Back And There Again

Back from FogCon this past weekend (a short local trip) and already starting to pack my bags for FWA this upcoming weekend! I will be mostly found in AwesomeTown in the dealer’s room at the Sofawolf table (between Blotch and FurPlanet and across from Keovi; turn right as you enter the room and then turn right again immediately), but you can also find me at:

* God-Level Dinner, Friday at 6:30 (if you are God-Level, of course, and if you’re not, why not?)

* Gay Fandoms, Furry and SF, Friday at 11 pm

* From Amateur to Pro, Saturday at 10:30 am

* Novel Writing, Saturday at 2 pm

* KnotSheathed Podcast, Saturday at 9:30 pm

* Character Development, Sunday at 10:30 am

The Sofawolf table will have “Divisions” and most of my other books, and between that one and FurPlanet we will have all of my work. I’ll be happy to sign things and chat at the table; as always, please don’t ask me to sign things during panels. Catch me just after or come back to the dealer’s room with me after the panels.

FWA is always an awesome convention and I am very much looking forward to seeing their new digs at the Westin, which is a gorgeous hotel. I hope to see lots of you lovely people there!

FogCon, here in the Bay Area, was a pretty cool experience too. Kit and I went up just for the day on Saturday and sat in on one panel that was pretty nifty, then I sat on two more panels, one about superpowered criminals and cops (that was cool because an actual cop was on the panel with us, and now I know two ranting griffins), and another about favorite non-F&SF mystery books, whence I emerged with a huge list of authors to check out. Also talked extensively with some of the folks involved in the London WorldCon and am reminded that for the lowish price of $40 (currently), you can register as a supporting member of the London WorldCon, which lets you nominate works for a Hugo, read all of the Hugo-nominated material for free, and vote on the Hugos. Several furry authors had Hugo-eligible work published last year, you know, and most furry artists qualify as “fan artists,” at least. Just saying…

Why Writing Is Like Playing The Lottery

I have occasionally bought lottery tickets, despite traveling in the sort of circles who sneer at that with the old saw, “A lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.” I know this, and yet, the lottery calls out to part of my brain that I can’t turn off.

When you’re a writer, you are constantly running through story possibilities. You’ve gotten these characters to a point; what now? What would Dev do in this situation, or what if the situation were different? You play the “what if” and the “what now” game with your stories, and it becomes a little harder to stop doing that with real life. When you apply for a job, you start imagining what it’d be like to work for that company, what the commute would be to that office, what the new salary would be like, and all kinds of things. You worry about details that you will have ample time to figure out if you need to–and which are days or weeks away. Your life is a story you are writing every day, after all, and it helps to dream about the many twists and turns it might take.

When you date (it has been a long time for me, but still), you imagine what will happen if things work out. A lot of humor is based around people thinking way too far ahead after a first date (“can you imagine what our wedding would be like?”), but the humor hits home because a lot of us do that. We think about the future a lot; it’s one of the rare abilities that humans and a couple other animals can do. Sometimes we take it to extremes, and I think writers channel a lot of that excessive unnecessary future-planning into stories.

Which comes back to the lottery. I know you were probably thinking that writing is like playing the lottery because there’s a tiny chance of “winning” and becoming a J.K. Rowling or a Stephanie Meyer, but no. Publishing is like the lottery in that regard. We don’t write–most of us don’t–to become famous. We write to share our stories and we hope for the fame and sales so we can write more.

No, writing is like playing the lottery in that it opens up dreams and worlds for us. I am fully aware that I am donating a dollar or five to the lottery people when I buy a ticket. But what I get back is the very pleasant “what I’ll do if I win” dream, and the feeling that it just might happen. And every time I write a story, I get to imagine what will happen, and in the story it does. So the lottery gives me that dreaming, and that’s worth a couple bucks every now and then. It’s just something that’s a part of my life: I spend a non-negligible amount of every day imagining the future, good and bad. I might as well spend a buck and imagine a really nice one.

“Long Hidden” – A Book Kickstarter

The people who put out “Crossed Genres” are running a Kickstarter project to get a spec-fic view of history with minority points of view, and among those are, of course, queer ones. It’s a nifty-looking anthology with some good-looking names on the list, and if it gets funded (as looks likely; it’s 90% there with over three weeks to go), I might throw a story at them myself. I have an idea for one that would be pretty cool.

Go check it out and maybe throw ten bucks their way if you think it seems worthy!

Judgy McJudgerson

So I’m going to be a judge in this year’s Rainbow Awards. This means I’ll be reading at least ten gay romance novels of some kind (not in the category Divisions will be in) over the course of the year. I admit that this was partly motivated by the free entry into the awards for one book for each judge, but also I am happy to get the chance to read outside my normal sphere–much as I love a good gay love story, I rarely pick up non-furry ones–and, of course, to judge other people. >.>

More on this to the extent I am allowed to blog about it as time goes on. I look forward to having some more good books to recommend to y’all.

White House Files Brief To Support Marriage Equality

Putting his policy where his inauguration speech is, Obama instructed the White House to file a brief on the side of marriage equality in the Prop 8 case.

The administration said in a legal brief on Thursday that gay and lesbian couples in [California] have the same “equal protection” rights to wed and that voters there were wrong to ban it, according to an administration official.

This is another in a series of Big Moments for the Obama administration on same-sex marriage, following the president’s public support last year, the repeal of DADT, and the mention in his inaugural speech this year. As I’ve previously written, the publicly stated views of the White House have an effect on the country beyond that of any high-level celebrity endorsing same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court rules on law, but in cases like this where the law has sweeping implications for the way of life in the United States, they are likely to look at popular opinion to see whether the country will be severely harmed by a ruling one way or another. Ten or fifteen years ago, a Court could have argued that the country was not ready to embrace same-sex marriage, that opening up the clerks’ offices around the country would make same-sex couples a target and ultimately cause them more harm than good (I don’t know that that argument holds up as a reason not to do the right thing, but it could have been made). Now, with not only President Obama’s White House but also a coalition of 100 Republicans joining the side of same-sex marriage, it is hard to argue that the forces opposing marriage have any kind of foothold. You look at the reaction to Chick-Fil-A and to Chris Culliver, look at the results of last November’s elections in Maine, in Maryland, in Minnesota, in Washington, and you see that the country has–as a whole–drastically altered its course in the last decade.

Will this be enough to restore same-sex marriage in California? Maybe. Maybe not this year. Maybe the court will decide they don’t want to be the instrument of that change. But if it doesn’t happen this year, you know what? It’ll be on the ballot next year, at least in California, and then it’ll pass.

But if you asked me to make a prediction–I know next to nothing about the court, very little about the laws, and all I can see is the indicators of movement in attitudes–I would predict that later this year, the Supreme Court will hold with the rulings of the lower courts, and same-sex marriage will be back in California.

My Daily Reads

Because it might be of interest… these are the places I go for my daily dose of info:

Politics: Wonkette. It’s snarky and informative, and the only drawback is that I know a lot more about the stupid people out there than I really think I need to. You might get the impression from reading Wonkette that the world is full of Teabaggers and Republican (and Democratic) idiots. But they do highlight real legislative problems and offer links to informative articles, and I love their writing style, so there you go.

Sports: SI.com, Joe Posnanski, and Grantland. I stopped reading ESPN a while ago (except for TMQ during football season) because they put Flash video on every page that auto-launches (I know you can disable it and I have on some of my machines, but it’s still annoying), and also because half their stuff is Insider-locked (subscription only). SI has some really good columnists, and Grantland does a great job of integrating sports and the outside world. That’s all I need. Joe Poz writes about sports and life from a very human perspective, which as a character-focused writer, I adore.

Furry: FurAffinity.net. I don’t follow many people (to keep my queues down), but if there’s a big news story, it almost always hits the journals of one of the people I do follow. Also, FA is where a lot of people choose to send me notes or shout on my page.

Writing/Writing Culture: Lance Mannion, Ken Levine, Whatever. Lance is an English professor who writes very smart things about books and movies. Ken is a former sitcom writer and current baseball announcer (!) who writes smart and funny things about the worlds of Hollywood and sports. John Scalzi is a former film critic, science fiction writer, and president of the SFWA (until this summer) who writes smart, funny things about science fiction, movies, and life.

Webcomics: Penny Arcade, xkcd, SMBC. Wonderella on weekends. Homestuck while it’s updating.

Tech Industry: Coyote Tracks. Watts covers the tech industry with a jaundiced insider’s eye and cynical humor, which is pretty much the best way to do it.

There you go. What do you guys read?

Another Weekend, Another Convention

This weekend I will be up at Emerald City Comic-Con in lovely Seattle. Kit and I always love an excuse to go to Seattle, and a comic-con is a terrific excuse. Emerald City in particular is a very nice con that’s grown spectacularly over the last few years, I suspect because it is (a) in downtown Seattle, and (b) a very well-run con. It’s very artist-focused, so the artist section is like a third of the con, and this year they are expanding to a second exhibit hall! Anyway, I will be of course at the Sofawolf Press booth for most of the weekend, and we should have my books there if you are in Seattle and would like to come by and say hi.

Also as a result of this, next month’s mailing list entry will probably go out Tuesday or Wednesday rather than Monday. Don’t worry, it’ll be coming! If you have been wondering what Martique and Victor have been up to since “Miracle on 34th Sheath,” you might get a sneak peek at an upcoming story in this edition… and of course, it’s not too late to subscribe.

Ursa Major Reminder

Hey guys! The Ursa Major nominating period closes in two days and you should definitely make sure the books you enjoyed are nominated. Here are my recommendations, if you want to go back and check them out.

Also, fellow writer foozzzball wrote some stuff about the awards, in which he says lots of nice stuff about me in a (successful) attempt to stop me from signal-boosting his article (his blog is at sinisbeautiful.com if you really want to go see it). I agree with his fundamental point, though, which is that these are YOUR awards, the fandom’s awards, and so if you care about the writing in the fandom, you should log in and nominate and then, in a couple weeks, vote.

Furry Fiesta Recap

I’m back from Dallas and the always-fun Furry Fiesta. Trivia! Furry Fiesta is the first convention I attended as Kyell Gold, way back at Furry Fiesta 1 in 2009. Since then, the con has grown, but it doesn’t feel like it’s grown. I recognize a lot of people every year and enjoy getting to chat and catch up with some Texas friends. This year, K.M. Hirosaki returned after missing last year, but Kit again stayed home. I spent most of my time between the FurPlanet and Blotch tables hanging out with all of them, which was a ton of fun.

I sat on some panels and attended others (a rarity for me). The Adult Fiction panel went pretty well, with Sasuke, Warnndog, and the writing track lead, Smokescale. The Character Development panel I thought went even better, with Warnndog, Smokescale, and Phil Geusz. Our Unsheathed podcast, with tech-savvy audio engineer B-Hop sitting in for our tech-savvy wolf, was a lot of fun, and I got to do a pro-fandom rant again after missing it for the last couple live shows.

The panels I attended were B-Hop’s voice acting panel, which is a great time if you want to read a script in front of a mike and play a character for a short time, and the Bedfellows guys’ “How to Make a Web Series” panel. The Bedfellows guys are very cool, creative and driven, and their series is going places. You should check it out.

K.M. and I also attended a live broadcast of the FBA All-Star game, which was a tremendously fun experience. B-Hop and Stevie watched a computer play the actual game and provided commentary in real time, which was pretty freaking impressive. If you have the chance to listen in on one of their games, I highly recommend it.

I saw people at a couple room parties, for OklaCon and FurPlanet, wished Fuzzwolf and my artist friend Crystal a happy birthday, and though I had to leave early, I had a full con’s worth of fun. Looking forward to next year at the new hotel!

Oscar Predictions

If you don’t care about the Oscars, stop reading.

Kit and I have now seen all nine Best Picture nominees. Not all the pictures for the acting categories, but it’s been a few years since we ran the Best Picture slate, and never since they expanded it, so this is pretty cool. Anyway, here are my will win/should win picks for the major categories.

Original Screenplay

Should win: Moonrise Kingdom, only because it was snubbed in other categories and it’s a beautiful film that deserves more recognition. But the screenplay is very Wes Anderson-y, and the strength of the film is in the execution, not the writing. Still, it might sneak by.

Will win: Django Unchained, because it is sharply written and I don’t think it’ll get many other awards.

Adapted Screenplay

Should win: Life of Pi, for taking a difficult book and making it work so well on the screen.

Will win: Lincoln, in the start of what I think will be a big night for Spielberg and the five-dollar president.

Best Animated Feature

Should win: Wreck-It Ralph. Best story of the lot, and pretty good animation, a mix of a lot of styles. Brave does some dazzling work technically, but alas, not storywise.

Will win: Wreck-It Ralph. Pixar has dominated this category and unless a lot of voters automatically check the Pixar box, I think people will be slightly disappointed with their offering this year.

Best Director

Should win: Ang Lee. Did I mention that Life of Pi is an amazing achievement?

Will win: Some people are picking Lee, but I think Spielberg is going to take this one.

Best Supporting Actor

Should win: You couldn’t go wrong with any of those performances. I haven’t seen “The Master,” but hear great things about Hoffman in it, and he’s amazing no matter what. I might lean toward Cristoph Waltz again just because I loved his character.

Will win: I think De Niro, but Waltz might get it.

Best Supporting Actress

Should win: Anne Hathaway. She did an amazing job in Les Miserables, and people love her for it (note I have not seen “The Master” or “The Sessions”).

Will win: Hathaway.

Best Actor

Should win: Daniel Day-Lewis. There’s really no discussion here.

Will win: Day-Lewis.

Best Actress

Should win: Emmanuelle Riva, for Amour. She was just amazing in that role, the expressiveness and depth she brought to the character in a challenging role, which the Academy loves.

Will win: Jennifer Lawrence, who did almost as well in a much more accessible film.

Best Picture

Should win: Life of Pi (are you getting the feeling I like this movie?), an amazing achievement cinematically, a lovely script, a wonderful story. What it doesn’t have are outstanding (read: nominated) acting performances, and that might drag it down. But Ang Lee has had films nominated four times and has never had one of them win, though he has won Best Director (for Brokeback Mountain), so perhaps this might be his opportunity to be recognized–he also produced Life of Pi.

Will win: There is buzz for Argo, but I am going to predict Lincoln and another big night for Spielberg.