Kyell Gold's Blog, page 38

My Furry Fiesta Schedule

Hey all! I will be at Furry Fiesta starting this Friday. Sadly, I have to leave around 2 on Sunday, but I will be around for most of the con. Here are the panels I’m on:

7 pm, Friday: Saucy Scene Scripting. Talkin’ about adult material in stories. An always-popular panel.

3 pm, Saturday: Experience Points: Cast Development. How to write good characters.

9:30 pm, Saturday: Unsheathed Livestream! Since K.M. Hirosaki will be here this year, we’ll do our podcast. Bring your writing questions and settle in for a fun hour or so of our banter back and forth.

I may also poke my head into the Writers Meet and Greet at 3 pm Friday depending on what else is going on that day, and there are a couple other panels I’d like to attend–B-Hop is doing a Voice Acting panel at 10 am on Saturday, and as I’ve never been able to make it to one of his panels, I would like to hit that one.

When I’m not at a panel, you can find me in the dealer’s room standing between the FurPlanet and Blotch tables (hopefully), where I will be happy to talk to you, sign your books, or sell you a Fox Pride pin ($5 cash). And if I’m feeling particularly creative, I might also offer a $1 microfiction on a Post-It.

Looking forward to seeing all you guys there!

Bridges is Back On Amazon

I got some good news–well, it’s right there in the title. Amazon has reviewed my account and re-posted “Bridges” for sale on their store, as is, with no changes to the illustrations. Hold off before you run and buy it, though; I want to upload a version that corrects a bunch of typos (if you have the old version you can request to be sent the new one; if you don’t care about the typos and are paranoid about the illos then don’t bother).

Here’s how it went down: they notified me that “Bridges” was being pulled, and a few hours later that my account was temporarily suspended. This is, I think, just standard when someone uploads something that violates their TOS: they suspend the account, make you promise you’ve read the TOS, make sure you understand that if you keep doing it they can terminate your account, and then you’re good to go.

After an evening to think about it and let the matter settle, I wrote a long, polite letter in which I said that I was familiar with their TOS (there are two different versions that I was linked to in the two e-mails), that I considered them before uploading, and that I thought “Bridges” had been pulled in error. I proceeded to walk through the relevant TOS (both of them) term by term, explaining why I did not believe “Bridges” to be: pornography, an offensive depiction of graphic sexual activity, or “hard-core” material depicting sexual activity.

That left the vague “anything we find offensive.” I pointed out that Amazon sells sexually explicit m/m manga comics (including way more than two sexual illustrations), gave them an example, included excerpts from the reviews talking about how explicit the comic was (and as a bonus, that this comic included a story depicting the characters as cats and dogs), and said that I compared “Bridges” to something like this and did not think it was nearly as graphic.(*)

* Huge thanks to Rukis for pointing me to the manga. It was really helpful!

I told them a little about “Bridges”: that it was an emotional story about a gay man coping with the death of his boyfriend by throwing himself into sex; that it was written with furry characters because that was the metaphor my audience was familiar with; that it had won an award; that the artist had chosen to illustrate two of the sexual scenes as a natural part of the story.

I concluded by asking respectfully that my account be reinstated and “Bridges” re-posted for sale; I did say that I understood the difficulty of monitoring a huge catalog such as they have, and if they had a particular reason that “Bridges” should be pulled, I would like to hear it so that I could understand, and avoid posting anything that fell afoul of that in the future(*). I told them that I’d always had a good working relationship with Amazon and wanted to keep it that way.

* Seriously. I mean, if they have a rule that’s like, “no pictures of furry porn three-ways,” then, well, I can’t sell a book with that pic on Amazon. Maybe it’s a stupid rule, but I would rather be aware of it and know of it next time I have a book with a three-way in it to upload.

It took them three days to review it, during which I remained patient (if stressy), and then they wrote back simply saying, thank you for the e-mail, we’ve reviewed your account and it’s reinstated and Bridges is back up for sale.

So look. It might not have worked out this way. This might have been the beginning of a company-wide crackdown or a purge of furry stuff, or it might have just been that someone somewhere saw something and thought it was borderline. I didn’t know. But I believe that no matter what, respecting the other party in your business arrangement and giving them the benefit of the doubt is always a good first step–especially when they’re huge and you’re small and it might not be personal. If I’d written them a furious letter, they might’ve dug their heels in. And being polite didn’t shut off any avenues I might have wanted to pursue later (thinking about those options is one of the reasons I lost some sleep over three days). But I’m glad it didn’t come to that.

Amazon’s employees are trying to steer a mammoth company and answer huge numbers of issues, and every once in a while it feels like some lower-level employee gets a little drunk on the power to DECIDE WHO SELLS AND WHO DOESN’T (no, I haven’t forgotten the ‘gay purge’ and etc.). But they aren’t all evil bastards. Sometimes when you treat them like human beings, you find out that–surprise–they are.

Green Fairy – Behind the Scenes 7

Okay, so I’ve been a bit distracted the last few days, but I haven’t forgotten about these. The herbivore/carnivore split is something I wanted to talk about, because it really is an important part of the book, and something that I think is really furry about it. Herbivores are stereotyped as shyer, more skittish, more submissive; carnivores are aggressive and, well, predatory.

But in this book, the herbivores are generally the predatory ones (I have gotten some flak for this, to which I say: hey! I made prominent herbivore characters! and also wait until book 2). Sol, a wolf, is going vegetarian to be more like his herbivore boyfriend, and that’s the first time we see him–not only giving up meat, but giving in to someone else (even though Carcy didn’t ask him to give up meat). Niki, the other carnivore main character, is even more subject to the caprices of his predatory herbivore.

The role reversal is kind of a thematic way to say that you don’t have to be locked into being a particular kind of person based on your birth. Niki embodies this in another sense in his hinted-at background: he was born to a Russian family and meant to be a soldier, but he ran away. Sol, too, is trying to fight against the expectation that he’s going to be a leader just because he’s a wolf.

With furries, we often use species as a shorthand for archetypes of people, either as they are or as they are expected to be. In Green Fairy, I tried to play off expectations: the wolf has to learn strength, the chamois humility, the fox independence. There is the pressure of living up to what the world expects of you while trying to be true to what’s inside of you–or, in the case of furries, outside of you as well. Just because you have fangs and carnassials doesn’t mean you have to bite people.

Writing On The Wall

I’m still arguing with Amazon and I will keep you guys posted on that. It seems that a likely outcome is that I will be able to re-upload Bridges with the explicit pics taken out. If they go that route, I’m also going to have to remove the explicit pics from Out of Position and Isolation Play…although at the moment they are still intact on Amazon.

I have gotten a notice from Smashwords that their TOS also do not permit illustrated nudity–at least they are definite and up front about it–so I am going to have to revise “Bridges” and upload it again. I’m going to replace the images with a notice explaining that the image was removed per the retailer’s TOS; we will see if they object to that notice. The purpose of this is twofold:

1. It lets people know that they are receiving a censored version of the book, and that it is not my fault. It also will direct them to contact the retailer, not me or Sofawolf.

2. It is an image, and that means that if you know how ePub files (or .mobi files) are constructed, you may be able to go to Blotch or Keovi’s galleries, download the actual pic, and easily substitute it into the e-book by replacing the image with another. Since Smashwords sells without DRM, you can do that without too much trouble (more easily on ePub than .mobi, I think, although it should be possible on both; I’ve only tinkered with .mobi when given a zip file from Amazon).

In OOP and IP, which I just uploaded to Smashwords before receiving this notice, I trimmed two of the explicit images to hopefully make them acceptable, and put the censorship notice in place of the third.

Anyway, sorry about all this. It is looking like it will be more and more difficult to sell some adult pictures with my books–at least in Kindle format. I will note that they are still native in Google, B&N, and iTunes, and that as far as I know, iTunes did a pretty close review of the books and as long as they’re labeled “Erotica,” allowed them to be published with the illos. At least, nobody else has contacted me…

Also, I haven’t yet re-uploaded “Bridges” to Smashwords, and it might take me a few more hours or a whole day. So for the moment you can still get it with all the images intact…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

As I have said before, I don’t have a holiday, but if I did, it would be this one. This world can be stressy and crazy and maddening at times, and one of the things that makes it not only worthwhile, but a true joy, is the companionship of lovers, partners, spouses, and close friends. Today is a day to appreciate those people, whether you’re married to them, domestically partnered, civilly united, common-law married, cohabiting, or just grateful to have them in your lives. It’s also a day to remind ourselves of the things we do to make other people’s lives better, and to try to continue to do those things as much as we can. You don’t need flowers or chocolates, fancy dinners or presents. Today is about love, however you want to express it.

And so of course, I can’t make a Valentine’s Day post without mentioning my dear husband Kit. We’ve been married over two years, together for thirteen, and I’m so grateful to have him in my life for more reasons than I can enumerate. He keeps me grounded, challenges me to be a better fox, and loves me no matter what. Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie. *smooch*

And Happy Valentine’s to all of you! I am eternally grateful for all my fans, in blog comments and FA comments and at conventions and on podcasts. You guys give me lots of love and that really helps me keep going. Many

Now go pass those

Amazon’s Burning Bridges

Okay, I just wanted to use that title. Actually, what’s happened is that Amazon notified me that they are pulling “Bridges” from the Kindle store because of inappropriate content. I suspect this is because of the lovely but very erotic Keovi drawings, so I have asked if I can re-upload the book with the particular offending images removed (and yes, I will change the book description to reflect that not all the images are included). Waiting to hear back from them and I will ask for more clarification when that happens.

In the meantime, I am working on making have now made (that was fast) “Bridges” available on Smashwords, where you can download it in MOBI format and send it directly to your Kindle if you have a Kindle platform. So let’s see how this plays out before we all flip out over it. I won’t deny that I’m annoyed that Amazon’s “Pornography/offensive material” switch was flipped, but hey, of all the books I’ve uploaded, Bridges might be one of the porniest (between the text and the images). It is still a story, though, which is why I suspect it’s the images that are tripping their “NO NO NO” flags. Either that or someone complained about it, but I don’t really know, and if Amazon’s history with other incidents of this type are any indication, I probably will never know.

(Also, this gave me the chance to fix some of the typos I found while reading the audio book. )

In short: if you were looking to buy “Bridges” on Amazon and can’t, well, go to Smashwords and get the .MOBI edition.

UPDATE: I don’t THINK this will affect copies you’ve already bought. It shouldn’t. But if it does, please complain to Amazon’s Customer Service, because there’s nothing I can do.

Audio Book Update

I have several audio books out kind of “in production,” but two of them are at the “waiting for the narrator to give me something” stage and the third is in the “wait for the narrator to show some actual interest in the project beyond ‘yeah, I’d like to do that’” stage.

So I went and recorded my own audiobook, dang it, with the help of the astounding B-Hop and his Sound Cage. I chose “Bridges,” because it’s one of the more popular of my short stories, and because I thought I could finish it in one day.

B-Hop had a big monitor set up as a teleprompter that worked great, barring a bit of trouble scrolling the text at first. I stood and talked into a mike and narrated the first three chapters before we broke for a (very late) lunch. You may remember that those chapters have a lot of sex in them. That was not as uncomfortable for me as it was to read out loud some of my old writing, which made me think, “Oh, I want to change that…I want to tighten it up…” Nothing that would affect the story, you know, just making the text cleaner and easier to read. Oh well.

One of the other challenges was that the bathrooms in the whole building were out of order due to construction. This wasn’t so much an issue for B-Hop or Kit, but as I was talking pretty much non-stop, I went through a Grande tea and a bottle and a half of water in the morning and ended up having to take a couple trips to the very nice carpet store across the street.

After lunch, I went back to record the last three chapters (I included the bonus story in the narration just ’cause). The writing in those was better, I thought, barring one bad typo in Chapter 4. And toward the ends of chapters 4 and 5, I found it difficult to read; in fact, I had to do the very end of the book one sentence at a time, because my voice kept breaking if I tried to do more.

But I got it done! B-Hop is going to do a small amount of post-processing on it (he did a lot of editing-as-we-went, meaning when I flubbed something, we’d back up the recording and just start over) and then I’ll be working on getting the finished recording up at Audible/Amazon/iTunes through ACX. It looks like the price will be $15-25 based on their pricing model for a six-hour book (I would guess it’ll be at the low end)–I have no control over that.

(Note: If you join Audible and select one of my books as your first pick, I get a bonus from them. And I am committed to having other books up there…)

I enjoyed the narration a lot. I am not a skilled voice actor, but I can make my voice go higher or lower, and play around with cadences and accents, so at least hopefully there’s some variety in the voices. It all sounds like my voice to me.

And big huge thanks to B-Hop, who not only let us use the studio, he monitored the production and backed me up on a few lines where he didn’t think the pacing was quite right. He really stepped up, and all the credit for how good the book sounds belongs to him.

And by the end of the session, my throat was pretty darn sore, so of course we went to dinner in a place with a loud live band, and then to Frolic, where I gave up on talking altogether because it actually did hurt to talk.

But hey! I did something cool, and if you guys are interested in hearing me almost break down at the end of one of my stories, just keep an eye out in March. I’ll announce when it’s up for sale.

Green Fairy – Behind the Scenes 6

The Moulin Rouge. It’s not quite its own character in the book; it doesn’t have enough of a presence for that. But I did do a lot of research into the setting and the time, and I even invented a currency for the purposes of the book.

Longtime readers will remember the Jackal’s Staff from the “Volle” series, which spawned a couple other short stories. The Moulin Rouge became something like that for me, though less blatantly sexual. It’s a place where people are trapped showing off their bodies for money, where some are resigned and some wish nothing more than to get out. Some, like Niki, find what they can to enjoy of the dance and tolerate the other side of it. Others, like Cireil, are simply resigned to the life they lead.

But the Moulin Rouge itself has been built up to be a spectacle, a “spectacular spectacular,” if you will. All of this performance, which basically comes down to sex, is dressed up and disguised and made to look elegant and refined. There are portraits on the walls and gilded fixtures and velvet upholstery, there are lights and music and a stage. And yet the whole thing is simply a disguise, and the disguise is part of what it’s selling. So it fits in nicely with the theme of the book, about seeing people for who they are and not for the face they present to you.

About the currency: I wanted to have the tradition of rewarding the dancers with bills pushed into inappropriate locations, but as it turns out, 1900s France did not have paper bills for denominations below about five francs, which is what a person might earn in a week. You wouldn’t spend a week’s wages on one dancer–well, Jean does, clearly, but most people would not. However, my research also turned up that around the time of World War I, which was not too much later, many French towns printed their own currency for low denominations, to get the metal coins for the war effort. And of course, much earlier, the American colonies were printing their own currency even before the Revolution.

So I thought, wouldn’t it be in the interest of the Moulin Rouge to print small bills, half-franc or one-franc bills, that a worker could buy to reward the dancers with? There are a lot of benefits from the owner’s perspective and the customers’ perspective: the customers get to attract the attention of the dancers, who get tips, and because the currency is only valid in the Moulin Rouge, the dancers have to exchange the notes they get for real money, at which point the owner takes his percentage of their tips. The dancers kind of get screwed, because they get paid less on account of having tips, and the owner takes part of those anyway, but they get screwed all kinds of ways in this life.

Anyway, there is no historical record that I could find of the actual Moulin Rouge printing its own currency, but I thought it would be just the sort of thing that weaselly owner would have done, and it gave Jean’s twenty-franc note a little more depth and meaning. I thought of it kind of like Charlie Bucket at the beginning of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” only instead of finding a dollar in the street, he would’ve been given it by a sleazy guy who was later arrested. But Niki’s reaction is kind of the same: twenty francs! And I don’t have to give any of it to M. Oller!

I enjoyed the Moulin Rouge as a setting and was sad to leave it behind, but I like the second book’s historical setting too, although it is very very different…

(Also note! Rukis has posted a couple more interiors from the book. You can see them hereand here.)

My Ursa Major Recommendations

So as you guys know, I removed my stories from eligibility this year. That means I can recommend work I really enjoyed by other people. Here is my pick for novel, and the short fiction eligible from five authors you should definitely be reading if you aren’t already.

—–

NOVEL

M.C.A. Hogarth‘s “Flight of the Godkin Griffin”

You can read an early version online: http://godkin.livejournal.com/2003/10...

The novel as revised and released last year is available in electronic form at Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...) and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008...), where you can read a sample, as well as in print from Sofawolf (https://www.sofawolf.com/products/fli...).

Really, check it out. It is fine writing, a lovely world, memorable characters, and a great adventure.

SHORT FICTION

(Five authors, in more or less alphabetical order. Besides the specific authors listed below, you should check out Sofawolf Press’s “Heat” and “New Fables,” which are chock-full of great fiction.)

Ryan Campbell

Ryan is in my writing group and has a previous Ursa nomination for his story, “A Non-Biodegradable Fox.” He returns this year with another “New Fables” story, called “Monsters,” about how we perceive the other and how myths and divisions can persist.

foozzzball

fooz is a talented writer and collaborator on our Cupcake line, as well as someone who has helped me improve the quality of many of my books and stories over the last few years. He has only a couple short stories, but they are both definitely worth a read.

“Dangerous Jade,” a Cupcake from FurPlanet Press. I like this one a lot–well, I mean, I helped publish it, so yeah. But with illustrations from Meesh and a sharp, heartfelt story, I think it is well worth a look. It is also available as an e-book now: http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Jade-...

“Jack, Schuyler’s Giant-Killer”: Dark surrealist fantasy. Amazing. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7426310/

K.M. Hirosaki

My longtime friend, podcast host, and all-around great guy, K.M. has been nominated once before, for “Candy and Music.” He embarked on an ambitious summer writing program this year that netted him a big crop of eligible stories. Please check out his journal entry, from which the below is completely stolen.

So here’s a list of all the stories I wrote and published online in 2012, in chronological order. As an added bonus, now you can check to see if you’ve missed anything that I wrote that might strike your fancy!

Plastic Stars in Our Private Galaxy

Reylin tests the boundaries of his not-relationship with his not-boyfriend, Gareth the also-slutty coyote.

Within the Lines

A fox and a dingo try to figure out how to get their rocks off without one of them cheating on his boyfriend.

Priorities

A young fox in college has a very distracting day after a very intense evening.

So Much to Offer Once You’ve Got the Knack

Cacomistle extraordinaire Reylin Saticoy offers a guide to having sex in public. Don’t try this at home, kids. Er, or in public.

You Look Really Sad

I’m not saying that my first kiss was anything like this, but I’m not saying it wasn’t like this, either.

Intention

An otter visits a skunk for dinner. Or maybe he visits him for something else.

Fuzzy Logic

A drunk husky tries to think of a way to make up for his relationship indiscrection.

Revenant

If you lost a loved one, would you get a replacement if you could?

A More Innocent Time

A tiger on the prowl for a quickie thinks back to his younger days.

Time to Destination

A not-so-proper businessfox has a not-so-boring trip on a commuter train.

Mutual Appreciation

A pair of harem fennecs is tasked to service a special pair of guests.

Argent

A barely legal college fox goes to a house party with the foreknowledge that something strange is going to happen to him.

Backwards

A young fox takes an unwanted vacation in a foreign country, and tries to deal with a strange kangaroo who doesn’t share his language or social values.

Mary Lowd

Mary Lowd has written the Ursa-nominated “Otters in Space” and had three short stories nominated last year. She returns in 2012 with a big slate of stories, including one professional sale.

Following is a list of all the furry stories I had published in 2012, including links to where each of them is available for free online.

“St. Kalwain and the Lady Uta” in ROAR 4

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

“One Night in Nocturnia” in Tails of a Clockwork World

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

“Magtwilla and the Mouse” in Allasso 2

http://pinkfoxpublications.net/magtwi...

“One Sheep” in Allasso 2

http://pinkfoxpublications.net/one-sh...

“Shreddy and the Christmas Ghost” in Anthro Dreams Podcast

http://www.anthrodreams.com/wordpress...

“Hot Chocolate for the Unicorn” in Untied Shoelaces of the Mind

http://www.untiedshoelacesofthemind.c...

“The Most Complicated Avatar” in Daily Science Fiction

http://dailysciencefiction.com/scienc...

The last two stories on the list are the least furry… especially “The Most Complicated Avatar.” But, I’m still pointing them out in my lists online, because I think they’re strong stories.

WhyteYote

WhyteYote was nominated a couple years back for the story he contributed to “X,” which has always been one of my favorites in that collection. He returns this year with a strong story in “Heat” and three other eligible works.

For all links, please see his journal entry, from which the below text is cribbed.

So, for those who want to, here are the stories that qualify for 2012:

POSTED ONLINE:

Levity

In the face of even the worst life has to offer, you stop caring about yourself and start living for others. Noble on its face but inherently flawed, the only thing that keeps you going is that hope, that determination, that things will get better. Levity, wherever you can find it, blinds just enough to make you think your deseperation will make a difference. But at the end of the day, it’s still anyone’s guess. Just don’t tell that to Henry and Porter.

Whom to Suspect When You’re Expecting

Timewarp, a husky and relatively new member of the Stupendous Six superhero team, uses his temporal powers for good. When his boyfriend unwittingly becomes part of a badly-planned heist, he thwarts the villain and life goes back to normal. That is, until Jason, the boyfriend, notices a strange growth of his belly. The answers, and the search for them, surprise them both.

PUBLISHED

The Leather’s Always Blacker, from Furplanet’s Will of the Alpha

A young buck leads a thoroughly interesting online lifestyle. Deeply into BDSM and pup play, he’s all about that stuff. It gets him off. He wants that to be his life. But when he gets the chance to try it out for real, he comes to understand the barriers, both mental and physical, are much stronger without a computer screen in the way.

Two Minutes, from Sofawolf’s Heat 9

This story depicts a unique moment in time and place, a period of transition for a young male donkey preparing to leave his family’s southern plantation to head off to law school. But first, he has one last fling with the family’s cook and caretaker, an older male alligator who has helped usher him into manhood and who encourages him to follow his heart even when it means breaking societal taboos.

Marriage Equality and the Super Bowl

An interesting stat: Every year a state with a football team passed a marriage equality law, the subsequent Super Bowl was won by a team from a state with a newly-passed marriage equality law.

In 2004, Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, and at the end of that football season, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl.

In 2011, New York legalized same-sex marriage, and at the end of that football season, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl (granted, they play in New Jersey, but they represent New York).

In 2012, Maryland legalized same-sex marriage, and at the end of that football season, the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl (also, Washington state legalized same-sex marriage and the Seattle Seahawks had a good playoff run).

True, Washington, D.C. did legalize same-sex marriage and their team did not win a Super Bowl, but hey, they’re not a state. Still, even if you count that, three out of four isn’t too bad. So California, you really want the Niners to win it all? Let’s have some legislation.