February 2025 Dispatch
Hey there everyone. I hope that you all are keeping well and doing what you can to help those around you. Lots of our friends and family need help these days, and more people besides, but we should focus on the people closest to us before reaching out for more.
There are a lot of things you should be contacting your congressional representatives about, and Democracy.io provides an easy way to find them and send messages. Some people say that a phone call where you talk to an actual staffer is better; you can find your representatives’ office numbers via the usa.gov website, at least for now. It’s hard to pick which specific issue to call them about, but pick one that’s important to you, or just call them and say “Don’t assist this government in anything they’re trying to do.”
Anyway, how did I spend this last month when I wasn’t anxious and angry about the world? I went off to Michigan for a meeting of my writing group, which helped me get ready for the revision of Weasel Under The Sun and was a nice week chatting about writing in general. I came back from that and went right to Further Confusion. No panels this year, but I had a good time hanging out at the FurPlanet table and helping sell books there. I also signed the books I sold and got to chat with some fans, and I met up with friends and had some good business discussions. FC is always a very nice con (it helps that I can drive to it, but even beyond that), and this year was no exception.
With that done, I dove into the revisions of Weasel, and I’ve made good progress on them. Looking at the schedule, though, for us to get cover art and everything else done, it looks like TFF will be too tight a squeeze. We’ll aim to have a cover ready to show off to people there, but the full book won’t be out until AC.
But I am excited about it. It looks like the first of four books (!) that will be out this year. Azure City is close to being ready, and the third Wolftown book is slated for MFF, and besides that my non-fiction “How to Novel” craft book should be out this summer (I’m hoping to have it for WorldCon). Lots to do but they’re all written (mostly; the craft book still needs some sections to be done) so I feel comfortable projecting them to come out this year.
February is going to be a lot of revision work, finishing up Weasel and then going on to Azure City. And I’m still going on with the ongoing stories on my Patreons; Azure City is serialized on one, and the craft book on the other, plus “Fast Break,” the basketball story, is monthly for $20 and up patrons on the Kyell Gold Patreon. My next convention is going to be TFF in April. Hope to see many of you there!
Books:
Dead Right: The sequel to Unfinished Business! Jae gets tangled in the life of a ghost activist who endangers his relationships and his future. Out now in print and e-book form at Argyll Productions! Coming soon to other platforms.
Squeak Thief: A rich mouse hires a fox thief to steal from his own family, but the job quickly spirals out of control. You can get it as a print book on FurPlanet or Amazon, or as an e-book on BadDogBooks or any other major retailer.
The Price of Thorns: buy at Argyll and review at Amazon or GoodReads. In a fantasy world where stories are woven into the fabric of magic and life, Nivvy the thief is hired by a mysterious woman, and this job will change his life in ways he could never have anticipated.
Audiobooks: Titles is out! Find it on Audible or iTunes.
We are working on getting Love Match 2 out the door—should be available this month! Work on the Price of Thorns audiobook continues; we hope to have this out next year. The Dude, Where’s My Pack? audiobook is also in process.
Other upcoming releases:
Weasel Under The Sun: 2025 (AC). Ellie works for a month in another family’s kitchen while hers is on vacation, but murder will follow her anywhere…
Azure City: 2025 (Fall). A book full of blank pages might be the key to another world, but the more Athos reads, the more he disappears from this one.
Unlawful Possesssion (Wolftown book 3): 2025 (Winter): Chasing a ghost-napper, Jae uncovers a larger, more sinister plot.
In progress:
Robin Hood fan fic (two books) — draft complete, awaiting revision
Third Wolftown book — draft complete, awaiting revision
Ty the Knot — draft complete, awaiting revision
Fast Break (a gay basketball player story on Patreon) — first draft ongoing
craft book — first draft ongoing
untitled fantasy world project — outlining
Streaming:
We saw Sonic 3 in theaters, and you know, for what it’s trying to be, it does an excellent job of it. If you like the other Sonic movies, you’ll like this one. Plus for me personally, getting to hear Idris Elba say, “FOX” is a nice bonus.
Gosford Park — I never saw this English class mystery when it came out, but I remember the all-star ensemble cast, and my writing group said it would be a good reference for my English mystery story (Weasel). And I think it was! I enjoyed it overall, especially seeing Kristin Scott-Thomas as I’ve grown to love her in Slow Horses, and I thought that both the mystery and the class commentary were very well done.
Silo (Apple+) — Several friends raved about this show, and as the second season just dropped, we thought it was time to try it out. It has a weird beginning—the pilot episode is almost a prologue, and then the series starts in earnest with episode 2. It took a little while to get going, but the acting is phenomenal and the worldbuilding is terrific. It’s maybe most similar (recently) to Fallout, but where Fallout’s world is exaggerated and often comical, Silo is relentlessly small and personal and human. The scale of the silo itself is startlingly effective onscreen, the apartments and mechanicals lived-in and used. A fan dented when someone dies falling onto it from a high floor remains dented throughout the series, a constant reminder.
Take heart! It’s a short month. Let’s get through it together.