July 2024 Dispatch

AC, Kickstarter, and more!

June was busy and July’s going to be busier! Let’s get right into it!

If you missed last week’s special announcement, we’re launching a Kickstarter to get an audiobook done of Dude, Where’s My Pack? We’re bringing back the same fantastic narrator from Dude, Where’s My Fox?—Zeke Tiger. You can get signed books, the previous audiobook, and other cool extras. And if we get enough support, we’ve got stretch goals in mind, including other audiobooks!

Here’s the thing: the more support a project gets early on, the better. Kickstarter looks at projects with fast starts and is more likely to highlight them with the important “Projects We Love” label. So if you’re thinking about pledging, doing so the first day or second is really helpful. If you can’t spare the money, you can share the project around to friends who might be interested! This here button will let you share this post easily.

Tomorrow I head to the East Coast for my first AnthroCon in seven years. This isn’t going to be an every-year thing—finances won’t allow that—but this year I’ve got a book coming out that I’m really excited about, and Kit is working on some projects as well, so we’re making the trip. I’ll be at the FurPlanet table during the day to sign Squeak Thief (and any other books of mine you buy), except when I’m at panels.

Rukis also has a thief book coming out at AC! It’s called HeartTheft, and I have read it and can assure you that it’s a thrilling romance-adventure that you’ll love if you’ve read her other work, or if you’re a fan of my Argaea books. We may have a special surprise at her table and the FP table for people who buy both books…

I’ve got six panels, and I’d love to see you at one or more of them:

Friday 1 pm Novel Writing 101: My tips on writing novels!

Friday 7 pm Description and Scene: Setting the stage in your stories.

Saturday 10 am Furry Writing Groups: How to find them and how to work with them.

Saturday 11 am Live reading and Q & A: I’ll read from something (probably Squeak Thief) and will answer all your questions!

Sunday 11 am Novel Writing 102: There’s so much to know about novels that we broke it into two panels!

Sunday 3 pm Queer Fiction: Or, as we call it in the furry fandom, “fiction.”

Hope to see many of you lovely people there!

As far as June, I went back to Kansas for a writing retreat the last two weeks. I wanted to work on the third Wolftown book, and not only got a lot of clarity about the book itself, I got 36,000 words written on the first draft. It was an extremely useful and productive time, and the people at the retreat were just wonderful to hang out with as well as to brainstorm with. We also talked about what the future books in the series will look like and I think as of right now, there will be six total.

For the rest of June I was trying to prepare for that retreat and get the Wolftown book in shape, and also I’m sure I was doing some other stuff but I can’t think of it right now. I have been reading some old Agatha Christie with a friend and I think that might’ve sparked another Ellie story.

But I don’t know if I’ll get to that in July. Sometimes those stories take shape and I spend a frantic couple days writing, but my goal for July is to get Wolftown 3 done by the 22nd, because I’ve got a critique group session in August that I’d like to send the draft to, and we’re leaving for San Diego ComicCon on the 23rd.

Oh yeah, I’ll be at ComicCon again! Limited hours, but if you’re gonna be around, ping me on a social media thing. I’ll be posting my hours there. Or come by the booth (#1236 again) and they’ll tell you when I’ll be back.

And before we know it, it’ll be August! Stay cool everyone, and have a great July!

Books:

Squeak Thief: OUT THIS WEEK. 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 at AC, but if you’re not going, it’ll be up on the FurPlanet website that weekend, and as an e-book on BadDogBooks. It’ll be in broader e-book release either this month or next. Next month I’ll have links (also check the socials)!

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: The Mysterious Affair of Giles is the latest audiobook to hit the stands, as it were. I’m thrilled that you finally get to hear Huskyteer’s lovely narration of this Agatha Christie-like story.

Winter Games is done and available now! Check it out. We’re very happy with this new recording and hope you’ll enjoy rediscovering that old title. As Kit read through it, he kept coming back to me with little bits we’d both forgotten about and enjoyed remembering.

As for the others: We are working on getting Titles and Love Match 2 done and available to you. Both have been recorded and are now under our review to send back to the narrators for minor corrections. And we are working on a Price of Thorns audiobook! Because we have been traveling so much, production has paused, but we’re eager to get going again and hope to have this out early next year.

Other upcoming releases:

Azure City: 2024-25. 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.

Dead Right: Late summer/fall 2024. Jae gets tangled in the life of a ghost activist who endangers his relationships and his future.

In progress: Fast Break (on Patreon), craft book, untitled fantasy world project.

Streaming:

I watched Ripley (Netflix), a retelling of The Talented Mr. Ripley, after several recommendations, and it’s amazing. Starring Andrew Scott, written and directed by Steven Zaillian (wrote Searching For Bobby Fischer, one of my favorite movies, and also a couple little films like Gangs of New York, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Schindler’s List), it’s filmed in gorgeous black and white mostly in Italy. It’s set in the fifties and plays out with the languid pacing of an Orson Welles drama. Scott is fantastic, and even if you know the story (most likely from the 90s film with Matt Damon and Jude Law), there is plenty here to surprise you. Highly recommend.

Someone I met at the retreat recommended Pride (Peacock, or available for rent), the story of a gay men’s and women’s group that formed in the mid-eighties to support the British coal miners in their strike to protest Thatcher’s policies. It was a charming, thoroughly delightful story, reminiscent of The Full Monty in that it has an ensemble cast working toward a goal, but each of them also has their own storyline. Highly recommend.