First off, welcome everyone who signed up from Galactic Camp or from Bluesky! Happy to have you.
Happy Pride! I hope that if you’re queer—any flavor—you are in a place with people who support you and you feel comfortable speaking out and showing your pride with the rest of us. If you’re not, take heart in the community that’s out here and know that there’s a place for you waiting when you’re ready. And if you don’t identify as queer, I hope you’re supporting your queer friends and letting them know you’re on their side, because there are definitely sides and the bad guys have a lot of power these days.
But on to happier things! To celebrate Pride, and something like ten years since I wrote about a decade of Dev and Lee in the Foreword to Over Time, Kit has prepared some cool Firebirds merch along with a five-pack of the original Out of Position series e-books! Scroll down to see some of the merch (shirts and hats) in the photo from Galactic Camp, but there’s also water bottles and coach’s whistles (for the coaches). Here’s Kit with more info and the link:
The Chevali Firebirds are recruiting!
Inspired by the Dev & Lee series, the Firebird Team Box lets you carry the legacy of love, identity, and pride—on and off the field. Each box includes the eBooks that started it all, exclusive merch, pride pins, and gear tailored to your title, from Rookie to Coach.
This limited run is available through June, with boxes shipping in late July. Newsletter subscribers get first dibs—claim your spot before kickoff!
🏈🐯 Play proud. Love louder. Fire up. 🏳️🌈🦊
Looking back: In May, we went to Galactic Camp, a small furry con that takes place in a Bay Area museum, but not just any museum—a decommissioned aircraft carrier! It was a super cool experience and I got to talk about furry smut with K.M. Hirosaki in a former officer’s mess below decks, so that was a unique experience.
Otherwise I’ve mostly been working! The craft book (how to write a novel) is closer to being able to be sent out to friends, and I’m doing a final read-through of Weasel Under the Sun.
NEW STORY: With the draft of Azure City almost done, next month (July) on Patreon, a new story begins in a new world!
Since he was a boy, Seryo’s wanted a jukka, a companion monster to go on adventures and protect the land with. Getting one isn’t easy, but if you manage, you’ll have a faithful partner, a friend, and…if you want, maybe more. But what Seryo doesn’t know is that it isn’t all good…
The story is called Monster Huggers (for now) and it’ll be serialized on Patreon early, then posted on FA and other places. The first installment on Patreon will be free, then it’ll be for $5 and up subscribers. It’s a mixed human-furry world, and I mean that in the demographic and the “adult scene” sense both.
Speaking of Patreon! Kit has been working on that too and has a restructuring coming up where there will be a level available to get some of the cool merch he’s been working on (separate from the boxes listed above—he wants to play around and do some cool things). If you’ve already subscribed, it won’t cost any more to keep getting what you’re already getting, but there’ll be new stuff available!
Things are exciting! If you want to see me in person, my next for-sure convention is San Diego Comic-Con at the end of July, but we may also be going to our local SFF con, BayCon, so if you’re in the Bay Area, keep an eye on our Bluesky feed to see if we’ll be in the dealer room there. We are keeping an eye on a couple other furry cons, but the next one we actually have plans for is MFF all the way in December. Hope to see you at one of those!
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 and wherever you get books!
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: Love Match 2 is out! Find it on Audible or iTunes.
Work on the Price of Thorns audiobook is largely done with just pickups and post left; we hope to have this out later this year. The Dude, Where’s My Pack? audiobook is also in process, as is Squeak Thief!
Other upcoming releases:
Weasel Under The Sun: 2025 (Fall). The third Ellie Stone mystery (second to be published on its own)! 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:
Surface (Apple+): Talked about this last month; well, now I have finished two seasons and it is satisfyingly twisty and turny and also full of pretty good characters. A bunch of little things left me with questions, and I will say that there is one episode in the second season that was almost shockingly poorly written, but even with that I enjoyed this series. Most of the mysteries didn’t seem to be “mysteries for the sake of being mysteries” as sometimes happens, and I understood why the main character didn’t want to reveal her amnesia to most people but gosh that got a little tiring.
Extraordinary (Hulu): EW recommended this show, and holy cow am I glad. Set in a world where everyone gets superpowers at the age of eighteen, we follow Jen, a twenty-five-year-old London woman who has not gotten hers yet. That’s far from the only plot in this very funny show with real heart, and it has been a delight watching Jen and her roommates, Carrie (who can channel dead people and works at a law firm specializing in estate cases) and Kash (who can turn back time and wants to be a vigilante) move through a world where superpowers are distributed randomly and make some lives easier and some harder (or both, in the case of one of Jen’s co-workers at the party supply store who used to be a tennis pro but now breathes helium so his full-time job is blowing up balloons). The creators put a lot of background gags into the world and a lot of throwaways—you can almost see the corkboard in the writer’s room where they tossed up ideas for powers—but it’s the main characters that kept me engaged in the series. Highly recommended (mature viewers only).
Yellowjackets (Paramount+): Checking in again here now that we’ve finished the three seasons currently out. The third season stalled early on but picked up and (apart from one odd moment) delivered in spades. It’s starting to get well-known enough that recognizable guest stars show up (Joel McHale, Hilary Swank) and get a lot to do, and the personalities are clashing very satisfactorily. Season 4 has been confirmed and we’re excited for it!
The Last of Us (HBO Max): Finished the second season. Impressed at the depth of character and worldbuilding they fit into this. There are few nits to pick except that this is only half a season! Grrr. All right, I’ll wait two years for the next one…
We need to watch Andor. Sometime soon…