March 2013 Dispatch
February Recap
As many of you saw from my blog/FA journal, I had a little problem with Amazon in February. Here’s the blog post I wrote about it: http://kyellgold.com/wpblog/2013/02/15/bridges-is-back-on-amazon/
To summarize: Amazon removed “Bridges” from the Kindle store due to two illustrations (I am speculating) which they said violated their terms of service. The TOS in question read basically that I agreed not to upload anything that was pornography, offensive or hard-core material with graphic depictions of sexuality, or anything they found offensive. So I told them a little about “Bridges,” then went through point by point and explained why I didn’t think it was in violation of that agreement. For the last one, I said “the only reasonable way I can estimate what you find offensive is to look at what else you sell,” and I pointed them to Maiden Rose, a yaoi manga whose reviews praise its “lack of censorship” and warn of “anatomy and bodily fluids on full display.” For a bonus, a side comic portrays the characters as animal people. I respectfully said, look, if you tell my why this is okay but “Bridges” isn’t, I will abide by that, but I need to know so that I can continue to observe these rules in the future. I said I understood how hard it was to police billions of books across their store and that I hoped they’d put “Bridges” back up. And that’s exactly what they did. So it all worked out well, and honestly, “Bridges” is probably the most explicit thing I’ve got on the Kindle store, both in terms of text and illos, so it’s nice to have a letter from Amazon saying, “this is cool.”
I went on to Furry Fiesta, which was a whole pile of fun even though I had to leave a bit early on Sunday. I really love that con, which manages to keep the small-con feel even though it’s now over a thousand people. I see a lot of people there I don’t get to see at any other con, and I got to hang out with the FurPlanet folks and Blotch for a good chunk of the con, which is always a recipe for a good time. The sad part was that due to saving up vacation for our European trip in May, Kit couldn’t make it out (and won’t be accompanying me to FWA, either) for the second year in a row. But K.M. Hirosaki did, so we did our Unsheathed podcast with B-Hop in the Producer seat, and it went pretty well. As you get this, I will just have returned from Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, but that’s in March, so I’ll recap that then.
Writing-wise, I was focusing mostly on getting things out under my other name to non-furry markets. I sent out a bunch of stories and queried some agents. So far no sales, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted. I did try to sell one story to a non-furry market under this name, fingers crossed…
Appearances in March
If you are looking to get a book signed or just say hi at a convention, here’s my schedule:
In March, I will be at Furry Weekend Atlanta. Chances are I will be behind the Sofawolf table for much of the con, and you can find us if you come in the main entrance, turn right, and then turn right again. FurPlanet, me, Blotch, and Keovi are in a little recessed front corner of the room that we are tentatively calling “AwesomeTown.” I’ll also be doing panels and I will be attending the God-level dinner, so if you want to have dinner with me Friday night, you know, you will need to be God-level (and you will need to be that already, because that level of membership I believe is closed as of March 1). It’s pricey, but it is totally worth it: FWA treats their God-level guests very well. You’ll make back at least some of the extra cost in the Friday night dinner and at least two more meals from the God-level con suite.
And of course, I will be a Guest of Honour at Confuzzled in the UK in May/June, which will be really exciting! You can always see the full list of upcoming appearances at http://www.kyellgold.com/contact.html.
Other breaking news, which I am mentioning here for the first time: I am hoping to get to AnthroCon this year. I have never managed it in the past because of the proximity to San Diego Comic-Con and the necessity of taking a week off for each of those events, but this year I need to visit some family in Pittsburgh and there is a convention I want to attend on the East coast the following weekend, so Kit and I went ahead and reserved a hotel room. Still don’t have flights, so it’s not concrete yet, but I really want to make it happen. I know I have a lot of fans who only go to AC, so I am looking forward to meeting them and will be doing lots of paw-limbering exercises to get ready for signing the stacks of books people will bring. And of course, I will try to do a reading/Q&A there as well as a few writing panels.
Spotlight: Green Fairy
March will be the one-year anniversary of “Green Fairy,” and I have been writing a bunch of behind-the-scenes posts on my blog and FA. The book was something very different for me, and I’ve been really excited to see how much people have embraced it. Writing something so complex was fun and scary, and it all came together in the end. I think the characters made it memorable: Sol is the confused kid who has to learn, Jean the incorrigible egotist who nonetheless suffers from insecurity, Niki the frustrated dreamer. And all of them are trapped by society’s expectations, trying to fulfill or avoid them in a myriad of ways. The lesson I hope people take away from the book is that while we should never completely ignore the perceptions and feelings of those around us, we should examine whether their expectations are in line with what’s inside us. We only get one shot at this life. We owe it to ourselves to make the most of it.
Excerpt: Regretrospective
I am writing a story for publication online, and working with an artist to set up a crowdfunded illustration. Once I post the story, I’ll send you to the artist’s page, and if you’d like to see an illustration, you can donate any amount to her Paypal. After a period of time, probably two weeks, we will stop donations and see how much she has. Whatever she has, she’ll draw something that that amount would buy: a pencil sketch, an inked drawing, two drawings, one color drawing, etc. We are talking about putting in rewards (like the top three donators will be in the background of the pic) and possibly voting on which of the two or maybe three scenes in the story will be illustrated, and you can expect to see the story go up either just before or just after FWA at the middle of March. In the meantime, here is a short excerpt. Those of you familiar with my older stories will recognize a couple characters from “Miracle on 34th Sheath” (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1825547/ )…
The door jingled, opening to admit a fox dressed in a loose silk shirt and white slacks, walking just ahead of a shorter pronghorn wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a design of two unicorns humping under a rainbow. They only glanced Gilliam’s way once, but headed right for his table and took two of the three empty seats, continuing their conversation.
“Maybe you’ll be lucky,” the fox said. “Hi, Gilliam.”
“It’s not a no parking zone on Sundays.” The pronghorn sat across from Gilliam and waved, but didn’t look away from the fox.
“The sign doesn’t say it isn’t.”
“We park there every Sunday.”
The fox held up a paw. “We park on the other side of the driveway. There the sign says, ‘Except Sundays.’”
Gilliam grinned. “Hey guys.”
Victor, the pronghorn, turned to him. “Is West Vine restricted on Sundays?”
The ferret held up his paws. “I walk here. I haven’t driven around here in months.”
Martique, the fox, smiled widely. “It doesn’t matter. We can afford the ticket. How did you enjoy the Masked Balling?”
“Not much balling,” Gilliam said. “Some groping. They threw out Kell and Mack for getting too hot and heavy.”
“Serves them right for not using the chair,” Martique said.
Victor grinned at Gilliam. “I heard the chair was occupied most of the night.”
Gilliam didn’t answer, and Martique was signaling a waiter, so he didn’t notice and kept talking. “Still can’t believe Mack still gets people to make out with him.” A zebra came over to take their order, and the fox said, “Mimosa here, and Bloody Mary there.” He indicated Victor’s place.
When she’d gone, Victor said, “I missed it. Was it a good show?”
“Not really,” Gilliam said. “I think Mack’s pants got undone, but not much beyond that. They have cameras all over.”
“That’s why I don’t drink at the Basement,” Martique said.
“The bartender makes a great Cosmo.” Victor leaned forward. He eyed the empty chair. “Your little friend coming?”
“If he’s feeling up to it.” Martique laughed. “I think I saw him staggering back to the bar at 1 am.”
“There were a lot of people holding him up,” Gilliam said.
“Not you?” Victor raised an eyebrow, bunching the fur under his horn.
“I took him home.”
Martique chuckled. “You’re too good to him.”
“Anyway,” Gilliam said, “he texted and said he’s on his way.”
“I’m interested to know how far he went.” Martique rubbed his chin.
“Careful,” Victor said. “The fox has someone new to live vicariously through.”
“Oh, really,” Martique said, “if I told you I wanted to put on a mask and let strangers grope me all evening, you’d let me.”
“Only if I could take pictures.”
Martique leaned over to Gilliam, stage-whispering. “And he’d chase away anyone he found unsuitable.”
“Because if I went by your standard of ‘unsuitable,’ there wouldn’t be enough people in the club.”
The fox shook his head and grinned. “What does that even mean?”
“You know what I mean,” Victor said.
“What? That I’m a slut?”
“You said it, not me.”
“Takes one to know one,” Martique said, and leaned over toward Victor. The pronghorn grinned and met his muzzle with a short kiss.
“Christ, you two,” Gilliam said. “Have you set a date yet?”
Writing Tip
This month I’m going to talk about the process of writing. You all know, or should know, that you have to set aside time to write. You can’t just say, “I’ll write when I have time,” because then you will never have time. You have to say, “This time is for writing.” If you like to get up early, get up half an hour earlier and write. If you stay up late, turn off the TV/computer/video game half an hour early and write. It’s important to do it every day. I didn’t always do well at that when I was working a full-time job, but I did write probably 90-95% of the days.
But in addition, it seems that you’ll need more than just half an hour a day, if you listen to a lot of people who write and who study the process. Once a week, try to set aside a 3-4 hour block. The half-hour sessions are good for keeping your mind in your story, but to really get anything done, you need a longer block of time to lose yourself in your writing.
The thing is, writing is a different mind-space from where you spend most of your time. It takes you a little time to get into it, and a little time to get out of it. Half an hour is a good way to remind yourself of what that space feels like, but if you really want to spend time there, you have to block off a bigger chunk of your day for it.
(I think that I spent a lot of time there even when I wasn’t writing, which is possibly a contributing factor to why I don’t have a tech job anymore. Not that I was unprofessional, just that I didn’t spend every minute in “what more can I do for this job” mode, which is where you have to be to ensure continued employment these days.)
When you set aside that time, there are two things you need to do to make it really effective:
1. Know what you’re going to work on. Don’t put aside the work of figuring out about where the story goes until you’re sitting at the keyboard, because that’s a waste of your time. Keep your story in your head as if you were reliving a movie or book and figure out what happens next. Ideally it should be something you’re excited to write, so when you sit down at the keyboard, your fingers are itching to get started.
2. Minimize distractions. This means telling your friends/SO that this is your writing time. It means turning off the Internet, or at least closing your e-mail program (you do need the web to do research sometimes, but don’t abuse it). It may mean turning off your phone, if you’re one of those people who gets texts every ten minutes. Whatever conversations you’re having will wait three hours.
If you can do these things, you’ll be on your way to being more productive, and the more you do it, the easier it’ll be.
See you next month!
-Kyell