March 2019 Dispatch
Kyell Gold
February Recap
I wrote 50,000 words and finished a draft of The War and the Fox, the third book in the Calatians series (there will ultimately be four). I also have almost finished Love Match, so I’m going to start work on the Wolftown books on the Patreon next. If private eyes and werewolves and ghosts sound like a great combination, check it out!
And had a nice Valentine’s Day with my boys and also did a weekend getaway vacation to San Diego, where we went to the zoo and ate out at a bunch of neat places and saw a play that my cousin helped produce.
Release dates
Ty Game came out at MFF! The e-book is on all retailers now.
I published a story called “Flight” (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/30236607/) and if you liked it, you’ll have a story in ROAR 10 to look forward to (though without the sex). I’ve got several more stories planned for Tryk, so keep an eye on my FA/SoFurry accounts.
The Tower and the Fox audiobook came out too; you can find it on Audible, Amazon, or iTunes. If you don’t have an Audible account yet, it helps me out a LOT if you use this link to sign up: https://www.audible.com/pd/B07F1YRWLF/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-120139&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_120139_rh_us
I talked to people at MFF about 2019’s release schedule, and here’s my best guess at dates: The forthcoming New Tibet anthology will be out hopefully at AnthroCon 2019, and the new Dev and Lee book will probably be out later that year, maybe at MFF. Love Match book 3 will likely be around BLFC or AC as well. I’ve also got a story in Sofawolf Press’s New Fables, which will be out sometime this year.
Appearances in 2019
My full list of upcoming appearances is at http://www.kyellgold.com/contact.html, recently updated (or soon to be updated).
I’ll be at Texas Furry Fiesta in March. Find me there at panels or at the FurPlanet table!
Spotlight: Ask the Werewolves!
JD Laclede was a co-GOH with me at MFF 2018 and I’d previously only tangentially encountered his work. But Ask the Werewolves is a fun read and is now in print! You can check out some samples at https://www.pillowfort.io/askthewerewolves and if you like those, pick up the comic at FurPlanet: https://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1012
Excerpt: Mostly what I’ve been working on this month was The War and the Fox, so if you want a taste of that, here’s a battle scene. And a reminder that you can read the manuscript prior to its release on my other Patreon: patreon.com/timsusman.
“There’s one Calatian unit in the Army,” Lowell said. “I don’t know if any of them deserted.”
“There’s a Calatian on the British side.” Kip pointed out the window. “In uniform but I think he’s a calyx.” Nikolon, where’s that otter?
The demon returned him to the area where the otter had been. I cannot see him.
“Almost sure,” Kip amended before Lowell could comment. “Malcolm, how can you break an inattention ward?”
“Walk into it,” Malcolm said cheerfully. “I suppose you mean from a distance, though.”
“Stop,” Captain Lowell said. “We haven’t been ordered to take any action. Surveillance is permissible, but no direct action.”
“I’m only trying to break a ward that is preventing my surveillance.” Kip directed Nikolon back to where they’d seen the otter, the exact spot as best he could find. “If he has a calyx, he’s likely to summon something nasty.”
“Take no action,” Captain Lowell said. “That’s an order.”
Move at a walking pace back toward the camp, Kip told Nikolon. Go back and forth until you find a tent with the otter inside it. To Lowell, Kip said, “Very well.”
Lowell stared at him until he added, “Sir,” which Kip did blandly even as Nikolon walked around the battlefield.
“How will we know when to attack?” Malcolm asked.
“One side or another will give orders,” Captain Lowell told him. “If the British charge our position, we attack. If the generals order us to attack, we will.”
Kip gave a nod and looked back out the window again, watching the red smears in his vision as Nikolon showed him a slow crawl back and forth across grass. There was a tent, but it didn’t seem important, and Kip was going to tell Nikolon not to bother with it, but then the demon stopped.
I cannot proceed, he said.
With difficulty, Kip focused. The tent, that tent. Can you show that tent to Malcolm?
Yes.
Please do.
Next to him, Malcolm gave a start and then leaned back against the wall. “As I was saying, Kip, purely for speculation, if you were to try to break a ward from a distance, it requires a good line of sight to where the ward is, and then you have to feel it out. But if, for example, you were to ask me to do that right now, I’d likely have to drop the two wards I’m holding, for they require some focus to keep and if I were to cast a spell that took up my concentration, someone might easily break them while I wasn’t attentive.”
“The defensive sorcerer focuses only on defense,” Captain Lowell said. “For just that reason. If we had sorcerers who could hold wards and attack the enemy, we wouldn’t need three sorcerers to a unit.”
Outside the house, the American soldiers had gotten to their feet, many looking at the ground. Kip pressed the side of his face to the window so he could see. “Something’s happening.”
Captain Lowell snapped to attention at his own window and then relaxed. “The ground,” he said. “Standard opening tactic. It’s physical magic disrupting the stability of the ground. Can you counter it?”
He spoke to Kip, but Alice responded. “I can,” she said confidently, and strode to the window next to Kip to look out.
He wanted to hold her back, especially because with Nikolon’s eyes he saw the British soldiers now marching toward the hill. “They’re coming,” he called. “The British Army.”
“I see.” Captain Lowell turned back to the soldiers. “Two of you, go into the other room and guard this house against any advances.”
“Yes, sir.” Two of them, chosen by some method Kip couldn’t divine, got up and walked to the other room, muskets at the ready. The third kept his musket trained on the door of the house.
“Again,” Captain Lowell said to Kip, “the rules of combat.”
“Don’t harm where avoidance suffices; don’t kill where harm suffices.” He appreciated that, because he’d feared he would be called on to incinerate all the men in the army, and while he could have called up that magic easily, he did not want to.
“This is hard,” Alice said. Her paws had glowed and now she was manipulating the spell she’d cast. “I’m trying to put the ground back and keep it flat, but he’s fighting me.”
“The closer you are, the more control you have.” Kip admired her concentration. “You can best him.”
She was, to some extent. The men outside looked more confident in their footing and now stood their ground, waiting for the British to crest the hill. A moment later, Alice gave a short gasp. “I beat him!” She clutched Kip’s arm. “He gave up! I steadied the ground!”
“Good job. We’ll win this battle yet.”
“He’s moving on to another spell,” Captain Lowell said. “Be ready.”
Alice’s ears went back, and Kip had to bite back a remark that of course they didn’t think that this small victory had made the difference in the battle, but it was important to Alice. There would have been scant time to say anything in any event, because the next thing that happened was that a large man made of smoke, a hundred feet tall, came into being over the top of the hill, menacing the American soldiers.
“He’s called a demon!” Kip cried. “It’s going to kill—”
As soon as he said it, it became clear that the demon was nothing but a distraction. The British troops appeared on either side of the smoke-man and through it, firing at the Americans and cutting a bloody swath through their ranks. There had been perhaps two hundred Americans in Kip’s field of view, and in those first few seconds a quarter of them fell to the ground. The reports of gunfire echoed and echoed, so that both Alice and Kip lay their ears back, and a moment later the screams of men joined the rapid concussions.
“Well?”
Kip looked up to see Captain Lowell staring at him. The man gestured toward the window. “Do what you do!”
“What?”
“Do something! Anything!”
“Anything” for Kip led first to fire, and the first thing he could think to do was send bursts of fire down the battlefield between the British and American lines. The fire startled everyone, so it wasn’t clear that it helped the Americans much, but at least it gave them time to recover, and after a few moments the British advance had halted some fifty feet from the house, though the barrage of gunfire and the screams of the men continued, setting everyone on edge.
“More smoke!” Captain Lowell yelled. “Give them cover!”
But a moment later, streams of water came pouring down the hill between the British lines, avoiding the red-coated soldiers and heading purposefully for the Americans. Where the water met Kip’s fires, they went out in a puff of steam.
“Physical magic with the water,” Lowell called.
“I’ll get it.” Alice stared out the window.
“I think they’re elementals,” Kip said.
“I can still lift them.” Alice’s paws glowed, but her magic faltered with a barrage of gunshots and she had to start over. Meanwhile, the water was eating away at the mud below the Americans, causing many to slip and fall, and some of those who fell did not get up again.
Kip sent more fire to flare up in front of a group of British soldiers that were trying to fire from the shelter of another house up the hill. Even with Alice’s help, he felt outmatched by this other military sorcerer. He hadn’t the experience to know what to do and all he was doing was lighting fires, while this sorcerer was calling demons and elementals and who knew what would be next.
Alice had managed to lift the water from the ground, but now it was in the way of the American soldiers, though at least it concealed them somewhat. Kip saw another soldier close to him fall, and then the one beyond him clutched his throat and fell to his knees. The action was strange enough to draw Kip’s attention, because there was no blood on the man’s face or uniform. He fell to his side, spasmed, and then lay still.
Kip couldn’t stop staring at the dead soldier. And then a moment later, a pool of water lifted from him and rejoined the water Alice was levitating. Another soldier farther away touched the water and a moment later dropped his gun, choking for air.
“They’re not elementals.” Water elementals liked contact with people but would not drown anyone, not that way. “It’s another demon,” Kip cried to Lowell. “He’s killing soldiers with a demon!”
“That’s not the way—”
“He’s drowning them!”
Lowell shouted back, “Then stop him!”
Questions From YOU
If you’ve got a question about my books or my writing—or anything else you want me to talk about—shoot me an email and I’ll answer it here.
Brandon asks: “I can’t find any information on continuing the audiobooks for your new series. Are there plans and/or currently work on the second book and beyond?”
I answered that question via email but I thought it might be useful here to talk a little bit about how audiobooks get made, because I get asked that from time to time.
First of all, I am planning to do more audiobooks in the Calatians series. The narrator I’m working with is the only one currently who asks for payment up front, so I have to save up to have the money to invest in those audiobooks. But he does good performances and most importantly finishes very quickly and reliably.
The other narrators I work with do a royalty share through ACX.com (a company owned by Amazon/Audible), which means they don’t get paid until the audiobook goes on sale, and then they split all the royalties with me. This kind of deal is a lot easier for me to swing, but harder on the narrators as they don’t make income from it until a couple months after the work. Most of them do this as a side job or a hobby, so it’s not uncommon for them to have to fit the work around other schedules.
That’s why I’ve got three books that have been in various stages of production for two to five years. That’s why it took four years and three different narrators to get Waterways done. I’m currently investigating doing a Kickstarter for the second Calatians book, but running a Kickstarter takes a lot of time as well, so I need to plan it out before I launch it and I haven’t had the time to do that yet.
I always like getting questions like this, though, because they let me know that there are people out there waiting for the audiobooks and spurs me to do more to get them out. So thanks!