February 2021 Dispatch
Kyell Gold
January Recap
For the first time in almost a year, I don’t feel like I have to talk about all the bad stuff going on. Yes, there’s still a pandemic, we still have to socially distance and wear masks, and probably we will for a few (several) more months, depending on where you are and how old you are and what your job is, but there’s a vaccine! Responsible people are now in charge of it (mostly). President Biden is reversing a lot of the easily reversible horrible things from the last four years. I feel like I can breathe again, at least a little. I know that we’ve lost people, but hopefully, hopefully, we’ll soon be in a place where those losses will slow, and then stop.
In my world, things are going along well enough. I had a big book release with The Revolution and the Fox in mid-January, and it seemed to go pretty well! Thanks to all of you who RTd and/or said nice things about the series. I’m pretty proud of what I accomplished with it, and I think the ending is pretty close exactly to what I was hoping to achieve.
Other than that, I’ve mostly been working on The Price of Thorns this month, pushing that story forward. I finally got to a point I was excited to write, and I’ll include a bit of that part below.
Return From Divalia (over on my Patreon) is even closer to wrapping up than it was when I typed almost this exact paragraph last month (except for this last part). Next story will be “Squeak Thief,” about a posh rich college mouse who needs to go find a jaded fox to help him steal something. It’ll start soon and I’ll make some announcement about it when it happens, so keep an eye on my Twitter for that if you’re not a Patreon member.
My fanfiction writing streams have gone pretty well! I’ve been doing them Tuesdays around noon PDT for 60-90 minutes, and intend to continue them into September. Keep an eye on my Twitter or follow me on picarto.tv (https://picarto.tv/KyellGold) to be notified next time I stream. I’m now working on a Pokemon fanfic with sex in it and I’m having a lot of fun.
Streaming shows: The second season of Hilda (Netflix) is just as weird and charming as the first one, at least so far. Still enjoying it, still haven’t finished it!
I loved the first five episodes of “Lupin,” the big Netflix hit of the month, and I hope the second half lives up to the promise of the first. It has a ridiculously charismatic lead actor, a snappy and engaging pace, and it uses a heist in the first episode to open up a larger story that twists and turns in very satisfying fashion. Also, I’m always down for some scenic shots of Paris, so that’s a bonus.
We watched two movies recently, “Save Yourselves” (Hulu) and “Locked Down” (HBO Max). Both of them address the modern world in funny, interesting ways. “Save Yourselves” is a science fiction film about a New York couple who decide to disconnect from social media and go to a friend’s cabin upstate the day before a bizarre alien invasion happens. The first half of the film does a good job of getting you invested in the characters (and making each of them by turns more sympathetic) so that when their vacation suddenly turns into a survival exercise, you’re right there with them trying to figure out what to do. Its realism in the face of a crazy world event sort of mirrors all of us in the past year, so even if we’re not facing fuzzy aliens, we’re still with the couple (Sunita Mani of Mr. Robot and GLOW, and John Paul Reynolds of Stranger Things and Search Party) trying desperately to figure out what to do in a world that has changed around them in days.
“Locked Down” is a rom-com/heist movie but is just a little askew from the standard model of both. Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor play a married couple about to break up when the pandemic lockdown hits. As things get worse for both of them, personally and professionally, they come up with an idea to escape—but no, it’s crazy, they’re not really going to do it. Are they? The film balances its dual nature really well and the stagey dialogue actually works because it feels like something the two characters have in common. Often when you’re introduced to a couple in the throes of breaking up, it’s hard to see why they ever got together; not so with these two. The two leads are great and enjoyable to watch all the way through.
Dude, Where’s My Pack? is currently available from FurPlanet! The e-book is on baddogbooks.com and will be on the other sites probably the first week of February.
The fourth and final Calatians book, The Revolution and the Fox, is out! It’s on ArgyllProductions.com and available on all major retailers. If you liked the series please do leave reviews and tell your friends!
Audiobooks: If you don’t have an Audible account yet, check out my new Soundcloud page (https://soundcloud.com/user-710305036-429996600), which has samples and links to all my audiobooks. Those links help me get extra money especially if you use them to sign up for a new account. Savrin has been slowed by the pandemic (having everyone home always leaves less time for recording), but once Love Match 1 is up, we hope to get Titles and Ty Game out as well! The DWMF audiobook has been sent to ACX and should be up soon!
My FREE book of writing advice called Do You Need Help? is on baddogbooks.com right here: https://baddogbooks.com/product/do-you-need-help/
Appearances in 2020
My full list of upcoming appearances is at http://www.kyellgold.com/contact.html, recently updated (or soon to be updated).
Megaplex has been postponed, but I have been told that they would like to keep the same GOH slate into 2021. I don’t have any other plans to attend furry conventions in person until then.
Spotlight: No spotlight this month
Excerpt: Here’s an excerpt from The Price of Thorns:
Nivvy turned to see the fairy standing a foot away from him, her bright red lips stretched in a wide smile that showed definitely yellowed, pointed teeth. “So the thief would steal from me,” she purred. “You sneaky little weasel.”
“No,” he protested, but the words he intended to follow that one snarled up in his throat as he felt himself falling, falling, and landing in muffled darkness among a pile of smelly cloth.
*
He thrashed around in the cloth. What sort of sorcery was this?
“You’ll make a fine addition to my menagerie.” Scarlet’s voice seemed to be coming from far above him. He struggled, but the cloth around him caught on his claws.
His claws?
The darkness around him wasn’t absolute. A dim blue light grew brighter, or else his eyes were adjusting. He held up his hands in front of his face.
That was the plan, anyway, but it went wrong from the start. For one thing, his face felt his hands moving too close to it through long whiskers on his cheeks. For another, even if that were possible it shouldn’t have been right unless his nose had grown a foot. For a third, apparently, it had. And for a fourth, and most damning, when he finally got his hands clear of the nose that shouldn’t be there and away from the whiskers that shouldn’t be there and in front of his eyes, it was obvious that they weren’t hands at all. They were an animal’s paws, with leathery pads on the palms and claws at the tip of each finger, and they were definitely his because the fingers closed into fists and opened again when he told them to.
He used them to explore his face—pointed muzzle, small roundish ears atop his head—and then the long sinewy body stretching down from his neck to his stubby legs and his—his tail.
His claws pinched his tail (there’s a thing he never thought he’d think) and it hurt, out there in a part of his body he hadn’t had a minute ago. “Inira’s seven silver bells,” he swore aloud, and was a little surprised to hear the words come out. So he could still talk, even though he was now, he supposed, a former-human.
The cloth and Nivvy and everything was scooped up and lifted. He struggled, but couldn’t free himself. “I don’t have a weasel in my collection,” Scarlet said, and now hands pressed the cloth around his body. He did not like the sensation and squirmed to free himself, learning a little about how this new body could move.
“What’s going on?” Bella’s voice, faint and farther.
“Your little thief decided to ply his trade on his way back,” Scarlet said. “So now he will sit in my menagerie.”
Bella came closer, her shoes clacking on the floor. Nivvy stilled his struggle to listen. “He’s mine,” Bella said. “You can’t just take him.”
“He tried to steal from me.” Scarlet squeezed as she said the words, setting Nivvy to squirming again. “In my own home.”
“Nevertheless.” Bella’s footsteps stopped some distance away. Nivvy couldn’t gauge how far because his frame of reference had been his own body, so what sounded like fifty feet to him was probably now…three? “What have you done with him?”
“I’m in here!” he called before Scarlet could answer. She squeezed again, and this time he squirmed through the folds of cloth and dropped into what had been his pant leg, judging from the smell. Scarlet had both ends of it, so he couldn’t fall out, but he did claw at the fabric and make a small hole.
“He is no longer your concern.” Scarlet’s tone went icy, and Nivvy found himself paralyzed, unable to move. “I suggest you leave before I ask questions about whether you ordered him to steal from me.”
“And I suggest,” Bella said, definitely trying to match Scarlet’s ice and coming up short, “that you return my thief to me before I call on what little magic I have left.”
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 or reply when I ask for questions on Twitter and I’ll answer it here.
Nobody had a question this month! I’ll see you next month, I guess.
Stay safe and wear a mask, y’all.