September 2019 Dispatch
Kyell Gold
August Recap
Whew! I spent ten days on the East Coast—or rather, nine; it would have been ten but for some flight snafus that saw me get on and off the same airplane twice (almost a third time, too) and eventually sit in airports for eight hours and then take a red-eye, which I guess is better than sitting in airplanes for most of that time.
Anyway! Megaplex in Orlando was a great deal of fun. Yes, you don’t want to be outside too long during the day, but the evenings were nice, and more importantly, why would you be outside when the con is all indoors and air-conditioned? I got to see a bunch of artists I don’t often see on the west coast and meet a few friends, and I got to stand up and wave when they announced me as a GOH for Megaplex 2020, which was really nice. The theme is “All Aboard,” like a vacation cruise, and the introductory video they did for it was great (and features me, briefly). You can watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJTLrCI-Qjs if you’re so inclined. I’m super excited to go back next year!
After that I flew up to Furrydelphia, where I was a GOH this year along with my friend and frequent collaborator Rukis. Furrydelphia is a con in its third year that grew to surpass a thousand attendees this year (it’s a little amazing to me that that still doesn’t qualify it as a “large” con, and just barely “medium”). The con was in (and will return to) an interesting venue: a hotel connected to a casino whose most interesting feature for the weekend was a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts. The hotel was great and the hotel and con staff were both very helpful. Rukis and I gave a bunch of panels that all went well, and the adult fiction one was our favorite. We did a reading where we both read for the first time from an upcoming work, and we got to watch furries dropping money from the balcony at closing ceremonies to continue to benefit the charity. For a long time. If you’re on the east coast, I recommend you make your way to Furrydelphia next year for a fun, chill time, and go out to dinner at the nearby Fogo de Chao. Yum.
Writing-wise, most of this month has been spent getting Titles into beta-reader shape. It’s now off to the writing groups. I’m working on The Revolution and the Fox (Calatians book 4 and final) and my Patreon project (Unfinished Business is getting into some interesting territory now!). I’ve also been reading the slushpile for FANG and making some hard choices.
I promised to talk about “Legion” (a Marvel show on FX, streaming occasionally on Hulu), so I’ll do part of that up here and then I’m going to invent a letter and talk about the rest of it below in that section (WITH SPOILERS). Up here, the good stuff, spoiler-free: “Legion” has fascinating characters and an amazing visual style that alone is worth the price of admission. Most of the performances are fantastic, and the writing from one episode to the next is good enough to carry the show. It is not paced like a conventional 201x show, which can be frustrating at times, but if you let go and just appreciate that they are doing their own thing, it’s really rewarding. I got attached to several of the characters and wanted to see them do well.
In a strange twist on superhero shows, the characters’ powers grew less important as the show went on. Is that a twist? Maybe not. If I think about it, maybe most of the superhero TV shows I’ve seen (sadly few) showcase the powers at the beginning and then move to more character-focused things. But really, of the cast introduced in the first season, they barely use their powers at all (except the main character, who keeps finding new things to do with his). I liked that the second season ended with a battle of powers that was entirely spectacle and that the third season was mostly about character interactions.
Honestly, it wasn’t until the last two episodes that I really had problems with it. The three-season run of the show is by and large really great. Check it out.
Release dates
The third Calatians book, The War and the Fox, came out at Anthrocon, as did ROAR 10 with two of my stories included. E-books are up on all major retail sites.
The Tower and the Fox audiobook is out; you can find it on Audible, Amazon, or iTunes. 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.
Here’s my best guess at a 2019 release schedule: The forthcoming New Tibet anthology and Titles will probably be out late in 2019, maybe at MFF. Love Match 3 will be pushed to 2020 through a combination of beta reader availability, artist availability (Rukis is doing art for both this and the Dev and Lee book), and my own schedule and desire to get the Dev and Lee book out before it gets even more out of date.
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 plan to take fall mostly off and go to MFF in December. I’ve signed up to be on some panels there and will probably have a reading of some sort, maybe with other FurPlanet readers. Might hit our local PAWcon in November for a day or so. Come 2020 I will be at Further Confusion and Texas Furry Fiesta, and of course Megaplex in August.
Spotlight: None this month
Excerpt: “The Revolution and the Fox”
More, again: Kip goes to the International Exposition of Sorcery. Minorly spoilery for previous Calatians books.
What few visitors were in the room had gathered around the Chinese sorcerer, and while Kip did want to see the display, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk to the Egyptian sorcerers.
As he approached the table, one of them gestured, and the bottle lifted from the table and poured a sweet-smelling liquid into one of the cups, which then rose to Kip’s chest height. “Would you care to try some sugarcane juice?” the nearest of the three asked in perfect London English.
“Thank you.” Kip reached out and took the cup, which came free from the spell easily. The juice smelled even stronger close up, and when he took a sip, the sweetness overwhelmed him. “It’s very strong,” he said.
“Ah.” The man smiled. He brushed his mustache with a finger. “We have none of your people in our land. It must be that your taste differs from ours. My apologies.”
He reached out, but Kip kept the cup. “I like it,” he said, aware that refusing or disliking the drink might give them offense. “I wasn’t expecting how strong it is. Like taking many sugars in your tea.”
The man’s smile grew. “Indeed. My name is Nephi.”
“Kip.” Kip extended a paw, and the man shook it. “It’s a great pleasure to meet you.”
“This is Moise and Femi.” The man indicated his compatriots. The one called Femi came up and whispered something to Nephi in a language Kip didn’t understand. “Ah. Femi says that you are Master Penfold. Is it so?”
“Yes, that’s me.” Kip took another sip of the sugarcane juice.
Nephi bowed. “In that case, it is a very great pleasure indeed. We stand in awe.”
“Oh,” Kip said, “there’s no need for that.”
The smiles remained fixed on Nephi’s face, as well as his two colleagues. “What questions have you for us?”
“Tell me about your school,” Kip said.
They did so, speaking very generally, of course, and explained that the parakeets were their familiars, in cages more for their protection than for any fear they would escape. Nephi and Femi were what Kip would think of as Masters, and Moise was an apprentice, but more advanced; they called him a “journeyman sorcerer,” and from what Kip gathered, this was not a stage to be advanced from necessarily. A sorcerer might spend his whole life as a journeyman and not be thought less of.
“Journeymen,” Moise explained, “do God’s work among the people. For some, it is a calling. For others…” He brushed a hand modestly down his green robe. “It is where we feel most comfortable. But surely you in America have something like this.”
“Er. We used to. Sort of. In New Cambridge, where I grew up, there was a sorcerer’s school nearby, and for a while the healer would come down to the town, and sometimes another sorcerer would come as well. But the sorcerers all worked for the Crown—the King—and the government would tell them where to go. Some work on roads and buildings, big projects that benefit everyone, and some work for the military, and we…” He included Malcolm, who was talking to one of the Chinese sorcerers, “study sorcery and educate new sorcerers.”
“Yes, we know this.” Nephi smiled. “We thought that perhaps having rid yourself of the Crown, you might also have made other changes.”
“We have. We have a representative system of government and we’re striving to make sure that everyone’s interests are balanced. But at the same time, we are a young country and we know that many of the other powers of the world view us as an easy target.”
“Surely not,” Moise said. “Your colleges of sorcery and your military sorcerers are among the finest in the world.”
“Yes, but…” Kip stopped himself before reciting a list of his country’s weaknesses to a foreign sorcerer. “I certainly hope the rest of the world shares your views, but the countries that surround us now have a bloody history of taking from one another.”
“That surround you in America?” Nephi looked puzzled.
“No, no.” Kip made a wide circle with his paw. “Here, in this palace. Holland, England, Spain, France, Prussia.”
The sorcerer’s face cleared, and he laughed. “Ah, how correct you are. My own country has had those periods in its history. Now, I fear, we struggle not to be one of the things taken. But surely you live on a new continent far from the Old World?”
“Far in some ways,” Kip said.
“Ah, I take your meaning.” Nephi smiled. “Indeed, we had to send a bird on ahead, and then we could jump to the palace.”
“But now,” Kip said, “you may return whenever you like.”
“With each jump, the world grows smaller.”
They talked a little longer about how the Egyptian sorcerers found new students, and Kip determined that none of the three was a healer. The healers they knew had little interest in exploration and advancement, and none wished to spend the better part of a week in Amsterdam when they had people to attend to.
Kip gathered from this that their healers treated disease as well as physical injuries, which he had thought only a few healers in the British empire could do. He didn’t want to press further; both he and Nephi engaged in the conversation while also holding back important details of their respective colleges and education, and he didn’t want to press on that point. Besides, his main goal was to find a healer, and learning about Egyptian healing practices was helpful but no more so than reading a book about water when you were thirsty.
Two Spanish sorcerers came up as Moise was showing Kip some simple spells he could do with sand. Living near a desert shaped their study of physical magic, and Moise was more skilled with sand than even Alice was. But the Spanish sorcerers barely looked at the sand. “Excuse me,” one said to Kip. “You are…Master Penfold, yes?”
“Yes.” Kip flicked his ears back. Neither the scent nor the features of the dark-skinned men were familiar.
“If it is not a disturbance,” the Spanish sorcerer said, “may we trouble you for the story of the Road?”
From Moise’s expression—unsurprised, polite—Kip understood that Moise had known who he was and had been very politely refraining from asking him. “I’m sure you’ve already heard it,” he said. “I can’t tell you—”
“Of course we would not ask how you did it.” The man smiled. “But what was it like?”
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.
This month’s question comes from…me. Because I wanted to talk about Legion, and the way I’m talking about it ends up being sort of writing tips. So: “Hey, Kyell, what lessons would you take from the final two episodes of “Legion”? Thanks! –Kyell”
All right. SPOILERS HERE!
1. If you’re going to make the resolution of the plot hinge on a thing that happened in the past (David’s biological parents giving him up for adoption), it might be a good idea to mention that thing and establish it early on in the story. David’s biological parents get one mention that I recall in the entire first season—because I knew his father was Charles Xavier and I was looking for it—which is when he creates the mind-classroom and gives someone (Syd?) a genetics lesson. The fact that they gave him up is maybe mentioned in passing. It’s certainly not established enough to base the entire resolution of the show on it. I don’t know that it’s mentioned at all in the second season (which has its own problems, but we’re not talking about that right now). It doesn’t even really come into the third season until David’s first plan (to stop Farouk from possessing him) fails.
2. If you’re going to have character growth, you need to show those moments of growth to the audience. Farouk says at the end of the show that he’s learned to be a nicer person and not to, y’know, just turn his enemies into monkeys and keep them imprisoned. All through this scene I was waiting for the twist, for him to say, “Ha ha, j/k, here’s how we’re going to betray their trust.” But apparently no, he really did learn to be a nice person somehow, which is weird because he is less than a year (?) removed from brutally murdering David’s sister in a way deliberately intended to cause maximum psychological damage to David. In fact, one read of the whole second season is that Farouk has tricked Division III into believing David is evil. At no point in the third season does he have a revelation or an onscreen moment that would lead us to believe that he’s a different character than the one who imprisoned Lenny, possessed Oliver, and hounded David (in addition to murdering his sister).
3. Speaking of David’s sister: you should not forget hugely significant characters when crafting your ending. David is all sad because his biological parents didn’t love him. But his sister genuinely did! She was there for him throughout his life! Remember how prominent she was in that “multiple futures” episode from the second season? Nope, doesn’t matter, if it’s not your blood mama and papa, then forget it, you’ll be messed up forever. His sister is completely absent from the third season and I’m ashamed that I can’t even remember her name. Jean? [Edit: Amy. It was Amy.]
a. Sub-item here: you should be aware of what your premise says about society at large. This ending, the whole “if my real mama and papa give me up for adoption then I’ll be messed up,” is a huge middle finger to every adoptive family out there. Yes, you can argue that what he MEANS is that Charles is possibly the only person on the planet (one of two, I guess, counting Farouk) who could teach David to control his powers, but David specifically also wants his mother’s love, and what’s that got to do with his powers? This ending says, basically on the page, that no adoptive family can ever be as good for a child as their biological family, and that’s just wrong. Honestly, given David’s mother’s psychological problems and his father’s other interests and also psychological problems, I’m not sure that having both of them looking after him is the best thing.
i. Sub-sub-item: does this mean that Charles won’t go on to found the X-Men if he’s busy being a father? What other ramifications does this change have on the world?
4. Don’t apply your story’s rules inconsistently among the characters. Around the middle of the third season, David tells Syd he’s going to erase things and start over, and she says, “You’ll still be the same person who did those things to me.” I liked that: you can mess around with time, but your actions remain out there. At the end of the story, Syd asks Time if all the things they did will matter, and Time reassures her that they do. Here she’s talking specifically about Syd and Kerry/Cary, but then doesn’t the same also apply to David? What does that mean for him? He did a lot of horrible things right there at the end. Do those remain part of him too? If we’re reassured about Syd/Kerry/Cary, shouldn’t we also be horrified about David? I guess not, he’s a cute baby now so…whatever.
5. Aspects of your story should have a reason for coming into being, a reason in-world and in-narrative for existing (e.g. they have to make sense in the story, and there has to be a story-related reason for you to include them), and a satisfying resolution. David’s multiple personalities, interesting though they were, get none of these things. They appear in the comic, so that’s why they get put into the show randomly at the beginning of the third season, but they don’t get the interesting treatment the comic gives them (where each personality has a different power). They play a minor part in the story to interesting visual effect; they mess around with Syd’s powers at one point (which could easily have been accomplished some other way), and then at the end they’re just not a factor anymore. Would the story have been any different without them? (no)
6. Know whose story you’re telling. I think Legion is ultimately Syd’s story. She’s the one who changes the most over the course of the three seasons. We see her character growth, we see her mature and take control of her surroundings, and we see the evolution of her morality. David changes his focus from surviving to getting revenge to healing himself, but he never has a moment (as Syd does) where he seems to learn a lesson, where he puts someone else’s interests ahead of his own.
I think that’s most of what I would take from the ending of Legion. As I said up top, it’s a really interesting show, visually fantastic, and I give the creators huge props for doing something different. I think the ending bothers me because it had so much potential and I feel like they completely tripped up there. I would say “go watch it,” but if you read through the spoilery section then you probably already have, but if you haven’t and just wanted to hear me rant about writing stuff, then still go watch it. Stuff has been spoiled for you but the show will still surprise you, I promise.