Coming in July, the beginning of a new fantasy series! The series is called "The Calatians," and the first book is The Tower and the Fox.
(Aside: If you get my newsletter, you already know about this book and have read excerpts from it!)
I've been working on this book for some seven years, which is a record for me unless I dig up one of my trunk novels and try to publish that (spoiler: my trunk novels would need to be rewritten and no, that is not happening). What happened was that I started writing this story, and then it got too big and became two books, and then there wasn't a lot happening in the first book so I got dissatisfied with it and shelved it, and then one friend said, "You can write better now than you did when you wrote that," and so I started from scratch and rewrote the whole thing (keeping a few passages I really liked), which is also by the way what I'm doing now with the second book. Along the way I had an idea for a sequel, which became the third book when the first one split and then became the fourth book when another friend made an offhand comment after reading the new draft of the first and I realized I needed another book between 2 and 3. So that's how a book becomes a four-book series.
The book takes place around Prince George's College of Sorcery in the Royal Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1815, which means that yes, there is magic and the American Revolution has not (yet) happened. Kip Penfold, one of a race of animal-people called Calatians created by magic four hundred years before, is trying to become the first of his kind to enroll in the college and become a sorcerer. The opportunity has arisen for him because of a mysterious attack that decimated the ranks of the College and made them desperate for new students. Even so, not everyone is on board with this, not many of the sorcerers, his classmates, nor even the rest of the Calatians in the nearby town of New Cambridge where he grew up. The Tower and the Fox follows Kip's quest to be accepted as apprentice to one of the sorcerers at the College while preserving his relationships with his community and while surrounded by the mystery of who attacked the College and whether--when--it will happen again.
Kip is a fox (of course) and his best friend Coppy is an otter. Also enrolling at the college are Emily Carswell, the first woman to enroll in a College of Sorcery, and several other students who will offer Kip grief or support throughout the few months leading up to the decision about an apprenticeship. Along the way he will find a mysterious book that nobody else can read and a voice that speaks to him from the ancient White Tower that was the only building spared in the attack, in addition to more practical mysteries such as "is there anything another student can do to him that would actually result in them being punished?"
The Tower and the Fox is coming out not by Kyell Gold, but under my SF publishing name for a number of reasons. First of all, I've published a few short stories under that name and people know me; it'd be nice to have a novel to go along with those stories. Second, I think the Calatians series is more accessible to F/SF readers than much of my furry stuff, so even though it still qualifies as furry, it feels not quite as furry as Kyell's books and it's worth keeping that separation. People who like one of my author names can find the other without TOO much trouble at this point. Third, there's no sex in it.
It's being published by FurPlanet, coming out at AC, so you'll be able to find it at their table there, and online soon after. E-book version coming soon, etc. etc. The cover and interior art is all by the amazing Laura Garabedian.
(Aside: If you get my newsletter, you already know about this book and have read excerpts from it!)
I've been working on this book for some seven years, which is a record for me unless I dig up one of my trunk novels and try to publish that (spoiler: my trunk novels would need to be rewritten and no, that is not happening). What happened was that I started writing this story, and then it got too big and became two books, and then there wasn't a lot happening in the first book so I got dissatisfied with it and shelved it, and then one friend said, "You can write better now than you did when you wrote that," and so I started from scratch and rewrote the whole thing (keeping a few passages I really liked), which is also by the way what I'm doing now with the second book. Along the way I had an idea for a sequel, which became the third book when the first one split and then became the fourth book when another friend made an offhand comment after reading the new draft of the first and I realized I needed another book between 2 and 3. So that's how a book becomes a four-book series.
The book takes place around Prince George's College of Sorcery in the Royal Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1815, which means that yes, there is magic and the American Revolution has not (yet) happened. Kip Penfold, one of a race of animal-people called Calatians created by magic four hundred years before, is trying to become the first of his kind to enroll in the college and become a sorcerer. The opportunity has arisen for him because of a mysterious attack that decimated the ranks of the College and made them desperate for new students. Even so, not everyone is on board with this, not many of the sorcerers, his classmates, nor even the rest of the Calatians in the nearby town of New Cambridge where he grew up. The Tower and the Fox follows Kip's quest to be accepted as apprentice to one of the sorcerers at the College while preserving his relationships with his community and while surrounded by the mystery of who attacked the College and whether--when--it will happen again.
Kip is a fox (of course) and his best friend Coppy is an otter. Also enrolling at the college are Emily Carswell, the first woman to enroll in a College of Sorcery, and several other students who will offer Kip grief or support throughout the few months leading up to the decision about an apprenticeship. Along the way he will find a mysterious book that nobody else can read and a voice that speaks to him from the ancient White Tower that was the only building spared in the attack, in addition to more practical mysteries such as "is there anything another student can do to him that would actually result in them being punished?"
The Tower and the Fox is coming out not by Kyell Gold, but under my SF publishing name for a number of reasons. First of all, I've published a few short stories under that name and people know me; it'd be nice to have a novel to go along with those stories. Second, I think the Calatians series is more accessible to F/SF readers than much of my furry stuff, so even though it still qualifies as furry, it feels not quite as furry as Kyell's books and it's worth keeping that separation. People who like one of my author names can find the other without TOO much trouble at this point. Third, there's no sex in it.
It's being published by FurPlanet, coming out at AC, so you'll be able to find it at their table there, and online soon after. E-book version coming soon, etc. etc. The cover and interior art is all by the amazing Laura Garabedian.
Category All / All
Species Vulpine (Other)
Gender Any
Size 403 x 628px
Awesome, keep us posted as to when its available to us non-AC attendees.
The book is by me. It's coming out under a different name for the reasons explained in the post.
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