In the Spotlight: Kyell Gold
Jan. 28th, 2009 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reviews_and_ramblingsI read all books by Kyell Gold published with Sofawolf Press, and they are one best of the other. The last one, Out of Position, is for me the best, but Waterways is very near. Volle and Pendant of Fortune, about a fox spy, have wonderful review on Amazon, and I like them, even if the medieval fantasy is not one of my favorite genre. I'm so fascinated by the works of this man, that I asked him for a brief interview, hoping to feature to you a new author that you will arrive to love like me.
Cover Art by Blotch
1) Sorry if my questions sound stupid, but I'm a novice on the genre and so I'm curious. Is it possible to find the origins of furry literature? A specific author, book, movie or something else?
A lot of people look back to Disney's "Robin Hood" or "The Lion King" as the work that got them interested in the genre. Probably "Robin Hood" was mine. If you want to look back at literature, there are Aesop's Fables, the Roman de Renard, Wind in the Willows, Watership Down, all of which have used animal characters with some degree of anthropomorphism.
If you want to look at the current "movement," the fandom started back in the late 80s with fanzines such as Vootie and Rowrbrazzle, where fans of the anthropomorphic genre would collect and reprint their stories for private distribution. Sofawolf Press started up in 1999 to try to bring some professionalism to the published market. More recently, FurPlanet Publishing is offering publication to a wide variety of authors and artists as well.
Cover Art by John Nunnemacher
2) I tagged your books as gay furry romance. There are also heterosexual furry romance?
Heh. There are some, yes. On fan websites, the gay romance and hetero romance are about even, with a few more gay stories. As far as publications, though, most of the ones I'm aware of are gay romances, or at least bisexual. I know that Sofawolf's magazine Heat, which publishes erotic fiction (disclaimer: I am a regular contributor), tries to have a balance of gay and hetero romantic stories in it, but I'm not aware of any novelists right now who are writing hetero furry romance novels.
Cover Art by Sara Palmer
3) Almost all the time, when someone thinks to anthropomorphic animals, they think to Disney and Co., and Disney animals are asexual. Instead in all your books (also Waterways, that is a young adult novel) there is a strong component of eroticism. What comes first in your mind? Do you think to a love story and then assign the roles to anthropomorphic characters, or do you plan an anthropomorphic story and then add the sex scenes?
I don't know that I separate the two in my mind. When I come up with a story, the personalities of the characters define and are defined by their animal nature. In Out of Position, the contrast is between a sneaky, clever fox, and a straightforward, athletic tiger (who tells us about foxes early on: smug little things that always think they're cleverer than you). The species help reinforce those traits, at the same time giving the characters the opportunity to grow beyond their stereotypes. The sex scenes play out the way they would naturally flow between two characters of those types, with the weaker fox trying to play with the head of the unsure tiger. Later, when the fox isn't as enthusiastic one night, the tiger knows immediately that something's wrong. So the scenes come from the story and the story comes from the characters and the situation, and the species also come from the characters. I'm not sure whether that answers your question, but it's how I write. :)
You're very right about Disney's characters, and I think that these stories are a natural outgrowth of that. We loved Disney's movies as children, but as we grew up, we wanted the characters to grow up as well. We wanted to see them going through the same things we were going through: discovering romance, sexuality, and sex itself. Actually, in both "Robin Hood" and "The Lion King," there are strong romantic elements, and most Disney movies contain at least a little bit of romance (whether it fits with the plot or not). So it's not such a stretch to imagine those characters in different situations.
Cover Art by Sara Palmer
4) People said to me that Waterways was an easier book to read if I was not used to the Furry romance, since it was a young adult novel with less sex than Volle or Pendant of Fortune. And instead, for me, it had probably more impact since I could relate more with a contemporary story (even if young adult) rather than a fantasy. Is it easier to read fantasy furry romance since they are far from our real life?
That I couldn't really tell you. I think of "Waterways" as a contemporary fantasy, and "Volle" as a Renaissance-era fantasy, so it's all fantasy. I know that people have said that "Waterways" is more accessible because the setting is more familiar, but other people have said that the contemporary setting is more jarring because it contains some familiar elements. The fantasy setting allowed me to construct a world that stands on its own, where perhaps the introduction of animal-people is not so jarring. But some people don't like Renaissance/medieval fantasy as much (even though the world has no magic). So it's really a matter of taste.
Cover Art by Sara Palmer
5) There are a lot of women who write gay romance and read it. Have you an idea of your average reader? There are women among them?
I think my average reader is a young man between the ages of 18 and 25. The vast, vast majority of readers who've contacted me have fallen into that group. There are women who read my books, I know, but I haven't talked to many of them. Maybe they just don't write to me. :)
---
First off, thanks to Elisa for allowing me to write a little post on her journal. We talked about subjects, and the one that made the most sense was to talk about telling stories with anthropomorphic characters, since that's what sets my books apart from pretty much all the others reviewed here. So here goes.
There's a debate going on now with some writers I follow about Writing About Cultural Groups (good example here: http://matociquala.livejournal.com/1549883.html by Elizabeth Bear, who is awesome). The main issue seems to be that even if you are well-intentioned in trying to write characters whose backgrounds you don't share, you are going to run into people who do have those backgrounds who tell you that your characters aren't authentic, or are perpetuating stereotypes. This seems to be a particular worry around issues of race, religion, and sexual orientation, with nationality thrown in there to some extent.
By populating my world with anthropomorphic characters, most of those issues are placed firmly in my control. I can create a character with a specific background that makes sense, consistent with the world, without worrying that I'm misrepresenting them. No otter-people are going to write to tell me that Kory is too much of a stereotype. I have had religious people tell me that the portrayal of a religious family is accurate, and some others tell me that it is off base, but that's the aspect of family I chose to explore. I didn't want Kory's race to be a factor.
In writing about romance and sexuality, it's the characters, the people inside, that I love to explore, and I want my readers to be caught up in that, not hung up on whether a white kid from the suburbs could fall in love with a second-generation African immigrant from the inner city. If I had a strong sense of racial or cultural heritage myself, it might be different, but the stories I want to tell are about being gay, about discovering the connection to someone you love, and about how the world views and accepts your relationship, no matter what it might be.
I do recognize that sometimes it has the opposite effect, that people get hung up on the fact that Kory is an otter-boy and how does that work and why can't he just be human since he pretty much acts human anyway, and does he like to break clams on his chest and so on. That's okay: you can't write a story for everyone. But I think the whole point of these characters is to get past the elements that aren't relevant to the story, and I'd say that if you're hung up on "how do fox-people work," just pop in Disney's "Robin Hood" and give it a quick watch, and see if that helps. It's one of those things you just have to accept, in the way that you accept vampires when you read "Twilight."
Ultimately, the reason I write with these characters is that I love the concept. Animals fascinate me because of their differences; I love imagining how their world might appear, and showing it off to other people. The differences, I think, should make us think about the things we take for granted and enhance the things we share in common. The point of these stories, the point of all stories, is to share experiences. It's to celebrate the ways in which we are the same, to allow us to sympathize and understand. In a fantasy world, the fantasy trappings are there for enjoyment, but the real story is always about the characters, whether black or white, straight or gay, male or female, human or otter.
My reviews of Kyell Gold's books:
Waterways: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/264083.html
Volle: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/418864.html
Pendant of Fortune: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/432216.html
Out of Position: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/503147.html
Cover Art by Blotch
1) Sorry if my questions sound stupid, but I'm a novice on the genre and so I'm curious. Is it possible to find the origins of furry literature? A specific author, book, movie or something else?
A lot of people look back to Disney's "Robin Hood" or "The Lion King" as the work that got them interested in the genre. Probably "Robin Hood" was mine. If you want to look back at literature, there are Aesop's Fables, the Roman de Renard, Wind in the Willows, Watership Down, all of which have used animal characters with some degree of anthropomorphism.
If you want to look at the current "movement," the fandom started back in the late 80s with fanzines such as Vootie and Rowrbrazzle, where fans of the anthropomorphic genre would collect and reprint their stories for private distribution. Sofawolf Press started up in 1999 to try to bring some professionalism to the published market. More recently, FurPlanet Publishing is offering publication to a wide variety of authors and artists as well.
Cover Art by John Nunnemacher
2) I tagged your books as gay furry romance. There are also heterosexual furry romance?
Heh. There are some, yes. On fan websites, the gay romance and hetero romance are about even, with a few more gay stories. As far as publications, though, most of the ones I'm aware of are gay romances, or at least bisexual. I know that Sofawolf's magazine Heat, which publishes erotic fiction (disclaimer: I am a regular contributor), tries to have a balance of gay and hetero romantic stories in it, but I'm not aware of any novelists right now who are writing hetero furry romance novels.
Cover Art by Sara Palmer
3) Almost all the time, when someone thinks to anthropomorphic animals, they think to Disney and Co., and Disney animals are asexual. Instead in all your books (also Waterways, that is a young adult novel) there is a strong component of eroticism. What comes first in your mind? Do you think to a love story and then assign the roles to anthropomorphic characters, or do you plan an anthropomorphic story and then add the sex scenes?
I don't know that I separate the two in my mind. When I come up with a story, the personalities of the characters define and are defined by their animal nature. In Out of Position, the contrast is between a sneaky, clever fox, and a straightforward, athletic tiger (who tells us about foxes early on: smug little things that always think they're cleverer than you). The species help reinforce those traits, at the same time giving the characters the opportunity to grow beyond their stereotypes. The sex scenes play out the way they would naturally flow between two characters of those types, with the weaker fox trying to play with the head of the unsure tiger. Later, when the fox isn't as enthusiastic one night, the tiger knows immediately that something's wrong. So the scenes come from the story and the story comes from the characters and the situation, and the species also come from the characters. I'm not sure whether that answers your question, but it's how I write. :)
You're very right about Disney's characters, and I think that these stories are a natural outgrowth of that. We loved Disney's movies as children, but as we grew up, we wanted the characters to grow up as well. We wanted to see them going through the same things we were going through: discovering romance, sexuality, and sex itself. Actually, in both "Robin Hood" and "The Lion King," there are strong romantic elements, and most Disney movies contain at least a little bit of romance (whether it fits with the plot or not). So it's not such a stretch to imagine those characters in different situations.
Cover Art by Sara Palmer
4) People said to me that Waterways was an easier book to read if I was not used to the Furry romance, since it was a young adult novel with less sex than Volle or Pendant of Fortune. And instead, for me, it had probably more impact since I could relate more with a contemporary story (even if young adult) rather than a fantasy. Is it easier to read fantasy furry romance since they are far from our real life?
That I couldn't really tell you. I think of "Waterways" as a contemporary fantasy, and "Volle" as a Renaissance-era fantasy, so it's all fantasy. I know that people have said that "Waterways" is more accessible because the setting is more familiar, but other people have said that the contemporary setting is more jarring because it contains some familiar elements. The fantasy setting allowed me to construct a world that stands on its own, where perhaps the introduction of animal-people is not so jarring. But some people don't like Renaissance/medieval fantasy as much (even though the world has no magic). So it's really a matter of taste.
Cover Art by Sara Palmer
5) There are a lot of women who write gay romance and read it. Have you an idea of your average reader? There are women among them?
I think my average reader is a young man between the ages of 18 and 25. The vast, vast majority of readers who've contacted me have fallen into that group. There are women who read my books, I know, but I haven't talked to many of them. Maybe they just don't write to me. :)
---
First off, thanks to Elisa for allowing me to write a little post on her journal. We talked about subjects, and the one that made the most sense was to talk about telling stories with anthropomorphic characters, since that's what sets my books apart from pretty much all the others reviewed here. So here goes.
There's a debate going on now with some writers I follow about Writing About Cultural Groups (good example here: http://matociquala.livejournal.com/1549883.html by Elizabeth Bear, who is awesome). The main issue seems to be that even if you are well-intentioned in trying to write characters whose backgrounds you don't share, you are going to run into people who do have those backgrounds who tell you that your characters aren't authentic, or are perpetuating stereotypes. This seems to be a particular worry around issues of race, religion, and sexual orientation, with nationality thrown in there to some extent.
By populating my world with anthropomorphic characters, most of those issues are placed firmly in my control. I can create a character with a specific background that makes sense, consistent with the world, without worrying that I'm misrepresenting them. No otter-people are going to write to tell me that Kory is too much of a stereotype. I have had religious people tell me that the portrayal of a religious family is accurate, and some others tell me that it is off base, but that's the aspect of family I chose to explore. I didn't want Kory's race to be a factor.
In writing about romance and sexuality, it's the characters, the people inside, that I love to explore, and I want my readers to be caught up in that, not hung up on whether a white kid from the suburbs could fall in love with a second-generation African immigrant from the inner city. If I had a strong sense of racial or cultural heritage myself, it might be different, but the stories I want to tell are about being gay, about discovering the connection to someone you love, and about how the world views and accepts your relationship, no matter what it might be.
I do recognize that sometimes it has the opposite effect, that people get hung up on the fact that Kory is an otter-boy and how does that work and why can't he just be human since he pretty much acts human anyway, and does he like to break clams on his chest and so on. That's okay: you can't write a story for everyone. But I think the whole point of these characters is to get past the elements that aren't relevant to the story, and I'd say that if you're hung up on "how do fox-people work," just pop in Disney's "Robin Hood" and give it a quick watch, and see if that helps. It's one of those things you just have to accept, in the way that you accept vampires when you read "Twilight."
Ultimately, the reason I write with these characters is that I love the concept. Animals fascinate me because of their differences; I love imagining how their world might appear, and showing it off to other people. The differences, I think, should make us think about the things we take for granted and enhance the things we share in common. The point of these stories, the point of all stories, is to share experiences. It's to celebrate the ways in which we are the same, to allow us to sympathize and understand. In a fantasy world, the fantasy trappings are there for enjoyment, but the real story is always about the characters, whether black or white, straight or gay, male or female, human or otter.
My reviews of Kyell Gold's books:
Waterways: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/264083.html
Volle: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/418864.html
Pendant of Fortune: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/432216.html
Out of Position: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/503147.html
