Hey everyone!

In (hopefully) exciting news, today I've launched my new Patreon campaign for my upcoming novel titled Stargazer!

This is a sequel to 2013's Summerhill, continuing where the first book left off, this time featuring Katherine as the protagonist as she and Summerhill continue their adventures together. You'll learn more about Katherine's bizarre past, including how she got from New Zealand to a cruise ship in the middle of nowhere, her history with the Consortium, and what the deal is with that grandfather of hers she keeps mentioning.

There's even a bonus story up there right now, featuring Tek and the planet Rydale after the events of the first book, and you can go ahead and read that right now, because...

All story and artistic content on this Patreon will be FREE. You don't need to pay to view the novel or any side-stories I post, but being a supporter will ensure that I can safely devote the time away from my normal job to put the time and effort into this new book, and possibly other future writing efforts if it works out well!

Please go ahead and check out my Patreon page for more info, and if you can contribute even a tiny bit to the campaign, every little bit helps! Thanks so much for your time and consideration and for being fans of mine all these years!

https://www.patreon.com/rikoshi

Hey folks,

So, this is a first for me, and it's admittedly a little bit of an experiment, but I've decided to open up for story commissions. Also, with the Christmas season upon us, I thought it might be a good time to give it a go, in case anyone was in a gift-giving mood or anything like that.

Since writing, unlike visual art, is harder to break up into easy categories of complexity (such as sketch, lineart, flat colors, shading, etc.), and since story complexity isn't a linear function of story length, hopefully the breakdown I've got here makes sense to folks. Of course, if you need any sort of clarification on anything to see what best fits your idea, feel free to ask!

Here's the breakdown:
$25: Vignette (basically a scene, somewhere in the ballpark of 2000 words, similar to this story here)

$75: Simple Short Story (multiple scenes, more in depth with framing, probably in the neighborhood of 5000 words, more like this story

$200: Developed Short Story (stronger arc, probably more side characters and a stronger theme throughout, in the 10,000~12,500 range or thereabouts, like my two Reylin Saticoy stories 1 2)

Please keep in mind that these categories are just guidelines; it's certainly possible that a really complicated short story still might only come out to 8000 words, in which case it might fall closer to the Developed end of the pay scale; also, depending on what sort of story you're looking for (for instance, a historical fiction piece that requires me to do a fair bit of research) that might also incur extra costs that we can negotiate on an individual basis.

Also, for the month of December, I'm also offering Guaranteed Christmas Delivery (of a sorts) for those of you who want to surprise someone with a story gift (or those of you who are just impatient). If you want in on that, it's +$25 for a Simple story and +$50 for a Developed (Vignettes are short enough that it's a non-issue). Otherwise, I'll do my best to ballpark when your story will be finished, but keep in mind that I do work full time and it may not be a lightning-fast turnaround.

No 'slots' or anything; I'm going to just take commission requests until I feel that I'm at my comfortable limit of work to take on, and if things work out well, I'll probably reopen later on!

If you're interested, shoot me a note here, or email me at kmhirosaki at the hotmail. If you're curious about what I will and won't write, well... if it's something weird (and if you're asking for something weird, you'll know), ask, and we can see what/if I can do, but obviously I reserve the right to turn down any concept that I'm not comfortable writing.

Hey folks,

So like, I'm back and stuff. I know that I hadn't posted a story in almost two years, but I'm still alive and hopefully will have more stuff coming soon. There's a new story in my gallery now, in fact.

At some point when I have the time and the mental energy to explain my absence I should make another post about that. For now I'll just say that I'm glad people have been good about not nagging me about it (though I know Kyell also was good about telling people not to).

Feels good to be back.

Hey everyone!

I present to you the last in the series of six Star Wars film commentary tracks. It was quite the journey, and we end the series on a film that I remember seeing down in Universal City with one of my oldest friends, and that I remember as being markedly better than it seems to be now.

This is a sort of "fan commentary" track, with different guests and people stopping by to contribute to the discussion (in this case, a highly alcohol-fueled discussion). In the vein of Rifftrax, the idea is that the audio file is synched up with a copy of the movie, so that you're hearing us talking at the right points in the movie. Massive thanks go to  buckhopper for his studio time, editing time, all-around awesomeness, and RoPo sensibilities in this, our final recording in his old studio. Sic transit gloria bunny, as it were.

While not as much of a drunken farce as the last film, the wretched filmmaking and poor production of the prequels still rear their ugly heads for a raucously good-bad time as we watch Episode III - Revenge of the Sith! Hold on tight to your glass of whatever alcohol you're drinking.

Unsheathed Podcast feed: http://www.kyellgold.com/kkcast/unsheathed.rss


*We used the DVD version, but any other version of the movie (including Blu-Ray) should work fine. Since we're not riffing on the movie line-by-line, a few seconds different won't really impact what you're hearing.

First off, let me say that I'm hoping that the Episode III commentary recording is up on the Unsheathed feed soon. I'm working on getting that set up, so hopefully you'll see (hear?) that in the next not-too-long.

Also, today the lot of us ('us' being me, Kohai, Jericho, and B-Hop) actually recorded another commentary track for a movie to follow the six Star Wars films. I'm deliberately being coy, but I'll say this much:

- There is some type of Star Wars connection
- It is a film that most of my listeners likely have not seen
- It was released in the 20th Century
- It is not the Star Wars Holiday Special
- It is NOT the Star Wars Holiday Special

I'm curious if anyone will be able to guess before it's announced. But don't, like, break your brains trying to guess.

Greetings, everyone!

I know the wait for this one has been a long one, but it's finally available for your viewing pleasure: the penultimate episode in the six-episode Star Wars commentary saga. You get to listen to me, your favorite podcasting otter, and a bunch of other people, as we provide some rather, uh, unique drunken conversation to accompany your movie-watching.

This is a sort of "fan commentary" track, with different guests and people stopping by to contribute to the discussion (in this case, a highly alcohol-fueled discussion). In the vein of Rifftrax, the idea is that the audio file is synched up with a copy of the movie, so that you're hearing us talking at the right points in the movie. Massive thanks go to  buckhopper for his studio time, editing time, all-around awesomeness, and RoPo sensibilities. Oh, and for cleaning up the vomit.

No, that last part is not a joke.

So yes, join the biggest Unsheathed Star Wars commentary yet, featuring Dakota, Farallon, B-Hop, Kohai, Jericho, Jaded Fox, and yours truly as we start out super-drunk and only get drunker as we delve right into the boring, incoherent mess that is Episode II - Attack of the Clones!

Unsheathed Podcast feed: http://www.kyellgold.com/kkcast/unsheathed.rss


*We used the DVD version, but any other version of the movie (including Blu-Ray) should work fine. Since we're not riffing on the movie line-by-line, a few seconds different won't really impact what you're hearing.

Hey everyone!

May 4th is Star Wars Day! Celebrate this geekiest of holidays(?) by listenening to an otter podcast host and some of his friends sit down on mic and talk Star Wars while watching it--while you all at home get to watch along!

This is a sort of "fan commentary" track, with different guests and people stopping by to contribute to the discussion. In the vein of Rifftrax, the idea is that the audio file is synched up with a copy of the movie, so that you're hearing us talking at the right points in the movie. Massive thanks go to  buckhopper for his studio time, editing time, all-around awesomeness, and RoPo sensibilities.

Our featured film this time around is Episode I - The Phantom Menace! Yeah, that's right, the one with Jar-Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd, and Queen Amidala's frankly baffling accent. It took a lot of alcohol for us to get through this one, and the recording shows!

Unsheathed Podcast feed: http://www.kyellgold.com/kkcast/unsheathed.rss


*We used the DVD version, but any other version of the movie (including Blu-Ray) should work fine. Since we're not riffing on the movie line-by-line, a few seconds different won't really impact what you're hearing.

I wrote my very first erotic furry story in October 2001. I had moved to Japan less than two weeks prior and I’d just gotten my paws on the new laptop that would serve as my only real link to the outside world for the remainder of my time living there. My cable company hadn’t turned the Internet on yet, but I wanted to play with my computer, so I decided to write a short story.

It was about a red fox meeting and subsequently getting double-teamed by a pair of huskies (again, this was 2001, back before one-third of the fandom was huskies, and before three-thirds of huskies were stereotyped as total bottoms). It wasn’t a particularly good story, and it’s since been lost to the sands of time, or at least to a dead hard drive, but I had fun writing it. I wound up reworking the fox character into the central character of an online story series I went on to write a few years later, which then led to my first published novel, so in a weird way, I still look back with a certain amount of fondness at that not-very-good piece of animal-people smut I wrote over twelve years ago, now.

Now it’s 2013, and both my writing and I have come a long way, both figuratively and physically. I’ve been writing, posting, and publishing stories as K.M. Hirosaki for over a decade at this point, and in that time, I’ve seen my fair share of furry writing, clean and dirty, good and bad, professional and amateur, and maybe I’ve learned a few things from all of that.

All joking aside, the phenomenal success of Fifty Shades of Grey has shown us, as a society, that erotic fiction is in demand, and that it’s taken seriously, both by publishers and by readers (and sure, maybe Fifty Shades itself isn’t your particular cup of tea, but I guarantee you that most of the people who are into it are just as confused as to why you’re into the things you read on FurAffinity or SoFurry). And sure, there’s been plenty of debate, not just now but for years and decades and centuries, about the nature of adult fiction, its place or lack thereof in the grand literary scheme of things, and what it says about people who produce it, procure it, and consume it.

I’m not trying to settle any long-standing debates here. I’m just trying chip in my own piece, as someone who’s been doing this for a long time, to hopefully add something intelligent to the discussion, and maybe give some folks some food for thought.

You have lots of labels thrown around when talking about adult writing: erotica, pornography, smut, wank material, tripe, rubbish, and sometimes ‘the hottest thing I’ve ever read OMG.’ I can’t control what language people use, nor can I decide what certain words mean to certain people, but I do still think it’s fair to say that not all adult writing is created equal, and that not all of it is the same in terms of craft, in terms of intent, or in terms of interpretation. This isn’t to say that a story about a fox randomly meeting and then getting fucked by a pair of huskies is bad while a structured, romantic novella is good—merely that they’re different, and that sometimes, acknowledging those differences can matter a lot.

Perhaps the key difference that I want to focus on, in terms of this essay, is the difference between what might derisively termed pornography, and erotica. Again, I can’t control or decide the definitions that other people want to ascribe to certain words in their own discussions, but for my purposes, as a sort of shorthand, I’ll be using ‘pornography’ to refer to works of a primarily sexual nature where the sex is the effective end-all and be-all of the work, and ‘erotica’ for works where sex is a major part of the story, but wherein the story still exists for its own sake.

Or, perhaps more bluntly, sometimes people want to read about sex for reasons other than jerking off to it.

This is a point that a lot of people seem to miss, particularly when criticizing adult writing or dismissing its merit as a form of literature. The fact of the matter is that sex is an important thing, often a very important thing, to a lot of people (dare I say most people?). It can determine how people act, what they do, what they think, the choices they make or don’t make, how society views them—and it’s silly to think or to assert that the only reason to explore those themes is to arouse a reader in some base or vulgar way. That’s not to say that I think that everyone should or needs to read erotic fiction, or that they’re a prude if they don’t—merely that’s it’s not fair to label the people who do read such fiction as degenerates looking for a way to scratch a particular itch.

Most of you reading this probably know that I co-host the Unsheathed Podcast with my fellow furry writer Kyell Gold. Through that, I’ve seen pretty directly that my fans and readers—people who are reading erotic fiction, mind—are interested in much more than just Character A and Character B boning (or sucking or scissoring or what have you). There’s a definite interest in story, and in craft, and (perhaps especially) characterization. They’re asking questions about stories that may or may not involve sex, but even if they do, they understand that very often, they can and do and should involve other things, too.

With some of my fellow writers, I’ve jokingly commented that my stories about the character Reylin Saticoy are ones where I’ve ‘tricked’ my readers into reading adult fiction where no sex actually happens. Now, I know that, in reality, most of my readers don’t need to be tricked into anything, and that they’re not reading what I write just because they want to read about fucking (see above), but the fact is that the two main stories about Reylin to date (not including my 2012 summer short) don’t actually involve him having sex with anyone on the actual page.

Now, he’s a highly sexualized character in sexualized situations. There’s frank discussion of sex and sexuality throughout those stories, and I certainly wouldn’t want my seven-year-old kid (who doesn’t actually exist) to read them, but you’d be hard-pressed, I think, to call those stories pornography. They’re stories about a character whose sexuality is such a defining part of who he is, to what you could reasonably argue is a detrimental extent, in fact, and while he’s meant to be an attractive character getting into potentially arousing situations, I can say as the writer that my intent isn’t for people to furtively jerk off to these stories, and I’m guessing most readers who have read those stories could see that (though it might be interesting to see how many of those readers noticed that no actual sex happened while reading them).

This isn’t to say that all of my adult fiction is meant to be detailed character studies or anything grand and noble. The story of mine with the most hits online is about a pizza delivery fox getting fucked against a wall by a frustrated coyote, and sure, there’s a bit of a twist in there that makes it an actual story beyond just “here’s a scene with a fox getting pounded like a slut,” but I’m comfortable acknowledging that the story is more pornography than erotica, and that this one was written with a deliberate intent to arouse more than anything else. I have plenty of other stories like it, along with other stories more like my pieces about Reylin, and plenty of things in between. Different stories are meant for and do different things, and lumping them all together because “they’re all about people having sex” is unfair and possibly even disingenuous.

Within the furry fandom, there’s also a fairly prevalent belief, both amongst supporters and detractors of erotic fiction, that writing adult material is an automatic fast-track to fame, success, adoration, and all the tea in China or something similar. Yes, there’s the time-honored saying “sex sells,” and that’s as true for churchgoing housewives as it is for CEOs as it is for the guy in the otter fursuit at Anthrocon. We are not unique in this regard (and trying to claim that we are is another annoyance of mine, but that’s another essay entirely), but as true as “sex sells” is, you’ll notice it’s not “sex is the only thing that sells, ever.” Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to buy cereal or whatever recent remake of the board game Monopoly has just been released.

As I mentioned earlier in this essay, I’ve been “K.M. Hirosaki” for over a decade, at this point. Beyond that just being a mind-blowing and somewhat sobering thought, during that time, I’ve also been, well, myself, someone who isn’t K.M. Hirosaki, someone who also writes furry fiction and doesn’t necessarily write about things that have sex in them. And in that more-than-a-decade, I’ve been much more well-known and successful as “myself” than I have been as K.M. Hirosaki, regardless of the lack of foxes getting double-teamed by huskies. Writing about sex isn’t a magical cheat code.

The seemingly perpetually fiasco-ridden Ursa Major Awards have had this sort of talk happen a lot in recent years. There have been some, shall we say, vocal discussions about Kyell Gold having dominated the Novel and Short Story categories for many years, and what could/should/must be done to fix that. Now, leaving aside that it’s perhaps a silly notion to try to “fix” a popularity-based award because it was consistently being won by someone whose work was popular, there have been a number of very outspoken, very angry people who had and have been casting aspersions that said popularity stemmed solely from the fact that Kyell Gold writes erotic fiction and that that’s why he was constantly popping up on the list of nominees and winners.

But when it comes down to it, there’s not exactly a shortage of furry writers who focus on adult fiction. There isn’t even a shortage of prominent ones. If all it took to get recognition for work in this fandom of ours was “write stories about animal-people having sex,” we’d have a hundred Kyell Golds, but (at least as of the last time I checked) we’ve only got the one. To imply—or, worse yet, to accuse that level of success as being based on just writing about sex like it’s some kind of cheat to instant fame is hugely disrespectful, not only to Kyell Gold, but to anyone else who’s ever worked hard on writing, furry or not, adult or clean.

Of course, as many of you readers also know, Gold willingly withdrew himself from consideration for the Ursa Major Awards this year. And, lo and behold, without him on the playing field, the Short Story category now has Mary Lowd as the author of five of the six nominated stories, none of which are sexual. To my knowledge, Lowd doesn’t even write anything erotic, and yet now she’s the category frontrunner that people are talking (many of them complaining) about. And while it may be unprecedented and not ideal for five-sixths of an award category to be taken up by just one individual, credit has to go to Mary Lowd for doing (at least) one thing right: writing well enough to build up a devoted fan base who’s passionate about voting for her. The only real thing difference there, between her and Kyell Gold, is subject matter. You can’t look at that situation and logically say that it’s writing about sex or not that’s what makes or breaks them. Moreover, to sneer at either of them for success that they earned through their work is unwarranted and petty.

As we progress into the 21st Century, our society is (perhaps slowly, in some areas) becoming more sex-positive. Hell, one simply need glance at prime-time TV and compare it to what it was like in the 70s or 80s to see the changes in what’s considered the accepted norm for “not too sexualized to raise eyebrows,” as it were. Yes, some people take that as a sign that the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket, but I like to think that the prevailing consensus is that sex is an okay and natural thing, that people have and enjoy and talk about and think about and, yes, even read about. And write about.

Trying to cast erotic fiction as a “lesser” form of writing isn’t fair to the people who enjoy reading it or the people who try hard to write it well. Someone can write a sex story to be pornographically arousing or to be romantic and thought-provoking, just like how someone else can write a war memoir to be poignant or to arouse hostile feelings of militant jingoism. And hey, it’s not necessarily bad write or read something that’s meant for sexual gratification.

When it comes to “good” and “bad” in writing, leave those labels for the quality of the writing itself, not for the content. You’re allowed to think that Fifty Shades of Grey is poorly written while still enjoying it for what it is. You can accept that Ernest Hemingway was an extremely talented writer whose works simply aren’t to your tastes. You can be an intelligent, educated, cultured individual and still forgo reading Ulysses in favor of a story about a fox getting spit-roasted by a pair of huskies, whether you’re planning on jerking off to it or not.

Hey everyone!

Listen to your intrepid otter podcast host and some of his friends (mainly, a room full of otters) sit down on mic and talk Star Wars while watching it--and you all at home get to watch along!

This is a sort of "fan commentary" track, with different guests and people stopping by to contribute to the discussion. In the vein of Rifftrax, the idea is that the audio file is synched up with a copy of the movie, so that you're hearing us talking at the right points in the movie. Massive thanks go to  buckhopper for his studio time, editing time, all-around awesomeness, and Chinese restaurant recommendations.

Our featured film this time around is Episode VI - Return of the Jedi! And you get to hear us go into it while still kinda drunk from our time sitting through Episode I (which will be posted soon, in all its alcohol-fueled glory). Good times all around!

Unsheathed Podcast feed: http://www.kyellgold.com/kkcast/unsheathed.rss


*We used the 2004 DVD version, but any other version of the movie (including Blu-Ray) should work fine. Since we're not riffing on the movie line-by-line, a few seconds different won't really impact what you're hearing.

So a few weeks ago, I recorded the "Star Wars: Episode II" commentary track with some friends. And because it's a, shall we say, not-good movie, most of us got very, very, very (very) drunk.

So drunk, in fact, that I don't really remember most of the recording itself. Except for the very beginning and end of the movie, I don't remember having watched the movie, and--more importantly--don't remember what we said during it.

Because of this, I'm currently listening to the recording just to make sure that it's not too embarrassing to release, when the time comes. Thankfully, so far, it's not too bad (the recording, that is; the movie is still terrible), but it is very surreal hearing myself have entire conversation that I honestly, truly don't remember.

Also, it's an experience to laugh at jokes you made like they're jokes someone else made.

(To let people know: commentaries for Episodes VI, I and II are in the can, and will be coming out on, uh, some sort of schedule. Episode VI will probably be pretty soon, actually!)

Hey everyone!

So, I'm a little late to the party, but we're at the time of year again when it's time for the fandom to nominate furry works for the Ursa Major Awards!

Thanks to my summer writing project, I've actually got over a dozen short stories that are eligible this year. I have a few personal picks that I want to recommend, ones that I think stand out above the rest, but obviously, feel free to pick the ones you think are most deserving.

So here's a list of all the stories I wrote and published online in 2012, in chronological order. As an added bonus, now you can check to see if you've missed anything that I wrote that might strike your fancy!

Plastic Stars in Our Private Galaxy
Reylin tests the boundaries of his not-relationship with his not-boyfriend, Gareth the also-slutty coyote.

Within the Lines
A fox and a dingo try to figure out how to get their rocks off without one of them cheating on his boyfriend.

Priorities
A young fox in college has a very distracting day after a very intense evening.

So Much to Offer Once You've Got the Knack
Cacomistle extraordinaire Reylin Saticoy offers a guide to having sex in public. Don't try this at home, kids. Er, or in public.

You Look Really Sad
I'm not saying that my first kiss was anything like this, but I'm not saying it wasn't like this, either.

Intention
An otter visits a skunk for dinner. Or maybe he visits him for something else.

Fuzzy Logic
A drunk husky tries to think of a way to make up for his relationship indiscrection.

Revenant
If you lost a loved one, would you get a replacement if you could?

A More Innocent Time
A tiger on the prowl for a quickie thinks back to his younger days.

Time to Destination
A not-so-proper businessfox has a not-so-boring trip on a commuter train.

Mutual Appreciation
A pair of harem fennecs is tasked to service a special pair of guests.

Argent
A barely legal college fox goes to a house party with the foreknowledge that something strange is going to happen to him.

Backwards
A young fox takes an unwanted vacation in a foreign country, and tries to deal with a strange kangaroo who doesn't share his language or social values.



So, my personal pick for the best story I put out in 2012 is probably Plastic Stars in Our Private Galaxy. It's certainly the most complete story of the bunch, I'd say, in addition to probably being the most complex, and I really like how it came out (I nearly gave up on it a few times).

Other than that, I'm also kind of proud of You Look Really Sad. I think it was very well received, and I got a lot of really excellent comments from readers, ones that were actually quite heartwarming, so I'd be happy to see people pick that one, too.

Oh, and I guess a lot of people like Argent, too, because slutty canids and stuff.

To nominate works for the Ursa Majors, all you have to do is click here: http://www.ursamajorawards.org/nominations.htm (don't worry, I've been doing this for years and they don't spam you)

If you've already nominated, that's fine, too--you can log back in and add or change your nominations any time up until they close. So if you think I've earned your vote, I'd be happy if you went and did that!

Hey everyone!

Listen to your intrepid otter podcast host and some of his friends sit down on mic and talk Star Wars while watching it--and you all at home get to watch along!

This is a sort of "fan commentary" track, with different guests and people stopping by to contribute to the discussion. In the vein of Rifftrax, the idea is that the audio file is synched up with a copy of the movie, so that you're hearing us talking at the right points in the movie. Thank you, Engineer Extraordinaire  buckhopper for the help, the hard work, the fun, and the corkscrew.

The second of these is up now, for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back! So get yourself a copy of the movie*, queue up the file, and watch and listen away, and hopefully be entertained.

Unsheathed Podcast feed: http://www.kyellgold.com/kkcast/unsheathed.rss


*We used the 2004 DVD version, but any other version of the movie (including Blu-Ray) should work fine. Since we're not riffing on the movie line-by-line, a few seconds different won't really impact what you're hearing.

Hey folks,

So that book, Summerhill, that I've been telling you about for the last few years? Which some of you may have heard of?

Well, it's coming out, finally. Next month, in fact. Not only that, but you can already preorder it in both softcover and hardcover! (Ebook forthcoming; check back for details!)

Right over here, you can check out a preview chapter, too, as well as find links to the preorder pages and to the super-awesome cover that the book has!

Cheers, all!

Hi guys!

The second installment of the Unsheathed Presents series of me and my friends watching and commenting on the Star Wars films continues with Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back!

Expect to see it go live later this week. Spend the New Year's weekend with me and my pals while watching the (mostly-)undisputed best installment of the Star Wars saga. All you need is a copy of the movie and a device that'll play sound!

Hey everyone!

So I'm very happy to announce that Summerhill is done and ready (well, almost) and that it's got a definite release date at long last!

 furplanet will be releasing the book at Further Confusion next month! They've got the details here, and I'll be sharing some more updates and info as soon as I have stuff to share.

Needless to say I'm very excited it's almost here. I know a lot of you have been waiting very patiently for it.

And since I know people will ask: yes, there will be an ebook version. I don't know exactly when, but "somewhat soon" is what I can say.

Hey everyone!

As a new special Unsheathed Presents project, we've uploaded the first of what will eventually be six tracks wherein your intrepid otter podcast host and some of his friends sit down on mic and talk Star Wars while watching it--and you all at home get to watch along!

The idea is that each movie basically will get its own sort of "fan commentary" track, with different guests and people stopping by to contribute to the discussion. In the vein of Rifftrax, the idea is that the audio file is synched up with a copy of the movie, so that you're hearing us talking at the right points in the movie.

And the first of these is already up, for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope! So get yourself a copy of the movie*, queue up the file, and watch and listen away, and hopefully be entertained.

Unsheathed Podcast feed: http://www.kyellgold.com/kkcast/unsheathed.rss


*We used the 2004 DVD version, but any other version of the movie (including Blu-Ray) should work fine. Since we're not riffing on the movie line-by-line, a few seconds different won't really impact what you're hearing.

SoFurry unveiled its new site design today, and part of it includes this 'Author Spotlight' feature.

Flatteringly enough, I'm the first person to be chosen to be showcased on it. You can go ahead and check it out over here: http://www.sofurry.com/groups/news?.....amp;newsId=206

Cheers!

I thought it would be nice/handy/convenient to have a sort of 'master list' for all of the "Shorts for Summer" I did this year, along with links and brief descriptions of what they're about. I know a lot of people missed a few in the whirlwind of updates I was doing, so here goes!

Week 1: Within the Lines
A fox and a dingo try to figure out how to get their rocks off without one of them cheating on his boyfriend.

Week 2: Priorities
A young fox in college has a very distracting day after a very intense evening.

Week 3: So Much to Offer Once You've Got the Knack
Cacomistle extraordinaire Reylin Saticoy offers a guide to having sex in public. Don't try this at home, kids. Er, or in public.

Week 4: You Look Really Sad
I'm not saying that my first kiss was anything like this, but I'm not saying it wasn't like this, either.

Week 5: Intention
An otter visits a skunk for dinner. Or maybe he visits him for something else.

Week 6: Fuzzy Logic
A drunk husky tries to think of a way to make up for his relationship indiscrection.

Week 7: Revenant
If you lost a loved one, would you get a replacement if you could?

Week 8: A More Innocent Time
A tiger on the prowl for a quickie thinks back to his younger days.

Week 9: Time to Destination
A not-so-proper businessfox has a not-so-boring trip on a commuter train.

Week 10: Mutual Appreciation
A pair of harem fennecs is tasked to service a special pair of guests.

Week 11: Argent
A barely legal college fox goes to a house party with the foreknowledge that something strange is going to happen to him.

Now that Labor Day has come and gone, I've decided to let that mark the traditional end of summer (a opposed to the autumnal equinox) insofar as my "Shorts for Summer" go.

So yeah, since mid-June, I was able to crank out 11 stories on a (mostly) weekly basis. I want to thank all of my readers, both old and new, for their support during that time, and my desire to not disappoint my reader base went a long way into spurring me on to keep writing even when I otherwise just wanted to skip out, from time to time.

I have my own thoughts on how the project went, but before I get into all of that, I'm curious to know what YOU all thought of the whole "Shorts for Summer" deal.

Do you think it was a neat idea? Do you think you guys got some worthwhile stories out of it? What stories were your favorites? Do you have any suggestions for if I ever did something like this again.

Any other thoughts or feedback you want to give are totally welcome. Fire away!

I have been extremely moved by the reception to my latest story, "You Look So Sad," over the past couple of days, both on FurAffinity and SoFurry.

The main goal of my whole "Shorts for Summer" exercise is to get me in the habit of finishing things regularly, with the secondary goal of letting myself stretch my abilities and test out and try new things. I hadn't really been expecting to turn out anything I'd be particularly proud of, and so in that regard, this story has definitely surprised me.

I've been writing stories in and for the furry fandom for over a decade now. I've put out dozens of short stories and a few novels about a whole bunch of different things. I don't have "big issue" works like  kyell's Waterways or anything, where people email me to tell me that I've changed their lives, but I occasionally get some pretty flattering responses to things, and that makes me feel good as a storyteller.

The other day, I was on a plane, and during the flight, I read something that Kyell had been working on (no, I can't say what it is). In the course of reading it, I was moved emotionally in ways that I hadn't been in years, to be honest, and it felt really good. It sparked some kind of fire inside me, and I sat there when I was done, just kind of basking in how that felt.

I had this urge to be creative, to turn this fire into something tangible. And I looked down at my laptop bag there underneath the seat in front of me, and I started to think, "Eh, but that'd be so much effort."

For those of you who've never seen me in real life, I am a very tall person, and airplane seats are not, shall we say, the most comfortable thing in the world for me. I think I've tried writing on a plane once before, and trying to use a laptop on a tray table was just so cramped that it was barely worth it (as I recall, actually, this was for my first Reylin story, but I digress). So yeah, the prospect of doing writing on the plane was not a great one.

But the urge inside me was too strong, and I decided that it was a bigger shame to let my creative energy go to waste than it would be an inconvenience to write on a tray table.

And I'm glad I did. I wrote that story in what I can best describe as a fit of creative passion. It's very short, and it's not a life-changing treatise or anything, but I was immediately happy with it, in a way that I pretty much never am when it comes to my writing (seriously, ask any of my writer friends or editors and they will back me up on how much I hate my own writing). I'll even confess to being a bit choked up at my own writing as the story was coming to a close, which is honestly a little weird for me.

After getting off the plane and getting situated at my destination, I went over the story again, polished it up and made a few changes, then posted it.

And the response has been amazing.

I'm not talking in volume (actually, for some reason, it's only getting about half the traffic most of my stuff seems to get). I mean in what people are saying about it.

At least one person called it "beautiful." I didn't know how good it would feel to have that one simple word used to describe something I wrote, but it's honestly one of the most flattering things anyone has ever said about anything I've ever written.

I write because I want to share stories with people. I don't do this to get fame or recognition or praise (certainly not money). But the thought that something I created might have brought a tiny bit of beauty into the world, even for just one person, or a handful of people, blows my mind and kind of overwhelms me.

Lots of other people have spoken to the fact that the story was very emotional to them, and I see that as very fitting, as it was the emotions brought about by my reading something that brought the story into existence in the first place.

At the end of the day, that's why I do this: because I love stories, I love how I feel when I experience a really good one, and if I can make even one person feel the way I felt when I was inspired to write this most recent one, then it's all worth it, right there.

I really just want to thank all the fans and readers who take the time to read my work. Some of you have stuck with me for the last ten years, and some of you are more recent than that, but I appreciate every single one of you, because what's a storyteller without someone to tell a story to, right?

Also (and pardon my sappiness here), I want to add a huge thank you to Kyell for seriously being the biggest inspiration in the world to me, not to mention one of the best friends I've ever had (and for being a pretty good fox, to boot).

Hey folks!

For the folks returning from AC, I hope you all had a good time. I was very sad to miss it this year, but alas, time and finances were not with me. Hopefully I'll be there next year, like I usually am.

Since I know a lot of folks were away at Anthrocon (or may have otherwise missed it with a busy weekend), I thought I'd reiterate some recent announcements, because folks might find them exciting.

First, I have not just one, but two new short stories up! They're both kind of bite-sized, but hopefully a little sexy and fun.

Also, I've got a little summer writing challenge I'm doing as well, to help stretch my writing muscles and to give my readers more stuff to enjoy! Should have my next piece out in a couple days, just to keep things spaced out.

Not sure what my next con is going to be just yet. Possibly RMFC if I can swing it, which hopefully I can. If not then, then I should probably be at Camp Feral again, and then hopefully RainFurrest and MFF to close out the year. Nothing definite yet, though.

I write way too slowly. When I sit down to work on projects, I very rarely get as much done as I'd like. Stories take me longer than they should to complete. This, in turn, is disheartening, because it makes me feel like I'm not any good at what I do (or try to do).

I also feel guilty that I don't have more to give to my readers. In some recent years, I think I've posted something like two or three short stories in a given twelve-month period. Yes, I'm also working on larger projects during all of this, but I do admittedly feel like a hack, sometimes, being on a writing podcast* and not really getting to demonstrate a lot of my writing to people who listen to me.

Also  kyell tells me I should write more sexy things.

So, in an attempt to kill three birds with one stone, I've decided to do a little something special over the next few months. Shorts for Summer!

Essentially, my goal is to write and post one short story a week, every week, from now until the end of summer ("end of summer" being probably right before Feral 2012 in this case). My two recent short stories "Priorities" and "Within the Lines" are the sort of thing I'm talking about here--quick, experimental (hopefully sexy?) pieces somewhere between 1500 and 3000 words, most likely, easy to read in one sitting, and easy to write in one sitting.

Through this, I hope to 1) get better and sitting my ass down and finishing things, 2) learn how to better make use of time set aside for writing, 3) give my readers more stuff to read, and 4) maybe stretch my limits a bit and experiment with new ideas and techinques without a huge amount of pressure.

Since they were both posted within June, and posted in separate weeks, I'm counting the two aforementioned stories as part of this little project (truthfully, I'd decided on doing it before I even wrote "Priorities," but the idea came to me before I got around to writing this post, so it's a little backwards).

So, yeah, there you have it. Stay tuned, keep your eyes peeled, and get ready for a summer of more otter-stuff. And don't worry--I will still absolutely be working on other things during this time (both as myself and as other-myself). Realistically, cranking out stories like this shouldn't take more than two or three hours at a go, which isn't even as long as most TS sessions I have, so I will definitely have time to work on other things. Hell, half of the point of all this is to get better at using blocks of writing time in general.

I'm looking forward to seeing what I put out! And seeing how people like it!

---

* Yes, the podcast is stll alive, I promise. Details to come. Soon-ish.

The backpack recovered at the scene included the following contents:

- 7" promo single of "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" by Split Enz
- One paperback copy of The Otters of Rydale by Edmund K. Tinsley (1961 printing)
- Cheque book in the name of [REDACTED]
- Two Bic Cristal ballpoint pens, caps heavily chewed
- One pack of Winfield Blue cigarettes, containing 12 cigarettes and piece of chewing gum wadded up in foil

So since I know I don't exactly post with amazing frequency, I thought I'd post a quick sample from an upcoming story that I've been working on, starring good ol' Reylin.

It's kind of not exactly G-rated, which means I don't think I'm allowed to post it as an FA journal, but you can read it here over in my LJ, which is not locked! http://kmhirosaki.livejournal.com/54327.html

Usual caveats, here, about this being a work in progress and there being no guarantees about this making it into the final story unchanged, but I'm sure the scene itself will at least make it into the story.

I've been using the name "K.M. Hirosaki" for ten years now. I'll start off by saying that it doesn't feel like it, in some senses, and that 2002 also feels like forever ago at the same time.

Now that secret (that most people didn't even know WAS a secret) about my "identity" is out of the bag, a lot of folks have asked what's going to happen with these two names that I write and post under. The short answer is that I'm not going anywhere. The longer answer involves stuff like brand identity and stuff like that.

So here's a little story about how K.M. Hirosaki got started.

My first adult furry stories have been long lost to catastrophic computer failure. The first ones that I ever posted online, however, are still out there, and I remember how I felt back then, putting works up online for others to see. I believe my thought process was something along the lines of, "Oh god, nobody can know I wrote this."

Which I guess is a natural reaction when you're young and still kind of new to the whole "life after college" thing. I picked the name "Hirosaki" in honor of one of my favorite cities in Japan, home to a beautiful castle and apparently some of the best cherry blossom viewing in the country (which, alas, I never got to do). The "K.M." was to make it sound more, I dunno, authorly I guess.

Back in 2002 and 2003 or so, when the site then known as Yiffstar was still very small, I had the good fortune of building up a fanbase pretty quickly. Granted, more stories get uploaded to SoFurry in a DAY nowadays than I think would get uploaded to old-school Yiffstar in a whole week back then, so it was easier to stand out. Still, the result was that I developed a nice rapport with my fans, and I soon came to the conclusion that writing stories about animal-people for grown-ups wasn't anything to be embarrassed about.

Then, of course, I got hired by a company that produces a very well-known anthropomorphic-related franchise, and I thought to myself, "You know, I don't think my bosses would appreciate the connection very much if they happened to Google me and find me writing furry porn*."

So, the years went by, and I kept my adult writing under this name, and my not-as-adult writing under my people-name, which was openly tied to my "main" fursona. When it came time to release my first novel, I remember people asking me, "Why don't you just release it under K.M. Hirosaki? Sure, it's not adult, but you could ride the popularity boost."

But the fact of the matter is that I had more popularity as a non-adult writer than I ever did as "K.M. Hirosaki," not counting those early years. That, and I was too proud of what I'd written to NOT put my real name on the cover. This is also kind of why I'm annoyed whenever I hear people claim that writing adult content is like "cheating" or some kind of "quick fix" to ensure popularity. Because it's not, and having been two writers at the same time, I can say that. :)

Anyway, as the years went on at my old job, after having been there for six years, I finally realized that the company didn't give a shit about what I did with my personal life. Hell, I was the "office furry" anyway, and the company was full of nerds, and nobody ever gave me shit about it (if anything, they were a bit reserved about the fact that they were curious and wanted to ask me questions). And I was starting to think, "You know, having two writing names is kind of annoying and doesn't really gain me anything except for separating my fanbases when they don't need to be." (At this point in my career, I should point out that I was regularly TSing while AT work, so I didn't much fear furry-related repercusions, really.)

Then, of course, Kyell and I started up Unsheathed.

Now, I'd only been considering de-pseudonyming myself up to this point, and hadn't actually done so (clearly), and so as the podcast happened I sort of reestablished myself as "K.M. Hirosaki" being one of the two hosts. So at that point, it made sense to stick with it, because I didn't want to confuse anyone by suddenly changing names partway through, plus the K&K thing was kind of neat, and "fox and otter" makes for better demographic breakup than "fox and fox."

And so that was that. But years of being on a podcast, taking questions about novel writing and not being able to answer questions about them in more tangible detail made me feel hamstrung. Also, it was honestly getting a little silly, especially since I'd begun appearing in public at that point and, as anyone who's met me in person can attest, I kind of stand out (that being said, it IS hilarious that a fake pair of glasses had managed to fool people when that wasn't even my intention).

So yeah, after all was said and done, I figured, why not just come out and put an end to the secret that almost nobody was wondering about. I'd dithered with seriously considering doing so for like three years, and in the end, I have nothing to be ashamed of, and I'm happy that two separate reader bases can now look at my stuff and go, "Oh, this author I like wrote all this other stuff, too!" and at the end of the day, everyone wins with that.



*Honestly, I don't think my stories are popular because they're particularly good at the whole orgasm-inducing thing, but the "erotica vs pornography" discussion is a whole other post, really.