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A gryfon’s journey to his home and into prophecy…

A Shard of Sun

Kickstarter ending 12/16/14

It’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to cover a really solid book. Thinking about it, I’m not sure I have yet, so this is a welcome project.

A Shard of Sun, now on Kickstarter, latest novel by Jess Owen (also on DeviantArt as ElementalJess,) is a story of Shard, a young gryphon—ah, gryfon—who, exiled from his home, finds strange allies (and strange enemies) in the far-away homeland of his tribe. It’s in part a coming-of-age story, the bildungsroman—oh my dog, the spellchecker corrected my spelling on that word—of a feathered hunter and just possibly a future king. It’s the unfolding of a prophecy, and a war between cultures. Cover art is by the talented dragonist Nambroth, though Jess herself is pretty good with a stylus.

Now, this is the third book in a series, so it’s worth taking a moment to look at the story so far. Here there be minor spoilers, but these are mostly back-of-the-book type blurbs from Amazon, so they aren’t the most spoilery of spoilers, and forgive me for being reductionist–if you’re interested, I’m linking the illustrations to the Amazon book pages, so you can blurb to your heart’s content there.  Anyway skip ahead a bit if you wish…

Book 1: Preview Chapter available!

Song of the Summer King is a coming-of-age novel, first in the “Summer King Chronicles.” Shard the Gryfon is old enough to participate in the hunting and fighting of the older…pride? Flock? Someone throw me a collective plural, please. He befriends a she-wolf,  a race usually hostile to the gryfons. Threatened by the younger male’s growing strength, the red king of the gryfons declares war on Shard’s allies. As lines are drawn, Shard must choose—fight beside his king, or against his own kind?

The general tone of the reviews of this book are positive–it’s an immersive world, a great romp from the hunter’s perspective. One reviewer said that the experience reminded her of Avatar, the sort of rich world you can get lost in. I leave that as an exercise to the reader, sufficed to say world-building is a strong point in this series. Amazingly, Song of the Summer King walked away from Amazon without any reviews under three stars, after over 100 reviews–I didn’t know that was even possible!

Book 2:

Skyfire, the second book, begins with Shard as a gryfon in exile, tryingto make sense of his past, of a packflocktribe lead by an unjust king. He learns of the legend of the Summer King, who is destined to bring peace and balance—

Okay, editorial insertion here, I’ve read my Golden Bough, I know a bit about the pagan tradition of the Summer King—what I know about the Summer King is it’s a great gig, but you do not want to be him in the winter. I’m curious to see how that plays out, and the ultimate cost of Shard’s quest for peace and balance.

Anyway, his quest takes him across the sea to the gryfon’s homeland, and to two generations of unresolved family hostility. Which takes us to Book the third.

Book 3:

A Shard of Sun picks up with Shard as the proud caretaker of a young dragon, putting him in a conflict between his own potential destiny in the quest for the mantle of the Summer King. He begins a journey to return the dragon to its family, a journey that wins him only the mistrust of the dragons. Meanwhile, in Shard’s homeland, his wingbrother looks to find Shard and reconcile some old differences, and the Red King is hunted by the warrior, Caj…Basically, just never leave home, it only leads to grief. Word to the wise.

Book 4: To be announced, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be about gryfons.

There’s a lot that’s remarkable about this series, really, zarking amazing. Bearing in mind that Song of the Summer King was a first novel, the comments on Amazon for book 1 and 2 have been quite positive, no reviews under three stars. I’m stunned, I didn’t believe that was possible in this cynical world. The first two books in the series were both successfully crowdfunded, and with almost a month left on the clock it looks like A Shard of Sun will be three for three–three projects launched, three successes. Again, remarkable.

I almost feel tacky for criticizing a successful Kickstarter dynasty, but what the heck, it’s what I’m paid for (I’m not paid for it, I just get itchy if I’m too positive.) The business plan is very concise and well-stated, the rewards are exactly what I would hope for–an ebook or the ebook three-book collection at a shopping cart price, the standard hardbound price level, and some nice swag at even the low levels–an attractive gryfon pin, and adorable plush which, sadly, seems to have been one of the first things to go (it’s still available, but at a price point that’s really for the die-hard fans now–unfortunate, but that’s rather the nature of these one-of-a-kind items.)

The stretch goals are pretty logical, too–mostly focusing on audio book adaptations, a very reasonable thing to aim for, particularly if her project’s response grows to the same degree that book 2 did, compared to book 1. The higher stretch goals don’t actually meaningfully add to book 3, they reach back into the series to add voice to books 1 and 2. Good idea, one of the dangers of the cult of the stretch goal is increasing the cost of your primary product.

But I must raise a small voice of protest, and this is just me, really. Backstory, I have kickstarter diabetes. The doctor first brought it to my attention when tests showed that I was pre-kickstarter-diabetic after I reviewed the kid’s programming primer, Foxy For(). It got MUCH worse when I covered the peffacrumlush and zataculous world of–hang on, I need to take my shot–Matlock the Hare. The writing style on this kickstarter story is chirpy and friendly and conversational and almost sent me for my insulin, but…not quite. Jess’s style isn’t exactly business school, but it’s to the point and expressive, and fits the “young adult/fun-loving adult” tone of the campaign. Still, I’d worry that the chatty tone of the Kickstarter might be reflected in the book itself–I’ve read the demo chapter, so it’s not really a big concern, and clearly the campaign is on a positive upward trend! But if I’m a fan of high fantasy, the chirpy tone of the kickstarter might strike a weird note for me on a cold read.

Not, like I said, a huge criticism, mostly a stylistic opinion from a grumpy old dog. It’s a little late to get in on the ground floor of Shard and his world, but check the kickstarter for Shard of the Sun and catch a wing to where his journey next goes!

The illustrations used in this post are intended to promote the creators’ work. Please do not reuse.

Im a female kitten looking to make friends with other female furries! kik me - SexxxyKitteh

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I'm still a new fur, so all of this FA drama has got me spinning around in circles like I'm chasing my tail. I just started watching some friends I've made here on the steam group and some artists on FA, and everyone is acting like this is the end of the world. I'm scared as to what I should think, and what I should do, especially now that "starrykitty" has stepped down. Any unbiased advice?

Edit: I was also relying on the CTfurs FA page to find meetups for December, my first ever, and I'm not sure if that page will be updated depending on the outcome of all if this...

Edit 2: Once again, the furry fandom comes through with a whole lot of support. I still feel kind of embarrassed posting this but, thank you everyone!

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if so, my psn is grimmsoad, we should play together~

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*EDIT : Change of Staff: StarryKitten has stepped down from the staff and left the development team. His access been removed from our systems. *

Now Dragoneer still needs to talk about how this could have happened, a database backup still exists so it's uncertain what Zido could even have still.

EDIT 2 Good thing I still had it up! Got some screengrabs http://i.imgur.com/rhvQ4OI.png (Overview) http://i.imgur.com/WVD4myy.png (Proof of the DB Backup) http://i.imgur.com/S3ZoVn0.png (Post regarding the non operational Jake server)

Hello again everyone, before I start I want to apologize for making a second thread regarding the current FA drama situation, the original thread had gotten very large with comments and I want the second post to start fresh.

Moving along, I am here again to share more information regarding Zidonuke and Furaffinity. If you're unsure what all is going on I insist you read my first thread here. http://www.reddit.com/r/furry/comments/2mmfq6/to_anyone_that_uses_furaffinity_this_is_important/

After that post was first made and started to spread around, there were a good number of reactions by the community stating they will be leaving FA, or posts discussing alternate places / emails in which you could contact that particular artist. However there has yet to be an official statement from Dragoneer.

The following are a few conversations that had taken place.

http://i.imgur.com/4yMdNka.png https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/status/534731322145931265

http://i.imgur.com/4KdOkrc.png https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/status/534831681778507776

Dragoneer basically claims that things are okay and that we can trust Zido, while also saying he can't trust anyone.

http://i.imgur.com/VICkkTq.png https://twitter.com/Rowedahelicon/status/535199847897640961

This tweet refers to this comment left on the journal by Zidonuke himself.

http://i.imgur.com/So0MTTk.png http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6265766#cid:43155642

What we're left so far is a case of he said she said, but one thing is for certain and that is that one person is lying. If Neer is telling the truth, then Zido is lying about having had admin before which is putting his "transparency" at risk. If Zido is telling the truth and Neer is lying, then it adds more to Dragoneer not knowing how to handle the community.

We already know that Zido has access to the FA database as he has already produced a backup according to https://trello.com/c/Kv8lwHfy/2-need-to-partition-messagecenter-notifications-to-enable-faster-operations-on-the-table-our-query-structure-for-these-tables-supp

StarryKitten

Whole database backup completed, going to prepare a single table backup the day of the maintenance. Set for Friday Morning at 2 AM, 11/21

Nov 16 at 11:42 pm

http://i.imgur.com/WVD4myy.png (Proof of the DB Backup)

== Along with the above, there is still the case of the comments that had gone missing attached to a Trello notice that had been deleted after the comments were returned. The reason I continue to bring this up is while every other completed task stays in their completed tab, card #72 regarding the comments was deleted, removing it from record entirely.

All this is leading up to so far is more questions that have yet to be answered. Why did the comments on the fender journals vanish after people started to learn Starry was Zido? Why did they come back with no explanation as to why they were ever hidden other than a deleted "performance issues comment". Why did he watch everyone that questioned his intentions that night? Why is this person even in charge? And if Dragoneer really believes he is okay for the job, why hasn't he publicly acknowledged it aside from random twitter arguments yet?

The fact that nothing has been officially said to the community so far is very worrying, and anything Neer has said so far has been confusing / contradictory. The fact the comments were hidden and the message about the database backup is proof that Zido already has access to the database and the trouble with the hidden comments show he's able to make hastily made decisions and so far hasn't gotten in trouble for it.

Another thing that needs to be acknowledged is the matter of Jake the server. The server that was paid for with donations during the 2013 Donation drive (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4389184)

"but we'll keep you update to date on their progress and keep things completely transparent."

Hey it's that word again! But what happened to this server paid for with money that the community so thoughtfully donated?

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5058966/ Well according to this, it was used temporarily as a server in order to keep the primary database up. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6265766#cid:43149631 But here, Starry mentions that "Jake has been sitting idle for almost a year, and it was constantly talked about internally." http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6265766#cid:43149631

So what exactly happened to it? How did it go from their primary DB server to suddenly a to do list item?

https://trello.com/c/a9KTMfJd/38-enable-master-slave-replication-from-finn-jake

That's it for now, I will have more for you all soon should anything new pop up. I also want to thank Scilince for helping me gather additional information about the situation.

As I mentioned in the previous journal, I am not trying to force anyone away from Furaffinity but the fact that this is being ignored by higher ups is doing a good enough job of that anyway.

Again, if you don't know what all these is relevant to, please read the other thread here : http://www.reddit.com/r/furry/comments/2mmfq6/to_anyone_that_uses_furaffinity_this_is_important/

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Here is a link to download Morenatsu

http://www.mediafire.com/download/lmgmjgk7t5d4s78/Morenatsu.rar

Here is a link to download HIMITSURI NO LAGOON

Make sure to have your region set to Japan before Launching the game.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/3v3fe44cygz43k8/HIMITSURI+NO+LAGOON.rar

I only recommend downloading the game this way if you're tight on money if not you can purchase here.

http://www.dlsite.com/ecchi-eng/work/=/product_id/RE133654

If you're trying to purchase from the site with Paypal you have to go over to the G rated page, then hover over points and click on add points. here is a link to the G rated site.

http://www.dlsite.com/eng/

If you're having trouble with Morenatsu there are other ways of installing the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkOB8t7RvDg&src_vid=3-Irq2fn1uE&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_468924 or http://s15.zetaboards.com/MTL_Project/topic/7293568/1/

If you're itching for updates for the games here are the Blogs

http://morenatsu.seesaa.net/article/215731892.html

http://kemono.cc/hidamaru/

Also you can thank the translators for giving us the opportunity to enjoy such things.

Translators for Morenatsu Rou and is w

Translator for HIMITSURI NO LAGOON

and is w

I'm not sure where to contact them directly, but they do seem to linger here.

http://s15.zetaboards.com/MTL_Project/index/

I hope this is helpful in someway.

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Building Character (Scrap: 28)
When faced with an extreme dare, Daniel must decide on what is most important to him: his reputation, or his foot? THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING!!! FACEBOOK: http://www. From: The Raccoon's Den Views: 958 15 ratings Time: 01:21 More in Entertainment

Hi,

I don't know if this post belongs to here, but I started to write a few fiction stories I'd like to organize in a fiction blog. It's based in a world most of common fantastic beings do exist, though living in the shadows. There are werewolves, vampires, some other were-beings, angels/demons (which I call "alters", collectively) and etc.

So the protagonist is a guy, nephilim (child of an alter with a human) and an incubus (some sort of a sexual demon). My main idea is describe his life in this secret world, some scenes of fight, conspiracies, etc. - what most people do expect from a werewolf/vampire story - but also his "sexual endeavours"... exploring his sexuality with all different beings with a little bit of details.

So, I'm trying to find any other texts with this kind of goal, I'm only aware of comics. Also, tips are more than welcome. So, what do you guys think?

PS.: I'll write this in Portuguese since my English isn't good enough for the job. If are there any Portuguese speakers, tell me =D

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Wow! I didn’t know Mickey could speak monkey!

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BARROW COUNTY, Ga. — Students will notice more security at Winder Barrow High School Wednesday after threats of a school shooting and complaints about a group of teens acting like wolves. “We’ve spoken to that group, the parents of that group. We have information relative to the rumors out there and there is no validity […]