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Point of View: tri County Diversity & Clockwork Alchemy

Clockwork Alchemy

Mark and I (and M.D. Neu and B.J. and Aaron Sikes) will all be at Clockwork Alchemy in Redwood Shores (just south of San Francisco) from October 24th-26th, and I’ll be running the “bookstore” there, in addition to being on three panels. More about the con: Our theme for 2025 takes advantage of the upcoming Halloween season. Gaslight Fantasy is Steampunk’s more magically-inclined cousin. It’s a subgenre of Historical Fantasy with a setting that is clearly recognizable as the real-world 19th or very early 20th century. It may be a full-on Alternate History where magic exists openly and has affected … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Jaques Smit

Jaques Smit

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Jaques Smit was born in Rundu Namibia, grew up in South Africa, lived in Asia and Europe working as a game developer before settling with his family in Wellington, New Zealand. While working as a production manager for PikPok, he became a master transformational coach and now supports leaders in creating effective teams. Jaques writes fantasy laced with Positive Psychology, aspiring to create compelling stories that touches the reader. And where better … Read more

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New Release: Husky and Heartfelt – Jole Cannon

Husky and Heartfelt - Jole Cannon

My friend Jole Cannon has a new MM bear romance book out: Husky and Heartfelt. Loneliness has taken its toll on Sean’s life. He once loved Hugo but let him go after college. After twelve years, he misses what they had, but dating a man could end his career as a high school gym teacher and varsity football coach. Staying in the closet has become a shield for him, one that is cracking. Openly gay music teacher, Hugo, puts on a happy persona to his students and colleagues. He’s tried dating, but they always want what he isn’t: a masculine, … Read more

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Point of View: The Power of the Pen

rainbow pen - deposit photos

Kim Fielding and I are hard at work on the sequel to Office of the Lost, and as yet to be named second romp through the Connected Worlds with our heroes Crispin and Leopold. In the scene I just completed, they find themselves on a world named Hades, where the very fabric of the place is made up of a substance that is contradictory in nature. They nickname this weird stuff Schrödinger’s cat because it seems to exist in two states at the same time. Sometimes it’s hot/cold, sometimes it’s black/white, sometimes it smells like cinnamon/garbage. It’s organized, intentional chaos. … Read more

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Point of View: Something’s Missing

missing puzzle piece

I recently finished writing the second book in the River City Chronicles series, Down the River. Overall, I’m really happy with it – the storylines all wrapped up well, and the ending seemed perfect. Almost. Oh how I hate that word. Writing a novel is like putting together a 10,000 piece puzzle, blindfolded. Or maybe it’s like running in the dark, hoping not to hit anything, and trying your damndest to reach the finish line in perfect form by the deadline. I’d been careful to wrap up each of the major character’s storylines, and to spill all the secrets by … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Daniel Lawrence Abrams

Daniel Lawrence Abrams

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Daniel Lawrence Abrams grew up in NYC, attended Trinity School, and then graduated from Stuyvesant High School. He got his BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan. The 3-D input device he invented earned US Patent # 5,652,603. Abrams trained in comedy writing at The Second City and The Groundlings. He used to perform stand-up at The Improv in LA and The Comedy Cellar in NYC. As a playwright, Abrams’s stage … Read more

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Point of View: Diving Into the Past

time travel - hands and clocks - deposit photos

You reach a certain point in your life, and the years you have behind you start to number more than the years you probably have left. This leads to introspection, and I am no exception to that rule. In recent days, I have found myself reflecting on my past a lot. No particular timeframe, just little memories that keep coming up in my mind. It may be because Mark and I have just started reading a new book in Italian by a fairly well-known author. We’ve previously read two of his fictional works, but this one is an autobiography. We’ve … Read more

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Review: Romance in Autumn Anthology

Romance in Autumn anthology

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Magical Realism LGBTQ+ Category: Gay Reviewer: Ulysses Get It On Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords | Thalia | Vivlio | Universal Buy Link About The Book A queer Anthology that explores the romantic life and happy ever afters of gay men navigating the LGBT landscape. All stories are written by Own Voice gay authors! Includes: Releasing on September 19th, this is a follow-up to this spring’s Romance is a Drag. The Review This collection of short stories (the first of which is nearly a novella), offers a wide range of romantic settings and a diversity of characters (not all white, not all young). The autumn and Halloween … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Epilogue

Down the River Header

I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, that’s all, folks! Hope you enjoyed it. < Read Chapter 63 Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Epilogue Three months later Ben knelt next to the young oak tree where Sam had scattered Brad’s ashes just a … Read more

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Point of View – The Copyright Jungle

copyright - deposit photos

The recent Anthropic AI settlement has me thinking a lot about copyright. I’m in the US, and we can register our works with the US copyright office. It’s not hugely expensive – about $45 if you do it before publication and $65 if you do it after the fact. But US copyright law also says that if you indicate that a work is copyrighted – by including a copyright page – then you are covered by copyright protections without having to formally register. So it’s not always been necessary to do the paid registration to enjoy copyright protection in the … Read more