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Point of View: Writing (Really) Short

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Haiku - Deposit Photos

Over the last eight years, we’ve constantly been searching to cope with a world turned upside down. Mark and I have tried a variety of self-care methods – long showers, walks through the neighborhood, spending time in a coffee shop. But last year we discovered a new method. The daily haiku. The New York Times had an article about expressing yourself this way, and we thought “what the heck?” So we started sending each other a short poem each morning, encapsulating our hopes, fears, dreams and delights in seventeen syllables a day. We’ve since shared the practice with a few … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Naomi Rivers

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Naomi Rivers

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: Naomi Rivers writes lesbian romance and women’s fiction.   Naomi Rivers is a wife writing team who believes in romance, fairy tales, and happily ever after. Their first novel, THIS: A Simple, Complex Love Story, was written over twenty years to maintain their connection during multiple deployments. They are both retired U.S. military veterans and reside with their two rescue dogs on the east coast. Naomi’s work has appeared in I Heart SapphFic’s anthology Favorite … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Fifteen

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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, Marissa reaches out to Ainsley, who finds herself tongue tied on text… < Read Chapter 14 | Read Chapter 16 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter FifteenBzz bzz Bzz bzz. Ainsley cracked open one eye, … Read more

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Review: How Six Saved the Frogs – Blaine D. Arden

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How Six Saved the Frogs - Blaine D. Arden

Genre: Science Fiction, Romance LGBTQ+ Category: Ace, Gay, Pan, Trans Get It On Amazon About The Book Can you leave your heart on the other side of the galaxy?When Wouter, a down-to-earth dyslexic caretaker, accidentally activates a travel disc sent by his late brother, he finds himself whisked away to a distant planet. Desperate to go home and reassure his grieving mother he’s alive, he’s instead stuck struggling to fill his brother’s shoes to keep the amphibian bani from freezing to death. Nif, a bani healer, clings to human music as a lifeline to memories of joy and a world … Read more

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Point of View: The Unsettling Pace of Change

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Wayfarer's Chapel - Rancho Palos Verdes

We live in one of those interesting times that the old (purported) Chinese curse speaks of. Change is happening all around us, epitomized by that greatest one of all, climate change, but also evident in our technology, politics, and society. In just twenty years, the idea that a man like me could marry another man went from patently absurd to an accepted reality. In just eight years, we went from the end of the term of our first black president to this churning reality we find ourselves in now, holding our collective breath while seemingly suspended over the abyss. And … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Patricia Loofbourrow

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Patricia Loofbourrow

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: Patricia Loofbourrow is the NY Times and USA Today best selling author of the Red Dog Conspiracy steampunk noir crime fiction series. She has been a professional blogger, author, and editor since 2000 and began writing novels in 2005. Her first published novel, The Jacq of Spades, released in 2015 and has sold over 20,000 copies worldwide. A native of southern California, Patricia Loofbourrow has lived in Moore, Oklahoma since 2005. You … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Fourteen

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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, the Ragazzi Club calls an emergency meeting… < Read Chapter 13 | Read Chapter 15 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter FourteenThe Ragazzi Club Matteo’s phone buzzed. He ignored it, concentrating on the books. The … Read more

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Point of View: Hiding Easter Eggs

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golden easter egg - deposit photos

One of my favorite things about writing is the idea of the “Easter egg.” This concept started out in video games, where developers would hide a surprise in a bit of code that might trigger a secret weapon, a cache of gold coins, or some other cool thing that wasn’t an official part of the game. The term has since evolved in fiction to mean a bit of information in a story that connects one work to another, but only for readers who are familiar with both. I’ve been writing regularly again, which makes me very happy. I’m going about … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Cliff Jones Jr.

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Cliff Jones Jr.

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: Cliff is a software developer by day, but he likes to spend his evenings on long walks writing strange, often psychedelic fiction. His specialty is dreampunk, the weird hippie cousin of cyberpunk. Visit CliffJonesJr.com when you’re ready to go down that rabbit hole. Thanks so much, Cliff, for joining me! J. Scott Coatsworth: How would you describe your writing style/genre? Cliff Jones Jr.: The niche genre that I’ve settled into is dreampunk. It sounds like … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Thirteen

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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, we find out what happened to Brad… < Read Chapter 12 | Read Chapter 14 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter ThirteenMeanwhile, In Tucson… Sam sat next to the empty hospital bed, squeezing the faux-wooden … Read more