Point of View

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POINT OF VIEW: Happy Accidents & Silver Linings

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silver linings - pixabay

Last week, I reached the bottom of my Point of View barrel. I sat down to write my weekly column, and there was just nothing there. So I put the word out to my peeps on social media – what should I write about? I got a variety of responses, from the silly to the profound. Today I’ll start to respond to them. Janet Gershen-Siegel suggested this: “Silver linings. In writing, when something turns into a happy accident, if that makes any sense.” And yeah, it does. Writing, like any art, wraps up craft, hard work and serendipity. For a … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: I Got Nuthin.

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Yeah, some weeks are like that. It’s been crazy busy, and I’m six hours late with this column, and … nothing. So I thought I’d make you do the work, this week. What would you like me to talk about? Writing things? Personal things? Peps? The non-rainbow skittles? Robotech? Reply and let me know, and I’ll try to tackle it in a future column. xoxo –Scott

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POINT OF VIEW: Launching a New Thing

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Liminal Fiction

I’ve always had my head in the stars. One of my early memories is when we went to our neighbor’s back yard to watch the lunar eclipse, and to stare in awe as the moon became blood red. As a kid, I wanted to be one of two things – an astronomer or an astronaut. Those dreams lasted into my teens, until I realized a) astronomy requires a helluva lot of math, not just staring at the heavens, and b) I wasn’t nearly enough of an athlete to be an astronaut. I hade a brief rekindling of hope when I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Diving Deeper

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Diving Deeper - Deposit Photos

I’ve always said when you stop growing as a writer, your writing dies. We’re like sharks, swimming and swimming to keep that oxygen pumping through our blood. A few years ago, when I first started writing seriously and sold my first story, I was on top of the world. I felt like I had finally arrived, and knew how to do this shit. People were actually taking me seriously as a writer. That didn’t last long. I got a rejection, and another, and another. I sold a few more stories too, but then my reviews started coming in, and I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Lessons Across Time

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Hazel Coatsworth

My Grandma Hazel was a hoarder. I mean that in the best way. She knew from harsh experience how quickly you could lose it all, and life taught her the importance of valuing every little thing. Born in 1919 the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic, she was ten years old when the Great Depression hit. She survived not only that perilous time, but the Second World War with its shortages and horrors. She married my grandpa John in 1942, in the midst of the war. She passed away at the grand old age of 95 in 2014, and I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Making the Cover

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Hey all! I’m releasing a new short story – “Chinatown” – next Tuesday, and thought it would be fun to take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of how I made the cover. I started with a search for the right images. The story takes place in a future version of San Francisco, where Chinatown is the newest part of the city, run by Chinese invaders, and the rest of the city is in ruins. So I was looking for something dystopian. it took about an hour nosing through sci fi images on Deposit Photos, but eventually I found this image: … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Choose My Own Adventure

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Fork in the Road - Pixabay

I’m about to write a new novel. Problem is, which one? I have four possibilities I’m considering, so I thought I’d crowdsource this thing. Idea One: Liminal Sky Book Five – Fallen Angel: this would be an immediate follow-up to Dropnauts, my currently unsold novel in the Liminal Sky series, but with fewer POV characters and a tighter focus. Idea Two: Liminal Sky Book Five – Forever: An alternate book 5 in the series – and a recreation of the first book I ever wrote. This one would be a complete retelling of that story from scratch. “The Stark Divide” … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Great Pause

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pause button - pixabay

Every week I sit down and come up with a topic to share with you. Some weeks are easier than others. Sometimes an idea comes to me – something great that happened this last week, something new I am writing, or some connection my writer brain just made that I want to share. Some weeks, nothing comes. This is one of those times. Mark and I are entering the third week of our personal chapter of what I call “The Great Pause,” and I am sitting here in my writer cave, waiting for clarity. It’s been a hard year – … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Writing in the Time of Covid19

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writing - Yay Images

Another week in lockdown. Although California didn’t order a statewide “shelter in place” order until late last week and Sacramento’s was only a few days before, Mark have been staying home (with only trips out for walks and one trip to the Supermarket parking lot) for eleven days now. We are starting to settle into the new routine, which on the face of it isn’t really all that different than before: Work, eat, work, eat and play card games, work, eat, work and watch TV, sleep. Oh, and the occasional shave and shower in there somewhere. *grin* And yet, this … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Life Under Lockdown

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iron bars - pixabay

I’ve said it before. But damn. What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago at this time, I was still planning to attend the Tucson Book Festival this weekend. Seven days ago there still was a Tucson Book Festival to go to. We live in Sacramento. We had some of the earliest known corona virus cases in the US, but for weeks it seemed like it was under control. Now we know that the Federal government, and the executive branch in particular, fumbled the response badly. And we all know why. So here we are. Almost all public events … Read more