Point of View

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: After the Con

by
Scott at GRL

So we’re on the plane, somewhere over Western New Mexico or possibly Eastern Arizona. It’s a rough, dry, hardscrabble landscape, carved out of the history of a few billion years of changing climate and calamity and times of flood and drought. We’re returning home from GRL – Gay Romance Literature for the uninitiated – a great con full of amazing, beautiful and supportive people who love books and the queer community. It’s the first GRL since one of its founding members, Ethan Day, passed away suddenly after the 2018 con in Virginia. It’s bittersweet for me for another reason too… … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: The End is Here

by
The End - Pixabay

Twenty-four years ago this month, I sent out my first novel – “On a Shoreless Sea” – to ten New York sci fi publishers. And twenty-three years ago, also this month, my nascent writing career came to an abrubt end. I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was nine years old and read The Lord of the Rings the first time. When I was a young adult, I had the idea for a world that would bridge the gap between sci fi and fantasy, offering a sci fi premise and a fantasy feel like some of my … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Learning to Wait

by
waiting - pixabay

I’m not a good waiter. Two weeks ago, I submitted my latest novel, “Dropnauts,” to an online contest called Pitch Wars. Pitch Wars is a chance to snag a mentor with publishing experience, who will spend the next three months with you reworking your novel, and in the end, it will be posted to the Pitch Wars site for agents to look at and consider. Pitch Wars has 102 mentors this year, and 3,500 novels submitted. I am waiting to see if one of the four mentors I submitted the story to decides they want to see more, and the … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: When the Word is the Story

by

I’ve always had a fascination with words. Duh, right? It’ one of the prerequisites for being a writer, just like a love of the law is for being a lawyer, and a love of art is for the artist. But recently, I’ve found a new, more specific use for this logofile obsession of mine – turning a word into a story. One of the questions many of my writer friends hate the most is “where do you get your ideas?” My friend Angel’s flippant response is that she buys them wholesale at an idea emporium. Their disdain is understandable – … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: The Fixit List

by
checklist - pixabay

The manuscript is written, it’s gone through my beta readers and is finalized in third-draft form. And it’s ready to go out to the publisher/agent/pitch wars/wherever. Almost. There’s still one last step I take before unleashing my work onto an eager and unsuspecting world. (side note: can someone be both eager and unsuspecting?) The fixit list. Every author who has been around for long enough has one. It’s the list of things you know you do wrong, the ones you’ve been called on again and again by your editors but somehow never stop doing in the heat of writing. I … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Going On Blind Faith

by
fingers crossed - deposit photos

I am at the edge of a precipice. When I jumped into this writing thing again six years ago, I hoped to be discovered, to have a huge bestseller that would catapult me into… I don’t know. Fame? Success? Money? Validation? And now here I am, facing the biggest questions of my writing career. Where do I go from here? How do I make it all make sense for my life, my relationship, and my bank account? Is this writing thing going to lead me somewhere? By many measures, I am already a “success.” I have fans who adore my … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Fifteen Days of Immersion

by
immersion - pixabay

Those who read my column regularly know I am madly working to finish “Dropnauts: Redemption Book One” in time for PitchWars. I just got my editor notes back on Thursday, and now have about two weeks to whip the whole thing into shape. The news from the editor is mixed. He functioned as my beta reader this time around as the time table was too compressed to manage both, so the manuscript was at a bit rougher stage than I would have preferred. He loved the story! That alone made me dance and throw my hands in the air like … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Working the Crowd

by
Sac Pride QSAC Booth

We just wrapped up a warm Sacramento day at Rainbowfest – an annual LGBTQ+ festival in Lavender Heights (which strangely is very flat) – with our local author group, the “Queer Sacramento Authors’ Collective” (QSAC). I’ve learned a few things doing these kinds of events, and thought I’d share some of my tips with you for getting the most out of them, especially in your interactions with your booth/table visitors. Bring Lots of Books: If your table has just a few individual books, folks are generally less likely to stop by to see what you offer. I bring 5-10 copies … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Getting a Little Perspective

by
perspective - pixabay

Oh how pride goeth before the fall. Sometimes when you think you have this whole writer gig figured out, life steps in to give you a hard slap across the cheek. A few weeks ago, I ran across a review that was so negative it might have stopped my nascent writing career in its tracks if I had seen it when it was first published, back in 2015. I patted myself on the back for being so much more evolved these days, both in writing skill and in my reaction to my sometimes bad reviews. I’d even half-convinced myself that … Read more