Point of View

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Rewriting the Past

by

I’ve been in the process of re-releasing a number of my older works. It’s funny to think I’ve been published long enough to actually have some older works. LOL… In the process, I’ve had a chance to see how my writing has changed over the years. Most recently, I updated “The Homecoming,” coming out this Wednesday in eBook and (for the first time) paperback! The story itself held up remarkably well – I even had a few of those “damn, I actually wrote this?” moments, which is always nice for an author. *grin* But there were a few things I … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Here We Go

by
rocket - pixabay

So things are a ‘changin for me. I have finally completed the two trilogies I’ve been working on for the last two years (well, four years for Oberon) and I am looking ahead to what’s next. I have decided to take my shot at the bigtime. I have discussed this with my current publishers – the wonderful folks at both Mischief Corner Books and Dreamspinner Publications – and I am going to try to get an agent for my next book. My ultimate goal is to break into one of the big publishing houses to see where it might take … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: When Things Are hard

by
fork in the road - deposit photos

Let me start by saying that this is not one of those “pity the poor writer” columns. But this is an acknowledgement that I am in a rough place right now. It’s been an amazing two weeks, and a really tough two weeks. Davis Pride, where our local author group had a booth, was very nearly rained out by a huge unseasonable storm. We pushed through it, and it was a successful event, but it was hard going filled with uncertainty. Then we had a great reading at the Lavender Library, but aside from our own “writing family,” only two … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: The World Needs to Calm the F* Down.

by
crazy - pixabay

Pride Season is upon us, and with it, so many things I have to do, and so little time to do them. We have two readings in Sacramento this week (thank you Jeff Adams for managing one of them!), two pride celebrations, an author lunch, and that’s just the stuff on my local author group plate. The world outside our doorstep seems to be spinning out of control, my writing is on hold until I can find time for it, and somehow I have about ten times as many things to do as I have time to do them. So … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Squeeze Reading

by
Squeeze - Deposit Photos

For years, I have maintained that I simply had no time to read. My days are so tightly scheduled that I couldn’t even think about picking up a new book, let alone diving in with the intent to finish the whole damned thing. That changed this last month. Not because I suddenly had a lot less to do. No, it was thanks to the humble porcelain toilet. Really. See, I figured out that do have a batch of otherwise unstructured time. I am sorry if it offends anyone’s delicate sensibilities, but bathroom time is also the perfect reading time (as … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: At Pride

by
Davis Pride

Last week I talked about personal pride. This week it’s all about the capital kind of “Pride” – in this case, Davis Pride. Davis is a college town about 1/2 an hour West of Sacramento. It has an adorable downtown, and at this time of year, lots of college students. This year, for the first time, our local author group – the Queer Sacramento Authors’ Collective – decided to set up shop there for their pride festival in Central Park. Kim Fielding, S.A. Stovall, Mike Lopez, Kelly Haworth, and I all ran the booth, with help from my hubby Mark … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Pride

by
Scott 1992

We’re entering pride season, a time we celebrate our community – one that I have watched grow from “gay” to “gay and lesbian” to “GLBT” to “LGBT” to “LGBTIQA,” all over the course of my lifetime. I’m fifty-one this year, and as I look around, I am amazed at the number of pride celebrationsheld around the country. Almost every city has one, and Pride has become a commodity, a shiny rainbow-colored thing that in the process has lost some of its former meaning. This is part of the mainstreaming of queer culture that has had enormous benefits for our community, … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Writing What I Don’t Know

by
unknown - pixabay

I long ago discarded that old tried and true truism of writing – “write what you know.” While I get the sentiment behind it – you can best convey ideas, characters, and places with which you are already conversant – I also find it also intensely limiting, especially as a writer of sci fi and fantasy fiction. One of the ways I set out to break this idea down is by writing characters who are not at all like me. In “The Shoreless Sea,” my trilogy ender coming out in October, that has put me far out on three different … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Gardening is Writing

by

We writers are creative folk. Beyond writing, it’s not uncommon for us to have other creative pursuits – art, music, theater… or even gardening. I started vegetable gardening when I was in Junior High. Two of my friends went to the store with me, and we got seeds and soil and planted a garden in the side yard. I’d never really experienced some of the things we grew fresh. This was in the late seventies and early eighties, and much of what we ate at home came out of tin cans. The first time I had some fresh-cooked green beans … Read more

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

POINT OF VIEW: Immersion

by
immersion - pixabay

Last week I talked about the day-to-day distractions that take us out of or away from our writing time. Today I want to talk about immersion. Mark and I have been studying the Italian language for eleven years. It’s something I really enjoy, and something Mark and I do together a few times a week. Italian has become our own “secret” language, our way to communicate with each other when we don’t want the people around us to know what we’re saying. Of course, that only works if they’re not Italians. 😛 But as good as we’ve become at conjugation, … Read more