Point of View

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Point of View: Wait, There’s a Zone?

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fog - deposit photos

It’s so hard to get into the writing zone these days. I have three active novels, I’m working on and two other short stories I need to complete by March. So there’s plenty to do. Nevertheless, our politics hangs over everything like a miasma, a thick black smoke that chokes out almost everything else. I try to block it out. I do my best not to let it own my life. But it’s always there, lurking in the background, seeping into everything. And in this new world of inflationary pressure and “artificial intelligence” and corporations hell bent on extracting every … Read more

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Point of View: Wanting to Be Big

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giant shadow - deposit photos

I’ve been writing seriously now for over eleven years. As regular readers of this column will know, I’ve climbed a long ways up Writer Mountain, but not as far as I hoped I would. Still, I haven’t done badly. And yet… I had a few things happen this last week that brought me down a peg. First of all, I was going to be a featured author at an event next year. Or at least thought I was, but unfortunately, it didn’t work out. There are a few reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that I’m … Read more

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Point of View: The Big Joy of Small Pride Festivals

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This last weekend, we attended our final Pride of the season. Tri-County Diversity’s Pride in the Park is a small Pride up in Yuba City that serves the Northern Central Valley’s queer community. This is our first time doing the event. They had been after us for a couple years to come up from Sac Town – about an hour’s drive north. We finally said yes this year when our calendar allowed for it, and had no idea what to expect. And when I say we, I mean our Queer Sacramento Authors Collective (QSAC) group. Seven of us came to … Read more

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Point of View: The Power of the Pen

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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

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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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Point of View: Diving Into the Past

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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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Point of View: A Character Experiment

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Characters - Deposit Photos

Characterization has long been my Achilles heel. I grew up reading, big idea science fiction and fantasy, and that’s what I always wanted to write. I had the big ideas, but when I first started my writing career, I didn’t know how to craft compelling characters. I’ve spent the last ten years working on it, using some helpful books filled with character exercises, making story Bibles to track my character info and helping me get inside their heads, and studying how compelling characters are created in books and other mediums. I’ve come a long way, but it’s still a challenge … Read more

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Point of View: Sac Anime!

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Booth Crew - Sac Anime Summer 2025

Just got back from a weekend selling books at Sac Anime, and wanted to share some of my fave cosplays and pics of us and the booth! First off, our merry crew: And the pretty pretty booth: And now onto the cosplay! Hope you enjoy this vicariously!

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Point of View: Road Trip Report

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I just got back last week from my road trip to WorldCon Seattle. I hadn’t initially intended to go – well, initially initially, yes. But because of the expense and distance and all that, I’d decided to cancel the trip a couple months ago. But since then, a few new writing-related things have happened, and so I changed my mind and headed to WorldCom to see what I could make happen there. Due to some sage advice from good friends, I made a concrete plan of things I wanted to accomplish, and figured out how to do each of them. … Read more

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Point of View: World Con Seattle

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road trip - deposit photos

Two more days to go. Tomorrow, I leave for WorldCon, and on Wednesday the whole shebang kicks off. It’s only my second time at this huge science fiction convention. The first time was before pandemic, in San Jose, California. Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for it, and we only got to spend a day and a half there, with little to no advance prep. This time is different. While I decided to actually go a bit late, I had made preparations just in case. I will have a table in the dealer room for Liminal Fiction, and I am planning to … Read more