point of view

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POINT OF VIEW: Things to Know About Me

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scott-bunny

Usually I use this space to talk about all things authorly, but today I thought I’d go a little more personal. I am deeply weird, in case you haven’t figured that out yet. So here are ten things about me you may not know. I Don’t Like Coffee. Yeah, I know. I am that one guy in the whole world who doesn’t drink the stuff (except for once in a while in frappucino form, with lots of mint and java chips and sugar to hide the taste). OTOH, drop me into a bookstore where there’s the mixed smell of coffee … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Climbing the Walls of SFWA (And Unleashing My Secret Creativity)

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Climbing - pixabay

I’m on a bit of an odyssey this year. I have always wanted to be a sci fi writer, and over the last five years, I have achieved that dream. In addition to my gay romance tales, I have published five sci fi novels, with a sixth due out in October. But one thing has eluded me. Most successful sci fi writers (and I use that term in the popular/financial sense) are members of SFWA (say it with me – “siff-wah”) – the Sci Fi Writer’s Association. But there’s a catch. To join, you have to either make at least … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: I Am My Father’s Son

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Bill Coatsworth

I am my father’s son. My father and mother separated when I was a little kid. Near as I can tell from the pictures, it was in 1973, when I was four or five. My Dad and Mom were… let’s just say, less than a perfect match for each other. When they divorced, my Dad moved out to an apartment across town, and I stayed with my Mom. That’s not to say that my Dad moved out of my life. Far from it. For all the angst in their relationship with each other, they always agreed on one thing – … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Crashing Back to Earth

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Two weeks ago today, “Ithani” hit the stands. Well, not so much the stands as the ‘zons and ‘nobles and ‘spinners of the virtual world. It started out amazingly, with five-star reviews – deep, insightful ones that made me cry and feel like I had finally figured this whole writing gig out. I sold some books, and basked in the praise. I even asked Angel to call me a “soulless, derivative hack”, to help bring me down a few pegs from those shining heights. It’s never good for your writing when you become overly confident, and sometimes you need life … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Finding Beauty and Love in the Face of Chaos

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chaos - pixabay

Ithani comes out tomorrow, the culmination of three years of work and the conclusion to the Oberon Cycle trilogy. I am so not ready. It should be a triumphant moment for me, and I should have been deep in pre promo and preparation these last three days. Instead, I have been on the phone to Apple Care for the last three days almost non-stop, trying to fix Mark’s email app, which has suddenly swirled down into chaos and stubborn non-functionality. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a driven person, one who fills his days with IMPORTANT things to … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: I Am My Mother’s Son

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Mom and Scott

My mother is one of the strongest people I know. She brought me up to be self sufficient, to stand on my own and to go after what I wanted. She made me my own man. There was a period in my childhood when she was single and supporting us both on a teacher’s salary. I never once felt like we were poor. I always had what I needed, and often enough I had the things I wanted. The shirt above was one of them – Quicksilver and Ocean Pacific shorts were all the rage when I was in Jr. … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Blood Moon

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Last night we saw the blood moon. Okay, technically it was a “super” blood moon, as it was at close approach to the earth, but it actually looked kinda small to me. But it tickled a memory, something from a very long time ago. When I was a kid–maybe four or five years old–we lived in a quiet residential neighborhood in the middle of Tucson, Arizona. This would have been in the arly to mid seventies. I remember lawns and small houses there, the oleander bushes and lone saguaro cactus in the back yard surrounded by a chain-link fence, the … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: To the Moon Part Two

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Last fall, I took a deep dive into Antarctica to write my novella “Slow Thaw.” It was an amazing experience to immerse myself so deeply into setting. Now I’m setting my sights a little higher. My next novel is a stand-alone in the Liminal Sky universe tentatively titled “The Long Redemption.” I am pulling together everything I have learned over the last four years of writing – plot, characterization, overall fabulousness – and I am really excited to get into this one. Much of this new story is set on the Moon, a place which I have never visited. To … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Three Cats Short of a Horde

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Warning/Disclaimer: In today’s column, I discuss phrases that are colorful synonyms for when someone is “crazy.” I want to distinguish this from mental illness, which is not what I am referring to. Instead, I am referring to people who espouse crazy ideas, often knowing they are not true. Every good writer loves words. It’s an inherent part of the job, just like good lawyers love the law and good pilots love their planes. Words are an integral part of our trade, and we delight in the weird and wonderful nature of the language and enjoy twisting it around like warm … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: 2019

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It’s that time of year again – time to take stock of the ending year, and make plans and write down my goals for 2019. Looking Back So I thought I’d start by looking back at what I said a year ago: “Nevertheless, I go into 2018 re-energized. For one, it’s an election year, and I can see a blue wave rising on the horizon.” Nailed it! Yeah, we didn’t take the senate, but we go into 2019 a lot stronger than we did in 2018. “For another, I finished and sold book two for each of my trilogies with … Read more