Point of View

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POINT OF VIEW: Building the Cover

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I’ve started doing covers for my own releases, and thought it would be fun to share a bit of the process with you – in this case, for my trans-elf San Francisco climate change story Cailleadhama. The first step (and often one of the most time-intensive ones) is to find an image that suits the story. In this case, I was looking for something to represent a partially drowned city of San Francisco, along with a seawall to hold back the waters. Bonus points for a gondolier… After a bit of searching, I found this image, which I immediately loved: … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Reading to the Crowd

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Scott - Capital Books

The first time I read one of my works aloud, I was scared shitless. That’s not entirely true. The first time was a breeze. It was the second time that almost killed me. The first time was at RainbowCon circa 2015. I was scheduled to read in a huge meeting room with at least a hundred chairs, and just looking at them made my heart beat like a jackhammer. But due to low attendance and too much programming, I ended up reading to an audience of just six people – the four of us authors scheduled for the hour and … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Riding the Rocket

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Rocket Ride - deposit photos

So I had a BookBub for “The Stark Divide” last week. BookBub, for those who don’t know, is a daily email service that sends out specials (usually free or 99¢) to a huge list of potential readers/buyers. When you get one, it can mean a big, if temporary, boost in sales. How big? Potentially a thousand books or more in a single day, all sent to Amazon. Numbers that make the ‘zon stand up and take notice. I was ready and waiting for the start of mine. I only told a few people, and even then, I was warned to … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Taking a (Little) Break

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break - pixabay

I am a big believer of listening to what the universe is telling me. I didn’t like what I heard this last month. I entered the Pitch Wars contest, confident that I had an amazing manuscript, one that would make heads turn. I chose my four potential mentors carefully, even finding one team who was looking for exactly what I was pitching, and who had a local member. I went to an agent pitch training session at our local writer’s club, and tailored the perfect pitch. And when the clock struck midnight on submission day, I submitted it all right … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Art & History

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art

When I was in high school, I loved my art classes. I took pottery and jewelry, and learned to paint, sketch and use charcoals. I helped paint a mural at our school – well, I painted the white frame on a “poloroid” photo, anyhow. And I even won an award for a piece of jewelry I created in my sophomore year. I always enjoyed making art, but I never felt a calling to be an artist. When I came out, I lost two things in a bad break-up with my girlfriend – my comic book collection and my art. I’m … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: After the Con

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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

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POINT OF VIEW: The End is Here

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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

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POINT OF VIEW: Learning to Wait

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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

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POINT OF VIEW: When the Word is the Story

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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

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POINT OF VIEW: The Fixit List

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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