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Point of View: A House in (Good) Chaos

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man with boxes - deposit photos

Hey y’all… just a short missive from me today. Life is going to be crazy for the next few weeks/months. We’re moving at the start of March, and are madly packing boxes, buying furniture, and finding homes for some of our old stuff. If you are in the Sacramento area and want some artwork (or various pieces of furniture or appliances), let me know and I’ll tell you what we have. I’m also busy organizing the Sacramento Book Festival, coming up on April 19. We have a fantastic team – I am by no means doing this on my own … Read more

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New Release: Forrest House – E.M. Hamill

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Forrest House - E.M. Hamill

E.M. Hamill has a new MM urban fantasy out: Forrest House. Blood is Stronger Than Magic Ander Forrest renounced blood magic to become a nurse-healer in his rural hometown, far from the drama of wizardry and espionage his sister Kate craved. When Kate goes missing in action, Ander finds himself the legal guardian of her gifted twins and receives a cryptic warning from Kate’s husband to protect them before he, too, disappears. Six months later, his former lover crash lands in the kids’ bedroom via a spell only Ander’s sister could have cast. Druid Cai Piper doesn’t remember how he … Read more

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Author Spotlight: L.R. Braden

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L.R. Braden

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: L.R. Braden is a bestselling, multi-award-winning author of dark-yet-hopeful urban fantasy stories that bring magic to the mundane. Her published works include the Magicsmith series, the Rifter series, and several works of shorter fiction. A bit of a recluse, she enjoys collecting skills that may (or may not) prove useful in the event that she is suddenly whisked away on some grand adventure in an alternate reality. Since that hasn’t happened yet, she mostly spends her … Read more

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Point of View: But Is It Art?

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painter - deposit photos

I was just thinking about the difference between a writer and an artist. A writer, of course, is a kind of artist, crafting their works with a pen instead of a brush. And I’m going to make some generalizations in this column, so please bear with me. It seems to me that art – the kind you make on paper or with a physical medium like sculpture, is more of a focused craft. It requires lots of concentrated time working on a single piece to get it right. I enjoy drawing, and I’m pretty good at it, but I don’t … Read more

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Author Spotlight: John Beresford

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John Beresford

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: John Beresford is a British science fiction & fantasy author who has been writing his whole life, but let his family and career get in the way of publishing for the first fifty years.  Now retired, he writes full-time and has several works to his credit. Seven novels (a science fiction thriller about what happens when GM food goes wrong, and two fantasy trilogies set on the world of Berikatanya), two volumes … Read more

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Point of View: The AI War

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AI robbot arm wrestling a human man - deposit photos

We’re in the middle of an AI war, but it’s not the one you are thinking. Yes, every company of any size is trying to shove generative “AI” down our throats, scraping our content without commission, and filling their apps with AI “functionality” that in many cases makes those apps work worse than they did before. Notice how your voice to text is suddenly less accurate, and won’t type the right word sometimes no matter how many times and how clearly and slowly you say it? Microsoft has taken this to the next level, renaming its Office suite, a brand … Read more

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Author Spotlight: LJ Cohen

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LJ Cohen

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: LJ Cohen is a novelist, potter, fiber artist, homestead farmer, & relentless optimist. She writes science fiction & fantasy and was among the 1st wave of indie writers to qualify for SFWA membership. LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD, her 9th novel is available now. She lives on a farm in central MA and if you want to know how (and why you would even want) to knit a sweater for a cow, … Read more

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Review: Standard Candle – G.B. Lindsey

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Standard Candle - G.B. Lindsey

Genre: Contemporary, Romance LGBTQ+ Category: Gay, Bi Get It On Amazon | Universal Buy Link About The Book Denny: friend. Denny, who sleeps in threadbare tees that smell like his cigarettes, who coats his arms in the guts of engines, who kisses like he’s sampling you, scenting you, until you forget that there are things you can’t afford to forget. Denny: with benefits. It’s not dating. You’ve both done enough of that. You’re both stuck in this town, you’re both going nowhere, but at night, you have each other. It’s sex. It’s an arrangement. It suits you both. Denny: yours. Tonight, the … Read more

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Point of View: What Do We Owe Our Readers?

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thoughtful writer - deposit photos

i’ve just received a wonderful review from a friend for Down the River, the second book in the River City Chronicles. In it, the reviewer talks about how the story provided such a great escape from all the awful things going on today. It made me think once again about the responsibility that we, as authors – and especially those of us who write speculative fiction – have to our readers and to the world at large. On the one hand, as a purveyor of science fiction, part of what I try to do is to reflect on what’s happening … Read more

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Review: Down the River

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Down the River - J. Scott Coatsworth

Just got an amazing review from author M.D. Neu: I read The River City Chronicles a while back, and today I finished Down the River (the second book in the series), both by J. Scott Coatsworth, but I have to say that this didn’t feel like a typical book two. Reading the story was more like catching up with old friends whom you haven’t seen in a while. You jump right into the story, and never once did I feel like I missed something or needed to go back and check what happened in the first book. What I kept … Read more