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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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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

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Author Spotlight: Sedonia Guillone

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Sedonia Guillone

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: Sedonia Guillone wanted to be an author since the age of six when she first volunteered in the school library and the librarian had to put a limit on how many times she checked out her favorite books. Then at sixteen, a short story she wrote won honorable mention in a contest by the National League of American Pen Women and there was no stopping her. Since then, her first M/M mystery/suspense, … Read more

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Review: Tech Prince Troubles – Blaine D. Arden

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Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance LGBTQ+ Category: Gay, Trans Reviewer: Scott Get It At Amazon About The Book He came to this human hotel to disappear. Instead, he found a barista who makes espresso taste like home—and glitches no one else can solve. Adri Linari, overlooked tech mage and younger sibling of Niralen’s charismatic Crown Prince, is more comfortable with schematics than small talk. Overwhelmed by royal obligations, a sensory-frying engagement party, and the ache of always being the odd one out, he runs—straight to the RenversĂ© Hotel in Princedelphia, Oregon. All he wants is quiet, a place to draw, and maybe … Read more

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Point of View: Cocooning

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We started off 2026 with great hopes. Maybe this year would be different. Maybe things would finally start to change again, for the better. And then… Venezuela. And then… Renee Good. With this current administration, it’s always a new outrage, a new spectacle, always a new something horrible shoved in your face, each one more awful than the last. And so I am cocooning. I am spending the time I used to spend doomscrolling the news reading books instead. I am taking that space that he has been occupying in my brain for the last year, and allocating it instead … Read more