Features
Point of View: The Italians Are Coming!
Well, technically they’re already here. Let me back up a bit. I’ve been working (and writing) madly over the last three weeks. I had big plans to finish three or four writing projects before June 15th, when our Italian friends, Marco and Fabry, were due to arrive. I wanted to put The Great North to bed, complete my Oberon 3rd draft, extend The Boy in the Band, write the next three chapters of Marionettes in the Mist with Angel, and put together enough chapters of River City to get me through mid July. In the end, I finished The Great … Read more
Author Spotlight: Elizabeth Noble
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, Elizabeth Noble – Elizabeth Noble lives by the adage “I can’t not write”. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t make up stories and eventually she learned how to write them down. A part of every day is spent living in worlds she created that are filled with intrigue and espionage. Using a real love of scifi and urban fantasy highlighted by twisty plots she crafts stories taking place in a … Read more
Point of View: Pride and Prejudice
This morning, after the most deadly shooting in US history which also happened at a gay nightclub on Latino night, has me all tied up in knots. Just a year ago, we finally won the right to marry all across this vast nation. I felt such a sense of pride and accomplishment on that day. It’s something that I and many others gave years – decades of our lives, even – to bring about. And on that day I felt different. Accepted. Finally, as never before, a first class citizen in my own country. Mark and I have started holding … Read more
Author Spotlight: Arthur Griffin
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, Arthur Griffin – Arthur Griffin fell in love with mythology as a six-year-old when his mother, not able to find a sitter, took him with her to her art history class. They were studying Renaissance paintings of Greek and Roman legends, and he learned two very important things that day. One – that there was a whole new world of thrilling stories and myths for him to explore and be enchanted by. … Read more
Point of View: Reaching the Ending
I have writer’s brain. I have just gone full-tilt for about a month to write a new novella for a forthcoming anthology. The story is titled “The Great North”, and it’s a post-apocalyptic tale based on a Welsh legend. Some of you may remember how it started out from one of my earlier columns – the story really wanted to be “The Autumn Lands” all over again, complete with blond stranger arriving in town on a wagon train. But the story and I had a big fight, and I won, and I steered it bodily onto a new course. Note … Read more
Author Spotlight: Pelaam
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, Pelaam – Living in clean, green New Zealand, Pelaam is a best-selling, multi-published author of M/M romance and erotica across time and space. When not writing she can be found indulging in her other passions of cookery and wine appreciation. Thanks so much, Pelaam, for joining me! J. Scott Coatsworth: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it? Pelaam: I was … Read more
Author Spotlight: Bear Kosik
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, Bear Kosik – I first met bear at Rainbow Con in 2015. I’m thrilled to have him here with me today. Thanks so much, Bear, for joining me! J. Scott Coatsworth: When did you know you wanted to write, and when did you discover that you were good at it? Bear Kosik: I was 14 years old. I was identified as being verbally gifted by a study being conducted by the Psychology … Read more
Point of View: It’s the Same Story, Dammit.
OK, so I’m knee-deep into a new project called “The Great North” (I know, I know, but this one had a deadline). It’s a post-apocalyptic retelling of a legend, and it’s unlike anything that I have done so far. Or so I thought. So I’m writing along, with my loose outline in a spreadsheet at my side to track all the stuff writers have to track when they write, and my latest crush – mint milanos – at my side. It’s new. it’s fresh. And best of all, it’s working. And then I start to notice things. My first protagonist … Read more