Point of View

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Point of View: On the Shoulders of Giants

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Jim Comer

I just got back from running Nebula Con, SFWA’s annual convention for the Nebula Awards. I feel hugely honored that they entrusted me with this responsibility, and it was an unforgettable experience that I will delve into more next week. The award ceremony itself was uplifting and moving in a way that I did not expect. You can watch it here if you haven’t had a chance to see it. Especially N.K. Jemisin’s speech which was is profound, moving, challenging, and a balm to all of us in these uncertain times. Partway through the ceremony, they showed an honor roll … Read more

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Point of View: Running a Big Event

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conference - deposit photos

Ever since our old business started collapsing in 2015, driven mostly by Google’s destructive changes that at first whittled away and then wholesale destroyed our site traffic on our legacy websites, I’ve been looking for a new direction. A new calling. And for the last two-and-a-half years, I’ve been on a job hunt, as we worked to keep our writing websites going – sites we built to disregard Google’s influence entirely. I’ve been looking for something solid, something real I could do with the next part of my life. None of those searches yielded a definitive answer. Time after time, … Read more

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Point of View: We’re Off to See the Wizard…

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Wizard of Oz

As writers, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. I was reminded of this today, while working on one of the final chapters of the sequel to Office of the Lost. There’s an undeniable thread of the Wizard of Oz running through the whole book. It wasn’t intentional – it just kind of snuck up on us during the writing process. But now it’s become an integral part of the plot. When I was a kid, we all had much more of a shared culture than we do now. Believe it or not, here were only … Read more

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Point of View: It Was the Worst of Times (or, Are We In the Darkest Timeline?)

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Evil Abed

As any fan of the normie-turned-outlandish comedy Community will know, the “Darkest Timeline” is a reference to the show’s Remedial Chaos Theory episode, which expanded on an idea from the original Star Trek series, about an alternate timeline where all the main characters were evil versions of their usual selves. It’s hard not to feel like we are in our own version of the Darkest Timeline, as we find ourselves mired down in an unnecessary war in the Middle East, facing rising prices at home, beset by AI and data centers foisted upon us by our corporate masters, assaulted daily … Read more

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Point of View: Finding a New Balance

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balancing - deposit photos

Things have shifted. My regular readers will know that my life has changed significantly in the last three months. In addition to our own business, my writing, and the Sacramento Book festival, I’ve added two new things to the mix. Moving to a new place, which was exponentially harder than I thought it would be and still isn’t really over a month and a half later, and managing the Nebula Awards/Nebula Con. Each of these things is like a full-time job, and I am struggling to adjust. * deep breath * I am adjusting. I recently likened it to a … Read more

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Point of View: If I’m Not Writing, Am I Still a Writer?

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writer staring out window - deposit photos

I’ve been given an extraordinary pair of opportunities – running the Sacramento Book Festival, and also stepping in to help run the 2026 Nebula Convention for the SFWA nebula awards. But with great power comes… great lack of writing time? I found myself extremely limited at a moment when I’m trying to move forward on the number of projects, and I’ve had to drop at least one of them, due to simple lack of time. Which brings up the question, if I’m not writing, am I still a writer? I know, I know. In the grand scheme of things, the … Read more

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Point of View (Un)Settled

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chaos - help - deposit photos

It’s done. * whew * We’re moved into our new place, and everything’s back to normal again. * laughs maniacally * I wish. We took possession of the new place back on February 25th, and then spent two grueling weeks painting, shelf lining, moving boxes and small furniture, and all the other little things you have to do when you move: address changes, purchasing shower curtains, making install appointments, walkthroughs, unpacking all those boxes, and on and on. All while trying to reply to emails and keep at least some parts of the business humming. Oh, and did I mention … Read more

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Point of View: A New Flash Story

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AI Prompt - deposit photos

Hey all… we’re going into move mode this week, so there won’t be a newsletter next Monday. For my “column” this week, I banged out a flash story that’s been bouncing around in my head this week… hope you enjoy it! Vibe Science “It’s really incredible.” Trevor stared at the wall of video call faces in his Vibe Scientist group. Fifty of the most important Vibe Science influencers. Most of them were nodding in agreement.  “I’m leveraging all the main LLM’s—Clod, Grope, Capricorn, TalkDDT—into one super powered AI client, trained on the entirety of human knowledge, with a specialization in climate science.” … Read more

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Point of View: “I’m Your Number One Fan”

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Elizabeth Nunziato and Jason Kuykendall in Misery at the B Street Theatre

It’s “fans” week here at the worldwide headquarters of J. Scott Coatsworth, Incorporated. First off, a tale from the dark side of fandom. We saw an amazing production of Misery (the play) – written by the same guy who penned the screenplay for the movie. It was produced at our local B Street Theatre, and featured two of our favorite local lead actors – Elizabeth Nunziato and Jason Kuykendall – who are married in real life. It was a surprisingly funny production, bringing out all the latent dark comedy in the piece, mostly due to Nunziato’s great talent as an … Read more

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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