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POINT OF VIEW: Stepping Off the Ledge

printing press - pixabay

Hey all, I’m about to step off the ledge. To take the plunge. To dive into the great unknown. I am about to become * gulp * a self publisher. I have two projects already teed up for this year, with more to come if things go well. The first is the long-awaited publication of “The River City Chronicles” in book form – my 102 chapter online serial that ended last October. It’s been a long slog to get to this point for this, my love letter to Sacramento. I just got the preliminary cover art from Kelley York, a … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Riding the Writing Roller Coaster

Roller Coaster - Pixabay

I am two weeks away from sending Ithani, the final book in the “Oberon Cycle,” to my beta readers, and I am in full-scale freak out mode. OK, maybe not full scale. I still have all my clothes on. It has proven more challenging than I expected to write the series ender – there are so many loose ends to wrap up, and it’s necessary to both ramp up the volume and to keep tight reins on a story that caps off my first complete trilogy. I got within two chapters of the ending and realized something wasn’t right. I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Days of Despair, Moments of Grace and Beauty

Tulips - pixabay

These are trying times for most of the people I know. Our country is in a shambles. The headlines dominating the news would have been unthinkable just two years ago – a porn star threatening to describe a sitting president’s “junk.” A US senator berating kinds for trying to stop gun violence. An unchained Russia meddling in other countries’ affairs with impunity, changing elections, supporting discord, and killing expatriates on foreign soil. Closer to home, Mark and I have friends dealing with parental loss, cancer, and depression. In the midst of the longest run of economic “prosperity” in decades, we … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Making Connections & Hiding Easter Eggs

scott-bunny

As an author, one of my main jobs in my stories is the art of making connections. Connections between characters. Connections between the beginning and end of a story. Connections within a series. As part of this job, I am currently re-reading Skythane and Lander while I write Oberon, so I can make connections between the three books that will give my readers that “aha!” moment when they discover them, and that will help insure continuity between the stories. But there are other kinds of connections that we trade in as writers too. Some are unintentional. These often come out … Read more

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Point of View: Exclusive Scene from Ithani

Morgan

Hey all… I’m rounding the bend on Ithani and heading for the finish line. This is one of the most difficult books I’ve written yet, but when it all comes together, I think it’s gonna be awesome. 🙂 I thought I’d shake things up a bit and share an advance scene for all the folks out there who love Morgan. Enjoy! Morgan watched the man go. The city below was in ruins, but it would rise again, given time. He was an agent of the Ithani, but for some reason, he felt a bond with these humans—lander and skythane both. … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Keeping Out the World

Scott - Rise

I’m in a weird place this week. That sentence could have been written in almost any of the weeks of the last fifteen months. The world has gone strange on us, as frightening news and bile and threats and unhinged behavior seem to be running rampant. A large percentage of my fellow Americans seem to live in a world entirely different from my own, and while this has always been true, I’ve never felt so under seige by that world as I do today. It has beaten me down. I don’t want to run away. I want to be strong … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Looking Forward

The Nether

We have a great local theater here called the Capital Stage that often puts on speculative fiction plays. Their 2018 season, in fact, is called “Future Tense.” We just went to see the latest, a dark play called “The Nether,” by Jennifer Haley. The nether is sort of a bleak futuristic version of the dark web plus the internet, a virtual playground where more and more folks are spending the majority of their lives, or even becoming “shades” – people who are hooked up to life support in the real world so they can spend all of their time in … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Connected

Joyce Peterson

Today would have been Joyce Peterson’s 100th Birthday. Joyce was my grandmother on my mother’s side, and she passed away six years ago at the age of 94. She was an amazing woman, gifted and beautiful. I always thought she looked a little like Cabbot Cove’s Jessica Fletcher, but unlike Angela Lansbury’s most famous character, she didn’t leave a path of dead bodies and mystery in her wake. What she did leave was a legacy. My grandmother was a very creative person, like much of my family. She painted and sketched and made all kinds of art – her hand … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: BTOUS

Blog Tour of Unusual Size

It’s almost here. Tomorrow, “Lander” releases to the world, accompanied by the Blog Tour of Unusual Size ™. By the time it’s done, the book will have graced the pages of over sixty blogs, many of them with unique guest posts, interviews, and/or reviews. Promo is exhausting LOL I started pulling the tour together two months ago, and started writing guest posts in early January. I am hugely grateful to the folks at all the blogs who are helping me to pull it off. But this little voice in my head always asks – does it work? Does it help? … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: T-Minus Seven for My First Second

series - pixabay

I’m about to reach another milestone as a writer. As I put it to my Dad this evening on the phone, next Tuesday I’ll be releasing my first second book. Let me explain. I’m in the middle of writing not one but two trilogies – the Oberon Cycle and Liminal Sky. The second Oberon book, “Lander,” is coming out on 2/13, so it will be the first time I’ve had the second book in a series come out. I have no idea what to expect, other than having been told that the second book never sells as well as the … Read more