Point of View

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Point of View: End of an Era

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Purple Roofs

Last week, I killed something precious, and I couldn’t stop crying about it for a long time. Twenty eight years ago, my husband Marco and I had started a web design company, but we were at a loss about how to get new clients. So we hit upon an idea… well, Marco did. We would start a directory for the LGBTQ+ community of queer owned and friendly B&B’s, and then see if we could get any of them as clients. He even suggested the name – Purple Roofs. I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard, and I … Read more

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Point of View: Acting Locally

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local - deposit photos

I’ve been thinking a lot about the online world vs. the offline one lately. I still remember clearly the march toward where we are now, from the good old days before every home had a computer and every hand held a cell phone. And then it launched – this glorious new thing called the World Wide Web, making it easy for anyone to post pages atop the internet. At first, no one quite knew what to do with it except throw advertisements on it. Over the period of three months, suddenly every billboard and magazine ad had a web address … Read more

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Point of View: The Enshittification of (Almost) Everything

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shit emoji - deposit photos

Ask yourself this. When was the last time you were excited (not motivated by fear or disgust) to visit a social media website? Any website? Or this – name one corporation that you really love and think is doing good things for the world. For me, it’s been a long time since either of these was true. There’s a concept that was pioneered by Corey Doctorow a few years back in an article about the TikTok website, but it has since become broadly applicable to many sites on the web. In a nutshell, he observed that TikTok had burst onto … Read more

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Point of View: Oh, World Con

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scott at nebula con

Oh, World Con. We just got back from a trip to Anaheim for the 84th annual World Con – the second year in a row I’ve gone. Last year, I managed to have a booth there for Liminal Fiction, and went to a number of table talks and got to meet some great folks. However, I got started late, so I wasn’t on any panels. And I felt a little out of my element the whole time.  Back in 2018, Mark and I went to the San Jose one, but only for a day and a half, and it was … Read more

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Point of View: Sometimes You Can Go Back

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A little over fifty-eight years ago, my Mom went to Disneyland when I was about two months old and snapped the picture above (on the left) on the It’s a Small World ride. I came into possession of this photo some time back, and it has always stuck in my mind – a simple image from when Disneyland was the only Disney park (Disney World would open in Florida three years later), and before Disney became a huge, globe-spanning empire, encompassing such varied brands as Star Wars, Marvel, and (amusingly) the Aliens franchise. Which, as some have noted with glee, … Read more

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Point of View: Off to WorldCon!

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I’m posting this a couple days earlier than usual because we’re off on an epic road trip tomorrow to Anaheim for WorldCon! This will be my third time (and the second time I’ve done the full con). Marco is coming with me this time, and we are caravanning down with our friends Marvin (author M.D. Neu) and his husband Eric. I’m so excited to have him with me, and am hoping he can find some panels he’ll enjoy at the con. We’ll have a LimFic table with a number of great author friends: and Kim and I will be previewing … Read more

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Point of View: It’s a New Day

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man watching the sun rise - deposit photos

It’s a big week. First off, Coredivers is off to my beta readers, with an expected return date of the end of October. So that book should be coming out probably around the beginning of next year. It’s the sequel to Dropnauts and I’m so excited to finally share it with you. Second, we’re getting ready to head to WorldCon next week. We will be there for the full con, and Liminal Fiction will have a table in the dealer’s room, featuring: And Kim and I will be previewing in paperback our second book in the Chaos and Order series, … Read more

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Point of View: Search for the Lost Excerpt

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Search for the Lost

Hey all, Search for the Lost, the thrilling sequel to Office of the Lost, is finished! Kim and I will be doing a paperback release for WorldCon at the end of this month, and an eBook release on 10/7. I shared Chapter One here. Enjoy Chapter two below, and the cover tease above! Chapter Two Leo was really, really trying. The thing was, living with someone else wasn’t easy. He knew this from previous occasions in which strained finances had forced him to have roommates. One roomie had moved out after the fourth kitchen fire. One had packed up her belongings during … Read more

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Point of View: The Pavement Protection Posse

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fresh pavement - deposit photos

Today I’m going to share something a little different, a heartwarming community tale. They are resealing our neighborhood asphalt this month, putting a new surface coat on it throughout this development. Last week, they did the other half of the development, and today they are starting on our side. Our community has an active Facebook group, and folks often share all kinds of happenings there, both good and bad. Last week the group was full of disbelieving posts. People who should’ve known better, including some of our neighbors, drove across the newly surfaced streets before they were fully dry, sometimes … Read more

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Point of View: Politics and Being a Writer

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protest fists - deposit photos

Writers of fiction, especially often escapist fiction like romance, sci-fi, and fantasy, are usually told to steer clear of politics. You don’t want to alienate half of your potential audience, they say to us. In some ways, it’s sensible advice. Readers are looking for an escape from their daily lives, not another diatribe on the dire state of the world. If they wanted to be depressed about the events of the day, they would turn on one of the 24 hour news stations. There’s already plenty of commentary out there about politics and the savage world we are living through. … Read more