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Point of View: Seven Things to Live For

hope - deposit photos

It’s been a rough year. We’ve lost four friends, three of them to cancer, and most recently, one who passed away in the middle of the night unexpectedly. So many other bad things have happened, both large and small, that I started a list called The Time of Shit, to chronicle them, and to reassure myself that I wasn’t going crazy. And yet, life goes on. So it’s time for a little counter programming. My optimistic side won’t be held down for long. I give you seven good things in my life (from the serious to the seriously goofy) that … Read more

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Point of View: The Hencha Queen Chapter One

The Hencha Queen - J. Scott Coatsworth

Another tease for next week’s release. But first, some great deals on the earlier books in the series. Both books one and two – The Dragon Eater and The Gauntlet Runner – are on sale wherever eBooks are sold for just 99¢, so this is a great time to get in on the series: And order any one (or all three and let me know at scott@jscottcoatsworth.com, and I’ll send you the prequel – Tales From Tharassas – free! Now, on to chapter one, Rise: A SHARP CRACK FILLED the wine cellar. Kerrick swung the heavy mallet back and then … Read more

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Point of View: Cover Reveal / Preorder

The Hencha Queen - J. Scott Coatsworth

It’s time for the cover reveal for the third book in the “Tharassas Cycle.” The Hencha Queen will be out on March 14th, and so I thought it would be fun to share the cover evolution. Kelley York at Sleepy Fox Studios started with a general concept: Okay, so it’s a good start. But the pose was too static, the clothing too flat, and the staff just wasn’t right. So Kelley adjusted it a bitL Much better pose. But the eyes and expression are a bit vacant. Not sold on the staff, and the dress color and fabric – just … Read more

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Point of View: Six Indie SFF Authors You Should Be reading

Colin Alexander

I thought I’d do something a bit different today, and share with you six Sci Fi and Fantasy authors you may not have heard of but whom you should definitely be reading. These are drawn from my own personal book reviews over the last 12 months. Here we go: Colin Alexander Colin Alexander is a writer of science fiction and fantasy. Actually, Colin Alexander is the pseudonym for Alton Kremer, maybe his alter ego, or who he would have been if he hadn’t been a physician and biochemist and had a career as a medical researcher. He’s been reading science … Read more

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Point of View: Total Immersion

Immersion - deposit photos

I love it when a story sucks me in, pulling me so far under that I actually forget the real word exists, and just an afternoon (or half the night) exploring an entirely different place. Such experiences of total immersion in a story seem to come more and more rarely for me. I’m not sure why – maybe because I tend to be more distracted when I read? Or maybe because many of the books I choose these days are more character driven, or tend to go light on the details of the world in which they take place? In … Read more

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Point of View: It’s the People

friends - deposit photos

It’s been a rough few months. We’ve recently lost a couple friends to cancer, and found out a couple more have it too. Other friends are fighting unknown maladies that have reduced their lives to misery. My Mac died, and was in the shop for two agonizing weeks before it finally came home. I broke my arm for the second time in October, and then Mark and I got a really bad cold in December. Facebook temporarily kicked me off, scaring me half to death. A great job I really wanted didn’t even bother giving me an interview, and I … Read more

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Point of View: New Sneaks In

Rat peeking through hole in cardboard - deposit photos

Every day is the same old boring routine. Then, good and tired, it’s off to bed, where I will then proceed to stare at the ceiling, tossing and turning, and generally being unable to actually, you know, sleep for at least two hours. Why I can fall asleep on the couch with the TV blaring and then not be able to in bed is one of the enduring mysteries for the ages. Nothing ever changes, Except… Yesterday, my aunt arrived from Southern California. She’s selling her house there and moving up here to be closer to us. And last year, … Read more

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Point of View: Grateful Amidst the Rubble

On paper, it’s been a fairly disastrous week. One of our dear friends is dying of cancer, and to watch him and his family going through this just breaks our hearts. On Saturday, my Mac – the one I use fourteen hours a day, seven days a week – gave up the ghost, deciding it wanted to reboot every 30-60 seconds. And Facebook suspended my account – apparently because their new AI bot thought I was “impersonating a business.” – and in an instant I came this close to losing a community that I have spent fifteen years building. That’s … Read more

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Point of View: Changing of the Guard

change - deposit photos

Sometimes life’s events bring us an unexpected clarity, when a series of events combine to touch us in unexpected ways. Mark and I are at the age where we’re starting to lose people we care about – friends and family alike – many of them gone far too young. People with which we share a cultural lexicon, folks who grew up in the same world that we did and share our worldview. In the last three years alone, we’ve lost three beautiful souls, including a writer friend, a neighbor and big fan of my work, and a beautiful young woman … Read more

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Point of View: Coming to Terms With Age

birthday candles - deposit photos

This year I turned fifty-five. I honestly don’t know how it happened. Last time I checked, I was thirty-five. And suddenly now I’m getting the AARP invite emails. Where did the time go? They say age is a state of mind, and that’s partially true. We often feel far younger than we are. But age is also thinning and graying hair, expanding waistlines, new medications and teeth teeth teeth! I wish I could state-of-mind myself back to twenty. Or maybe twenty-five. Mark and I have a good friend who was born after we met. She’s super smart and pop-culture aware, … Read more