Point of View

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POINT OF VIEW: About Me

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Scott 1992

A few weeks ago, I asked my readers what they wanted me to write about in this column. Barbara Longley wanted to know more about me personally, so here it goes. 🙂 I live with my husband Mark in Sacramento, California. I’m an Arizona boy originally – although I was born in Southern California, I grew up in Tucson, and still have an abiding love for the mountains and desert beauty of Southern Arizona. I moved to Rancho Cucamonga, an LA – area bedroom community – in 1984 to live with my Dad for a year, and stayed through my … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: After the Plague

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sunrise - after the plague

My friend A. Catherine Noon asks: What do you want to change when we come out of lockdown, and what do you want to leave behind? What do you want to make (assuming you had energy and no stress)? (Make includes write.) Wow, that’s a big question. Some of my answers come easily – like the first things I want to do when this is all over: I want to hug my friends tightly. I want to go to Starbucks and get a trenta mint java-chip frappucino and drink it until my brain hurts. I want to have dinner out … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: On Brand

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darts - pixabay

I’ve had occasion this week to consider my author “brand”, especially the public-facing version of it that I represent via social media. This was occasioned by a few different things that happened over the weekend. First off, in a panel on going mainstream at the Rainbow Space Magic Con yesterday, we discussed authors’ social media presence, and how any agent worth their salt is going to comb your social media presence before offering to work with you. It makes sense, right? How many times have we seen old posts come back to haunt politicians, entertainers, and others years later? Even … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Getting Up With the Roosters

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alarm clock - Deposit Photos

I’m trying something new. Anyone who knows me knows I am insanely busy, all the time. Mark and I run about twelve websites, plus I’m both a writer AND a human who occasionally needs to eat and sleep. In the past, I would write when Mark went to the gym, usually between 12 and 1:30 PM. But now, with the Covid19 crisis, there’s no more gym. And although Mark is awesome at staying out of the way during writing time, more and more I’m edging into writing time with other work, losing 15-30 minutes (sometimes more) when I could be … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Back on the Ranch

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Sac Pride QSAC Booth

This was supposed to be Pride Weekend here in Sacramento. A year ago we had our first two-day pride, set against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests that roiled the local community, both mainstream and the LGBTQ one. Like many cities around the US, we had a senseless killing of a black man by police, and relations between the police and the community were strained. For our local writer’s group, the Queer Sacramento Authors’ Collective, Pride was a good weekend. It started off with a crazy windstorm – we had to leave our canopy down the whole first day … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Happy Accidents & Silver Linings

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silver linings - pixabay

Last week, I reached the bottom of my Point of View barrel. I sat down to write my weekly column, and there was just nothing there. So I put the word out to my peeps on social media – what should I write about? I got a variety of responses, from the silly to the profound. Today I’ll start to respond to them. Janet Gershen-Siegel suggested this: “Silver linings. In writing, when something turns into a happy accident, if that makes any sense.” And yeah, it does. Writing, like any art, wraps up craft, hard work and serendipity. For a … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: I Got Nuthin.

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Yeah, some weeks are like that. It’s been crazy busy, and I’m six hours late with this column, and … nothing. So I thought I’d make you do the work, this week. What would you like me to talk about? Writing things? Personal things? Peps? The non-rainbow skittles? Robotech? Reply and let me know, and I’ll try to tackle it in a future column. xoxo –Scott

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POINT OF VIEW: Launching a New Thing

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Liminal Fiction

I’ve always had my head in the stars. One of my early memories is when we went to our neighbor’s back yard to watch the lunar eclipse, and to stare in awe as the moon became blood red. As a kid, I wanted to be one of two things – an astronomer or an astronaut. Those dreams lasted into my teens, until I realized a) astronomy requires a helluva lot of math, not just staring at the heavens, and b) I wasn’t nearly enough of an athlete to be an astronaut. I hade a brief rekindling of hope when I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Diving Deeper

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Diving Deeper - Deposit Photos

I’ve always said when you stop growing as a writer, your writing dies. We’re like sharks, swimming and swimming to keep that oxygen pumping through our blood. A few years ago, when I first started writing seriously and sold my first story, I was on top of the world. I felt like I had finally arrived, and knew how to do this shit. People were actually taking me seriously as a writer. That didn’t last long. I got a rejection, and another, and another. I sold a few more stories too, but then my reviews started coming in, and I … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Lessons Across Time

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Hazel Coatsworth

My Grandma Hazel was a hoarder. I mean that in the best way. She knew from harsh experience how quickly you could lose it all, and life taught her the importance of valuing every little thing. Born in 1919 the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic, she was ten years old when the Great Depression hit. She survived not only that perilous time, but the Second World War with its shortages and horrors. She married my grandpa John in 1942, in the midst of the war. She passed away at the grand old age of 95 in 2014, and I … Read more