hope

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POINT OF VIEW: The Long Bleak August of the Soul

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Green Plant in Bleak Desolation - Deposit Photos

It’s been a bad month. Out in the world, fires are burning up the very trees we need to slow climate change, sending clouds of choking smoke into the air and filling the Sacramento valley with a nasty orange haze. Hurricanes are supercharging over the gulf and bringing torrential rains to the places that need it least, flooding people out of their homes. Religious extremists are taking over a country and shoving women and gays back into their respective closets. Covid, in the form of the cursed “Delta Variant,” rages on against a backdrop of idiocy, hatred, horse dewormer, and … Read more

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REVIEW: Dropnauts – J. Scott Coatsworth

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Dropnauts

J. Scott Coatsworth has a new queer sci-fi book out in his Liminal Sky universe: Dropnauts. And there’s a giveaway! Life after the Crash. Over a century after the end of the Earth, life goes on in Redemption, the sole remaining Lunar colony, and possibly the last outpost of humankind in the Solar System. But with an existential threat burrowing its way into the Moon’s core, humanity must recolonize the homeworld. Twenty brave dropnauts set off on a mission to explore the empty planet. Four of them—Rai, Hera, Ghost and Tien—have trained for two-and-a-half years for the Return. They’re bound for … Read more

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ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Fix the World Anthology

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Other Worlds Ink has a new hopeful sci-fi anthology out: Fix the World. And there’s a giveaway! We’re a world beset by crises. Climate change, income inequality, racism, pandemics, an almost unmanageable tangle of issues. Sometimes it’s hard to look ahead and see a hopeful future. We asked sci-fi writers to send us stories about ways to fix what’s wrong with the world. From the sixty-five stories we received, we chose the twelve most amazing (and hopefully prescient) tales. Dive in and find out how we might mitigate climate change, make war obsolete, switch to alternative forms of energy, and … Read more

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REVIEW: Fix The World Anthology

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Fix the World Anthology

Genre: Sci-Fi, Hopepunk LGBTQ+ Category: Gay, Lesbian, Genderfluid Reviewer: Cyd Get It On Amazon | Universal Buy Link About The Book We’re a world beset by crises. Climate change, income inequality, racism, pandemics, an almost unmanageable tangle of issues. Sometimes it’s hard to look ahead and see a hopeful future. We asked sci-fi writers to send us stories about ways to fix what’s wrong with the world. From the sixty-five stories we received, we chose the twelve most amazing (and hopefully prescient) tales. Dive in and find out how we might mitigate climate change, make war obsolete, switch to alternative … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Hope

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hope - pixabay

Covid19 is ravaging the country. Our main business is suffering, especially the travel-related part. Our country has just gone through an attempted insurrection, and more Trump pardons are on the horizon. I should be devastated. And yet… I feel a strange peace. A weird feeling that I’m not entirely comfortable with, as it goes against the rough grain of all that I have experienced these past four years. Hope. It’s been nine days since I last heard the phrase “President Trump tweeted.” I don’t think I’d realized until now what an ongoing psychic abuse I felt every time someone uttered … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Writing Hope

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forest path - hope - pixabay

As a sci-fi author, I have written a number of times before about our responsibility to forecast the future, both to warn the world about what might be coming, and to share my hopes for what we might become. In these last few years, I have written four separate columns about the idea of hope and writing. In these fraught several weeks before the US election, I find myself hoping against hope for change, and then fearing the worst. Every day, there’s a new poll that reinforces that hope, and a new piece of news that dashes it. Biden’s up … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Great Pause

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pause button - pixabay

Every week I sit down and come up with a topic to share with you. Some weeks are easier than others. Sometimes an idea comes to me – something great that happened this last week, something new I am writing, or some connection my writer brain just made that I want to share. Some weeks, nothing comes. This is one of those times. Mark and I are entering the third week of our personal chapter of what I call “The Great Pause,” and I am sitting here in my writer cave, waiting for clarity. It’s been a hard year – … Read more

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ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: When Are You?, by Addison Albright

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When Are You? - Addison Albright

My dear friend Addison Albright has a new MM time travel romance book out: “When Are You?”. They have to find him…but how? A former member of an elite military special forces unit, Leo Bailey can handle anything life throws at him. Except maybe approaching a certain gorgeous, purple mohawk-wearing, heavily pierced artist. Not without his three eye-rolling wingmen along to push him in the right direction. One look at the mouthwateringly muscled, military buzzcut-sporting man with the endearing blush, and Vincent Noland is in love. Or at least in lust. Love comes later. Then marriage…and sweet, adorable Oscar. Life … Read more

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ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: The Mage on the Hill, by Angel Martinez

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Mage on the Hill - Angel Martinez

Angel Martinez has a new MM fantasy book out: The Mage on the Hill. Toby’s wild magic is killing him. The mage guilds have given up on him, and it’s only a matter of time before he dies in a spectacular, catastrophic bang. His only hope is an exiled wizard who lives in seclusion—and is rumored to have lost his mind. The years alone on his hilltop estate have not been good for Darius Valstad. After the magical accident that disfigured him and nearly drowned Pittsburgh, he drifts through his days, a wraith trapped in memories and depression. Until a … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Hope

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hope - pixabay

Hey all, I’m feeling an unreasonable groundswell of hope this week. Totally unwarranted, based on the world we now find ourselves living in. An aberration, really, out of line with this grayer, meaner country. But maybe it’s not. Some of my hope is writing-based. I got a couple pieces of great news about my Liminal Sky series which I’ll share with you soon. I have my first legit bookstore reading this month (join me at 7 PM Thursday at Time Tested Books if you live near Sacramento). And my mother shared “The River City Chronicles” with her pastor. That one … Read more