point of view

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Point of View: Keeping My Sanity

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banana-split

OK, it’s finally over after tomorrow. Far and away the worst and most personally damaging election of my lifetime is oozing ever so slowly toward its conclusion. That it was such a terrible, mentally and emotionally exhausting election for me this year can be laid squarely at the feet of one of the two candidates, who decided facts don’t matter and insults do. Suffice it to say I have voted for the other one, the one who will protect the interests of myself, my husband, our community at large, and the country. But this post is not about the election, … Read more

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Point of View: After the Con

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Scott Predictions

OK, so GRL 2016 (Kansas City) is officially over. Time to look back over my pre-con predictions: 1) The Dancing Bear: There was no dancing bear (though there was a dancing Cowardly Lion – who knew Steve Zimmerman was so furry?). There were also dancing flying monkeys, fancing witches, and a handsome dancing tin man. Prediction Rating: 2 out of 5. 2) The Smores Bar: There was no smores bar, though there was a fairly good buffet on the last night, and the Grease movie night featured a fair selection of candy and some great pop corn, including Hershey bars, … Read more

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Point of View: Scraping Together a Living in Publishing

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Bigfoot Hunters in Love cover

If you’re not Steven King or JK Rowling, you probably don’t make a huge income on writing alone. Most of the authors I know write as a second job, or have a spouse who works and can help support them. My husband Mark has been fully supportive of my writing career. But that doesn’t mean I can abandon our own business, and so there’s always a tension between the two in terms of deadlines and my time. This is my third year earning money as a writer, and the trend line is definitely going in the right direction. But I’ve … Read more

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Point of View: Going From Writer to Author

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seal scott author

I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote a sci fi story in fourth grade – ok, so it wasn’t much of a story, more of a Jetsons rip-off. But the creative urges were there in elementary school. In my late teens and early twenties, I wrote my first novel, which was then soundly rejected by a number of publishers and which I allowed to kill my nascent writing career at the time. Now I am actually published – with twelve stories that have appeared in journals, anthologies, and even as stand-alone novellas from respectable … Read more

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Point of View: Selling at a Con

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Scott Angel Freddy yaoicon

Hey all, Just got back from YaoiCon in San Francisco – I went for one day on Saturday to hang with MCB Books’ Angel Martinez and Freddy MacKay. I thought I’d share some of what I learned from this and the other cons I have attended about how to get the most out of your book sales. and to be as organized as possible beforehand. Find Out if You Need a License: Some states require you to collect taxes and send them in for sales made at cons and trade shows. I don’t know if it was required for YaoiCon, … Read more

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Point of View: Squirrel!

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Scott - Squirrel

I just spent a couple months slogging through a fourth (or was it seventeenth?) draft of one of my novels, and then jumped right into an extension of another work. After that, I have another novel to finish up. In short, I’m working or reworking a lot of things I have worked on time and time again before. My writer brain wants something NEW! So this week, I am sidetracking a little bit and working on a BRAND FREAKING NEW short story – something for a holiday anthology I’ve had my eye on for awhile. And you know what? It feels GOOD. … Read more

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Point of View: It’s Done.

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Oberon

I just completed the next step in a journey that began something like twenty years ago, when I sat down to write my first queer sci fi story. The story “Oberon” opened with a graphic (for me) sex scene, and involved a strange world called Oberon – commonly known as Split because it is literally half a world. I didn’t finish it at the time – in fact, I sketched out just a few scenes, and then put it on the shelf with a bunch of my other unfinished works. But it was a milestone for me. I had recently … Read more

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Point of View: How I Edit

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Scott Editing

Hey all, I am breathing down the neck of my first completed novel in twenty years. “Sciatháin” (which many of you may know as “Oberon”) has been through some serious twists and turns to get to this point. I started the story that eventually led to this novel in the mid-nineties. It was the first “gay” story I ever wrote (or at least began), with a sexual opening sequence that was, in a way, my coming out as a writer. I shelved it after a few scenes – well, I shelved pretty much my whole writing career – for a … Read more

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Point of View: Writing a Successful Serial

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Scott

I’m about forty three chapters into “The River City Chronicles“, and am also part of the group serial tale “Marionettes in the Mist” over at Mischief Corner Books. I was just having a conversation with another QSF writer yesterday – someone who is about to embark on a serial project of his own. And it got me thinking – what have I learned in the process of doing two serial fiction projects? So here, in no particular order, is my accumulated wisdom on the subject. 😉 1) Keep Good Notes: This is by far the most important rule of writing … Read more

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Point of View: Taking Stock

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Scott

Hey all, A couple weeks ago, I kinda hit rock bottom as a writer. Having just had three new stories release, I should have been on top of the world. But I had no time to write, and a number of things I thought would go really well in my writing plan had fizzled. I had dreams when I got back into writing. Big dreams. Each story/novella/novel I released would be bigger than the last. People would read my stories and be amazed, touched, moved to tears. And I would start to make a living at this whole writing thing, at … Read more