point of view – Page 29 – J. Scott Coatsworth

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Point of View: Testing the Waters

June 27, 2016 by scott

Two years and some months ago, I re-commited myself to writing. I’ve now published a few things, and have set up several blog tours for my books and the anthologies I have been in. I’ve hit all the normal places – the romance blogs, the LGBT reviewers, etc. But I’ve decided that it’s time to do more. I want to move beyond the romance blogs. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to leave them behind. They are a huge part of our community, and it’s important that we support each other. They should be a part of any marketing strategy. But … Read more

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Point of View: Reaching the Ending

June 6, 2016 by scott

I have writer’s brain. I have just gone full-tilt for about a month to write a new novella for a forthcoming anthology. The story is titled “The Great North”, and it’s a post-apocalyptic tale based on a Welsh legend. Some of you may remember how it started out from one of my earlier columns – the story really wanted to be “The Autumn Lands” all over again, complete with blond stranger arriving in town on a wagon train. But the story and I had a big fight, and I won, and I steered it bodily onto a new course. Note … Read more

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Point of View: It’s the Same Story, Dammit.

May 23, 2016 by scott

OK, so I’m knee-deep into a new project called “The Great North” (I know, I know, but this one had a deadline). It’s a post-apocalyptic retelling of a legend, and it’s unlike anything that I have done so far. Or so I thought. So I’m writing along, with my loose outline in a spreadsheet at my side to track all the stuff writers have to track when they write, and my latest crush – mint milanos – at my side. It’s new. it’s fresh. And best of all, it’s working. And then I start to notice things. My first protagonist … Read more

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Point of View: Running a Successful Contest

May 2, 2016 by scott

Hey all, We’re closing out the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction contest, and we’re about to get to the fun part – reading all the great entries that were submitted by y’all. We have 166 in all, from a great variety of writers and covering the LGBTIQA spectrum and the full gamut of speculative fiction themes. Well, I assume they do. You see, I haven’t actually read any of them yet. I am very careful not to do so before we start the judging, as I am compiling the file. We judge these stories blind – without knowing the author … Read more

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Point of View: A Down Day

April 4, 2016 by scott

Sometimes you wake up feeling fresh and alive, newly attuned to the vibrations of the glorious universe, and ready to tackle the day and accomplish great things. This is not one of those days. Work is slow this month. I was harassed on Facebook by someone who took offense when I told them not to call me at 3 in the morning, at a phone number I had never given them. And life in general just seems a bit off the rails at the moment. I’ll get through it – I have a stubbornly optimistic personality. Throw me in a … Read more

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Point of View: Writing for the Blog Tour

February 1, 2016 by scott

One of the many ways we try to get the word out about our new books is the dreaded blog tour. Don’t get me wrong – it’s wonderful how other writers and blogegrs open up their online homes to us when we have something new to share. But then comes the downside – you gotta actually write all those posts. And if you’re a prolific blog traveler like me, those posts can easily number in the twenties or thirties. Sure, you could cookie-cutter it – just take the same post and send it out to each place, making a few … Read more

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Point of View: The Me Me Awards

January 18, 2016 by scott

Today the winners of the MM Romance Readers Choice Awards were announced. I want to give a hearty congratulations to everyone who won – this is your day. You buckled down and worked hard, and it’s a wonderful thing that you won the award. 🙂 However, I am not one of those people. Oh, I know, it’s an honor to be nominated, right? And yeah, it actually kind of is, because it means someone else thought highly enough of me and my work to put me up next to all of those other great authors. But for all of us … Read more

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Point of View: Third Draft Hell

January 11, 2016 by scott

Anyone who follows me regularly will know that I decided to do NaNoWriMo (the writing challenge where you try to knock out a 50k novel in 30 days) for the first time in November. I survived the challenge and wrote Oberon, the first part of a trilogy I’ve been knocking around in my head for about a year. A week later, I dived back in for second draft, and thought that I had managed to iron out most of the problems with the story. I was fairly confident that it all when I sent it off for a beta read. … Read more

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Point of View: And Now for the Edits…

August 24, 2015 by scott

Hey all… I just wrapped up the first draft of my latest work, The Autumn Lands, on Saturday night. And boy is it rough. Not rough trade rough. Nothing as sexy as that. Just… rough. I can only blame myself. I started the story out with a general idea of where it was going, a theme for the anthology (“fall”), and a snippet of a story I wrote maybe twenty years ago that I decided would “work” for this project. But I didn’t sit down to do even a rudimentary outline. I’ve been trying to force myself to take this … Read more