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Critiquing – Finding the Balance

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As part of the QueerSciFi.com site, we have a fairly new section where authors can share their WIP’s for critiques – anything from a general “what do you think?” to a more detailed line-by-line edit. But as I start doing more of these critiques, I’m learning (or re-learning) that not everyone agrees on how to do a good critique. I did one critique this last week where the author pointed out after the fact that my use of LOL and “unintentionally funny” could be seen as derogatory to the author and / or their work. While my comments were not … Read more

New MM Steampunk Release 7/14/14: Noble Metals by LA Witt

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Ever since Robert Belton gambled away the money to stake his claim in the Klondike gold fields, he’s been stranded in Seattle working as a prostitute. When an attractive customer needs help hauling provisions to the frozen north, Robert eagerly volunteers. Dr. John Fauth is only searching for one thing, and it isn’t gold. He needs platinum for the prototypes of his revolutionary inventions, and if he doesn’t find it in the Klondike, his university career—and his research—is over. Getting to the Klondike is a grueling, dangerous journey, and just hours after leaving Seattle, John and Robert find themselves in … Read more

New to the Group – ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords

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I’d like to briefly introduce my blog, ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords, a LGBTQ centric book blog (reviews, author interviews, essays on writing, contests and such). While I review all LGBTQ offerings, fiction and non-fiction, SciFi, Fantasy and Paranormals are deep favorites of mine.

I would like to post two of my reviews today as a sort of introduction. One was by a new author to me, Mina MacLeod and the other by Theo Fenraven (a paranormal trilogy).

Theo Fenraven wrote his Precogs in Peril between 2012 and 2013, a terrific paranormal trilogy which came to a conclusion in January 2013. My series review can be found here http://wp.me/p220KL-W0

SSS Edges & Embers - coverSwords, Sorcery and Sundry by Mina MacLeod
Suitable for YA and Adult Readers, minimal sexual content
First story in a new series
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

“A wizard, a soldier, and an assassin walk into a bar …”

Wizard Sylvain has just recently arrived in Abelia, the large capital of the Firmiana Duchy. He’s hot, tired and just wants a drink before going up to his rooms. Soldier Ashe is at a table nearby wanting to enjoy her food and friendly banter with the bar owner. Assassin Niklas is situated right in the middle, with an agenda of his own and hopes not to be interfered with. Alas, once the trouble starts and it seems that Niklas has been ganged up on, then Sylvain and Ashe just naturally jump into the fray with sword and sorcery at hand.

But quickly things go awry as Sylvain accidentally sets the bar on fire and the culprits escape. No one has any money to pay for the damages they caused. With the Duchy’s guards at the door, and gold needed to repair the damage to the hotel and bar, the wizard, the assassin, and the warrior team up (it was their fault after all) to earn the money they required to keep them out of the jail and maybe make them even solvent. But the mission they were hired for will take them into the Deadlands and in order to survive, the three will have to become a team to contend with. What happens when a wizard, an assassin and a soldier combine and become something much more than any of them expected….

When a story opens with a tongue in cheek reference to a long-standing bar joke, I just knew I was in for a rollicking great time and Mina MacLeod’s Swords, Sorcery & Sundry delighted me at every turn. How I loved this story and MacLeod’s characters! From the very premise,three disparate people meet in a bar and bonding over a combined debt, I was hooked. And I stayed that way to the end of this adventure and the possibility of a series. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Swords, Sorcery and Sundry is that wonderful and rare story that be listed either as a YA book or M/M Romance, an element that was intentional on the author’s part. That is due largely because it is a story about the tight bonds of friendship first, and then the beginnings of a m/m romance between two of the friends second. But always it is the ties of friendship that guides them and forms them into a family of sorts as well as a business.

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Writing Transgender

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I’m about to start off on a new story, and have decided to include a transgender character with basically a gay orientation. I know a fair amount about the transgender community from covering the struggle for LGBT rights for six years. But knowing is not the same as living. I’ve decided to try to find an expert to help me get the details right. I’m not straight, but I write straight characters. I’m not a woman, but I’ve written female characters. I’m not a werewolf… well, you get the idea. But I think writing transgender characters is a bit of … Read more

Keeping the Focus

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One of my greatest challenges is sticking to my planned writing times and actually writing for the whole hour I set aside each day for that purpose. The reasons are myriad. My phone buzzes when I get a text or facebook contact. I want to check for new emails I run a little late at “work” and use up some of my writing time the phone rings We have plans that conflict with my writing time I’m just feeling particularly ADD My plan is to always write from 5-6 PM, for an hour, without exception, but of course life doesn’t … Read more

QSF Member Book Announcement – Hybrids: Arrival

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One of our new members, Chris O’Guinn, has a YA gay sci fi book to announce: The night that Joaquin witnesses the fire in the sky was the last night of anything normal for him. His world of high school and football is completely upended as he comes face to face with an extraterrestrial being. Thrace, as the alien calls himself, seems friendly enough. However, he has abilities that are far beyond human. And he comes with word that others of his race are already on Earth. Joaquin’s friendship with Thrace takes him into danger and chaos as he learns … Read more

Book Review: A Solid Core of Alpha

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Hey all, I just finished reading Amy Lane’s “A Solid Core of Alpha”. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it’s the story of a boy, Anderson, who sees his entire world destroyed, and flees in a shuttle on a ten year flight all alone to find safety, and a man, CJ, who meets Anderson when he finally arrives at his destination. A good portion of the book revolves around the shuttle journey. And if you think that one guy in a shuttle would make for boring reading, you’d be wrong. Anderson learns to tinker with the … Read more

Looking for Inspiration

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Where do you go when you need a little inspiration for your writing? What do you do? For me, it’s often music. Sometimes a certain song will tweak an idea in my mind, a seed that then grows into an idea for a story – not a simple retelling of the song’s lyrics, but more a feeling, an idea that springs from it. Other times, I’ll be stuck somewhere in a story, and I’ll be in the car on the way somewhere, and again a song will tease an idea free in my head, which will link to something else … Read more

My First Book Cover

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OK. when I say I, I mean ours – it’s an anthology, and I’m only one of the authors. But still… My story Bear at the Bar, my first sale, is included. Woo hoo! While the anthology is mainstream bears, my story tips a little into the paranormal. On sale from Dreamspinner in August, I think.

Writing the Future

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One of the most difficult things for me as a sci fi author is figuring out what I think the future will look like. Not just socially – that’s often the fun part, coming up with new social constructs to hang my story on. But also physically. What will the cities look like? What will gadgets look like? How will they work? How ill we eat? Communicate? Have sex? These can be fun things to figure out too, but they can also be writing minefields. Take, for example, computers. 50 years ago, they existed only as huge, room-sized things that … Read more