J. Scott Coatsworth We started off 2026 with great hopes. Maybe this year would be different. Maybe things would finally start to change again, for the better. And then… Venezuela. And then… Renee Good. With this current administration, it’s always a new outrage, a new spectacle, always a new something horrible shoved in your face, each one more awful than … Read more
Bookstores are the lifeblood of our local literary community, and this is especially true for indie stores. They sell our books, create a third space for us to gather and share our passion for literature, and give back to the community. So we thought we’d do a little giving back ourselves, and share a bunch … Read more
Not too many years ago (well, okay twenty-two of them), Mark and I moved up from the Bay Area to Sacramento. At the time, downtown Sacramento was still pretty much a Monday-Friday town, as the legislators went home on the weekend and all the sub sandwich shops and taquerias on K Street closed down. Sacramento … Read more
So many rules. Every part of our lives is governed by them, and sadly writing is no exception. There are rules of grammar: If you made it through high school English and you want to be a writer, you probably have a pretty decent handle on these rules. But there are others, too. For instance, … Read more
So, the election happened. As a gay, married man, it didn’t go exactly the way I had hoped. As a writer of queer fiction, I am more than a little concerned about what happens next. The incoming powers that be have made no secret of the fact that they are not particularly LGBTQ+ positive. I’ll … Read more
Yesterday, it finally happened. For years, I’ve been whispering in the ear of anyone who would listen. Sacramento needs its own book festival. We got so close in 2020, when my own group QSAC was ready to launch a queer book fest at a local arts center. And then Covid intervened and shut everything down. But … Read more
We’ve all been to book conferences or conventions (at least we had prior to the pandemic). These events have moved to virtual settings and for the most part they are good substitutes until we can get back to face-to-face events (remember to get the vaccine shot). However, I have a feeling virtual cons will still … Read more
After the pandemic hit, our lives moved online with surprising speed. All of a sudden, all those work meetings, gatherings with friends, and other social activities that we used to drive to were taking place in the virtual world, and we had to learn a new word. Or at least, a new meaning for an … Read more
I would kill for a Frappuccino. Which is my gay, overly dramatic way of saying that I am sick to death of banging around the inside of this house and am ready to re-embrace my life in the real world. Sadly, the real world isn’t quite ready to embrace me yet. Not safely, anyhow. On … Read more
Normal. Such a deceptively boring word. Before 2020, I wanted to be anything but normal. Normal was boring. Normal meant being just like everyone else. Normal was for losers. What a difference a pandemic makes, and what a beautiful word normal turned out to be. On March 18th, 2020, Mark and I made our last … Read more