Today we welcome Layla Dorine to the Land of Make Believe. She’s here to tell us about her relationship with her own writing. She’s also going to give you a bit of insight into her upcoming release. And with that . . . Writing is Personal Writing is such a personal thing. I think any writer would tell you the same. That even when you have critique partners and betas and writing groups to bring material to, the process of writing is one of the loneliest feelings in the world. It is also a time for great joy and introspection, at least to me. I find myself recalling things from years and even decades past, drawing on them for character …

Today, I’m excited to welcome the talented and witty fantasy author (who absolutely did not pay me to say lovely things about her…) Carole Cummings. Carole has a few (OK… more than a few…) words she wanted to share on the importance and intricacies of writing diversity. The floor is all yours, Carole! WRITING DIVERSITY FOR (WHITE CIS HET) DUMMIES Okay, the title’s a little… smartassy. I couldn’t resist. And it’s not entirely indicative of what I want to talk about. We don’t need another straight white girl’s take on diversity. Diverse communities don’t need me to snag their hashtags out from under them and tell them what they really mean and how they could get what they want if …

Today Scott Coatsworth stops by to share his newest release, The Rising Tide, the second book in his Liminal Sky series. If you haven’t read, the first book in the series, The Stark Divide, you really need to read that first. More to the point – if you haven’t read it, you should! This is a great series. And now for something completely different.   J. Scott Coatsworth has a new queer sci fi book out: “The Rising Tide.” Earth is dead. Five years later, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever, a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship. When Eddy Tremaine and Andy Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that …

I don’t join a lot of giveaways, but this one seemed like a good event for my readers. Not only can you score a bunch of new-to-you Sci-fi and/or Fantasy books, there is a contest for a pretty cool prize pack. Click the banner below to download some free books and enter the giveaway.   If you prefer to just look at the free books – though I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to enter the contest – here is a link to just the book download page: https://books.bookfunnel.com/bybbscififant/ju0dtvp19d    

Today please welcome Natsuya Uesugi to the Land of Make Believe. I haven’t hosted a lot of authors lately, but Natsuya’s books intrigued me that I signed up for his tour. After poking around his site and looking at his books, I’m glad I did. If you’re looking for something a bit different, read on to find out more. I think you’ll be glad you did. ~AQG Author Interview: Natsuya Uesugi How long on average does it take you to write a book? I can write a book in a month. The longest I think I have taken is six months, the shortest for a full length novel is a week. I usually try to stay around a month when I …

Please welcome Scott Coatsworth to the blog. (No he’s not really insane, but he claims he is.) He’s here to talk about why it’s best to only write one series at a time and share a bit about his newest release, The Stark Divide, which if you read on will see is freakin awesome. J. Scott Coatsworth: Writing Series. I am clinically insane. I’ve committed myself to writing two series at once, both sci fi, one romance and one decidedly not. The first, my Oberon series, is a trilogy set on the half world of Oberon, and the other, Liminal Sky, takes place in the last days of Earth and after I’ve learned a few things in the process: Never commit …

My “Help Me Give Away 10,000 Copies of The Last Grand Master Contest.” is over. Thank you so much to everyone who signed up and who shared the contest.  I didn’t get close to 10K copies, but it was a good effort nevertheless. 🙂 As part of the contest, we had some prizes to give away.  The software selected the winners and they’ve been notified. $50.00  Amazon GC: Kim $25.00 DSP Publications GC:  Cheryl and H.B. Thanks again and be on the look out for more info on the release of Book Five: When Heroes Fall, the conclusion of the Champion of the Gods, series. Enjoy the Journey -AQG

Please welcome to the Land of Make Believe, J Scott Coatsworth. I’ve mentioned before, Scott is trying to single handedly bring Queer Sci-fi (and Fantasy) to the masses.  He stops by today to give talk about blurring the lines between genres in his writing. Did we mention he has a new release?  He does! The Great North is now available everywhere. With that, the blog is yours, Scott. J. Scott Coatsworth: Fuzzing the Line   I’m notorious for coloring outside the line in my stories. I especially like mixing my fantasy and sci fi hues – see “The Autumn Lands”, “Skythane”, “Through the Veil”, “Wonderland”, and “Homecoming” for examples. For my latest story, “The Great North”, I was asked to …

This week I’m thrilled to host another free fantasy eBook giveaway.  I’ve asked other fantasy authors to join me in giving away free books to our readers via InstaFreebie. (If you’re not familiar with InstaFreebie, click the link to learn more.). Eleven other authors are joining me this month to give away 10 novels and 2 excerpts.  Click the banner below to see what books are available this month.       Each book cover on the giveaway page is linked to the author’s InstaFreebie page where you can find out more about their book. Just enter your name, email and preferred format and Instafreebie will send you your ebook. Sign up for as many different books as you like. Look for another giveaway …

We break down time in many ways; days, weeks, months, hours minutes, seconds. We lump by seasons,  quarters and halves. There are school, fiscal and calendar years. My ‘next’ year begins on my birthday, which is different from almost everyone I know. So why is it we are expected to announce our yearly plans on January 1? In my hemisphere winter isn’t a great time to resolve to bike, or swim more (unless you have access to a gym and even then, maybe not.) The days are about as short as they get so quality outside time is sparse. There is the post holiday bonanza of new gadgets to play with to disrupt your plans, but still, we engage in this annual …