Month: March 2023

Can You Eat a Dragon? J Scott Coatsworth

I love merging genres into something else. Modern noir with werewolves? Done. How about Dragons with Sci-fi? Why the @#%$#$% not? That kind of mash-up is the specialty of Scott Coatsworth. I talked to him about his new book, The Dragon Eater.

Alright, who’s J Scott Coatsworth and what are you about?

I’m a late-blooming author who has been writing professionally for nine years. I started out in my twenties in the early- to mid-nineties, but when my first book was rejected by ten big publishers, I gave up. I came back to it in my mid-forties, and went a little crazy, publishing more than short stories, novellas, and novels. I write diverse sci-fi, fantasy, sci-fantasy and magical realism.

What’s the new book about?

It’s about a guard in love with a thief… no, it’s about a thief who swallows a (little) dragon… no, it’s a coming-of-age tale about three friends… it’s all of those things, and a sci-fi tale masquerading as a fantasy at a time of great change when three civilizations will come together in an epic clash that will leave none of them unchanged.

Well, that clears it up! Dragons aside, this book has a lot of sci-fi elements. What intrigued you about this story?

I love working in sci-fantasy, because it’s fun to mix elements from both genres. So we have flitters – basically sci-fi helicopters – and a small silver AI, alongside apparently magical abilities that the three main characters manifest. In The Dragon Eater, two of the characters connect with the world of Tharassas and are able to do amazing things, while the third gets his abilities from an offworld invader.

Who do you read my readers should know about?

I’m a huge fan of Peter F. Hamilton’s works – the idea of trains connecting worlds and ships with minds made me happy. I also loved Anne McCaffrey, especially her Pern books, and there’s a little Pern DNA in Tharassas. Other faves are Kim Stanley Robinson for his Mars trilogy, Shirley Tepper for her books that always left me thinking for weeks, and anything by Guy Gavriel Kay.

In the LGBTQ+ sci-fi market, it’s SI CLARKE (again for her Mars books), Angel Martinez, and Kim Fielding.

I know you have a special offer for anyone who’s interested. Where can they learn more about you, the book, and the goodies?

I’m wide, which means just about everywhere – Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Google Play, Smashwords, Bookstores via Ingram, and a bunch of smaller venues. You can also find buy links for all my books at https://www.jscottcoatsworthc.com (and get a free book when you join my email list.)

Want another free book? Buy The Dragon Eater and send me a proof of purchase to scott@jscottcoatsworth.com and I’ll send you the prequel collection Tales From Tharassas free.

 Johnny Lycan and the Vegas Berserker,is now available from #blackrosewriting.

Also, you can now follow me on Twitter, Facebook (Wayne Turmel Author) or Instagram.

Get book 2 of the Werewolf PI series, available now. Or book 1 if you haven’t started yet. I don’t care.

The Joys (and Pain) of Not Having an Author Brand

What is my author brand? When you think of what you’ve read from me, what do you think of?

Most of you reading this are not writers, so you probably don’t know what I’m about to tell you. In December, I had a book come out. Last week, I had a second. You’d think as an author that would be a very good thing. Everybody who bought the first book would buy the second, right? Guess again.

The problem is that the book that came out in December was the second installment of the Werewolf PI Series: Johnny Lycan and the Vegas Berserker. The book that is still hot off the presses is the third in the Long Distance Workplace Series: The Long-Distance Team, Designing Your Team for Everyone’s Success.

The thing is, readers who enjoy silly thrillers about Lycan gumshoes are not necessarily the same bunch who are reading serious books about making their remote teams work. That

doesn’t even include my short fiction, which has been published all over the world and in every conceivable genre. In fact, if you think about my work, including historical fiction like Count of the Sahara and the Lucca Le Peu stories, the Venn diagram of possible readers looks like this:

What I”m trying to say, is if you read my work, you are in very elite company, and I appreciate you. If you enjoyed The Long-Distance Leader, maybe take a chance on Acre’s Bastard or Count of the Sahara. The same brain, for good or evil, created all of them, and I hope you find, read and enjoy my work.

Plus, you’re in an exclusive club, and that’s kind of cool, right?