Today I am so pleased to welcome J. Scott Coatsworth to Joyfully Jay. Scott has come to talk to us about his latest release, The Dragon Eater. He has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving him a big welcome!

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When a Series Springs From a Single Conversation

A few years ago, I posted a conversation topic on one of our Facebook groups about the idea of warp drives, and promptly got a response from a good friend of mine, Jim Comer, that went something like this:

Jim: Faster than light travel isn’t possible.

Me: How can we know what’s possible and what’s not? There are so many things we’re still discovering about how the universe works.

Jim: Maybe so. But based on what we know now, the fastest we will be able to travel is just under the speed of light.

Me:  * thinking *

Jim: So space travel across the galaxy is basically impossible.

Me: Oooh. I should write a short story that takes that constraint into account.

And so The Last Run was born. It’s a little unusual for me. It has lesbian protagonists, which I have done before, but not as the sole POV, and when I wrote it, it was disconnected from my main story universe, Liminal Sky. That’s not the unusual part. I do stand-alone stories all the time. What’s unusual is how it slowly worked its way into that universe, with ramifications I am still exploring.

It introduced the hencha – semi-sentient plants that are integral to the plot.

Critical opinion was pretty unanimous – readers loved the story and the strange world I’d created, and some encouraged me to extend it into a novel.

I nodded and smiled, but I had no intention of doing so. I had bigger fish to fry, namely finishing my new opus, Dropnauts, that was going to put me on the sci fi map. [spoiler alert, it didn’t].

But something about Tharassas kept pulling me back.

When I decided to revise Autumn Rain, a sweet but culturally problematic coming of age story about a young cowboy and a native American teenager, the idea of transferring the story to Tharassas seemed like the perfect solution. I renamed it The Emp Test, added in the emp – a parasitic alien species that allows people to sense/feel each other’s emotions, and the world of Tharassas firmed up around me.

So when it came time to decide on my next novel project, the world of Tharassas was on the top of the list. An entire planet with three separate ecosystems, a looming disaster, and something very like magic sprang out of that gift of a conversation with Jim, years ago.

And now it’s my gift to you.


Blurb

dragon eater coverRaven’s a thief who just swallowed a dragon. A small one, sure, but now his arms are growing scales, the local wildlife is acting up, and his snarky AI familiar is no help whatsoever.

Raven’s best friend Aik is a guardsman carrying a torch for the thief. A pickpocket and a guard? Never going to happen. And Aik’s ex-fiancé Silya, an initiate priestess in the midst of a magical crisis, hates Raven with the heat of a thousand suns.

This unlikely team must work together to face strange beasts, alien artifacts, and a world-altering threat. If they don’t figure out what to do soon, it might just be the end of everything.

Things are about to get messy.

Universal Buy Link: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/book/the-dragon-eater/

Series Blurb:

The Tharassas Cycle is a four book sci-fantasy series set on the recently colonized world of Tharassas. When humans first arrived on planet, they thought they were alone until the hencha mind made itself known. But now a new threat has arisen to challenge both humankind and their new allies on this alien world.

Order and Get the Prequel Free:

I’m giving away the prequel, Tales From Tharassas, with all orders – it contains The Last RunThe Emp Test, and a brand new short story the Fallen Angel. Just order the book and email me a proof of purchase at scott@jscottcoatsworth.com, and I’ll send you the eBook.


Bio

J. scott coatsworth bio photoScott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.

He decided that if there weren’t queer characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality, and is the committee chair for the Indie Authors Committee at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).


Giveaway

Scott is giving away a $20 book gift card with this reveal – your choice of Amazon, B&N, Kobo or Smashwords. Enter for a chance to win:

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