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New Release: The Hencha Queen

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My friend J. Scott Coatsworth has a new book coming out tomorrow: The Hencha Queen. Check it out. It looks great.

Book Blurb:

SILYA COMES INTO HER OWN, BUT WILL SHE BE ENOUGH?

Silya finally has everything she always wanted. She’s the Hencha Queen, head of the Temple, and is working to master her newfound talents. So why does the world pick now to fall apart?

Her once-nemesis Raven is off riding dragons, and their mutual friend (and her ex) Aik is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, a new threat menaces the Heartland from the East, and if she can’t convince a reluctant Gullton city council to prepare for the worst, she may lose everyone and everything she’s ever cared about.

As she uses her magic-like abilities, wit and sheer determination to try to save the city, she’s joined by Raven and his new friends. Will their help tip the scales? And will they finally find out what happened to Aik as a dark storm threatens to sweep them all away?

Forget messy. Things just got apocalyptic.

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.

First Two Books On Sale (& Get a Free Book)

Books 1 & 2 are on sale through March 31st for just 99¢ each (eBooks, all vendors). And if you buy one (or all three) of the main series books, email scott@jscottcoatsworth.com and let him know and he’ll send you a free copy of Tales From Tharassas, the prequel.

Sale Details: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/the-hencha-queen-pre-release-deals/

Non-Exclusive Excerpt:

A sharp crack filled the wine cellar. Kerrick swung the heavy mallet back and then assailed the flopwood boards that blocked the tunnel entrance again. The ancient wood splintered under the blow, sending shards clattering across the stone-paved floor.

It felt good to work out his frustrations. Still, the stubborn wood held out against his assault.

He rested the mallet on the black-tiled stone floor, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Even after a hundred years, the barrier was strong. He’d tried to pry the boards out of the solid stone, but they’d been fastened in too tightly. Brute force it is.

“You’re doing great!” Cor’Lea’s voice was artificially bright, and she was as tall as he was, maybe a little taller, peering over his shoulder at the sealed tunnel entrance.

Silya had tasked her with bringing him down here to check out these hidden caverns under the Temple, in preparation for the coming war. Important, sure, but also clearly an excuse to get him out from underfoot while she prepared for her official Raising.

He grunted. “Thanks. These boards are hard as iron.” And hard as Silya’s will.

One day things would be different between them, once this crisis was over. I just have to be patient.

Coral laughed. “I’m sure a big, strong man like you can break through them easily.” She squeezed his bicep appreciatively.

He shrugged her off. He wasn’t sure if the gawky initiate was flirting with him or just trying to encourage him to get on with it, but either way, he wasn’t interested. “Stand back.” He hefted the hammer again, and she scurried out of his way.

He suppressed a smile, swinging the mallet around for another heavy blow.

Craack.

This time the board buckled inward visibly. Another few hits should do it.

He pulled back the heavy iron hammer again and hit the same spot with blow after blow. Craack. Craack. Craack.

The mallet broke through and a board fell away into splinters, clattering across the stone floor. One down, three more to go. “Why did they seal this cavern up?”

Cor’Lea gestured at the natural chamber. “There was a winery here before the Temple. Sister Dor said they used to use it for extra wine storage.” She looked around the natural chamber, which was now filled with wooden shelving holding a variety of bottled food stores. “When Jas ordered the Temple to be constructed, they kept this wide cavern and blocked off the rest of the tunnels.”

“Just in case the gully rats got in?” That thief Raven had apparently made his home in one of the underground tunnels. Who knew who else—or what else—lived down there?

Cor’Lea snorted. “Maybe.”

Are tunnels all connected, somehow? That was one of Silya’s most urgent projects, to map out the network of caverns beneath the city. Another reason she sent me down here—to get me out from under her robes.

A few more whacks at the next board served to both break it and let out his frustrations at the situation preventing him from doing his sworn job and keeping them apart. And at what she said was coming.

Craack. Craack. Craack.

The board snapped in half, and he judged that he’d cleared enough space to step through into the blocked-off tunnel. “Hand me that lantern?

Cor’Lea complied, taking the opportunity to brush his hand.

He rolled his eyes. I should be flattered. But his heart was already taken.

It was times like these he wished his brother Enrick were still alive. He’d know what to do. He’d been absurdly confident about everything, even though he’d been younger than Kerrick.

Kerrick wasn’t great with women.

He took the lantern and stepped over the bottom board, holding it in front of him. The bright light temporarily blinded him as he sought to get his bearings.

“What do you see?” Cor’Lea peered through the hole behind him.

His sight adjusted, and the tunnel’s walls came into focus.

He whistled. Stacked along the side of the tunnel were hundreds of crates, all strapped together in groups and sealed. “It’s… I don’t know what it is. But I’ll bet Silya will be surprised.” They’d have to find a place to put all this stuff—whatever it was, it was likely rotten after all this time. Silya needed somewhere to store people, not ancient goods.

Cor’Lea stepped carefully over the splintered boards to join him. “What do you think’s inside them?”

The long row of crates disappeared into the darkness. Who knew what the ancients had considered valuable enough to stash down here. Coin? Lost treasure? “One way to find out. Does the Temple have a crowbar?”

Universal Buy Link: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com/book/the-hencha-queen/

Giveaway:

Scott is giving away an eBook copy of Tales from Tharassas, the prequel, to everyone who enters the sweepstakes:

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47308/?

Author Bio:

Scott 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, Liminal Fiction, 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).

Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworth/

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworthauthor

Author Mastodon: https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@jscottcoatsworth

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jscottcoatsworth/

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8392709.J_Scott_Coatsworth

Author Liminal Fiction (LimFic.com): https://www.limfic.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.-Scott-Coatsworth/e/B011AFO4OQ

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Rainbow Snippets

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Running late t his week thanks to spring break. If nothing else, Josh and Brendan were whispering new ideas on the drive.

Strouds Run/Dow Lake and the haunted Anthony Cabin nearby also briefly made These Haunted Hills. The haunting at Dow Lake is tragic whether or not you actually believe in ghosts. There was a real live murder there in the sixties.

Regardless, it’s a beautiful spot. Today’s snippet is Josh and his BFF, Cassia, discussing where to take Brendan ghost hunting.

So, I was thinking we could head out to either Strouds Run or the Anthony cabin at Hocking College earlier in the day, and I’ve cleared it for us to be at the Opera House. They have a group rehearsing, so we can’t disturb them, but if we’re relatively quiet, they don’t see a problem.”

“Let’s make it the Anthony cabin since it’s closer to the Opera House. I doubt he’d say no to going out to eat.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m jealous of all the time you get to spend with him, but I’m happy he’s not an ass.

“He’s been astonishingly ego-free so far. I’m sure he’ll love this plan.”

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

order Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets

Two men, one blond and the other dark haired stand side by side as ghostly energy swirls behind them in the woods
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Rainbow Snippets

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I’m at the Loveland Frogman Festival keeping it weird (it is any wonder Josh is how Josh is in These Haunted Hills? I wonder where he gets it from).

For those already buying and reviewing this novel, I appreciate you so much. Thank you.

The above is the Harvey Wells home in Wellston OH (We’re now getting really close to where I live) This house has a sad history filled with death, including suicide. It does make its way into the book. I have gone out there to do some EVP sessions but there is this dog that won’t shut up (he’s in the book too)

Snippet:

From there, they went into Wellston to Harvey Wells’s home. Brendan frowned, seeing the large house, perched on a hill, all boarded up. It seemed a shame. He trailed after Josh up the stairs to the home.

“I’ve gotten some good EVPs here,” Josh said as a neighbor dog started losing its mind about them being there.

“Tell me about it.”

Josh scowled. “The EVPs are creepy

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

order Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets

Two men, one blond and the other dark haired stand side by side as ghostly energy swirls behind them in the woods
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Rainbow Snippets

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Trying to launch a book while chaos is swirling around you has been an interesting experience. I am so glad that I have these local connections to my story. I hope these photos and insights are interesting to others.

This was the Athens Lunatic Asylum and it is a Kirkbride building. Kirkbride’s heart and intentions were good. He wanted to have a beautiful space for the mentally ill to help them heal (compared to standards of care in the 1800s) He truly succeeded here. More about that in a minute.

This building is now an art center for Ohio University and yes it’s supposedly haunted (something some locals want to downplay) so Josh takes Brendan here.

When it started, this place did good work (it later got overcrowded and was a hot bed of the icepick lobotomy craze so yeah, didn’t stay good) One detail that does make the book are the windows. If you look close at the next picture you can see the scrollwork to make it look nice but they are security bars. Kirkbride didn’t want it to look like a prison.

Another part that made the novel and one that I’ll put here as today’s snippet is the graveyard of unmarked and mostly forgotten graves. So many families never came back for them.

Snippet –

Brendan stared at his feet, toes near a cracked, small, boxy headstone bearing only a number. “They didn’t even give them names, not even in death,” he murmured. Josh swallowed hard. He hadn’t planned to bring Brendan to the Ridges Cemetery when he drove up to the old asylum. Josh didn’t want to stir up shit memories. Drinks at the coffee house had gone well. Brendan didn’t fuss at all as Josh helped him put the sites he most wanted to see in a logical order for them to visit.

And finally a glimpse of the gorgeous cover it has!

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

order Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets

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The Point Pleasant Connection

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What does Mothman have to do with my new novel These Haunted Hills? Can you set a paranormal romance in this area and not at least mention Mothy?!? The above picture is from this past week’s Winter Festival in Gallipolis OH, which is right across the river from Point Pleasant. It was a balmy 27F out the day I took this picture which I absolutely love.

Josh couldn’t resist taking Brendan for a visit to the igloos at the TNT factory (where the Mothman was first spotted). It might not be ghost related but you can’t let a good cryptid pass you by.

Snippet:

Brendan didn’t know what to expect but it hadn’t been a relatively boring igloo of graffiti-covered concrete.

“What are we supposed to do here exactly?”

“Take a couple pictures, get out before someone creepy shows up, and say, ‘Hey, I braved the Mothman.’” Josh smirked.

“I see. And I couldn’t have made the claim with the statue selfie from the town square?”

Josh shook his head. “That’s for tourists. This is the real thing.”

Point Pleasant does have its ghosts too and they are hinted at it in the story. It was just a fun excursion for the characters.

Here’s the famous statue from the square. The Lowe hotel is behind me. To the left is now the Mothman Museum and to the right is Coffee Grinders coffee shop.

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

Preorder Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/