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Thursday, March 14, 2024

J. Scott Coatsworth has a new queer sci-fantasy book out!

Tales from Tharassas book 3
 The Hencha Queen.
The Hencha Queen - J. Scott Coatsworth

"A richly painted world that is both beautiful and sinister, evoking landscapes that are as much science fiction as Tolkiensian fantasy. 5 stars." --Ulysses, Paranormal Romance Guild

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.

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About the Series

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.

Tharassas Cycle Sales

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.

See All the Pre-Release Deals

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?”


The Hencha Queen meme

Author Bio

J. Scott Coatsworth

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).

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

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Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Release Blitz, Exclusive Excerpt & A Giveaway


Title: Mint to Be 
Author: F.A. Ray
Release Date: 12th March 2024

Boyfriend Café, Book 4

I’ve given up on love by the time tall, dark and handsome sweeps me off my feet — literally.
Mal
Everyone around me is sickeningly in love. And I’m happy for my friends. I really am. But when is my turn coming? Why am I still a disposable hookup?
I’m ready to give up on love entirely by the time a bunch of drunk jocks decide to jump me on my way home from the Boyfriend Café. But before a single punch can fall he sweeps in, my dashing hero, my literal tall, dark and handsome, the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.
Please tell me this isn’t a dream.

Omari
The second I hear a scream I run toward it without thinking. My own teammates are threatening someone, and I rush in to stop them. But the man I save is … beautiful. And funny. And smart. And he brazenly gives me his phone number right then and there.
He has no idea that he just gave his number to the most hunted man at this university.
I’m Omari Carter, a football player everyone assumes is destined for the pros. Scouts are hounding me. Coach is pushing me to decide on my future. My whole family is depending on me. But Mal doesn’t know or care about any of that.
With all the expectations weighing me down, I don’t have time for love. So why can’t I walk away from this?

Mint to Be is an opposites attract MM romance with a major size difference, a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, an athlete meeting a lovable fashion nerd and spicy open door scenes.


 



Excerpt #1 

Broccoli cocks his hand back. I stumble away, but I’m not looking and my foot catches on the curb. I fall backward onto the sidewalk, screaming in terror as I thump to the ground. It’s a real scream, too, a full-throated shriek of panic as my doom approaches. I cover my head in my hands. It won’t do a bit of good, but I don’t have anything else to protect myself with. I can’t run. I can’t hide. I can’t talk my way out of this. When that fist comes down on me, I’m pulp on the sidewalk.

“Hey. Assholes.”

Everything stops as someone shouts at the football bros. Broccoli hesitates, his fist in the air, his dumb neanderthal face going slack with surprise as he sizes up the man sprinting toward us like his shoes are on fire. Seriously, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone that fast in my life.

He doesn’t slow down when he reaches the group, either. He keeps running, slamming into Broccoli and tackling him to the pavement. They grunt and shout, but the new guy has the upper hand. He doesn’t seem drunk, for one thing.

“Cut it out, Derek,” New Guy says.

“Fuck, Omari, what the hell? That really hurt!” Broccoli says.

“As much as it would have hurt that dude you were about to punch? What is wrong with you, man? You really think Coach won’t sit your ass on the bench for that shit?”

“I don’t know, man. I was drunk. He was in our way. He said some shit. I got mad.”

“Well, get un-mad. Real quick. And then get the fuck out of here, understand?”

Broccoli nods, and New Guy lets him up. I’m still on the ground, mouth agape as I watch this interaction play out. The other guys in the group all mutter apologies before they drag their buddy away. And then it’s just me and that new guy, the one they called Omari.

He turns toward me, and I instantly forget how to breathe.

People jokingly call Albert tall, dark and handsome, but this guy is literally tall, dark and handsome. He might be taller than Albert, and he’s built from nothing but lean muscle. His every movement bears an athlete’s grace. When he looks down at me, his eyes are deep and vast and dark, nearly as dark as his close-cropped hair and beard. He extends one smooth brown hand toward me.

“Are you okay?” he says.

I don’t know how to answer that with my heart flailing around in my chest.

I just got superhero rescued by the most gorgeous man on this entire campus


Exclusive Excerpt 

When our hour together comes to a close, my heart lurches in my chest.
I came here out of curiosity. I came here to run away from other things. But the moment I know I have to leave, I yearn to stay, to remain in this quiet, bright world full of biscuits and tea and soft conversation. It’s the antithesis of everything I know in the rest of my life, and I reach for it with a hunger no amount of delicate baked goods will ever sate.
“Let me walk you home,” I say on a whim.
Mal is halfway out of his chair when I speak. He freezes, blinking at me. He recovers after a beat, rising to face me as we stand around the little table where we sat and chatted.
“I still have to clean and close up with the other guys,” Mal says. “It’ll take fifteen or twenty minutes.”
“That’s okay,” I say. “I don’t mind waiting.” Oh God, what am I saying? Why am I being so forward? “Besides,” I rush to add, “we did meet because you got attacked on your way home. I didn’t come all this way to let it happen again.”
“My hero,” Mal says with such an achingly beautiful and wry and sassy smile I almost lunge forward to taste it. “Okay then. You can walk me home. There’s a deck table out in the back. Do you mind waiting there?”


 

About the Author
 

F. A. Ray started writing fiction as a child and has never stopped. When they aren’t writing, they enjoy rock climbing and hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where they live with their partner and cat.


Catch up with F.A. Ray

Visit linktr.ee/faraywrites to find out more. You can also sign up for my Patreon, where I post WIPs, updates, bonus scenes, deleted scenes and short stories that don’t appear anywhere else.

Enter the Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Mint to Be, F.A. Ray's giving away 2 e-copies of the release!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!

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