Skythane by J. Scott Coatsworth Blog Tour, Guest Post, Excerpt & Review!

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Hi guys, we have J. Scott Coatsworth stopping by today with the tour for his new release Skythane, we have a fantastic guest post where Scott chats about his world building, we have a great excerpt and Shorty’s review, so check out the post and enjoy! <3 ~Pixie~ 

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Skythane

by

J. Scott Coatsworth

Jameson Havercamp, a psych from a conservative religious colony, has come to Oberon—unique among the Common Worlds—in search of a rare substance called pith. He’s guided through the wilds on his quest by Xander Kinnison, a handsome, cocky wing man with a troubled past.

Neither knows that Oberon is facing imminent destruction. Even as the world starts to fall apart around them, they have no idea what’s coming—or the bond that will develop between them as they race to avert a cataclysm.

Together, they will journey to uncover the secrets of this strange and singular world, even as it takes them beyond the bounds of reality itself to discover what truly binds them together.

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Building a World

by J. Scott Coatsworth!

Pixie asked me to share a little about the worldbuilding for Skythane and the impending disaster that drives the story. I have to be careful not to reveal too much, but there are a few things I can share.

Skythane is set on Oberon, one of the wonders of the Common Worlds. It’s a broken world — literally — shaped like half a cantelope. Or half a cereal bowl. I had a great time in our friend’s kitchen with a couple cereal bowls one night early last year, explaining the whole physics of a half world thing and how weather might be effected by such a strange shape. 😛

Oberon’s sun has been throwing off solar flares and a lot of excess solar radiation, wreaking havoc with the planet. Some believe that the world is doomed to catastrophe, but OberCorp, the company that runs the world, has decided to forge ahead with a plan to take over the production of a black-market drug called pith, which can also make someone fall in love.

Against this backdrop, three people – Xander, his friend Quince, and Jameson the offworld psych — try to find a way to save the world.

I first pictured Oberon and its inhabitants in a short set of scenes I wrote back in the nineties. I started working on it again in 2014 after a long absence, and the story and the world evolved over five or six drafts.

It’s kind of like an oil painting – you layer detail on top of detail and eventually an amazing, complex world appears on the canvas.

Without saying too much, there’s a reason why Oberon, a half sphere, hasn’t been crushed by gravity into a ruined mess.

There are secrets inside secrets, and more to come in the second and third books, although I promise book one – Skythane – has a satisfying ending.

And by the end of it, you’ll know what wereveren, swamp bears, and a rochthan are, and much more.

Enjoy the ride!

——————

My new novel, Skythane, is just out – and it combines my love of sci fi and secret reveals and MM romance. I hope you enjoy it!

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Excerpt!

Rain hit the plas and ran downward in little rivulets, separating and rejoining like branches of time as the storm whipped itself into a frenzy over Oberon City.

Xander Kinnson lay on his bed, head thrown back, watching the tempest with a laziness that belied his inner turmoil and pain. Alix had left him and gone missing. A year had passed, and still he had a hard time accepting that simple fact.

His dark wings with their jet-black feathers were stretched out lazily to each side of his supine form, their tips extending past the edge of the bed. His chest heaved slowly up and down, and he breathed easily, as if he were utterly relaxed.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. Below the surface, under the deception of skin and sinew, his heart beat at a thunderous pace, and his mind raced for answers to Alix’s fate that slipped beyond his grasp.

The handsome trick he’d brought home rested his warm hands on Xander’s thighs, his hot mouth engaged elsewhere. Xander smelled the deep, masculine musk of him, slipping a hand absently through the man’s dark, tousled hair as the rain increased to a thundering downpour against the plas. The drops glistened, each an individual universe of shimmering light before running quickly out of sight.

A flash of lightning illuminated the room, thunder indicating how close it had been. As the heavy rain pounded against the arco’s walls, Xander rode the wave of pleasure higher and higher. Despite himself, he rose quickly toward climax, drawn up on the tide as the trick worked his cock. Unable to stop himself, he thrust his hips almost angrily upward into the man’s willing throat. Closer, closer….

He reached the crest, a pleasure so intense it burned through him like phosphorous, a white-hot fire.

Lightning flared again across the wet, black sky, followed by thunder so close it shook the bed. The storm had reached a fever pitch outside, and he arched his back in the air one more time, his wings rustling beneath him. As if in concert with the storm, Xander came, the release of his orgasm radiating from his hips along his spinal cord and down through his toes and the tips of his wings.

The rush of elation washed away his cares for a few brief moments. Xander shuddered, shivered, and shuddered again, and it was over.

For a while, he drifted in an oblivion that was blessed in its emptiness. The rain fell in a steady beat against the window, and he forgot to wallow in his pain. His mind floated free, with no responsibilities, nothing to worry about for those brief moments between sex and real life. This was what he needed. This lack of thought, this pleasurable oblivion where he could just be.

When he opened his eyes at last, the nameless trick was staring down at him, expectant.

“You’re still here.”

“I can do more, if you’d like,” the man said with a grin. Like Alix, he had no wings—a lander man.

Xander glared at him, annoyed. He was handsome enough, tall, dark-haired, with blue eyes and a light complexion. Strangely, he reminded Xander of Alix. The hair and eyes were wrong, but there was something about him, and that annoyed the hell out of Xander, for reasons he didn’t care to examine too closely. “Get out,” he said with a dismissive wave.

The man frowned. “I thought—”

“Oh right, your pay.” Xander took the man’s arm and slitted him a hundred crits from the wrist reader embedded in his own. Then he waved the trick away. “We’re square. Now get the fuck out of my flat.”

The man gathered his own clothes, but Xander didn’t give him time to put them on. Instead he hustled the trick out of the irising door, palming it closed on his hurt and angry expression.

I really have become a bastard, he thought, staring at his dim reflection in the shiny black door. It had been a long year.

He tapped the cirq in his temple with his left hand, and called out to his PA. “Ravi, any messages for me?”

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About J. Scott

J. Scott Coatsworth - Author PicScott has been writing since elementary school, when he and won a University of Arizona writing contest in 4th grade for his first sci fi story (with illustrations!). He finished his first novel in his mid twenties, but after seeing it rejected by ten publishers, he gave up on writing for a while.

Over the ensuing years, he came back to it periodically, but it never stuck. Then one day, he was complaining to Mark, his husband, early last year about how he had been derailed yet again by the death of a family member, and Mark said to him “the only one stopping you from writing is you.”

Since then, Scott has gone back to writing in a big way, finishing more than a dozen short stories – some new, some that he had started years before – and seeing his first sale. He’s embarking on a new trilogy, and also runs the Queer Sci Fi (http://www.queerscifi.com) site, a support group for writers of gay sci fi, fantasy, and supernatural fiction.

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Review

J. Scott Coatsworth - Skythane CoverTitle: Skythane

Author: J. Scott Coatsworth

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: Novel (244 pages)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (February 17, 2017)

Heat Level: Low – Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts

Blurb: Jameson Havercamp, a psych from a conservative religious colony, has come to Oberon—unique among the Common Worlds—in search of a rare substance called pith. He’s guided through the wilds on his quest by Xander Kinnson, a handsome, cocky skythane with a troubled past.

Neither knows that Oberon is facing imminent destruction. Even as the world starts to fall apart around them, they have no idea what’s coming—or the bond that will develop between them as they race to avert a cataclysm.

Together, they will journey to uncover the secrets of this strange and singular world, even as it takes them beyond the bounds of reality itself to discover what truly binds them together..

ISBN-13: 978-1-63533-404-3

Product Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/skythane-by-j-scott-coatsworth-8154-b

Reviewer: Shorty 

Review: Two men taken to safety as children will come together twenty five years later to save the world.  Xander is a Skythane. He’s had a hard life. Abused at the hands of a diabolical man’s hands he is saved one day by Alix who cherishes and nurtures him until Alix disappears.

Jameson grew up in a religious home and became a psych. He helps people as is what he’s always wanted to do. The time comes when he is tasked to find out where a drug called Pith comes from. It will be a journey fraught with revelations and danger, spanning decades of memories.

The twists and turns and the buried memories were spellbinding to witness. This book had it all. Drama, mystery, suspense, a corrupt corporation, a world on the brink of destruction, characters that added insight to the ever growing mystery as to what it going on, and two men who discover who they truly are and what they are destined for. Simply put this was a fascinating story that grabs your attention from the start. 

I absolutely loved, loved, loved this story. If I could rate it more than a five I would. The Skythane people were described beautifully as well as the worlds themselves. It was so elaborate that I felt as though I was there every step of the way. It was an amazing story from start to finish. 

Highly recommended for all.

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