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The Emp Test

A Tharassas Cycle Tale

by J. Scott Coatsworth

Jey awakens to find himself in the care of a handsome stranger - a cheff from one of the mouuntain tribes, enemies of his own people. Afraid for his life, Jey has no choice but to let the man take care of him and his broken leg.

Avain is on his Aud'ling - his coming-of-age test that requires him to spend a couple months alone, away from his own people. When he finds the steader trapped under his aur with a broken leg, he knows he has to help. But not being allowed to speak during his test makes things... difficult.

The two of them will have to come to an understanding if they're not going to kill one another. And Avain has a secret to share with Jey, one that that will change his life forever.

This book is on:
  • 3 To Be Read lists
  • 1 Read list
Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth

Genres:
Fantasy, Sci Fi

Tags:
author - american, format - short stories, format - short story <15K, what - concept - family conflict, what - concept - homophobia, what - concept - internal homophobia, who - occupation - rancher

Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 2
Romantic Content: 2
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay
Tropes: Coming of Age, Cultural Differences, Enemies to Lovers, Find Love and Come Out, First Time, Forbidden Love, Hurt / Comfort, Opposites Attract, Star-Crossed Lovers, Trapped Together
Word Count: 11500
Setting: Distant Planet
Languages Available: English
Excerpt:

About the Author

Scott lives with his husband of more than 30 years in a leafy Sacramento, California suburb, in a little yellow house with a brick fireplace and a couple pink flamingoes out front. He has always inhabited the space between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up and read the golden age classics and more modern works as well, he began to wonder where all the people like him were.

After he came out at twenty three, he decided that it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t many gay characters in his favorite genres, he would reimagine them himself, populating them with a diverse universe of characters. He would subvert them and remake them to his own ends. And if he was lucky enough, someone else would want to read the things he wrote.

His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. Although he was born an introvert, he learned to reach outside himself and connect with others like him.

Scott writes stories that subvert expectations, that seek to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something new and unexpected. He also runs both Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring people like them together to promote and celebrate fiction that reflects their own reality.

His writing, whether romance or genre fiction (or a little bit of both) brings a queer energy to his stories, infusing them with love, beauty and power and making them soar. He imagines a world that could be, and in the process, maybe changes the world that is, just a little.

He was recognized as one of the top new gay authors in the 2017 Rainbow Awards, and his debut novel “Skythane” received two awards and an honorable mention.

He runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, and is a full member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), where he ran the Indie Author Committee for almost three years.

You can find him at Goodreads here, on Amazon here, on QueeRomance Ink here, and on Facebook here.