Bruce H. McCosar

A portrait if this site's author, Bruce H. McCosar. Has that rugged look of someone who's spent all day typing on a laptop. Also wearing one of his trademark black hats, a black shirt, and a dark purple tie.

About

It’s so weird writing a bio in third person. Oh well.

Bruce H. McCosar is a former chemist, teacher, and musician living in Maryland. He is biracial, and a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Depending on how time is reckoned, he’s been writing since either 1984 or 2023. Though he primarily writes speculative fiction (SF/F/H* = science fiction, fantasy, horror), he reads pretty much anything that interests him. He’s a fan of small presses and great editors, of tight plotting and compelling fictional worlds.

* One of my pet peeves with the Internet is people using acronyms without explaining what they mean. GACA.†

† Get A Clue Already.

My Family Name

Although it could be mistaken for Scottish, McCosar is an American Indian name (Creek Nation). It is pronounced mic-CO-saar /mɪ.ˈko.saːr/.*

It comes from my ancestor, Cosa Fixico, nicknamed “Mac.” During the Trail of Tears (1830s), the name was written down as Mac Cosar.

And thus we come to my name.

Every McCosar on Earth is related to me.

(I wrote a separate post about my family.)

* Those seven letters, although pronounced phonetically, have given me trouble my whole life. Sometimes people look at it and say “McCosgar” like “Mc Coast Guard.” Are you kidding me? Does anyone see a “g” in the middle of my name? Seriously, people. Phonics.

Where to Find Me Online

Important: I don’t do Meta or X. If someone has my name on X, Facebook, Instagram, or Threads, it’s not me.

Otherwise, here’s where to find me:

Also, from 2006 to 2010, I was a musician. You can find that work on Jamendo.

As a Writer

I do NOT use AI.

In fact, I wrote a huge article about why I hate it.

I use Open Source Software

I write in as distraction-free an environment as I can. Here’s my setup and work flow:

  • Most of my work is done on either a Lenovo laptop running Fedora Linux, or an old Acer gaming laptop running Linux Mint.
  • I write all of my stories (novels included) in plain text, using the Kate text editor.
  • These are formatted in Markdown, which can be easily transformed into other formats using pandoc (for instance, html, odt, docx).
  • I will perform final proofreads / edits in LibreOffice.
  • I use Inkscape to create my maps and graphics, as well as Wonderdraft for basic map builds.
  • I use the GNU image program, but dislike it’s name as it is a slur against the disabled. (In my notes, I refer to it as GRIPE, the GNU Really Inappropriate Picture Editor.)
  • I wrote my own build / archiving / submissions tracking system using Python, GNU make, and Bash scripts.

(More to come later as I build the site.)