Over the weekend the Golden Crown Literary Society held their annual conference in Portland, OR. Click here to read up on GCLS and the amazing things they do for queer women’s fiction and creative non-fiction.  Saturday night the awards ceremony was held. At Her Feet was a finalist for lesbian erotica.

The competition was stiff and I mean stiff (there’s no pun here), but At Her Feet took home the title along with Switching Gears by Rhavensfyre and Wild Girls, Wild Nights: True Lesbian Sex Stories, Sacchi Green (ed.)

My publisher Bold Strokes Books had a rather impressive showing, a ton of finalist and the winners below.

Anthology (fiction)

Best Lesbian Romance by Radclyffe ed (Cleis)

Debut Author

In Between by Jane Hoppen

Paranormal/Horror

The Lone Hunt by LL Raand

The Awakening by Yvonne Heidt

Romantic Suspense/Intrigue/Adventure

Gemini Deception by K Baldwin & X Alexiou

Code of Honor by Radclyffe

Traditional Romance

I Remember by Julie Cannon

Every Second Counts by D Jackson Leigh

Homestead by Radclyffe

Young Adult

Secret Lies by Amy Dunne

For the full list of winners aka a list of books to load your shelves and ereaders with check out this post from Women and Words thanks to the marvelous Andi Marquette. Also check out Andi’s work. 😀

It’s the 4th weekend here in ‘Murika and I thought I would give away some books! 3 e-copies of FIT and 3 e-copies of your choice of At Her Feet or The Fling! 6 books in total to you fine folks.

Leave a comment here, on my facebook page, like or reblog this post on tumblr OR @ me on twitter with “GIMME!” and you’ll be entered to win. Winners will be announced on Monday, July 7. Tell your friends!

LAWDAMERCY! That was traumatic, but FIT is finally here! For the next five days you can pick up this fabulous novella at Amazon.com , BN.com and kobo.com for 99 cents! (itunes link coming soon!) Check out my facebook and twitter all week for links to some first look reviews and giveaways!

It has been a wild few months, let me tell you. But I won’t bore you with those details. How about I just give you the first look at FIT’s official cover! This baby looked so good on my iPad last night, I shed a few tears.

FIT is just two weeks away. Stay tuned for more reveals and giveaways!

And here are the lineAday bits so far, if you haven’t been keeping up 😉

#1 – It was tempting to fall flat on the floor once Margaret called their final time, but Violet had to get out of there.

#2 – She knew when a guy was flirting, and Grant climb-me-like-a-tree-and-shake-all-my-branches Gibson was definitely flirting.

#3 – He scanned her eyes for a sign of silent hesitation, but when she released a short breath, almost a sigh, he knew she was on board

#4 – She could run, but he’d already seen her. Grant waved. Violet wavedback. Oh God. What the hell was she doing?

#5 – When he slipped the black fabric over her eyes, Violet took a deep breath.

# 6 – This girl-talk was about to get serious. Violet had to tell someone what was going on with Grant or she was going to burst.

#7 – Grant wasnt opposed to mixing his primary business with pleasure. He’d slept with clients before and he was sure he’d do it again.

#8 – He was used to socialites and actresses, not East Coast girls with childhood complexes…

#9 – “She liked to steal. She maxed out two of my credit cards and then, when I broke up with her, she tried to take my dog.”

#10 – “Spread your thighs.” She pulled her knees apart, making room for him to step a bit closer. “Wider.”

Holy moly, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Well I’m back and I’ve got presents! Today kicks off the 29 day (30 would have made more sense, but you see how organized I am) countdown to the release of FIT (#1 in the Fit Trilogy). If you haven’t added it to your to-read list on goodreads you totally should 🙂 . For the next month I’ll be doing #LineADay teasers on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and on this here blog. I’ll also be giving away copies of FIT and some fun book swag. Check in with me everyday for the rest of the month or every few days. Or like once. Either way, you’ll catch something fun for FIT! But first it’s only appropriate to introduce you to my lovers. Meet Grant and Violet.

Special thanks to Allison Teng of Curvy Girl Chic for letting me use her as Violet’s face-spiration. If you haven’t check out Allison’s site you totally should. Her sense of style is freaking amazing! Also keep in mind that FIT is is Violet’s journey, not Allison’s. They only share a face ’cause Allison is so dang beautiful. 🙂

And since you were so nice to stop by I’ll leave you with the first #LineADay

#1: It was tempting to fall flat on the floor once Margaret called their final time, but Violet had to get out of there.

Hope you like!

p.s. At Her Feet is up for a Lambda Literary Award AND a Golden Crown Literary Award. That story was something I wrote knowing that it might not work for a lot of people. It’s amazing to see that it’s being received with so much love. Suzy&Pilar4Ever! ❤

You might be wondering what this post is about. No, I’m just kidding. I’m sure you’ve figured it out. In 2014, I’ll be jumping into the self-publishing pool that now seems like a huge lake with plenty of beach chairs for everyone.

Why? I have a great working relationship with an LGBT publisher and I figured I can self-publish a few of my hetero romances on my own. At this very moment, I don’t want to seek out or sign a contract with another publisher for my straight stuff. I know I will one day. I have plans for something extra romancey with almost no sex that I think needs to go the traditional route, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Why now? When I first got into the writing game, self-publishing was still new to the larger Romance community, plus I didn’t know shit about it, so I figured it would be much, much easier for me to work with a publisher. Now that I have four full length novels and five shorts under my belt, I have a much better understanding of how the process works. I know what story and copy editing mean to me. I know what kind of cover art I like as an author and as a reader. I get what promo appeals to me and what feels like peeing into the wind. Let’s just say I have more confidence in the whole process. So I’ve gotten the process started. I’ve found an editor. I’ve found a cover artist. It’s. About. To go. Down.

What? During NaNoWriMo I was little too stressed out to write a full-length novel, but I had an idea for a hetero novella. I’ve been planning on writing hetero couples forever, but I was waiting for my muse to come back with chips and soda. She finally came back and I pumped that bad boy out, then considered my options for what to do with it. I’ll be completely honest and say that option number one didn’t work out, but this is good because option number one was actually a bad idea for me. While considering option number two, I came up with some changes for my heroine that I really liked. Then after a few more days I realized that I had a story for the hero’s best friend and then I realized I had a story for their co-worker. WHY NOT DO A TRILOGY!?!?

When? Life is happening right now, so in order to do things at a pace that I’m comfortable with, I’m hoping to have the first book out in May or June. If all goes as planned, novella two will be released three or four months later and the final novella, three or four months after that.

AND THEN AFTER THAT??? I have a full length hetero trilogy in the works and I plan to self-publish those as well. All of these stories will be fun, steamy, contemporary romances with interracial couples, Black, White, Chinese, Indian, Mexican… LOVE FOR EVERYBODY!

I’ll still be writing lesbian and bisexual romances with my LGBT publisher so you can definitely expect more of that. We’ll catch up with my sorority girls and their vampires, and possibly Bizzy and Holly from At Her Feet (there’s no possibly about it. i’m totally writing them their own book). I have plans to rework some fairy tales with a transgender lesbian twist. I want to work on some sirens and witches. There will totally be lesbian witches.

I’m looking forward to exploring all of these stories and I hope you guys will come along on this fun ride with me.

Have I mentioned that I’m forgetful? Well, I am. So here’s the skinny on some new stuff from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Next Tuesday, December 17, Love Burns Bright: A Lifetime of Lesbian Romance, hits bookstore shelves.

I have two stories in this anthology. The first, Forever Yours, Eileen, is one I’m particularly proud off. It features two black women who spend a lifetime as friends only to find love together in their sixties.

The second story, Sweetest Noelle, features two women that may be familiar to some of you. Noelle and Ronnie from The Fling share their sensual holiday adventure with you.

This was actually this first story I ever wrote for publication, but I never ended up submitting it to a lesbian publishing house until now. Noelle and Ronnie stayed with me and even though I wasn’t ready to give them their full book, I wanted them to stick around, so Oksana was given some pretty cool friends. If you’re going by a semi realistic timeline, this comes after The Fling.

The stories are very different, but both hold a special place in my heart. 😀

You can pre-order Love Burns Brightly now and it’ll be available whereever books are sold on Decemeber 17. That’s real soon!

Welcome to the Queer Romance Blog Hop, where queer writers and readers of queer romance share their thoughts on the genre, as well as a few recommendations for books to read! Everyone participating in this blog hop identifies as queer and also reads and/or writes (or edits, or reviews!) queer romance. For our purposes, queer romance refers to books with:

1. LGBTQ+ main characters

2. In romantic relationships

3. That have a happy ending. (No Brokeback Mountain here, folks!)

It’s my turn on the fun party-go-round! Rebekah Weatherspoon, here. I write lesbian and bisexual erotic and paranormal romance for Bold Strokes Books. I like to focus on interracial/multicultural couples. It’s kinda my thing. 🙂

1. Let’s start off with the getting-to-know-you stuff: How do you identify, and what does that mean to you? Whatever level of detail you’re comfortable with, of course!

I identify as pansexual. I’ve seen a lot of definitions for the term, but for me pansexuality means I’m drawn to one’s  personality and not what’s going on in their pants.

2. What’s your preferred “flavour” of queer romance (e.g. trans*, f/f, m/m, menage with queer characters, etc.) Why?

As I mentioned above, I write lesbian and bisexual romance, with the characters’ happily ever after ending with two women together. Why? I enjoy writing about women. I find the sexual politics between men and women work their way into a great deal of our lives. It’s nice to focus on a relationship where men aren’t the focus.

3. Do you write/read/review? Do you think being queer affects your participation or platform in romancelandia?

I do read a lot and review as well. I suppose my being queer does affect my platform, but not my participation. I live as a queer person, so it’s going to inform all aspects of my life. As a writer of lesbian relationships my place in romancelandia is an interesting one. I find that lesbian romance has a smaller support system. Our readers are loyal and amazing and though I don’t think my voice as an author has been silenced by other authors, it is difficult to get reviewers and new readers to try my work. Lesbian romance doesn’t have to support that gay or m/m romance does.

4. What drew you to queer romance?

I started writing in the world of fanfiction. Twilight fanfiction to be exact. I wrote a few hetero pairings, but I wanted to explore some of the female characters who were left out in the wind. I wanted more of Rose and Leah and way more of Bella without Edward. I ended up writing a story about Bella and Alice and then another story about Bella and Leah. When I started working on my original stories I wanted to keep going with female pairings.

5. What do you love about queer romance in general, and/or your specific subgenre?

I just love romance in general. I tend to write fun playful characters, so when I write about two women together I can shift between a serious seductions to post coital conversations that take on the air of a slumber party.

6. What’s your pet peeve?

My pet peeve is the realities of LGBT representation and marketing in romanceland. I see LGBT/GLBT used to describe blogs, lists, even publishers, but what they really mean is a very specific kind of m/m. I think people should be free to read and enjoy whatever they want, but those four letters mean something very specific to me and I’d like to see those things represented equally.

7. What growth would you like to see in the genre, going forward? Any ideas on how to accomplish that?

I would like to see queer authors and characters marketed equally. I think publishers see LGBT works as a niche market so they treat those works as if they belong in a niche market and then say SEE THESE TITLES DON’T SELL AS MUCH. That’s because they don’t get the shelf space or the marketing pushes. My local B&N carries my titles nearly fifty yards away from the romance section. How are romance readers going to take a chance on them if they can’t even see them?

8. Do you seek out other queer authors when you read?

I do. 🙂

9. How do you feel, in general, about straight peoples’ participation in reading, writing, and reviewing queer romance?

I think straight people writing and reviewing queer characters and authors is great. I don’t like it when straight authors praise themselves for being inclusive and ignore queer authors who are also doing the work.

10. Rec us 3 titles in your chosen subgenre and tell us why you love them.

Such a Pretty Face by Gabrielle Goldsby – Plus-sized Latina finds love with a white contractor. Very sweet romance, with realistic family subplot.

The Collectors by Lesley Gowan – One of the best BDSM romance I’ve ever read. Newbie submissive matched with a super sexy Mistress and they actually fall in love.

The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin by Colette Moody. Two words. Lesbian. Pirates.

All said, I’d like to thank Heidi for putting this together! Happy Reading!

Thanks for reading and for following the tour! Be sure to use the links below to check out more great posts from our participants!

Hey party people! With At Her Feet out in the world (and emotionally scarring a reader or two) it’s way past the time where I should have another book on its way to the printers. Well, I don’t but I am working on something new. Here are the stats!

Title: TOUCH

Genre: Erotic Romance (This will be my first hetero romance that I’ll be writing for publication. I have tons of hetero fan fic floating around)

Premise: Two commitment-shy workaholics with their own sets of issues find each other through a craiglists-esque ad and realize that being single and lonely as hell, for whatever reason, is not all it’s cracked up to be. My hero, Alex, has a problem connecting with women due a particular physical situation. My heroine, Brigitte, has it drilled into her head that her career is all that matters. They meet. Sparks Fly. They totally dry hump.

Status: 19,750/75,000 words

My Characters:

I saw Brigitte as Kelis with this particular haircut. In my head Alex looks like this young man, who’s name is actually Alex. I found him way after I started the story. He gave me permission to use his pretty face. 🙂

I was originally going to write this as a novella to submit to a large publisher. Both characters started out white and then Brigitte was like NO, IM BLACK! And then I started working on Alex’s tattoos and I was like wait this guy is half-Samoan. I tried. Really I did. (I didn’t try at all 😀 )

And about that NaNoWriMo, I usually don’t participate because I should be writing all the time, but by the time Nov 1 rolls around, I should have 50,000 words left on this story. I NEED to finish it by December 1st so I can get rolling on the next Vampire Sorority Sisters book. I really need to get on that. So I will be NaNoWriMoing in an effort to finish this story. The current plan is to self-publish it in the Spring, but we’ll see how that works out.

In other news, I’ve become obsessed with Sleepy Hollow. That’s my dealio. What’s new with you?

Hey! Things have been kind of crazy in my non-writing life, (stupid life and it’s happening and crap). I’ve been self-medicating with Sleepy Hollow, Elementary, and hours and hours of Spartacus, but I’ve been working on getting back on track. I’m working on a story that I’m calling TOUCH. I don’t want to promise anything in terms of date of completion because I may have to stop working on it to punch out the next in the Vampire Sorority Sisters series, but we’ll see.

In other, more exciting news!!!!! I was slightly terrified about people reading At Her Feet. The subject matter is a wee taboo. I know people within the BDSM community who aren’t down the it, but so far the feedback has been awesome. I want to say Thank You to everyone who has picked it up so far and given it a try.

Jim Lyons at the Seattle P-I posted this review this week, calling At Her Feet “the best and most original book that I have read in any genre for a very long time.”

JJ over at Rainbow Book Reviews had some wonderful things to say about At Her Feet as well. AND THEN! She went and read my other books and wonderful things to say about them too. Check out her kind words.

Better Off Red Review

Blacker Than Blue Review

The Fling Review

I nearly missed the next bit, but At Her Feet was also listed with thew new releases on the USAToday Happy Ever After page. Extra cool considering how many books are released each week. It’s a lot of books.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Blacker Than Blue is a finalist in the Rainbow Reader Awards. Not too bad, I say. 🙂 I’ll try to post more updates on TOUCH in the coming weeks.

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