Sunday Shorts will be back in two weeks, post-vacation. In the meanwhile, here’s my writing buddy, to let you know we will be spending all my time with him, as it should be.
The Five Things I need from White People Right Now
Read.
I talk a lot about what it’s like to live a queer life. Everything I talk about, I try very hard to point out that as a white guy, I walk with a crap-tonne of privilege. I’ve had to interact with police twice in my life. Once, it went very, very poorly. Once, it was fantastic. And while I have felt belittled, ignored, the butt of jokes–in short, treated like a ‘fag’–by the police, I have never felt like my life was in danger for simply being present.
That is privilege. It shouldn’t be.
Another day, another unarmed black man dead. Terence Crutcher’s SUV stalled as he was coming back from community college classes. He was studying music appreciation and was very active in his church choir. Seeing his picture reminds me of any number of big dudes I know who can sing their lungs out. From his view in a helicopter, a Tulsa police officer thought he looked like a bad dude. Instead of trying to help the man with the stalled car, two officers made him put his hands up as he approached them for help. As he reached into his SUV, probably to grab some form of identification, which again, should not have been necessary because he was the one in distress, he was tased and then shot. He was unarmed. He was the father of four.
I feel like ranting and raving about how angry and scared this makes me…
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Release Announcement: Flight
Every time it comes up, I enter the micro-fiction contest from Mischief Corner Books. To say that flash fiction is not my forté would be understating, and every freaking time I end up tossing a few ideas that turn out to be three times the word count maximum before finding something I can work with that’s only, say, double the word count limit, and then try to pare it back to target.
This year was no different.
The theme was ‘Flight,’ and I’ve included my wee story below (it was sparked from a dream I had, actually), as well as the links to the final anthology product, which launches today. If you’re at all a fan of flash fiction (and queer SF/F in specific within your flash fiction), it’s worth a look.
Flight
A 300-word story should be easy, right? Many of our entrants say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever written.
Queer Sci Fi’s Annual Flash Fiction Contest challenges authors to write a complete LGBTQ speculative fiction micro-story on a specific theme. “Flight” leaves much for the authors to interpret—winged creatures, flight and space vehicles, or fleeing from dire circumstances.
Some astonishing stories were submitted—from horrific, bloodcurdling pieces to sweet, contemplative ones—and all LGBTQ speculative fiction. The stories in this anthology include AI’s and angels, winged lions and wayward aliens. Smart, snappy slice of life pieces written for entertainment or for social commentary. Join us for brief and often surprising trips into 110 speculative fiction authors’ minds.
Publisher: Mischief Corner Books
Author: Various
Cover & Illustrations Artist: Mila May
Length: 33.6 K
Format: ebook, print
Release Date: General release 9/21/16
Pairing: LGBTIQA
Price: $4.99 eBook, $12.99 print b/w*, $24.99 print color*
*Book contains 5 illustrations inside.
Purchase/Information at: Mischief Corner Books, Amazon, ARe, Kobo, Goodreads, and check out the series of contest books at Goodreads, also. I’ll edit to add more links as the publisher makes them available, and as always, if there’s a way to order from your brick-and-mortar, you know that’s where my heart is.
An excerpt from “Conceptually Speaking,” by ‘Nathan Burgoine
Imprecise. That was the thing about their telepathy. The visitors communicated conceptually. Their initial message was barely translated in time, and only by those who could could “hear” it. Most of the mission training had focused on how difficult it would be to convey certain concepts that one side or the other didn’t already understand.
The tests were clear, though. Maddie “spoke” alien better than any other human who’d tried. No matter the misgivings of the military or the government or the population of Maddie’s birth county—and there were many—it was the highest score of conceptual communication on record, and so the UN chose Maddie.
The first direct communication with Maddie’s mind? Massive nosebleed, then unconsciousness.
The Authors
In the first year of the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction contest, we received about 15 entries for the theme “Endings”. In the second year, it was 115 for “Discovery”.
This year, we had more than 170 entries from people around the world, and from all parts of the LGBTIQA rainbow. “Flight” represents 110 of those people and their stories.
The authors:
Colton Aalto, Kiterie Aine, Odin Alexander, John Allenson, Tam Ames, R.R. Angell, Bran Lindy Ayres, Jeff Baker, Jessica Bansbach, J.P. Barnaby, Capri S. Bard, Jonah Bergen, Michael J. Bode, L.M. Brown, Marie Brown, Michelle Browne, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Iona Burnfield, A.M. Burns, Katelyn Cameron, Hank T. Cannon, Foster Bridget Cassidy, Skylar M. Cates, H.J. Chacon, M.A. Church, Rebecca Cohen, S.A. Collins, J. Comer, Ross Common, Elliot Cooper, Gretchen Crane, Jase Daniels, Claire Davis and Al Stewart, Avery Dawes, Zev de Valera, Bey Deckard, Jana Denardo, Nicole Dennis, Kellie Doherty, Jude Dunn, Tray Ellis, Rhi Etzweiler, Thursday Euclid, K.C. Faelan, Christina Mary Francis, L.E. Franks, J.R. Frontera, Liz Fury, Elizabella Gold, Ofelia Gränd, S.E. Greer, M.D. Grimm, Jenna Hale, Kaje Harper, Qaida Harte, Saxon Hawke, Kelly Haworth, Cheryl Headford, Valentina Heart, Jaylee James, Jambrea Jo Jones, Michael M. Jones, Ryvr Jones, Ellery Jude, Jon Keys, K-lee Klein, Jennifer Lavoie, A.M. Leibowitz, Mario K. Lipinski, L.V. Lloyd, Clare London, Meraki P. Lyhne, Lloyd A. Meeker, Eloreen Moon, John Moralee, Christopher Hawthorne Moss, E.W. Murks, Rory Ni Coiliean, Jackie Nacht, Thea Nishimori, Bealevon Nolan, Alicia Nordwell, Mathew Ortiz, Nina Packebush, Donald Qualls, Kirby Quinlan, Mann Ramblings, Loren Rhoads, Jojo Saunders, Brent D. Seth, L.M. Somerton, Rin Sparrow, Andrea Speed, Paul Stevens, Ginger Streusel, Jerome Stueart, Julia Talbot, Jo Tannah, Natsuya Uesugi, Allen Walton, A.T. Weaver, Missy Welsh, Eric Alan Westfall, Brandon Witt, Alexis Woods, Christine Wright, P.T. Wyant, Victoria Zagar.
Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Rion Woolf
Today on Sunday Shorts we’re meeting a “new-to-me” author, Rion Woolf. This is, as I’ve said a few times (for those of you paying attention) one of the best parts of reading anthologies for me.
Rion joined me and was kind enough to back-and-forth some questions about her story, “Swim Girl,” which was a great tease of a tale that pays off for the reader, while making you wonder about the time in between.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.
NB: “Swim Girl” has an awesome slow boil to it—the brush of attraction, the first interaction, the first touch between the women—it all builds at an aching pace. The parallel with Kinsey’s own sexuality and what she had—and hadn’t—yet done played perfectly into the pacing. How conscious was the choice to make Kinsey a neophyte?
RW: To be honest, the element that started this entire story was water. For me, sexuality and gender have always felt like water—fluid, flexible, and always in flux. So, I knew the story would revolve around that special element. From there, the idea of Kinsey learning the swim strokes from Ellen seemed like the natural bridge that would connect these two women together, in both location and physicality. Swimming can be a very physical and demanding sport that, in many ways, is based on self-competition and self-drive. I needed to move both of these women out of that realm of “self” and into a space where each would be willing to accept the touch of the other. Ellen’s job as a full professor is based on leading people to the knowledge that she holds, so it made sense to me that Kinsey would be a neophyte rather than Ellen’s equal. However, Ellen isn’t necessarily driven by power and control—there are elements in the story that equalize the two women. What makes these two women “equal” in some ways is their mutual desire for one another, and the fact that neither wants these experiences to end. Both women are driven to the other by curiosity and mystery. There is something undeniably sexy about professors and teachers—those enlightened mysteries that seem to be like us, but hold so much more knowledge and experience. Many of us have experienced an infatuation with a prof and fully understand what Kinsey means when she says, “I never knew History could be so sexy.” Ellen finds Kinsey incredibly mysterious as well—who is this student who will someday rival her in the pool, this young woman who seems so different from the others in her class?
NB: For me, it was “I had no idea neurochemistry could be so sexy.” Uh. Right. Moving on… Professors and students is a theme that gets explored in a few ways in Girls on Campus, but your choice to make this a story of reflection put a different frame on the tale. It was almost bittersweet. For me, so much of short fiction is thinking about ‘and then what happened?’ Do you have plans to revisit Kinsey in her present day in a future work?
RW: I loved working with both of these characters, and writing short fiction as opposed to the novel gave me the chance to get to know these two women that I have been thinking about for some time. It’s fun to think about what both of them are doing now or will be doing in the future. I’d love to check in with Kinsey when she has a few more years on her—say at age 30 or 40—but for now I’m leaving Kinsey in this space of “Swim Girl.” I imagine that Kinsey looks back on her experiences in this short story and wonders whether or not it was all a dream. I really wanted the story to have that dream-like quality to it.
While “Swim Girl” is in no way autobiographical, I have been in “secret” relationships before, and they seem to have that magical dream-like quality to them. I found myself regularly asking: did this really happen or did I imagine it all? These types of relationships rarely fit anywhere but in that strange space between reality and dream. This otherworldly quality is also present through the use of water and the environment surrounding a pool. Water in and of itself is a strange and mystical force let alone adding to it the heat and desire of a forbidden relationship!
NB: I love that ethereal quality to “Swim Girl.” Now, this is Sunday Shorts, so I have to ask: has the short fiction bug bitten? Can we expect more from you down the line, or do you have new projects coming up you’d like to share?
RW: The short fiction bug has definitely taken a chunk out of me! Short stories are all I’ve published so far, although I’m working on ideas for longer works that I hope to develop down the road. My short erotic piece “Stay” appeared in the collection Shameless Behaviour: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame from Go Deeper Press and the erotic piece “Stump Grinding” was published in the collection The Dirty Dirty from Jaded Ibis Press. My work has branched out into the romance genre, and I recently worked on a short story that I hope will find a home in an upcoming lesbian romance collection. Beyond these short stories, I have plans to continue publishing. So, more to come
NB: Huzzahs! I look forward to more.
If you’d like to catch a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.
Photo credit: Francesca Woodman, 1958-1981.
Rion is a lesbian erotica writer who loves everything erotic and everything water. Her work has appeared in The Dirty Dirty and Shameless Behavior anthologies. Her latest piece, “Swim Girl,” appeared in the Girls on Campus anthology edited by Sandy Lowe.
Facebook page and contact here.
Want to know more about Rion? Read an in-depth interview with Jaded Ibis Press here.
Coming Down from CAN•CON: The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature
So much fuzzy brain.
One of the things about being a writerly type and heading to a convention is how actively unlike the rest of my life the convention is. So many people. So much discussion (and discussion with people who aren’t bored talking about writing). It’s overwhelming, in a good way, and when it’s done it’s a little like popping the clutch.
Oh. Right. Time to walk the dog and sit down and write and…
Like I said, fuzzy brain.
So, CAN•CON. I had a pretty awesome time. You know you’re in a great place when the first thing you get to do is roll up your name badge character sheet. (No, seriously.) Alas, all the stats were rolled with a d20, and while I natural-20’d my Intelligence (yay!), I also rolled a 2 and a 4 (for Strength and Dexterity) which took me out of the running for any battles. Still, it was a neat flavour to the conference to keep track of experience (you got experience for attending panels, visiting the dealer’s room, getting a book signed, and so on), as well as earning equipment every time I picked something up from the dealer’s room (I’d look great in leather armor, thankyouverymuch).
Sam Morgan and Sheila Williams
Post character generation, I hit the opening ceremonies and enjoyed Derek Künsken‘s introductions of the guests of honour, which included Tanya Huff (or, as I kept referring to her, Tanya-Freaking-Huff!), Shiela Williams (who I didn’t manage to speak with but loved everything she said), Sam Morgan (that man is so damned funny in such a sneak-up-unexpectedly-way you have no idea) and Eric Choi (ditto).
Eric Choi and Tanya Huff
This was such an incredible amount of knowledge, experience, and influence to put in one room, and frankly it was a little bit intimidating to be sitting there listening to wealth of first-hand voices at play. Happily, as each guest was introduced and spoke, it became clear the vibe wasn’t going to be anything of the sort.
I’ve been to conferences where the guests of honour were “one step removed” from attendees, but this was not at all the case, and it was so lovely and relaxed from the moment things began. Especially when Derek handed Marie Bilodeau the mic along with a list of suggested things to say were she to stay on script.
It’s like he doesn’t even know her, eh?
Marie walked us through some of the adventures to be had for the upcoming weekend (including some of the unintentional adventures included in the program like room names that were… uh… encoded for those of us who love adventure and blazing new trails without accurate maps). If you’ve never heard Marie speak before, you need to, and you also need to make sure you’re ready to laugh, because she’s freaking hilarious.
Now, one of the things a newbie to CAN•CON might not know is the two-pronged focus. Derek mentioned it in the opening, and it struck me it wasn’t something of which I’d been completely aware. CAN•CON focuses its efforts in doing two things very well: speculative fiction discussions, and science discussions. And wow does it succeed.
“Any virus that kills its host is a crap virus.” (Agnes Cadieux)
Case in point? The first panel I went to, ‘SARS, Ebola, and Zika: What Have We Learned?’ Here I got to listen to Dr. Dylan Blaquière, Dr. Anatoly Belilovsky, Agnes Cadieux, Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes, and Dr. Alison Sinclair lay some awesome science bombs down, and the discussion was lively, informative, and pretty much bursting-at-the-seams with plot nuggets for science fiction writers who want to up their science game. There was also much laughter again (I often think humour is used to deal with otherwise awful realities, and this drove home that point) and I think the winning statement of the evening went to Agnes Cadieux, with her line about “crap viruses” (see right).
All the knowledge flying around here was intensely satisfying, and the whole panel was so “on.” Really engaging, and now I want to rethink so many things I’ve accidentally picked up from the media about viruses. (That was another great line from one of the panelists, “Have you noticed the media can’t say the word ‘virus’ without the word ‘deadly’?”)
From there, it was my turn to speak, so I joined the aforementioned Dr. Blaquière, Angela S. Stone, and Talia Johnson and we hit our panel: “The Mechanics of Sex.” This was a blast, and the audience was so open and willing to engage (how can you not, when Angela is offering you sex toys and chocolate for asking questions?) and we hit some really awesome points. I love, love, loved having Talia there to bring the lens on trans experience with the medical professional community, as well as having Dylan and Angela, who, as a doctor and a nurse respectfully, had insights from within. It was a great freaking talk, and a wonderful way to end the first day.
Ian Rogers, reading from ‘Every House is Haunted.’
Bright and early on Saturday, myself, Matt Moore, and Ian Rogers were blocked in to read at the first 10:00a slot, and so I got to hear from But It’s Not the End and Other Lies (Matt’s upcoming book from ChiZine) and Every House is Haunted (Ian’s book) and they suffered through my Firefly-mentions for Triad Blood.
I then made the dash from the tower, downstairs, across the lobby, and up to “Brave New Baby,” to hear Dr. Anatoly Belilovski, Angela S. Stone, Lesley Donaldson, Julie Czerneda and Hayden Trenholm discuss genetics in awesomely unique (and sometimes frightening) ways. As I mentioned before, this focus of the convention on science is one of the more awesome parts of the convention, and I love having a chance to be exposed to topics I otherwise don’t often come across. From designer babies, to extrapolation on trends, to some myth-busting about what can—and can’t—be done as of yet (but maybe soon), the information here was a landslide of treasure for anyone who writes a genetic component to their stories. Between this panel and the panel on viruses and outbreaks, I think any writer had enough to work with for the next dozen novels or so.
At this point, I had to dash out for a friend’s birthday lunch (luckily across the street at the Loft), but I made it back for the author signings hosted by Indigo, and tried not to fan-boy too hard at Tanya-Freaking-Huff. She was very gracious, and signed my copy of Summon the Keeper and made me snivel a bit with what she wrote.
I perused the book selection, picked up quite a few anthologies (seriously, so many anthologies). I love short fiction, as you all know, and seeing so many anthologies of science fiction (and often specifically Canadian science fiction) was a flipping joy. I dodged into the Dealer’s room specifically to nab a copy of Clockwork Canada, and found out some of the authors would be doing a reading on the Sunday, and changed my plans accordingly.
I went to the DAW Authors reading (Violette Malan, Ed Willett, Julie Czerneda and, once again, Tanya-Freaking-Huff) and basked in the glow (and added more books to my To-be-Read pile). All four have a reading presence that is organic and engrossing, which is a rare treat. Each drew me in, and it was lovely to see Julie again especially, as she was the second-ever signing I ever hosted as a bookseller mumble-mumble years ago. Violette’s book seemed right up my alley (telepathy! humour!) and Ed’s setting grabbed me from step one.
Like I said, more books on the pile.
This was followed by a panel on Adapting Literary Works to TV and Movies, and alongside Tanya Freaking Huff, Ian Rogers, and Sam Morgan (all of whom I’ve already mentioned) this was my introduction to Jay Odjick, who walked us through the processes that got Kagagi produced (short version: a tonne of work), and was thoroughly entertaining and amusing. In fact, all the panelists were, and I can’t mention enough how sly Sam Morgan’s humour is. I know I personally have zero chance of writing something that would ever end up on someone’s desk in this sense, but it was fascinating to learn about the processes involved, the systems at play, and I lost count of how many times someone said on the panel “I was lucky.”
At 5:00p, it was my turn to doff my educator hat again, and I joined Caroline Frechette, Talia Johnson, and Derek Newman-Stille for what Derek introduced as ‘the Fabulous Panel! (picture glitter here)’ And it was. Nominally, we were there to discuss “Beyond the Coming Out Story – New Queer Narratives in Speculative Fiction,” and boy did we start there and go elsewhere. The themes were very clear: trans representation (and how abysmal it is, and how it needs to be so much more than a transition tale), bi-erasure, the lack of narrative inheritance to our histories and how exhausting it can be to be the constant educator (yeah, that was me, and the link is to a twitter discussion that followed after the convention), and all over the place in to YA, the inclusion of intersections (quite a few notes about persons with disability), and #OwnVoices and what that means. It was a fantastic freaking audience, and we were also lucky enough to have someone in the audience who could speak quite a bit to ace and other lesser-heard narratives.
Unfortunately, when I went to grab a snack and a drink, my head informed me I was done for the day with some scintillating scotoma, so I booked it home. My apologies to those I’d really wanted to see in the evening sessions. Sometimes my head does that.
“Head Full of Ghosts. Write that down.” (Brett Savory)
Sunday I’d recovered, and began the crack of dawn with some horror and weird fiction (the way you do) by coming to hear Brett Savory, Rebecca Simkin, James K. Moran, and Sean Moreland speak about the stuff they’d read that we needed to read. Now, y’all know I’m not a huge horror fan, but I like weird, and the topic really did balance the two (as well as define the two, in many ways) and all the panelists were fun and charming.
And, of course, way more got added to my list.
Also, there was a surprising amount of parenting advice. Books on demons and demonology might not be the best gift for the under-ten crowd.
Or, they might be just the thing.
Eiher way, good to know.
I popped in to the brainstorming/feedback session after that with Evan May and Brandon Crilly (and this was also where I finally got to have a few quick words with Eric Choi, who, again, awesome), and I cannot give enough props to these guys for taking in advice and feedback and ideas from those gathered. It was a packed room, and the discussion never stopped. You know a Con is on the right track when they include this sort of feature while the con is in play, and don’t just rely on feedback forms and e-mails later, as there’s an opportunity for brainstorming and Q&A right there and then. Loved this.
Kate Heartfield, reading from “The Seven O’Clock Man.”
As my last thing before I had to go rescue His Fuzzy Lordship from the tedium of being indoors, I found Dominik Parisien, Kate Heartfield, and Brent Nichols and basked in the glow of Clockwork Canada, which I mentioned above.
It was obvious from listening to Dominik’s introduction that this project meant a great deal to him—to take truly Canadian narratives, and especially often colonialist-repressed histories, and meld them with spec fic elements was the driving force, and from what Kate and Brent read? I’m a believer. I’ll be bumping Clockwork Canada high up on my pile.
Both readers were really engrossing, and it was so lovely to take part in the discussion after with them, especially as the topic rolled back to being a Canuck in what is often a very US-centric ocean. It was pretty cool to see similar experiences being shared, too, that it’s not anywhere near as uphill a battle to pitch a Canadian setting as it was even a decade ago.
So, from that point, I took a moment to finish working on my character sheet (I managed to get my lousy “2” in Dexterity into a fairly impressive 14 defence score by levelling up my leather armor, but there was no helping my attack score, so no battles after all), I made sure to find and say farewell to a few people, missed others I really wanted to talk to, and went back to the real world.
The real world doesn’t have a lot of the awesome things the convention had, but it does have this guy, and he was totally ready to hit the park.
“Where the heck have you been, human?”
Until next year? Thanks, CAN•CON, for everything. The opportunity to be a queer voice in Spec Fic is a huge deal to me, and I can’t tell you how much it means to be invited.
Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Carsen Taite
If you’re at all a fan of the legal-themed romances (or ass-kicking bounty hunters), then you’ll likely already know today’s awesome guest, Carsen Taite. I got to meet Carsen a couple of years ago at the Bold Strokes Books writer’s retreat, where I got to see her captivate a crowd in space of, oh, I’m gonna say three minutes.
Charisma. Taite has it.
She’s also inspiring in other ways. The infamous “Taite Daily Word Count” is very motivating, in the sense that looking at what she manages to accomplish between moments makes me feel like a total slug.
So of course she also does scorching hot short fiction, right?
College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.
NB: Okay, flat-out, no study group I ever met was as awesome as ‘Study Buddes.’ That was hot. Also, I learned the different between repossession and replevin. Your fans know you very well for your legal edge to your fantastic thrillers, but how in the world did it occur to you to come up with legal study erotica? My hat’s off to you.
CT: Thanks! Adding a dose of the law to fiction is definitely my brand, so when a certain editor nudged me out of my comfort zone to contribute to this anthology, I figured law school was the perfect setting. Finding the right folks to study with in law school is one of the biggest stressors of the first year, so I asked “Hey, what’s the best way to alleviate stress?” and then it was like the story wrote itself.
NB: Y’know, they need to print that on first-year survival booklets or something.
There’s a divide in the story between the straight-A nose-to-the-grindstone students and the I’m-well-connected-and-don’t-have-to-sweat-it confident students. Which is sexier? (Or is this a “Option C: Sorority girls” moment?)
CT: How about Option D: all of the above? Seriously, confidence, hard-work, and great social skills—all of those qualities are sexy. My story’s narrator may have been a little too uptight for anyone to see her sexy side at first, but she just needed a couple of sexy smart surfer girls to help her find her inner sexpot. The message? We’re all sexy in our own unique way.
NB: If you were in the room, I’d fist-bump that.
Now, I happen to know you’ve dropped characters from your novels into short fiction before (in fact, I believe that’s how I “met” Luca Bennett). Do you like criss-crossing characters through formats, and are there other appearances in short fiction from novels that your fans should know about?
CT: I love criss-crossing characters. Luca Bennett actually started out in a short story, “Boomerang,” that I wrote for Women of the Mean Streets. I was experimenting with the character to see if I was inspired enough to pen a series about a bounty hunter. Three novels, two short stories, and a novella later, I think I might have been a little inspired.
NB: I love Luca, and lord knows I’m not the only one.
CT: It makes me very happy that so many people seem to like Luca. Several of my other characters make cameo appearances in other novels and I’ve used short fiction to revisit some of my favourites as well:
Parker and Morgan from It Should be a Crime celebrate a new couple milestone in “Love is the Key” in Breathless: Tales of Celebration
Skye and Aimee from The Best Defense give us a behind the scenes with their new baby girl in “Born to Ride” in Amor and More: Love Everafter.
NB: That’s freaking awesome. I love being able to “catch up” with characters I love.
If you’d like to catch a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.
Photo credit: Diana Perez-Soria
Carsen Taite’s goal as an author is to spin tales with plot lines as interesting as the cases she encountered in her career as a criminal defense lawyer. She is the award-winning author of over a dozen novels of romantic intrigue, including the Luca Bennett Bounty Hunter series and the Lone Star Law series. Her upcoming novel, Without Justice, a standalone romantic intrigue, will be available everywhere books are sold in December 2016.
Learn more at www.carsentaite.com.
