Amber did a phenomenal job of writing a character driven love story, not a Lesbian driven plot. The emotions I felt for the characters was real and deep, and I expressed as such to Amber when I offered contract. I’m surprised to see that she’s put herself on hiatus as a writer.

What you said!

I’m going to have to see if I can move her closer to the edge of the bookshelf to give us readers more of her wonderful work.

Please do. I would be interested in reading more of her work if you can pry any out of her. ;)

by Mfred April 23rd, 2009 at 7:25 am Reply to this comment

I’m super excited to see f/f reviews on Dear Author.

I’m in the peculiar position of being a gay woman who loves “straight” romance — historical, paranormal, urban fantasy– I read it all.

I am not the only odd duck in the world!!
yyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

PS. To throw another random comment in, I actually haven’t read that much lesbian romance, the first few I came across were way too heavy for me on the moral dilemma and heavy on the trauma, and not enough escapism for me.
Escapism probably being the wrong word, maybe not that entertaining? And have also been turned off by prices.. ebooks and print

As for lesbian romance suspected of being stuck in the coming-out scenario or being preachy, the reality is quite different today.

I would suspect that most of the f/f romance I’ve read has not been written by lesbians, because lesbian writers tend to write for LGBT presses and I just can’t afford them. Perhaps the preachy factor (or the all male characters are jerks phenomenon, or the full metamorphosis from 100% straight to 100% lesbian with associated angsting) is more prevalent in f/f written by straight women for the epresses I can afford to purchase from.

That said, I want to read f/f love and eroticism, but I don’t necessarily want it presented in a purely lesbian context, which is what most LGBT presses publish. I don’t want characters to only be bisexual as part of their “growing process” from ostensibly straight to card-carrying lesbian. A 15 year marriage to a man didn’t make me straight. A sexual relationship with a woman is not going to make me a lesbian.

Bi-female romantic fiction is unbelievably hard to find (erotica is a different story, especially the type that appeals to men). I’ve been pressured in my life to choose, the “either” or the “or”, and that pressure hasn’t come from the straight community, so when almost all the f/f I can find (other than porn for men) is centered around characters who are 100% lesbian, it almost feels preachy, even when it isn’t. That reaction is partly on me, yes, but it’s exacerbated by the fact that it’s so rare to stumble across a female protagonist who reflects my reality–loves men, loves women, loves sex, embraces love.

If I had to apply a label to myself, I’d call myself bisexual. I adore female-centered f/f/m menage romance, and there just is so little of it out there, and less still that is decent (although there’s a huge selection of material with two men and one woman). Going by my memory of reading it more than a year ago, the f/f/m scene in Jessie’s Girl didn’t quite push my buttons, because there was no romantic connection (or even friendship) between Sabrina and the other woman, and her feelings for her husband were conflicted and centered more around pleasing her parents than being in love (or lust).

Give me a book like Home by Treva Harte, or a The Courage to Love by Samantha Kane, or a Butterfly Tattoo by Deirdre Knight, and center it around a woman or women who are bisexual or whose sexual orientation is defined by love rather than body parts, and I’ll gobble it up.

Perhaps I just want too much? If that’s the case, I’ll have to content myself with writing it.

I agree with this. Totally.

The stories I’ve read that have lesbian protagonists are written with the character being human first, their profession, like detective second, and “lesbian” last. Those stories have been written by lesbians and don’t have any preachy factor to them.

Kirsten and I had a long discussion about this as well one time wondering if straight women might be turned off by or fear reading the whole “gay” lifestyle that might be portrayed outside of a straight up f/f romance or the sub genre plot in a story.

So far, I haven’t really read any romances or books in general written by lesbians or with lesbian protagonists in which the whole “gay scene” was predominant or even present in the story. As I’ve said, the characters are detective, lawyer, Dr. first and they just happen to be in love with a woman instead of a man.

As for lesbian romance suspected of being stuck in the coming-out scenario or being preachy, the reality is quite different today. Lesbian romances cover a wide wide range of characters and situations – name it and one has probably been written.

Off the top of my head, I can recall detectives, doctors, lawyers, mobsters, pirates, psychics, security officers, gypsies, punks, brokers, politicians, mothers, vampires, bartenders…and romances in any sub-genre be it historical or thriller/crime or gothic or contemporary or speculative fiction. There are stories about second-chances, whodunits, undercover cops, victorian gothics, adventurers, fantasy fights… really too many to list.

If you’re unsure where to start looking for lesbian romances, might I suggest checking the finalists of the Lambda awards (http://www.lambdaliterary.org), the GCLS awards (http://www.goldencrown.org/awards.html), the Publishing Triangle awards (http://www.publishingtriangle.org/awards.asp) though they aren’t always about romance, and the occasional lesbian book that makes it to the IPPYs and the IBPA finals.

Interestingly, non-US writers tend to submit their books in the genre category rather than the LGBT category.

As for the prices of LGBT books, I live outside the US and UK. I’m used to paying higher prices in addition to regular expenses.

But some of their stuff is really, really good. I was on the fence about Tangle Girls until I found out it contained a Jesse Sandoval story, and then I didn’t even think twice about paying $12.95 for it. I am looking forward to the Tenea D. Johnson story in Tangle Girls too (I haven’t gotten there yet).

I saw on their site that The Archer’s Heart, which Jia reviewed, and Turnskin (both m/m books) are also both finalists in the LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror category of the Lambda Literary Awards, and it occurred to me that the finalist list for the awards, esp. in the romance and fantasy categories, might be a good way to find some wheat in the midst of the chaff.

Also, if you can’t afford them, another option is to try interlibrary loan or ask your library to consider purchasing them. I don’t know if they would, but it’s worth a try.

The new buzz phrase coming out of contemporary studies is “sexual fluidity.”

“Fluidity represents a capacity to respond erotically in unexpected ways due to particular situations or relationships. It doesn’t appear to be something a woman can control.”

This!!!!! totally. This is what I want to read in a f/f book. This is what I’m starving to read. It’s just totally not out there.

Anne Rainey’s Burn had it. There was a very easy sexual relationship between two friends in that one, which was no big deal.

It was the same with Bonnie Dee’s story in the book Three. Again, two friends who are very comfortable around each other and move into a sexual relationship without it being a big deal.

My favorite books with f/f in them or as a main theme have that quality. Where the character/s are fluid in their sexuality and respond according to the person and not so much the gender.

I wouldn’t even like to put the label of bisexual on that kind of character because bisexual implies an equal attraction to both men and women sexually, when the type of character I would like to read is attracted by a person’s attributes or qualities, which can easily morph into a sexual expression.

And as far as that whole post you wrote, #36, Jayne, there was also an article in More magazine about how it’s becoming more of a trend that much older women are finding themselves attracted to women sexually for the first time and are leaving their marriages or having a sexual relationship with another women. There are no empirical stats to prove why that’s happening, but it’s a trend on the rise.

http://www.more.com/sex-dating/over-40-and-gay/?page=1

I find that very interesting and it goes with some of the statistics that you provided in your post that women are more fluid and that because alternative sexual lifestyles are more accepted, maybe women feel more comfortable about exploring those feelings that they might have ignored in the past.