News Roundup: Help us Win Stuff, Free Stuff, New Stuff, P-Town Stuff, and Spooky Stuff!

Morning, morning! To compensate for last week’s lack of news (in truth, there wasn’t much going on, I was snowed under with Tumbledown edits, and Clare was snowed under with having a life!) we have a ginormous update for you this week. Loads of authors have been up to mischief, and there’s plenty of free stuff for you all to get your grabby hands on. So, where to start?

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Let’s start with us. And when I say “us”, I mean UK LesFic, which has been nominated for an Ultimate Planet award in the category of Blogger of the Year, over at the Planet London website. Huzzah! And, of course, thank you to all those who took the time to nominate the site. So what happens next? Voting for the shortlisted nominees is open here throughout November, and it would be rather fab if people would hop on over there and put a tick in our box (so to speak).

VG Lee, Stella Duffy, and Jackie Kay are nominated for Published Author of the Year, and also on the list are Clare Ashton and Kiki Archer, who are scrapping it out for Published Author of the Year (Independent).  Congratulations to all, and um…good luck to those trying to decide between the latter two 🙂

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Whilst we’re on the theme of Ultimate Planet and Ms Archer, Planet of the Books (the literary offshoot of Ultimate Planet) recently reviewed Kiki’s new novel One Foot Onto The Ice, where they had this to say:

Well paced, and gentle, and sometimes very sexy, this romance offers some sweet moments as two polar opposite women find love and face their internal demons in a bid for love.

You can read the full text of the review here.

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Spooky stuff now, and Niamh Murphy has published a new short story for Halloween over on Wattpad. Complete and in three parts, The Black Hound tells the story of Isobel, forced to live in a crumbling manor where something lurks on the surrounding moors. With the arrival of the new lady’s maid, Kate, Isobel’s life is about to be altered, forever…

The story is free to read, and available at the link.

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Début Bold Strokes Books author Amy Dunne has a Behind the Writing interview up at her BSB author’s page, where she chats about what made her become a writer (“the gift of the gab”!) where she gets her ideas from, and what her family have had to say about the whole shebang (which sounds naughtier than was actually intended!)

They’ve been amazingly supportive—especially considering I’ve been telling them I was going to write a book for over ten years. My beautiful wife was the only person I trusted to read the first draft. She kept putting it off and making excuses, and only later she confessed it was because she was terrified it was going to be awful and she wasn’t sure how she’d break the news to me…

You can read the full interview at the first link, and with Secret Lies due for release in December there is a short excerpt from the novel in the November BSB newsletter.

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More awards news for you, with Elisa Rolle running a month-long Treasure Hunt throughout November to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Rainbow Awards. Each day, mystery excerpts from 6 of the shortlisted novels will be published. To enter, try to identify your chosen book in the comments. There’s no limit on how many books you can win, and you can keep entering until November 30th. Correct entrants will go into a draw at the end of the month. The books offered are a mix of e-books and paperbacks. You can find the entire list of novels at the link, and there are quite a few LesFic authors on it…

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Sticking with the theme of freebies, Orla Broderick‘s Polari-longlisted novel The January Flower is currently free on Kindle. The offer is open for five days, and the original announcement was made on Friday, so there should be a couple of days remaining for you to go and get yourself a copy. The first link is the UK link, and the US link (before we get our arses kicked by our US readers!) is here.

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With the joyous prospect of Christmas shopping creeping onto the horizon, November seems set to be a lively month for LesFic releases. LT Smith has been talking about her new novel See Right Through Me over on the Ylva website:

When I was writing See Right Through Me, I kept on thinking about how we sometimes doubt the most obvious good things in our lives. How we question those three little words—not “I love you” exactly, but the three other little words that should come hand in hand with it. Trust, respect, and love. How sometimes our own actions can lead to negativity, lead to those other three words—jealously, insecurity, and heartbreak. I wanted to show what could happen if we found ourselves in that situation, what we could lose if we allowed our lack of confidence to encroach on love. Not the most pleasant experience, believe me.

See Right Through Me has just been published, and you can read the full piece from LT here.

Sneaking in at the last minute is MORE FREE STUFF! Ylva have just announced that they have two e-book versions of See Right Through Me to give away. All you have to do to enter the draw is leave a comment at the foot of this page, or send an email to info@ylva-verlag.de Better get your skates on though; the closing date is 5 a.m. Tuesday morning (how random!)

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VT Davy, another author with a new book out, has been blogging about Deadlines, Rewrites and Getting it Out There: 

The biggest rewrite happened back in May following the passage through Parliament of the same-sex marriage bill. I never thought that it would go through. I thought that the bishops in the House of Lords would ensure that it was sent back down to the Commons to be revised. When it did pass, I spent 24 hours worrying about whether the novel that I’d worked on for seven months was now relevant. It didn’t take me long to realise it was, as the news about the battles for equal marriage from the USA and Australia kept on coming.

And just before I hit post on this news, up went a guest blog from VT over on Women and Words, where she talks about the politics behind A Very Civil Wedding .

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There are not one, but two new interviews – one video, one print – with Nicola Griffith talking about Hild. The print interview at The Coffin Factory includes a particularly lovely description of Nicola discovering Whitby for the first time:

In my early twenties I was living in Hull, a depressed (and depressing) city in East Yorkshire. And one spring I needed to get out, get away for a few days. I hiked north up the coast, to a town called Whitby. I’d read Dracula so I was expecting the one hundred and ninety-nine steps up the cliff. I was expecting the great ruin of an abbey against the skyline. I wasn’t expecting what happened next…

To find out what did happen next and how it inspired the novel, hit the link.

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Closing out this week with reports from three of our Brits who made the trip over to PTown for Women’s Week and then made it all the way back, safe and sound, to tell us about it. Over on the UK BSB blog, I. Beacham shares her insight into the benefits of Women’s Week:

So there’s a lot of lovely exchange going on all week and women meeting women and talking (and possibly other stuff, but I’m British and I don’t talk about sex). PTown is very relaxed and definitely a place every lesbian (reader or not) ought to go at least once in their lifetime. The place is alive, exciting, exhilarating.

She also gives some handy travel tips for anyone who might be considering making the trip next year: Is it easy to get to? Remember PTown is right on the far tip of the Cape, any further right and you’ll be a fish. 

Sage advice indeed. For more of the same, head here.

Joining the BSB contingent was Andrea Bramhall, whose A Brit Abroad blog gives a comprehensive look into the panels and various hijinks that occur when a lot of lesbians gather in one rather small town:

Saturday was the last day of readings and signings. We were in the Provincetown Library and Vk Powell went into full cop mode trying to coral us all on the When Sparks Fly panel. Shelley Thrasher drafted in the considerable theatrical talents of Melissa Brayden and Carsen Taite to play characters in her reading. Carsen was meant to be playing a French woman but she had a decidedly German accent. It was hilarious. 

There are some lovely photos, and of course the rest of the tale, at the link.

Not to be outdone, RJ Samuel has posted a series of seven blog entries detailing her time in the States. From clicking on the link to buy plane tickets, to meeting online friends, playing wiffle ball, and of course, appearing on her first panel, RJ has left no stone unturned:

I enjoyed the experience of relaxing and just reading my words aloud to what seemed like a group of interested friends. While planning the trip, I’d printed out 10 booklets of a short story and had promised them to the first five women who came up to say hi to me after each reading. On the spur of the moment, looking out at the audience, especially at the friendly face of Tonie, Kate’s partner, I wanted some way to thank them for listening, for being supportive. I asked for a hug instead and the wonderful hugs I got were another highlight of my trip. And a surprise for me and for anyone who knows how shy and introverted I can be.

Her epic blog starts here, and the links for the next entry can be found at the base of each page.

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And I think that’s about yer lot. If you’re off to a bonfire this week, wrap up warm, eat parkin, and try not to have anyone’s eye out with a sparkler 🙂

News Roundup: Two New Authors, Ylva Want You!, Jade Winters Giveaway, Amy Dunne Chats at the Bar, and Lots More…

Honestly, my Blog Buddy goes away for a week and everyone’s suddenly getting up to all sorts of mischief! So, pull up a comfy chair, dunk a biccie or two and settle in for a bumper news update…

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We’ll start this week by welcoming two new authors to the site.

Jackie Kennedy lives in Scotland and in her own words is “rubbish” at talking about herself, but her début novel, Denial, was published by Affinty eBooks in August and promptly hit the number one spot on Amazon UK’s lesbian book chart.  Terry Baker rather liked the book when she reviewed it last month:

This well written book is an absolute blockbuster. There is a little bit of everything in it. Humour, a touch of  the supernatural, heartbreak, angst, yes, a lot of angst, but at the same time as it’s heart aching, it’s heart warming and gives out hope. It is also hot and sexy, steaming hot in fact. It’s painful to read at times, but as soon as I thought, please, no more pain, I was actually laughing out loud. So, there is an excellent balance between the pain and the laughter.

We’re hoping to hear more about Jackie in the not too distant, but in the meantime you can read the full review of Denial here.

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London-born author Vic Tanner Davy has also been in touch with the site to give us a heads-up about A Very Civil Wedding, a lesbian romance and Vic’s second novel, which will be published in November. For Vic’s bio, head to the Authors page where you can find a link to Vic’s blog.

Because I am nothing if not efficient (but mainly because I have little resembling a life!) the blurb and covers for Denial and A Very Civil Wedding can be found on the New & Upcoming Releases page.

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Ylva Publishing are Looking For You! Well, your short stories at any rate, with an open call for submissions for a new anthology. So, if you don’t mind, I will hand you over to publisher, Astrid Ohletz, for this next section:

“Ylva Publishing wants to spread the love a bit. How? Well, we are seeking contemporary romance stories for an anthology we’d like to publish in January 2014. An anthology full of sinfully sweet romance and amazingly erotic fun. So, here’s what we’re looking for: We’re looking for lesbian fiction. All submissions should be either contemporary romance or erotica. We only accept short stories that haven’t been previously published.

Word count: We are looking for stories between 4,000 and 12,000 words in length.

Payment: Writers whose stories are selected for the anthology will receive a one-time payment of $40 (via PayPal) plus a free e-book of the anthology in each format (epub, mobi, pdf).

Deadline: The deadline is set for October 30, 2013.

Submissions: Electronic submissions only. Please send your story as an e-mail attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) to info@ylva-verlag.de. Put “Spread the love” in the subject line of your e-mail. In the body of your e-mail, please include your name, the title and word count of your story, and a two-or-three-sentence summary of your story.It will take our editors about two weeks to review your submission; then we’ll get back to you.We are looking forward to receiving your stories.”

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Fabulous, thank you Astrid.

Ylva already have one UK author in their pack (L.T. Smith), another with a novel pending “in a year or so”, and they sound very happy to add more, so good luck to anyone who chances their arm at a submission. Speaking of L.T., she has a short story (Batteries Not Included) in the upcoming When The Clock Strikes Thirteen, an anthology full of paranormal and fantastic stories which will be published by Ylva on October 18th. For more details, including a teaser for L.T.’s short, head over here.

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From writing to listening now, and BSB’s newest YA author Amy Dunne has just recorded a Conversation at the Bar with Andy from The Cocktail Hour podcast:

I had a lovely time talking and laughing away, even though it was past 12am on a school night. For this reason, please excuse my inability to tell the time and say “self-publicity” not publication. Doh! Anyway, I really did enjoy it and kudos to Andy for making me feel so relaxed and welcome.

Amy chatted about her novel Secret Lies which will be published in December, and the podcast can be downloaded or listened to at the above link. I hope Andy was the perfect lady for their first date and picked up the tab!

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Sticking with ears and BSB authors for a moment, as Andrea Bramhall‘s novel Ladyfish has come out on audio book this very week. The title is unabridged and runs for 8 hours and 16 whole minutes! So, if you fancy someone taking the load off and reading you a story while you lie in a darkened room and pop chocolates into your mouth, go and treat yourself.

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And now a welcome return to one of our favourite things here at UK LesFic: Free Stuff! 

Jade Winters is holding a Goodreads Giveaway for her novel, A Walk Into Darkness. There’s one copy up for grabs, and the giveaway runs until December 1st, so it’ll be nicely timed for the festive season (did you know there are only 89 days, 10 hours, and 26 minutes to Christmas?) Head to the first link for the giveaway and the second if you’d like to make yourself rock in a corner and weep.

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I’m sure there’ll be no weeping at this year’s Glasgay! Festival which Suzanne Egerton wrote to tell us all about:

It’s the twentieth anniversary of Glasgay! this year, and although not strictly literary-themed, it does feature Jackie Kay reading at one event, and I’m sure some UK LesFic authors are interested in writing for the theatre. I’m looking forward to an event at Glasgow Women’s Library on The Gateways Club of Chelsea, an iconic gathering place for lesbians in the old days – even I went there a few times. The brochure says that there will also be a chance to look at some rare materials from the National Lesbian Archive Collection; the library is very lesbian-friendly. 

The Fest runs from October 9th to November 9th and for anyone interested in attending there’s loads more information at the official site.

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Closing out this update with another festival, but one that has recently been and gone. If you missed out on BooQfest, Crin Claxton has posted a handy link to a write-up of her session at the event, and a little detective work of mine also found a transcript of VG Lee‘s playwriting panel and hour-long chat/performance on the same blog (scroll down the page a little to find VG’s stuff.)

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Whew, I think that’s covered just about everything so, if no one has any objections, I think I’ll lie in a darkened room for a while and pop chocolates into my mouth…

News Roundup: The People’s Book Prize, P-Town, New Books & General Naughtiness

Happy hump day! That actually sounds a lot naughtier than intended, but this news post is brought to you by a night-shift brain in holiday mode whose WordPress internet connection is finally working again, so I’m feeling rather frivolous (and borderline incoherent. Be warned.)

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So what’s been going on in the last week?

Eagle-eyed readers of this blog might have noticed a big update to the New & Upcoming Releases page, which is now crammed full of releases up to and including next February. I tried my best to scout around for titles, but if there are authors out there with a book that I’ve missed (and some of you are proper secret squirrels when it comes to this publicity malarkey) please let us know so we can list it.

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Sticking with the theme of new books, Suzanne Egerton’s Out Late with Friends and Regrets and Orla Broderick’s The January Flower are both autumn nominations for this year’s People’s Book Prize. The prize is aimed at finding, supporting and promoting new and undiscovered works and, as the title of the prize suggests, the public are entirely responsible for choosing the winners. See this page to find out how you can add your vote. Good luck to all involved!

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Andrea Bramhall (who will be guest-blogging here on Friday) had some good news this week when she found out that her début novel Ladyfish is going to be released as an audio book. The title will be available from September 24th and is available to pre-order here. In a busy week, Andrea has also been blogging over on Women & Words about her second novel Clean Slate, which is hot off the presses this month.

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A heads-up now for anyone who might be reading this blog from t’other side of the pond and fancies seeing three UK LesFic authors in Province Town this October. R.J. Samuel recently announced that she is set to conquer her fear of flying (good luck!) by heading over to Women’s Week in P-Town:

I’ve almost worked up the courage to book my flights (petrified of flying  ).. I’m thrilled to be going to Provincetown for Women’s Week!! I’ll be reading on the GCLS Author Panel on Friday October 18th with Liz Bradbury, Deej Garden, Joan Timberlake, Melissa Brayden, and Barbara Sawyer. I’m so looking forward to the week and meeting FB friends in person.

R.J. will join Andrea Bramhall and I.Beacham as UK flag-flyers for this week-long fest celebrating everything to do with lesbian culture.

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I think we’ll close out this round up by returning to our theme of naughtiness with a couple of new novellas.

Terry Baker has given a glowing review to Clare Ashton’s short story The Dildo in the Kitchen Drawer:

This is a wacky, zany, hilarious short story with Clare Ashton’s wicked sense of humor shining through on every page. I say wicked, because I’m not sure if I’m going to forgive her for naming the dog Terry! But I digress.

Although the story is short, it is crammed full to the brim with great scenarios and lovable fully formed characters, including the naughty dog and his antics. His owner, Mrs Smedley needs a medal for putting up with him. Look out for the gorgons too.

The full review can be found here at Terry’s blog.

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Rosen Trevithick has also been dabbling in the dangly-bits arena and her comedy novella My Granny Writes Erotica is free on amazon until Friday (US readers, don’t think I’ve forgotten you: see this link instead.) It doesn’t fall into the category of LesFic but it is funny, very British, has some nice things to say about writing in general and is well worth an hour or two of your time. Plus, it’s free, so I’m thinking this is a win-win scenario really.

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And with that I bid you farewell and hand the blog reins over to Ms Ashton while I go and sun myself in Madeira for a week.

Obrigado!

News roundup: UK GLBT meet, new authors, books and reviews

Cari’s off somewhere in the north of England saving lives (I always picture her wearing a cape over her paramedic uniform) so it’s my turn to get out the ice-cream (home-made strawberry) and bring you the news.

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The UK GLBT Fiction meet kicks off in Manchester tomorrow with the main sessions and panels over the weekend. Bold Strokes is well-represented this year with Cari Hunter, Andrea Bramhall and Victoria Oldham all attending. Cari will be appearing as part of a panel discussing British authors in a US dominated market: “Leave my OU alone!”. Vic will be at the Bold Strokes table and on a publishing panel. She’ll also be hearing pitches for Bold Strokes publications (contact the organisers if you want to pitch your novel to her, there may still be time).

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Ke Payne‘s new book is off to a cracking start with a great review from Terry Baker. This is what Terry had to say about The Road to Her:

KE Payne has written a wonderful, heart warming story of love, unrequited love, betrayal, self discovery and coming out. She has also giving us a first hand insight into life on a television soap opera. From the dialogue, it was very easy to immerse myself in the story amongst the characters….Personally, I’d love to see more of these characters and more of the soap, Portobello Road.

You can read the revew in full here.

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Niamh Murphy has a new novella out: Gretel: A Fairytale Retold. Here’s the blurb:

Starving and lost, Hans, and his sister Gretel, are saved from a pack of bloodthirsty wolves by a woman, who seems to ask for nothing in return. Seduced by her kindness and beauty, Gretel grows closer to her, while Hans becomes ever more suspicious of her motives. Torn between her brother and a woman she has just met, Gretel soon learns she must make a choice between long held loyalty and newfound love. Gretel: A Fairytale Retold is a six chapter novella of over 12,400 words. Retold as a fast paced, lesbian love story, this novella contains some explicit passages.

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We have two new authors this week. Catherine Blackfeather describes herself as a dancer, live story teller and poet. Her first book is a novella called Mitchie, a tale of self-discovery set in 19th century Canada.

Angie Peach has managed to sneak three novels past us without us noticing, although she does keep very quiet about. She has published The Blurring, In Reflection, and 47 (a novella) in the last year and she’ll be appearing on the Shifting Desires panel with Kiki Archer and Clare Ashton at L Fest.

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Meanwhile Sarah Waters celebrates 40 years of women’s fiction at Virago with this quiz. How many extracts do you recognise from classic women’s fiction? I’ll show you my score if you show me yours first.

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Finally, Crin Claxton is throwing a book launch for The Supernatural Detective, at WW Gallery in London tonight from 6pm-9pm. If you fancy going, be very very quick and drop her a message on Facebook!

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Did we miss something? Then let us know at uklesfic at gmail.com.

News Roundup: Rachel Dax’s bedtime story, Diana Souhami’s bio of Radclyffe Hall, and Jane Fletcher in conversation

Rachel Dax has recorded a short story exclusively for the Liz McMullen show. Over on the site, you can listen to Rachel read How I Met My True Love, or download the story as a PDF.

Rachel has written the most unusual story, exclusively for the show. This is the first bedtime story that would be perfectly all right to share with a general audience. Oh and there is a sweetener: she has an awesome British accent!

http://www.thelizmcmullenshow.com/lbs-episode6/

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Diana Souhami has new paperback and Kindle editions of her biographies out this month with revised introductions, including LGBT titles Gluck, Natalie and Romaine, and the classic The Trials of Radclyffe Hall.  Diana Souhami is a winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Whitbread Prize, and has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography. Read more about the biographies here.

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On Friday, we will be the very happy hosts of  an ongoing Blog Conversation that is taking part between Bold Strokes authors Jane Fletcher and Nora Olsen, this week and early into next. Jane (author of the Celaeno series and the Lyremouth Chronicles) and Nora (whose second YA novel Swans and Klons is published this month) will be chatting about their writing processes, their love of their chosen genres, and the thrill of being published.

You can find the first part of their conversation here on the BSB blog. We will be posting the second part on Friday, and the whole thing wraps up over at Women and Words on Tuesday.

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News Roundup: Too Much Stuff to Fit in One Title!

Lots of snippets of good news this past week, so without further ado…

L Fest (a “unique weekend celebration of lesbian culture and community“) has been expanding its line-up for this year’s event, which takes place July 19th-22nd. The Arts Section, which had already confirmed appearances by UK authors Jackie Kay, VG Lee and Crin Claxton, will now include Clare Ashton and Kiki Archer too. Clare and Kiki will be talking about indie publishing and their work, as well as reading from their latest novels. Everything you need to know about the festival can be found on the above link.

All we need now is for the sun to shine!

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Over at The Lesbrary, they have been catching up with some of the UK’s top lesbian writers.

Jeanette Winterson‘s memoir Why be Happy When You Could be Normal is favourably reviewed by Karelia Stetz-Waters:

“Winterson can do what no one should attempt: two memoirs about the same story. I was lucky to get to read Oranges are not the Only Fruit and Why Be Happy as they should be read. One at fifteen when one needs heroes. One at nearly 40 when one knows what heroes really look like.”

Meanwhile, one of Emma Donoghue‘s older releases, Kissing The Witch, has been weaving its magic around Jordan:

“Often times the tales of old try to pit women against women, with the classic step mother and step sisters always being terrible to the girl in cinders, or the witch and queen that curses the young and fair girl that happens to be more beautiful. It is a common occurrence and one of the more unfortunate themes rampant in fairy tales. Instead, Emma Donoghue put the power back in women’s hands with these stories.”

Read the full text of each review at the links above.

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Cari Hunter has been busy fielding interviews about her new novel Desolation Point.  An in-depth Q&A has just been published at Hannah’s Nook, and she recently knocked back a shandy or two with Cheri and Andy for a Cocktail Hour podcast. To be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of Snowbound or Desolation Point just leave a comment on the podcast page.

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Niamh Murphy has uploaded the first two chapters of Is She?, a new short story to Wattpad. You can read chapter one here and chapter two here. She has also made Mask of the Highway Woman  – the short story upon which her full-length novel was based – available here.

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Thanks to a heads up from Henriette Bookgeek (who is blessedly on the ball with these things!) we’ve added a new UK author to our listing. Kate Snowdon is an author with Bella Books, and her début novel You Can’t Run From Love was published in March, 2013. Information on Kate is a little thin on the ground but hopefully that’ll change in the not too distant future.

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News Round Up: New books from loads of Brit authors, The Cocktail Hour Needs You, and Gaze Magazine hits the Internet

We hung on to the news this week so we could post a bit of a bumper update! And bumper it certainly is! Deep breath, here we go…

Let’s kick off with what we’re all about on this site, which is new books by UK authors:

Bold Strokes Books updated their forthcoming schedule last week, providing details on all their new releases up to and including February, 2014, and there are loads of UK authors listed.  In June, Crin Claxton’s vampire thriller Scarlet Thirst will be getting an e-book rerelease, while July sees brand new works from I.Beacham and Ke Payne. Andrea Bramhall has Clean Slate out in September and the next instalment of Lesley Davis’ Wings Paranormal series Pale Wings Protecting is released in October. Rounding out 2013 and just in time for Christmas will be Secret Lies, the début from YA novelist Amy Dunne. The synopses and covers for all those novels can be found by clicking the above link.

LT Smith has a new novel pending with her new publisher Ylva. See Right Through Me is slated for an autumn release  (well, the site says Fall, so I’m translating that into Brit!) and the blurb goes a little like this:

Trust, respect, and love. Three little words—that’s all. But these words are powerful, and if we ignore any one of them, then three other little words take their place: jealousy, insecurity, and heartbreak.
Schoolteacher Gemma Hughes is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life. Disorganised and clumsy, she soon finds herself in the capable hands of the beautiful Dr Maria Moran. Everything goes wonderfully until Gemma starts doubting Maria’s intentions and begins listening to the wrong people.
But has Maria something to hide, or is it a case of swapping trust for insecurity, respect for jealousy and finishing with a world of heartbreak and deceit? Can Gemma stop her actions before it’s too late? Or will she ruin the best thing to happen in her life?
Given her track record, anything is possible …

Over on Val McDermid’s blog is the revelation that she is currently working on a new Tony and Carol thriller.

Val says: ‘I’m working on the new Tony & Carol book, Cross and Burn — the title comes from the saying, ‘the problem with bridges is knowing which ones to cross and which ones to burn.’ A killer is on the loose, a killer who threatens both Tony and Carol but in very different ways.’

Val is also busy with preliminaries on her reworking of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Never let it be said that this is an author who doesn’t like a challenge.

Last but not least of our roundup of “new release” news this week is BSB’s UK editorial arm Victoria Oldham (an honorary Brit!) who has a short story (Love’s Horizon) published this month in the anthology Blood and Lipstick: 

In Love’s Horizon, yacht captain Jayne moonlights as a paranormal researcher, so she isn’t surprised when her newest client, Eleni, turns out to be a vampire. What does surprise her is that after making Eleni promise that she was permanently off the menu, she becomes increasingly frustrated when Eleni keeps it.

For more information on the anthology and the stories within, check out this link.

Moving on from reading to listening now, and the lovely ladies at The Cocktail Hour podcast have been in touch with UK LesFic to open up an invitation to any UK authors who might be interested in featuring on short recordings. Cheri – who regularly co-hosts the show – wrote to say:

Any authors looking for an audience for a short reading or would like to chat for a bit about their work and/or future projects can contact the folks over at Cocktail Hour and set something up. info@cocktailhour.us

The Cocktail Hour podcasts have  a large and enthusiastic fanbase and their focus is mainly on LesFic, whether that be interviewing authors, chatting about books or, on occasion, just getting a little bit tipsy. If you’ve never visited their archives before, you could probably get lost in them for a good few days! At the moment, they are holding a Best of 2012 poll where listeners can vote for their favourite show of the year. There are some huge LesFic names in the running, so go catch up on those you might have missed, and pick your winners!

A new gay culture review magazine, Gaze, has just hit the Internet. In a recent article for The Guardian, co-creator Paul Burston explained the thinking behind the publication which lists VG Lee as one of its contributors: “We didn’t want to write about gay lifestyle or pander to straight soap hunks who love their gay fans. We wanted to tackle issues one doesn’t generally read about in the lesbian and gay press.” Sounds like it might be well worth a peek. The magazine can be purchased here.

To round out on a lighter note, the best search term of the week resulting in a hit to this site simply has to go to: lesbian hunting hunting lesbian girls in shopping center

Whoever the hell was trolling for that, I hope you eventually got lucky. PS – you misspelled centre.

News Update: Free reads from Niamh Murphy, Cari Hunter’s new novel released today, BSB in Nottingham, JT Harding update, and After The Night reviewed at C-Spot.

Niamh Murphy has organised her freebie short stories,  and her latest story (In Rhythm) is now finished. She says on her blog:

I’ve had to go out and do battle with blizzards far more than I’d like and as a result I have had an unshakable cold for the last few weeks. I’ve been absolutely wiped out and my blog has suffered, as has my Wattpad Story ‘In Rhythm’ – just as I was getting to the good bit! But it is all done now! YAY, the story is finished and it is such a relief!

Desolation Point, the new thriller-romance by Cari Hunter, is available from today at the Bold Strokes Books website. The book will go on wider release on April 15th, but readers wanting to get a jump on this date can purchase the novel in paperback and e-book format directly from BSB.

 

Victoria Oldham, organiser of the Bold Strokes BookFest in Nottingham in June wants to hear your thoughts on the program. She asks:

Readers: What questions would you ask authors? What would you like to see/do at the fest?

Authors: What questions do you have for readers? For other authors?

And – following the lively debate at the States of Independence event, she is also pondering that tricky question: What are you, a lesbian writer or a writer who happens to be lesbian?   Join the discussion on Vic’s blog.

JT Harding has been busy finishing up her sequel to Summer Secrets. With the first draft completed, and some editing and polishing to go, she’s hopeful the book will be ready to publish in the not too distant future. Her most recent blog post discusses her writing process and the character development in her new novel.

Hot off the presses! A review of Rachel Dax‘s novel, After The Night, has just been posted at C-Spot Reviews. Sunny, a new addition to the C-Spot team, says:

The supporting characters are an interesting lot and they each have a unique role that fits into the overall story. There are also a few twists and turns to keep you guessing as the story progresses to its satisfying conclusion. 

You can read the full review here.

Niamh Murphy short story, Rachel Dax blogs, and Virginia Woolf’s Lighter Side…

Niamh Murphy has a new short story out: Delicious, available from Torquere Press or here on Amazon.

Charlotte is invited to a boisterous New Year’s party and struggles to get close to the woman she craves, her gorgeous cookery teacher, Nadia. She soon realizes she is pining for someone way out of her league and resolves to leave the party and try to overcome her obsession. But Nadia is not the type to let Charlotte go that easily.

Over at Women and Words, Rachel Dax, author of The Legend of Pope Joan, is guest blogger this week. Read how she goes about historical research, how she gets her inspiration, and how she brings imagined worlds alive.

Meanwhile, recently discovered, previously unseen manuscripts written byVirginia Woolf for her young nephews reveal an “affectionate, mischievous” side to the author of Orlando and Mrs Dalloway.

The Charleston Bulletin was a family newspaper founded and illustrated by Woolf’s nephew, for which Woolf wrote and dictated a series of supplements. It is “very likely” to be the last unpublished work from Woolf, and the British Library, which acquired the manuscripts in 2003, hope its release will give the public the opportunity to see how “very light-hearted” Woolf could be. More details can be found in this article from The Guardian newspaper.

Free novel and short story

Two bargains for Valentine’s Day:

VG Lee‘s classic novel Diary of a Provincial Lesbian will be available FREE for Kindle from the 14th February, with a new “romantic” cover!

Meanwhile, RJ Samuel has a new short story out, which you can download free on Smashwords, along with extracts from her novels Falling Colours and Heart Stopper.