West of Nowhere by KG MacGregor

Publisher:       Bella Books

Disclaimer:  There is a character that briefly appears in this story that is named for me.  The character was part of a prize in a charity auction in which KG MacGregor participated.  The only part I played in the production of this book was to ask KG, if she decided to kill off the character, not to make it too horrible.  I’m happy to say the character survives.

West of Nowhere is a romance plus a story about the ability of people to change.  Amber Haliday is an immature twenty-five year old woman who thinks she has found her place with her musician boyfriend, until he dumps her at a truck stop during a tour.  She is rescued by Joy Shepard, a Navy veteran who is on her way home after leaving her daughter Madison with her ex-partner, Madison’s mother.  This is the beginning of the lesbian edition of “The Odd Couple.”

Amber is self-centered, unfocused in her life and careless with herself and other people.  No matter how hard she tries, she can’t be on time or complete a task without making a mistake.  Joy is obsessive about tidiness and follows stringent rules that she imposes on every aspect of her life.  Her redeeming factor is that she’s as hard on herself as she is on other people, but that’s not very comforting to Amber.  Joy intended for Amber to be a momentary intrusion in her life, but, to everyone’s surprise, Amber gets along well with Joy’s father who is an invalid and needs help taking care of himself.  Reluctantly, Joy agrees to hire Amber as a caregiver and everyone’s lives begin to change.

This is a classic story of people who have a lot to teach each other. Joy needs to loosen up and Amber needs discipline.  Their opposite personalities working on each other eventually produce two better people.  Amber, because she is more willing to bend, will show the greatest change; however, she shows her own strength, especially when Joy finds herself involved in a difficult child custody case.

West of Nowhere is an entertaining story.  KG MacGregor knows how to spin her characters so that they aren’t annoying and her craftsmanship is impeccable.  A reader doesn’t have to worry about wasting money when it’s one of her books.

Interview of Sandra Moran on "It's Our Community"

I just finished listening to Sandra Moran's interview on It's Our Community.   If you haven't listened to it, you can find it on You Tube at
It's Our Community - Sandra Moran

			It's Our Community - Sandra Moran Sandra Moran: JCCC Anthropology Instructor. Author of "Letters Never Sent".
			View on m.youtube.com	Preview by Yahoo

Or apparently you can click on this notice since it popped in when I listed the address.  That was a surprise.

I know many of you have read Letters Never Sent and I've just bought it.  Funny, I gave it to a friend for Christmas and didn't get a copy for myself.

Anyway, it's a good interview, but I have a bone to pick with it.  The interviewer and Sandra were talking about books not being pigeon-holed and not wanting to label her book "lesbian" and lose readers.  I agree whole heartedly with that.  In the days when publishers used to label books "lesbian," I argued against that for several reasons.  A good book should be read because it's a good book.  It shouldn't lose readers because of a category.  As I said, I haven't read the book yet, but a lot of you have and have commented on it, so I expect it to be excellent.

The interviewer made the comment though that lesbian publishers aren't needed.  Sandra then said that she hoped the day would come when lesbian literature would be accepted as literature and that alone.  I agree with that, too, but I wish she had made a comment about the publishers.  Some of our publishers haven't done as good a job as others, but we owe them all a debt of gratitude and I think we need to remember that and celebrate it.

I never prowled book counters looking for paperback books in the days of Ann Bannon or Patricia Highsmith.  I'm old enough, but the lights went on later for me, so I missed that experience.  I do remember finding Naiad though and getting the catalog through the mail in its plain brown envelope.  I would pour over the list and order books that came in plain wrappers.  Then I discovered other companies and got their books, too.  Bookstores around my area, the ones that are left, still don't carry lesbian literature except in a very limited version, so I've always had to depend on the publishers.  I have thousands of lesbian books now and I don't think I bought more than a dozen or so of them in a bookstore.  That includes making sure I made a trip to Lambda Rising every time I went near Washington, DC.

I know many authors are now self-publishing and that's fine as long as they do a good job.  A lot of what I see on Amazon looks like junk, but that's my opinion and people are entitled to read what they want.  However, we shouldn't ever forget what the publishers have done and will do for us.  They provided books when no one else would or could.  I suspect they will be needed in the future just as much.  There will be certain types of books (yes, I guess I'm thinking about erotica mainly) that some will want to read that mainstream companies may not be as interested in publishing.  They also still act as a wonderful training place for new authors IF they do their job properly.

I think the interviewer on the show was being very naive to say that we don't need lesbian publishers, for good books or any others.  I'd certainly hate to see that come true.