Awards Finalists for the Golden Crown Literary Society

These are the finalists for the GCLS awards.  The winners will be announced at the conference in June.

Ann Bannon Popular Choice

Title	Author	Publisher
A Kiss Before Dawn	Laurie Salzler	Blue Feather Books
A Very Public Eye: Book 2, Public Eye Mystery Series	Lori L. Lake	Regal Crest Enterprises
Above Reproach	Lynn Ames	Phoenix Rising Press
Aftermath	Ann McMan	Bedazzled Ink Pub. Co.
Crossroads	Radclyffe	Bold Strokes Books
Heart Block	Melissa Brayden	Bold Strokes Books
Molly:  House on Fire	R.E. Bradshaw	R.E. Bradshaw Books
Rhapsody	KG MacGregor	Bella Books
Survived By Her Longtime Companion	Chris Paynter	Blue Feather Books

Anthology (Non-Erotica)

Title	Author	Publisher
Heiresses of Russ 2012: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction	Connie Wilkins and Steve Berman, Co-Editors	Lethe Press
Here Come the Brides! Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage	Audrey Bilger and Michele Kort, Editors	Seal Press
OMG Queer	Radclyffe and Katherine E. Lynch	Bold Strokes Books
Without Apology: Old Lesbian Life Stories	Arden Eversmeyer and Margaret Purcell	Self Published under OLOHP Press Imprint
Women of the Dark Streets	Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman, Editors	Bold Strokes Books

Debut Author

Title	Author	Publisher
Art On Fire	Hilary Sloin	Bywater Books
Everything Pales in Comparison	Rebecca Swartz	Bella Books
Fragmentary Blue	Erica Abbott	Bella Books
Lemon Reef	Robin Silverman	Bold Strokes Books
Riding Fury Home, A Memoir	Chana Wilson	Seal Press
Sometime Yesterday	Yvonne Heidt	Bold Strokes Books
The Furthest City Light	Jeanne Winer	Bella Books
Writing On The Wall	Jenna Rae	Bella Books

Dramatic/General Fiction

Title	Author	Publisher
Aftermath	Ann McMan	Bedazzled Ink Pub. Co.
Art on Fire	Hilary Sloin	Bywater Books
Being Emily	Rachel Gold	Bella Books
Growing Up Delicious	Marianne Banks	Bella Books
Out on the Panhandle	R.E. Bradshaw	R.E. Bradshaw Books
Spanish Heart	Rachel Spangler	Bold Strokes Books
The Raid	Lee Lynch	Bold Strokes Books
The Raven's Heart	Jesse Blackadder	Bywater Books
Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright	Justine Saracen	Bold Strokes Books

Historical Fiction

Title	Author	Publisher
Awake Unto Me	Kathleen Knowles	Bold Strokes Books
Castle of Dark Shadows	Patty G. Henderson	Blanca Rose Publishing
One Saved to the Sea	Catt Kingsgrave	Circlet Press Inc.
The Blondness of Honey	T.T. Thomas	Bon View Publishing
The Last Nude	Ellis Avery	Riverhead Books
The Storm	Shelley Thrasher	Bold Strokes Books

Lesbian Erotica

Title	Author	Publisher
Affinity and Friends Put the X Back in Xmas	Compiled by Irish Eyes Written by: Stein Willard, Liz Bradbury, Nat Burns, Susan X Meagher, Del Robertson, Syd Parker, Ruth Gogoll, Kiki Archer, JM Dragon, and Irish Eyes	Affinity eBook Press NZ Ltd.
Best Lesbian Erotica 2013	Kathleen Warnock	Cleis Press
Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians	Sacchi Green, Editor	Cleis Press
Girls Who Score: Hot Lesbian Erotica	Ily Goyanes	Cleis Press
Initiation By Desire	M.J. Williamz	Bold Strokes Books
Sapphic Planet	Edited by Kissa Starling and Beth Wylde  (stories by the lesbian writer's group Sapphic Planet)	Create Space (Sapphic Planet Self Published)
The Harder She Comes: Butch/Femme Erotica	D.L. King	Cleis Press
The Night Off	Meghan O'Brien	Bold Strokes Books

Mystery/Thriller

Title	Author	Publisher
A Very Public Eye: Book 2, Public Eye Mystery Series	Lori L. Lake	Regal Crest Enterprises
Above Reproach	Lynn Ames	Phoenix Rising Press
Being the Steel Drummer	Liz Bradbury	Boudica Publishing Inc.
Certain Dark Things	Erica Abbott	Bella Books
Hide and Snake Murder	Jessie Chandler	Midnight Ink
Keepers of the Cave	Gerri Hill	Bella Books
Rest for the Wicked	Ellen Hart	Minotaur Books
Runaway	Anne Laughlin	Bold Strokes Books

Paranormal

Title	Author	Publisher
A Question of Ghosts	Cate Culpepper	Bold Strokes Books
Sometime Yesterday	Yvonne Heidt	Bold Strokes Books
Summoning Shadows	Winter Pennington	Bold Strokes Books
Sunfall	Nell Stark and Trinity Tam	Bold Strokes Books
The Book of Eleanor	Nat Burns	Bella Books
The Pyramid Waltz	Barbara Ann Wright	Bold Strokes Books
Third	Q. Kelly	Ride the Rainbow Books
Touch Me Gently	D. Jackson Leigh	Bold Strokes Books

Poetry

Title	Author	Publisher
Heart Prints	Bettina Morello	Boudica Publishing Inc.
Journey to Her Heart	Karen Belmar	Affinity eBook Press Ltd.
Secession	Amy Sara Carroll	Hyperbole Books (Imprint of San Diego State University Press)
The Other Side of Joy	April Joy Bowden	AuthorHouse
to go without blinking	Aimee Herman	BlazeVOX (books)
Wet Violets: Sappho's Corner Poetry Series, Volume 2	Beth Mitchum (editor)	UltraVioletLove Publishing
Worlds of Love, Loss, and Longing	Beth Mitchum	UltraVioletLove Publishing

Romantic Suspense/Intrigue

Title	Author	Publisher
After Mrs. Hamilton	Clare Ashton	Self Published
Beyond Innocence	Carsen Taite	Bold Strokes Books
Demons are Forever	Kim Baldwin & Xenia Alexiou	Bold Strokes Books
Everything Pales in Comparison	Rebecca Swartz	Bella Books
Oath of Honor	Radclyffe	Bold Strokes Books
Playing with Fuego	KG MacGregor	Bella Books
She Left Me Breathless	Trin Denise	Ragz Books USA
Tactical Pursuit	Lynette Mae	Regal Crest Enterprises

Short Stories/Collection

Title	Author	Publisher
Door Shaker and Other Stories	Nann Dunne	CreateSpace
Homesteading: Essays on Life, Death, Sex and Liberation	Julie R. Enszer	One Spirit Press
I'll Call It Like I See It: A Lesbian Speaks Out	Sheila Morris	Purple Books Publishing
In Remembrance and Other Stories	ML Skinner	CreateSpace
Riding Fury Home A Memoir	Chana Wilson	Seal Press
Sidecar	Ann McMan	Bedazzled Ink Pub. Co.
Slices of Life	Georgia Beers	Brisk Press
Tea Leaves	Janet Mason	Bella Books

Speculative Fiction

Title	Author	Publisher
A Guardian's Love	Stein WIllard	Affinity eBook Press NZ Ltd.
Beloved Lady Mistress	D. Jordan Redhawk	Bella Books
Deerhaven Pines	Diana McRae	Bella Books
In The Now	Kelly Sinclair	Blue Feather Books
Just Killing Time	Linda Kay Silva	Spinsters Ink
Silver Moon	Catherine Lundoff	Lethe Press
Soulwalker	Erica Lawson	Blue Feather Books
The Smuggler, the Spy and the Spider	Diana Rivers	Bella Books

Traditional Romance

Title	Author	Publisher
Almost Heaven	Susan X Meagher	Brisk Press
Heart Block	Melissa Brayden	Bold Strokes Books
Love Match	Ali Vali	Bold Strokes Books
Rhapsody	KG MacGregor	Bella Books
Snow Falls	Gerri Hill	Bella Books
Something in the Wine	Jae	Ylva Publishing
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow	Maria V. Ciletti	Intaglio Publications
Worth the Risk	Karis Walsh	Bold Strokes Books

It's time to be more discriminating in the books

 This is a post I made on a the group I moderate on Yahoo called Lesfic_Unbound.  I'm sharing it here as a thought to put out to the community.

I had contact with an author this weekend that I think needs to be shared if we truly want to see the literature get better.  I suspect many of us have talked to lesbian friends about reading the books only to hear, "I tried a couple.  They weren't (very good/had too many mistakes/were poorly produced/nothing but an excuse to write about sex - you pick) so I won't read them anymore."

The author who contacted me has quit every group she belonged to and is considering not writing anymore because, and I'm going to quote her, "I don't know who I can trust anymore."  I suppose the fact that she reached out to me means that she thinks I can be trusted.  That's nice, but it's not relevant to the point.

She has published more than one book, all of which got rave reviews from the standard people - friends, group members, some reviewers.  She was feeling pretty pumped up.  Then other reviews started coming in and they pointed out the mistakes and weaknesses in the books.  Yes, one of them was a review by me.  I actually thought the story was very good, but it needed some work.  The author said she went back and looked more closely at her books and realized that there were some problems in them.  I've only read one book, so I can't speak to the others.  Anyway, the author apparently felt that the people on the groups had let her down.  She was led to believe something that wasn't quite true.  Now these books are out there, with her name on them, and people are pointing out weaknesses.  She's embarrassed and didn't know what to do.  I think we settled that problem between us.

I know there was a time when there weren't many lesbian novels out there and we lapped them all up like they were honey.  We cherished every one of them and applauded the authors in every way we could so that we could get more.  Those were the days when I could read every lesbian novel that was published in a year in that year and did.

Those days are over.  The books are flooding out now, whether from companies or indies.  Some of them are truly outstanding, some are very good, some are fine for light entertainment and then some of them are just not good.  I don't mean the topic doesn't appeal to you.  You're not into romance or mystery or science fiction.  I mean they're not good.  They're full of mistakes - words missing, misspelled words, incomplete sentences, sentences that don't make sense - and the plots are either mundane or full of holes.  I started reading a book not long ago and began telling myself that I'd already read the book, but I didn't know how that could be because the book was a new release and I remembered reading it years ago.  Then I realized that it has a plot so close to another older book that it's difficult to distinguish them.  I know there are only so many plots, but you can put fresh angles on them.  I have stacks and stacks and stacks of lesbian literature that I'll probably never get to read now and still the books are pouring into my mailbox or onto my Kindle.

Don't we owe it to the authors?  Don't we owe it to the readers?  Don't we owe it to the literature to stop treating EVERY book like it's a masterpiece?  They aren't all good stories.  They aren't all well produced.  They aren't all worth reading and sure not worth spending money on, I don't care how cheap they are.  Or, at least be honest about the kind of book it is.  If it's the lesbian equivalent of a Harlequin romance, just say so.  Harlequin romances are tremendously popular with some people.  I have no problem with that.  My mother consumed them like M&Ms and it made her happy.  I don't want to read them though or I at least want to know that's what I'm going to be reading if I buy it.

The emails with this author went on all day.  I felt deeply for how she felt and I hope I gave her some suggestions that will help.  Let me repeat though that she isn't upset with the critical reviews.  She's upset with the community that told her how "wonderful" her books were when there was a lot of room for improvement. 

Haven't we reached the point where we need to be more discriminating in what we say? Or do we just put up with the people who say "I tried a couple.  They weren't very good/had too many mistakes/were poorly produced/nothing but an excuse to write about sex so I won't read them anymore."

Slices of Life by Georgia Beers

Publisher:       Brisk Press

It’s always nice when a book, or in this case, novella, takes a different approach to the normal format and provides an interesting hook for the reader.  Georgia Beers accomplished this in her collection Slices of Life.

The collection provides a glimpse into the lives of eleven different characters.  Each of them deals with a situation that isn’t unique, but can be instructive.  There is the secretary involved with the cheating boss, a UPS delivery woman who fails to see her own attractiveness to others and a woman who realizes through her most important friendship that she needs to redefine her life.  As the chapters progress through the teacher, the barista, the landscape architect and others, the reader is allowed into the lives of every-day people, where nothing extraordinary happens, but something significant does.

Beers stays true to her device.  She doesn’t tell us too much about the characters, which is typical of many short story collections.  Authors often try to cram a novel worth of information into a few pages and overload the story with details.  Beers tells just enough to make the story work.  The reader doesn’t know a lot about any of the characters, but a sufficient amount to understand what is happening in that instant.  An instant is all the reader needs.  Each one is a “slice” of that character’s life, as if the reader dropped in for just a moment to witness what is happening.  The stories seem to tell more because each one features the character for the next chapter, so the reader is progressing through each link in a chain.  Eventually the novella comes full circle when the final chapter deals with the partner of the cheater from the first vignette. 

The beauty of this volume is that it leaves the reader wanting more.  Any one of the stories could be turned into a full length novel and it’s quite possible that the reader will want that.  The resolution to each situation is indicated but not spelled out, so you can almost imagine the reader saying, “But what happened next?”

Fans of Georgia Beers’ work will not be disappointed.  She proves again why she wins awards.  New readers should be intrigued enough to want to check out her other work.  It’s good to give the work of new writers a chance, but it’s also helpful to know which authors can be depended on to deliver a good story.  Beers goes in that list.