Friday, March 25, 2011

Lesbian Cops Blog Tour

Does the thought of lesbian cops turn you on, or leave you cold? Whichever way you lean, these stories offer some surprises, and now the writers are offering extra insights on their work in a blog tour beginning on April 1. Check us out. All comments on any of these blog entries will be entered in a drawing for one of two copies of the book.
Here’s the schedule, with links:

March 31 Sacchi Green Interview
www.deadrobotssociety.com


April 1 JL Merrow
jl-merrow.livejournal.com/


April 2 Jove Belle
www.jovebelle.wordpress.com


April 3 Delilah Devlin
www.delilahdevlin.com/blog


April 4 R. G. Emanuelle
www.rgemanuelle.com


April 5 Andrea Dale

cyvarwydd.blogspot.com


April 6 Kenzie Matthews
sacchi-green.blogspot.com


April 7 Ily Goyanes
thesideshow.info


April 8 Cheyenne Blue
www.cheyenneblue.com


April 9 Evan Mora
sacchi-green.blogspot.com/


April 10 J.N. Gallagher
sacchi-green.blogspot.com/


April 11 Liz Coldwell
elizabethcoldwell.wordpress.com


April 12 Teresa Noelle Roberts
sacchi-green.blogspot.com/


April 13 Lynn Mixon
www.lynnmixon.com/


April 14 RV Raiment
sacchi-green.blogspot.com/


April 15 Annabeth Leong
annabethleong.blogspot.com


Besides commenting on the content of the blogs, feel free to comment (or e-mail me--sacchigreen@gmail.com) at the end of the tour with your own thoughts about what you wish we'd included in the book. Hot fantasies, wild imaginings, gritty realism--if you want to share it, now's the time. All such comments will be in the running for a third copy of the book.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Women in Historical Fiction

Another of my columns for Women and Words, but with more emphasis on erotica just for you.

Women in Historical Fiction

According to a survey on the Smart Bitches website, 81% of romance readers read historical romance. The rest of the results are interesting, as well. Yes, I noticed that erotic romance comes in at the bottom of the list, with only 45% going near it (or admitting to it, at least.)

The historical appeal fascinates me. I love historical fiction. I don’t know how the preferences of lesbian readers stack up against those of romance readers in general, but my general impression is that historical romance (or let’s just say historical fiction) isn’t heavily represented in lesfic as a whole. I do know of some but I’d be glad to hear your recommendations.

One difference, I think, between straight historical romance and the lesbian version, is that in ours, the women get to be the strong characters. No swooning in the arms of an alpha male. (Yes, I know there are some strong female characters in straight historicals, but I’m speaking in general terms here.)

This brings me to a subject I’ve long wanted to rant about. There seems to be a belief on the part of women who write m/m historical romance that there’s no point in writing about women in history because women never got to do anything adventurous. They were never strong. They weren’t worth writing about. I actually saw this stated by an author for whom I have great respect, and echoed with complete agreement in numerous comments from other female writers of m/m historical romance.

What! I’m not going to list famous women in history—we’re talking about fiction here, after all, although I do admit to writing short fiction that included Queen Elizabeth I addressing the troops before the battle with the Spanish Armada. But there have always been strong women, strong sometimes in the same ways as men, and often in much more complex and vital ways. In some sense the very fact that our patriarchal culture has at best ignored and at worst suppressed their history makes them even more interesting to write about.

What do you think? Should publishers be giving us more lesbian historical fiction?

Last year I wrote a guest column for the Oh Get a Grip blog . It was titled “Strong Women Ride You Harder”, on the subject of strong women in erotica, not specifically about historical fiction, but I do think it fits this discussion.

“Strong Women Ride You Harder”

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Erotica Readings: My Characters Made Me Do It

Lesbian Cops will be out in less than a month, and I'll be posting details about a blog tour here soon. I'll also have details about a contest for a free book, and an additional prize.

For now, I'm sharing another column I posted recently on Women and Words. This one is about doing erotica readings.


Most folks get nervous about reading their work in public, especially the first time, but when it comes to reading erotica out loud there’s a whole extra world of panic. Writing erotica is a very private, very personal process, at least if you’re doing it well, and if we thought then about speaking those words in front of an audience, we might not have the courage to write them down at all.