Category Archives: lesbian literature

Toward the Light

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I was reworking the cover for In Absentia (Rain Falls series #2), which I released fairly quickly after Rain Falls, and it sort of fell through the cracks like an orphan. Someone mentioned that I had a bunch of new reviews on it. I didn’t know. Last I looked, I only had 2 on that book… Anyway, I was pleased to see that they were all really good: 4 and 5 stars, which is always a joy, and profoundly validating. But more than that, the readers/reviewers were saying things that reflected what I had talked about with this series. I … Continue reading →

Adventures in Indie Publishing, Incident #227:

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Amazon informed me that they pulled my book, Rain Falls, off sale, because they were getting too many complaints from readers about a chunk of missing text in the digital version. I realized immediately what was happening, and I rolled my eyes so hard, I could see my brain. My apparently way-too-clever brain. I made adjustments in the file to accommodate this, and added this note to readers in the front:   SPECIAL NOTE TO READERS Recently, Amazon pulled this book down, because too many readers were complaining about missing text. Apparently, those readers did not understand that the missing … Continue reading →

Syzygy gets GLOWING review!

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WHILE BLINKING AWAY HAPPY TEARS::: If I never get another review in my life, this will suffice. I have never been so overjoyed by not only how well this reviewer understood what i was trying to accomplish–on EVERY LEVEL–with Also Known as Syzygy, but that the review was glowing like Christmas lights, while also being profoundly intelligent and insightful. All the hard work is now worth it. I could not be more pleased by what this reviewer had to say about one of my books (all of them, really). This book was, at times, very difficult to write, but I … Continue reading →

Going Mainstream

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CAUTION: FRUSTRATED RANT HOVERING NEARBY. When you find yourself, as a writer, lamenting about why you’re even writing at all, and entertaining the idea of not writing any more, something has to change. I’m growing more and more frustrated with, and weary of, the lack of support from Lesbian Readers for what I want to offer them. I am sick to death of their constant praise of bad writing in the LesFic market, and their unwillingness to demand better, and try anything out of their narrow reading interests. It’s painfully clear that most LesFic Readers have literary blinders, and will … Continue reading →

Scott Crowder Interview of me on House of Fists (reblog)

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reblog Kelli Jae Baeli   My favorite of her book covers. Grumpy Cat cracks me the hell up. Kelli Jae Baeli is different from most of the writers I interview here at The House of Fists in that it was her non-fiction that first drew me to her work, as opposed to the horror or dark fiction practiced by the other interviewees. I’m trying to learn more about writing, though, and not just about writing horror, so I immediately asked her to do me the honor of being interviewed here. She writes very clearly and persuasively, her tone neatly balanced … Continue reading →

Demanding Better of Lesfic

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I am reposting this here, because I was so relieved to see that someone else out there sees this issue clearly. I am hoping we can overhaul the lesbian literature environment, eventually. From the Lynn Pierce blog….       Piercing Fiction: Straight Arrow Reviews Literature, movies and whatever else occurs to me. Sunday, April 7, 2013 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 … Continue reading →

Lesbian Readers & Writers

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If those readers who are now huffing and puffing and busting a vein on their foreheads would give it a bit of thought, they’d see that they should be glad that I care that much about the quality of my own work. Another writer friend of mine recently posted a blog about the inordinate amount of winking that goes on in lesbian fiction. I had to think about that….I know what she means. There are always some little irritants with those books…I just haven’t read a bad one in so long…because I…sort of…avoid bad books whenever possible. As for the … Continue reading →

“well written and fast paced page turner from start to finish” Review

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REVIEW of ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE from Terry at Affinity eBooks. Armchair Detective An AKA Investigations Book Amateur unlicensed Private Detective, Jobeth O’Brien, is living on the breadline, she’s not even keeping her head above water. Her night time job delivering newspapers doesn’t even begin to pay the bills. She’s hiding a secret which prevents her from getting her private investigators license. The one thing she has to her name that she loves, is her 1962 Falcon. Jobeth meets rich socialite, Phoebe McMasters while she’s delivering her newspapers. Jobeth is smitten. Unfortunately, Phoebe is married and straight, isn’t she? Apparently not! The … Continue reading →

Excerpt from Armchair Detective

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…..I had the prepaid cell phone on the seat beside me. Huxley had provided that so he could keep in touch with me, and in case I had some emergency and needed to call him. It was a source of embarrassment for me that I didn’t have something as fundamental as a cell phone, but Huxley seemed to understand, and displayed no judgment on it. Until now, I saw little reason to have one. Who would I call? I kept to myself and didn’t have any real friends here. …..Next to the cell phone, lay the .45 caliber Ruger SP-101. … Continue reading →

Random Act of Blindness: “witty, hot, intelligent”

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5.0 out of 5 stars Another work of art from this fantastic author May 12, 2012 By Tessa Format:Kindle Edition Another great book from this author. I think i liked this one more than ‘armchair detective’, and i loved that one. This book is well rounded and packed with drama. I wasn’t sure i’d like it at first, as i was foolish enough to think the author was going to take the common route of having the suspicious blond turn out to be evil and wreak havoc on our protagonist. So, i spent the first part of the book on … Continue reading →

No More Hall-Decking for You Guys

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“Twelve Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles worth  of property was destroyed.” ~ Lawrence Kelleman I sn’t Christmas a wonderful time of year? Consider this:      Thus says the LORD, Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the Heavens, although the nations are terrified by them; For the customs of the peoples are delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold; They fasten it … Continue reading →

Book Review: Valencia

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One of the reasons I began writing lesbian fiction 25 years ago, was because I could not, at that time, find a kindred spirit in them. I could not relate to those characters, and their lives. The women in the pages of the lesbian fiction I read back then did not represent me, nor anyone I knew, or wanted to know. This offended me greatly. As for the book, Valencia, itself, the author does have some writing talent and I did notice a periodic turn of a phrase or insightful comment, but overall, these positives were overshadowed by everything else. … Continue reading →

"Damned if she didn’t" ( AKA DNA review)

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From an email sent by a reader: “After reading Armchair Detective,  the first in the AKA Investigations series, I didn’t think Baeli could top herself. But damned if she didn’t write another outstanding book!  She is definitely no one-hit-wonder.  Kelli Jae Baeli is able to engage a reader in a way that most writers can only dream of. Compelling, sometimes hysterically funny, snappy dialogue, 3 dimensional characters you fall in love with, and a plot that pulls you along as if you are tethered to an unforgiving rope. You are cheating yourself if you don’t read Also Known as DNA!” … Continue reading →

"Baeli is at the top of her game" (Also Known as DNA review)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting and Satisfying – A great Read!, August 1, 2011 “I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series so when I sat down to read this one I was sure I was in for a treat. And I was right. This book features the two main characters from the first book, this time ensconced in a different city and getting on with the job of being happy and working as Private Investigators. This time however, two more, very interesting and appealing characters are added to the mix and the narrative swaps easily between each … Continue reading →

Lesbian films

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One of my biggest peeves is that the films about lesbians are not held to the same standards as other films, probably because their target audience is so hungry to see stories about something they can relate to on a sexual orientation level. However, this should never be a reason to call a film good when it simply isn’t. And Then Came Lola is an example of that. No character development, a plot that is meaningless, situations that are contrived, and a story that was interspersed with some cartoon interludes that were unnecessary, incongruous and distracting. Some of the actresses … Continue reading →