'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 107

Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Carsen Taite

If you’re at all a fan of the legal-themed romances (or ass-kicking bounty hunters), then you’ll likely already know today’s awesome guest, Carsen Taite. I got to meet Carsen a couple of years ago at the Bold Strokes Books writer’s retreat, where I got to see her captivate a crowd in space of, oh, I’m gonna say three minutes.

Charisma. Taite has it.

 

She’s also inspiring in other ways. The infamous “Taite Daily Word Count” is very motivating, in the sense that looking at what she manages to accomplish between moments makes me feel like a total slug.

So of course she also does scorching hot short fiction, right?

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: Okay, flat-out, no study group I ever met was as awesome as ‘Study Buddes.’ That was hot. Also, I learned the different between repossession and replevin. Your fans know you very well for your legal edge to your fantastic thrillers, but how in the world did it occur to you to come up with legal study erotica? My hat’s off to you.

CT: Thanks! Adding a dose of the law to fiction is definitely my brand, so when a certain editor nudged me out of my comfort zone to contribute to this anthology, I figured law school was the perfect setting. Finding the right folks to study with in law school is one of the biggest stressors of the first year, so I asked “Hey, what’s the best way to alleviate stress?” and then it was like the story wrote itself.

NB: Y’know, they need to print that on first-year survival booklets or something.

There’s a divide in the story between the straight-A nose-to-the-grindstone students and the I’m-well-connected-and-don’t-have-to-sweat-it confident students. Which is sexier? (Or is this a “Option C: Sorority girls” moment?)

CT: How about Option D: all of the above? Seriously, confidence, hard-work, and great social skills—all of those qualities are sexy. My story’s narrator may have been a little too uptight for anyone to see her sexy side at first, but she just needed a couple of sexy smart surfer girls to help her find her inner sexpot. The message? We’re all sexy in our own unique way.

NB: If you were in the room, I’d fist-bump that.

Now, I happen to know you’ve dropped characters from your novels into short fiction before (in fact, I believe that’s how I “met” Luca Bennett). Do you like criss-crossing characters through formats, and are there other appearances in short fiction from novels that your fans should know about?

CT: I love criss-crossing characters. Luca Bennett actually started out in a short story, “Boomerang,” that I wrote for Women of the Mean Streets. I was experimenting with the character to see if I was inspired enough to pen a series about a bounty hunter. Three novels, two short stories, and a novella later, I think I might have been a little inspired.

NB: I love Luca, and lord knows I’m not the only one.

CT: It makes me very happy that so many people seem to like Luca. Several of my other characters make cameo appearances in other novels and I’ve used short fiction to revisit some of my favourites as well:

Parker and Morgan from It Should be a Crime celebrate a new couple milestone in “Love is the Key” in Breathless: Tales of Celebration

Skye and Aimee from The Best Defense give us a behind the scenes with their new baby girl in “Born to Ride” in Amor and More: Love Everafter.

NB: That’s freaking awesome. I love being able to “catch up” with characters I love.

If you’d like to catch a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.

Photo credit: Diana Perez-Soria

Carsen Taite’s goal as an author is to spin tales with plot lines as interesting as the cases she encountered in her career as a criminal defense lawyer. She is the award-winning author of over a dozen novels of romantic intrigue, including the Luca Bennett Bounty Hunter series and the Lone Star Law series. Her upcoming novel, Without Justice, a standalone romantic intrigue, will be available everywhere books are sold in December 2016.

Learn more at www.carsentaite.com.

10 Years

 

No Sunday Shorts today. My fella and I are out celebrating ten years. I love you, crazy man.

CAN•CON 2016: Where I’ll Be.

The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature, orCAN•CON, is coming up soon. September 9th to September 11th, CAN•CON, or more completely CAN•CON: The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature, is a periodic science fiction and fantasy convention in Ottawa put on by The Society for Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature.

I’ll be making a few appearances throughout the schedule this year, which is pretty awesome. I had a blast last year, and can’t wait for more.

So, if you happen to be looking for my errant apostrophe self, here’s the details:

Friday, September 9th, at 9:00 pm – “The Mechanics of Sex” – Angela S. Stone, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Talia Johnson, Dr. Dylan Blacquiere. Yup. Conference panel discussing sex.
Saturday, September 10th, at 10:00am – Readings: 10:00 – But It’s Not the End and Other Lies by Matt Moore, 10:20 – Every House is Haunted by Ian Rogers, 10:40 – Triad Blood by ‘Nathan Burgoine
Saturday, September 1oth, at 5:00pm – “Beyond the Coming Out Story” – New Queer Narratives in Speculative Fiction – Caroline Frechette, Gabrielle Harbowy, ‘Nathan Burgoine, Talia Johnson, Derek Newman-Stille (m)

If you want the full schedule, hop on over to the CAN•CON site here.

CAN•CON happens in downtown Ottawa at the Novotel, one block from Ottawa’s historic Market, the Rideau Centre, the Canal and public transit is pretty solid to get there.

How do you solve a problem like Aurora?

This. The stories vary, family by family, but never doubt that they’re important, and need to be told. Our history, and our stories, are constantly hidden in the name of so many false ideals.

Never let them hide your tale.

Aurora Rey

My family dynamic is…unique. Without going into all the details, let me just say that, as a child, I often felt like I was being parented by committee. And even though I wasn’t a bad kid, there were many family meetings held to figure out what to do with me. These meetings were no joke. Our family meetings come complete with agendas and adherence to Robert’s Rules of Order. In hindsight, I know that I was fortunate to have aunts and uncles who cared for me, but the situation wasn’t without its challenges.

The most recent of these family meetings, which I didn’t attend, included discussion of the fact that my mother had requested and received a copy of my latest book. Since she lives in an assisted living facility and doesn’t possess much of a filter, there was some concern that she’d create an awkward situation by over-sharing. Since…

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Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Fiona Riley

I am so incredibly stoked to bring you today’s Sunday Shorts Q&A with Fiona Riley. If you don’t know Fiona Riley, then you obviously don’t follow me on Goodreads or Facebook or Twitter, and hey, I’ll forgive that if you go grab your copy of Miss Match right now. It’s an awesome romance with a kick-ass set of characters and ohmigosh the sequel is next year and I cannot wait. But seriously: go, now, and grab it. I’ll wait for you to come back.

…

Back? Okay. So I got to meet Fiona at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans, and she and her wife are fricking hilarious. Then we were both at the Bold Strokes Books writer’s retreat, and by the end of it I almost had abs from laughing (I didn’t quite have them because there’s this place called ‘The Ice Cream Man’ and also every breakfast was bacon, so… no abs.)

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: We all know I loved your debut novel, Miss Match, which was moving and funny and, yes, sexy, but ‘Extra Credit’ is scorching hot! Did you find shifting into short fiction (and erotic short fiction, at that) challenging at all?

FR: Aww, thanks! To answer your question: no, the transition wasn’t too difficult for me. Before I wrote Miss Match, I dabbled briefly in the fan-fiction realm. In my experience, that audience had a short attention span and tended to demand a fast turn-a-round on content; so writing an erotic short based off of a prompt was something I’ve done more than once. It’s very freeing to sit down and write out a quick and dirty romp. I usually use that as a way to get over any form of writer’s block I may encounter: really dive head first into a little erotic fiction to stir up those, uh, creative juices. Works every time.

Giving Back

I don’t do this kind of post very often, but I hope you’ll give me your ear.

The book business is tough, period. But when you step further from the mainstream, things get tougher. And, if you’ve heard me chat about the subject before, you know that by “mainstream,” most of the time we’re talking “straight, white, and cis-gendered.” I talk a lot about how important diversity is, about how important access to diversity is, and about how important #ownvoices and our own community itself is.

And it occurred to me that I’ve missed a few opportunities to point out a way to support those communities.

Recently, Glad Day Books came to a crossroads. They needed to adapt their space (it was small, it wasn’t accessible, and from a business point of view, it’s pretty damn tough to make an operational profit with books these days—they were, and are, doing very well, but business isn’t about getting by, it’s about growth. They hosted a fundraiser, and pretty soon they’ll be opening up at 499 Church, as a bookstore-slash-bar-slash-coffee shop.

Frankly? I can’t wait to see it.

Which brings me to my first point.

When Light was on its way to becoming a real, live first novel of mine, Ottawa’s LGBT Bookstore was on the edge of fading out. After Stonewall opened June 18, 1990 as the LGBTQ’s community place for literature and magazines. It became a place to meet and discuss books and find out what is going on in the community, and by 2012, David Rimmer, the owner, was ready to retire.

Luckily for the whole community, along came Michael Deyell.

The sharp eyed among you might realize both those names have characters named after them in my books, and that’s no coincidence. Michael took After Stonewall and created Stonewall Gallery, which kept the LGBT literature, and became Ottawa’s Art for Everyday Living experience. In October of 2013, among beautiful paintings, gorgeous jewellery, stoneware, glassware, and—yes—LGBT literature, I got to host the book launch of my dreams at Stonewall Gallery. Friends, family, and people I’d never met but immediately decided were individuals of obvious taste, merit, and class showed up for my reading, and the launch was brilliant.

The table at the Triad Blood launch.

And entirely due to Michael, and everything David had done before him.

Fast-forward to this May, and I got to do the same thing for Triad Blood.

Again, due to Michael.

Through Stonewall, I’ve been able to bring stock to conventions, and not only get the word out about my work, but also support the bookstore who made it possible for me the launch my title in the first place. Every copy that Stonewall sells of my book is like a small, personal thank-you to Michael, in my mind.

Now, if you look at the title up there, it says “Stonewall / Wilde’s.” So what’s that about?

Wilde’s first opened in September 1993. After a couple of moves, Wilde’s settled onto Bank Street and has become the Village’s oldest adult store. The business was sold in 2015 and continues to evolve. Adult toys and accessories are more popular than ever. LGBTQ and Pride merchandise are more in demand.

And the space is no longer able to supply that demand.

Now, the business happened to sell to an awesome man named Trevor Prevost, and it just so happens Trevor and Michael are partners, and they’re looking to make a similar state for their businesses.

Stonewall has a basement that, with renovations, would not only revitalize Wilde’s ability to stock and sell, but would let both businesses operate under one location (and basically restructure their entire operational overhead).

What does that mean? It means more art. More literature. More events. More toys. More pride.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been asked ‘What’s the best way for me to support you with your books?’ I’m beyond blessed that is asked of me, and I know it’s a position of privilege to be in. But one huge way you could do so, right now, if you’re willing?

Help Stonewall Wilde’s happen. Their Indiegogo campaign is right here. There are reward levels, and they’re pretty darn awesome. And, if all goes well, I’ll be launching Triad Soul, and all the other books I’ve got in me, at the new and improved Stonewall Wilde’s. This is something I believe in enough that, just like with Glad Day Books, I donated my book’s advance to the goal.

I’m lucky enough to work at Stonewall on occasion, and when I work, I get to do the thing I love the most: I get to talk about the art of others, and suggest it, and sell it. Bookselling has been a passion of mine for decades. Heck, if every author I’ve ever hand-sold dropped some cash in the jar for this merge and renovation, we’d be half-way to the goal already. I love bookselling, and I’m good at it. I say that with pride.

I want to keep doing it.

 

While Stonewall Wilde’s is a single fundraising goal (with a very real deadline), these next two are ongoing through Patreon, which is a fundraising process that is more of a subscription and monthly investment.

What’s Lethe Press? In their own words: Lethe Press began in 2001 as a home for queer and speculative fiction. Since then we have won numerous awards and acclaim for our books. Many readers feel like outsiders because of the sexual identity—our books are welcome reliefs to this problem; the gay and lesbian protagonists in our books have adventures, chase danger, fall in love, lead rich lives, and overcome the taint of homophobia. Our speculative fiction is imaginative and strange and wondrous.

We are the only publisher with Year’s Best anthologies aimed at gay and lesbian and (as of 2016) transgender readers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.

Lethe Press is home to many, many of my short fiction pieces in the various anthologies the press has published, and as a writer of the fantastical, without Lethe, I have no doubt many of those tales simply wouldn’t have found a home.

Now, with Patreon, you can select a monthly level and garner rewards. I can tell you whole-heartedly that this level of support of a publisher creates a stability otherwise unknown in the publishing industry, and allows investment in new projects. I jumped at the ‘audiobook’ reward myself, because I constantly listen to audiobooks, and I’ve already started my first Lethe reward book. It’s awesome.

So, when it comes to #ownvoices, again people have asked me: “How do I support this?”

Well, if you’re wanting to promote LGBT voices, and you’re at all a fan of spec fic, sci-fi, fantasy, or horror? Look no further than Lethe’s Patreon, here.

Last in my trio discussion of ways to give back—but by no means least—I present to you WOC In Romance.

From the Facebook page:

Promoting the works of Women of Color in Romance Fiction. Brought to you by romance author Rebekah Weatherspoon.

This is place where readers and authors can find Women of Color who write Romance Fiction. **WOCInRomance Is Trans inclusive and open to gender fluid and non-binary authors as well.**

What defines “Romance” fiction?

Per Romance Writers of America: Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.

A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.

An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

Romance novels may have any tone or style, be set in any place or time, and have varying levels of sensuality—ranging from sweet to extremely hot. These settings and distinctions of plot create specific subgenres within romance fiction. Click here to better understand the subgenres within romance.

Can I submit my work?

Are you a woman of color, well then heck yeah.

Can I submit someone else’s work? HECK YEAH!

We are always happy when any author includes characters of color in their work. We would love to keep this space of Authors Of Colors. Please do check out the #DiverseBooks movement and #WeNeedDiverseRomance, both of which focus more on characters in the books.

(If you want to submit work, either your own or a favourite author’s, go here.)

Now, you all know I love Rebekah (again, note the character name appearing in Triad Blood), and her work is brilliant. And so is the work of WOCInRomance. Via Twitter, I’ve discovered so many new authors.

Again, #ownvoices matter. Again, people ask me how they can help. Well, the Patreon page is right here. A sustained, important effort to bring noise to authors who are so often ignored and skipped by mainstream media, and connecting them with readers who are hungry for the stories that include them.

 

Success for these projects will directly lead to this Husky getting more peanut butter, and that’s a fact.

I know there are a billion things asking you for some of the limited attention, money, and time you’ve got. I live that, too. If you can, and you believe in these communities, please do give. If you can’t give, boost the signal. I don’t often ask for “shares” or “likes,” but this time—because it matters to me so freaking much, and I love these people—I’m going to ask you to do it.

And thanks. I’ll get back to crazy short story stuff, and silly updates, and lots of pictures of Coach pretty soon.

Coach, by the way, supports this message. The price of a coffee a month could make this dog smile. And lick his chops. And wag his tail. And don’t even get me started on his eyes…

Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Ali Vali

As I mentioned last week, I recently came back from the Bold Strokes Books writing retreat, and while I was there, I reconnected with the fantastic ladies (and we few gents) of the company. It reminded me I wanted to spend some time with women of short fiction, and as luck would have it, Girls on Campus was recently released.

Today I’m speaking with Ali Vali, who was gracious enough to chat with me. If you’ve never heard Ali Vali tell a story, you’re missing out. I will never think of a power washer the same away again—but that’s a story for another day.

Today, we’re going back to school…

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: “Hard, Wet Lessons” (which, by the way, is a freaking awesome title) has student Bryn watching teacher Maison from the front row and wishing there was more being taught “hands on.” Given that Girls on Campus is an erotica collection, readers know they’re in for something hot—and then you lead with something unexpected and funny. As far as meet-cutes go, I wasn’t expecting a trip to the school infirmary. Do you like to send reader expectations sideways?

AV: Thank you, usually titles aren’t my strength, but I was inspired.  I’m glad I got to use it at least once.

Humour is something I love in any given situation, so even though it was erotica I figured there could be a laugh, but answer your question yes, sideways seems to be my life on most days. If that’s the case, it’ll eventually end up in my work.

There’s that and I need a little build up before I rip someone’s clothes off, which isn’t true erotica, but it’s true Ali. And it’s important to not have the laugh come when someone gets their clothes torn off, unless it’s like by shark attack and the rescuer is hot. That might be a good lead off for the next anthology—shark attacks and the hot rescuers.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. As a reader I like when the story goes somewhere I’m not expecting and it keeps me guessing, so while readers know they’re getting sex in this one, why not start with a tumble of a different kind.

NB: Well, it worked. Like I said, I fell for them both right off. Was it hard to pick a scenario for the collection, or did teacher-student leap up as your first instinct? It’s fair to say there were zero professors in my schooling experience that drew my attention like Brie’s was drawn by Maison—was there some wish-fulfillment at play?

AV: If only huh, but like you, most of my professors inspired fantasies but of a completely different nature. Maybe that’s what inspired me to kill so many people in various books, it was from the stress of the college classroom. There was though, my high school science teacher when I was a senior and it was her first year of teaching. Hmm…that was a pleasant memory.

Brie and Maison, like most characters, were running around in the back of my brain and I finally got to give them their own story. The teacher-student storyline has been used often, but as a reader it never does get old. It made perfect sense for erotica since you know that kind of story is like a lit match. With the slight age difference and difference in circumstance the relationship will run hot and intense, but only for a short period of time. It’s the hot and intense that makes it fun and sexy.

NB: Intense is definitely something you’re known for. You’re a prolific novelist with dozens of books, and I’ve met quite a few novelists who struggle with short fiction. I love short fiction and find novels more of a struggle—does the format of the writing make the story come easier (or more difficult) for you?

AV: This question made me laugh since I’ve been told it takes me six thousand words to say hello. Short fiction is a real struggle for me since it’s, well short fiction. Short fiction is like a highway that gets you quickly from point a to b, where as I like the meandering scenic route.

I’m from the south, so we tell stories, enjoy a good food and cocktails, talk with our hands, and write lots and lots of words–not a good formula for shorts with very small word limits. Unless I’m being audited by the IRS, or in a police interrogation I tend never to be short and to the point. Or that’s the advice my attorney has given me should I ever find myself in those situations.

Writing something like this, though, is an exercise every author should participate in. There’s nothing like emails from the editors about word count to focus your story, so when you’re writing something novel length you can carry that lesson over. The story should still be tight, and focused but you can imagine a meal, drinks, lot of hand gestures and more words.

NB: Absolutely. Every time I’m edited I learn something, and it definitely crosses over to other formats.

AV: Thanks for letting me stop by Nathan, and I hope to get invited back. I’ll bring the mimosas next time, and perhaps a beignet or two.

NB: That’s a deal!

If you’d like a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.

 

Originally from Cuba, Ali Vali has retained much of her family’s traditions and language and uses them frequently in her stories. Having her father read her stories and poetry before bed every night as a child infused her with a love of reading, which carries till today. In 2000, Ali decided to embark on a new path and started writing. Ali Vali is the author of The Devil series including the upcoming The Devil’s Due, the Forces series, as well as numerous stand alones including the latest book, Beneath the Waves.

Ali now lives outside New Orleans, and when she isn’t writing she works in the non-profit sector.

Light and Pride Week: Raise the Flag!

Take Ottawa Pride, A Less than Perfect Kinda-Sorta Superhero, A Hunky French Canadian Leather Man, and Some Religious Intolerance and Stir. Saving the day? Just got fabulous. 

In many ways, my first novel Light was a love letter to my first experiences at Pride. It was the first time I found myself surrounded by people like me—and lots of people who were nothing like me, but loved who I was and I loved them just as much for being who they were—and I went back almost every year to reclaim that joy. When I worked retail, I often couldn’t do so, but I tried hard to find a way to sneak an event or two around my work schedule.

Today was the flag-raising ceremony at City Hall, which officially begins the week of queerdom here in Ottawa. Not that we should only have a week, but you know what I mean.

Now, the mayor’s raising of the pride flag at Ottawa Pride wasn’t interrupted by a religious protest of any kind (yay!) and no one started hurting anyone or throwing around objects with psychokinesis (wait, what?) and thus this year’s Pride is already off to a better start than the fictional one I wrote about in Light (oh, I get what you did there!).

But if you want to read a Pride story set in Ottawa that’s our world with just a dash of telepathy and psychokinesis and a kitten and a truly bad blind date that just won’t end and a hunky French Canadian leather man and a handsome cop and a misanthropic drag queen and a big dumb (but brave and loveable) dog, I totally got you covered.

Oh, and happy Pride!

Sunday Shorts – “Girls on Campus” Q&A with Sandy Lowe

I recently got back from the Bold Strokes Books retreat at Easton Mountain, and if there’s one thing that became readily apparent, it’s that I’ll never find another group of amazing and awesome women anywhere near as cool as I did at said event. The sheer volume of creativity, hilarity, and intelligence on display—and being willingly shared—is downright inspiring. I had a blast, and it reminded me that I’d wanted to focus on some short fiction by women, so…

Sandy Lowe wears quite a few hats at Bold Strokes. It’s possible that there’s a nickname that’s totally my fault which I won’t share (mea culpa!), but what I will tell you is she’s tireless in her efforts to keep the authors at Bold Strokes organized, on-time, and at the top of their craft. She’s also an author and editor, too.

Like I said: lots of hats.

So, here on Sunday Shorts, we’re going to start a brief tour of some of the stories in her first co-edited anthology, Girls on Campus.

For the record? School was never this hot when I was there.

College: four years when anything goes and rules are made to be broken. A time for freedom, experimentation, and guiltless pleasures. Come join the co-eds for a homecoming bash, crash a girls-only party, and enjoy study hall where the topic is Eros. From roommates with benefits to sexy sorority initiations, hot professors demanding extra credit after class and summer vacation threesomes, this collection is required reading for anyone looking to earn an A in sex-ed.

NB: This is your first anthology with your name right there on the cover. That said, you’ve been a part of the book industry for a while, and have a solid understanding of the business. How was your “first book” experience?

SL: It was certainly a giddy feeling to see my name on the cover, especially alongside an editor I like and respect as much as Stacia Seaman. To date I haven’t written a full length novel, but I imagine reviewing, collecting, editing and publishing stories for an anthology is a very different experience to writing a novel. I don’t see this collection as “mine” even though my name is on the cover, it belongs equally to every author published inside.

Working in the industry and for the publisher certainly eased the process considerably. I have tremendous trust and respect for everyone at Bold Strokes Books and I knew the anthology was in good hands. I’d had much behind the scenes experience with anthologies prior to Girls on Campus so in many ways it wasn’t a first. One of the most intriguing and challenging aspects of editing a diverse collection is developing the ability to take a step back and make decisions about a particular submission based on the quality of the work, its interpretation of the overall theme and it’s appeal to a broad readership, even when it may not necessarily be your own personal taste. This is particularly true with erotica and I was grateful to have learned these skills assisting with other editors projects before venturing out on my own with Girls on Campus.

NB: You’ve touched on this a little bit just now—considering broad readership and the like—but I ask every editor this question, as I think it’s a topic that often goes unappreciated: how did you select and organize the order of the stories that made up the collection?

SL: Ordering stories in an anthology is tough. There is a multi-layered decision making process involved. First, I considered marketing: Which authors in this collection have the largest readerships for their stand-alone work? Which stories are the strongest in terms of craft, voice, commercial appeal and, for erotica, sex appeal? Those stories I place at the front and at the back of an anthology because readers generally read either from the beginning or flip to the end and work their way forward. I then considered the theme or setting used in each story. It wouldn’t do to put two stories both set in a campus library close together for instance. In order to create a sense of variety within an anthology stories with similar themes, tropes or settings are generally spaced apart. I considered varying other factors such as the tone of the work and elements that make a story distinctive. Some stories are sweeter, or more serious or have a threesome, or use sex toys etc. If there are stories with similarities I try to space these apart too, to give the reader a mental shift between stories, which I hope, makes for a more enjoyable reading experience. Last, the editor’s story is always at the end—it’s tradition[image error]

NB: I honestly didn’t know that, and I just checked a few anthologies and… Well. There’s my learning moment of the day. Now that you’ve gotten a taste for editing short story collections, what’s next on your plate? Do you have another theme you’d like to explore, or are you working on something already?

SL: I am currently reviewing submissions for a lesbian romance anthology Girls Next Door. Whether or not there will be additional anthologies in the pipeline depends on how much readers like them, but I do have a list of possibles I love in the “Girls” vein. Currently top of my list is Gone Girls: Sex with Exes and Career Girls: Business and Pleasure.

NB: Ooh, I like those themes. I look forward to seeing them in the pipeline.

If you’d like a copy of Girls on Campus of your very own, you should head on over to the publisher page at Bold Strokes Books here. Or, check out your local brick-and-mortar store—it’s always a good move to check Indiebound.org here. And, of course, the book is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold.

Sandy Lowe has a Master’s degree in Publishing from the University of Sydney, Australia. In her capacity as Senior Editor, she reviews submissions and proposals, edits and develops content for publication, and oversees publication production.

Pride Event: “Show Your Pride” at Stonewall Gallery, August 18th, 6:00pm.

Check us out. Most of us exist in colour, even.

Next Thursday night (that would be the 18th of August), Christian Baines, Stevie Mikayne, James K. Moran, and myself will be giving a small reading event at Stonewall Gallery. It starts at 6:00pm, and if you’d like to attend, please RSVP here (the Facebook event page) to let the owner know how many folk to expect.

Four authors, a great gallery, and Pride. This, I hope, is a wonderful mix that will entice you to visit.

For those who came to my launch for Triad Blood because of your love of the urban paranormal, I can tell you you absolutely want to grab a copy of Christian’s The Orchard of Flesh. I’m reading it right now (though only in daylight hours) and it’s awesome.

Reylan’s last assignment for The Arcadia Trust brought a rebellious human servant under his roof, and a volatile werewolf lover named Jorgas into his bed, leaving the self-reliant Blood Shade–known to the outside world as vampires–in no hurry to risk his immortality for them again. But when a new terror starts disappearing humans from a bad part of town, Reylan must do everything in his power to keep Sydney’s supernatural factions from the brink of war. Having an ambitious, meddlesome human in the mix is only going to make things worse…especially when that human is Jorgas’s father. Reylan will need all his determination and cunning to keep the peace under his roof, between the night’s power brokers, and in his lover’s troubled heart.

Christian Baines was born in Toowoomba, Australia. He has since lived in Brisbane, Sydney, and Toronto, earning an MA in creative writing at University of Technology, Sydney along the way. His musings on travel, theatre, and gay life have appeared in numerous publications in both Australia and Canada.

Dual passions for travel and mythology (both of which he attributes to growing up in Australia’s bible belt) have sent him chasing some of the world’s most feared monsters, including vampires in New Orleans, asuras in Bangkok, and theatre critics in New York. His first novel, The Beast Without, was released in 2013, followed by his erotic short story, “The Prince and the Practitioner.”

For the lovers of the dark and weird spec-fic worlds? James K. Moran’s Town & Train is right up your alley.

In a small Ontario town, seventeen-year-old John Daniel wakes by the railroad tracks with no recollection of how he got there. Something called him from his bed. Officer David Forester, a recent transfer from Toronto, struggles to fit into the local police force, despite resistance from established circles. Both soon suspect a more pervasive and menacing collusion occurring in town when an antique steam train arrives late in the night. At the phantasmal engine, a conductor promises the desperate locals escape from their town dying with so many closed stores and shattered dreams–but there is no denying what the stranger really brings is the stuff of nightmares.

James K. Moran’s fiction and poetry have appeared in various Canadian, American and British publications, including Bywords, Glitterwolf: Halloween, Empty Mirror Magazine, Icarus, On Spec, Postscripts to Darkness 3, and The Rolling Darkness Revue. His debut horror novel, Town & Train, is available from Lethe Press. A longtime contributor to Daily Xtra, Moran’s articles and reviews have also appeared in a wide variety of media, including Arc Poetry Magazine, Daily Xtra, Matrix Magazine, the Ottawa Citizen and Rue Morgue. He lives and dreams in Ottawa, Canada.

And for the ladies who love ladies, it’s fantastic to be able to have Stevie Mikayne with us, so she can class up the joint and deliver some literary beauty with Jellicle Girl.

When Beth met Jackie, she was fifteen and shy, living in the shadow of her mother: talented artist Heather Sarandon. Jackie—wilful, cheeky and confident, made Beth see things in herself that she’d never imagined, and do things she never thought she would. As memories of Beth’s last night with Jackie grow more like waking nightmares, Beth does everything she can to forget the girl who was so much more than a friend.



Beth has a self-destructive ritual she swears she’ll keep secret, even from the psychologist trying to help her. But Dr. Nancy Sullivan doesn’t have time for secrets. In fact, she doesn’t have much time at all. She’s been charged with helping Beth break through the barriers of her past, knowing very well that her own demons might end her career before she can get through to the stubborn young woman.

Meanwhile, a young foster child with a wicked sense of humour, and a devastating past, reminds Beth that secrets seem powerful, but can destroy the person who holds them too close. A haunting and evocative story about redemption, identity, and learning to let go of secrets that scar.

Stevie Mikayne writes fiction with a literary edge, combining her obsession with traditional literature with a love of dynamic characters and strong language. She graduated with an MA in creative writing from Lancaster University in the UK, and published her first two books, Jellicle Girl and Weight of Earth, shortly after.

When she met a woman who could make the perfect cup of tea, create a window seat under the stairs, and build a library with a ladder, she knew she’d better marry her before someone else did. They live in Ottawa, Canada, with their young daughter.

Oh, and me. I’ll be there.

The law of three is unbroken: three vampires form a coterie, three demons make a pack, and three wizards are a coven. That is how it has always been, and how it was always to be.

 But Luc, Anders, and Curtis—vampire, demon, and wizard—have cheated tradition. Their bond is not coterie, pack, or coven, but something else. Thrust into the supernatural politics ruling Ottawa from behind the shadows, they face Renard, a powerful vampire who harbors deadly secrets of his own and wishes to end their threat. The enemy they know conjures fire and death at every turn. The enemies they don’t know are worse.

 Blood, soul, and magic gave them freedom. Now they need to survive it.

‘Nathan Burgoine grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His first published short story was Heart in the collection Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction. Since then, he has had dozens of short stories published, including Bold Strokes titles Men of the Mean Streets, Boys of Summer, and Night Shadows as well as This is How You Die (the second Machine of Death anthology). ‘Nathan also has a series of paranormal erotic short stories that begins in the Bold Strokes anthology Blood Sacraments, and continues with further instalments inWings, Erotica Exotica, and Raising Hell. His standalone short erotic fiction pieces can be found in the Lambda Literary Award finalist Tented, Tales from the Den, and Afternoon Pleasures. ‘Nathan’s nonfiction pieces have appeared in I Like it Like That and 5×5 Literary Magazine. Nathan’s first novel,Light, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.

A cat lover, ‘Nathan managed to fall in love and marry Daniel, who is a confirmed dog person. Their ongoing “cat or dog” détente ended with the rescue of a six year old husky named Coach. They live in Ottawa, Canada, where socialized health care and gay marriage have yet to cause the sky to cave in.

If you’ve got the time, the Pride, and the love of books, we’ll be there waiting for you.