I was struggling with what to write about for my weekly blog. A fellow author suggested, Exploits of a 90’s Lesbian. I kindly reminded her that I was older than dirt and for me, it would be Exploits of a 80’s Lesbian. I am shuddering right now just thinking about going back in time and trying to remember the stupid s#@t (I’m trying to be less profane) I did in my youth, fueled by too much alcohol. Then I remembered that the too much alcohol part made it physically impossible for me to have an accurate recollection of my time as a brand new lesbian. In case you don’t know what I mean—I killed a lot of brain cells back then.

My wife suggested I talk about how bloody (I know this is profanity in Britain, but I think it’s on the line here in America) hot it was and give a kitten update. I posted our conversation today on Facebook. Nope, that topic was readily discarded as well. I really didn’t want to talk about the poor kittens that were panting and meowing pitifully in the heat, even if my wife found a clever way to tie it into my books—don’t ask.

Then that same fellow author suggested I talk about interauthor (newly made up word – thanks, L. Hill) relations. That peaked my interest. Before your dirty little minds go down the bad road, let me remind you that I am happily married, so the relations are not that kind. What we’re talking about is the ways that lesfic authors support one another and we do.

Amazingly, we don’t just support our fellow authors within our publishing company, but we support other lesfic authors not within our own publishing families. I don’t know if this happens in mainstream fiction or not, but it is rampant in the lesfic world.
I’ve found that lesfic authors are also avid lesfic readers, so it makes sense that we would read and promote each other’s work. But, I think it goes deeper than that. I think we crave lesfic and are afraid that if we don’t shine the light on our fellow sister authors, the outpouring of lesbian works will stop and then we’ll be back to the days before Naid press came on the scene.

I am blessed to be a part of several groups that support lesfic authors. Initially, I was going to cite them all, but there are just too many to list. Suffice to say there is a lesbian fiction coopetition (also a new word) versus competition group, a marketing group, a review group, and tons of reading groups that welcome authors into their fold.

Affinity Rainbow Publications does a lot to encourage interauthor relations. The owners have been around a long time and at my first GCLS conference, Erin took me around to meet everyone. They are also huge financial supporters of that and other events. I feel blessed to be part of such a supportive publishing house. Additionally, I think a special call-out to Isabella who organizes LCLC and the Literary cruise is in order. There were independent authors and authors from other publishing houses invited to the event and we could not have been more welcomed than if we were with her publishing house.

Of course, the other festivals I’ve been a part of that encourage these interauthor relations is GCLS and Lonestar. One day I will get to Provincetown for Women’s Week so that I can objectively comment on that experience, but since I’ve never been, I can’t evaluate this event for its impact on interauthor relations.

There are a number of authors I send my manuscript drafts to and visa versa. It helps me to bounce ideas off of my fellow authors and they can help me unstick like no-one else. I hope I provide the same support to them when needed. I know I try to offer up my time and perspective whenever I’m asked (much to the chagrin of my wife who feels like she gets the short end of the stick when I do that). I will continue my active participation in these groups as much as time permits (right now that is a lot because of my employment situation) because I believe that cooperation lifts all of us up and competition in lesfic has no place.

Viva la lesfic! If you want to support this wacky author and start an interauthor or any kind of reading relationship with me…you know the drill…check out the links below!

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