One of the main
concerns an author has, other than telling a boffo story, is getting people to
actually buy and read her books. Which means the book needs to be found and
picked out of a crowd of others. This is challenging enough when a book is in a
genre the reader already enjoys; they know where to go to get their favorite
sort of stories.
But what about when
a reader is ready to try something new or venture outside their comfort zone?
What’s the best way to go about finding new material? Relevant books and
authors have to pop up when a curious reader plugs particular terms into a
search engine. For standard genres like science fiction or romance, there is no
lack of places to get suggestions. For science fiction romance, it becomes a
bit more difficult, but if you’re reading this you’re already on a fabulous SFR
site and know where to find more.
But I write lesbian
science fiction romance. Talk about a niche genre. How could a reader find
*the* story that will begin their journey of lady love in space, on another
planet or in an alternate universe?
The Good. Enter lesbian science fiction
romance into Google and there will be over one million results. Most of those
don’t ACTUALLY pertain to lesbian science fiction. Trust me, there aren’t that
many blogs, lists or reading materials dedicated to the genre. It’s more porn
than promise in some cases. Literally. Don’t click on the videos.
You will find some
useful information, like http://lesbianfictionbooks.net
, http://lesbiansciencefiction.com
, http://onlinelesbianfiction.com,
Liz Bourke’s Tor.com blog http://www.tor.com/Liz%20Bourke
and KT Grant’s http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com,
among others that list and/or discuss lesbian SFR. Some of the sites’ lists
haven’t been updated in a while, but these are great places to start. There’s a
Wikipedia page on LGBT Speculative Fiction that names several of my favorite
authors and their books, Nicola Griffith (Ammonite,
Slow River) and Melissa Scott (Trouble and Her Friends) to name a
couple.
Perusing publishers
for lesbian SFR is a great way to go, though not every publisher produces
lesbian titles and seeing which ones do can be time consuming. Carina Press,
Bold Strokes Books, Bella Books and others either do a good job of categorizing
their lesbian (or f/f) and science fiction stories, or deal almost exclusively
with lesbian fiction and you just need to look at their science fiction catalogue.
I also rely on
readers for suggestions. I belong to a number of Goodreads and Yahoo groups
that are a wealth of information. Sites that review LGBT fiction are often
heavy on the gay male side, but Loving Venus-Loving Mars http://bi-curious-romancenovel-chat.blogspot.com/ and Mary at http://queerbooksplease.blogspot.com
read and review some lesbian SFR. There’s also a new lesbian review site,
Lipstick Lesbian Reviews http://lipsticklesreviews.blogspot.com
, who is open to SFR, so folks can look for titles there as she gets to them
read and reviewed.
When I asked for
lesbian SFR recommendations from my favorite lesbian fiction readers/writers
loop, The Virtual Living Room, they provided a number of authors and titles I’d
never heard of. This was great, but it also got me thinking. WHY haven’t I
heard of a number of these authors and titles before?
The Bad. The reason I probably didn’t
recognize them is because I have a Kindle and most of my earlier perusing was on
Amazon. Not as effective as I’d like, but not the worst (more on that in a
bit). I decided to look at Amazon as if through the eyes of a person newly
turned on to lesbian SFR.
When I plugged
“lesbian science fiction romance” into the Amazon search block under Books, I
was given a list of 315 titles. Pretty good. The first wasn’t science fiction.
Nor was the second. The third and fourth were urban fantasy/fantasy (close).
There were several nonfiction titles, but also a number of non-science fiction
titles. So much for parameters.
What confounded me,
however, was using given categories and just clicking relevant links. The Gay
and Lesbian category with lesbian science fiction in the search box gave me
basically the same results as above. The Romance category didn’t have any LGBT
subcategories, but they had Fantasy and Futuristic. Searching lesbian science
fiction romance there yielded 65 books, a few of which that were m/m or m/f
and—get this—higher on the “Relevance” sorted list than my lesbian SFR. Say
what?
Yes, that was
disappointing. And don’t ask me how, when you sort by price, the prices aren’t
sorted in a standard low-to-high fashion. The new math?
The Ugly. Amazon was tricky, but Barnes
and Noble was downright mindboggling and frustrating in their lack of decent
categorization. When you look under “Books” you will not find an LGBT section
for fiction. The Science Fiction and Fantasy section has a number of subgenres
but not romance or LGBT. Okay. The Romance section has Fantasy and Paranormal
subgenres listed but not LGBT. *sigh* This was not going to be easy, but little
did I know…
I went back to
“Books”, entered lesbian science fiction into the search box, and got 12, 816
results. Woo hoo! But wait a second! The “Top Match” was a gay male fantasy
novel. There were a lot of nonfiction titles too. I altered the search to read
lesbian science fiction romance: 612 results. Okay. Top Match: Gay male fiction.
Next was another gay male story, then some lesbian fantasies and fairy tales.
The bulk of the results were hetero or gay male SFR or fantasy romance.
Does B&N not
realize lesbians are typically female? That lesbian romances usually involve at
least two women? And where the hell were MY books? They’re at B&N, but not
categorized properly. My publisher sent in the required and accurate
genre/subgenre information. Why did B&N choose not to use it? How many
other lesbian SFR titles hadn’t been categorized that way? This is a critical
issue for authors and readers and needs to be addressed.
Was there some sort
of secret handshake that needed to be learned in order to get to a lesbian
science fiction romance list? A special password or dance a la the Calvin andHobbes G.R.O.S.S Club ritual?
If I were looking
into lesbian science fiction romance and based my assumptions purely on Amazon
or, gods forbid, B&N, I would assume there was next to nothing out there.
Very few of the names I knew or were given to me by “people in the know” showed
up on two of the larger booksellers’ lists out there. The Rainbow Romance
Writers chapter of the RWA is trying to work with Amazon to get more accurate
categorization of titles. It’s important that this happens so readers aren’t
frustrated and sellers, publishers and authors don’t lose sales. Fixing this
broken system will be a win all around.
What to Do. If you like science fiction
romance already and are looking to try some lesbian-centric titles, ask some
SFR readers or authors if they have suggestions. Use Twitter with hashtags like
#lesbian #SFR. Check out blogs. Go to Goodreads and search their groups. There
are several that cater to SF and lesbian or f/f romance. See what publishers
are putting out and check their categories. Seek out review sites that take
LGBT books.
There are lesbian
SFR stories of all heat levels, but some folks place all LGBT works, no matter
the sensuality, into the erotic/erotica category. No, it’s not right, and we
are working on that mindset. In the meantime, if you are seeking non-erotic
fare, you may have to go to the erotic/erotic romance category and sort through
titles and blurbs.
Until there is more
consistency with tags and categories, and until more people are talking about
the amazing stories and talented authors who write them, finding the elusive
lesbian science fiction romance will require a bit of legwork. Or fingerwork, I
guess, since it means typing into searches and such. Books are out there, and they
want to be read.
Here are some
authors and titles in lesbian science fiction (and maybe a little fantasy)
romance to get you started. There are others out there that I didn’t list or
missed, so PLEASE add to this list in the comments if you have recommendations!
Happy reading!
Nicola Griffith
Kelley Eskridge
Andi Marquette (Far Seek Chronicles)
Angelia Sparrow (Adventuresses)
Gun Brooke (Protector of the Realm)
Sarah Ettritch (Rymellan)
Winter Pennington
Marion Zimmer
Bradley (Darkover series)
Catherine Lundoff
Cassandra Duffy
D. Jordan Redhawk (Orphan Maker)
J-L Heylen (Wisdom series)
K.S. Augustin (War Games)
Jessica E. Subject
Colonial Mining
Authority agent Natalia Hallowell doesn’t always play by the rules, but
she wouldn’t compromise a case either. Put on administrative leave under
a cloud of accusation, with no support from her boss, Natalia seeks a
little anonymous companionship at her favorite bar. But she’s surprised
when the woman who catches her fancy starts buying her drinks.
Desperate, Genevieve “Gennie” Caine had no choice but to seduce, drug and tie Natalia to the bed to get her attention. With the Reyes Corporation after something she has, Gennie needs Natalia to open an investigation and distract them long enough for her to get off Nevarro.
Natalia doesn’t trust Gennie—despite the growing attraction between them—but the corporation’s suspiciously high profits convince her that they must be hiding something. But she has no idea just how deep the deceptions run….
Desperate, Genevieve “Gennie” Caine had no choice but to seduce, drug and tie Natalia to the bed to get her attention. With the Reyes Corporation after something she has, Gennie needs Natalia to open an investigation and distract them long enough for her to get off Nevarro.
Natalia doesn’t trust Gennie—despite the growing attraction between them—but the corporation’s suspiciously high profits convince her that they must be hiding something. But she has no idea just how deep the deceptions run….
About the author
Cathy Pegau's muse almost always finds some sort of
science fiction, fantasy or paranormal bend to the stories it offers. Her debut
novel, Rulebreaker, was released in
2011. Caught in Amber in January
2013, and the third installment of her Nevarro books, Deep Deception, came out in May 2013. She lives in Alaska with her
husband and kids, several pets and the occasional black bear that roams through
the yard.
She enjoys chatting with other writers and readers.
Drop her a note at cathy@cathypegau.com
or find her on Twitter @CathyPegau.
Pick up her books at Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes
& Noble in ebook format. Caught in
Amber and Deep Deception are also
available at Audible.com