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Welcome to Bywater Books
Dear Readers,
This month we're delighted to be meeting up again with Jill Malone. Giraffe People, the third novel from this multiple award-winning author, is now available. To find out more, see Author Profile and Hot Off The Press below.
The 2013 Finalists for Benjamin Franklin Awards have now been announced, and congratulations are due (again!) to Hilary Sloin and Jesse Blackadder. For more details, see Bywater News below.
Bywater authors and publishers will be attending the Saints and Sinners Festival and Golden Crown Literary Conference. Check out Saints & Sinners 2013 and Golden Crown 2013.
As always, we at Bywaterstrive to bring you the finest in lesbian romance, mystery, and literary fiction.
Till next time!
Michele Karlsberg
Kelly Smith
Marianne K. Martin
Val McDermid
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For Jill Malone, "it's not surprising that my third novel, Giraffe People, is the most hopeful and funny."
Why?
In one word: Mary. Mary is the woman Jill met, moved in with and married while Giraffe People got written — and then rewritten. In fact, says Jill, "It's impossible for me to think about the story without thinking about the way I found my wife."
Jill is "a late convert to marriage" — "I thought it was bullshit for most of my life" — but she has now married Mary twice. The first time, in August 2011, was "a Day-of-the-Dead wedding. I cried all through my vows. I cried through hers, too." And the state then refused to recognize them.
Just six months later, though, "we found out that the Governor supported marriage equality, and the legislature had the votes to pass it." At this point, Jill began the Marriage Project on her blog. For a month, she invited readers to discuss their reasons for supporting marriage equality. "It was one of those projects that continues to change my life," she says.
As the replies came in — from the woman mourning because "I feel cheated. I was with a woman for seven years, effectively married, but not legally so. And I wanted that legality, damn it", to the woman with a father who didn't tidy up either his opinions or his words but who reckoned that "f*ck it, this is America" and in America everyone should have the same rights — Jill gradually came to a new understanding. Marriage, she realized, "is being revitalized . . . we're returning to the center of the practice: committed love. . . . Marriage is new again."
She and Mary have been legally wed these past six months, and still "I can't quite get over how much I like my wife. How I will say something entirely obscure and she'll know exactly what I mean." What's more, she adds, her wife "is a person who helps me see with absolute clarity, and that is such a rare and powerful thing."
It's a clarity Jill needed when an early draft of Giraffe People did what early drafts are allowed to do and lost its shape. "Mary said, 'Let's go through it together and talk it out.'" The two of them read it side by side on the couch and when they were done Jill listened while her wife explained the problem. "I rewrote the manuscript that afternoon . . . wishing I'd found her when I was 16, instead of having to slog through to 35 without her."
Today, Jill, Mary, and eight-year-old Gavin live in Spokane, Washington, with their two rescue dogs Latte and Hazel, and Haku, a hedgehog who "loves Mary most of all . . . The rest of us just get to be jungle gyms at a time of his choosing."
by Caroline Curtis
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by Jill Malone
Between God and the Army, fifteen-year-old Cole Peters has more than enough to rebel against. But this Chaplain's daughter isn't resorting to drugs or craziness. Truth to tell, she's content with her soccer team and her band and her white bread boyfriend.
And then, of course, there's Meghan.
Meghan is eighteen years old and preparing for entry into West Point. For this she has sponsors: Cole's parents. They're delighted their daughter is finally looking up to someone. Someone who can tutor her and be a friend.
But one night that relationship changes and Cole's world flips.
Giraffe People is a potent reminder of the rites of passage and passion that we all endure on our road to growing up and growing strong. Award-winning author Jill Malone delivers a fresh and subtle take on the coming-out and coming of age story.
Jill Malone's first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping, won the Bywater Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Her second novel, A Field Guide to Deception, was the Great North West Book Festival Grand Prize Winner, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, and was a finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award and the Golden Crown Literary Award.
Lesbian Fiction 272 pages
ISBN print 978-1-61294-039-7 ISBN eBook 978-1-61294-040-3
At fine stores everywhere
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The Independent Book Publishers Association ( IBPA) have announced the nominations for the Benjamin Franklin Awards 2013. We're delighted to announce that Jesse Blackadder has been nominated for The Raven's Heart in the category of Historical Fiction and Hilary Sloin for Art on Fire in the LGBT category. To date, Hilary has been nominated for three awards, and Jesse for four. Congratulations to both! Hilary was also interviewed by Merry Gangemi on Woman-Stirred Radio. If you'd like to catch up with it, click here.
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Calling all Book Groups:
Ever wanted to know what an author thinks about her own book?
Choose a Bywater title to discuss at your Book Group, and we'll arrange for the author to join the conversation — in person, by webcam, or over the phone.
Book Group Leaders, feel free to write us for a complimentary copy of any Bywater book for your review.
E-mail our Publicity Dept at KarlsbergM@aol.com.
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This year is the 10th Anniversary Festival of Saints and Sinners. Cue celebrations!
The festival brings together publishers, writers, and readers, and has won international recognition. This year, Val McDermid, award-winning author and publisher, will be a keynote speaker.
Several other Bywater award-winners will be attending too: Judith Katz; Sally Bellerose; GCLS Trailblazer Marianne K. Martin; and Jill Malone, who will be promoting her third book, Giraffe People.
Two more Bywater authors will be there, each delivering a masterclass: Elana Dykewomon and Ellen Hart, who will be published by us in the fall. For more details, see Bywater Events below.
Also attending will be Bywater Editor in Chief Kelly Smith and Publisher Michele Karlsberg.
The festival runs May 23 thru May 26 and will be held at two venues in New Orleans: Hermann-Grimma House and Hotel Monteleone.
For more details, and to register for the festival, click here.
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Every year, the Golden Crown Literary Conference brings together writers and readers, editors and publishers.
This year, there will be author panels, seminars, and workshops — and plenty of opportunities for socializing, including pool parties and a karaoke night.
And if you've not attended before, don't worry: there will be special events before and throughout the conference, to make sure you fit right in.
This year, the award-winning and best-selling Georgia Beers will be the keynote speaker.
Also attending will be Marcia Finical, author of Last Chance at the Lost and Found; Marianne K. Martin; and Kelly Smith.
The conference takes place June 26 thru June 30 in Dallas, TX, and will be held at the Doubletree Hilton at Campbell Center.
To register for the conference, click here.
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Georgia Beers
will be the Keynote Speaker at this year's Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) Conference. It will take place in Dallas, TX, June 26 thru June 30, 2013.
Elana Dykewomon
will be giving a masterclass Reclaiming the Scene from Yourself at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. The festival runs May 23 thru May 26, and Elana will be encouraging writers to let go of their expectations on Friday, May 24 at 10 a.m.
Z Egloff
will be reading from Leap at Copperfield's Bookstore on
Thursday, June 20 from
7 p.m.
Copperfields Books Montgomery Village
775 Village Court
Santa Rosa, CA
For more details: e-mail mv@copperbook.com or call 707 578-8938
Ellen Hart
* will be giving a masterclass It's All Just Formula — or is it? at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. The festival runs May 23 thru May 26, and Ellen will be discussing how to write mystery on Friday, May 24 at
3 p.m.
* will be part of the Minnesota Crime Wave with William Kent and Charles Brookins at three events this year:
Muir Public Library, Winnebago, MN on Thursday, June 27 at 7 p.m.
Jackson County Library, Jackson, MN on September 28.
Jill Malone
* will be reading from Giraffe People, her third novel. Come meet her at Auntie's Bookstore on Thursday, May 16 at
7 p.m.
402 West Main Ave
Spokane
WA 99201
For more information: (509) 838-0206
* will be taking part in Eastern Washington University's Queer Theory Class on Wednesday, May 22 at 6 p.m.
Riverpoint Campus/Phase I Bldg
668 N Riverpoint Blvd
Spokane, WA 99202
* will be reading from Giraffe People at Fact & Fiction on Thursday, July 25 at 7 p.m.
Downtown
220 N Higgins
Missoula
MT 59802
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Your favorite authors also write blogs, have their own websites, and can be found on social networking sites.
Katherine V. Forrest
Click for her website.
Lisa Gitlin
Find her on Facebook.
Ellen Hart
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook. Check out YouTube.
Jill Malone
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook and MySpace.
Marianne K. Martin
Find her on Facebook, MySpace, and Red Room.
Paula Martinac
Click for her website. Click for her blog.
Val McDermid
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook.
Bett Norris
Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Joan Opyr
Click for her website.
Mari San Giovanni
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter@MariSanGiovanni.
Hilary Sloin
Click for her blog.
Sally Bellerose
Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Georgia Beers
Click for her website. Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Jesse Blackadder
Click for her blog. Find her on Facebook.
Lindy Cameron
Click for her website, and for news of her press.
Kate Clinton
Click for her website.
Stella Duffy
Click for her blog. Find her on LibraryThing, MySpace, and Twitter
@stellduffy.
Elana Dykewomon
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook and Red Room.
Z Egloff
Click for her website. Find her on Facebook and Red Room.
Marcia Finical
Find her on Facebook.
You can also follow Bywater Books on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter @BywaterBooks. And tune in to our YouTube channel. Subscribe to it, and you'll be alerted each time a new video is posted.
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