It's okay to be gay - Celebrity Coming Out Stories

It’s okay to be gay – just ask the Celebs

Available:  Amazon

A short collection of coming out stories from some of the most well known members of the UK LGBT community.

The personally told stories span the decades and differing periods of political and legal enlightenment, by celebrities from sport, media, comedy and arts. 

More than just ‘this is how I told so and so’ the context of the stories is equally important. The political and social climate, as well as work situation, have played a role in all of these stories. Being in the public eye and making the decision to be out publicly, where as little as 10 years ago this could have a major impact on career success, let alone personal safety further back in the decades gives strength to many of us that have faced challenges and discrimination in life.

Published by Accent Press, Edited by Alison Stokes, It’s Okay to be Gay is a set of stories of hope. Coming out is still a big deal for an individual. Everyone has their own story, whether the challenges are internal, fear, from loved ones, or societal. What’s important is that coming out is what helps overcome those challenges. Whatever the result, it does get better after, whether soon or eventually.

Stories are told by some of our favourite Lesbian personalities including Val McDermid, Rosie Wilby, Stella Duffy, Jane Czyzselska and Alice Arnold.

By Katie

Counting Down the Seconds (short story anthology)

 ...and other stories for Girls who like Girls


I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of winners from this short story competition created by When Sally Met Sally. The stories selected are truly publish-worthy. Thanks to WSMS for encouraging the LBQ community to get writing and creating these opportunities for us.

The winning and runner-up entries chosen to represent the field in this publication cover all genres, styles and types of relationship and types of lesbian/bi woman.

The futuristic winning story, very cleverly weaved the dilemma between fate and self-determination wrapped in a neat concept along the lines of 'In Time'. 

Without going into any kind of spoiler alert scenario, this publication is well worth a read, and for more than the reason that it's a collection of lesbian-themed stories.

Sex and sexuality featured strongly in many of the stories - as an expression of love, exploration of identity, flirtation, friendship and healthy fun. 

Well drawn, realistic, representative female characters in recognisable situations also run throughout all the stories, often coupled with a strong sense of geographic location and setting playing a large part of these stories.

Available for FREE on Kindle and fully worth the effort of a couple of clicks, please show your support to our peers.

By Katie
 

 - and  - andThe book is available to buy at Kindle store UK

The book is available to buy at Kindle store UK

The book is available to buy at Kindle store UK

The book is available to buy at Kindle store UK

Age of Aquarius - Sofia Antonia Milone

"The dawning of love"

This novella, set in 1960s New York tells the unlikely romance of two polar opposite women -  artist Charlotte and art critic Rachel.

Both women are appealing and flawed, and end up working together despite their instinctive dislike of each other.

As they get to know each other, their intense dislike turns into a different kind of intensity and lust wins out, with some passionate sex scenes to follow.

As their relationship twists and turns, an unexpected family tragedy on Charlotte's side sets the course for the two women's future together (or not!)

Accessible, saucy, passionate, this novella brings to life free love in 1960s America, the birth of social change and the routes women were able to choose for the first time.

Get your copy: 

• Download the PDF for free
• For a signed version, send the author a message

 View the trailer:
 
By Katie

Gretel: A Fairytale retold

Genre: Fantasy/Fairytale
Number of pages or word count: 12,400 words
eBook Smashwords: http://alturl.com/uzi9h
Paperback Lulu: http://alturl.com/ab9eq

This quirky but poignant tale flips traditional fairy tale monster narrative into a equality based morality tale with a lesbian twist. And with many relevancies for how things are for LGBT people today sadly. Along the lines of Angela Carter's 'The bloody Chamber'...

A likeable story about self-discovery, true love, and bigotry - and how to overcome all of that. A quick read, but packed full of detail and meaning and where the only thing to fear is discrimination, rather than mystical entities.

The Saz Martin series by Stella Duffy

To celebrate the release of the Saz Martin series as e-books some 19 years after the original publication of the first in ther series, I have had the pleasure of re-reading the books and th opportunity to talk about them here.

The first of the series, Calendar Girl, released in 1994, introduces us to Saz - an unconventional, London native PI who has difficulty separating work from her personal life. Meaning she goes all in for her client, meaning at times it's hard to wonder why new girlfriend Molly (who turns up in the second book) would stay with her and support her. It is also Duffy's first published novel.

With a story line that crosses the Atlantic - as many future stories in the series will, a narrative style that contains as many twists and turns as the plot, and a heroine as fallable as the rest of us (but perhaps more resourceful and more determined), Duffy is clearly setting out her stall to create her own genre, combining detective- female - noir - lesbian elements into something new. She drops in some information throughout the story, but the hook is, not enough of the pieces - with the gaps making their presence strongly felt - until the very end when it's been obvious all along how they would fit together not unlike the lesbian scene conveyed in the intricate story line.

Wavewalker takes us back across the Atlantic and delving into history, and into much deeper danger for Saz, as she once again follows trouble from London to the USA. Trouble in the form of the "bad guy" revered as a public hero, but for whom there is no clear evidence to prove otherwise. That's Saz's job. 

In the mean time, she's met Molly and is trying to establish a new relationship. Pretty challenging with thousands of miles between you. 

Saz's determination helps drive the plot forward and even though we know it's all going to work out in the end, it's not clear at all how Saz is going to make it happen - gripping stuff!

As the series develops, each novel more mature in the  last, reflecting the development of Saz and Molly's relationship, we are taken on new, inventive journies that present complex detective stories with psychological resonances - childhood bullying, psychosis and infidelity. The novels deliver direct insight into the villian's point of view, offering a contrast to our fair heroine, and debate the moral code - what is right might not always be right in context.

Published by Serpents' Tail, available at e-book retailers, RRP £3.99

By Katie

But She's My Student & Instigations (the Kat and Freya series) by Kiki Archer

"Feel good lesbian romance"

It's not very often we get lesbian romance stories with a happy ending, and that is what Kiki Archer offers us through these two journeys of Kat and Freya's relationship as it blossoms from a kiss in a nightclub to a lifetime of happiness.

Told in typical chick-lit style, a genre that is traditionally weak for lesbian audiences, the two novels are a good romp through the ups and downs life can throw at relationship, including dealing with some of the key problems many of us will know about: coming out, institutional and social homophobia, parents who don't quite get it, friends and their dramas. It's all here as well as a little contraversy to start off the story.

The central characters are warm and likeable, and you can't help root for the happy ending they deserve after always doing the right thing throughout the novels.

These novels are ideal for escapist fun, holiday reads. Download your copies before you hit the sun this summer!


Available in e-format, you can buy the books for just a few pounds here:

• But She is My Student (Winner of the SoSo gay award 2012)
• Instigations

Book Review: Leap by Z Egloff

Published: March 2013, Bywater Press. Available in paperback and e-book format

It's the start of Summer 1979 and Rowan Marks is in what should be the start of a carefree yawning gulf between high school graduation and College starting.

However, it turns on its head and becomes a summer of discovery, of past secrets, self identification, sex and first love.

LEAP is a well written coming-of-age novel set in that mysterious yet exotic small-town American summer. Rowan is the cool girl - the one we would have all been in love with at high school - smart, progressive, spunky and a lesbian. She prides herself on building a wall around her inner-most self, but we as readers are invited in behind the scenes, and soon newcomer Cathering dismantles the bricks one by one as well, planting herself in Rowan's heart. 

This is the kind of novel I've been waiting for - well written, imagery that speaks to the soul, and a coming-of-age story I can relate to on the surface as well as underneath. Rowan is a delightful character - not perfect, but real. The kind of 18-year-old we all wish we could have been. 

As lesbian, coming-of-age and coming out literary fiction this book stands out as one of the best.

By Katie