We fans of Kate Delafield have waited nine long years for the next installment in Katherine V. Forrest’s acclaimed detective series. It is here. “High Desert” finds Delafield five months into retirement, alone and sinking fast. Her life partner of two decades, Aimee, is gone. Her best friend Maggie is fighting a losing battle against cancer, and her former commander Captain Walcott informs Kate that her former partner on the job, Joe Cameron, is missing.

Captain Walcott offers Kate two things that may right her sinking ship, a business card for a woman from Kate’s past who once helped her, and could again, and a job: Find Joe Cameron before officialdom steps in.

Kate takes the job and the card, and begins a desperate race to catch the wind and fill the sails, so to speak: Kate is determined to be there for Maggie, she vows to find Joe and get him out of whatever trouble he may face and she also tries again to get the help she needs for herself.

As the facts start coming in about Joe, tension builds. Maggie takes a turn for the worse, and Kate wants to help her, but can’t. Joe’s situation begins to look like a life and death situation in the desert. Kate somehow manages, with little sleep and almost no time, to squeeze in visits with the woman who once helped her.

Of course, there is the usual Kate-too-stubborn-for-her-own-good, blind-to-the-facts approach she takes to personal issues versus the all-seeing range of Kate the professional. But dealing with Joe’s disappearance, is that personal or professional? Those lines cross, and Kate begins to see things in focus, in the high desert, in the hospice home, in her visits with the woman from her past.

Once again, we have a Kate who is sluggish, if not deliberately resistant, to helping herself, refusing to do anything to improve her life, while putting others first.

The timeline shortens, for Joe’s situation, for Maggie, for Kate. The resolution leaves the reader wanting more. Another Delafield book, please.

Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: Review of ‘High Desert’ by Katherine V. Forrest first appeared on Lesbian.com.

(Photo via Hipstercrite.com)

I was tagged on Facebook to list the first 10 books that come to mind, ones that stayed with me through the years.  Here is that list, off the top of my head while watching TV.

1. “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
2. “Desert of the Heart” by  Jane Rule
3. “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott
4. “Memory Board” by Jane Rule
5.  “Curious Wine” by Katherine V Forrest
6. “Amateur City” by Katherine V Forrest
7. “Murder by Tradition” by Katherine V Forrest
8. “This Hallowed Ground” by Bruce Catton
9. “The White Album” by Joan Didion
10. “The Beekeeper’s Apprentice” by Laurie R King

There are so many that formed and informed me over the years. “Choices” by Nancy Toder, “Shoulders” by Georgia Cottrell, a novella called “O Captain, My Captain,” by Katherine Forrest, a certain amount of Truman Capote’s writing (a little goes a long way), “The Front Runner” by Patricia Nell Warren, “Pentimento,” “An Unfinished Woman” and “Scoundrel Time” by Lillian Hellman. I have also read many biographies of some of the writers whose work I love.  I don’t recommend it, unless you need to be disabused of their favor in your heart.

There are so many more than 10. I felt cheated, and I left out some really good books and writers who moved and influenced me.  I read and appreciate everything that Jane Rule wrote, all her novels, including her short stories and books of collected essays. “Hood” by Emma Donoghue, also “Room” by the same author. “Mirrors and Love in the Balance” by Marianne K Martin (and its excellent sequel, “The Indelible Heart”). “The Yearling” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Everything written by Bruce Catton, all history books, but I love the way he writes. The same is true of Dan T. Carter, who wrote “The Politics of Rage” and “Scottsboro.” I read William Faulkner, but his writing did not stay with me. Flannery O’Connor’s short stories did. I read Steinbeck and loved the symbolism.

If I like an author, I tend to read all of that writer’s works. As a writer, I love reading crime and murder mysteries. I have read all of Val McDermid, Patricia Cornwell, Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth George, James Lee Burke, JM Redmann, the great Sara Paretsky and the wonderful Laurie R. King. Katherine V. Forrest should be included in this list because of her great police procedural series with Kate Delafield, one of the most human and flawed of all the world-weary detectives who star in their own series, from Sam Spade to Travis McGhee. Ellen Hart wrote an excellent homage to “The Maltese Falcon” called “The Cruel Ever After.”  I like the way Rick Bragg writes, and I have read all of his work: “All Over But the Shoutin’,” “Ava’s Man,” “The Prince of Frogtown” and “The Best They Ever Had.” The man has the heart of a poet.

Why do I enjoy mysteries so much? For one thing, the structure of a mystery novel is the very definition of what is structurally sound for any genre. It has to be a page-turner. There have to be clues. There has to be a great tragedy, that is, a murder or crime, and there has to be conflict and tension, between good vs. evil, the eternal struggle to do good, to be good, while harboring desires that are not good.

In a writing seminar, the impressive-but-not-intimidating Ellen Hart talked about writing and revising. She said, “All writing is a mystery. Romances, science fiction, all of it, every book ever printed is a mystery you want the reader to become fascinated with and try to solve.”

Maybe this is why I read mysteries so much, along with history.  The conflicted hero is what interests me. That’s why Taylor Branch’s three-volume work on Dr. Martin Luther King sits on my shelf. That’s why I read and loved Lillian Hellman’s self-described memoirs. (The writing is exquisite, though the truth may be hard to find.)

I read “To Kill a Mockingbird” again and again, every few years. As I re-read several books from writers who have stayed with me, such as the first Kay Scarpetta novel, “Postmortem” by Patricia Cornwell, because of its attention to detail, both in the forensics, and in establishing characters. I also highly recommend the first Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novel by Val McDermid, “The Mermaids Singing,” for the same reasons. I read them to study character development, not for the salacious, gory, frightening scenes, the first of their kind, and both award-winning entries for Cornwell and McDermid.

The point is this: I read and love books. Books are my best friends: faithful, intriguing, always there when I need them, full of useful information, entertainment and also providing lessons I could not live without. Like best friends or one’s own children, I cannot pick a favorite, because each gives me something I need. Is this good for me, or not good?

I submit that it is good. Though I might learn how to commit murder from reading great writers, I also learn how to write about that which may be unapproachable in real life. I learn about style and form and conflict and tension, and satisfactory resolution. I learn how to motivate the reader to keep turning pages, to find out what happens, and also why it happens.

So I can’t pick just one book of Jane Rule’s that stayed with me, because they all do. I can’t pick just one of Joan Didion’s works or only one of Katherine Forrest’s, because they all taught me something, gave me something, and the writing itself, that is the thing.

I think everyone should read “Member of the Wedding” and “The Scarlet Letter,” and “Moby Dick,” and Dostoevsky, and “The Wind in the Willows,” and “The Lord of the Rings,” (another series I re-read), and you should read Shakespeare and the King James Bible too. I read the Trixie Belden series when I was a child, and “The Boxcar Children,” and I also read all of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour’s western novels, because my father had them in the house.

You may wax nostalgic over Nancy Drew or the Bobbsey Twins, “National Velvet” or “Black Beauty,” (I preferred Walter Farley’s “Black Stallion” series) and other childhood books, but remember as we are adults, and must put away childish things, that books are now just as they were then, great and wonderful adventures to be had, they provide a safe haven for our dreams, fantasies, and an outlet for those souls too timid to look beyond their own back yard.

Books (especially those bought at local, independent book stores) make great gifts! Can’t find what you’re looking for at your local shop? Ask for it!

 Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: What I read first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY BETT NORRIS

Bywater Books has done a good thing. They just published two Ellen Hart books, bringing them home to the lesbian literature world. Hart has written twenty eight crime novels, in two series, published in the mainstream (read: straight) world. She has received more accolades than any other writer of lesbian fiction, including five Lambda Literary awards. Yet her works remain under-read in the LGBT community. Hopefully, having two of her books from the Jane Lawless series published by a lesbian press will garner the readership Ms. Hart should, in my opinion, receive from our community.

The Mirror and the Mask

Jane, owner of two restaurants and about to open a third, seems restless and bored. A recent breakup can do that to you. Drunk-calling her ex is not good. So when Annie Archer falls into her life, seeking part-time work and help finding her long lost father, the chance for distraction is just what Jane needs.

Annie is not as honest as she at first seems. Jane discovers discrepancies rather early, but continues to help Annie, unravel the story around her father… and before you know it, someone winds up dead. It looks like an accident, but autopsy and forensics define it as murder.

Nothing is what it seems to be in this most subtle of character driven mysteries. It is a product of great writing that the reader can make a case for each of the suspects, and never really knows for certain what happened. The denouement, full of action with guns and kidnapping going on, leaves you almost sure we have the whole story. The characterizations are what makes this tale of crime, assumed identities and unclear motives work. Is Annie a good witch or a bad witch? Which one of the suspects, each of whom has motive, really had the guts to go through with murder?

The Cruel Ever After

Jane Lawless, restauranteur and sometime private investigator, full time lesbian, is shocked when her ex-husband Chester shows up in Minneapolis. Yes, to the great surprise of everyone who knows her, Jane was once married, briefly, to a man. In a scheme to get his inheritance, Chester and Jane agreed to a marriage of convenience, which left Jane with a payment for her service large enough to start her first restaurant. Chester left town with his fortune, and Jane received divorce papers in the mail.

Chester is a man of schemes and fortunes lost and won. His reappearance coincides with his latest deal to sell stolen artifacts from the Baghdad museum to get back on his feet and build another fortune. The problem is the dead body he woke up with. When a second dead body turns up, he is arrested for murder. Chester turns to Jane to get him out of jail and clear his name.

Who is behind the killing of anyone who gets involved with the stolen art?

Remember The Maltese Falcon? The book, not the movie. One of the first “hard-boiled” mysteries, written by Dashiell Hammett, with the private dick Sam Spade. “The Cruel Ever After” pays homage to the great book and to the genre itself. This is a tail-chasing, fast paced whodunnit of the first order.

These two books by Ellen Hart should get you hooked on her writing, which is delightful, and on the Jane Lawless series too. There are twenty of them. Ellen Hart is a little known treasure, much like the the bull stolen from the museum, now come home to us. Hart is prolific, she is tireless in spreading the word about lesbian literature as she makes frequent appearances at libraries, and she is good. She has done her due diligence in making inroads into the mainstream. You will not find characters more deftly and finely drawn than in “The Mirror and the Mask.” You will be on the edge of your seat with all the twists and turns in “The Cruel Ever After.” Do yourself a favor and get both at once, enjoy, and do a good thing by helping make Ellen Hart’s work as well known and loved as it deserves to be within the pantheon of lesbian literature.

Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: Two mysteries by Ellen Hart first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Stay tuned for details!

BY BETT NORRIS
Lesbian.com

*Spoiler Alert!* This review gives you a sneak preview of the plot of Superior. Prefer to be surprised when you read it? Check out our interview with Zoe Amos.

This short novel from Zoe Amos takes place in a dystopian society at some point in the future. The action takes place seven years after Civil War II, and a new country, the Superior Protectorate, has been established as a buffer zone between the now fragmented United States and Canada. Miss Kristian Browne has grown up and graduated from school. It is time for her to be sent to a farm camp for two years, along with her best friend Miss Rhona. The farm camp is run like an Israeli kibbutz, and Kristian is assigned to work with the mechanics, while Rhona works in the lab. At first the two girls are happy with their lot and don’t question that in two years, they will be forced to marry, either a man of their own choosing, or through a requested arrangement of the Protectorate. As they grow closer and begin to explore a physical relationship, First Miss Rhona and then Miss Kristian fantasize about running away and living together as a couple, something that is forbidden by the Protectorate. If their relationship is discovered, they will be separated and punished.

Rhona is stalked and harassed by a fellow worker and Kristian draws the romantic attention from a man. Eventually, the girls’ relationship is discovered and Kristian and Rhona are indeed separated. What happens next? You’ll have to read it to find out!

I found this novel to be engaging in both its style and content. It doesn’t take too much imagination to realize that a state like Michigan, where the governor has appointed managers to take over several city governments and elected officials have been stripped of their offices, could be a model for all that happens in this futuristic tale. Citizens of the Protectorate have microchips embedded under the skin so that they can be monitored and tracked. So much easier than allowing the NSA to hack all our phones, right? And people being forced into straight marriages, that could never happen. Being forced to flee one’s homeland simply because of love shared between two women or two men, that’s just fantasy. Of course.

I found the writing and the pace quite engaging. The story is interesting even if you don’t draw parallels to present day politics, but I sure had fun doing that.

Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: Review of ‘Superior’ by Zoe Amos first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY BETT NORRIS

I don’t want to give anything away to those who haven’t read the book, but let me give a little blurb. Gifts for Deborah is an extraordinary tale of perseverance, of overcoming adversity, surviving, and learning to thrive. Tenacity, strength, endurance, and learning how to take control of your life, learning how to love, how to live happily, these are the gifts of this special story. Main character Deborah faces so many obstacles to overcome that it seems impossible, to move from homeless to creating a home for her own children, moving from addictions to health, from real despair to accepting love and happiness.  There are so many lessons in this book that one can be forgiven by at first being fascinated by the tragedy and heartbreak as Deborah slowly learns that each obstacle is a chance to grow and learn. A victim of abuse and neglect, an abuser of drugs, Deborah goes into a treatment program, puts herself through nursing school, raises her children and builds a life based on love and faith. Instead of expecting disappointment, Deborah turns each circumstance into an opportunity.

How are your kids? I’m serious. Everyone who reads your book will understand that question. Where are they now, how are they doing?

[For] Amber (Julia), the last line in the book came to fruition actually. It was amazing that less than a month [after] I wrote that last line Amber (Julia) contacted me after 6 years of estrangement. I do not have the same relationship with Amber that I have with my other 3 children but I can say we are talking and are working towards a healthy relationship. I saw her on July 4rth weekend this year and spent some time with her which was awesome. Amber is a beautiful woman and she is an event planner for a major night club in Santa Barbara, Ca. Her major was in business communication. Her giveback to the community is in non-profit for the Alano club in Santa Barbara as she is sober from drugs and alcohol 1 year tomorrow!

Alex (Zach) is doing amazing! He is such a peace keeper in our family. When anything becomes an issue we call Alex! He is an amazing son. He went to college for child development and works with mentally ill adults in an adult day program. He understands and is empathetic towards families that deal with mental illness as we did with Kelly (Hanna). He is currently in a loving relationship and resides in San Diego, [while] finishing his bachelor’s degree.

Kelly (Hanna) has stabilized over the years. She has maintained a job for the last 3 years in a restaurant in the East Bay. She was promoted to becoming a server at the amazing place she works. She has become such an amazing, beautiful light in our family. She is creative, funny and generous. She enjoys working, spending time with her family and is also involved in a loving relationship.

Jacob (Jake), [well] what to say about this amazing young soul. He is too smart for his own good! He was published in “Young Poets of America” in 2010. Yes, he was published before me. He has continued to act and exceed academically. He is the youngest member of YAB-EarthTeam, a select group of teenage leaders and environmental change-makers representing a range of East Bay schools who come together for skills and leadership development. With an IQ of 145, he is continuing to excel academically and loves volleyball, football and volunteers hundreds of hours at a grooming shop because of his undying love of animals. He is a treat!

How did you write this book? I mean, how long did it take you, with a full time job and four children? Did you have a schedule, like one hour each day devoted to the book? Did it begin as a journal?

The book took me 6 years to write. Sometimes I would write 6-8 hours in one day and sometimes I put it down for a couple months. I did not have a schedule per say but I did have a commitment to myself to work on it until it was done.

Deborah Heyer (Photo courtesy Deborah Heyer)

Any plans to write another book?

Yes. Many people have inquired about a sequel but currently I am working on a screen write for film.

Your book is inspiring to anyone who has lived through rough times. Talk a little about your “adversity=gifts” philosophy.

In my experience when adversity came to me and I hit it straight on, I experienced gifts for going through it. I looked at adversity as an opportunity to grow as a woman, as a mother and as a person. I think that people need to take risks. I truly believe that if you are not hitting adversity in your life, you are not likely taking enough risks.

Have you made peace with any of your siblings? It’s hard not to ask personal questions after reading such a personal book.

Yes. I have made amends with my sister Bobbie, my brother Thomas, my sister Kathleen and my niece Melissa. I went back for a reunion in 2010 when I was finishing the book. I wanted to see where they were now. In addition to sibling relationships, I also currently have a relationship with one of my mom’s sisters, Mary Beth, and her brother David.

I find that writing for me is very therapeutic. After you finished “Gifts for Deborah,” did you miss writing at all?

Yes I do. I am working on the screen write, but it isn’t the same focus.

I know you do a lot of work for the homeless. If you could say one thing to all those who are right now living homeless, what would you tell them?

You need to apply for services! There are so many things available to you! When I was homeless, there was nothing but a pew in a church for me to sleep on. Yes, services have been cut back in the last several years but there is still plenty of help. If one wants to get better and try people are there for them, but they have to do the work.

Because Gifts for Deborah is a deeply personal story, how hard was it to write certain parts, to relive those difficult years?

I cried a lot! I have to be honest. Some parts were so painful I had to stop for a couple weeks at a time. I feel like it was therapy for me at times and most importantly closure especially when it came to my mother, my relationship with Amber and the loss of my son.

I grew up in a large family, eight brothers and sisters, and we were poor, and there were hard times. My father died when I was thirteen years old. I was the first one in my family to go to college.  I just wanted you to know that. Do you find that readers want to tell you their personal stories?

Yes. I have received several emails and Facebook messages from people that thank me for inspiring them to do more, be more. That makes me feel like it is all worth it!

I was afraid in the beggining to publish because I thought people might judge me harshly for all the mistakes I made, but it has turned out just the opposite. I have been judged my whole life about being poor, having mixed kids, being married to a black man, being a lesbian, being homeless and being a victim of rape and incest. Nobody can touch me now! I stand proud as a woman and I am forever grateful for the self-love that has erupted out of me. I am human and I make mistakes everyday, but it does not now nor before define who I am as a human being.

Interviewer Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Meet Deborah Heyer, author of ‘Gifts for Deborah’ first appeared on Lesbian.com.

This review is the third in a series of three by Bett Norris: something old, something new, something timeless. Read her reviews for “Giraffe People” and “The Mandrake Broom.”

“Shoulders: A Novel” by Georgia Cotrell is published by Firebrand Books.

This is an old novel, first in print in 1987, which makes it one of the first of a new genre, lesbian romance fiction. After twenty six years, it stands the test of time, and is still one of the very best written in this category.

Tired of reading the same plot, again and again? The standard is girl meets girl, falls or tries to resist falling in love, discovers obstacles both very real and those also somewhat whimsical, eventually overcoming and getting the girl of her dreams in the end, with just the right blend of romance, sensuality, and sex to keep the pages turning. Settings in unusual locales help stir interest. Interesting occupations and professions and character traits pique curiosity.

Basically, a love story is a love story. This book is unique in many respects. First, the writing is exceptionally fine. Next, there is more humor here than one would expect. Point of view is first person, as the protagonist looks back fondly, sometimes painfully, and tells her own love story.

I’ll say it again: very fine writing, great good humor, and this novel survives the passage of time very well. It reads like an old, dear friend.

Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: ‘Shoulders’ by Georgia Cotrell first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Suzy Becker’s book “One Good Egg” (ISBN-13: 978-1608192762) out on Bloomsbury USA.

BY BETT NORRIS
Lesbian.com

“One Good Egg” by Suzy Becker is published by Bloomsbury USA.

All the rage these days, graphic novels, I mean. Lesbians trying to get pregnant? That’s just a stereotype, right, since the days of “Queer as Folk,” and before.

Here’s the new thing. The freaking Supreme Court just struck down DOMA, people of our ilk are getting married and having children, and our kids are just like everyone else’s kids now. What a world.

Becker’s illustrated memoir takes us along on the very funny, very intimate, four-year journey to have a baby. All’s well, people. No sad endings. Keep moving, those who like to watch train wrecks. This is a humorous, very moving and extremely close look at what millions of women who struggle with trying to conceive go through.

Becker, whose previous books include “I Had Brain Surgery, What’s Your Excuse?” (seriously, I just wanted to throw out that title) takes us through each hilarious and heart-wrenching step, from deciding at age thirty-nine, single after a breakup, to go ahead and have a baby on her own. She shares such awkward and funny moments as asking her best friend to be her sperm donor (imagine that silence after she popped the question) through all the steps, stages, trials and errors that follow, including finding a partner and getting married, storing sperm in a sperm bank, inseminating at home 101, all the way to hormone therapy and manipulation of follicles, to IVF (I love that I know what these acronyms are now) to heart-wrenching miscarriage, to success.

I have never wanted to have a baby, never wanted to be a parent. At all. So those of you who might be thinking this book is not for you are just wrong. You will love it, the humor, the illustrations, the situations so laden with absurdity and vulnerability that you must laugh to prevent the tears. And yea! Happy ending. The one good egg.

Um, in case that didn’t sway you to purchase this book immediately, there are dogs in it. Still no?

It’s funny. I did mention the humor and the illustrations? The almost farcical circumstances that arise?

This is a great book to give for Mother’s Day, to friends who are thinking about having babies, to old lesbians who never considered it, to dads, and to your adult kids, to show them how much they are wanted and loved.

Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee” and “What’s Best For Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: Review of ‘One Good Egg’ first appeared on Lesbian.com.

This review is the second in a series of three reviews by Bett Norris: something old, something new, something timeless. Read the first instalment, the review for “Giraffe People,” here.

“The Mandrake Broom” by Jess Wells is published by Firebrand Books.

Excellent novel, great historical fiction. I highly recommend this book. It works as a quest, a thriller, an action adventure set in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, during the time of the Plague, the Inquisition, witch burnings, the Middle Ages. Wells dramatizes one woman’s courageous fight to save medical knowledge during the witch-burning era. Set in Europe in 1465-1540, The Mandrake Broom follows Luccia Alimenti as she fights the forces that attempt to keep medical knowledge out of the hands of women.

This is beautiful writing with great tension and pace. It really kept me plugged in, pulling for the protagonists, aching for them really. Great characters. This is the best historical fiction I’ve read in a very long time. Wells made the urgency of the time come alive.

Bett Norris is the author of “Miss McGhee,” and “What’s Best for Jane.”

The post Lez get literary: ‘The Mandrake Broom’ by Jess Wells first appeared on Lesbian.com.