Sapphire Books Publishing is thrilled to announce that the 2nd Annual Left Coast Lesbian Conference will be held at the lovely Casitas Laquita resort, Oct. 8-12, 2014. The Desert Palm Press co-hosts the event, which brings authors and readers together to discuss writing in the genre.

In the mornings, authors who write mysteries, romance, paranormal, lesbian comics and historical fiction will discuss the craft of writing, moving from the page to the stage, from page to panel and the all too critical hook. The afternoon will be filled with author readings from some of the most prolific writers in lesbian fiction today.

The LCLC is proud to announce the keynote speaker for the event is award-winning author, Ellen Hart. Ellen Hart is the author of 28 crime novels in two different series. She is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction, a three-time winner of the Golden Crown Literary Award in several categories, a recipient of the Alice B Medal, and was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans in 2005. In 2010, Ellen received the GCLS Trailblazer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of lesbian literature. Ellen Hart will be speaking at the Palm Springs Public Library Saturday at 4pm.

Other authors attending the event include Barrett, Baxter Claire Trautman, DeeJae Cox (radio host), Beth Burnett, Catherine Wilson, Michele Weis-California, Isabella, JD Glass, Womens Theater Project,
Jett Abbott, Jill Johnson-Young, Kris Dressen, Linda Kay Silva, Linda North and Stephanie Kusiak.

Learn more at Sapphire Books.

The post Left Coast Lesbian Con draws lovers of lesbian lit first appeared on Lesbian.com.

After playing bad cop for two years, award-winning author Linda Kay Silva found her passion in teaching. She started writing as a disgruntled reader, looking for more than the standard coming out fare. That’s why she’s created bad-ass lesbian heroine after bad-ass lesbian herione.

Silva’s best advice for aspiring writers: Write. Don’t find the time, make the time. We’re grateful that she made the time to answer our questions on her way to Palm Springs.

Enjoy an excerpt from Silva’s latest book, “Demon Hunter.”

How did you get started writing?

I’ve always loved words, but I started writing seriously when I threw a famous lesbian writer’s book against the wall because I was so tired of the same drivel, the same tired coming out story. I decided I could do better, so I did. I got rejected over and over again, but I kept plugging away. I believe in myself. I do not suffer false humility. I knew I could write. I knew I needed to be dedicated to it. It paid off, as I have had four publishers at different times in my life.

When I left Bella for a better paycheck (you’d crap if you knew how little money your favorite lesbian authors really make), Isabella at Sapphire contacted me. She said, “We’re new, but I think we can grow with your help.”

I saw sincerity and integrity in her and signed immediately. I’ve never had more freedom or more support, and the best part is, we really are a family. We like each other. We party together. We Skype. It’s wonderful. Being a writer is a solitary endeavor, so to have sisters who are so loving and supportive, is a wonderful addition to our lives. Sapphore is a comer. We are doing a lot of things right.

Prior to being an author (or concurrent with it), what did you do for a living? How has it informed your work?

I was a shitty cop for about 2 years, but that experience gave me the irascible Delta Stevens. Delta is the cop I never could be. It’s a hard job and those who can do it well are priceless. I wasn’t that good.

Then I found my calling and became a teacher, then a professor. I am a literature professor who teaches British, world and American literature, modern epic fantasy, African literature, women’s lit and Asian literature. I love my job and I hope to teach until I no longer breathe. Obviously, reading all of those books has had an enormous impact on me.

What writers inspire you and why?
I grew up reading the Clives — Clive Cussler and Clive Barker. I love the way their stories are never linear. They are complex. I am complex. Women are complex. We need more than a girl-meets-girl story. I read smart writers and, in turn, I try to give my readers a smart read as well. I make no bones about it, I am an intellectual snob. I abhor idiocy, stupidity and pablum. Make readers expand their universe, test the boundaries of what they think they know. To question what is and what could be. That’s what I want from my writers and what I try to give to my readers. I want to crawl under their skin and help change their lives. That’s who I am and why I exist in this world. I am an agent of change. It is what I have been doing as a teacher for 30 years and I have hundreds of students on my FB who will attest to that.

If we woke up every morning saying, “I wonder who’s life I am going to touch today,” we could change the world. I mentor middle school writers, GCLS writers and I rescue reptiles. Every day, we get the opportunity to make positive changes in the world around us. It’s why I write. I know that I touch lives. It’s the greatest feeling in the world. Yvonne Heldt is a writer who won Debut Author at GCLS last year. She emailed me several years ago to tell me that my Echo series resonated with her because she has had paranormal experiences. I suggested she write her story. She did. She won. We’re pals. She is supportive and loving plus I got a good friend out of it. How cool is that?

What are your favorite books and why?
“Fried Green Tomatoes” by Fannie Flagg(“You’re nothin’ but a bee charmer, Iggy Threadgood.”)
“Anything” by Elizabeth Peters (Her heroine is lovely.)

But the ONLY book I’ve read more than once is “Six of One” by Rita Mae Brown. When Celeste Chalfonte tears her lover’s blouse off in a heat of passion, Ramelle wakes up to find a dozen different colored blouses on the bed to make up for it. If that’s not southern manners, I don’t know what is. Perfectly romantic. I wish Rita Mae would get back to that kind of writing and end her obsession with cats. LOL. I miss her.

If you could have a dinner party with anyone, living or dead, who would you invite?
Queen Elizabeth I
Cleopatra
John Adams
Hildegarde Von Bingen
Sigourney Weaver
Katherine De Medici

That would make for a fun crowd.

What’s your writing process like?

I am a rare breed. I write long hand with a fountain pen on binder paper. That way, I am not reliant on batteries or energy, and since I travel so much (I am on my way to Palm Springs as I write this), I can do it anywhere. I write every day, usually in the mornings so that my writing gets my best energy, but I write all throughout the day and night. I think young writers, or those who are seriously wanting to publish, need to make it a priority. When people ask me, “How do you find the time to write, since you work two full-time jobs, mentor, play tennis and ride the Harley?” My answer is simple. I do not find the time. I make the time. Big difference. If you truly want to write, make the time. Otherwise, build a birdhouse.

What’s next for you?

I’ve just started a kick ass-series about a reluctant demon hunter whose lover is a ghost. I am bringing out the Delta Stevens series again and I have a couple of standalones I want to publish. I am definitely a series writer, but I have a few standalones I think are good reads and show a side of me few get to see.

See, I have this Harley riding, demon slaying, zombie killing badder-than-bad ass image to uphold, but the truth of the matter is I am a peace-loving Druid who rarely raises her voice, who likes tranquility over chaos and whose favorite thing is to sit by my pond and just be. Few know or even get to see that side of me, but it’s there. Buried beneath leathers and a hard candy shell.

How has your writing evolved over time?

Oh my, sometimes it is hard to read the earlier stuff. I have become much better at planting seeds for my series. I plan better. I am more descriptive and I can pace a character’s growth better. As I have grown and changed, so have they.

WORKS BY LINDA KAY SILVA
The Demon Hunter Series
– Demon Hunter

Man Eaters Series
– Man Eaters
– The Horde
– Mob Rule

Echo Branson Paranormal Series
– Echo’s Revenge
– Magical Echo
– Frozen Echo
– When an Echo Returns (Golden Literary Award Winner)
– More than an Echo (Golden Literary Award Winner)

Time Travel Series
– In the Nick of Time
– Just Killing Time (Golden Literary Award Winner)
– Third Time’s a Charm
– Second Time Around
– Across Time

Delta Stevens Police Series
– Thunderstorm
– Storm Rising
– Tropical Storm
– Storm Front
– Weathering the Storm
– Storm Shelter
– Taken by Storm (Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award)

Standalones
– Lucky
– Tory’s Tuesday

The post Linda Kay Silva bests fictional zombies, demons first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Available now from Amazon.com.
Demons are not what people think they are.

There are seldom horns or spiked tails, no cloven hooves or red skin.
They come in all shapes and sizes, and aren’t anything like Hollywood portrays them. Hollywood casting agents erroneously casts demons as some sort of an evil specter or dark spirit lurking in the shadows seeking retribution or revenge. They connect them to Satan or some other demonic leader as if they were the antithesis to angels.

But Hollywood seldom gets the supernatural world correct. There’s usually a set of fangs and claws involved, and often a trench coat or dark glasses. Of late, Hollywood demons are Japanese girls with wet, stringy hair who hide in the dark to creep us out with their open mouths and scary sounds. They are cast as men wearing masks or revenants who need to feed in order to survive.
Outside of the Hollywood caricature of the evil spawns, demons can be either spiritual or corporeal. They can be violent or just plain annoying. They may be after a certain individual or anyone who walks into their path. They are young and old, adept and clumsy, smart and stupid. They can be many things and take on different forms. The one thing Hollywood got right is that all demons have one thing in common:

They are evil.

Pure evil.

Evil personified means evil walking and talking as a human being. Hitler, Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Jim Jones held the kind of evil in their hands that only a true demon possesses. People who shoot at school children or hold young girls hostage for ten years are the worst kinds of demons in disguise walking among us.

And they are everywhere.

I know.

I’m a demon hunter.

Part of my therapy for my relatively new job involves journaling about my experiences, though I’m pretty certain my therapist believes I’m a nut job. We are conditioned in this Christian society to believe in angels but not their counterparts. It’s okay if we believe in miracles but not magic. It’s fine to get your past lives read as long as you don’t walk around telling everyone around about it. Some guy walking on water or a chick chatting with a snake is acceptable, but anything else is blasphemy?

Hardly.

I’ve seen them. I’ve hunted them. I know what they look like and where they hang out.

My therapist probably believes I have delusions of grandeur at the very least, and have broken with reality at the most.

Who knows? Maybe I have. I mean, given my life lately, it’s entirely possible.

I used to be a normal — wait, make that a semi-normal — college student. Semi-normal because I was raised by two oddballs whose last name was Silver. My parents loved to laugh and were always doing the word jumbles together in the morning. They loved words. They loved pubs. They were goofy and silly together and one night after a party of some sort, they decided their children would be so much more interesting if they had interesting names. So, they named my older sister Sterling, my younger sister Pure, and my brother Quick.

Me?

My name is Golden. Golden Silver. Get it? Oh, I’m sure they had lots of laughs over that one. Parents who give their kids crazy names set them up for all sorts of battles, and we’ve all had our fair share of those. I mean really. Quick? The girls in high school used to have a field day with that one. Poor guy.

I go by Denny for obvious reasons, though my mother and older sister prefer Golden. They believe calling me that would somehow bring a light into my world, but they were wrong. So very wrong.
Denny Silver is my name and I’m a demon hunter.

This is my story.

The post Demon Hunter excerpt by Linda Kay Silva first appeared on Lesbian.com.