“In her debut novel, Bellerose deftly tells the story of Cora Rose, Marie, and Renee LaBarre, a trio of working-class sisters in small-town Massachusetts who are best friends, mortal enemies, and forever loyal to each other. . . . No matter what one’s view of sexuality, the portrayal of Cora Rose, a lesbian struggling to deny her realities to everyone including herself, is riveting and at times heartbreaking. A fast-paced, well-written tale with characters who will linger in the reader’s memory long after the final page is turned.” —Publishers Weekly

“a tale that is at turns gritty and funny and always bittersweet. Winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction, this first novel provides an intense study of human frailty and hope; sure to appeal to readers who enjoy literate coming-of-age and coming-out fiction.” —Library Journal

“Bellerose is a magnificent writer with a particular talent for character. You know each and every one of these sisters by the second or third chapter. . . . Also noteworthy is Cora Rose’s husband, Joe. Many terrific writers of women’s fiction (if there is such a thing as women’s fiction) seem to draw blanks when it comes to writing men. Not Bellerose. Her Joe is a clearly delineated, beautifully detailed 1970s husband, caught between traditional values and changing times. . . . The plot? Nothing more than life itself. There is no mystery to solve or objective to accomplish other than surviving what is thrown at the characters, and that’s the marvel of this book. Bellerose moves these wonderous creations of hers through the ordinary pitfalls of life, showcasing their heartbreaks, their triumphs and their shame with equal assurance. The Girls Club is an incredible book—not just for girls, but for everyone.” —Jerry Wheeler, Out In Print

“Bellerose’s warm novel embraces the concept of sisterhood with propulsive gusto—mostly the real deal of sisters caring deeply for each other, even as they squabble, but with hints that the sisterhood of nascent feminism has reached the small town where the three are realizing their emotional and sexual selves.” —Richard Labonte, Book Marks

“Marianne Martin is a wonderful story teller and a graceful writer with a light, witty touch with language and a sensitivity to the emotions of people in love. There is a tenderness and brightness to her characterizations that make the personalities quite beguiling.” —Ann Bannon

“Marianne Martin is a skilled writer who fully develops her characters and pulls the best from them.”—Mega Scene Book Review

Ten years ago, Charlie Crawford shot dead his two lesbian neighbors. Sharon Davis was their avenging angel, the woman who fought to win justice for her murdered friends.

But justice didn’t ease the pain. Beer did, though. And Sharon’s love for the bottle cost her the love of her partner Laura. Laura’s departure was the cue for the descent into depression that finally forced Sharon to rebuild her shattered life.

Now the past is back with a vengeance. Charlie Crawford is terminally ill and seeking early release on compassionate grounds. Sharon has to fight for justice all over again.

When Laura comes back to town, Sharon’s history threatens to overwhelm her. Hate nearly destroyed her ten years before. Has Sharon learned enough about love and friendship since then to keep herself whole this time?

The Indelible Heart reintroduces Sage and Deanne, and Kasey and Connie, from the best selling Love in the Balance.

Marianne K. Martin is the author of eight novels and has been short-listed three times for the Lambda Literary Award.

The Lambda Literary Awards, now in their twenty-third year, celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) writing for books. Lambda set a record in 2009 for both the number of LGBT books nominated (462) and the number of publishers participating (about 200), reports Lambda Awards Administrator Richard Labonté. But that record has been surpassed this year, with more than 520 titles represented from about 230 publishers. More than 90 booksellers, book reviewers, librarians, authors, previous Lammy winners and finalists, and other book professionals volunteered many hours of reading time, critical thinking, and invigorating shared discussion to select the finalists in 24 categories.

Since 1998, ForeWord Reviews has been one of the publishing industry’s most respected print magazine and online review service for readers, booksellers, book buyers, publishing insiders, and librarians. ForeWord Reviews’ Book of the Year Awards program was established to help publishers shine an additional spotlight on their best titles and bring increased attention to librarians and booksellers of the literary and graphic achievements of independent publishers and their authors. Award winners are chosen from real librarians and booksellers, who are on the front lines everyday working with patrons and customers.

We would like to congratulate Lisa Gitlin and Stella Duffy for this achievement and say well done to all of the finalists for both awards.

Bywater Books is thilled to announce that we are now selling Val McDermid’s second mystery series featuring P.I. Kate Brannigan. This is what Val has to say about her second literary sleuth:

Kate Brannigan is my imaginary best friend. Just like kids have their invisible companions who don’t eat spinach, I’ve got Kate to come out with the smart-mouthed ripostes that I only think of a day later in the shower. I’ve got Kate to take on the bullies and win, Kate to fight the battles I don’t have the courage for. She’s got all the qualities I admire in my real friends, and enough of their flaws to stop her being annoyingly perfect. And she has a nexus of close woman friends she can call on in times of need, as women often do. But where did she come from, this intelligent, funny, independent woman?

I’d always planned the Lindsay Gordon novels as a trilogy, so I knew I’d need to develop someone else to front up my novels. My first thought was a writerly one – how could I push myself to the next level? Lindsay had superficially been an alter ego. Like me, she was Scottish, lesbian, a journalist and a socialist. Imagining myself into her shoes, even though we were temperamentally very different, hadn’t been a big jump. Could I push myself further now? Did I have the skill set to create a protagonist who was so different from me? And could I make the private eye novel, that definitively American sub-genre, work in a country with such different social mores?

My second thought was a mercenary one. I wanted to quit my day job and write full-time and I was never going to be able to do that on the sort of money I could earn writing lesbian crime fiction twenty years ago. With a heterosexual central character, maybe I could manage to earn my living from my fiction.

My third thought was a subversive one. As an avid reader of crime fiction, I know how it is when you find a new author you like. You have to read everything they’ve ever written. I figured that writing a successful mainstream series would bring readers to my Lindsay Gordon novels who would never otherwise have considered a lesbian novel.

And so it turned out. Pushing myself to create Kate indirectly opened up a door that has since admitted a wide range of diverse and demanding protagonists, each of whom has taught me new lessons in my craft. That’s one of the main reasons I still love what I do with the same passion I had right at the start.

It’s that dark side of celebrity that Stella Duffy takes on in her sometimes frothy, sometimes deep noir-ish novel of the less glitzy facet of Hollywood: the underside where the real truth hides. “Parallel Lies” isn’t just the perfect title–it’s a descriptive of how everyone who populates both Hollywood in reality and the fictional version Duffy conjures copes day-to-day.

The novel’s three central characters form a veritable triumvirate of non-truthiness. Yana Ivanova is a prodigy–and an A-list celebrity. Her star shines so brightly that no one seems able to see how she really lives or her flaws. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, doesn’t have a beard, he is one. And her personal assistant, Penny (just like in the movies), is a bisexual dream girl–she screws men who want to get thisclose to a real star and also screws the real star–because it’s Penny, the classic Hollywood gal Friday (albeit British), who Yana shares her bedtimes with.

Yana is the picture of a major star. Born on the same day Olga Korbut catapulted to gymnastic stardom in the Olympics, Yana made her debut in a small town outside of Moscow. The later-in-life, new-chance daughter of a mother who was ready for divorce when she discovered she was unexpectedly expectant and yearning for a daughter after two sons, Yana did not disappoint. She was fluent in English and Russian at ten and at 17 had made her bilingual proficiency and classically beautiful and fragile Russian looks her literal fortune–touting her fashion portfolio on the streets of London after defecting on a trip abroad.

Within a few years Yana had made the transition from model to actress, from London to New York to Hollywood, from soap opera to sit-com to movies, from possibilities to probabilities.

She was a star.

Jimmy is a star, too, but a lesser star–yet good-looking and urbane and sexy and sweetly self-deprecating. For five years he and Yana have been making a home and magazine spreads together. For which Yana pays him a cool $2 million a year.

And then there’s Penny. Penny the sexy British PA who periodically trolls the best clubs for a bit of obvious fun. Because the reality is, she’s put the P in personal when it comes to assisting Yana.

This menage a trois works perfectly for all three of the players right up until the letters start coming.
Someone has gotten a peek into their closet. Someone is threatening to blow the door right off. Someone knows just a tad too much.

And then someone has an accident.

Maybe.

Parallel Lies was first published in the U.K. and Bywater Books was smart to reissue it here in the U.S. This noir fable of what we do to maintain image in a world increasingly about smoke and mirrors, Botox and Juviderm, is a super little rendering of what life is like in La La Land where names mean everything and substance is as ephemeral as youth.

Duffy has a keen eye for the slickness of life lived on alphabetical lists. She details the specifics of celebrity–from the casual drug-taking to the even more casual fornicating. The picture she paints with her deft and snarky prose has all the starkness of hyper-realism.

This is a quirkily different novel about the kind of life we’ve all read about and few of us ever get close to. Duffy takes us inside and shows us that ambition is neither shiny nor happy, but is very much a reflection of what those of us outside Tinsel Town want to see. And it can be a killer.

One of the best written lesbian novels–genre or otherwise–this year. Two thumbs up. Four stars. Not to be missed.

Victoria Brownworth
Lambda Literary
February 1, 2011