Now on Sale: Like A Queen

Today, Like A Queen has gone live and is now available for download. Follow the above link to the Circlet Press site to see the full details. They have a number of links to different formats, depending on your need - everything from buying it for the Amazon Kindle to PDF format to online reading.

Like A Queen is an erotic ebook anthology of lesbian fairy tales, retold and explored from new angles. (Its companion, Like A Prince, also on sale today, features gay fsiry tales.) This features my story, "After the Hunt."

In the original fairy tale, as found in Grimm, "The Twelve Huntsmen" is the story of a young princess who, after being jilted by her fiance for another princess, goes undercover as a male hunter in his court to win him back, only to find her efforts hampered by a number of tests. "After the Hunt" looks into why she did what she did, suggests her motivations weren't entirely what we expected, explains the magical talking lion, and gives the other princess in the story some time to shine as well. It's fun, it's hot, and you can believe there's a happy ending....

This marks my first published erotic piece -and- my first published non-urban fantasy. I hope people like it.

New Contest!

While we're on the subject... I'm going to throw an impromptu contest. In the spirit of romantic lesbian retellings of fairy tales, let's talk about Malinda Lo's Ash. This is an excellent, beautiful, wonderful book. I absolutely adored it, and think the main characters are awesome.


The description reads "In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief."

I have a copy, and I want to give it away to someone who will appreciate the sheer goodness of a YA lesbian retelling of Cinderella. So what's the catch? I want you to tell me something. Tell me what fairy tale or folk tale you think would benefit from a gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, or trans retelling, and how. Points for creativity, obscurity, and/or daring. Non-Eurocentric tales definitely encouraged, as well as the usual culprits (Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Perrault, One Thousand and one Nights, etc). I will choose a winner based on well... I was just going to let the cat draw a slip from a hat, but I may pick a more irrational method. We'll see.

You have until midnight EST on Friday, August 28, 2009 to post your replies here. Entries will be screened until it's over. If, for whatever reason, you don't want your entry made public afterwards, let me know. If your idea has already seen print, -please- let me know, I might want to go find it! Spread the word. Have fun. Be good.