It’s intimate, the relationship you and I have.

I have a unique, intimate relationship with every reader. You and I have created something that no one else has, and because of you, every character is a bit different, richer, more layered than I wrote her to be.

When you read one of my books, you and I work together to bring these characters to life, and they just don’t exist without you. I can write all damn day but if I don’t have the reader’s imagination, in the end, nothing is actually created. I respect that connection and I’m humbled by and grateful for the readers who immerse themselves in the stories.

People have always asked me why I write about graphic lust, painful relationships, and sensitive issues. Isn’t it all just a little heavy? The answer is yes. Life is heavy. And I don’t know about you, but I love to read about someone who has the same challenges we get up and face every day. It’s really why I started writing lesbian fiction. Well, that and I wanted to be an author who puts something real back into our community, and it was becoming clear no one else was going to do it for me. I know this because I waited. No one knocked on my door and asked me to be a writer so I had to get off my ass and do it my damn self.

I’ve always been an avid reader of the genre, and I often felt like something was missing from the majority of the books I read. I was missing the reality of racial diversity, acknowledgment of the homophobia that still exists for most of us, and some of the sharp edges that exist in most relationships. In real life, it’s rare that everything ties up so neatly in the end for most couples, there are usually some challenges that had to be faced for them to be together, and ones that still exist after they walk off into the sunset.

And why wouldn’t I talk about it? I’m in the most intimate space that exists. I’m in the bubble that you and I have created together, where no one else can hear or see what we’re experiencing. It’s just the two of us. The most important thing for me as a writer is to tell the truth. And the truth isn’t always pretty, or presentable, or even socially acceptable. I think in the end that’s what connects us; you, as readers, recognize authenticity. It’s easy to toss the shiny whitewashed version of life out there. It takes balls to read about the grit of real life, and to write about it, so I can whisper it to you in the privacy of the space we’ve created.