Answering the Big Questions with S.W. Andersen
This week, Tara sits down with author S.W. Andersen to ask some of the eternal questions, the questions that keep us up at night, the questions whose answers define not just a person, but perhaps a generation. Questions like….”How big is your to-read list? Really?” And, “But seriously, who is the real ice queen in this book?” The answers, dear listeners, will shock you.
Listen to this episode here
S.W.’s Recommendations:
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Captain of Industry by Karin Kallmaker
The Significant by Kyra Anderson
Breaking Character by Lee Winter
All Things Rise by Missouri Vaun
Tara’s Recommendations:
Because I Said So by Karin Kallmaker
Reintegration by Eden S. French
Transcript for Today’s Show
Please note this transcript has not been edited and is automatically generated meaning certain words will be incorrect.
hi I’m Tara and welcome to Les do Books this week I’m joined by author SW Anderson author of six lesbian books the latest is the love doctor and it’s available exclusively at Amazon but today she’s here with her reader hat on because authors are readers too so I’m excited to hear about the lesbian fiction that she loves welcome Mass w hi so like I said you’re here with your reader hat on because you also love reading let’s Vic is there any kind of a theme to the books that you’ve chosen today well I tried to go with things that weren’t quite so mainstream even though some of the authors are you know very popular right now not necessarily the first book everybody thinks of when they think of them so what is your first book the first book is actually probably the first book I read that really grabbed me and made me want to read more lesyk and it’s karen kalmyk ER and at the captain of industry I don’t know if you have you read that one I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t I have read a lot of her other books but I haven’t read counted the new industry yet yeah well obviously highly recommend it but it was just it’s a modern-day romance and it kind of goes across I think it’s I believe it’s 20 years worth of time and Suzanne Mason is this big tech mogul who you know she’s been the geek she’s been the shy girl in an outcast who’s now made it big in tech and Jennifer Lamont is the young up-and-coming aunjanue model that’s the talk of the town that really wants to be the serious actress you know they meet in New York City at this party and kind of hit it off but you know as things go timing isn’t always everything and Jennifer had her goals and Suzanne was about to move to do a new tech venture you know I think they went their separate ways but then they come back they keep coming back together in these interesting funny little antidotes to kind of play on the same theme over and over again but you get to see them grow over time and you know each time they get a little bit closer to making that work but still not it just still isn’t quite right time but when I think I love the most about it well first you get two really powerful strong determined women that that buck the stereotypes and just want to do the thing that they want to do you know unapologetic are gonna take no for an answer don’t chair you know what they have to overcome to do it which that was just amazing you know I love that part and then the other thing is that timing really is super important and sometimes if things are meant to be you know it’s worth the wait and that there’s a quote at the end of it it’s Jennifer that said something about like you know if I’d had just done this sooner we could have been together for the last you know 20 years and Suzanne says well instead we spent the time becoming who we wanted to be and I thought you know that’s a really great quote I think that really says it all though that’s beautiful so is there anyone in particular that you would recommend this book to like anyone that you think would really love it oh I don’t I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t you know if you love modern-day romance it’s definitely there you love it’s the drama is not if you’re looking for super angsty you know heavy drama stuff it’s not there it’s not the book for you it’s really more of a personal journey for the two women there are some themes of Susanna’s she’s a butch character so if you like the butch femme that’s definitely there for you and there’s a part near the end where Suzanne and her dad actually points out to her that she had some rather I don’t I say misogynistic views but she was kind of expecting Jennifer to drop everything and be the trophy wife so to speak because you know just because she chewed or whatever and then Jennifer didn’t you know and so it kind of put the twist on the theme of with it being a woman doing the same thing and she realized that I was kind of expecting you to do this and and I never should have asked you you know never should have expected that that was unfair and so it kind of gives you a lot everything but the drama is low-key but enough the chemistry is amazing like the time together with Dennis is really great yeah I think anybody would love it if you love a good romance she’s so good and if you like those characters they actually show up again in Cammy in her latest book because I said so oh really yeah it wouid it’d love the characters they were very complimentary of one another and in so many great ways so let’s check that one oh thank you yeah you’re welcome and I have to check out captain of industry clearly because yeah that sounds good it just kept me actually turned around and reread it again like right after I finished it that’s erm I write it again well then you know I went searching yeah yeah okay well because I said so features a designer who’s kind of like up-and-coming and she’s making dresses for events for Jennifer Lamont so that’s how oh yeah so we see a lot more of Lamont though we do her wife but we do see a little bit with her and it’s very cute it’s cool though okay great yeah yeah so that one’s an up-to-date one like more up-to-date sure ok she said with the wife yeah so ok yes yeah yeah they’re married yeah I guess they’re not at the end of captain of industry ok so what is your second book the second book is by an author called Keira Anderson no relation and I think she writes under other another name or something too but it’s called the significant and it’s for 2016 and it’s I guess a post-apocalyptic sci-fi but it also has the romance in there I love these kind of stories I do love sci-fi and I love thee after the world ends or you know those kind of journeys in in books and movies and everything so this one is the earth is destroyed and the humans had relied a lot on artificial intelligence and you know because they were screwing everything up they kind of devised this system and this machine that could kind of help guide them and keep peace and you know all that so they had migrated the survivors that they had gone to another planet they rebuild but it’s very the AI system realizing that people don’t really respect a machine basically does genetic breeding of the people that are gonna be the ruling class called the elites and it’s you know they she picks the best of the genes and they create them and I got levels so these elites are what are the ruling class and they live in this whole other section of the planet and then outside that section is basically like the most rundown of areas and it’s where everybody else lives and their sickness and you know there’s plagues and gangs and drugs and you know and they look at that wall and aspire to take down the elite so to speak and try to bring back humanity you know I love those kind of themes but the depart with the book is just one girl Kahlan she her brother’s one of the gang leaders and he’s not the brightest guy and he keeps getting caught and so she wants to bail him out of prison and so she gets some fake papers and sneaks into the city and goes to work for what they call as a significant meaning they still have escorts and all this kind of stuff but really since the AI monitors everything people don’t talk to one another anymore they don’t really have interaction so they pay her to basically like to sit down and have dinner and they talk about their day and you know they do these random things and sometimes their sex involved but usually it’s more of just human interaction you know because they’re afraid to say or do anything that that the AI will read and then come and have them arrested or anything so they hire them and they come in and do it so she’s making all this money to do this to get him out of jail and one of her clients ends up being the head elite Alicia is her name and she’s very different than the other ones and apparently the AI allows it a little bit because she is the best leader they’ve ever had but she’s not supposed to get emotionally attached which she does which leads to a whole other romance slash can we bring down the AI and there’s all these you know things wound in with and make it very very difficult to accomplish and at other planetary leaders trying to do assassinations and it’s just a wonderful book I just really really enjoyed it I’ve read it a few times over the last few years so you know if you like that kind of complicated sci-fi you got a little bit of spy stuff a little bit of everything really going on highly recommend that book that sounds so good it reminds me a little bit I haven’t read it and now I really want to read it but it rhymes me a little bit of books that I have read called reintegration by Eden as French know if you ever read that I would say that’s more like general LGBTQ than it is specifically lesbian although I think there’s a lesbian in it but there’s also like there’s a trans character and there’s I don’t know it’s just very very queer all over and awesome but it has that like almost like different castes and the kind of like walled area with the rich people and but that like the idea of paying someone for conversation is very interesting to these kind of things fascinating sci-fi fascinates me because as we’ve seen even all the way back with Star Trek these things tend to come true to some degree here and there and and while this may be extreme who knows we won’t know please you find out but you know you see it now people don’t talk as much they don’t you know you know the younger generation is all about tech so I do a conversation now you’ve got alexa and all these things and so you know as the years go by and you look at these books like you know some of them more and more them come to pass which is frightening sometimes exciting out sometimes frightening but I think that’s one of the things I love about reading a book now and more when things like alexa and all that come out and people are you know less and less communicative amongst each other I’m just hoping that with climate change we don’t end up going the way of compass rose because I’m not into that so many things somebody figures it out at some point they dial it back and you know find a way out of it all I don’t know everything’s a cycle though it’s always a cycle yeah just you know no giant squids to battle no sure exactly yeah giant alligators I live in Florida and giant alligators are a possibility they have sewer Gators but beyond that very I can’t want to probe down out but this is a book podcast thank you for being an awesome listen and supporting tilt the channel that brings you all the podcasts you want to hear you’re listening to talk find more podcasts on the Lisbon talk show dot-com so what is your next book book number three is you know I love Jay I mean who doesn’t love Jay I really shoot all of her books are just fantastic and damage control was my favorite but I wanted to pick one maybe that people what what what oh sorry I made a face which nobody can see but I got all excited because damage control is also my favorite I love that book so much I do I really loved you know just the whole thing was just great and I mean I love everything I’ve read from her and so the one that I chose was surprisingly wasn’t surprisingly that it was good it’s surprising the topic for perfect rhythm which has the asexual character in there of Holly and not a topic I was versed in at all which you know obviously a lot of people aren’t and you know so it was just really well done and amazingly educational not in a instruction book kind of way but like by the time you get done with it you’re like oh you know and I actually googled some other things and you know kind of got myself educated about it but in that you also get a really great romance and a really great journey of self-discovery between you know some characters and so yeah perfect rhythm from Jay is is my next one so the little synopsis is a Leo I could never say the full name right like Leo dying or something it’s really long name but leo is what she goes by and she’s a small-town girl who turned international pop star traveling the world living it up but finding she’s not quite so happy with that anymore she’s kind of burnt out not doing the music true to her heart but you know she’s stuck in it she’s wrapped up in it all these demands but her husband not her husband her father rather has a stroke and she comes back home and you know she’s expecting all this these things to happen and a people beyond her but they just treat her like the Leo that she always was and so she’s getting used to that but the nurse that comes over is Holly and they kind of strike up a tentative friendship you know things are a little she really likes her but she can’t really pinpoint why she’s so different and as things begin to go and her feelings begin to begin explored you know Holly reveals that it you know she’s asexual and leo has no idea what that is and which you know the journey was like with me I didn’t know what that was and so as they go through their relationship growing it’s great because how many kind of poses heard of different things you know outlines like this is how it works in it doesn’t mean it you know we just don’t really create that physicality but there’s other ways for us to be close other ways we can be intimate you know it’s more than just sex and you know it kind of gives you unravels these nice details about what it means to live that lifestyle or for someone to be to love that person even if they don’t share a sexuality and yeah like I said when you get done you kind of have this whole thing on what it is and and it wasn’t like you they just info dumped it and been like oh here’s a how to be sexual you know I mean it was just really well done really great but really warm yeah and really educational so always good that’s another buck I’m gonna have to put on my list now dangerous York you know so my review list and I reviewed a few different sites so I have one review list basically for everything it tends to never be more than ten the other to be read list on my Kindle I the polder story uh I think it’s approaching 600 at this point Wow yeah I try not to think about it just keep putting them there I’ll get to them but that sounds really good I like the but like teaching but without dumping information right right yeah it was really good it was very what do you come I don’t know intuitive like just natural is just a natural flow in the book of here’s a revelation here’s a revelation you know blah blah and not I just really good story and Jay is just amazing so she did it really well so now you know I’m looking at four different books that explore those different areas of the LGBTQ I mean you know things and you just forget that there’s this whole other areas a whole or groups of people that you haven’t even talked about or explored so mm-hmm I’m trying to think if you might want to read one that I’m reading right now it’s really good it’s not something I would typically recommend on the podcast but it’s called reverb it’s by an Azabu and it features a pansexual sis woman who is a bassist with this really popular rock band and she has a style and because she has a stalker si bit the rest of the band basically hires security who’s really a bodyguard for her and the bodyguard is David and he is a trans man he’s a little older than her and former military and I think it’s not that I’m gonna be the expert on trans representation but it’s just really really really good trans representation and um you know there’s no there’s no dead naming there’s no miss using pronouns and the way it handles somebody talking about their whole life while still being true to where they’re now is really excellent nice no I’ll definitely check that one out yeah I’m pretty easy I like just about anything if you hook me you know if you sell it so with the writing and the way it’s to plot whatever I don’t I’ll read pretty much anything so I don’t really dig horror that much but no you know I’ll write just about anything thrillers drama whatever sci-fi historical it’s like a good stuff the this one has totally hooked me and I was up reading until almost 1:00 in the morning last night and the only reason I didn’t push through and finish was because I knew that we were recording this I’m gonna finish it today anyway okay but yeah if you’re if you’re into like more queer oh and the other thing that’s kind of cool in it is with the side characters because she’s in a band with it’s it’s I think it’s just all men not I think I know it’s all men that she’s in the band with and they’re like they tend to be coupled up together as gay couples but one of the men is a romantic and even though he’s married so I kind of want to go and read that book cuz I’m curious about what that means like if if there’s not that it sounds like for him and I’m and I hope I’m not fumbling this and I apologize to anybody who isn’t the aromantic community if I am fumbling it but it sounds like for this character that he doesn’t fall in love he has a deep affection for his husband but he basically married him because of both the sexual compatibility but also like this deep friendship that he appreciates that isn’t necessarily a romantic love hmm that’s interesting right yeah and there’s so many things you know so many things it’s that’s in reverb or is that a different book so it’s that he’s a side character in reverb I haven’t found out what his book is but it’s part of it’s all part of a series that Ana is publishing I believe with Karina pres and so if you like celebrity romances and Rockstar romances then it’s also got that going on you’re growing Mike I know and I don’t even feel guilty because you talk to us three bucks that I need to push up my list although I actually don’t think I’d heard of I’d heard the name for the significant I hadn’t heard anything about it I don’t even remember how I found it I just was looking through stuff one day I was like oh that sounds cool and yeah it’s really good so what is your last part oh god this is so hard yeah shame all not a shameless plug though I gotta say it I also love Missouri bond alright love the books I love their sci-fi the ground beneath and all things rise and and all those and so everybody had a hard time going between this one and Lee winter because I also have all these books you know rec room obviously a fan favorite for people but um I went with breaking character from Lee winter because first off I think she’s mentioned a few times that she was really nervous about writing this one I she wasn’t sure how it went you know she’s been doing those other darker themed ones and stuff so it’s my well I really just adored it I just fell in love with it to the point that um my wife and I were loathe looking at ceiling fans and I have a brand called hunter and you know it says hunter fans and I just started laughing and I had sweetly and my wife totally didn’t get why I was cracking up so I just it was just a great book the chemistry is amazing you know and I guess it’s quite a guess it’s technically an ice queen romance because she likes those I’ve gotten into arguments with Sheena about this because I actually don’t know she’s an ice queen which maybe isn’t fair and then we joked about something called the winter scale which is like how I see is that Ice Queen because I think on a scale of 1 to oh how high does the scale go well I can’t remember that part but say if it’s like a 1 to 5 then I would call her like a 2 at best because if you compare her to I can’t believe I’m doing this with you I’m sorry I am I can’t help myself because this is how strongly I feel about Elizabeth not being at Ice Queen if you compare her to her other ice Queens like now I think Elena and the brutal truth is a true ice queen I actually think her ultimate ice queen is Katherine Ayers from the red files and under your skin mm-hmm no I agree I agree yeah yeah so in my opinion this book elizabeth is not an ice queen she’s she’s an introvert to the point that she let herself fall into this misnomer of being icy Brit and the point where she really hasn’t even gotten his clothes with her circle of friends that she’s known forever but the real the ice queen in the book really is her mentor grace to me just a complete you know yeah he’s the one that does care about anyone will step on everyone including elusive Edison you know it’s all about her her her she’s the ice queen in the book even though she’s not the main character but she kind of is a main character because she governs this whole why Elizabeth is which was she is right now when she meets summer so you know if there is an ice queen and she’s a total bitch I love that you said that that didn’t come up in our debate about it I think you’re a hundred percent right because I think we tend to think of ice Queen’s I was like is it one of the leads who’s falling in love mm-hmm but but grace is a hundred percent I mean possibly also a sociopath but definitely an ice queen yes yes feelings for her all these years and them Elizabeth this kind of mess she stays within herself and then along comes summer whose name says it all beautiful young smart not naive at all she’s very intelligent but just so happy unabashedly open and just she just dude who she is and she’s fine with that and that dynamic just knocks Elizabeth’s 4 on a loop you know that how anyone can be that way because she just lives in this fear of everything and everything’s so restrained and summers just like oh hey let’s go let’s go take pictures of this let’s go grab a burger or let’s go sit and watch the Sun and she’s like I have my house in seven years besides going to the studio you know so yeah it’s great warm story and watching summer unravel her Elizabeth even when they you know get together at the end there’s still that dynamic of summer is open and free and Elizabeth more open and free but it’s always got that little hint of restrained something to her just a ton of fun I just I just the characters are so likeable I just love the story so that was the book from Lee that I chose even though I adore all of her stuff so it’s a great choice it’s such a fabulous book so I’m gonna go back to the Missouri bond thing because I can and even though you came prepared to talk about looks if you had to pick just one Missouri one book especially for people who haven’t read her before what would you pick because she writes you’re right she writes fabulous sci-fi but she also writes really beautiful contemporary romances she hero type of book and then Missouri the same thing he’s got a wide body to everything and I’m just want to make sure because I get these two titles confused all the time from Missouri series I think the one I liked the most was all things rise because I do like sci-fi and again it’s a post-apocalyptic type thing where there’s people that live down on the earth that there’s people that live in the sky and the sky people actually don’t really have a clue what’s going on and on earth that you know it’s all been destroyed people shouldn’t be able to live there you know bad things happen down there and then you know there’s a plane crash and you know she’s in the military but I’m playing crashes and it she gets saves and has to live on that planet for a little while and it’s really super basic you know it’s it’s like the old days there’s farming and no you know high tech nothing and the people do everything the simple way of life you know and it’s this whole revelation and this whole journey of well now you know I have to decide you go back up to sky land you know when they come and find you you know what do you have what do you do how do you evolve and I don’t know it’s just a great book and you know there’s another one that kind of goes with that one what is it the ground beneath is also they have some characters that intertwine between them but I liked all things rise better for whatever reason Cole I wrote a Cole was a really great girl yeah that one and then I think the time before now is kind of like a prequel isn’t it yeah them kind of explore that universe of things the sky world and in the whole earth down there it’s completely been you know stripped down bare but all the characters are great her writings are so warm you know it’s just so an easy and natural plus you know it’s always got cool artwork because you know she’s just fantastic you know she does her own artwork out well I don’t make she does the covers but it just you know she’s got that artistic guy from all the other things she does and I just loved the covers on them as well they’re really catchy yeah not your traditional just Photoshop type stuff which I like better for sci-fi stuff I like when it kind of goes outside the box a little bitter yeah sketch it’s something more futuristic II so I’m with you she’s fabulous okay that’s a lot of books so if anybody was looking into like beefed up the reading list I think we helped them out we flipped a few under that under the radar there without official name yes also held each other Oh with everything that’s right I’ll definitely be checking them out so well thank you thank you now I need to decide which one of them I’m gonna read first always have a couple fired up like what kind of sci-fi to our romance little drama I don’t know you know they’re all in my Kindle they’re all ready to go so where can people find you online if they want to connect with you well my website is SW Anderson spelled a and D er s en s W Anderson writes calm you know that’s got access to all my social media Facebook there’s a fan page for s W Anderson on Twitter it’s SW underscore Anderson you can find me there I’m on Twitter a lot more than Facebook but I do my best to answer emails and anything else that is all for this episode thank you so much for joining me thank you thank you this is fun so I’m Tara and you’ve been listening to Les Deux books you can email me at Tara at the lesbian review.com with your questions or comments or if you’re an author who’s interested in joining me on the show to talk about the less fake you love for the trends that have you interested please let me know if you’ve enjoyed this episode please check out the show notes where you’ll find a patreon for the lesbian talk-show or visit patreon.com slash the lesbian taco patrons get exclusive content and bonus podcasts and author interviews that no one else gets access to to find this and many other great shows all you need to do is search for the lesbian talk show on iTunes Pot be in stitcher or Spotify
