Angie Williams’s Lesfic Journey
Angie Williams’s Lesfic Journey is the topic of this episode of Les Do Books.
In this episode, Tara is joined by avid reader Angie Williams—some of you may also know her as Meghan O’Brien’s awesome wife. Angie shares her journey with discovering lesbian fiction, which includes the first lesbian book she ever read, how she met her wife first as a fan, what it’s like to be married to an author, and the books she’s excited to read soon.
Listen to this episode here
Check out the books Angie talks about:
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Publisher Virago
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Juanita McMahon
Synopsis
Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl – I knew it at once! – that I had ever seen.
A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King – oyster girl turned music-hall star turned rent boy turned East End ‘tom’.
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Infinite Loop by Meghan O’Brien
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Eva Christensen
Synopsis
Regan O’Riley has just about given up hope that she will ever find a woman into shy, geeky programmers. She yearns for a connection, but can’t seem to make the first move. Mel Raines knows all about making moves. After a childhood under the thumb of her alcoholic father, she avoids intimacy by drowning herself in fiery, fleeting encounters with strangers. When Regan and Mel meet in a straight bar, of all places, their chemistry is unmistakable. Before they can begin to explore their new relationship, Mel’s world is rocked when a close friend is a victim in a shooting. Regan suggests they take a road trip to escape reality for a little while, and Mel is only too ready to shake things up. Together they embark upon a physical and emotional journey where they discover that breaking free of old habits may be the only way to change your life.
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Her Best Friend’s Sister by Meghan O’Brien
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Faith Clarke
Synopsis
At 12-years-old, Claire Barker developed a massive crush on her best friend Sarah’s older sister, the handsome, butch Alex Williams. Now 27 and a successful entrepreneur, Claire’s interest hasn’t waned – despite Alex’s fashion photography career keeping her overseas for months at a time. When Alex moves home unexpectedly, she and Claire end up enjoying a surprise, wine-fueled reunion that alters their relationship forever.
Are Claire’s dreams about to come true, or will real life prove to be more complicated than her fantasies?
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Breakthrough by Kris Bryant
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Brittni Pope
Synopsis
Kennedy Wells is desperate to get back her dream job writing for Mainstream, Waters Publishing’s celebrity magazine. She’s worked too hard over the years to have it snatched away because of one tiny indiscretion that ended with a giant lawsuit. After five months of writing mind-numbing articles about current events, her boss agrees to let her get back to reporting on the rich-and-famous after one last story.
A born-and-bred city girl, Kennedy is sent to cover fishing in Alaska, which has her feeling just like a fish out of water. When Brynn Coleman, director of Alaska’s Wildlife Rescue and Sanctuary, comes to her rescue time after time, Kennedy can’t help but lower her guard and open herself up to Brynn’s standoffish charm. Falling for the sexy ranger is one thing, but is the possibility of love worth giving up a career she’s always dreamed of?
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Love at Cooper’s Creek by Missouri Vaun
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Brittni Pope
Synopsis
Successful but suffocated by the demands of her corporate career, Shaw Daily walks out on it all. She returns to her grandparents’ rural property in Cooper’s Creek, North Carolina, with a plan to hide out and reboot her life to be simple and stress-free. But escapism eludes her when her attentions are captured by small-town beauty Kate Elkins.
Kate has spent almost her entire life in Cooper’s Creek. For Kate, the bonds of small-town life are a source of strength and comfort. When her aging mother weakens, Kate takes a leave from teaching to care for her. Romance is the last thing on her mind when she bumps into her unrequited teen crush Shaw Dailey just back from California. Long-buried feelings resurface for Kate, but all Shaw sees is a beautiful woman saddled with the responsibilities from which she is finally free.
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Blend by Georgia Beers
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Paige McKinney
Synopsis
When the widowed owner of the wine bar Vineyard decides she wants to take some time off and travel abroad, she leaves her business in the very capable hands of the two women she trusts most: her daughter Piper and Vineyard’s general manager, Lindsay.
For Lindsay Kent, Vineyard is her dream job. She’s thrilled when her boss leaves her in charge (well, half charge) and tells her to feel free to make changes. Lindsay has tons of ideas that she’s been dying to put into action, and this is her big chance to increase the success of the business and prove she’s more than ready to run things solo. But getting the boss’s daughter on board is harder than expected. The uptight and annoyingly attractive Piper is blocking her every move.
For Piper Bradshaw, Vineyard is not her job. She already has one. She’s VP at a large tech company, and she’s damn good at it. Who cares if people say she’s a workaholic and an icy bitch? She didn’t get to the top by being prone to whims and experiments. She’s not happy when her mother suddenly decides to gallivant all over the country and furious that the family business has been left in the hands of the happy-go-lucky, born-a-generation-too-late hippie who manages it. Good thing Lindsay can’t make any changes unless they both agree, because Piper doesn’t intend to.
Lindsay and Piper are like night and day. Working together won’t be easy, but not falling in love might prove the hardest job of all.
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Words Heard in Silence by T Novan and Taylor Rickard
Publisher Indie author
Available in Audiobook No
Synopsis
Culpeper, Virginia in the fall of 1864 was at a dark time in this once bustling town. Feisty Rebecca Gaines widowed by the conflict that had torn the nation apart, struggles to single handedly manage the family farm. Life is hard in the beleaguered South, so when a troop of Union soldiers rides in to winter over on her property, Rebecca is grudgingly glad of the extra income.
Their dashing commanding officer, Colonel Charlie Redmond, is courteous and gentle in his dealings with her, and she is drawn to this intriguing professional soldier. But he is still the enemy, and Rebecca finds it difficult to come to terms with her feelings. For his part, Charlie is alarmed to realize he is romantically involved with the lovely Southerner, for he hides a secret that, if discovered, would mean social disgrace and the end of a distinguished military career. For Charlie is a woman.
In this meticulously researched novel, T.Novan and Taylor Rickard, have captured the agony and the devastation of the War in its impact on the soldiers and civilians alike. With its moving love story, powerful scenes of battle and memorable characters, Words Heard in Silence lay the foundation for the Redmond family saga.
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In Development by Rachel Spangler
Publisher Brisk Press
Available in Audiobook Yes, narrated by Ann Etter
Synopsis
From a young age, Cobie Galloway made a career of playing the girl-next-door on the silver screen. Only, she’s not a teenager anymore. Ready to challenge herself artistically and earn the part she’s always dreamed of, she’s forced to face the realization that in order to win the roles afforded to edgier actresses, she might first have to audition by playing someone edgier in her day-to-day life.
Pop star Lila Wilder built a multimedia empire by always having her finger on the pulse of what’s hot. However, as she struggles to produce her next smash hit record, she’s finding it hard to keep her name in the public eye, and a string of tumultuous relationships with Hollywood boy toys no longer captivates anyone’s attention.
Both women tentatively agree to a headline-grabbing fauxmance, with two simple rules: Always stick to the script, and never forget that on the stage of public perception, nothing is real. Can two women find love in a world of carefully crafted illusions, or will a successful charade mean the potential for something more gets left on the cutting-room floor?
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Party Favors by Jaime Clevenger
Publisher Bella Books
Available in Audiobook No
Synopsis
Imagine you’ve been invited to a formal dinner party filled with the city’s most attractive and available women. Now imagine that you’ve accidentally come dressed as Batman. Do you leave the party? Do you ask the hostess for a change of clothes? Or are you brave enough to stick it out as a superhero?
Fortunately, every choice you make tonight leads to a different satisfying outcome. You might not always be on top, and you might have to let go of some inhibitions, but at this party, you’re guaranteed to enjoy yourself. And with so many women and no shortage of sex toys, you might not ever want to leave.
It’s time to choose your party favor. Who will you pick?
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Three Reasons to Say Yes by Jaime Clevenger
Publisher Bella Books
Available in Audiobook No
Synopsis
When a little rest and relaxation turns into something more…
Julia Maguire can’t wait to spend two weeks in Hawaii with her best friends. She’s been dreaming about this trip for years and all she wants is to lay on a sandy beach with an icy cocktail in her hand. But those vacation goals change the moment she meets Reed Baxter.
Reed is a busy doctor with family demands. She’s in Hawaii to let go, not find love, and she’s not interested in any commitment. Adding a little heat to the vacation seems like a good idea as long as there aren’t expectations for anything more.
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Spencer’s Cove by Missouri Vaun
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in Audiobook No
Synopsis
Successful mystery author Foster Owen hasn’t finished a manuscript in three years and her writer’s block shows no signs of retreating. When the bills start piling up, an unexpected offer to ghost write a memoir for an heiress on the West Coast seems like too good an opportunity to ignore.
Painfully shy Abigail Spencer has just returned from studying abroad. The sprawling estate she inherited from her parents includes a crumbling mansion rumored to be haunted and a historic lighthouse nestled along the remote northern Pacific coast.
When the executor of the Spencer estate hires Foster to write the history of the family, Foster and Abby are drawn together as they peel back layers of history and uncover a story of lives adrift, secrets long hidden, and ancient ties to witchcraft. Can truths from the past help love blossom in the present?
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Transcript
please note this transcript has not been edited and is automatically generated meaning certain words will be incorrect
hi welcome to les to books I’m Tara and you can email me at Tara@thelesbianreview.com with any questions or comments you can join our Facebook group the lesbian review book club pretty excited today because I’m joined by Angie who’s an avid let’s pick reader that you also may have heard of her wife Megan O’Brien welcome Angie know so we got to chatting and you have kind of an interesting story about how you discovered lesfic and kind of your path from there so would you like to just share that like how did you first discover it and what did that mean to you yeah I was in the Coast Guard kind of pretty much right out of high school and I grew up in Texas and so I wasn’t really I didn’t know any lesbians although I work at a pet store and these two ladies came in with Dalmatians and my manager told me those are lesbians and I was like how do you know and he said because they have wallets and I was like oh but I like touched my back pocket where I had my wallet I was like wait a minute she’s a lesbian is good but anyway so then I went in the Coast Guard where they weren’t like totally hey are you lesbian that’s awesome so I you know spent all these years kind of hiding all of that and ended up being you know finding another girl who also liked kissing other girls and really enjoyed that but never had any kind of like I felt like I was in a bubble you know I felt like she and I were the only two people in the world who had these feelings even though I knew logically that wasn’t the case but but it felt like it so anyways I got out of the Coast Guard and we moved to Northern California and I started kind of making friends here and there with other lesbians just accidentally you know like they’d show me a picture of their roommate with the their cat you know and I was like oh here’s a picture of my roommate with my cat or like okay anyways and I you know I had seen some lesbian movies like our girls and you know go fish or whatever and then a friend of mine was a lesbian gave me Tipping the Velvet and for my birthday she gave me Tipping the Velvet some bath salts and some candles and I was like okay like but I read a lot but I had never read lesbian fiction I didn’t really even realize it was lesbian fiction and then I started reading it and I was like oh my god this is incredible there’s totally girls in here kissing each other that is freaking awesome and then I just couldn’t get enough like I I you know went online and I looked up I think I just like Google are probably not Google at the time although I think I was passed a a well at this point but I think I just search for a lesbian fiction and I came across cadmium bars then it was like you know my partner at the time was like are you ever going to stop reading and start acknowledging my existence again so for people who don’t know because there are probably about five of them can you explain what the Academy of Arts is yeah it’s been so long I don’t know if I’m gonna have a very good explanation but it was pretty much just a great place to go to find either fanfic I think mainly I’m assuming because it’s like ad Mia bars I’m assuming it’s mainly Xena fanfic that started it but also original fiction just pretty much lesbian fiction you know written by women mostly many of whom are still pretty popular authors in our genre yeah absolutely that’s when I started see I think my first thing I read on there was Bill Miller and I think I think she did xena fiction and I hadn’t actually seen Xena at that time and so I went on there looking for less fake and found the Xena fanfic like oh my god I’ve got a watch whatever this is and of course totally loved it and a little theory of the seasons that I hadn’t already seen and yeah anyways in red like all the Xena fiction I could find and then moved on to everybody’s original fiction including a certain yeah Paige McGregor I was I really read a lot of catching McGregor and Blaine Cooper read a lot of playing super and then I read truth or dare by Megan O’Brien and I was like oh my god this is super hot yeah and I wanted to find I didn’t wanted to find everything I could possibly find by Megan O’Brien and I remember at the time I went to her website and she infinite loop was not published but it had just gotten picked up by Regal Crest I think or somebody who real real quest published it first but I don’t know if somebody else had already I don’t know anyways so if there was a note on there that said the author had removed it because it had you know the publisher had asked and so I went I joined her yahoo group and saw some people are saying oh it’s over here you can find it over here and so I ended up and this because this is before it was actually published this was kind of that in-between place where I think she was editing and anyway so I found it and I read it and I read all of her short stories and and then I I was in her yahoo group which was very active at the time and I had gone to good vibes with my partner and a couple other friends and I like we just had a really good time you know we had a great time and I can’t remember like all the details of what I wrote but I posted something on the yahoo group and ironically it was about how like I loved my partner time relationship we had and and anyways Megan really liked that and and and messaged me she emailed me I think and then messaged me and so we became friends that way yeah and then we started playing Halo together and you know would talk on Halo she’s so shy that she would never talk to me on the phone we would only talk on Halo or we would write you know we need to email each other back and forth or message or whatever but yeah we became really good friends we’re both in relationships at that time and she looked in Michigan and I lived in Northern California yeah so we got to be really close and it’s interesting I think it’s interesting when people become like their relationship is like a long-distance relationship to strangers kind of meet each other and they just talk it’s like there’s something very pure about that I think because you’re when you’re face-to-face with somebody there’s always gonna be you know a little bit of physical there’s gonna be a physical aspect to your relationship even just friendships you know I’m not talking about like sexual I’m just talking about there’s just you know just different than just I think you put your heart out and heart out more to somebody when you’re just messaging them or or you know anyway so we have to be really good friends and then we both ended up single and yeah it wasn’t quite as smooth as though I but yeah you’re listening to the lesbian talk show the lesbian talk show calm your hub of podcast information so what is it like being married to an author it’s funny because I’m not only married to an author but one of my best friends is also an author page braddock so good I love I love page name oh yeah sorry you were about to exit oh yeah I saw you tonight circa Vaughn but it’s funny because Meghan like being in a relationship with an author you have to and Ionis I don’t want to say that’s like it sounds nothing bad about it but you have to not take things personally in a way because you’ll be in the middle of a conversation you know I’ll be like in the middle of a conversation with Meghan and she will I’ll see her drift off you know we’ll be talking about something I’ll be telling her about my day or whatever and I can see her drift off and I you know I think at first I kind of took it personally like god am I just that boring like if she just you know I can’t even hold her attention I don’t understand that is just I think authors kind of live in this world where everything is a potential story you know everything is fair game and I thought it was just Meghan but then you know now like I hang out with Paige and and she’s the same way like she like you know has a little notebook in their pocket and she’ll just like pull this little notebook out and jot notes down you know and Meghan sometimes like I’ll be talking to Meghan about something and she’ll go well my way wait wait Shh and then she’ll get her laptop out and she’ll just you know type something and I usually will all wait for a minute and see if if I’m going to get her back and if I don’t I just go do my thing and I just don’t take it personally you know it’s just like you know yeah she’s she’s doing what makes her happy I won’t stand the way of that I’m also married to an author and well and his thing more often is if you say something like you might tell a story or you might say a line and he’ll say I’m stealing that yeah oh yeah totally okay it’s funny because I won’t like you know sometimes Megan was saying that or Paige you say that to you and I won’t realize but you know sometimes she’ll say it but sometimes I won’t realize that she is stealing something until I’ll be reading something that she’s written and usually I’ll read things I used to read things constantly it was like you know okay I’ve written three chapters where you read we read it and sometimes that still happens because she wants to know is it is she on the right track but now it’s more I usually read it halfway through and then I wait until the like first I think it’s called the proofs come out where you’re like looking for you know it’s pretty much done because I just read it so many times if I don’t do it like that then it gets to be like it does like she’s trying to not take away the fan part you know what I mean at the end of the day I’m her biggest fan and so she’s trying not to ruin that for me but I you know I’m not sitting here complaining that I get to read not gonna bribe books you know yeah there’s something out of her head but I will be reading them and things will come up like conversations that we had will occasionally come up or you know things that happen will come up and it’s funny just to see the personal things like a lot of it is and a lot of it is just stuff that just came out of her crazy head but some of the you know there are like things that that are in there that are like oh my god that’s totally especially if somebody’s being annoying you know it’ll be like some way I’m annoying can you can you use your imagination with this especially I mean of course especially her best friend’s sister because she wrote that one for me so little things in there you know that they’re personal but it was a birthday present yes I think the world would like to thank you for encouraging her to share your birthday present with all of us because that was a great book I know I love it I love it so what have you been reading recently I just finished breakthrough by Kris Bryant I had I kind of go through phases where I will read a lot of nonfiction and then I’ll read a lot of lesbian fiction and you know I just kind of skip around I’ll read a lot of science fiction and so I kind of hadn’t read a lot of lesbian fiction in a while and there were authors that I didn’t really know about but I kind of heard you know a little bit here and there but not read read from you know read their novels and I thought oh god I know I’m Way behind on these people and I’m like we met some of them at GCLs and everything so anyways I have really been making it a point since GCLs to read these people that I because you know you I think you kind of get stuck in these ruts or you’re like reading the same people’s books every time you know you don’t really branch out to other authors so I’m trying to remedy that so as I read breakthrough by Kris Bryant and and then I actually read a few more of hers I enjoy hers I’ve read I just listen to love a Cooper’s Creek I loved it I loved it I thought the audiobook was really good because you know let me see Britney Britney Pope yes I love her too yeah she did I thought she was really good because she kinda has a little bit of a southern accent mm-hmm and it it’s just perfect for pages but or for Missouri mom’s books you know it’s like Paige has a southern accent and and I think you know I I don’t know much lesser than accent anymore but I’m from Texas and it just felt right like her her accent and there was perfect I read blend by Georgia peers and I read I’m halfway through and this is a reread words heard in silence by Tino van have you ever read that no it’s really good it’s historical fiction and it’s about a woman who dresses as a man and you know fights in the Civil War and I’m a sucker for stories like Shania totally man I am a total sucker for those and so I’m enjoying it I’m about halfway there and I remember reading it years and years ago and then Megan has this crazy memory like and she uses it against me sometimes like I like will be in an argument she’ll say oh you said this in this and now they’re like no I did and she’s like I’m the one with the memory or not it’s like well that’s true but I said her you know while I was like oh I can’t remember that book were don’t you know it was like this and I kind of gave a vague description and she’s like oh that’s a teen open book oh oh okay I hooked up she’s totally right she remembers random actors names and everything and or stories like well but you’d be telling a story and I’ll be like oh it was a couple days ago she was like it was two weeks ago it’s just like look I’m a Texan all my things we get the general idea of things and she is captain literal so that’s so funny so what are you excited to read that you haven’t had a chance to get to yet on my list is in development by Rachel Spangler I had that on my and my audio book queue that’s a good one and I really want to read Jamie Clevenger there right mm-hmm I haven’t read I know I did read one of hers it was like a picture on a venture type I love that book yeah book was so I was fine that’s fine and what a great like I used to love choose your own adventure books yes I was fun to see it with lesbians are read it with lesbians well and for people that don’t know that book it’s not only is it choose your own adventure with lesbians it’s like choose your own adventure erotic yeah but I the one that I have on my list just three reasons to say yes it’s good it’s really good I enjoyed that one a lot I haven’t read it yet but I’m excited to read it I’m in the process right now of reading Spencer’s Cove I was read one and I’m hoping to soon be reading at least the first half of the wild sequel like so so it’s on so what’s happening that’s a real thing are you allowed to say that I know if I’m allowed to or not but I’m saying it okay you know I think sometimes she starts things and then she’ll kind of put it down for a minute yeah and do something else but I know she’s been working on it a lot oh my god oh my god that’s gonna make so many people happy and a Katter of what’s gonna happen of course I’m not saying anything but I do think it’s exciting okay I’m going to resist asking too much because I want to go into it like I’m not even gonna read the blurb I’m just gonna read it yeah oh no you won’t be disappointed she’s like telling me and this is what I’m thinking and it’s so funny it’s she got kind of this sweet little voice you know and then she’s like you like glaze all this out I’m just like just come from your head quiet Midwestern girl you know well cuz Wilde was like super gritty like that’s probably her darkest book isn’t it I think yeah yeah I think battles cars was very angsty yes yeah I would say that was angsty but not necessarily like gritty and dark and I mean there were no serial killers yeah she Megan really likes angst yes she enjoys angst and it makes me anxious you know what I think a lot of readers like it a lot though oh yeah I do I do – I like it – I just you know you just wonder where it comes from well it’s funny because you know sometimes like I all right things just for you know me like I wrote Megan a thing for her birthday and yeah cause he really is good but it was like a 2,000 words it was a thing but there’s not really a lot of angst in it and I was thinking when I finished it and I read it and I was like yeah there’s I mean there’s stuff you know there’s it but um yeah I was like I don’t know I just think it I think it’s amazing how authors can have these ideas in their head and they can just like put it onto paper no or a laptop whatever and it’s like a story that makes total sense yeah that’s true it’s a talent I think yeah so is there anything else that you want to share about your journey as a reader I don’t know I think I think reading for me is like I get so into it so much more than watching a movie or or you know anything and for me a good book is when at the end like my favorite books let’s say at the end it’s like I don’t want to say goodbye to these be you know it’s almost like you’re having you’re gonna say goodbye to friends yeah that’s just a total bummer yeah so yeah so I mean those are my favorite things to read is I like character development and I like romance I mean you know I married often I like dirty puss I think that’s just it I think that I I like kind of escaping just like everybody that’s that’s the whole point of reading I think is to escape even if it’s just fanfiction you know it doesn’t have to be a novel sometimes it’s nice to just be able to go and have like this thing to read for one hour you’re gonna have a beginning a middle and an end and be entertained for an hour and it doesn’t have to be this huge thing that you kind of devote hours of your life to well I think that is all for this episode thank you so much Angie for joining me yeah thank you very much I’m Tara and you’ve been listening to Les Do Books remember to email me at Tara@thelesbianreview.com with your questions or comments if you’re an author who’s interested in joining me on the show just drop me an email as well if you’ve enjoyed this episode please check out the show notes where you’ll find a patreon link for the lesbian talk show or visit patreon.com slash the lesbian talk show patrons get exclusive content that no one else does like bonus audio and inter author interviews from other shows across the channel don’t forget to join our Facebook group to let interview book club so you can talk to us about anything that you’re reading and loving to find this and many other great shows all you need to do is search for the lesbian car show on iTunes coffee stitcher or Spotify
