Dana Piccoli Talks Lesfic
On this episode of Les Do Books with Tara Scott she has a guest on and Dana Piccoli talks lesfic that she enjoyed and recommends
Author, pop culture critic, Dana Piccoli, joins Tara to talk about all things lesbian fiction. She shares how she discovered it, what it meant to her, what it means to be writing lesfic now, and what has her excited about where the genre is headed.
Listen to this episode here
Check out the books Dana mentions here:
And Playing the Role of Herself by KE Lane
Publisher Regal Crest
Available in audio Yes, narrated by Lisa Cordileone
Synopsis
Actress Caidence Harris is living her dreams after landing a leading role among the star-studded, veteran cast of Ninth Precinct, a hot new police drama shot on location in glitzy LA. Her sometimes-costar Robyn Ward is magnetic, glamorous, and devastatingly beautiful, the quintessential A-List celebrity on the fast-track to super-stardom.
When the two meet on the set of Ninth Precinct, Caid is instantly infatuated but settles for friendship, positive that Robyn is both unavailable and uninterested. Soon Caid sees that all is not as it appears, but can she take a chance and risk her heart when the outcome is so uncertain?
The leading ladies and the supporting cast of this debut novel by newcomer K.E Lane will charm you, entertain you, and leave you with a smile on your face.
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Waiting in the Wings by Melissa Brayden
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in audio Yes, narrated by Betsy Zajko
Synopsis
If you don’t get lost, there’s a chance you may never be found.
Jenna McGovern has spent her whole life training for the stage. She’s taken dance classes, voice lessons, and even earned her performance degree from one of the most prestigious musical theater programs in the nation. At graduation, she’s stunned when a chance audition lands her a prime supporting role in the hottest Broadway touring production in the country. In more exciting news, Jenna discovers acclaimed television star Adrienne Kenyon is headlining the production.
Jenna settles easily in to life on tour and has a promising career laid out in front of her, if only she plays her cards right. She’s waited for this opportunity her entire life and will let nothing stand in her way. The one thing she didn’t prepare for, however, was Adrienne. Her new costar is talented, beautiful, generous, and the utmost professional. As the two women grow closer onstage and off, they must learn how to fit each other into a demanding lifestyle full of unexpected twists and difficult decisions. But is Jenna ready to sacrifice what she’s worked so hard for in exchange for a shot at something much deeper?
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Fated Love by Radclyffe
Publisher Bold Strokes Books
Available in audio Yes, narrated by Abby Craden
Synopsis
What do you do when your carefully planned life takes a wrong turn into hell? When Quinn Maguire, a dashing young trauma surgeon, unaccountably accepts a position as an ER physician, her new boss, Honor Blake, suspects that Quinn is hiding a dark secret. While the two declare an uneasy truce in an effort to work together, both struggle with mutual, and unexpected, attraction.
Honor, however, has more than one reason to resist her growing feelings for the attractive newcomer – not the least of which is that her heart belongs to the woman whose wedding ring she wears. Amidst the chaos and drama of a busy emergency room, Quinn and Honor must contend not only with the fragile nature of life, but also with the mysteries of the heart and the irresistible forces of fate.
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Keepers of the Cave by Gerri Hill
Publisher Bella Books
Available in audio No
Synopsis
While the investigations go on in Dallas and Baton Rouge after the disappearance of a senator’s daughter, FBI agents CJ Johnston and Paige Riley are assigned to the sleepy backwoods of East Texas for a dead-end assignment to infiltrate an all-girls school.
Random disappearances dating back fifty years and more raise red flags that point to the tiny, isolated community of Hoganville. But CJ and Paige fear there will be little distraction from the memories of the one-night stand they shared six months ago.
Nevertheless, they integrate themselves into the lives of the teachers and staff, but soon the odd behavior of the townspeople has them convinced something sinister lurks there. Something, perhaps, that even the residents of Hoganville don’t know about.
Six-time Goldie winner Gerri Hill delivers thrills and passion in the chilling Keepers of the Cave.
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The Farmer’s Daughter by Robbi McCoy
Publisher Bella Books
Available in audio No
Synopsis
Lambda Literary Award Winner for Best Lesbian Romance of 2014.
The open road is the only place that seems safe to Shirley “Mutt” Hopper. Escaping her Mississippi home, she joins the other wanderers, riding freight trains and working in fields and orchards across the United States. When she begs a night’s sleep in a Nebraska barn, she can’t imagine how completely the lovely farmer’s daughter, Annie Callahan, is about to change her life.
Many years and hard knocks later, Mutt finds that at least Annie was able to pursue her dreams. Now a glamorous, wealthy and pampered movie star married to one of Hollywood’s leading men, Annie seems totally out of reach.
How could Mutt possibly take away Annie’s perfect life, even in the name of love?
It’s bum times and good times and the power of love in a sweeping romance from the award-winning author of Not Every River and Spring Tide!
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Transcript
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 you can email me at Tara@thelesbianreview.com with any questions or comments or come join our Facebook group the lesbian review book club. I’m joined today by pop culture critic and Managing Editors of Bella books blogs Dana Piccoli I’m particularly excited to talk to her today because she’s also an author whose first book savor the moment was recently released everywhere by Bella welcome Dana thanks so much for having me so you are here today to talk about your journey as a less Vic reader where did that begin you know I think it all began in fanfic which I think a lot of people’s journeys started fanfic I really I’d say it was until about 2011 that it even that I even knew any of this existed and I got really into a couple television shows and I started reading fanfic based on those shows and then somebody told me I should check out and I might get the name of this wrong but and playing the role of herself yeah okay so you’re like okay so I I read that and I and I had heard that it was based on fanfic and I I just I got really really into it and I was like oh my gosh there’s there might be more out there than this so I think I was I think I was probably on Amazon and I was looking for lesbian books and I had already gone through all my Sarah waters you know and it had never occurred to me that there was an entire world of less fake out there and I think I somehow stumbled upon Melyssa Braden’s waiting in the wings which she had just written at that point I think he was her debut it was and I was so interested because it was about theater and that’s my background I have a degree in musical theater performance and I had lived a life on the stage and I was like wow okay so the characters are queer they’re also actors this might just be my cup of tea and I read it and I loved it loved it so much I think I read it twice and I figured after that well now that now that I’ve caught the bug I gotta check this out and so I started doing more research and I looked up you know who are the who are the the big names and this in this industry and of course you know I I read fated love by Radcliffe and you know if Jerry Hill I read keepers of the cave and then I also really love historical stuff because you know I’m like I’m a big historical fiction nerd and so I think the first one I read was the farmer’s daughter by Robbie McCoy and I loved that there were so many more stories other than Sarah waters Victorian you know and Edwardian let’s be an escapade so that’s how I really got my start and after that I just I couldn’t stop and it really it became important to me as as I fell in love with less fake I also started becoming a larger presence and LGBTQ media and I realized that no one was really covering less fake and so I made it a priority when I was at AfterEllen back a few years ago that I wanted to do something called the Summer of Love and so I assigned les Vic books to like something like twelve different writers and we each wrote about a different less Vic book to try to kind of give it a little bit more of a boost because it was it’s pretty rare to see like real authentic let’s pick from less Vic publishers get the sort of attention and notoriety that it deserves I mean you’ll see you know things from you know like Random House and things that are more commercial get a lot of praise but I was like there are thousands of books and hundreds of authors out there who are working hard and doing incredible things and they’re not getting the attention they deserve and I want to thank you Tara because you do so much to boost and support less Vic you’re always out there putting stuff together and and and helping and pushing for authors and pushing books it’s it’s really incredible on I mean personally I want to thank you for that oh thank you it’s I mean I’ve talked about this in various other podcast but like it it changed my life let’s pick was how I discovered my bisexuality and my first book was actually and playing the role of herself too so I do when you said that I think it’s it’s the like what the entry drug for a lot of it is if it wasn’t curious wine and you’ve discovered last week later it was in playing the role of herself yep so what did it mean to you when you first found it when you realize there was this like enormous section of literature that you just didn’t know existed well I felt kind of foolish at first but as I’ve as I’ve grown in in my industry also realize that one of the reasons that I didn’t know about it is like as I just said it just it doesn’t get the sort of press and notoriety that it deserves but once I you know once I knew about it and once it had come into my life I I was so satisfied you know what I mean you spend all this time watching TV shows and movies and you get these these crumbs or you get a storyline or something just maybe doesn’t go your way and there’s an awful lot of sadness there’s obviously the barrier gaze situation and just recently somebody coined the phrase cancel your gaze which has been happening a lot so it’s kind of like you’re at the mercy of these just you know studios that aren’t necessarily thinking about your best interests as a career person that’s not their number-one priority but that is the number-one priority of less fit writers when I wrote my book I knew I knew I am writing this for the people in my community I am writing this for the people who have had their hearts broken by television shows I wanted to give them something that would fill them with hope and give them a happy ending and so many less Vic books have happy endings and I think that that’s something really beautiful about it – mmhmm absolutely so what do you remember what you were reading when you started writing I started writing this book like five years ago honestly I I racked my brain about this I don’t know I was reading a lot of let’s pick at the time so it could have been anybody could have been kg McGregor it could have been Jerry Hill it could have been all sorts of folks but I read really quickly too so I would you know knock out a book in a day or two so gosh alene oh that’s okay so how do you feel about where we’re at right now is less like the current state I’m feeling really hopeful I’m feeling really good I think it’s I think less Vic is is kind of going into a new phase I’m seeing a lot of really interesting new authors out there and I’m seeing a lot of community happening with less Vic authors so maybe authors who are more experienced lending their expand mentoring and really working together to kind of expand what our definition of less Vic is and I think less Vic it’s the the title itself obviously refers to lesbian but there are a lot of bisexual queer folks out there non-binary and trans folks that want to see themselves represented in fiction too and I think that’s incredibly important I know it was really important to me when I was writing say for the moment that I I really really wanted to make sure I had you know I’ve wanted everyone in the community to at least find themselves in some character you know I have a trans man named writer in my book and I you know talked to my my trans male friends to get their thoughts and their advice as I really wanted him to be portrayed the best way possible and I just I think that the future of less Vic is is just more and more inclusion isn’t that exciting yes it’s very exciting yeah I’m I’m excited about it too because I feel like even in the seven or so years that I’ve been reading it I’ve been seeing it become a much more inclusive much more welcoming space to all readers who want to read about women who love other women yes and and it’s just it’s reflective of our community and I think that it’s really important that that that’s happening and the more people that can include in our world the better that’s true you’re listening to the lesbian talk show the lesbians or choke on your hub of podcast information so are there any books that you read recently that you’re really excited about I you know I kind of I had to step away a little bit from Les Vic while I was in the final process of writing them and I know you’ve talked about this with many other authors a lot of people I can’t I couldn’t read read less Vic while I was writing my own less fake so I think I was just kind of reading kind of random stuff some mysteries I read mostly like New York Times bestseller fiction stuff you know what do you mean nothing nothing profoundly less Vic and I’m starting I’m hoping to get back into reading cuz I’ve just been so nerve doc about the book and everything I just I kind of I kind of just stepped away from it a little bit but I just bought a bunch of new books that are on my my e-reader that I’m looking forward to getting into um one of Ray’s books actually 7/7 oh yes I’m getting I’m getting into lucky seven so I haven’t read that one but she’s very good she also did you know that she has a lot of stuff in fanfic we talked a little bit about fanfic stuff so yes I know that that that she and I come from similar kind of origins that was how I first discovered her reading her Mass Effect fanfic so if your heart was broken like mine by the end of Mass Effect 3 go fine so for fanfic and it will heal your heart oh my gosh I loved Mass Effect’s so much so I will definitely check that out she also did a pairing between oh now I’m gonna forget both characters names this is great basically she took two minor characters so you know the one that runs the club yeah yeah so her and then the asari that is on the council okay and she puts them as a pairing and does this leg long series where that happens and they end up being like kind of paulien but whatever it’s so it’s so good her stuff is so filthy but so highly recommends I highly recommend Oh anyway sorry I just had a moment I don’t get to squeeze out rain magnons fanfic very often so well I’m happy to check it out now is there anything else that you want to share about your journey as a reader I think it’s just made me a better writer it’s made me more empathetic it’s made me more hopeful I think it’s really easy to get your your heart broken by queer media I think we keep coming back we keep we keep coming back but there there’s just so much out there it’s it’s like a whole it’s like a whole new world that so many people haven’t experienced yet and I have been working the last couple years especially with now with Bela I really have been trying to introduce a new audience to let’s fake and I think that especially for like Millennials we really associate and Gen Xers we really associate romance especially the romance part of the genre with our parents like our mothers our mothers read romance novels they bought the the Jackie Collins at the grocery store and so I think that breaking that thought process behind romance like like breaking down the wall a barrier of romance will really open people up to a lot of lesbian romance that’s so good and so satisfying and it’s just it’s really it’s really just made me a better person I think in general because I when you get to see yourself reflected in in things it heals a part of you that maybe has been hurt before broken before and so I’m really grateful that I was able to stumble upon all this and I don’t want other people to have to stumble upon it anymore I want them to just know that it exists and so I’ve been preaching the gospel of Les Vic for a couple years now and I’d like to think that it’s worked and I know that for many people who bought my book this is their first les Vic ever and so that’s really exciting to me and I I think it’s just made me being a reader has made me an evangelist for let’s pick if anything that’s important where can people find you online if they want to connect with you so the places I’m most active are Twitter and Instagram so I’m Dana piccoli that’s two C’s 1l both places and you can also find me at Dana piccoli author on Facebook I have to admit I that’s a fairly new thing for me I I have a personal Facebook but I’ve lived on Twitter for the last seven years or so and so that’s where that’s where I have my main thought process I’m trying to I’m trying to be everywhere so anyone who maybe isn’t into those things can find me in a place that they feel most comfortable and I also have a website Dana piccoli comm so you can see my work at things like lexicon and your Comic Con where I moderate panels and do interviews and I’m actually gearing up right now and who knows this this might error when I’m at clocks icon who knows but that’s a very cool and exciting thing and I don’t know if you know this Tara but there’s gonna be a bunch of lesyk authors at lexicon this year there’s I think there’s like two panels or something all about less fake I did I heard about it well I will definitely be at at the last panels if I am not already on stage moderating a different panel because I’m really excited to see what folks have to say and I know a couple of the Bela writers are gonna be there I know some bold strokes folks so looking forward to it that is fantastic so if you are a classic on go say hi to Dana yes you will not miss me I have very pink hair well that is all for this episode thank you so much Dana thank you I’m Tara and you’ve been listening to Les Deux books remember to email me at Tara at the lesbian review.com with your questions or comments if you’re an authors and joining me on the show to talk about the let’s pick you love or trends to have you interested please let me know if you 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 like bonus podcasts that no one else gets access to you can also join our Facebook group the lesbian if you a book club to talk about these books and anything else you’re reading and loving to find this and many other great shows all you need to do is search for the lesbian Tosh on iTunes pot beans stitcher or Spotify
