This week’s Sapphic Reading Challenge features romance novels in which the characters never intended to become involved in a long-term relationship with each other. The romance starts with a one-night stand, a fling, or a friends-with-benefits arrangement.
I realized there aren’t that many WLW & lesbian romance novels around in which the characters meet online—maybe via a dating app—or start communicating via emails, texts, or phone calls and meet face-to-face only a little later in the book. Which is a little strange, since so many of us find love—or great friends—online, right? So I thought I’d put together a list of 12 f/f romances that start out on the Internet or via the phone. Make sure you scroll all the way down for a free bonus story. Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae Flirting has …
This week’s F/F crossword puzzle features a really important topic: body positivity in romance novels. The romance novel industry is especially guilty of abiding by Hollywood’s standard of beauty. It’s rare to find plus-size characters in f/f romance novels (or any romance, for that matter). Most of the main characters are portrayed as slender, with perfectly sized breasts, and if they are a bit chubby, their goal in the story is probably to lose weight. I hope that going forward, there’ll be more body positivity in romance novels and that women of all shapes and sizes will find themselves represented …
Since April Fools’ Day was just a couple of days ago, let’s start off April with a very popular trope: pretend relationship romance novels! I think what most readers love about “fake girlfriend” or “fake fiancée/wife” stories is that the plot throws together two characters who usually are total strangers and who might not even like each other. Under normal circumstances, they would never consider dating each other, but now they are forced to spend time together and pretend to be a couple. As you can imagine, they get into some hilarious situations, and after a while, they discover …
You’ve probably heard the old adage “writing is rewriting.“ Well, it’s true. Or at least it should be. While there are some people who unleash their rough first draft onto their unsuspecting audience, most writers know that careful rewriting and revising is where the magic really happens. For my newest romance novel, Just Physical, which has been published today, I spent almost as much time rewriting and revising as writing the first draft. Here’s a breakdown of the time I spent on Just Physical. Overall, I worked on Just Physical for 501 hours. That’s slightly less than the 549 hours I …