SeaHeart

(Originally posted at the Sorcery of Love~)

My wife, author Jennifer Diemer's, novella Seven, the third novella of our Sappho's Fables (Lesbian Fairy Tales!) series, is released today! Seven is a lesbian version of Snow White~ <3 (And is BEAUTIFUL. <3)


The strange witch girl Neve has skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and a dark secret. Her father Lexander, an alchemist, harbors an evil obsession, and Catalina, his newest bride, made the grave mistake of becoming his wife. When Catalina finds herself falling in love with his daughter, Neve, instead, the deepening bond between the women sets in motion the final chapter of a story that began long ago, with a desperate longing and a handful of apple seeds. Together, Neve and Catalina must venture into the Huntsman's haunted forest to undo what has been done and set themselves free.

Available for purchase from:
Amazon (Kindle)
Barnes and Noble (Nook) (Coming soon!)
Smashwords (All other eReaders/Online Reading)

Two days after I told Jenn "I love you" for the first time, a thick envelope arrived in the mail. It was about five or six printed-out, neatly-folded pages of a novel she was working on, entitled White. It was intoxicating. Across the space and divide between us, words spanned and had begun to build a bridge. Through fiction, through poetry and music, two women who were many miles apart shared in a connection that was otherworldly. Our love began with stories, seeds planted from our heads and hearts that grew, invited, entwining across the space and divide to spiral our spirits together verdantly.

I read White laying on my stomach on my bed, the snow outside silent and hushed as I read over and over the pages of a novel that had bewitched me utterly. The tracker girl, Kyle, the mad-man and the castle and the quiet girl in search of a beast, and love growing between the girl who bore secrets and the girl who was skilled in finding them. It was weird. It was intense. It was fucking beautiful.

It was also never finished. And it broke my heart. Every day, I keep my unwavering hope and faith that someday, somehow, I will get to read that novel.

Jenn went to college for writing, and graduated with top honors, with accolades and whispered mentions of how great she had become, how much she would be able to accomplish with her fiction. And, after that, she stopped writing. There are many reasons, and it's heartbreaking, because for years and years, my wife wrote not a word.

Writers can not be forced, begged, cajoled or asked to change their writer's block or writing habits. They must choose when they decide, if they have been blocked, to pick up the pen or the laptop again. But I held the space for her, of how deeply I loved her writing, how it was a crime to humanity that she'd stopped, and how I hoped with every last part of my heart, that she would write again.

And then, Sappho's Fables came along. The only writing she'd done in this time was the old lesbian fairy tales we'd done together, and when we started talking about redoing them as a novella series...she was excited. I was ecstatic.

And so it went.

The first volume, I had two novellas, she had one. "Snow White," one of her favorite fairy tales, was retold. Some moments were painful (as anyone recovering from writer's block can attest), but as the days went by, as she went to the page, day in and out, everything else fell away. And my beautiful, amazing, beloved wife finished her first novella. Seven, a lesbian Snow White, is done, and will be released Thursday. <3 <3 <3

Today, I read the novella for the last time--the fully edited, feature-length motion picture edition, if you will. :) And I was floored.

I've known my whole life what an amazing writer my wife was. But all that I've known before is incomparable to what has come, now, to what has opened up within her, and what has begun. The novella is intoxicating. I have wished forever and forever and forever for a story about magic and beauty and pain and darkness, and for a story about a girl like me, with a love that could consume you, heart and soul. And, in every hope for such a thing, I have been disappointed. Nothing in the world is comparable to Seven, and that is an amazing, wondrous thing, because it is filling a hole that needed to be filled.

To be able to overcome something so serious as a writer's block that has lasted almost a decade, and to debut with something so incredibly beautiful, is an accomplishment that is deep and lovely. I am so proud of my wife, so proud to be her wife, so proud and humbled to work on these projects with her. <3

Seven was only the beginning. Now, the novel A Currency of Roses begins...a novel written by my wife that is going to forever shift the face of Gay YA. And who knows? Maybe Currency will, eventually, someday, lead to White.

I know I'm her wife. I know I'm supposed to be her biggest fan. I know you're probably thinking, "Sarah, that's sweet, but your opinion doesn't count and can't possibly be valid, as you're so close to her." But when you read Seven, you're going to understand. You'll see. <3

Until Thursday. <3

- So, my award-winning (THAT IS JUST SO SPARKLY, GAH. *JOY FOREVER*) short story, "The Witch Sea," has FINALLY been changed to free on Amazon (after a two month wait!), but it's just in time for the holiday weekend, and I'm glad it's finally done! :) (Don't ask--I had to do technical things to subvert the system and make it free, and technology is not that easy to subvert, lemme tell ya!) It's about a lonely witch, a sea god, and a selkie, and I'd love to see it get pretty high on the free charts, because everyone needs a little lesbian fiction in their lives! If you have a Kindle, please consider downloading the short story, and if you don't have a Kindle, please consider spreading the word--every little bit helps, and is much appreciated! ♥

Download "The Witch Sea" for FREE!


- After an awesome conversation with Rachel last night that energized and FILLED ME WITH SPARKLE, I stayed up until four thirty in the morning finishing the redesign of my author site, Oceanid.org. I wanted it SUPER SIMPLIFIED, while still giving important information, and be a portal for the book links on their various sellers, our blog and my various social media presences. I THINK IT DOES ITS DUTY. AND IS ALSO PINK WHILE DOING IT. I am pleased. (The graphic at the top is actually a stock image I purchased forever and a day ago--it'll be used for a cover, eventually, too, but it looks so happy up there! :) *pets it*)

- I kind of feel like the father of an about-to-be-born child. Jenn has gone into the bedroom with her laptop, to finish the end of her novella, Seven: A Lesbian Snow White, and I'm out here, in the living room, working on my own writing, hoping its going well for her. :D *fret* *chews nail* This is the first piece of writing she'll have finished in...well...a very long time. And it wasn't easy. And she's worked so hard on it, and it is so fucking brilliant, and I'm so proud of her and so nervous for her, and just...gah! :D *paces* *waits to hear imaginary-baby-of-a-novella cry*

- I'm currently working on a short story for an anthology I was invited to! <3 I went past the deadline, and they were awesome and had already granted me wiggle room if I needed it, and I am FINALLY finishing it up today, and am very happy with it~ I'll talk a little more about it after it's absolute in all ways. :D

- SPEAKING of novels, I should be finished-finished-finished with The Bone Girl tomorrow, ready to send it off to the Women of Lovely Feedback, and then the final edits will be flying, and it should definitely hit its tentative release date (which is slowly shaping up to be a definite release date!) of June 26th! I worked very hard on this novel, but it's been super kind to its author (UNLIKE OTHER NOVELS I COULD NAME), so it was kind of a breeze to get everything down. :) I love the main character, Lutese, love her love interest, Mara (she's so awesome and kick ass~ <3), I love Ozz and Roar and Valienne, and I hope that people are going to enjoy it as much as I did. :) <3 It's a strange little novel--Twixt and Ragged are much more edgy in obvious ways, but The Bone Girl has its own kind of edge to it. The whole basis of the book is how far are you going to go to be true to yourself, and if you have no empathy, what will you do to find it? Lu starts out in the story really caring about no one but herself, and--at the end of the novel--we see a marked shift in her perceptions and empathy. She's fallen in love with an outcast, and she (possibly!) is the bone girl of the prophecies, and the world is dying, and people need help, and she always closed to her eyes to every last bit of other people's suffering...until she can't, anymore. There are elemental spirits, shape-shifting Low, Animal Balls of grandeur and beauty, and a one hundred year dead spell where nothing grows, and Skin Peddlers who steal and buy and sell skins, and a Priest of the Church of the Skinned who doesn't necessarily believe that having your original skin means you're pure (blasphemy!) and a fire and, and... courage. And hope. And love. <3 I can't wait to share it with you!

- After finishing The Bone Girl, I'm turning right back around and finishing The Dream Queen (The graphic novel/web comic of the lesbian Midsummer Night's Dream!), and then I have to typeset the first volume of Sappho's Fables, which so many people are excited about! <3 <3 <3 I'm excited about it, too~ :) Tentative release dates on Seven are THIS WEDNESDAY, OMG!, and then next week Wednesday for the first volume. :D

- Also, this Wednesday, the next Fable Tribe update! <3

- If you haven't noticed, I wanted this to be a post of other! Exciting! Things!, but we don't really have much going on right now besides WRITING FOREVER AND EVER HOORAY. There are a lot of looming deadlines, but we're very excited about all of them, because once the novels and novellas and volumes are out, things can slow down a tiny bit. As you know, we make all of our moolahs from our novels, novellas and short stories and the Fable Tribe, and we work very, very hard to be able to do this. Inhumanly hard, honestly. :) We never take breaks, we put in nineteen hour days OFTEN. NORMALLY. Mortal humans can't live at that speed. Soon, though, we're going to make almost ALL of our monthly budget from books, freeing us up from having to put out a Fable Tribe update every two weeks AND write, AND edit AND... :) And then our lives will ALSO be my FAVORITE WORD: SUSTAINABLE. When all I want to do is write, THAT IS WHAT I SHALL DO. When all I want to do is glue glitter to things, THAT IS WHAT I SHALL DO. And SOME DAYS? SOME DAYS I AM GOING TO FINALLY BE ABLE TO SLEEP IN. :D OH, GLORIOUS SLEEP. *writes an Ode to it* I want so very little from life, and I have everything I need--now, I just need to order it so that I can occasionally take breaks and be a little gentler with myself. :) We're almost there, baby!!! <--PSYCHED

- I got a fan letter that made me cry yesterday. :) It was so heartfelt and vulnerable and beautiful, and I felt so humbled after reading it. I know that some people think that when someone pours out their heart to an author, explaining what their books meant to them, an author might not pay attention or be touched by it, but I promise you: that's not true. We are changed by the love given to our stories, as the stories themselves are changed when they are read with that much love. <3 I had a moment of deep, boundless gratitude for that letter, and I'm never going to forget it.

- ...And that is all the sparkle that is fit to print. <3 <3 <3

Jenn and I arrived home very late Wednesday night--home from the 21st annual Spoutwood Fairie Festival, and a few day visit afterwards with the amazing Kat and Corey. <3 We returned home rejuvenated, brimming with magic, and just so happy and grateful to be alive~ (Hint: spending time with some of your favorite people in the world, in one of the most magical places on earth tends to do that to you. <3)

This was one of the oddest festival experiences we've had yet, with a lot of mirth from the Universe folded into the cavorting. Nothing turned out as we planned it, and in a lot of ways, that was a good thing, because of all of the festival experiences in recent years, this may have been the oddest, but--for me--it was also the most surprisingly magic-filled, in ways I could never have expected.

So, let me tell you a story...it begins, as all good stories do, with faeries...


( Chapter One: Friday... )

( Chapter Two: Saturday... )

( Chapter Three: Sunday... )

Our visit to Kat and Corey (including pictures of my nose piercing that I FINALLY have that I have waited for since I was SIXTEEN, the Universe MAY implode since it has finally happened, DEAR GODS XD) will be regaled in another post! <3 Thanks for reading and sharing in the sparkle~

<3 <3 <3

*All of the photos in this post were taken by either us, or Shel and Ryan. <3

Everything I type is too little or too small, and I keep backspacing and trying again. I'm exhausted, but I have to put it down into words, because if I don't, the sharp piercing quality of this day will fade, and I want to remember that feeling of complete and utter hopelessness, and exactly what it felt like to hold the thrill of ultimate jubilation and joy and euphoria and love in my heart when I saw my little lost boy.

Because we found Link. WE FOUND HIM. <33333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

Moments after finding him--it was almost pitch black out, so a crappy camera phone picture is all that I have. There's a whole hell of a lot of love in this picture. <333333333


I woke up at dawn. Obviously, from the tenor of last night's entry, I'd passed a sleepless night, and I cried oceans. I slept over at my parents' house, in my old bedroom, and I listened to the wind in the trees, what has always been my ultimate comfort sound, but I felt nothing but despair.

I believed I would never see my precious, beloved boy ever again.

Link is a very special dog, and he requires a lot of love and kindness, because of how terribly he was abused before the shelter saved him. He panics very quickly and easily, and I honestly could not imagine how he could survive a night without getting run over by a car. I couldn't. I tried, Goddess knows I tried to pick up the scraps of hope, but it was impossible for me in those moments. I've lived and loved and worked with Link for almost his entire life, years, and I know his reactions, and I knew how terrified and alone and just...gah, starting to cry writing this, so gotta reel it back. I knew how afraid he was feeling, and I know his levels of panic, and all I could do was sob and ask the Goddess to help him. And me.

(I lost my first soul-mate-Collie, Luke, when he was young, in an incredibly tragic, instantaneous-horror way. Link's disappearance was OH FUCKING GODS TRIGGER-TASTIC. Most of the following despair was brought on by that triggering.)

At dawn, my Mum and I set out to try and find him again, now aided with sunshine. It was bitterly cold, and we bundled up, riding my parents' six wheeler through the many, many trails in the miles surrounding their house (they live waaaaaaaay out in the country, and it's pretty wild out there). We went forever, and by the time we decided to take a break (about noon-ish, if I remember?), I didn't have a voice anymore from calling Link so many times. Jenn had gone home that night because we'd just left everything, and the animals needed to be taken care of (and she had a transcription assignment), so she'd stayed up until FOUR IN THE MORNING working on the assignment, and then came right over, having had THREE HOURS OF SLEEP to start to look everywhere with me for Shwinky. ;-; <3333333

We went more miles. And more. Jenn had had the brilliant idea to bring Poesy. Link is OBSESSED with Poesy, and she'd reasoned that if everything but the most base instincts had fled Link, maybe he'd sniff out Poesy and come looking for us. Miles. And miles. And more miles. Hopelessness. Calling Link's name until either of us could hardly squeak. More hopelessness. Jenn pillowing my head on her shoulder as I cried. Hopelessness.

At around five, we drove to the nearest town and their Office Max to print out copies of a "missing dog" flier I'd thrown together. We got the copies printed, and then began to go door to door in all of the area businesses, asking if we could put them up. Again with the vast helpless feelings...I had to do something. We put up tons of fliers, and I talked to so many people...nothing.

At this point, it was seven o'clock. We'd gone miles, we'd covered several counties, we'd talked to so many people...no one had seen any sign of Link, we had seen no sign of Link...hopeless. I thought he was gone.

On the way back to my parents' house, we stopped at a row of little shops on the drag of the TINY town near where my parents live. I put a flier in the little music shop, and the pizzeria, and then we were just going to go back to their house, but I randomly stopped at the hardware store. Seriously, there was no reason to stop, and I was just so devastated and hopeless feeling, I have no idea why I did. "I'll just run in real quick," I told Jenn and grabbed a flier.

Inside, there was no cork board. The man at the counter was helping a customer, and the woman behind the counter was on the phone. It was the last place we were going to flier that night, and I was exhausted, so I was going to go, but I walked up to the counter instead.

The woman on the phone cocked her head at me, and I mouthed the word "cork board?" holding up the flier. Her eyes widened, and she hung up on the person she was on the phone with.

"I SAW THAT DOG THIS MORNING," she said, waving her hands. "Where is he missing?!"

I told her my parents' road, breathlessly. "YES!" she crowed, "I live on that road! He was at the corner this morning, around 11:50/noon-ish."

We'd covered that area TEN TIMES that day, but it was the ONLY lead I had, and it was a good one. I thanked her profusely, ran back to the car, and we gunned it to that corner.

Poesy, at this point, was like YOU HAVE DRAGGED ME ALL OVER CREATION, WHAT THE HELL, THIS DETECTIVE WORK IS CRAP. It was sunset, the sun sinking through the trees ominously. Soon, it would be pitch black, and we would have to give up again.

We called Link's name another eighty bazmillion times, going back and forth and baaaaaack and forth around that corner, in the meadow, in the woods, and in the startlingly beautiful ravine (with SEVERAL ACCOMPANYING CLIFF FACES, JUST FOR FUN).

I heard Jenn gasp. I turned, adrenaline rushing through my body. There had been so many times today that I thought I heard his bark, or thought I saw a flash of white, and every single time, this rush of joy would go through me followed by the worst fucking despair in the world when it wasn't him. "I saw him," Jenn told me, and I was like: "honey, are you SURE?" and she was like "YES, IT WAS HIM!!!! ON THE TOP OF THE HILL!"

I RAN.

I got to the top of the hill, and the despair gobbled me up. "He's not here, baby," I cried down to her, and she said, "go right!" I ran deeper into the woods, down to the stream. Nothing.

"Shwinky! Shwinkums! Baby!" I cried out, and I began to follow the stream.

Cliff faces rose on either side, towering over me as I followed the shallow stream bed. Jenn and Poesy came behind me. "He could climb these," I told Jenn, pointing to the cliffs. "I know he could," and she agreed, and we were just like...I think we lost him. But I said: "let's go further. Just a little further."

And we rounded the corner.

In the middle of the wide stream bed stood Link. Water rushed around him as he stood in the flow of it, staring.

And then two things happened.

I crumpled to my knees and cried out: "come here, baby!"

And this look of pure recognition streamed over his face. He went from IAMAWILDANIMAL to OMGTHOSEAREMYMOMS in a HEARTBEAT. And then the recognition was replaced with a look of such pure joy, that I swear to you--if I live to be one hundred, I will never forget that look of radiant love and joy and ILOVEYOUSOMUCHWHEREHAVEYOUBEEN in my entire life.

And he ran to us, tail wagging so hard, I thought it'd fall off.

He kissed us so many times, I was covered in them, and he pressed his little body to mine and Jenn's as we sobbed, completely unable to breathe, telling him over and over and over and over and over how much we loved him.

He was favoring his back right leg, and I want to make certain he's okay anyway, so tomorrow morning, he's going in for a check up, but--save for the EXTREME MUDDINESS--he seems to be perfectly okay. <333333333333333333333333333333333333

I have never felt more relieved, more fucking grateful, in my entire life. My beautiful baby boy is home. <33333333333

I am so happy, so content, so joy-full and filled, I have no words. <3333333333333333

He's currently fast asleep on my feet. <3333333


I am perfectly serious that when I say "I don't think we could have found him without you guys," I absolutely mean it. I was hopeless and upset beyond reaching and feeling so helpless, and knowing that you believed we could find him when I did not was, I think, the magic that brought him back to us. It was such an unexpected horror, a horror that I pray I will never have to experience again. I died today. My babies are my world, and I almost lost one of my kids today in the worst way possible. Thank you for your good energy, for your magic and good thoughts. I needed them so immensely, and they saved him. I believe it.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. <3 Thank you.

Now, I am going to sleep the sleep of exhaustion, the sleep of contentment...the sleep of a seventy-pound-Collie-baby-on-my-legs-squashing-my-circulation.

And it's going to be the best sleep I've ever had. <33333333333333333333333333333333333

My parents were dogsitting Link from last weekend and going down to PA. My Mum has a cold phobia, so wouldn't let us come pick him up when we got back because I was sick, and then Jenn got sick. It's just one of her things, and Link is their favorite pup in the world anyway, and he's spoiled and super loved when he's at my parents', so I went along with it. We were going to pick him up tonight.

There's a massive windstorm, and my parents put him out in the fenced in backyard to go potty. Link is terrified of everything, but crashing winds and trees are his downfall, and he leaped the fence and took off. That was at six thirty this evening. My parents have been trying to call me eight thousand times while they were searching, but my phone was off, and my sister finally pinged me via email and Jenn and I raced here...it's just a staggering amount of little things that went wrong. My parents saw him about a mile from their house (they were driving everywhere, trying to find him), and their neighbors saw him a little farther down. By the time we got here (I got pulled over by a cop for LITERALLY the stupidest thing anyone in the world has ever gotten pulled over for, but I think he was completely unprepared for who would be driving the car: A VERY UPSET, PLEASE LET ME GO SO I CAN SAVE MY DOG DEAR GODS Sarah. So he let me go.), he was completely gone.

There's still a MASSIVE windstorm. Our voices carry a foot. I've been through the woods for hours, stumbling with a flashlight, calling Link's name in the most upbeat way possible. I haven't seen an inch of him. Jenn's still sick, and my parents are sick, and it's pitch black outside, and the wind's just getting worse...I called off the search. At dawn, I'm going to use my parents' six wheeler and canvas for miles if I have to.

I need your help. I'm really fucking upset. And I'm not going to stop being upset. I'm much too close to this. Link means the world to me. He's my child. He is my bright star and my perfect little boy. I love him more than words can express.

We adopted Link as a baby, but the damage had already been done. He had been HORRIFICALLY abused when he was small, and became terrified of many things. He was found running in the woods by the shelter those years ago, much as he is now. He is terrified of people, of dogs, of animals, of trees...it's taken years to get him to be not afraid of hardly anything, but when my parents spotted him, he saw my dad (men kicked him when he was a puppy) and FLED, which means he's started to regress, and is probably so upset and unreachable... That's one of the worst parts about all of this. He could have been saved...they SAW him, he was ten feet away...he was so close to being safe...I mean...dear gods...

If you are a witch, please do me a favor? Light a candle for him, do a spell for his safe return...send energy, meditate. Anything. Please. If you're not a witch, please send him good energy? Think good thoughts? Pray?

I'm too close to this to do anything more than sit here and sob. I know that if people who care about me, and him, are sending good thoughts and energy and kindness and love, that will change everything.

Please help me. I love you guys.

I love you so much, my beautiful, beautiful Shwinky. Please be safe.

As Jenn's actual birthday (yesterday) was spent in celebration, this is the morning where I post the birthday post--I hope you'll indulge a lot of joy and love here. <3 <3 <3

Though this is from Rachel's photo stream, I took this picture. I'll never forget when Rachel laughed, handed the camera over to me and pointed to it: "it's so obvious you took this one," she said with a grin, "Jenn only ever looks at you like that." <33333333333333


On Friday night, Jenn and I curled up with some pressies and tea, cuddling together, listening to the roaring of the wind outside. Eight years to the moment before that, a nervous young woman packed her old suitcase, staring out the window at the glittering stars, wondering what the next day would hold. That young woman was me. And though I'd professed undying love to Jenn three months before, I had never met her--and, until two days previous--had not even seen a picture of her.

Here's the big spoiler alert: the next day, I rode an old Greyhound bus down to Pittsburgh, fell into Jenn's arms and found true love. And though ten million things had to happen, five thousand stars had to align and the world had to spin in a certain, almost impossible way for us to meet and fall in love, it did. And I have spent every day of my life from that one trying to articulate my gratitude, living to love her.

So, you must know that Jenn's birthday is my favorite day in the world. My beautiful bride was born on that day, and there's no better span of hours I can think of to celebrate. My life was made complete, my joy made physical in her presence and her love.

I love this woman more than anything.


As we looked through some of the letters we'd sent to each other in the beginnings, the books we made for each other, the poems and stories we'd written for each other, the countless, countless cards, I had one of those moments where you look at your life and the place you've ended up, and you can't believe it actually happened, and maybe you have this totally bizarre and improbable fear that there is some other Sarah in some other place without her Jenn, and how lonely and sad and small she is without knowing true love.

But then, of course, since it's a blustery night, and you have tea and your sweetheart, you push such a very silly, dramatic thought from your head and kiss your wife for good measure. Because she's real, and she's here, and it happened. The big, beautiful "it" of finding your soul mate, of about-to-be-stepping-into-a-birthday-weekend-of-bliss, of being side by side with the most important person in the world. And just being grateful.

I have these random moments sometimes, where I "wake up." It'll be a perfectly normal day, we'll be having this ridiculous conversation, and I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe, and I wake up. And I look at her, and I get this thudding in my heart, and I KNOW in that moment how precious things are, how precious she is, how precious what we have is, and I just gather her into my arms, press her head to my heart and kiss her. I don't know why the Universe gave me this gift, I can't understand how the ten million things that had to go right did in order for us to be together.

But, as always, I spend the rest of my life in awe of the beauty of love. And living to love her.

Happy birthday, beautiful, my baby, my everything. I. Love. You.

(This was originally written for The Sorcery of Love, so I refer to myself as Elora herein. <3)

~*~

Happy, happy Valentine's Day! <3

We've waited forever to announce this--we wanted to wait until today, V-Day, because WE LIKE SPECIAL THINGS TO HAPPEN ON SPECIAL DAYS. ;D

You know that I'm Elora Bishop--that I write magical lesbian love stories (and lesbian YA love stories as another name), but you might not know that my wife, Jennifer Diemer, is also a writer. A supremely talented one at that (which, I realize you'll have to take with a grain of salt since she's my wife, and you know how very much I love her, but really--WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE)--she has a degree in creative writing (graduating at the head of her class, of course--she's a perfectionist!), is a world-class editor, and an amazing, amazing storyteller. We've had quite a few writing projects together that were just for us, or that we haven't OFFICIALLY announced to the world yet, but one of our oldest ones was an old zine online (sadly, defunct for years now!) that we put up in 2004/2005, called Inamorata. It was a compendium of fairy tales, retold as lesbian. It was one of my favorite things that we've ever shared together. <3

But my wife Jenn and I have been retelling fairy tales as lesbian for far longer than that--as long as we've been writing. Fairy tales are part and parcel of who we are--they're in our blood. We were married in fairy wings, have bits of fairy tales tattooed on our skin, and we even take very old, unloved fairy tale books and re-envision them as wearable art. Fairy tales are utterly essential to who we are as people, and who we are as a wife and wife duo. <3

The thing is, that--though we love fairy tales deeply--something has always felt...off for us, in the fairy tale world. You know--the fact that there were no women like us: ladies who love other ladies.

So, like any authors would do...we set about and changed that. And we want to do it again. <3

There are very, very, very few lesbian retellings of fairy tales. Most of them are erotica--which, there is ALWAYS a place for erotica, but I also believe that there is a place for creative, literary re-envisionings of all of the major fairy tales (and some that most people have forgotten about!) that are NOT erotica, but are, rather, stories about women who love other women, who are courageous, who kicks ass, who wear their crowns tilted sideways, who have daring adventures and magical encounters and who fall madly and completely in love and get their fairy tale endings.

And so, Jenn and I are pleased to present a series of novellas entitled Sappho's Fables. We have taken all of the most well known fairy tales, some from long ago that we already retold, some that we are redoing all over again, and releasing them individually as eBooks for each novella, and then volumes of collected novellas that will also be available in print. The first three stories that we chose are:

Snow White


Hansel and Gretel


Rapunzel


They will be gathered in the volume available in both print and eReader versions entitled Sappho's Fables, Volume 1!


~*~

You might be saying--Elora, my favorite fairy tale isn't in the first volume! No despairing! :) Here is a projected list of the upcoming volumes. Though these are subject to change, we're pretty set on all of them. No, unfortunately, I don't have dates on any of these releases! You can either add this blog to your RSS, or add me on Facebook or on Twitter--I promise that when we get closer to actual dates, I will let you know! <3

Sappho's Fables, Volume 2:

Follow the Wolf (Red Riding Hood) -- Elora
Shimmer (Rumpelstiltskin) -- Elora
Thirteen (Twelve Dancing Princesses) -- Jenn

Sappho's Fables, Volume 3:

Heart of Snow (The Snow Queen) -- Jenn
Kiss the Frog (The Frog Prince) -- Elora
Sea Change (The Little Mermaid) -- Elora

Sappho's Fables, Volume 4:

Ember (Cinderella) -- Elora
The Sleeping City (Sleeping Beauty) -- Jenn
The Prince and the Pea (The Princess and the Pea) -- Jenn

Sappho's Fables, Volume 5:

Thorn (Beauty and the Beast) -- Jenn
Kitten Heels (Puss in Boots) -- Elora
Wingless (The Wild Swans) -- Elora

ALSO, after the above volumes are released, we have a very special short story collection entitled Snow White Loves Rose Red--it will be the last volume in the series, and cover some of our very favorite fairy tales--the lesser known ones that are still beautiful. Details on that coming soon! <3

~*~

What can you expect from these stories? These are not your typical fairy tales. Expect some more traditional retellings, but also post-apocalyptic fairy tales, biopunk, steampunk, mythicpunk, paranormal, science fiction...we had two driving goals in these releases: put out oustanding lesbian literature, and also very, very original retellings. We can not WAIT to share them with you. <3

So yes! We are SO EXCITED to be releasing these so soon! Details to follow! <3 <3 <3

So, we've been in Florida for over a week! We just got home yesterday. :) Right before we left, I got horrific food poisoning (about five hours after I finished the Fable Tribe's first update--at least it let me finish it! ;D), so I feel like I have eighty bazmillion things to catch up on/emails to respond to, AND I DO, along with eleven thousand posts of Sparkle! to make. But, until then, have a picture of pink and purple ladies, taken in Florida. <333333333333

I finally got my pink hair. <3333333333 I feel so not-like-myself without it.



At the airport on the way to Florida!! <3333333


(Notes: I left the dye on for MUCH less time than you're supposed to, because I needed to dye it back to blonde yesterday (basically, I was only pink haired for eight days), so when I'm finally ETERNALLY a pink-haired-sparkle-princess, it will be much more vibrant than what you see here. I used N'Rage's Bubblegum Pink, and loved the coloration [I also love that you can get it at Sally's Beauty Supply, which is where we get Jenn's purple], so will probably keep that when I can be eternally pink~ <3)