SeaHeart

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

(Originally posted at the Sorcery of Love~)

Our novella series, Sapppho's Fables, takes the most well-known, beloved fairy tales and retells them from a lesbian perspective. Crumbs, a lesbian Hansel and Gretel is out now. Braided, a lesbian Rapunzel, is coming next week...

What comes after that? Shimmer, the lesbian Rumpelstiltskin~ And tonight, beautiful people, I reveal the cover~ <3 Shimmer should be out within the next few weeks--I'll update when I have a definite date! <3


The cover for Shimmer, a lesbian Rumpelstiltskin, part of the Sappho's Fables series, lesbian fairy tales retold~

My novella Crumbs, the first novella of our Sappho's Fables (Lesbian Fairy Tales!) series, is released today! Crumbs is a lesbian version of Hansel and Gretel~ <3



Greta's never ventured beyond the refuge of the Heap. Outside, the Ragers lurk, ever hungry and hunting. But Greta and her brother, half-starved and now alone, must risk death for the dream of safety they hope to find within the metal forest. Once there, nothing is as it seems: in the confines of a crumbling old candy factory, the woman who rescues them with sweet words and sweeter treats harbors a dangerous secret.

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

(Originally posted at The Sorcery of Love~)

(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

First off, ONE WEEK UNTIL THE DARK WIFE COMES OUT.

:OOOOOOOOOOO *insert several really inarticulate squees and happy chirps*

So, two things!

I've updated MuseRising.com with the "one week left" news, and something awesome to tide you over for said week!

I've released my short story (just under 11,000 words in length), "Hallow's Eve: A Halloween Fairy Tale" as an ebook--it's now available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble for only $0.99!



You may remember that I wrote that fairy tale two years ago for the Glamourkin Halloween update--it's now even snazzier, and will also be released for other ereaders and in print version soon-ish!

(If'n ye wish to be sharing in the squees, please comment at the blog post~! :D)

(Also, also...I feel a bit like Pinocchio this morning. It's surreal--I'm "real" now. I'm on Amazon, you guys. ;;;;;;;;-;;;;;;;;)

We are home
We are where we shall be for forever...
Trust in me,
For you know I won't run away
From today!
This is all that I need
And all that I need to say is...
Don't you know how you've changed me?
Strange how I finally see...
I found home,
You're my home,
Stay with me.

~ from "Transformation" -- Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the Musical

~*~

Friday evening, I had another session for my fairy tale sleeve. These are the roses in my Beauty panel, from the fairy tale of "Beauty and the Beast." Done in a stained glass styling, each of the petals is three different colors of red, alternating. These pictures were taken when it was just finished, so it's nice and angry looking, but the coloration is still delineated. I have no words to convey how amazing this is in person...I'm so completely enamored with this piece, the sheer beauty of it. The mirror has the word "home" in a very wispy styling, so it seems misty (I asked for it to be a "hint" of the word, and in the healing tattoo, it totally is--I need to get a better picture of this--it's just so freakin' happy~ Also, we ran out of time, but the mirror and ring will both be golden, eventually), paying homage to the song Belle sings in the Disney musical. It simply means that home is the most important thing, and that home is far from a place. It is a person. :) <33333333333333

This tattoo is taking forever because we budget into our expenses a very short appointment every two months. The day it's finished? I think I'll die of joy~

Both of these images are from Cat's camera~


( A larger one and a close-up here~ )

My life in the past few weeks, in lovely little digestible noms~

<3 I got my Star Girl added to my fairy tale sleeve, FINALLY!



( Her heart was filled with stars )

<3 We picked poppies from a wild field~



<3 I'm working endlessly on editing Twixt. I have this totally unrealistic goal of being finished with edits by my birthday, July 6th. XDDDD Um. We'll see what happens.

<3 We're planning our first annual Midsummer extravaganza, which we're endlessly excited about and covered in glitter for.

<3 All of our fur babies are finally healthy~ I gave baths to Pan and Poesy last night, and told Link he was far too clean and dainty to get one. XD To which I'm sure he agreed. My two little wild muppets are always tangled in something, and their taller and more more esteemed brother is fretting on the sidelines while they chase frogs and find more ways to store grass clippings in their coats. XD

Poesy--practically CLEAN, compared to what usually happens on such outings. XD


<3 We finally have our vegetable garden rotatilled! I'm going to be consecrating the ground on Thursday (the full moon) and planting on Saturday~ My excitement knows no bounds~ <3

<3 I'm surrounded by people who love me and believe in me and my stories and never, ever, ever let me give up. That's pretty incredible, and something I am endlessly and forever grateful for. <3333333