PO Box 3671 Ann Arbor MI 48106-3671 866-390-7426 (toll-free) email: [email protected] www.bywaterbooks.com Bywater We love good books, just like you do. BOOKS Available Titles Bywater Books are available to the trade from Consortium Book Sales and Distribution www.cbsd.com Risk Verge Elana Dykewomon Z Egloff

New novel from a Lambda Literary Award winner Winner of the fourth annual Bywater Prize for Fiction

Carol Schwartz is an idealist. Berkeley- “Verge is powerful, quirky, and fresh.” educated, she tutors high school students —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home for a living. A Jewish , she’s a “A wry story of confronting your demons, community activist in Oakland. Wanting Verge has heart and wit and intelli- to change the world, she’s not afraid to gence.” —Emma Donoghue, author of take risks. The Sealed Letter and Slammerkin Carol learned about risk as a girl. Her father chose to go to Vietnam and she Claire has three goals: to stay sober, to never saw him again. It’s something stay away from sex, and to get into film she’s never understood and now Carol school. So far she’s blown two of the takes risks of her own. She gambles her three and her drunken affair with her inheritance, her relationship with the professor’s wife means she might just woman she loves, even her own well- have blown the third. Stuck without the being. camera she needs to complete her Across the years—from the mid- course work, she turns to Sister Hilary eighties to the post-9/11 world—the at the community center for help. Sister Hilary has a camera to lend, but the stakes get ever higher and her gambles Lesbian Fiction Lesbian Fiction more desperate. And she finds out what price is recruiting Claire as a reluctant Paperback Original Paperback Original is left when the gamble is lost: loyalty volunteer. The only trouble is, Claire’s and love and courage. 272 pages 272 pages more attracted to Sister Hilary than to Elana Dykewomon’s extraordinarily 5.5 x 8.5 5.5 x 8.5 helping out. Claire ought to know well-received novel Beyond the Pale 978-1-932859-69-0 978-1-932859-68-3 there’s no future with a nun, but can’t this two-timing, twelve-stepping, twenty- won both the Lambda Literary Award $14.95 $14.95 and the Ferro-Grumley Award. something film freak get a chance at Available Available happiness? Activist, author, and teacher, Elana Dykewomon is one of the finest thinkers the women’s movement has produced. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award Z Egloff was born in , raised in the Midwest, and and the Ferro-Grumley Award, she has taught composition and creative writing schooled (academically and otherwise) in Amherst, for the past fifteen years. Her books include Beyond the Pale and They Will , and on Cape Cod. Verge is her first novel. Know Me By My Teeth. Red Audrey and the Roping Last Chance at the Jill Malone Lost and Found Marcia Finical

Lambda Literary Award finalist for Debut Fiction Winner of the first annual Bywater Prize for Fiction

“A lyrical, passionate novel about desire, In 1972 Bunny LaRue was young and about danger, and about the need for self- beautiful. Days in the sun on the beach forgiveness. A wonderfully impressive at Malibu and nights in the bars with writing debut.” —Sarah Waters the girls. Sex, drugs, and fun were Fight or flight? Jane Elliott has tried both. everywhere and Bunny embraced it all. Surfing, letting the waves take her. After a photographer sees her on the Teaching Latin, clutching at its rules to beach Bunny finds herself making big feel safe. Safe from a lover, safe from money modeling for a lingerie catalog. her friends, safe from her mother’s Then she falls in love and life seems to death—and her guilt. A guilt that has be giving her everything she has ever her flinching from love and embracing wanted—until the day she loses it all. pain. And now she lies in a hospital As the years slip by life doesn’t stay bed, alone. easy and Bunny must find the strength Gripping and emotional, Red Audrey to confront her past and create a new and the Roping is also a remarkable future . . . literary achievement. The breathtaking Last Chance at the Lost and Found is prose evokes setting, characters, and Lesbian Fiction Lesbian Romance the compelling story of one woman’s journey through twenty-five years of relationships with equal grace. This is a Paperback Original Paperback Original living as a lesbian and her determina- journey that will transform its readers 320 pages 328 pages as well as Jane. tion to find love and happiness. 5.5 x 8.5 5.5 x 8.5 “A surfer chick who teaches Latin! The 978-1-932859-54-6 978-1-932859-28-7 smart, adrenaline-addicted protagonist $14.95 $13.95 of Red Audrey and the Roping is irre- sistible.” —Lucy Jane Bledsoe Available Available

Jill Malone went to a German kindergarten, grade school in the rural southern United States, middle school in the affluent east, Marcia Finical lives and works in New Mexico. high school and college in Hawaii, and graduate school in the state of Washington where she now lives. This is her first novel. Babies, Bikes & Broads GreetingsFrom Jamaica, The Third Cat Rising Novel Wish You Were Queer Cynn Chadwick Mari SanGiovanni

Runner-up for the fourth annual Bywater Prize for Fiction A family vacation is just the start in this crazy tale . . .

Cat Hood doesn’t want to go home. She Lambda Literary Award has a new life and a new love in Finalist Scotland. But her brother, Will, has been Marie Santora has always known her widowed and left with two small chil- Italian family is a little crazy, but when dren. So there’s no choice for Cat now. she inherits her grandmother’s estate, She must return to Galway, North they now have a million more reasons Carolina, the place she left when love to act nuts. It soon becomes clear that got lost. the amount of money Marie needs to But it looks like love wants to get live comfortably will be decided by her found all over again. When Cat gets family—if they don’t get enough of her back, she comes face-to-face with Janey, money, she won’t live comfortably. the lover who betrayed her all those Marie plans her escape. She’ll give years ago. And with only the slender her family a parting gift and then move thread of a phone line to bridge the gulf to Hollywood to chase her dream of between America and Scotland, Cat writing film scripts. But the timing can’t help fearing a new betrayal. couldn’t be worse when her hot pursuit As Cat helps her brother to rebuild Lesbian Fiction Lesbian Romance changes from screenplay to foreplay. his life, she starts to see that her own Paperback Original Paperback Original Climb aboard this hilarious roller- needs attention. That maybe it’s time to 240 pages 264 pages coaster ride where Marie is left wishing acknowledge this is her home. That “out” was the new “in,” and where maybe it’s time to leave behind the pain 5.5 x 8.5 5.5 x 8.5 every lounge chair is a hot seat when of the past. 978-1-932859-62-1 978-1-932859-30-0 the Santora family ventures this close And maybe it’s time to get over $14.95 $13.95 to the equator. The island of Jamaica Janey. If she can . . . Available Available just may not be big enough …

Born and raised in , Cynn Chadwick has lived in the South for twenty Mari SanGiovanni wor ks hard and plays hard and still finds years. Prior to earning her MA in literature and MFA in fiction at Goddard time to write books faster than her editors can read them. College, she worked for one of the first women in the US to become a master She lives in Rhode Island. Greetings From Jamaica, Wish You carpenter, an experience that continues to inform her writing. She is a lecturer Were Queer, was a runner-up for the Bywater Prize for in the Creative Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Fiction. For Now, For Always Under the Witness Tree Marianne K. Martin Marianne K. Martin

Torn Between love and duty . . . Civil War secrets inspire a present day love story.

Renee Parker knows what love is and what love does. She An aunt she didn’t know existed leaves Dhari Weston was only seventeen when she fought social services for the with a plantation she knows she doesn’t want. right to raise her four younger siblings. Fought and won. Dhari’s life is complicated enough without an ante- Now the challenge is to parent kids scarred by a step-dad’s bellum albatross around her neck. Complicated enough suicide and a mother’s imprisonment. But Renee doesn’t without the beautiful Erin Hughes and her passion for think twice about sacrificing her own future to give her historical houses, without Nessie Tinker, whose family brothers and sisters their best shot at life. Renee knows breathed the smoke of General Sherman’s march and who what love is and what love does. knows the secrets hidden in the ancient walls—secrets But then a different kind of love threatens everything Renee has built. Meeting pedi- that could pull Dhari into their sway and into Erin’s arms. atric nurse Olivia Dumont convinces Renee there is room in her heart for someone outside But Dhari’s complicated life already has a girlfriend she wants to commit to, a the family. But not everyone approves of the choices of her heart. The watchful eye of family who needs her to calm the chaos of her mother’s turbulent moods and a job social worker Millie Gordon is always on the Parker family. And Millie knows what’s that takes the rest of her time. right and what’s wrong. The last thing she needs are Civil War secrets that won’t lie easy and a woman with Driven to desperation, Renee faces the most agonizing decision of her life . . . secrets of her own . . . Lesbian Fiction  paper  224 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-00-4  $12.95 Lesbian Fiction  paper  240 pp  5.5 x 8.5  978-1-932859-43-0  $13.95  Available Never Ending Dance in the Key of Love Marianne K. Martin Marianne K. Martin Sage Bristo is a woman of conviction. Four years into her relation- Desire walks hand in hand with betrayal . . . ship with Deanne, Sage faces the limits of love, trust, understanding, Paige Flemming is on the run. From the police, from her and commitment and the emotions run strong. As always, Martin history, and from love itself. After sixteen years looking keeps us hooked until the very last page. over her shoulder, she realizes it’s time to run again. But when she pauses in her headlong flight to catch her breath Lesbian Fiction  paper  216 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-14-4  $13.95  Available with old friends, she crashes straight into another ghost from her past. And this time, it’s not one she can easily Dawn of the Dance escape. Marianne K. Martin Marissa Langford is a woman living with the wreckage Moni seeks the healing touch that only another woman can give, of her dreams. A dancer deprived of the dance by a tragic but Paige turns out to be a heart breaker. Devastated, Moni vows accident, she is struggling to rebuild her life when Paige’s appearance rekindles bitter never to get close to a woman again—until she looks into memories of what she has lost. As they struggle with the turbulent emotions each Katherine’s sweet, seductive eyes. provokes in the other, the net is closing on Paige. In this long-awaited sequel to the best-selling lesbian romance Dawn of the Dance, Lesbian Fiction  paper  224 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-05-5  $12.95  Available Lambda Literary Award finalist Marianne K. Martin reminds us that there’s no footwork Marianne K. Martin has been a public school teacher, a photojournalist, and a colle- fancy enough to dance out of the shadow of the past. giate coach. She has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award three times and she Lesbian Fiction  paper  208 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-17-9  $13.95  Available lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Idaho Code Miss McGhee A Mystery Joan Opyr Bett Norris

Where family therapy comes with a shovel and an alibi. There’s more than one kind of forbidden love in the South

“Any reader will love this intelligent, Lambda Literary Award richly detailed, altogether satisfying Finalist portrayal of a resourceful woman’s Small town Idaho, where everyone struggle for love and self-determination knows your business,isnoplace for a in 20th century small-town America. baby dyke to go looking for love. Miss McGhee signals the arrival of an Especially when murder and homo- impressive, gifted storyteller.” phobia are stalking the streets. —Katherine V. Forrest For Wilhelmina “Bil” Hardy, trapped World War II is over, and like millions in the coils of her eccentric family and of others, Mary McGhee is looking for a off-the-wall friends, neither the course future. A new start, a new job, a new of true love nor amateur sleuthing runs place. But in the small Alabama town smoothly. Cowslip has become ground she’s chosen, she soon finds it’s not so zero in the battle over an anti-gay initia- easy to leave the past behind. tive, and it looks as if Bil’s mother might Set in the shadow of the civil rights have been involved in a long-ago murder. movement, Miss McGhee is a sweeping Mistaken identity, misunderstandings Lesbian Fiction Lesbian Fiction tale of forbidden love in a turbulent time. and mysteries galore take Bil to places Paperback Original Paperback Original First-time author Bett Norris portrays she’s never dreamed of visiting. one of the darkest and most troubling Idaho Code is a funny book about love, 320 pages 296 pages times in American history with excep- family, and the freedom you can find 5.5 x 8.5 5.5 x 8.5 tional skill and sensitivity, giving us a only in a state that values individuality 1-932859-15-2 978-1-932859-33-1 unique insight into our own recent more than common sense. $13.95 $13.95 history. Available Available

Bett Norris was born and grew up in Alabama, and now lives in Florida with Joan Opyr liv es in Moscow, Idaho with her partner, their two lovely children, her partner. She does indeed rise at 3 am every single day to write. She has no three dogs, three cats, and a dozen chickens. She wears a Resistol hat and Justin other skills or hobbies. ropers. Report for Murder Hostage to Murder Val McDermid A Lindsay Gordon Mystery “McDermid has created a complex and prickly detective whose working- class background sets her at odds with her companions, particularly Val McDermid her new lover, Cordelia. The shifting relationship intertwines a realistic romance with a solid detective story.” —Publishers Weekly Lindsay Gordon is pushed to the absolute limit . . . Lesbian Mystery  paper  274 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-06-3  $12.95  Available “Val McDermid is one of the bright lights of the mystery field.” Common Murder —The Washington Post Val McDermid Lindsay Gordon—investigative journal- “With a heroine like Lindsay Gordon—who’s got a heart of gold, and ist, tenacious sleuth, and unashamed a nose for trouble—Val McDermid’s Common Murder is a plot-driven lesbian—is facing a midlife crisis. A story that leaves you wanting more.” —Randye Lordon chance encounter with freelance Lesbian Mystery  paper  264 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-07-1  $12.95  Available reporter Rory McLaren offers her an irresistible invitation to open a new Deadline for Murder chapter in her life. From there it is just Val McDermid a short step to political corruption and “Deadline for Murder is a breath of air from the Scottish highlands— other juicy stories—all welcome dis- clear, clean, honest, and invigorating. A single-malt Scots pleasure, tractions from Lindsay’s problems at Lindsay Gordon will only get better as she ages.” home. But when a boy is kidnapped, —Laurie R King, author of the Edgar Award-winning A Grave Talent

Lindsay and Rory trade journalism for Lesbian Mystery  paper  264 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-08-X  $12.95  Available detection. The trail leads them to St. Petersburg and a dangerous snatch-back Lesbian Mystery Conferences are Murder operation that will test Lindsay to her Paperback Original Val McDermid absolute limits in every area of her life. “If you haven’t discovered this award-winning trailblazer in lesbian 272 pages detective fiction, you’re missing out on a good one. Val McDermid’s in “There is no one in contemporary crime 5.5 x 8.5 top form in this atmosheric tale filled with twists and deceptions and fiction who has managed to combine surprises galore.” —Katherine V. Forrest 1-932859-02-0 the visceral and the humane as well as Lesbian Mystery  paper  224 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-09-8  $12.95  Available Val McDermid . . . She’s the best we’ve got.” $12.95 —The New York Times Book Review Available Booked for Murder Val McDermid Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community and read “One of my favorite authors, Val McDermid is an important writer— English at Oxford. An international bestseller, she’s published over witty, never sentimental, taking us through means streets with the 20 books, including A Place of Execution and The Grave Tattoo. dexterity of a Chandler.” —Sara Paretsky The BBC America television series, Wire in the Blood, is based on her work. Lesbian Mystery  paper  216 pp  5.5 x 8.5  1-932859-10-1  $12.95  Available Blood Guilt Dreams and Swords The First Kit O’Malley Mystery A Short Story Collection Lindy Cameron Katherine V. Forrest Once upon a time, we were all children and short “Kit O’Malley is a welcome addition to the list of stories taught us how to read fiction. And in the hands of female crime-fighters” —Val McDermid a true storyteller, they can still take us back to the very If it wasn’t for secrets and lies, private eye Kit O’Malley heart of why we love to read. would be out of a job. But when she tangles with the Katherine V. Forrest is one of those true storytellers. wealthy Robinson family, Kit discovers just how far people This collection of her short stories showcases the bril- will go to keep their skeletons firmly in the closet. liance of her gift, displaying the scope of her imagination Celia Robinson hires Kit because she suspects her and the range of her voice. From the erotic speculation of husband is cheating on her. Kit senses something fishier “O Captain, My Captain” to the incisive investigation of than adultery, a suspicion that’s confirmed when a body turns up in the Robinson’s homicide detective Kate Delafield; from moral dilemma to chilling horror; from peril to ornamental pond. passion, Forrest takes us across the vivid landscapes of her remarkable mind. The complications multiply when the victim’s beautiful daughter hires Kit to find the A writer who has inspired both writers and readers, Forrest demonstrates her killer and the missing butler. As the body count rises, so do the threats until Kit has to breathtaking versatility. Dreams and Swords is not only the perfect introduction to decide how high a price she’s prepared to pay for the truth. her work—it’s also a delicious treat for her legion of fans. Smart, sexy, and scary, Blood Guilt introduces one of the most engaging and enter- taining sleuths around. Lesbian Fiction  paper  240 pp  5.5 x 8.5  978-1-932859-37-9  $13.95  Available Lesbian Mystery  paper  392 pp  5.5 x 8.5  978-1-932859-12-6  $13.95  Available

Bleeding Hearts All in the Seasoning The Second Kit O’Malley Mystery A Holiday Anthology Lindy Cameron Katherine V. Forrest, Editor Celebrate solstice with a firefighter on the job in New York It’s not just her smart mouth that gets City . . . Journey with women along California’s rugged Kit O’Malley into trouble … north coast . . . Experience Thanksgiving with a lesbian Money laundering, sordid sexual shenanigans, abduction, border patrol agent along the Arizona-Mexico border. political sleaze, and murder among Melbourne’s movers Celebrate Hanukkah, in all its ceremony and meaning, at a and shakers threaten to swamp Kit as she picks her way lesbian bar. Observe Christmas with a lesbian couple in through the morass of double-dealing, treachery, and out- South Africa . . . in Death Valley . . . in San Francisco. right greed. As if that’s not enough, the beautiful and sexy Here are the stories that celebrate our own traditions. Alex Casenove sweeps back into her life, reminding Kit that Our diversity and strength. Stories about our love and our love is almost as deadly as hate and that murder never happens at a convenient time. families and our connections. Our own holiday stories. Bleeding Hearts, the sequel to the highly acclaimed debut Blood Guilt, is a tightly Indulge yourself and those you love with this sinfully rich assortment of plotted romp through the dark underbelly of Australia’s most cultured city, vibrantly holiday-themed tales by authors tried and true—, Katherine V. Forrest, Val demonstrating that even the heartless bleed. McDermid, —and by the new writers you’ll be glad you found.

Lindy Cameron li ves on Victoria’s beautiful Mornington Peninsula outside Melbourne, Australia. When not writing, she works as a freelance book editor. Lesbian Fiction  paper  248 pp  5.5 x 8.5  978-1-932859-26-3  $13.95  Available Lesbian Mystery  paper  400 pp  5.5 x 8.5  978-1-932859-16-4  $13.95  Available