Congratulations to our Goldie Winner: Jae

Congratulations to Jae for winning a Goldie award in the category anthology for Beyond the Trail, her collection of short stories.

Here is a little something about the GCLS conference in Portland that Jae just sent us.

Now that I’m writing full time, I finally had the chance to travel to Portland and attend the Golden Crown Literary Society conference.

From the very first day with the con virgins meeting to the award ceremony on Saturday night, it was an awesome experience that I definitely intend to repeat next year. It’s hard to describe how it feels to be among nearly 300 lesbians who are just as dedicated to lesbian fiction as I am.

I had the chance to meet so many readers and fellow authors, including some of the writers whose work I admired for the last fifteen years, among them Karin Kallmaker, Georgia Beers, Lynn Ames, Lori L. Lake, and Lee Lynch.

It was awe-inspiring to hear lesfic pioneer Ann Bannon talk about the beginnings of lesbian fiction and to attend Katherine Forrest’s master class on the must-haves in manuscripts.

There were many highlights and nice little moments, too much to mention all. I got to meet my editor, Nikki Busch, who, as I found out on karaoke night, can actually sing! I shared ice cream with reviewer Lynne Pierce and her sister, signed more books than I can count, met my wonderful beta reader Erin and some old friends from my time with L-Book, and made new friends that I intend to keep in touch with.

Last but not least, I was incredibly honored to have my collection of short stories Beyond the Trail receive a GCLS award in the category anthology.

Next year, the GCLS conference will be held in New Orleans, and I’ll definitely be back!

Jae