GRNW was so lucky to have such a wonderful group of authors attending the 2013 Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up, the first conference in the Pacific Northwest to focus on the rising genre of gay romance fiction.

To get a sneak peek at who is attending GRNW 2014, please visit our GoodReads Group!

2013 GRNW Attending authors included:

GRNW Author Biographies

Astrid Amara

Astrid Amara lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband, four dogs, two goats, and one horse. She’s a graduate of Western Washington University, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, and a bureaucrat by day. She is an active volunteer for greyhound adoption and, when not doing anything with animals or writing, can usually be found sleeping, because she is also extremely lazy.

Her novel The Archer’s Heart was a finalist for the 2008 Lambda Literary Award. This and her other titles are available through her website at: AstridAmara.com.

Talya Andor

Talya lives in the Pacific Northwest with her girlfriend and their girl-kitty who they believe to be cutest cat in the world, and is constantly balancing a busy slate of boylove stories to write with her day job, hobbies to upkeep, and nail polishes to collect. She has been writing fiction since elementary school and progressed to guy on guy erotica during college, honing her chops on fan fiction until original fiction lured her with its siren call. She loves writing and reading, routinely geeks out over gaming and movies, and watches far too many cooking shows.

You can find Talya at her WordPress blog, http://dreaminginfinity.wordpress.com/ and twitter @TalyaAndor.

Eric Andrews-Katz

Eric Andrews-Katz has been writing since he could hold a pen. After studying creative writing at USF, he attended the Florida School of Massage. Eric’s first novel The Jesus Injection (Bold Strokes Books), stars main character “Agent Buck 98” whom NY Times Best Selling Author Alison Arngrim called: “THE hero for the new century”. Felice Picano says The Jesus Injection  is “fast paced…a character-driven mystery”. His work can be found in these anthologies: So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction with his short story “Mr. Grimm’s Faery Tale (nominated for the 2008 Spectrum Short fiction award), The Best Date Ever, Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling, Gay City: Vols 2, 3 & 4, and Zombiality: A Queer Bent on the Undead. Eric is also a contributing writer for the Seattle Gay News, and his writing has appeared in Flying House Magazine, The Chelsea Street Literary Journal, and (featured in the June/July 2013 edition of) The Advocate. Visit Eric’s website.

Cate Ashwood

Cate Ashwood wrote her very first story in a hot pink binder when she was in the second grade and found her passion for writing. Her first successful foray into romance writing came five years later when she wrote her best friend, who was experiencing a case of unrequited love, her own happily ever after.

Cate’s life has taken a number of different and adventurous roads. She now lives a stone’s throw from the ocean, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband and two cats. Her life is filled with family and friends, travel, and, of course, books. Visit Cate’s website.

Heidi Belleau

Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write. She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies; much of her work centered on popular culture, oral folklore, and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with nonironic papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!) Her writing reflects everything she loves: diverse casts of characters, a sense of history and place, equal parts witty and filthy dialogue, the occasional mythological twist, and most of all, love—in all its weird and wonderful forms. When not writing, you might catch her trying to explain British television to her daughter or sipping a drink at her favourite coffee shop. Visit Heidi’s website.

Angela Benedetti

Angela Benedetti lives in Seattle with her husband, and shares a skull with a small horde of diverse other people.  She writes what the most eager and enthusiastic of them tell her; that gives the others a bar to shoot for. Visit Angela’s website

Kade Boehme

Kade Boehme is a southern boy without the charm, but all the sass. Currently residing in Seattle, he lives off of ramen noodles and too much booze.

He is “the epitomy of dorkdom,” only watching TV when Rachel Maddow or one of his sports teams is on (That’d be Orioles, Seahawks, Ravens, or Gators). Most of his free time is spent dancing, arguing politics or with his nose in a book.

It was after writing a short story about boys who loved each other for a less than reputable adult website that he found his true calling, and hopefully a bit more class.

He hopes to write about all the romance that he personally finds himself allergic to but that others can fall in love with. He maintains that life is real and the stories should be, as well. Visit Kade’s website.

L.C. Chase

Artist by day, author by night, L.C. Chase is a hopeless romantic and adventure seeker. After a decade of road tripping on three continents, she now calls the Canadian West Coast home. When not writing tales of beautiful men falling love, L.C. can be found designing book covers of said beautiful men, reading, drawing, running the trails with her goofy four-legged buddy who, if he were human, would be a stand-up comedian, and giving in to fighting her root beer addiction. Visit L.C.’s website.

Megan Derr

Megan is a long time resident of m/m fiction, and keeps herself busy reading, writing, and publishing it. She is often accused of fluff and nonsense. When she’s not involved in writing, she likes to cook, harass her cats, or watch movies (especially all things James Bond). She loves to hear from readers, and can be found all around the internet at maderr.com, maderr.tumblr.com, maderr.livejournal.com, lessthanthreepress.com, and meganaderr@gmail.com, and on Twitter: @amasour

Stormy Glenn

After 25 years of bankrupting my family with my reading obsession, I decided to try my hand at writing my own novels. It still amazes me to this day that people are actually interested in the stuff that comes out of my imagination. It can be a real mess up there.

I live in the great Northwest region of the USA, with my gorgeous husband and soul mate, six very active teenagers, two boxer/collie puppies, one old biddy cats, and three fish. When I’m not being a mother to my six teenagers or cleaning up after my two 70 pound lap puppies, you can usually find me cuddled in bed with a book in my hand and a puppy in my lap. Or on my laptop, creating the next sexy man for one of my stories. Visit Stormy’s website.

Amelia Gormley

Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot M/M erotic romance while her son is in school. When she’s not writing, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband and son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else. Visit Amelia’s website.

Ginn Hale

Ginn Hale lives with her lovely wife and two indolent cats in the Pacific Northwest. She spends many of the rainy days tinkering with devices and words and can often be sighted herding other people’s dogs, bees and goats. Her first novel,Wicked Gentlemen, was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and won the Spectrum Award for best novel.

Her most recent publications include the Lord of the White Hell books, the ten part epic fantasy serial, The Rifter, and the novella Things Unseen and Deadly from the Irregulars anthology. Visit Ginn’s website.

Lou Harper

Under a prickly, cynical surface Lou Harper is an incorrigible romantic. Her love affair with the written word started at a tender age. There was never a time when stories weren’t romping around in her head. She is currently embroiled in a ruinous romance with adjectives. In her free time Lou stalks deviant words and feral narratives.

Lou’s favorite animal is the hedgehog. She likes nature, books, movies, photography, and good food. She has a temper and mood swings.

Lou has misspent most of her life in parts of Europe and the US, but is now firmly settled in Los Angeles and worships the sun. However, she thinks the ocean smells funny. Lou is a loner, a misfit, and a happy drunk. Visit Lou’s website.

Daisy Harris

Retired party girl and science fiction enthusiast, Daisy Harris spends most of her time writing sexy romance and plotting the fall of Western civilization. Her books can be found on Amazon, Nook, and wherever else fine erotic romance is sold.

Ms. Harris lives in Seattle, where she tortures her husband by making it rain. She enjoys watching bridges cause traffic, watching football games cause traffic, and blithely wearing wool socks with sandals.

She has two little girls who’ve challenged Ms. Harris’ feminist tendencies by insisting that pink clothes and high heels are appropriate for every occasion, including rock climbing and camping trips. She patiently waits for the day when one or both of them declares themselves vegetarian, tomboyish, or in any way like her. Ms. Harris may be waiting a long time.

Daisy writes M/M (and the occasional MF) romance about merpeople, dragons, gods, zombies, and college boys. And she’s never missed an episode of the Walking Dead. Visit Daisy’s website.

David Holly

David Holly lives in Portland, Oregon. He is fascinated by the human penchant for odd mythologies, bizarre rituals, diverse religions, forlorn hopes, and broken dreams. He lives in a garish apartment with multihued walls hung with Haitian paintings and shelved with two thousand books. Sharing the apartment are sundry fur-bearing fellow mortals. He is exceptionally fond of strong coffee, red wine, English bitters, inverted roller coasters, and nude beaches.

David Holly is the author of The Moon’s Deep Circle, The Dream in the Heart of the Forest, and Delicious Darkness, all available in print. His e-books include Kissing Behind the Bathhouse, Stealing the Mayor’s Underpants, My Fine Gay Booty, and The Devil’s Demand. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies.

Find out more about David Holly and his publications at facebook.com/david.holly2 and gaywriter.org.

Laylah Hunter

Laylah Hunter writes speculative fiction, often queer, often erotic, often concerned with power dynamics, and sometimes all of those things at once. Hunter’s mild-mannered alter ego has a day job in one of the driest and stuffiest corners of the publishing industry, a video game habit, and two cats who consistently fail their aloofness checks. Hunter writes best on rainy days and is powered mostly by lattes, which made moving to Seattle a wise career choice. Visit Laylah’s website.

Amber Kell

Amber Kell is the bestselling author of the Moon Pack, Banded Brothers, and Supernatural Mate series. She enjoys writing paranormal stories where two men or one man and a werewolf find true love. She currently lives in Seattle with her husband, two boys, two cats and one extremely stupid dog. She loves to hear from her fans and has an active blog at amberkell.com where free reads and the latest news can be found. She also has a new website at amberkellbooks.com.

Nicole Kimberling

Nicole Kimberling lives in Bellingham, Washington with her partner, Dawn Kimberling, two bad cats and countless mosquitos. She is the author of various speculative fiction titles as well as a contemporary romantic mystery series set in the Pacific Northwest. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

She is also the editor of Blind Eye Books. Visit Nicole’s website.

Morticia Knight

Erotic Romance author Morticia Knight enjoys a good saucy tale, with MM and MMF pairings. Since she loves several genres, you may find your heroes in a contemporary, historical, paranormal or sci-fi setting. One of her passions is bringing people’s fantasies to life on the page, because life is too short for even one boring moment. Her stories are volcanic in heat, deep in emotion, and sprinkled with doses of humor.

When not indulging in her passion for books, she loves the outdoors, film and music. The Pacific Northwest is the ideal spot to enjoy both hiking and beachcombing. Once upon a time she was the singer in an indie rock band that toured the West Coast and charted on U.S. college radio. She currently resides on the northern coast of Oregon, where the constant rain and fog remind her of visits to her family in England and Scotland when she was a child.

Morticia has a three-book series called Uniform Encounters set in the Southwest that features those yummy men in uniform – available in 2013. She is currently working on a new MM series, as well as a steampunk horror and a sci-fi ménage. Visit Morticia’s website.

Pender Mackie

Pender lives in Canada though she spent her childhood years in England. An imaginative child, Pender wasn’t a willing student and didn’t learn to read until age nine when her father—deciding some incentive was needed—promised her a pony as soon as she could read a newspaper.

Properly motivated, Pender picked up a book and discovered the joys of fiction. Though her infatuation with ponies didn’t last, she still loves a good story. When she’s not doing what seems like never-ending household chores, she’s busy coaxing another story into shape.  Visit Pender’s website.

Finn Marlowe

Finn Marlowe is a paralegal by day and erotic M/M romance novelist by night. She believes daydreaming is a vastly underrated pastime and probably spends way too much time at it.  Her kids no longer ask what’s wrong when they spy her staring off into space—they just assume she’s writing a scene from her next novel and they’re probably right.

Finn calls British Columbia home and when she’s not enjoying the beautiful outdoors, she’s inside reading or resenting the fact her kids are better video game players than she is. If there were more hours in the day, she’d like to become a better artist and a greener gardener. Since she believes all dreams are possible if you don’t give up on them, she expects to regain her video game hi-scores, naturally vanquish all garden pests and finally paint what lives inside her imagination. Visit Finn’s website.

Sasha L. Miller

Sasha L. Miller spends most of her time writing, reading, or playing with all things website design. She loves telling stories, especially romance, because there’s nothing better than giving people their happily ever afters. When not writing, she spends time cooking, harassing her roommates, and playing with her cats.

Visit Sasha at sashalmiller.com, nikerymis.tumblr.com, sashalmiller.livejournal.com, and on Twitter: @nikerymis

M.J. O’Shea

M.J. O’Shea has been writing romance since algebra class in sixth grade (when most of her stories starred her and Leonardo DiCaprio). When she’s not writing, she loves listening to nearly all types of music, painting, reading great authors, and on those elusive sunny days in the Pacific Northwest, she loves driving on the freeway with her windows rolled down and her stereo on high.

She can be contacted at mjosheaseattle@gmail.com. Visit M.J.’s website.

Rick R. Reed

Rick R. Reed is all about exploring the romantic entanglements of gay men in contemporary, realistic settings. While his stories often contain elements of suspense, mystery, and the paranormal, his focus ultimately returns to the power of love. He is the author of dozens of published novels, novellas, and short stories. He is a three-time EPIC eBook Award winner (for Caregiver, Orientation, and The Blue Moon Cafe). Lambda Literary Review has called him, “a writer that doesn’t disappoint.” In his spare time, Rick is an avid runner, loves to cook, and reads voraciously. Rick lives in Seattle with his husband and a very spoiled Boston terrier. He is forever “at work on another novel.”

Visit Rick’s website at http://www.rickrreed.com or follow his blog at http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/. You can also like Rick on Facebook or on Twitter. Rick always enjoys hearing from readers and answers all e-mails personally. Send him a message at jimmyfels@gmail.com.

Devon Rhodes

Devon started reading and writing at an early age and never looked back. At 39 and holding, Devon finally figured out the best way to channel her midlife crisis was to morph from mild-mannered stay-at-home mom to erotic romance writer. She lives in Oregon with her family, who are (mostly) understanding of all the time she spends on her laptop, aka the black hole. When she’s not lost in her imagination, you can find Devon at her website: http://www.devonrhodes.com/, her blog: My Turn To Write, on Facebook and Twitter.

P.D. Singer

P.D. Singer lives in Colorado with her slightly bemused husband, two rowdy teenage boys, and thirty pounds of cats. She’s a big believer in research, first-hand if possible, so the reader can be quite certain PD has skied down a mountain face-first, been stepped on by rodeo horses, acquired a potato burn or two, and will never, ever, write a novel that includes sky-diving.

When not writing, playing her fiddle, or skiing, she can be found with a book in hand. Her husband blesses the advent of ebooks — they’re staving off the day the house collapses from the weight of the printed page.

Pam is always glad to hear from readers; contact her at pd.singer@live.com and follow the adventures at www.pdsinger.com.

Tara Spears

Tara Spears has only been writing for a little over a year. She started in the urban fantasy genre, then in an odd twist of fate, her first M/M novel erupted from the closeted area of her mind, and The Darker Side of Trey Grey was born. This first book has gone on to garner numerous hook and opener awards, and she’s been writing M/M ever since. She has a few short stories and two new M/M books due out in 2014 through various publishers. She also has a YA urban fantasy and a Sci-Fi book in the works that have both garnered opener and world building awards, catching the attention of several agents.

She lives in the foothills of Mt. Rainier with eight furry kids, five horses and three dogs… oh, and husband too. Visit Tara’s website.

Andrea Speed

Andrea Speed was born looking for trouble in some hot month without an R in it. She’s the author of the Infected series for Dreamspinner Press, the Josh of the Damned series for Riptide Publishing, and has a bunch of non-series stuff as well. She makes up stuff, just to be an ass. In her spare time, she arms lemurs in preparation for the upcoming war against the Mole Men. Viva la revolution! Visit Andrea’s website.

Read our GRNW interview with Andrea on GoodReads.

Ethan Stone

Ethan Stone is a single father with a wonderful and aggravating teenage son. He also has a Pomeranian who thinks he’s a Pitbull and a Corgi who think he’s God.

He’s always loved to write and one point thought journalism was his dream career. He eventually accepted that writing because he had to was nowhere near as much fun doing it because he wanted to.

Stories starring gay men have always been in his head, but he thought they would always be relegated to erotica websites.  And then he discovered the wonderful world of M/M publishing. Visit Ethan’s website.

Lou Sylvre

Lou Sylvre hails from southern California but now lives and writes on the rainy side of Washington State. When she’s not writing, she’s reading fiction from nearly every genre, romance in all its tints and shades, and the occasional book about history, physics, or police procedure. Not zombies, though. Her personal assistant is Boudreau, a large cat who never outgrew his kitten meow. She plays guitar (mostly where people can’t hear her) and she loves to sing. She’s usually smiling and laughs too much, some say. She also loves her family, her friends, the aforementioned Boudreau, a Chihuahua named Joe, and (in random order) coffee, chocolate, sunshine, and wild roses.

Find her books at http://www.sylvre.com or contact her at lou.sylvre@gmail.com, or find her on goodreads under Lou Sylvre or on Twitter at @sylvre.

Anne Tenino

Raised on a steady media diet of Monty Python, classical music and the visual arts, Anne Tenino rocked the mental health world when she was the first patient diagnosed with Compulsive Romantic Disorder. Since that day, Anne has taken on conquering the M/M world through therapeutic writing. Finding out who those guys having sex in her head are and what to do with them has been extremely liberating.

Anne’s husband finds it liberating as well, although in a somewhat different way. Her two daughters are mildly confused by Anne’s need to twist Ken dolls into odd positions. They were raised to be open-minded children, however, and other than occasionally stealing Ken’s strap-on, they let Mom do her thing without interference.

Wondering what Anne does in her spare time? Mostly she lies on the couch, eats bonbons and shirks housework.

Check out what Anne’s up to now by visiting her website.

Piper Vaughn

Piper Vaughn wrote her first love story at eleven and never looked back. Since then, she’s known that writing in some form was exactly what she wanted to do. A reader at the core, Piper loves nothing more than getting lost in a great book—fantasy, young adult, romance, she loves them all (and has a two thousand book library to prove it!). She grew up in Chicago, in an ethnically diverse neighborhood, and loves to put faces and characters of every ethnicity in her stories, so her fictional worlds are as colorful as the real one. Above all, she believes that everyone needs a little true love in their life…even if it’s only in a book. Visit Piper’s website.