GRNW, the only conference in the Pacific Northwest to focus on the rising genre of LGBTQ romance fiction, is so excited to have such a wonderful group of authors attending the 2014 Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up on September 20, 2014 at the Seattle Public Library!

Read biographies of the attending authors and speakers below and join the GRNW group on GoodReads to participate in more discussions with attendees!

If you are interested in participating in the 2015 conference as an official attending author, please see our 2015 Panel Submission Guidelines. Attending Author slots for 2015 will open January 2015.

GRNW 2014 Attending Authors are:

• Emma Lanner
• Pearl Love
• Z. A. Maxfield
• Belinda McBride
• Kate McLachlan
• Sasha L. Miller
• M.J. O’Shea
• E.E. Ottoman
• Samuel Jarius Pettit
• Alex Powell
• Jordan Castillo Price
• Radclyffe
• Blak Rayne
• Rick R. Reed
• Devon Rhodes
• Charlie Richards
• Jeffrey Ricker
• EJ Russell
• Tara Spears
• Andrea Speed
• Ethan Stone
• Draven St. James
• Lou Sylvre
• Anne Tenino
• J. Vaughn
• Karis Walsh
• L.A. Witt

GRNW 2014 Author Biographies

Lynda Aicher

After years of weekly travel implementing computer software into global companies, Lynda Aicher ended her nomadic lifestyle to raise her two children. Now her imagination is her only limitation on where she can go and her writing lets her escape from the daily duties as a mom, wife, chauffeur, scheduler, cook, teacher, volunteer, cleaner and mediator.

In 2014 Lynda released the fifth book in her bestselling Wicked Play series, Bonds of Denial, which is also her first M/M book. The third book in the series, Bonds of Desire, was released in 2013 and is an M/M/F ménage. Find her at: http://lyndaaicher.com

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.

David-Matthew Barnes

David-Matthew Barnes is the bestselling author of twelve novels and several collections of stage plays, poetry, short stories, and monologues. He writes gay romance and suspense novels under the name Dylan Madrid, including Backstrokes, Love in the Shadows, and Mind Fields. He has written over forty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in eight countries. His literary work has been featured in over one hundred publications including The Best Stage Scenes, The Best Men’s Stage Monologues, The Best Women’s Stage Monologues, The Comstock Review, and The Southeast Review. He is the writer and director of the films Frozen Stars and Threnody. He was selected by Kent State University as the national winner of the Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Award. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He teaches college courses in writing, literature, and theatre. Visit David’s website.

Laura Baumbach

Laura Baumbach is the best-selling, multi-award winning, acclaimed author of short stories, novellas, novels and screenplays. Most recently, Mexican Heat, written in collaboration with Josh Lanyon, has been chosen as a finalist for Best Gay Romance in the 2009 Lambda Literary Awards, a finalist in the 2010 EPPIE Awards, and has received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival. Laura was nominated for Best GBLT Author 2008 in the LRC’s Best Of Awards for 2008. Her adventure story The Lost Temple of Karttikeya won the 2008 EPPIE Award for Best GLBT novel. Her sequel to the best-selling novel A Bit of Rough, Roughhousing, was 2007 Reviewers’ Choice Award Winner.

A retired nurse, Laura devotes herself full time to publishing and writing. She is the owner of ManLoveRomance Press, a small print publishing house that specializes in gay erotic romance, mystery and fiction. Visit Laura’s website.

Jove Belle

Jove Belle lives in Vancouver, Washington with her partner, a woman deserving of sainthood for enduring life with Jove for so many years. Between them they share a collection of six children, a hairless dog named Peaches, a cranky old cat who’d prefer to be left alone, and a flock of chickens.

Her books include The Job, Uncommon Romance, Love and Devotion, Indelible, Chaps, Split the Aces, and Edge of Darkness. They are available from Bold Strokes Books.

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

 

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.

DP Denman

DP Denman writes character-driven gay romance about survivors. Her stories are real and intense but always resolve in the type of ending that makes readers want to start the book all over again. She is from the Pacific Northwest and bases all of her stories in Vancouver, British Columbia, a city that is dear to her heart.

In her spare time she is a dedicated gay rights activist fighting for those who have been marginalized and abused. To that end, 25% of the royalties from every book go to support LGBT charities. Visit DP’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

Charley Descoteaux

Charley Descoteaux has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough. In exchange, they let her sleep once in a while. Home is Portland, Oregon, where the weather is like your favorite hard-case writing buddy who won’t let you get away with taking too many days off, and in some places you can be as weird as you are without fear. As an out and proud bisexual and life-long weird-o, she thinks that last part is pretty cool. Visit Charley’s website.

Kim Fielding

Kim Fielding grew up In Oregon but has lived the past two decades exiled to the boring part of California with her husband and two daughters. She is a university professor by day and a writer all the time. She has written over two dozen novels, novellas, and short stories, including the Rainbow Award-winning gay fantasy novel, Brute. Her work spans many genres–contemporary, fantasy, paranormal, and historical—and she’s very pleased when people call her eclectic. She travels as often as time, finances, and her family allow but wishes she could convince her muse to do her packing for her.

Visit Kim’s website at http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.com/ and follow her on Twitter @KFieldingWrites.

Rhys Ford

Rhys admits to sharing the house with three cats of varying degrees of black fur and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and an overworked red coffee maker. Visit Rhys at her blog, on Facebook,and on Twitter.

And at the Starbucks down the street. No really, they’re 24/7. And a drive-thru. It’s like heaven.

LE Franks

LE Franks lives in the SF Bay Area, surrounded by inspiration everywhere. After years of ignoring the voices in her head, LE is finally taking off the filters and giving the stories free rein. These days, she can be found frequently writing about sexy men who desperately need a happily ever.

LE writes M/M Romance in a unique mix of humor and drama with enough suspense to produce fast paced stories filled with emotion and passion and featuring characters that are quirky and complicated. LE’s men are living in the margins–they’re in the middle of their journey, doing the best they can while searching for a connection to something bigger than themselves. With a little effort and a lot of luck they may actually find their happily-ever-afters.

LE has published with MLR, DreamSpinner, and WildeCity Presses. Visit LE’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.

Cat Grant

Cat Grant lives by the sea in beautiful Monterey, California, with one persnickety feline and way too many books and DVDs. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her watching movies or TV (Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries are among her favorite shows), singing along to her favorite band (30 Seconds to Mars), or fantasizing about kinky sex with Michael Fassbender and/or Jared Leto. Visit Cat’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.

Dena Hankins

Dena Hankins writes aboard her boat, whether on the high seas or in a quiet anchorage. She spent eight years as a sex educator at Babeland, soaking up the most stimulating stories of human sexuality, and is honored to provide some tales in return. Her queer/trans* romance novel, Blue Water Dreams, explores magnetism, self-sufficiency, and travel, much like her published erotic short stories with their far-flung settings—India, North Carolina, a gym, and deep space. Traveling in the physical world or ranging far in her imagination, she is happiest accompanied by her partner of seventeen years. Read more at www.denahankins.net.

Daisy Harris

Born into the psychedelic wonder that was the 70’s, Daisy Harris has an interesting life so far. She’s been to Catholic school and Ramones concerts; danced to the MC Hammer and Lady Gaga; and been a hair’s breath from shipwreck twice. (Three times, if you count sea kayaks!)

As far as Daisy’s concerned, the best things in life happen by accident. Though she’s gotten better at planning as she’s aged, she still writes, lives and plays by the seat of her pants. Her books are a happy mix of romantic comedies and coming of age stories, more often than not, inspired by the great films of the 1980s.

Daisy lives in Seattle in a house full of dogs and children. When she’s not writing gay romance, she can be found experimenting with new ways to cook kale. Every once in a while, she goes out to pay homage to the party of gods of her youth—and maybe to find a little trouble. Visit Daisy’s website.

J Tullos Hennig

J Tullos Hennig has engaged in various professions over a lifetime–equestrian, dancer, teacher, artist–but has never successfully managed to not be a writer. Ever.

Blessed with a longstanding spouse, kids and grandkids, she is also alternately plagued and blessed with a pair of equine freeloaders on retirement pensions, a teenage wolfhound who alternates between leaping over the sofa and snoozing on it, and a press gang of invisible ‘friends’ who Will. Not. S.T.F.U.

The award-winning Historical Fantasies of Greenwode and Shirewode are not her first novels by any means, but due to a spate of bad luck as a younger writer, they are the first to find successful publication. But patience has its merits–Hennig is writing better books now than 30 years ago. Visit J’s website.

David Holly

David Holly lives in Happy Valley, Oregon, where people are blissfully happy. As a result of this clichéd happiness, David is attracted to odd mythologies, bizarre rituals, skewed history, alien religions, forlorn hopes, and broken dreams. His stories are mythological, witty, philosophical, satirical, erotic, and droll.

David has been writing gay fiction for twenty years. His stories have appeared in anthologies from Bold Strokes Books, Alyson Books, Cleis Press, and Starbooks Press. His most recent novel is The Raptures of Time from Bold Strokes Books. Find out more about David Holly and his publications at 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.

Lori L. Lake

Lori L. Lake is the author of ten published novels (so far) and two books of short stories and the editor of two anthologies. She’s known for her enjoyment of teaching and for sharing writing resources with both aspiring and published writers. Her 2013 mystery, Jump the Gun, recently won a Rainbow Award. She received the Ann Bannon Award for Snow Moon Rising, Golden Crown Goldies for Buyer’s Remorse and Snow Moon Rising, and was honored with the Alice B. Reader Appreciation Award. Her work has been a Lambda Literary Finalist in the anthology category.

Lori lived in Minnesota for 26 years, but re-located to Portland, Oregon, in 2009. When she’s not writing, she’s at the local cinema, working on her partner’s new house, watching her beloved nieces in sports, theater, and musical events, or curled up in a chair reading. She’s currently working on a romance (literally *and* on the page!). She loves to hear from readers. Her website: www.LoriLLake.com.

Emma Lanner

Emma Lanner spends most of her time writing transformative works under a different pseudonym. Her first novel, A Margin of Promise, a m/m Regency romance, is a keen example of how her joint honours in history and medieval studies bolsters her fiction.

In addition to historicals, she particularly enjoys creating worlds that have a touch of magic in their depths, or that somehow go beyond the realm of the mundane. When not penning erotica, catching up on the latest shows, or following her favourite bands, she freelances as a copywriter.

Emma can’t acknowledge her cat in this bio because she is allergic and therefore does not have one. She does, however, have a second novel in the works and a truly jealousy-inducing collection of shoes.

You can check out Emma’s work at Less Than Three Press.

Pearl Love

Pearl Love has been writing since she was a kid, but it was the pretty boys who frolic around in her head who finally convinced her to pursue it seriously. She’s a mid-west transplant who current thrives in the hustle and bustle of the nation’s capital. A jack of many genres, she enjoys just about any type of story, so long as in the end, the boy gets the boy. Pearl is a Marvel comics fan girl and owns a ridiculously large stash of yarn and knitting needles. Visit Pearl’s website.

Z. A. Maxfield

Z. A. Maxfield started writing in 2007 on a dare from her children and never looked back.  Pathologically disorganized, and perennially optimistic, she writes as much as she can, reads as much as she dares, and enjoys her time with family and friends. Three things reverberate throughout all her stories: Unconditional love, redemption, and the belief that miracles happen when we least expect them.

If anyone asks her how a wife and mother of four can find time for a writing career, she’ll answer, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you give up housework.” Readers can visit ZAM at her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr.

Belinda McBride

Belinda is an award-winning author of erotic romance, speculative fiction and LGBTQ romance. She lives in far Northern California with her family and is alpha bitch to pack of unruly Siberian Huskies.

A graduate of CSU Chico, she managed to attend the notorious party school without once getting drunk, arrested or appearing in a “Girls Gone Wild” video. Her main focus of study was classical and archival history, cultural anthropology and theatre arts.

Belinda is the author of over 45 titles, including Blacque/Bleu, An Uncommon Whore, Belle Starr and Doms of Dark Haven. (With Cherise Sinclair and Sierra Cartwright)

She’s the winner of the EPIC Award, the Passionate Plume and a multiple winner in the Rainbow Book Awards. Visit Belinda’s website.

Kate McLachlan

Kate McLachlan is the author of several romantic lesbian novels, including Rip Van Dyke, a 2011 Goldie Award winner in two categories: Debut Author and Paranormal Romance. Rip Van Dyke is the first book in the RIP time-travel series that includes Rescue at Inspiration Point and Return of an Impetuous Pilot. Kate has also written the romantic mysteries Hearts, Dead and Alive and Murder and the Hurdy Gurdy Girl. Kate’s books are published by Regal Crest Enterprises. Kate lives in Spokane, Washington, with her wife, Tonie Chacon, who is also an author with Regal Crest Enterprises. Visit Kate’s website at http://www.katemclachlan.com.

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.

E.E. Ottoman

E.E. Ottoman is a geek and a gentleman. Zie spends zier time mostly in libraries doing research, and sometimes, when there is no one else there, dancing in the aisles. E. has always adored speculative fiction, especially paperback fantasy and science fiction. Zie loves a good ghost story and thinks every story becomes automatically better if you add tentacles. Overall, though, zie just loves a story that is fun to read. E. is especially fond of writing and reading stories with geeky, queer people doing awesome and sexy things.

When not writing, E. loves cooking, knitting, cats, coffee, and looking dapper in menswear. Zie is actively trying to change the world (and maybe the past) one novel and work of history at a time. Visit E’s website.

Samuel Jarius Pettit

Samuel Pettit — has appeared with Seattle Opera, Barrington Stage Company & VT. At VT he stage managed for the New Works Festival and Love is Love, by Martin Charnin. He also choreographed the 2012 Pullalyup Fair TV spot. The majority of the year he teaches at Studio East in Kirkland and has worked regionally as choreographer and director on Legally Blonde, Bunnicula, Oliver, Pirates of Penzance, Proximity, Peter Pan, Camelot, Damn Yankees, Once On This Island, BJ the Musical, Annie, Little Shop, Seussical & Birdie. As a writer he created the book and lyrics to Robin Hood & The Marvelous Land of Oz with composer Justin Beal and adapted three stories from E.M. Forster’s The Life to Come for the stage. Sam’s novel Aklesh was released on Amazon in 2011. He created the comic Common Ground in the late 90’s and is a co-founder of Origami Girl Productions and BPMUSICALS. Visit Sam’s website.

Alex Powell

Alex Powell is an avid writer and reader of sci-fi and fantasy, but on occasion branches into other genres to keep things interesting. Alex is a genderqueer writer from the wilds of northern Canada who loves exploring other peoples and cultures. Alex is a recent graduate of UNBC with a BA in English, and as a result has an unhealthy obsession with Victorian Gothic literature. Alex has been writing from an early age, but is happy to keep learning to improve on their writing skills. Visit Alex’s website.

Jordan Castillo Price

Author and artist Jordan Castillo Price is the owner of JCP Books LLC. Her paranormal thrillers are colored by her time in the midwest, from inner city Chicago, to small town Wisconsin, to liberal Madison.

Jordan is best known as the author of the PsyCop series, an unfolding tale of paranormal mystery and suspense starring Victor Bayne, a gay medium who’s plagued by ghostly visitations. Also check out her new series, Mnevermind, where memories are made…one client at a time.

With her education in fine arts and practical experience as a graphic designer, Jordan set out to create high quality ebooks with lavish cover art, quality editing and gripping content. The result is JCP Books, offering stories you’ll want to read again and again. Visit Jordan’s website.

Radclyffe

Radclyffe has had a lifelong passion for the importance of affirming and validating literature for the LGBTQ community and brings more than twenty years experience in both writing and publishing to Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies. She is a retired surgeon and full time author-publisher, she has written and published over forty-five novels as well as dozens of short stories, has edited numerous anthologies, and, writing as L. L. Raand, has authored a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters.

Visit her websites at www.llraand.com and www.radfic.com. For more information on Bold Strokes Books visit www.boldstrokesbooks.com.

Blak Rayne

Blak Rayne is a published author of gay erotic romance. She loves to write and believes it’s one of the greatest forms of self-expression. What better way to see inside the human soul? Currently, she resides in British Columbia, Canada with her husband, daughter and son. She’s been writing and drawing since elementary school, and she loves anything that involves the arts. As for family, her daughter is her toughest critic and greatest support! Visit Blak’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.

Charlie Richards

Charlie started writing fantasy when she was eight, and after stumbling onto her first erotic romance at age nineteen, she realized her true calling. She now focuses on writing gay erotic romance, normally of the paranormal variety, with heroes of all kinds. With the help and support of her husband, Charlie finally fulfilled one of her life-long goals…move to acreage with her horses. You can often find her curled up with her laptop and a cup of tea or glass of wine, creating her next adventure. Charlie enjoys exploring the mountains of her new Oregon home on horseback, 4-wheeler, or motorcycle. Visit Charlie’s website.

Jeffrey Ricker

Jeffrey Ricker is the author of Detours, published in 2011 by Bold Strokes Books, and the YA fantasy The Unwanted, also published by Bold Strokes Books. His writing has appeared in the anthologies Foolish Hearts: New Gay Fiction, A Family by Any Other Name, Men of the Mean Streets, and others. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, he is completing an MFA at the University of British Columbia and lives in St. Louis with his partner and their contrary dachshund. Keep up with his work at www.jeffrey-ricker.com.

E.J. Russell

E.J. Russell holds a BA and an MFA in theater, so naturally she’s spent the last three decades as a financial manager, database designer, and business intelligence consultant. She returned to her childhood love of writing fiction after her twin sons learned to drive and she no longer spent half her waking hours ferrying them to dance class.

Her daily commute now consists of walking from one side of her office to the other–from left-brain day job to right-brain author cave–where she’s perfected the fine art of typing with a cat draped across her wrists and a dog attached to her hip. Her stories include gay and straight characters because her life includes gay and straight characters (as does everyone’s).

E.J. lives in rural Oregon with her curmudgeonly husband, enjoys visits from her wonderful adult children, and indulges in good books, red wine, and the occasional hyperbole. Visit E.J.’s website.

Tara Spears

Tara Spears is rooted in the damp PNW, calling slugs her friends, and letting moss take over her yard. She had a rather wild youth and now has quieted considerably. However, you wouldn’t know this by her books.

She clicks out tales of realism, fantasy, and young love. Her works include; The Darker Side of Trey Grey, Six, and a currently dormant serial; The Gift.

She has several due out in 2014, including- Trey Grey; Out of the Dark, her Love’s Landscape story for the MM Romance Group, as well as a YA romance; You’re Always In The Last Place You Look. (And she hopes to get back to that serial!)

She has been called evil and sinister, as well as a seriously skilled new author with a fresh voice. 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.

Draven St. James

I’m a born and raised Oregonian. I’ve traveled extensively in search of mischief and mayhem to fill my books. My ventures have been quite successful in inspiring a wealth of stories both sexy and humorous. It gives me a great excuse to do some crazy stuff in the name of research. Of course at the end of the day, coffee within reach, laptop at the ready is where I find my peace. Visit Draven’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.

J. Vaughn

J. Vaughn lives in sunny Seattle, a clean, progressive city that is way too expensive for a writer’s income. She holds down a full-time, computer-industry day job, but writing is her passion—especially writing about sexy men falling in love.

J’s favorite genres are sci-fi, fantasy, and M/M erotic romance. She discovered M/M quite by accident when she was writing a traditional fantasy novel and one of her characters ended up in an all-male prison for a bit too long. Whoops! Find out what J is working on next at authorjvaughn.com..

Karis Walsh

Karis Walsh is the author of several Bold Strokes Books romances including Rainbow Award winning Harmony and Sea Glass Inn, a romantic intrigue called Mounting Danger, and multiple short stories. A Pacific Northwest native, she has recently moved to the great state of Texas where she lives with her partner, various furry kids, and an overworked air conditioner. When not writing or soaking up the unfamiliar sunshine, she loves to read, cook spicy food, and play her viola or violin. Visit her at her website.

L.A. Witt

L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer currently living in the glamorous and ultra-futuristic metropolis of Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, two cats, and a disembodied penguin brain that communicates with her telepathically. In addition to writing smut and disturbing the locals, L.A. is said to be working with the US government to perfect a genetic modification that will allow humans to survive indefinitely on Corn Pops and beef jerky. This is all a cover, though, as her primary leisure activity is hunting down her arch nemesis, erotica author Lauren Gallagher, who is also said to be lurking somewhere in Omaha. Visit L.A.’s website.