By Elle Douglas
A couple of months ago, I wandered into an independent bookshop on the other side of my city to browse the new release section and pick up a few books to add to my summer reading pile. This was before pride month, a time when it’s not uncommon in Toronto for shops to feature pride-themed decor and displays, so I was delighted to find a robust year-round collection beside the new releases devoted to showcasing diverse stories celebrating all different kinds of people and relationships. It struck me that it wasn’t too long ago that this section would have been tucked in at the back of the store where casual shoppers like me would be unlikely to see it, or perhaps would have just not existed at all.
With sales of LGBTQ+ books, particularly in romance, exploding over the past few years, it’s thrilling to see the rise in popularity and array of what’s available today.
The amount of diversity within the stories, reflective of the diversity in the community, is truly exciting: Sweet or spicy, sports stars or shape shifters, small towns or sophisticated cities, all with white pages and black words glowing in vibrant technicolor. What a time to be alive!
When I consider the couples I encountered in books and on screen in my formative years—Heathcliff and Catherine, Dr. Quinn and Sully, Murray and Dionne, Romeo and Juliet, Rose and Jack, even Marge and Homer—by the time I found Bette and Tina, I’d been conditioned to believe that romance looked very different from the one I’ve been blessed to find with my beautiful wife. I sometimes wonder how the trajectory of my life would have been impacted by seeing different kinds of relationships in the media I consumed, particularly stories with two women, something I’d never really encountered in a meaningful way in my youth. What would it have been like to understand myself better at a younger age?
Now, these books are everywhere. The best thing is they aren’t just being enjoyed by the LGBTQ+ community, and readership numbers are showing that. Love is the most fundamental of human emotions, so anyone can enjoy being immersed in these stories, and in the process, perhaps come to a better understanding about the nuances inherent in different types of relationships.
Signing the contract for my first traditionally published novel was one of the greatest thrills of my life, and the richness of the experience was deepened by knowing the story would be Special Edition’s first publication featuring two female protagonists. Something I love about the story’s setting is that the protagonists’ sexuality doesn’t interfere with their lives in the small town of Sunset County, purposefully crafted to be a welcoming and inclusive place where people are more concerned about beating the line up at Rise and Grind café or getting their car out the driveway in the winter before the snowplows come by. Mel Carter and Georgia O’Neill have enough drama to navigate, thank you very much!
I like to say that I deal exclusively in the art of happily-ever-afters. Obviously, as a romance writer, but also as a high school guidance counsellor, where I work with youth grappling with questions of identity in various dimensions, and so I’m thrilled that stories like the ones I’m writing are increasingly at their fingertips, and that despite not necessarily having the same roadmaps available to me in my younger years, I’ve found my very own, very epic HEA (featuring a surprise double marriage proposal, but that’s a story for another day…).
Read Her Chef’s Kiss, Elle’s free Pride Online Read Now!
Also, check out her Harlequin debut, The Vet’s Shelter Surprise on Harlequin.com.
An unlikely volunteer…
Saving more than the shelter!
When Georgia O’Neill bursts into the Sunset County Animal Shelter, wary veterinarian Mel Carter doesn’t know what’s hit her. But soon, Georgia’s California rays of sunshine are lighting up even the darkest parts of Mel’s heart, still raw after a heart-wrenching betrayal. Still, PR pro Georgia is set only on rehabbing her image while cleaning out her beloved aunt’s cottage. Mel’s life in rural Canada can’t possibly compete with LA glamour…can it?
