On Saturday night, I attended a panel of Curve’s virtual festival that featured authors from Bold Strokes Books (with whom I have a contract) discussing their works in progress and contemporary romance. The authors featured were Melissa Brayden, Georgia Beers, Aurora Rey, and Maggie Cummings. The panel was moderated by Carsen Taite, another author with BSB.

One of the positive things that has come from lockdown/quarantine/stay at home is that we’re able to participate in events like this, when we probably would not have been able to if they weren’t virtual. Curve’s festival is ongoing, so if you’re interested in other events related to women and LGBTQ topics like books and media, check out the schedule.

The panel gave each author a chance to talk about her forthcoming book, her writing process, and how she’s handling writing in lockdown. There was some speculation that “quarantined together” will be the next big romance trope. I am looking forward to diving into Aurora Rey’s Recipe for Love, which sounds delightfully like a Hallmark movie turned into a lesbian print romance. (Does that sound like an insult to Ms. Rey’s imagination? It’s not! “Gay Hallmark” is about the highest compliment a romance writer can get, in my world!)

While I enjoyed hearing the authors talk, what I most appreciated was that for an hour on a Saturday night, I felt connected to the romance community, the lesbian community, and the overlapping groups between them. Pride Month is going to be hard this year.