Kimberly Gardner

All Romance Ebooks named their best books of 2008 at an awards ceremony held earlier tonight. And Phoenix Rising placed in the winners list. WooHoo!

*happy dances*

How awesome is that? *ggg*

You can view the list at the following url.

http://allromanceebooks.com/BO2008Awards.html

Today I have a free story posted over on FWF. It features Adam and Jimmy from Phoenix Rising and starts off our week of free reads to celebrate Valentines Day, a special day for all lovers regardless of sexual orientation.

http://www.fictionwithfriction.com/2009/02/08/cross-his-heart/

So please drop by and help us celebrate love’s diversity.

And have a happy Valentines Day!

Have you heard that Ken Starr — and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund — filed legal briefs defending the constitutionality of Prop 8 and attempting to forcibly
divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year? The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 5, 2009, with
a decision expected within the next 90 days.
 
The Courage Campaign has created a video called “Fidelity,” with the permission of musician Regina Spektor, that puts a face to those 18,000 couples and
all loving, committed couples seeking full equality under the law.
 
Please watch this heartbreaking video:
 

http://www.couragecampaign.org/Divorce

 
After you watch the video, please consider joining me in signing the letter to the state Supreme Court and passing this video on to your friends. The more
people who see this video, the more people will understand the pain caused by Prop 8 and Ken Starr’s shameful legal proceeding.
 
Thanks.

I truly believe to achieve recognition for our genre within RWA we have to be a part of the official process and take part in the organization at a professional
level. A few of us within the genre have created a google group to gage the interest in our community for support in establishing a GLBT RWA Chapter. Goals
for this chapter include establishing a place to for authors of GLBT to network, learn more about what is happening in the romance industry concerning
our genre, provide support and education for the authors, create a place for publishers and agents to reach the authors of this genre more easily, create
workshops geared toward our writing needs, and possibly even organize writing contests at some point down the line.  These are only a few of things we
can accomplish together.

If you write GLBT romance and are interested in creating and supporting a chapter that focuses on the GLBT romance genre please consider joining the group
so that the degree of interest can be assessed.

 You do have to be a member of RWA to belong to a special interest RWA chapter but for now, we just want to see if there is sufficient interest to warrant
the large effort of creating, maintaining and promoting the chapter. Whether you belong to RWA, are thinking of joining the RWA or just want to know more
about the possibilities, please consider clicking on the link below and joining us for discussion.

http://groups.google.com/group/rwa_rainbow_romance_chapter?hl=en

sincerely,
Laura Baumbach