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A Proud Member of
The Golden Crown
Literary Society
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Dominoes
A short story appearing in Romance for LIFE.
Scroll down to hear excerpt.
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Romance for LIFE is a collection of 25 love stories from your favorite lesbian authors benefiting breast cancer research.
The proceeds from Romance for LIFE will be donated, in the authors' collective names, to The National Breast Cancer Foundation and to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Contributing Authors:
Robin Alexander, Lynn Ames, Bridget Bufford, Carrie Carr, Caro Clarke, Stella Duffy, Nann Dunne, Jane Fletcher, Vada Foster, Verda Foster, Jennifer Fulton, Gabrielle Goldsby, Melissa Good, Lois C. Hart, Ellen Hawley, Karin Kallmaker, Lori L. Lake, Lee Lynch, Marianne K. Martin, Val McDermid, Radclyffe, Elizabeth Sims, Jean Stewart, Ida Swearingen, and Jane Vollbrecht.
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Romance For LIFE
Author: Lori L. Lake & Tara Young, Eds.
Publisher: Intaglio Publications
ISBN: 978-1-933113-59-3
Pages: 302
Price: $16.95
Available at Bella Books (Click Here)
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| Dominoes Excerpt
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and/or read it, below.*
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| I pride myself on being self-sufficient, but once in a while, good sense prevails, and I acknowledge that some things are more fun with a partner. Unfortunately, I don't have a partner, so I set out to look for at least a warm book to keep me company for the evening. I started my search in the lesbian section of Giovanni's Room, a Philadelphia gay bookstore. Don't ask me why I got this strange urge to catch the train into the city. I had lots of unread books in my suburban home, but there I was in Philly, following that urge.
When I was still working, I shied away from gay bookstores. I never had a permanent relationship with anyone in my limited circle of lesbian friends, so I hadn't bared my gender preference to my workaday world. When I walked out of the office for the last time, however, a yoke lifted from my shoulders. I felt a figurative thump on my back as Freedom urged, "Go be yourself!"
How uplifting! How enabling! I took a deep breath of "free" air, stood tall as I strode along, and vowed that I would be boldly proactive instead of reactive. I'd live the life I wanted to live. So what did I want first? The answer startled me. Who would think that, at this late date, I'd be lonesome for a permanent Someone Special to share my life?
But it dawned on me that I had a bucket of love inside me dangerously near to congealing from lack of someone to pour it on. I admit that my limited circle of friends is a welcome support group, but I'd allowed that circle to become a lasso tethering me too tightly. I needed to get out and about and meet new people.
Vowing to be boldly proactive and actually being so are two prongs on the same dilemma. I stood in front of a shelf full of books about romantic encounters and wondered how a basically shy person like me learns to step forward instead of stepping aside. Maybe reading about how others do it would help. So what if the books were fiction and the situations were created out of whole cloth? I figured they'd still present some kernels of truth about relationships.
I should know—I write fiction in my spare time. Strangely, though, an unexpected circumstance had arisen. Now that I had more time to write, the stories were slow in coming. The impulse that used to drive my writing had changed direction. Now it steered me toward searching for one of those happily-ever-after partnerships for my real life.
I was rescued from my self-absorbed musings when another customer walked up beside me at the bookshelf. "This place has a great assortment of books," she said. "Have you found something good?"
With a slight flinch, I glanced at the open book of erotica I held in one palm, happy that the cover wasn't showing. I flipped it closed and slipped it back on the shelf as far away as possible. So much for being bold. "Not yet," I said, "but I've just started looking."
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