Lesbian Authors Guild
Paula Martinac
Paula Martinac is the author of three published novels – the Lambda Literary Award-winning Out of Time; the Lammy-nominated Home Movies; and Chicken. She has also published three nonfiction books on LGBT themes, including a YA biography of k.d. lang, and wrote a syndicated column called “Lesbian Notions” for eight years. Her historical novel-in-stories, The Ada Decades, will be published by Bywater Books in March 2017. She teaches fiction writing at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Visit her online at www.paulamartinac.com.
The Ada Decades
Coming Soon
A girl from a Carolina mill family isn’t supposed to strive for a career, but Ada Shook graduates from college on a scholarship and lands a plum job as a school librarian. The South rocks with turbulence in the 1950s, and Ada finds herself caught in the ugly fight to integrate the Charlotte public schools. At the same time, she makes friends with Cam Lively, a teacher who challenges her to re-examine her narrow upbringing. The two young women fall in love and throw in their lot together, despite their underlying fear of being found out and fired.
Over seven decades, Ada is witness to the racism laced through her Southern city; the paradox of religion as both comfort and torment; and the survival networks created by gay people. Eleven interconnected short stories cover the sweep of one woman’s personal history as she reaches her own form of Southern womanhood – compassionate, resilient, principled, lesbian.
Available in early 2017 from Bywater Books [http://www.bywaterbooks.com]
Out of Time
Now an e-book
Escaping a downpour, Susan Van Dine ducks into an antiques shop on Manhattan’s West Side and discovers a scrapbook of photographs from the 1920s. When she walks out of the shop with the book tucked in her bag, Susan’s fate becomes inextricably linked with the four women in the photos. As she tries to uncover the lives of the women, who have dubbed themselves “The Gang,” Susan experiences a strange collision between past and present. Richly atmospheric and featuring a memorable cast of characters Out of Time is a delightful and thoughtful novel about history, love, and the persistence of passion. Originally published by Seal Press in 1990.
Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction and Finalist for the American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Award
“The desire not simply for factual history of our foremothers but some sense of their lived presence among us informs this novel. Research and intuition, at first at odds, are reconciled in this sensual, intelligent ghost story of lesbian lovers, past and present. A remarkable first novel.” —Jane Rule, author of Desert of the Heart
“Out of Time is a great read, wonderfully and compellingly written. . . . Martinac’s evocation of the early years of the century and the special friendships of the women in the period is satisfying and fascinating.” —Bay Area Reporter
Available as an e-book from Bywater Books [http://www.bywaterbooks.com/product/out-of-time-by-paula-martinac/]