Two Wild West-themed stories from Soul's Road Press

"Lily la Rouge, or The Ghost of Erotic Presents"

Can the ghost of a Wild West madame help a woman feel sexy again and reignite the lost spark in her marriage? A sexy and romantic short story by a legendary erotica heavy-hitter.

“Lily la Rouge” originally appeared at Fishnet.com, 2005.

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

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"Queens Up"

In this fan favorite short story, Josephine’s father has lost the family ranch—and Josephine’s hand in marriage—in a poker game gone bad. Josephine plots to win everything back by disguising herself as a man to compete in a high-stakes poker game herself…and her secret lover, Margaret, intends to make sure no one suspects Josephine’s deception.

“Queens Up” originally appeared in LAMBDA Literary Award Winner Lesbian Cowboys: Erotic Adventures (Cleis Press, 2009) and republished in Best Lesbian Romance 2010 (Cleis Press, 2010).

“In the silent-support and enduring understanding romance department, it's hard to beat Andrea Dale's historical ‘Queens Up.’ The setting of the American West is cleanly crafted and the time period of Westward Expansion accurate. The women, Josephine and Margaret, are depicted with the determination and intelligence to work within the ‘big picture’ of society’s expectations. There's no blow-up women's lib single moment, so frequent in stories set in historical times, just a strong current of thinking fast on their feet that brings these women alive.”
—Lara Zielinsky, LZFiction

“’Queens Up’ by Andrea Dale is the tale of Josephine who uses her skill at poker to undo her father’s mistakes and reclaim a home for herself and Margaret. This clever historical tale flows beautifully with excellent characters and exceptional prose.”
—Emily, Three Dollar Bill Reviews

Available in a variety of electronic formats
Amazon |  Barnes & Noble |  Smashwords

Recommended Reading, November & December 2010

Recommended Reading, November

The Freelancer’s Survivor Guide, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Ever considered ditching your day job and working for yourself, in any capacity (not just writing)? Then you have to read this book. Rusch has been freelancing for years, she’s made all the mistakes and learned from them, and in this book she tells you what they were, what she learned, and how she came out the other side. She posted each chapter on her blog, and in fact wrote chapters she never even intended to based on comments and questions she received. You can still read it there, or you can buy it as a print book or ebook. Believe me, it’s worth every penny!

Except the Queen, Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. Devoted faerie sisters Meteora and Serana anger their Queen and are banished to the mortal realm. Now middle-aged (with all its attendant creaks and pains and the lack of the breathtaking beauty of youth and fey) and, worse, separated from each other, they struggle to survive in an alien world and find each other again. But the humans they befriend make it clear that there’s far more going on than a simple banishment…. I’d read the novella version of this in Marvin Kayes Fair Folk anthology, which won a World Fantasy Award (and which itself is worth reading for Tanith Lee’s contribution) and was thrilled to discover they’d expanded it to novel form.

Recommended Reading, December

December was a roundly crappy month for me, so that may have colored how I felt about what I read that month. Maybe some books were better than I realized, but I wasn’t in the right headspace. I did read several good things, but ones I didn’t think were great enough to mention here. So I only have one…

Maybe This Time, Jennifer Crusie. I have been vibrating with excitement for this book ever since Crusie started talking about it on her blog. It’s her modern take on The Turn of the Screw, which a stronger heroine and Crusie’s funny, breathless style of prose. Which is not to say it’s not damn creepy in places, because it is, and there were times when I wished Ken were home while I was reading it…. Seriously, you’ve got ghosts, romance, a crumbling castle transported to the Midwest more than a century ago, and the usual assortment of secondary characters both hilarious and disturbing. What’s not to love?

Free fantasy story available!

"What Dragons Prefer" — free fantasy short story from Soul's Road Press!

A dragon slayer arrives to rescue a threatened town, but the real threat and the dragon’s true desires are not necessarily one and the same.

“What Dragons Prefer” first appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, Fall 1994; and republished in Dragons: A Celebration of the Greatest of Mythical Creatures, January 1996.

Available free in a variety of electronic formats from Smashwords
(includes formats for Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook).