We’ve waited forever to announce this–we wanted to wait until today, V-Day, because WE LIKE SPECIAL THINGS TO HAPPEN ON SPECIAL DAYS. ;D

You know that I’m Elora Bishop–that I write magical lesbian love stories (and lesbian YA love stories as another name), but you might not know that my wife, Jennifer Diemer, is also a writer. A supremely talented one at that (which, I realize you’ll have to take with a grain of salt since she’s my wife, and you know how very much I love her, but really–WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE)–she has a degree in creative writing (graduating at the head of her class, of course–she’s a perfectionist!), is a world-class editor, and an amazing, amazing storyteller. We’ve had quite a few writing projects together that were just for us, or that we haven’t OFFICIALLY announced to the world yet, but one of our oldest ones was an old zine online (sadly, defunct for years now!) that we put up in 2004/2005, called Inamorata. It was a compendium of fairy tales, retold as lesbian. It was one of my favorite things that we’ve ever shared together. <3

But my wife Jenn and I have been retelling fairy tales as lesbian for far longer than that–as long as we’ve been writing. Fairy tales are part and parcel of who we are–they’re in our blood. We were married in fairy wings, have bits of fairy tales tattooed on our skin, and we even take very old, unloved fairy tale books and re-envision them as wearable art. Fairy tales are utterly essential to who we are as people, and who we are as a wife and wife duo. <3

The thing is, that–though we love fairy tales deeply–something has always felt…off for us, in the fairy tale world. You know–the fact that there were no women like us: ladies who love other ladies.

So, like any authors would do…we set about and changed that. And we want to do it again. <3

There are very, very, very few lesbian retellings of fairy tales. Most of them are erotica–which, there is ALWAYS a place for erotica, but I also believe that there is a place for creative, literary re-envisionings of all of the major fairy tales (and some that most people have forgotten about!) that are NOT erotica, but are, rather, stories about women who love other women, who are courageous, who kicks ass, who wear their crowns tilted sideways, who have daring adventures and magical encounters and who fall madly and completely in love and get their fairy tale endings.

And so, Jenn and I are pleased to present a series of novellas entitled Sappho’s Fables. We have taken all of the most well known fairy tales, some from long ago that we already retold, some that we are redoing all over again, and releasing them individually as eBooks for each novella, and then volumes of collected novellas that will also be available in print. The first three stories that we chose are:

Snow White

Hansel and Gretel

Rapunzel

They will be gathered in the volume available in both print and eReader versions entitled Sappho’s Fables, Volume 1!

You might be saying–Elora, my favorite fairy tale isn’t in the first volume! No despairing! Here is a projected list of the upcoming volumes. Though these are subject to change, we’re pretty set on all of them. No, unfortunately, I don’t have dates on any of these releases! You can either add this blog to your RSS, or add me on Facebook or on Twitter–I promise that when we get closer to actual dates, I will let you know! <3

Sappho’s Fables, Volume 2:

Follow the Wolf (Red Riding Hood)
Shimmer (Rumpelstiltskin)
Thirteen (Twelve Dancing Princesses)

Sappho’s Fables, Volume 3:

Heart of Snow (The Snow Queen)
Kiss the Frog (The Frog Prince)
Sea Change (The Little Mermaid)

Sappho’s Fables, Volume 4:

Ember (Cinderella)
The Sleeping City (Sleeping Beauty)
The Prince and the Pea (The Princess and the Pea)

Sappho’s Fables, Volume 5:

Thorn (Beauty and the Beast)
Kitten Heels (Puss in Boots)
Wingless (The Wild Swans)

ALSO, after the above volumes are released, we have a very special short story collection entitled Snow White Loves Rose Red–it will be the last volume in the series, and cover some of our very favorite fairy tales–the lesser known ones that are still beautiful. Details on that coming soon! <3

What can you expect from these stories? These are not your typical fairy tales. Expect some more traditional retellings, but also post-apocalyptic fairy tales, biopunk, steampunk, mythicpunk, paranormal, science fiction…we had two driving goals in these releases: put out oustanding lesbian literature, and also very, very original retellings. We can not WAIT to share them with you. <3

So yes! We are SO EXCITED to be releasing these so soon! Details to follow! <3 <3 <3

I’m so excited about the new projects I’ll be putting out in the next few months, and can not WAIT to share them with you. This blog will be hopping with a bunch of new announcements in the coming days, so look for them soon!

Before I do that, however, I did want to put something out there. People have always found this site on a variety of search terms, but–historically–the most searched for terms are “Elora Bishop pirate,” “Elora Bishop torrent,” and variations of “One Solstice Night” and “Cage the Darlings” with pirate, torrent and names of torrenting sites attached to the search term. And, while we were on vacation, this behavior tripled, for whatever reason.

I’m sure you can imagine, if you were in my shoes, that this would be deeply disheartening.

My wife and I operate a little Etsy shop, and are trying to pay off our debt and live solely on the income made through our writing and our shop. We’re not there yet, but work tirelessly, every single day (and have, every single day, for YEARS), to reach this goal. We live on very little, we don’t even buy coffee out anymore…I’m not telling you this for a sob story, but just the reality and the facts–I’m trying to put a face on the name that is searched so often for illegal downloads, a story so that you can understand that I’m human, not just a faceless author name. We hadn’t bought groceries for months because we were channeling all of the money to our bills. That means we subsisted on canned food for months. The most unhealthy thing ever, and totally not recommended. Gods, I miss lettuce.

If I had the money from all of the people who have illegally downloaded my books, both as this name, and as my young adult name, we would be on the way to being completely debt free.

Which is disheartening and staggering and frustrating.

But I still have hope.

I know that illegal downloading will never stop. I understand that there are people who will always want something for nothing, who believe they deserve something for nothing. It’s human nature. But I’m asking you, if you found my page looking for a free torrent of my work to please, please reconsider. My novel and novella are priced at $4.99 and $2.99 respectively. This is much, much “cheaper” than anything publishers are putting out, at $9.99 price tags (not that price should matter at all, illegal downloading is illegal downloading, and no book should be illegally downloaded, I’m just stating that this is not a lot of money!), and the royalties from my novel and novella go to paying off our debt, so I can become a writer full time. So that you can expect many, many more stories from me involving magical lesbians, love, enchantment and talking-animals-that-have-attitudes.

I’m not a faceless author, raking in millions of dollars every day, to go swimming in my pools of money like Scrooge McDuck (NOT THAT I HAVE NOT FANTASIZED ABOUT THIS, of course!). Our little family is trying to scrape by, change our lives based on our tenacity and courage and put out stories into the world about lesbians who love one another and maybe ride around on unicorns ON OCCASION.

I have been supported so completely and totally by my fans, and continue to sell more and more everyday, and I am SO GRATEFUL for that. I will NEVER cease being grateful for that. Our lives ARE changing, after years of constant work, hardly any sleep, and FAR MORE CAFFEINE CONSUMPTION than any mere mortal should have, and people are responding to my stories and in such wonderful ways–thank you, thank you, thank you.

Please know that when you purchase a copy and choose not to illegally download it, you are supporting us, you are supporting lesbian stories, you are paying for a novel and doing the right thing. Your karma just accelerates from there.

Thank you for listening and thinking about it. I appreciate it. <3

If you ever have downloaded my stories or found my stories and didn’t have a chance to pay for them–I totally understand that this is the internet and these things happen–or you simply wanted to support my authorness by buying me a cup of tea, you could certainly do so via Paypal anytime. <3

Please click the novel you’d like to learn more about/read excerpt from/find purchase links for! <3

I’ll have some new release information for you soon, my darlings! Until then, stay calm and read lesbian literature! <3

Please note: this is kind of odd to say, but I feel that it’s important and that I must: if you are homophobic or promote a homophobic stance on your blog, I’d rather you not read my work. I’m an out gay woman and my books are about out gay women, and I like to avoid bashing for the sake of queerness, thanks ever so much. (I wouldn’t bring it up if it had never happened. Unfortunately, it’s happened. I’d like to avoid that in the future. Review my novels based on the story and other components ALL books are reviewed on. Please and thank you! <3)

~*~

~*~

To stay up to date with my releases, please add me on Twitter!

On Amazon for Kindle — $5.99
On BarnesAndNoble.com for Nook — $5.99
On Smashwords for online reading/other eReaders for $5.99
Paperback for $12.99

Only a blackbird girl can set her free…

Envy is a lucky lady with a secret vice: she’s one of the best thieves in the kingdom–something her current employer, the king himself, has no knowledge of. When one of her more audacious gambles gets her caught, Envy thinks her luck’s run out. Infuriated, the king banishes her to Bran Tower, a haunted, forgotten prison of no escape.

But, by day, a mysterious blackbird brings Envy crumbs of food–and, by night, the beautiful ghost Merle befriends her. Or so Envy thinks. When Merle, no ghost at all, reveals her terrible truth–cursed to spend daylight as a blackbird, night as the mortal woman she once was–Envy confesses, too: that she’s fallen for the blackbird girl.

But love has made them reckless in a forest of dangerous men. On the night of their planned escape, Merle is kidnapped by a band of brigands seeking the treasure of her father, the Blackbird King. Envy is brave but is now faced with an almost impossible task: to journey through the cursed forest in the hopes of saving her beloved Merle.

CAGE THE DARLINGS is a magical lesbian fantasy novel.

On Amazon.com for the Kindle — $2.99
On Barnes and Noble for the Nook — $2.99
On Smashwords for online reading or any other eReader — $2.99
Paperback — $7.99

One Solstice Night is on Goodreads.com.

Cage the Darlings, a story of blackbird girls,
enchanted kingdoms and love in high places, is coming November 22, 2011.

Cage the Darlings is on Goodreads.com.

Once, there was a queer lady who happened to be a writer.  Frustrated by the lack of lesbian romances containing anything fantastical in nature, she set out into the world with a stubborn crusade:  to write magical lesbian romances.  She hoped that she was not the only one, the world over, who would enjoy such a thing.  Why, she even hopes that you, fair reader, might be on a quest for just such a book.

Her name is Elora Bishop.  If you are, indeed, looking for an enchanting lesbian romance (if you’re not a lesbian, don’t worry: you don’t have to be a lesbian in order to enjoy a lesbian romance; you just have to enjoy a good love story), look no further.  Within these pages, you will learn a little more about Elora, her stories and books, and if you are moved to read one or two of them, she hopes you enjoy.