Ahead of the February 11 Residence 11 Desire Summit on Sex and Relationships (get tickets here!), we’re conducting a series of livestream interviews with Summit speakers. You can watch them live or after the fact on our YouTube channel, Facebook page or Twitter account, and ask questions for our interviewees.
Watch our interview below with Residence 11 marketing director Jessica Del Pino and Angie Williams, the author of lesbian romance novels Mending Fences, Opposites Attract, Love and Other Rare Birds, and Last Resort. Be sure to tune in to hear Angie share with us the heartwarming story of how reading her first lesbian romance novel not only inspired and empowered her, but also led to her meeting her long-time wife. Angie also shares how she found the inspiration to start her own writing journey and tips she would offer to new writers starting out. Angie will be speaking at the Residence 11 Desire Summit held on February 11, 2023 on our Writing the Modern Romance Novel panel alongside Mia Hopkins, Suzanne Park, and Sierra Simone, moderated by Kelly Reynolds.
Angie Williams grew up in the dusty desert of West Texas and was always very interested in writing. As a child she would lose interest before the end, killing the characters off in a tragic accident so she could move on to the next story. Thankfully, as an adult she decided it was time to write things where everyone survives…and even get to enjoy some titillating romance before the end! Angie lives in Northern California with her beautiful wife and son, and is a proud lover of all things she was teased about in school. Her next book, The Only Fish in the Sea, which can be preordered on Bold Stokes Books website, is set to be released in August 2023.
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On how did Angie found joy in reading romance novels:
“I grew up a reader. But mostly, fantasy and horror stories, but not any romance. I mean, of course, everybody knows that romance novels exist, but I just never read any. I grew up in West Texas. So, to put it mildly, I was not out as a lesbian. So I just wasn’t interested in reading any of the romance novels that I knew existed.
Then when I was probably 23 or 24, a really good friend of mine gave me a copy of Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. She gave me Tipping the Velvet and some candles and a whole bathtub relaxation kit. At that point, I was out and I was in a relationship with a woman. And so I knew about lesbian sex and lesbian romance, but I’d never read about it. It just blew my mind. I was actually reading about women who had the same feelings that I had about other women and they weren’t bursting into flames or anything like that.
This was kind of like my awakening to a broadening of my world, I guess. And so then I was hooked. I just read everything I could possibly find. You know, all the different authors, and at the time, the pool of published lesbian authors was much smaller than it is now. But you know, where there’s a will there’s a way.”
On advice for new writers:
“I think that the best advice I can give somebody who wants to write is to write whatever you want to write and read as much as you possibly can. If you want to write romance, read as many romance novels as you possibly can.
…Find the rhythm that these authors have and you know, read, not to mimic what they’re doing, but read to find your own voice.
The first draft is just you telling yourself the story. And I think that’s perfect, because you’re just getting your ideas out on the paper, or the screen or whatever. When you start a novel, even if you have an outline written, you may not have a general idea of where you want it to end. But it’s almost always going to change; the idea is going to change. And so you just have to get it out and have a general direction that you’re going. Once you get there, then you can go back to the beginning and do it again. Read through and edit the first part of your novel; then you can modify that to match where you want to end up.”
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About the Desire Summit: The Residence 11 Desire Summit, sponsored by sex toy companies FUN FACTORY and Blush, intimate audio platform BLOOM, romance novel publisher Avon Books, and yoga teacher training company Ganja Yoga, will feature extensive educational sessions with over 20 diverse authors and subject matter experts across psychology, physical intimacy, technology innovation, sexual health, music and narrative storytelling. Speakers include writer Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, author of The Sex Lives of African Women, polyamory expert Kevin Patterson, author of Love’s Not Color Blind, sex educator and dating expert Erin Tillman, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling romance author and TikTok favorite Sierra Simone (Priest, American Queen), Mia Hopkins (author of Tanked, one of The New York Times’ best 2022 romances, romance novelist Suzanne Park (The Do Over, The Christmas Clash), and Taylor Hahn, author of swinging novel The Lifestyle, among others. Keynote speakers will be intimacy coach Zoë Kors, author of Radical Intimacy: Cultivate the Deeply Connected Relationships You Desire and Deserve, speaking on 6 Questions That Will Get You Instantly Connected to Anyone, and sex educator Dirty Lola, who appeared as a sexpert on Netflix’s The Principles of Pleasure, speaking on The State of Modern Dating. Get tickets here for the Desire Summit.