Guest Post: She’s My Heroine by Renée Dahlia |

Happy Friday!

Please welcome Renée Dahlia. She’s giving away one ebook copy of Liability, her latest. More details are below. Now for her fab guest post.

She’s My Heroine

Writing fiction has been a surprising and cathartic journey for me. I wrote my first novel (To Charm a Bluestocking) in 2016 at a point when my career had suffered a pile of setbacks, and I felt I was lost. Naturally I wrote a romance because that’s what I loved reading, and after years of writing magazine articles and data-based statistical explanations for various clients, the switch to fiction was a good learning curve for me. As a bisexual cis-woman, all my books are heroine focused, regardless of the romantic pairing type. My writing process always begins with the heroine – who is she, what does she want, what is preventing her getting it? Writing two heroines makes this process just about perfect for the way my brain works in setting up characters. In terms of writing style, I’m a vague plotter. I start with a blurb for each character that contains too much backstory (yah for edits), and a template document with romance beats. I throw a one or two line plot point against the beats, then just start writing.

My latest release, Liability, is my sixth book, and the second in my self-published series set around the Farrellton Foster family. It’s my first published lesbian romance, although I did write a short story a couple of years ago that was the beginning of my realisation that I’m bisexual. But that one isn’t going to be seen in public because it’s dorky and clunky and full of me working out myself. Sometimes writing fiction is solely about self-awareness and self-determination and that process is private. Other times writing fiction is a public exploration of ideas and tropes. I’m still learning about myself and how to feel valid and how to shut up the voices of society that continually tell me being bisexual is well… insert clichés – there are a bunch of them.

There isn’t a lot of personal exploration in the writing of Liability. I really enjoyed writing the two heroines and their journey together. It is simply a book where two women get to have great sex, fall in love, and live the life they want to have. Liability is a fun, high heat, romance between an ex-porn star, Neve, and one of her fans, Jessica. Some of the inspiration came from Lorde’s song, Liability – especially the part about a lonely woman dancing by herself in her house because she’s too much for anyone (Jessica). Some of the inspiration came from a real porn show. This is a book written for the joy of writing, for the thrill of romance, and because I adore these characters. The Farrellton Foster series explores what family means, and how found families are important to people, especially queer people.

What’s next for me? I have an Australian rural romance series with Escape (Harlequin Australia’s digital imprint) and the second book in that series, Making Her Mark, is out 4 Aug, featuring a bisexual heroine and straight hero. I’m currently writing a lesbian historical romance set in 1919 in Wales which will be the first in a series of three books. I have some ideas for gay (mm) romances, but they keep getting ignored in favour of writing lesbian and mf books with heroine emphasis. Once I can figure out how to get more women into an mm book, then I might branch out and do that, but until then, I’d rather write heroine focused books where women get what they want and are happy. I have more than enough book ideas to keep me writing for the next few decades, and I hope to spend the next portion of my life surrounded by glorious fictional women!

LIABILITY
Farrellton Foster Family: Book 2

by Renée Dahlia

NEVE LEE, mechanic and ex-porn star, has saved up enough to grow her garage business in the direction of her dreams—restoring old cars. She used the job as Maiden Heaven to save up enough money to start her own mechanic’s shop, and now she’s branched out to buy an ancient Mini to restore. Crashing the car into someone’s garden wall might just end her dream until she can pay for the damage. She doesn’t expect the owner of the wall to be a fan of hers, and when Jessica proposes to invest in her restoration business, Neve can’t resist. The money gets her closer to her goals, and Jessica… Well, she’s hot and doesn’t judge her for her past. A foster kid who was shuttled through many homes before she ended up with Mrs Farrellton, Neve has put the issues with her birth parents behind her. Or so she thinks. A letter will change everything she believed about herself…

JESSICA BEAUMONT is a self-made tech billionaire who lives alone in a mansion on the leafy north shore of Sydney. She is introverted and single, and very particular about how her life is set up. With wealthy white parents who think her queerness is ‘just a phase’, she’s focused on her tech business. She tells herself she’s happy, but in reality, she’s hiding a guilty secret and feels like she’d be a liability to a partner. When Neve crashes, literally, into her house, Jessica wants to give something back to the porn star who helped her survive a tough time in her life. Her enthusiastic investment in Neve’s business is an excuse to be closer to Maiden Heaven. But will Jessica’s money and her guilt both prove to be the liability that Jessica always worried about. Can she learn to forgive herself, and will Neve forgive her when Jessica’s fan fetish screws up everything between them?

Please be aware that this book contains descriptions of death during an accident and subsequent injury to one of the main characters, drug addiction, foster kid meeting a biological parent.

GIVEAWAY

Win an ebook copy of Liability. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me the name of the author of Liability. Hint: It’s Renée Dahlia. One winner will be selected on June 28th.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Renée Dahlia is an unabashed romance reader who loves feisty women and strong, clever men. Her books reflect this, with a side-note of dark humour. Renée has a science degree in physics. When not distracted by the characters fighting for attention in her brain, she works in the horse racing industry doing data analysis, and writing magazine articles. When she isn’t reading or writing, Renée wrangles a partner, four children, and volunteers on the local cricket club committee as well as for Romance Writers Australia.