Lisa Collins feels she has it all as an Indianapolis sportswriter covering the city's minor league baseball team and as a freelancer for the newspaper. Her best friend, bar owner Frankie Dunkin, helps keep her grounded and sane. Her life is uncomplicated-that is until Amy Perry enters her world. Amy, the all-star first baseman for a professional women's baseball team, dreams the dream most boys do-to play in the major leagues. The Cincinnati Reds are about to give her that chance. While covering Amy's ascent through the minor league system, out-and-proud Lisa finds herself falling for the closeted first baseman. But as they begin a relationship, something unexpected happens: Lisa realizes her feelings for Frankie Dunkin run much deeper than friendship. With Amy facing harassment from her male teammates in her quest to break through the gender barrier, Lisa is torn between supporting her and exploring her feelings toward Frankie. Frankie has her own demons to face as painful physical and emotional scars from her past haunt her. Despite the myriad conflicting emotions raging in Lisa's life, one thing is clear-Frankie and Amy are Playing for First in her heart.

Playing For First

Chris Paynter

Literature & Fiction

Blue Feather Books LTD.

Author Angie Cantinnini's agent convinces her she must use a pseudonym if she hopes to land a contract with a mainstream publishing company-especially since the protagonist of Angie's novels is a hard-boiled male detective. Neither Angie nor her agent anticipate the raging success of the series of books or the mountain of wealth that accompanies each new release. As a best-selling author, Angie should be delighted with her Bohemian life in Key West, but happiness is elusive because it's her alter-ego, Zach England, who's receiving the accolades, while Angie is relegated to anonymity. Meryl McClain, the recently hired book review editor at the prestigious New York Banner, wants to make a strong first impression with her readers, so she picks Zach England's latest novel for her debut column. She offers a scathing critique, unaware the real author behind the pseudonym is her long-lost true love, Angie. Heartrending choices separated the lovers eleven years earlier. Seeing Meryl's review overwhelms Angie with feelings she thought she'd laid to rest years ago. This stroke of fate beckons them to reunite, but Angie's secret identity and Meryl's struggle with a childhood trauma conspire to keep them apart. Torn from a shared moment in their past, the words Come Back to Me have haunted the two women for more than a decade. Is it too late for Angie and Meryl to choose love again?

Come Back to Me

Literary

Corey Banner is happy in a six-year relationship with her partner Judy, and sees only a bright future ahead for them. But Corey's life is turned upside down when a car accident tragically claims Judy's life. Two years later, still broken and reeling from her painful loss, Corey moves from her home in Lansing, Michigan, to Grand Lake, Colorado. There, she hopes to begin healing. Erin Flannery and her Aunt Tess are co-owners of Grand Lake's Rainbow Lodge. Erin questions Tess's immediate hiring of Corey as the lodge's new maintenance worker-but then it takes a lot for a woman to earn Erin's trust. Afraid to put her heart on the line after her partner's betrayal five years before, Erin is not ready for any long-term commitment and covers her pain with meaningless one-night stands. Although Corey and Erin start out on shaky ground, as the summer months go by their friendship slowly grows into something more. Will Corey take a leap of faith and allow love to enter her heart again? And will Erin stop running long enough to trust a woman who seems almost too good to be true? Against the backdrop of the magnificent Rocky Mountains, Corey and Erin must decide: will they let fear rule their lives-or will they simply let go and dance another dance with love.

And a Time to Dance

Blue Feather Books

Life is sweet for star athlete, Amy Perry, who is the only woman playing professional baseball. But not everyone is accepting of an open lesbian on a men's ball team, and Amy finds the harassment hard to take. Thank goodness she's found a fulfilling relationship with Stacy McCrady, and still has the friendship and support of sportswriter Lisa Collins. When personal tragedy strikes, Amy goes into a tailspin, and both her game and her union with Stacy suffer brutal blows. It takes a true team effort to get her back on track in both parts of her life. In Two for the Show, readers are reunited with characters they met in Paynter's Playing for First, and they'll be introduced to several new players who demonstrate why baseball is really just a metaphor for the game of life.

Two for the Show

Hired to work on a biography of the late film star, Daphne DeMonet, Bailey Hampton arrives to conduct an interview with Eleanor Burnett, Daphne's "longtime companion." To Bailey's dismay, she learns Eleanor has set up a co-interview with Bailey's ex-partner, Chelsea Parker. Estranged for eleven months, the two women hide their painful memories and strain to be civil to one another. Eleanor startles them by insisting that they take turns reading aloud from Eleanor's diaries of her life with Daphne DeMonet. Only after the diaries are read in her presence will Eleanor proceed with a full interview. Once Eleanor discovers that Bailey and Chelsea are ex-partners, the diary readings take on a new meaning for her. Can they learn from the mistakes she and Daphne made as young lovers? Will that knowledge bring Bailey and Chelsea together again? Or is it too late to mend their broken relationship?

Survived by her Longtime Companion

LGBTQ+ Books