AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR Georgia Beers - yup, it’s my real name... Here’s my story , and I’m sticking to it. I have been writing stories for as long as I can remember.  Born and raised in Rochester, New York, and its various suburbs, I had normal, working class parents. My dad worked for a local highway department and my mother was a stay-at-home mom until my teen years when she began working at a bank. Only as I got older did I focus on the many journals my mother kept and my maternal grandfather’s love of crossword puzzles and realize this is probably where I got my affection for words. Of course, it’s a rare writer who thinks early on that she can actually spend her life writing without getting a ‘real job.’ Being a novelist never really crossed my mind – not seriously, anyway. So, I went to college in Mansfield, Pennsylvania and earned myself a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications (emphasis on Broadcasting with a minor in Theater, if you want to get technical). Fresh out of school (and not having written much aside from term papers in a very long time), I was ready to conquer the world of television. I got a job at Rochester’s local public television station, where I worked my tail off for a wage so miniscule I might as well have been working for free. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I didn’t have the patience to work my way up in that field – it would mean moving out of my hometown and I wasn’t ready to do that.  I was the oldest of five daughters, one of whom was only a toddler at the time, and I didn’t relish the idea of leaving my family. So, I left my job instead. Long story short (too late!), I began working in sales (which is totally the wrong career for my personality, but that’s another story all together), met my lovely wife Bonnie – who would change my world forever – and began writing again on the side. It started with little bits here and there, a short story, an essay, a journal. Then I got a computer, went online, and discovered the astonishingly enormous world of fan fiction. I began to toy with it (and I discovered it to be a great tool for a writer to improve her dialogue and descriptive phrases). I met many other aspiring writers online and we used each other as sources of assistance, brainstorming, proofreading, and whatever else we needed to help one another improve our craft. It was in this online world that I met my dear friend Tonya Muir, one of the more talented writers to whom I’d had the pleasure of connecting. We bounced ideas off one another, proofed each other’s work, and even began collaborating on a story together. We taught one another that it was okay to write what we wanted to write (lesbian stories) and not necessarily what would sell best (hetero stories). Tonya also was acquainted with a woman who was starting up a publishing company and I just happened to have the first draft of a manuscript I’d been writing. After much persuading, she got me to send my manuscript to her friend’s new company. They accepted it right away and before I knew it, I was a real, honest-to-goodness published novelist. In my spare time, I read voraciously, hoping for inspiration, ideas, and just to admire the work of other authors.  I tend to lean more towards the suspense category. I love Sue Grafton (so much so that I named a dog in one of my novels Kinsey, after her main character). I have a love/hate relationship with Patricia Cornwell’s writing. My suspense favorites are the Lisa Trifecta: Lisa Scottoline, Lisa Gardner, and Lisa Unger, along with Tami Hoag and Harlan Coben. I also love the gritty prose of Karin Slaughter (the Grant County series is out of this world) and if I could write like anybody in the world, it would be Ann Patchett. Her novel The Magician’s Assistant still ranks as one of my all- time favorites.  As far as lesbian authors go, Katherine Forrest is one of my very favorites.  Karin Kallmaker is another, and I’m constantly discovering new, amazing talent in the pages of a book. I still live in Rochester, right in the city. Bonnie and I did Suburbia for a short time, but really found ourselves missing the hustle and bustle, the closeness, of being in the city so we headed back, much to the extreme surprise of many of our suburban neighbors. We also moved south for a little while, but ill family members and general homesickness brought us back to Upstate New York and we’re very content. We’ve been together for seventeen years this June (which boggles both our minds if we dwell on it too long). We had a union ceremony in New Zealand during the Millennium, which is something not many people we know can say. That was, without a doubt, the trip of a lifetime. We have a dog and a cat – Finley and Kallie – and a slew of nieces and nephews who keep us on our toes.  I’ve discovered that writing is an ever-improving craft; that I will continue to get better throughout my entire writing career and that’s okay. Inspiration is everywhere and I’ve taken to jotting things down on scraps of paper (I used to have a memory like a steel trap, but once I passed forty, I was in for a rude awakening). In addition to all the fiction I read, I’ve also started reading about writing. You can never learn too much about that at which you strive to be good, and that's my goal: to continue to get better with each novel, essay, and story. I want to learn forever. Here is a chronological list of my published works as of early 2011: Turning the Page, 2001 A novel of lesbian romance published by Regal Crest Enterprises Thy Neighbor’s Wife, 2003 A novel of lesbian romance published by Regal Crest Enterprises The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, 2004 A dramatic short story in the anthology Milk of Human Kindness: Lesbian Authors Write about Mothers, published by Regal Crest Enterprises Smolder, 2005 An erotic short story in the erotica anthology Infinite Pleasures, published by Intaglio Sales Call, 2005 (Lammy Winner) An erotic short story in the anthology Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments, published by Bold Strokes Books Too Close to Touch, 2006 (Goldie Finalist) A novel of lesbian romance published by Bold Strokes Books Fresh Tracks, 2006 (Lammy Winner, Goldie Winner) A novel of lesbian romance published by Bold Strokes Books Diva, 2006 A short story in the erotica anthology Erotic Interludes 4:  Extreme Passions, published by Bold Strokes Books Mine, 2007 (Goldie Finalist) A novel of lesbian romance published by Bold Strokes Books Finding Home, 2008 (Lammy Finalist, Goldie Finalist) A novel of lesbian romance published by Bold Strokes Books Balance, 2009 (Goldie Winner) A novella of suspense in the anthology Outsiders published by Brisk Press Starting from Scratch, 2010 (Lammy Finalist) A novel of lesbian romance published by Brisk Press Finley