Welcome!
1. When did you start writing?
I’ve been writing seriously for a few decades, but I started focusing on writing and publishing queer adult romance in late 2022 with the release of the AUDRINA series (Books 1-4 are also available on Amazon/KU). The idea for my first full-length novel, THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH has been a percolating work-in-progress since 2016, which in some ways feels like another lifetime ago. I lost both my parents when I was young (my father died when I was a teen, and my mother died when I was thirty,) and so in some ways, I am always writing about love and loss and moments of intense transformation and growth.
2. What motivates you to write?
I write queer and sapphic love stories, and a big thing that motivates me to write is that I want more sweet and spicy sapphic/ LGBTQ+ stories with HFNs and HEAs in the world!
Over the past eight years, both reading and writing romance has been a veritable lifeline. I know I’m not alone when I say that I have often felt overwhelmed during this intense time of heartache and pain. Writing itself has always been a source of healing for me.
I started writing PARADOX immediately after I attended the funeral for my mom’s childhood best friend that late spring 2016. 2016 was also the year that I first came out to my closest family and friends, and as those who have come out know, the journey can be at once liberating, joyful, celebratory as well as terrifying, hurtful, confusing, and lonely. Then life hit – multiple health crises, the pandemic, the impacts of the hatred-filled violence and terrifying policies that present daily challenges for my little LGBTQ family.
I wrote THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH to remind myself that it’s okay to want to find love in the aftermath of shocking loss and seemingly interminable grief. It’s a book about authentic hope, even during the darkest of times, which is a thing I think we all need right now.
3. What genre do you write in and what made you chose this particular genre?
I am a queer adult romance writer, and while I’ve started by publishing contemporary, I have a forthcoming romantasy as well as a mafia billionaire romance, all queer of course, in the works, and set for release in 2025 and 2026.
4. What is your goal in writing? Do you have dreams where your writing should take you?
As a sensually empowering queer adult romance writer, I write stories of pleasure, empowerment, consent, and awakenings.
I have three goals when I write:
I am currently reading Melissa Febos’s extraordinary book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative. When I read these lines, my whole heart expanded: “Writer was the only role I could see myself occupying in society, the only one that might hold everything that I was. Queer, overly emotional, burdensomely perceptive, reluctant to do any kind of work whose purpose was opaque to me, ravenous in ways that made me an outlier. It was an occupation that seemed to offer respite and relief, but also was connected to the sublime. It offered the gift of self-forgetting, a transcendence on the other side of which lay insight.” So do my writing goals include wanting respite, relief, connection to the sublime, and the gift of self-forgetting? All of the above–please, and thank you.
I also think of Joan Didion who said, “We write to discover what we think.” This speaks to the core of my experience as a writer, particularly when it comes to writing queer romance. I try to begin from a place of inquiry. I see writing as an exploration, a journey of discovery, a path towards knowledge. Each story usually starts as a question, and my goal, as a writer, is to write my characters’ way to an answer, one that holds space for both authenticity and hope.
I have been deeply overjoyed and grateful for the community that I’ve discovered since I started writing romance, especially among fellow LGBTQ+ readers and writers. I attended both Steamy Lit Con and 20Books in Vegas last year, and I can’t tell you how wonderful it’s been to meet so many amazing people who are eager to support queer indie writers such as myself. My dream is to keep writing stories that readers love! And with that — I’m so grateful for this opportunity to connect with you!
5. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if yes, how do you deal with it?
Absolutely, I do! I’ve found that the root of my writer’s block is fear—perhaps I want to write, but I am not in a heart-centered, open-bodied place to be get the story out of my body. Emily Nagoski talks a lot about ways to close the stress cycle – and again, for me, the words usually stop “flowing” because I’m tense and worried – and perhaps about something I cannot even yet name.
One effective ways, according to Nagoski’s research, to move past moments of burnout, especially creative burnout, is to move the body. Two things help me with writer’s block: 1) Walking. 2) Yoga. I keep my journal close, and after I’ve completed my trek or practice, I sit for about twenty minutes and write as much as I can. After a few days of doing some variation of this, I’m usually back on track.
6. What advice would you like to give new, hopeful authors?
READ. A lot. Both in the genre/style you want to publish in and ABOUT writing – all aspects – the writing process, the publishing process, etc. There are hundreds of blog posts about the writing life, etc. and I read them obsessively to understand what I had to do to get published.
Also, WRITE a lot, of course. Just keep writing, no matter what, even if it’s a journal for yourself where you write a little bit everyday. Stay curious about the world. And stay open. And always, always, always have fun. If you are having fun, it means you are still in love with the process. As Maya Angelou said, “You can never be great at anything unless you love it.”
7. Please, tell us about your work.
Funeral crashing has been the best way for Noemi Moretti to release her pent-up emotions after the death of her parents. But on the anniversary of their passing, she meets Amara Forsythe, a beautiful UCLA student mourning her grandmother. Fate brings them together again at another funeral, but Noemi hides her true intentions from Amara. As their relationship blossoms, so do the lies that threaten to tear them apart. Can Noemi find a way to make things right before it’s too late?
THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH follows Noemi as she navigates through her grief and falls for Amara. But with secrets and guilt weighing heavily on her conscience, Noemi must confront the consequences of her actions before it’s too late. Fans of emotional and thought-provoking sapphic romances will love this poignant tale of love, loss, and what it means to truly live. As their connection deepens, so do the lies, and Noemi doesn’t know how to make it right. She soon becomes caught in a tangled mess that threatens to tear her, and her burgeoning relationship, apart.
For readers who enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, you won’t want to miss out on this powerful and heartfelt novel. THE PARADOX OF LOVE AND DEATH is a profound and heart-tugging sapphic adult romance about death, love, and what it really means to be alive.
Thank you for being my guest. It was such a pleasure to have you here!!
About the book
Author Name: Artemis Glass
Release Date: Monday, February 05 2024
Tour Type: 3-Day Blast
Tour Start Date: Thursday, April 25 2024
Cover Artist: Get Covers
Primary Plot Arc: Romance
Pairings (Only if PRIMARILY a romance): FF
Main Genre(s): Romance
Story Type: Novel (>50k)
Word Count: 83000
LGBTQ+ Identities (if applicable): lesbian, trans
Is This Part of a Series?: Yes
Position (Number) in Series: 1
Title for Other Book(s) in Series: The Paradox of Love Trilogy
Was This Book Published in An Earlier Edition?: No
Book Blurb:
Funeral crashing has been the best way for Noemi Moretti to release her pent-up emotions after the death of her parents. But on the anniversary of their passing, she meets Amara Forsythe, a beautiful UCLA student mourning her grandmother. Fate brings them together again at another funeral, but Noemi hides her true intentions from Amara. As their relationship blossoms, so do the lies that threaten to tear them apart. Can Noemi find a way to make things right before it’s too late?
The Paradox of Love and Death follows Noemi as she navigates through her grief and falls for Amara. But with secrets and guilt weighing heavily on her conscience, Noemi must confront the consequences of her actions before it’s too late. Fans of emotional and thought-provoking sapphic romances will love this poignant tale of love, loss, and what it means to truly live. As their connection deepens, so do the lies, and Noemi doesn’t know how to make it right. She soon becomes caught in a tangled mess that threatens to tear her, and her burgeoning relationship, apart.
For readers who enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, you won’t want to miss out on this powerful and heartfelt novel. The Paradox of Love and Death is a profound and heart-tugging sapphic adult romance about death, love, and what it really means to be alive.
Non-Exclusive Excerpt:
Amara looks at me and her eyes widen. “Oh my God. It really has. My grandmother’s funeral on the same day as my ex-best-friend’s funeral, and then I get caught up in the horribly tragic family soap opera that was his life? It’s been the shittiest day of my life.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say. I rest my right hand on her elbow as a gesture of sympathy and kindness. She responds by wrapping her fingertips around my wrist.
Her touch feels like something more than kindness. It feels intimate. It feels like an invitation.
“What I can’t understand,” she says, her voice shifting ever so slightly. “If it’s been the shittiest day of my life, then why do I feel so, I don’t know… like, jittery—but almost happy right now? Why do I feel like—like I have butterflies flitting around inside my ribcage?” I feel her graze the length of my fingers.
“Why do you have butterflies flitting around inside your ribcage?” I ask, my own heartbeat suddenly flitting wildly, too.
“Because,” she whispers. “I really want to kiss you.”
“Oh.”
“Is that okay?” I nod and let her tug me closer to her.
She wraps her fingers around mine and breathes in my hair. I feel the soft skin of her fingertips trace my jaw. She moans, and I feel my whole body alight with possibility.
I haven’t felt like this since Valeria—and we haven’t even kissed yet.
Fuck, is this really happening? I pull back. What am I doing? Am I really going to make out with a stranger at a funeral?
Her hands loosen in response to my hesitance. “Shit, sorry,” she says. “I thought I felt something between us. I shouldn’t have—”
“I want to kiss you, too,” I hear myself say, and then I pull her towards me. I place my lips on hers, and I feel her body relax and her mouth smile.
Our kiss is clumsy at first—we nearly bump noses, we’re both so nervous. Once we move past our awkwardness, though, we settle into each other’s touch, each other’s breath, each other’s rhythm. Amara’s lips are soft, her skin smooth.
The coarse tips of her long curls graze my cheeks, my forehead. Every time she steals another taste of tongue, every time she bites my bottom lip, ever so gently, she whimpers in pleasure.
My own body is enlivened, too.
It’s been so long.
This feels so good.
Fuck.
I am making out with a stranger at a funeral. This might be a new low, even for me.
Giveaway:
Artemis is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47311/?
About the Author
Artemis Glass is a multi-genre author of sensually empowering queer adult romance who is on a lifelong journey to reclaim her sources of pleasure.
Her first full-length queer adult romance, The Paradox of Love and Death, is a profound and heart-tugging sapphic HEA about love, death, and what it really means to be alive. Available now on Amazon/KU.
Her Amazon bestselling series, Audrina’s Year of Yearning, follows Audrina Axler-Perez as she undergoes a funny, joyful, and spicy LGBTQ+ midlife awakening.
The novellas, Book 1: A New Year and Book 2: Valentines, Book 3: Lucky, and Book 4: True Colors now available! More coming all year. (Insert Michael Scott joke here.)
Connect with Artemis on IG @artemisglassbooks and on FB @artemisglassbooks.
Author Website: https://www.artemisglassbooks.com/
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/artemisglassbooks/
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090104731744
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artemisglassbooks/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/24295606.Artemis_Glass
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/artemisglassbooks
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