Young lesbian coming-out novel will come out as a free e-book
(if the crowd-funding campaign succeeds by January 30, 2013)
Nancy Rawles explains why she wants to make her novel free forever:
Ebooks ought to be like cell phones – giving people access who would otherwise have no service. If a young lesbian of color struggling to come out to her family wants to read a book about a young lesbian of color struggling to come out to her family, she should have it available free as an ebook rather than having to hide a hard copy between the covers. Unglue.it is the PBS of publishing, premiums and all. I miss a lot of great shows because I don’t have HBO, but I’ve seen every Downton Abbey a few times over. I’m eager for Love Like Gumbo to be unglued.”
About the book:
Love Like Gumbo is a rich stew of family ties, budding lesbian sexuality, and Creole culture set in 1978 South Central L.A. This is Nancy Rawles’s first novel, and it bears the marks of her previous work as a playwright–crisp dialogue and characters portrayed more with gesture and movement than narrative. Protagonist Grace Broussard is a 20-year-old caught between the traditions of her Creole family and her love for her Mexican girlfriend. This warm, funny novel will appeal to women who question the relation between cultural tradition, family obligation, and an individual’s sexual choices.
You can help make this book available here.
About the author:
Nancy Rawles is the author of three critically-acclaimed and award-winning novels. Love Like Gumbo won The Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award and an ASTREA Foundation grant for its portrayal of a lesbian daughter’s struggle for independence from her warm but suffocating family. Crawfish Dreams, the second in a Trilogy about the Broussard family of Compton Avenue, was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. Nancy’s third novel, My Jim, tells the story of the wife and children of Mark Twain’s famous slave character from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. My Jim is the winner of the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Legacy Award in Fiction from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. The Seattle Public Library chose My Jim as the 2009 selection for its popular program Seattle Reads, in which readers all over the city are encouraged to read and participate in discussions about one book.