By Lori Perkins I grew up surrounded by the music of this guy, and yet no one really talks about him now. I knew Billy Preston was a talented and well-respected musician.  When Peter Jackson’s Get Back featuring the recording sessions from Let It Be   came out in 2023, and I saw him create with the Beatles, I did the proverbial “where is he now?” search. I learned that he was gay, and had died young-ish, so I jumped to the conclusion that hiding his gay self had contributed t

By Karen Essex Some stories refuse to fade. Dracula in Love  has followed me for years like a shadow—beautiful, intimate, and a little dangerous. When I first wrote it, I wanted to ask a simple but radical question: what if Mina Harker were not the dutiful Victorian heroine of Bram Stoker’s imagination, but a woman of appetite, agency, and secret power? What if she were the vampire’s equal? Long before “romantasy” became a defined genre, I was drawn to stories that braided hi

By Lori Perkins As many of you know by now, I LOVE Galentine’s Day. What I once thought of it as a made-up holiday from Amy Poehler’s character Leslie Knope on  Parks & Recreation  is now one of my favorites is now one of my favorite, and cherished, holidays. What’s Galentine’s Day you ask?  In the words of Leslie Knope, “Oh, it’s only the best day of the year. Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it,

By Lori Perkins That headline seems redundant, no? I am preparing for my annual re-watch of the Bill Murray/Andie McDowell classic Groundhog Day,  which I started rewatching annually seven years ago.  It seems like only yesterday… One of the most amazing things about the movie, for me, is that every time I watch it I see something in it I never saw before. The first time I rewatched it, I was shocked at how I never saw it as a romance.  It even has a Happy Ever After  (HEA) e