Jane Austen

Kate Christie

Because Queer People Deserve Happily Ever After, Too. For the Bennet sisters, life in quiet Hertfordshire County is about to change. Netherfield Hall has just been let to a single man of large fortune. But while it is true that such a man is generally considered to be in want of a wife, it is equally true that not all men desire female companionship, just as not every woman dreams of being married. Like other variations on Jane Austen's classic romance novel, Gay Pride & Prejudice poses a question: What if some among Austen's characters preferred the company of their own sex? In this queer revision of the classic original, Kate Christie offers an alternate version of love, friendship, and marriage for Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and others among their circle of friends. But even as the path to love veers from the straight and narrow, the destination remains much the same. If you have an open mind, dear reader, you may discover the book Jane Austen would likely never have approved, but which, nonetheless, affords a window onto gay and lesbian life in early nineteenth century England.

Gay Pride and Prejudice

To most people, Kenzie Shepherd appears to be a slightly nerdy reporter for Emerald City Media, with close friends and a noticeably over-protective big sister. In reality, she's a super-powered alien refugee who arrived on Earth as a tween and has passed as human ever since. When her editor asks her to interview Ava Westbrook, chief operations officer at Hyperion Tech, Kenzie is understandably nervous about meeting the heir to the most notorious anti-alien family in America. She certainly doesn't expect Ava to announce that she wants to transform her family's company into a force for good. But is Ava really as different from her alien-hating brother and father as she seems?When she agreed to take her mother's place at Hyperion's Seattle office, Ava Westbrook was hoping to turn over a new leaf both for the embattled corporation and for her family's name. But with a hostile board and equally antagonistic CEO thwarting her sustainable energy plans, the path to change looks murky. Add in the highly inconvenient crush she has developed on a local reporter, and Ava is certain she is swimming out of her depth. And what is her mother up to, anyway?Drum up the Dawn is the first book in a new urban fantasy series that takes place on an Earth where alien refugees live on the fringes of society, Kenzie Shepherd may well be the last daughter of a long-dead planet, and Ava Westbrook wishes everyone could just get along.

Galaxy Girl Book One

Drum Up the Dawn

Movie star Tessa Flanagan has retired from the Hollywood grind with a string of popular and critical successes behind her. Now her days revolve around time with her daughter Laya and launching a new career in philanthropy. She doesn’t expect a brief encounter with Eleanor Chapin, Laya’s new kindergarten teacher, to make a lasting impression. As the end of the school year nears, however, Tessa realizes that her daughter’s beloved Miss Chapin may be the perfect nanny for the summer. Natural and direct, Eleanor already understands Laya’s need for life out of the public eye. Even though it means inviting a stranger into their household, Tessa is certain her own carefully guarded secrets will not be at risk. For Eleanor, L.A. is merely a stop between Boston and a long-awaited Ph.D. program. But the job offer from Tessa Flanagan is so lucrative she is tempted to put her plans on hold. The idea of working closely with Tessa is equally enticing, but the job is about Laya. There’s no reason not to take it—after all, she’ll be leaving L.A. soon. Kate Christie explores the distance from Chicago’s South Side to the Hollywood Hills, from bucolic New England to lush Kauai through the passionate connection between two women looking for home.

Leaving L.A.

Training Ground, book one of the Girls of Summer series, introduced Emma Blakeley and Jamie Maxwell, two young athletes with seemingly bright soccer futures. In book two, Game Time, those futures caught up to them¿and brought them, at last, back to each other. Now, in Outside the Lines, Jamie and Emma are forced to come to terms with their relationship as each dedicates herself to a lifelong dream: making the 2015 World Cup roster for the US Women¿s National Team, the top-ranked squad in the world.Back in the States for the first time in several years, Jamie has decided to focus on figuring things out with Emma and trying to stay healthy for her new NWSL club team, the Portland Thorns. Emma, meanwhile, a Seattle Reign mainstay, is trying to navigate conflicting commitments, both personally and professionally. But finding balance while living apart and playing for club and country presents challenges that neither anticipated.Join Jamie and Emma for the latest installment in the ongoing story of their lives, loves, and would-be world championships in Outside the Lines, book three of the bestselling Girls of Summer series.

Book Three of Girls of Summer

Outside the Lines

Training Ground, book one of the Girls of Summer series, introduced Emma Blakeley and Jamie Maxwell, two young athletes with seemingly bright soccer futures. Now, in book two, those futures are upon them.It's late 2013, and the world's best soccer players are gearing up for the 2015 World Cup. In London, Jamie has just completed her third season with Arsenal Ladies F.C. Only one soccer dream still eludes her: a spot on the US women's national team.Emma, a national team regular, plays professionally in Seattle with the NWSL, the most recent incarnation of American women's pro soccer. When Jamie is invited to her first national team residency camp, Emma is apprehensive. As professional athletes they have crossed paths a few times before, but they haven't spent this much time together since high school.Jamie, meanwhile, would do almost anything to earn the chance to play for her country at the highest level. Even, if she had to, share a room with Emma at residency camp. Both women are hoping it doesn't come to that.Join Jamie and Emma for the latest installment in the ongoing story of their lives, loves, and would-be world championships in Game Time, book two of the bestselling Girls of Summer series.

Book Two of Girls of Summer

Game Time

Sometimes a chance meeting can change everything. At fifteen, Jamie Maxwell's main goals in life are to make the United States youth national soccer pool, move past the Incident-That-Shall-Not-Be- Named, and maybe-someday-kiss a girl. When she meets Emma Blakeley at a tournament in Southern California, something about the older girl draws her in. And it isn't that she expects to ever get the chance to kiss Emma. Really. When Jamie invites her to sneak out on the last night of Surf Cup, Emma doesn't go because she likes Jamie's smile. She goes because, as the daughter of a surgeon and a nurse, she has a genetic predisposition to try to heal people. And Jamie, she can tell, is wounded. Neither girl suspects that this first last night together will form the basis of a bond that will last across years and miles, from SoCal soccer fields and New York hotels to Portuguese beaches and the streets of Vancouver. But that's how most friendships begin, isn't it? With a smile and a nod and the courage to ask, "Do you maybe, possibly, want to come with me?"

Book One of Girls of Summer

Training Ground

It's 1991 and Melissa Etheridge is a brand new voice on the radio. In Southern California it's almost--but not quite--safe to say lesbian outloud. For Camille Wallace, a sophomore attending San Diego University on a soccer scholarship, life is sweet. She has gay friends, the sport she loves and a future full of possibilities. Her possible futures don't include a woman like Jess Maxwell. Potential all-American, star-caliber tennis player and in every way the perfect co-ed, Jess isn't likely to notice Cam's admiring glances. And if she did, chances are she'll never think of Cam as more than a fan. The brilliant sunshine might be why Cam sees a Jess that no one else has realized is there. But it will take more than training and tenacity to find out if Jess wants to be the woman Cam believes lurks within. It may take more than Cam can possibly risk. Kate Christie looks at love and the pursuit of happiness for two vibrant, gifted college athletes in the early Gay 90s.

Beautiful Game

Fort Bliss—it’s anything but. Caroline “CJ” Jamieson gave up studying history and joined the Women’s Army Corps to live it instead. Along with her new WAC friends, she is ready to do her part to help boys like her brothers, fighting in the European and Pacific theaters, make it home sooner. The Army, however, has derailed her plans. Instead of the California post she anticipated, west Texas cacti and an anti-artillery training base are the unexpected sights on her new horizons. Not one to question orders, she’s not sure how her skills in airplane engine maintenance will be of use in this desolate region. But when CJ meets fellow WAC enlistee Brady Buchanan, Fort Bliss might live up to its name.

In the Company of Women

A Theory of Love

The first three books of the Girls of Summer series introduced Emma Blakeley and Jamie Maxwell, two young athletes with bright soccer futures. Now, in The Road to Canada, a staffing change on the US Women's National Team (USWNT) shortly before the 2015 World Cup has altered the playing field for both women. For Jamie, a new coach means a renewed shot at making the World Cup roster for the top-ranked squad in the world. For Emma, the shift in priorities means that for the first time in her adult life, she isn't sure she'll be on the field--or even on the team--for a major championship. Who will make the final cut for a chance to stand on top of the winner's podium in Vancouver? To find out, join Jamie and Emma for the latest installment in the ongoing story of their lives, loves, and would-be world championships in The Road to Canada, book four of the bestselling Girls of Summer series.

Book Four of Girls of Summer

The Road to Canada

The first four books of the Girls of Summer series introduced Emma Blakeley and Jamie Maxwell, two athletes with bright soccer futures. Now, in Girls of Summer, the US Women's National Team (USWNT) is in its final round of preparations before the 2015 World Cup. For Jamie, a starting spot on the World Cup roster would be a dream come true. For Emma, the summer of 2015 offers a chance at redemption. Will both women see their lifelong hopes and dreams realized? And can their relationship withstand the intense scrutiny of the outside world?To find out where this crucial summer takes Jamie and Emma, check out the latest installment in the story of their lives, loves, and would-be world championships in Girls of Summer, book five of the bestselling series.

Book Five of Girls of Summer

Girls of Summer

Under the Lights

Michigander Elizabeth "Junior" Starreveld is fairly certain this is the worst year of her twenty-something life. Her girlfriend recently dumped her for her best friend, her longtime mentor is seriously ill, and her conservative Dutch-American family still struggles to accept her "chosen lifestyle." When her father invites her on a business trip to the Netherlands, she suspects he plans to try to talk her into coming back to work at the family jewelry store-a return to the fold she has no intention of making. Still, a free trip to Europe is surely worth a bit of drama, isn't it? But as she and her father explore Amsterdam and get to know each other again over dark coffee and Belgian beer, Junior begins to question what she thought she knew about her family-and herself. Could this turn out to be a good year, though one of the hardest, after all?

Family Jewels

In 2011, shortly before the birth of her first daughter, novelist Kate Christie started a blog she titled Homodramatica. Over the next few years she wrote about queer parenting, lesbian fiction, same-sex marriage, chronic illness, and the joys-and challenges-of raising three girls under the age of three. Now for the first time Christie is sharing her nonfiction writing in a book that tells the story of her growing family-and of her own personal growth over the same period.From the introduction: "Through the process of revision and the addition of previously unpublished content, [this book offers] a quasi-coherent story of one family's beginning. Each chapter presents a text-based snapshot of daily life for my wife, daughters, and myself at a specific moment in time. Woven through this writerly scrapbook, as I've come to think of the collection, is the theme of gay marriage in the United States: What are the flash points in the cultural conversation about same-sex marriage? How does the debate impact parenting in general? And how does the political climate impact the life of our gay-married, same-sex parented family in particular?"As the saying goes, the personal is political. For one queer family, caught up in the culture wars of the early twenty-first century, the two have often been inextricable.

Family of Five

Homodramatica

It's June 1993, and Ashley Lake has just been reminded that she is not a lucky person. As a small child, she lost her parents in a plane crash from which she emerged as sole survivor. More recently, as a high school senior, she watched the aunt who raised her succumb to cancer, leaving her to wonder: Am I cursed? Rocked by her aunt's death, Ash puts plans for a collegiate track and field career on hold and moves to New York City. But even as she settles into life in The City, Ash knows she can't stay forever. Because while it doesn't look like she'll be the next Wilma Rudolph, she still might find an encouraging college coach and welcoming teammates. Possibly, even, the perfect place-or person-to call home. From the author of Beautiful Game and Family Jewels comes a new novel about changing course in the aftermath of loss.

A Novel

Flight

On the longest day of the year, anything can happen... Sam Delaney has all she asks from life: a job and a place of her own arranged exactly the way she likes it. The death of her older brother, and her parents' denial, have left her shaken and grateful her simple needs are being met. She's not looking for the future--today is all she needs. It's the last summer Emily MacKenzie will get to spend hanging out with friends, soaking up the sun and checking out the women on Seattle's sporting fields. Come fall, she's an assistant soccer coach with responsibilities. She's planning on making every day of summer count. When their paths cross, Emily is surprised Sam remembers her. Years ago, they played soccer on the same high school team, only Sam was the star and Emily the new kid. Their youthful camaraderie had been simple, but under the warm Seattle sun, simple is the last word that describes their feelings. In this rich story of long days and hot nights, newcomer Kate Christie follows the collision course of two women during the summer that changes their lives.

Solstice

Recover 30+ hours per month with this working mum’s time management handbook You are a clever, savvy, successful woman. You are also a working mum. Which means you have it all! Right? Wrong. Managing the juggle presents an ongoing and unique challenge for working mums, and it’s time to take control of your time. Written with humour and honesty, Me First offers personal insights, practical exercises, and time-management solutions for crazy busy, stressed out and guilt-ridden working mums. Me First teaches you how to take control of your time once and for all: • Liberate yourself from imposter syndrome, mother’s guilt and the other time-wasting mistakes we make • Start prioritising yourself • Cost out exactly what your poor time habits are costing you • Learn simple, smart and sustainable solutions to find 30+ lost hours a month • Set and smash audacious goals for how to best use your newfound time • Gain insights from successful women from around the world who know exactly how you feel. Me First is for every time-poor working mum who has had enough of the juggle. It’s time to start putting yourself first. It’s time to be a little less self-less.

Kate Christie

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