Today on the site please welcome Tiffany E. Taylor, who’s here to talk about writing midlife butch/femme romance in her new book, One More Chance, which just published last month! Here’s the book:
Aimée “Jake” Charron is a still-mourning butch who tragically lost her wife long ago. Geneva Raineri is a discouraged femme who’s given up on fairytales and happily-ever-afters. One night, a personal ad written as a joke by Gen triggers an unexpectedly sensual game of online cat-and-mouse between the two.
Jake knows she’s already had one chance at a forever love, but lost it when her wife died. She wants Gen with a desire she’d thought was long dead—but Jake believes expecting to find another great love after you’ve already had one and lost it is a fool’s game.
Gen, however, is determined to prove to Jake that anyone lucky enough to be given another shot at happiness needs to grab it with both hands and never let it go.
As Jake and Gen navigate personal journeys that include heartbreak, self-discovery, passion, and courage, they both discover that risking everything to take one more chance on love might ultimately be their salvation.
Buy it: Amazon
And here’s the post!
If there’s one thing I consistently hear in the world of sapphic fiction from readers who are part of the butch/femme dynamic, it’s that books focusing on this particular subgenre—specifically novels that cater to the 40+ midlife crowd—are somewhat thin on the ground.
As I assembled my beta team for One More Chance and gave them an overview on what they would be reading, all I heard was, “Yes! It’s about time!” These readers love many different kinds of sapphic fiction, but they say that reading about protagonists in their twenties can be a little bit disconcerting from the perspective of butches and femmes in their forties or fifties (and beyond). Having passed the half century mark myself, I can most certainly relate.
When I was writing the story of Jake and Gen, my then 40-something femme self could completely relate to Gen. She is a professional woman with a formidable education and a powerhouse career—someone with whom I had much more in common than with a 23-year-old barista. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a young barista, my more seasoned femme beta and ARC readers and I were able to connect with Gen on a level that went much deeper for us.
And Jake? There’s a phenomenon in the butch/femme community known as “The Dance”—an expression of queer masculine and feminine gender identity wrapped in a sexuality that feels intense, dramatic, and incredibly romantic. Jake is confident and self-assured, with a sensual maturity that lures Gen to her and makes no bones about the fact that she is the quintessential butch of Gen’s dreams.
Jake is undeniably attracted to Gen, finding a woman desirable for the first time since her wife passed away seven years prior. But how does a butch in her mid-forties even fathom the possibility of starting over again, when the love of her life has been so tragically taken from her? How does she reconcile her almost debilitating loss in the past with her newfound all-consuming desire for Gen in the present—especially when she was positive her romantic life had ended the day her wife died?
For her part, Gen has been so disillusioned by her previous relationships, she has convinced herself that the fantasy butch she’s constructed in her mind is nothing more than a figment of her imagination. Devoting herself exclusively to both her career and the baby daughter she had decided to have on her own, she has no intention of ever falling again for the mythical fairytale of happily-ever-after.
But when a friend posts a sultry personal ad Gen had written as a joke on a butch/femme dating site, Gen is beside herself and vows to ignore any responses she might receive—until Jake responds in the same vein. Gen is captivated by the seductive alpha butch, unable to resist her pull. Their conversation starts with an online cat-and-mouse game—Gen stubbornly informing Jake she will never yield to her, Jake telling Gen there is no way to resist her when she sets out to get what she wants.
When the two finally meet, sparks fly and Jake discovers in Gen the one woman in this world who can help her finally heal from her loss. However, it’s anyone’s guess if Jake will be able to slay her demons and take another chance on love with tender, compassionate Gen. When Jake initially balks, seemingly stuck in her world of pain and sorrow, Gen and her shattered heart tell Jake resolutely, “I can’t live in the past, Jake. I owe Gia the future,” before leaving Jake’s home to return to her own. Her spine of steel, even in the midst of her heartbreak, reflects a middle-aged woman who has seen a great deal of life already, and her reactions reflect that in a way that perhaps a woman of 20-something could not.
There is a happily-ever-after ending to their love story, but it takes a midlife journey through self-discovery and determination—for both Jake and Gen—before they earn their reward. The trek is arduous for them at times, two 40-something queer women who have already experienced the world more deeply than they ever had in their twenties. The risks to them may bigger at this stage of their life games—but they also discover the final gift is much, much sweeter.
This is the first book in a series I’m calling “The Dance”—stand alone 40+ happily-ever-after romances centered within the butch/femme dynamic. I want to explore how those types of queer females think and feel and react from the midpoint of their lives instead of from the time when things felt shinier and new—a later in life time when taking the greatest risks can also lead to reaping the greatest rewards.
As the book description says: Sometimes, risking everything to take one more chance on love might be your salvation.
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Tiffany E. Taylor writes sensual sapphic romance fiction within the passionate butch/femme dynamic in a variety of genres: action-adventure, contemporary, and paranormal.
Before she became a full-time author, Tiffany was a well-known curly hair specialist. When a severe hemorrhagic stroke put an end to her hairdressing career, she started to write instead. She hopes to be an inspiration for anyone undergoing disability challenges.
She lives with her spouse and their daughter in an idyllic queer-friendly little town on Florida’s west-central coast. The Taylors have been a long-time part of the butch/femme community, about which she writes so passionately.
