Len Barot, the publisher and author/founder of Bold Stroke Books, is probably the most influential powerhouse in lesbian romance publishing since Barbara Grier and Donna McBride of Naiad Press. BSB has over 550 active titles at present, and Len herself has written... forty-two of them! Who is this super-power?
It's no exaggeration to say BSB has revolutionized the world of lesbian romantic intrigue. If you're a fan of a whip-smart, relentless lesbian heroine, you are no doubt holding one of Len's books in your hands.
I first met Len in my role as Audible editor. Every time I picked up a gay bestseller, it seemed to be one hers, or an author she'd cultivated! "Radclyffe" is Len's first pen name— "L.L. Raand" is her second, which she uses for her new paranormal series.
Audible has nine BSB romances in the Audible store as of today, and romance fans would be happy if I could produce a new one every day; they're so popular.
Imagine my surprise, when I asked Len how she started her writing career, and she told me the first half of her life... she'd been a surgeon, a plastic surgeon.
How did you make the transition from plastic surgeon to bestselling author and publisher?
My lifelong desire from the time I was a preteen was to be a doctor. The idea of being an author was nowhere on my horizon.
I grew up in a small village in upstate New York where many, including my parents, made their living in the factories common along the Hudson River. It was a mill town. Writing was my personal expression, never anything I considered as a possible career.
I did become a doctor, and enjoyed my surgical career— I still miss the challenge. But I don't regret my decision to retire from medicine and pursue writing and publishing.
When I retired in 2005, I was a professor of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. My specialty was plastic and reconstructive surgery.
My practice consisted of reconstructive procedures such as cleft lip and palate repair, facial reconstruction after trauma, reconstructive hand surgery, and reconstructive breast surgery following mastectomy or as a result of congenital abnormalities.
Was your medical life anything like the television approximations, a little Nip/Tuck?
My practice was nothing like the plastic surgery seen on television— I'm not certain any surgery seen on television is accurate.
In the interests of storytelling, the most dramatic aspects of a practice are emphasized. —That's not different than fiction, when you think of it.
Plastic surgeons are one of the few types of surgeons who operate on patients of all ages, on all parts of the body, and are usually consulted when complications arise that require expertise in wound healing and complex surgical reconstruction.
None of my books are based on coworkers or patients, although the trauma cases I describe in my books are based on real-life experiences.
There's nothing that I've written about in my books that I haven't been part of in actual practice.
So how did you put the scalpel down and start writing?
The transition from surgery to full-time writing and publishing was a gradual one.
I began writing when I was a resident. I wrote my first book purely for personal pleasure, as was the case for the next seven. I had no intention or even a thought of publishing them.
Once they were done I put them away.
In the late 1990s I stumbled upon an online fanfiction group focused on The X-Files. Some of the authors were writing lesbian fanfiction and I wanted to give it a try. Soon I was writing every night when I got home from work and posting my stories online.
Three small publishers approached me almost simultaneously and requested that I publish my works with them. Thus began my writing career.
Ultimately I decided to start my own publishing company and made the decision to retire from surgery in order to give the publishing company and its authors the attention they deserved.
How did you choose your pen name, Radclyffe?
I chose my pen name because I wanted a recognizable "lesbian-identified" persona. At the time I was still practicing surgery, and I needed a writing persona separate from the rest of my life.
Writing has always been so personal to me that I wanted it to be part of my life that wasn't impacted by anything else.
I read The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall soon after reading my first work of lesbian fiction published by Naiad Press, The Latecomer, by Sarah Aldridge.
Because there were so few works coming out at that time (1974) I began a quest for anything written prior to that time. I turned up Maurice, by E.M. Forrester, some lesbian pulp fiction, and then Well of Loneliness.
How did you come out, to yourself?
I was probably eleven years old, when I first realized that I loved girls the way most of my girlfriends were falling in love with boys. I didn't actually learn the word lesbian until I was eighteen and already had my first girlfriend.
I was very involved with both the gay and women's movements in college. Those times were life-altering, especially for a 20-year-old discovering others like herself for the first time.
Today, I'm in a long-term relationship, no kids, and have a partner whom I met in an online writing group. She always supported my choice to leave medicine for writing, even when we had no way of knowing how successful Bold Strokes Books would be.
What makes a a great editor?
An editor needs to know the genre in which they work— the structure, the expectations. One has to have respect for an author's efforts— and a willingness to communicate in a way that allows the author to absorb constructive criticism.
I'm fortunate in my own work to have the same two primary editors for over ten years. They know the way I think, and I trust them to edit my work honestly. Several times I've also asked a third editor, someone whose work I admire, to review my manuscripts and point out areas where I might work on craft.
I work closely with my primary editor because my schedule is tight and we edit as I go, looking at style points in progress and the story as a whole after the second draft.
How do you balance being a publisher and an author?
I believe in deadlines and I schedule my time to make sure I meet them.
I write at least part of every day to keep on schedule. I generally write 8000 words a week, or about five hours a day. I work about twelve hours a day, which isn't very different from practicing surgery.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Well, I don't know. None of my pleasures make me guilty. :-)
What are your top three favorite romance books besides your own?
Rebecca, Jane Eyre,—and Bitter Thorns, by Chris Anne Wolfe.
Care to name your favorite erotic novel or short story?
One of my favorites is Jennifer Fulton’s Naked Heart.
Which of your titles do you cherish/special memories?
I always recommend Fated Love to readers who have not read anything I've written (or Above All, Honor) which are all-time favorites.
One of the most personal books I've written is When Dreams Tremble, a romance set at Lake George, New York where I lived the summer between high school and college. Some of the experiences in this particular novel come as close to autobiographical as anything I've ever written, so writing it brought up fond memories for me.
What are you doing this summer?
In six days my new motorcycle (a Can Am Spyder!) will be delivered. I plan to spend a lot of time on the back roads of New England.
What trends do you see in your favorite genres?
I don't think that vampires have been "done," not in queer paranormal. My paranormal series (under the pen name L. L. Raand) is split equally between werewolf and vampire fans.
I don't think we can judge trends in queer fiction by the mainstream. There tends to be a bit of a lag. Erotic romances didn't take off in queer fiction for 5-10 years after they became more visible in mainstream fiction.
I think we're going to see more fairytale adaptations; at least I hope so. They're fertile ground for queer fiction and reflect the the trends in the movie business.
I've always loved sci-fi fantasy. The genre incorporates elements of science which, of course, is a first love of mine. You have the freedom to imagine worlds and lives beyond our own.
Once I decided to write a paranormal series, The Midnight Hunters, I decided I was going to have fun, no matter what. No rules, no worries about how it might be accepted. I’m really happy so many of my readers have embraced the series.
Which of your novels would you love to see debut on the big screen?
Safe Harbor would be a good book to translate to film--it has a fairly large cast of characters, a prominent setting, and iconic characters (the soldier/warrior and the independent freethinker doctor).
Have you ever thought of writing "mainstream" fiction? Do straight women and men read your books?
I write what touches me— what is meaningful to my life and I hope to the lives of others.
I write what I love to read. I couldn't be happier being a lesbian romance writer, in every sense of those words.
As to my straight readers -- one of the wonderful things about fiction is that we're able to place ourselves into another world where we're not restricted by gender, age, ability, or experience.
I can read a straight romance and enjoy it while translating some of the characters into a reality more like my own. I think many straight readers enjoy the emotional aspects of the relationships in a lesbian romance and probably do a little gender translating themselves. :-)
Photos, top to bottom: Len and her Spyder, 2012, doing a little editorial phone business in the office, and in 2004, just before Len retired from active practice as surgeon. All, courtesy of Len Barot.