Guilty Indulgence: GayRomLit Recap @Torquere

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

GayRomLit Recap @Torquere

A MESSAGE from Kristi Boulware, General Manager – Submissions Editor of Torquere Press...

Hey y'all! I am still recovering from my first year at GayRomLit. It was an amazing experience for Torquere Press as a whole. I was able to meet SO many great authors, great readers and just overall wonderful people. The organizers Carol Lynn, Theresa, Ethan, Damon and Heidi were just phenomenal in all aspects. The volunteers were just running their little butts off especially Brandi and Randy. They were everywhere all at once it seemed. The events were great from the pictionary, kinky crafts, karaoke, scrapbook party and more. Torquere hosted an great mexican luncheon down in Old Town were we gave away tons of books for NOH8, enjoyed yummy food and made a big announcement.

Those of you that have been friends/fans of Torquere Press for the last almost 10 years know our history. We were started by Shawn (BA Tortuga) and Lorna (Julia Talbot) because no one else out there at the time was willing to publish M/M. They wanted a place that was a safe haven to publish what they were passionate about writing. Well in the last 10 years Torquere Press has grown and flourished, as with any business there were some ups and downs but overall the company has had a steady upward growth streak. Prizm Books is the Young Adult imprint from Torquere Press that was started in 2007 and has recently gone through a complete overhaul. All this being said, at our luncheon Shawn announced that she is stepping down as President of Torquere. Shawn is an author at heart and wants to write. That is her passion and what she "does". Lorna also is working towards the same goal. These two amazingly brilliant women knew that with the growth of the company continuing that this was a great time to pass on the torch. I, Kristi Boulware, have a background in business management and marketing. I will be running Torquere Press and Prizm Books as the General Manager and Submissions Editor. We will be adding on staff as we continue to grow and hopefully by mid next year Lorna can also step down and focus solely on her writing. We are so excited about the growth that is happening from updating our cover art on new and backlist releases, adding special calls, opening new genres and so much more.

Now, back to GRL. We also hosted a bowling party that the authors and readers seemed to have the best time. We laughed, cheered, jumped around, drank beer and generally had a great time. Both of our events seemed to really help the attendees with the chance to get out of the hotel and have a chance to be out and about.

Overall GayRomLit was a great experience and we are already planning next year in Atlanta. Hope to see you all there and feel free to let me know what types of great things you suggest us to do when we get there.