Connie Brooks told me last week that the world’s largest publisher of lesbian an LGBTQ books was located in my small town of Cambridge, N.Y., I was surprised. I have never head of Bold Stroke Books. or met anyone who was published by them.

Sometimes I think our world is composed of a million islands and tiny nations, we just are blind to so many of them and shrunk in our little worlds.

Tonight, the bookstore arranged for a panel discussion with the publisher and several writers from Bold Strokes, Maria and I wanted to meet them and hear about this genre.

I don’t go to a lot of readings, but I was intrigued by this one, partly because I have been working with a group that supports transgender children.

The talks were great.

Mostly I learned that gay and  lesbian writers are well — just writers. They talk like writers, think like writers, worry like writers, complain like writers, face long odds as writers, and are intense and sometimes driven like writers. They are very much like me.

Lesbian publishing has the same trouble all publishing has, only more so, they are in a smaller niche than commercial publishers face, they have even fewer places to sell their books.

One questioner wondered if LGBTQ books should be freed from their special sections in book stores, but Radcliffe,  the publisher of Bold Strokes pointed out that this would make it even more difficult for their readers to find their books. There are now only 12 lesbian and gay book stores left in America.

I did not feel as if I were hearing lesbian writers at the bookstore, I felt like I was hearing writers, period.

One of the fiction writers on the panel – Karen F. Williams – is an award-winning dog writer, she lives in New York City and also has a home in the Berkshires, not far from our farm. She has a couple of cats and six dogs.

She talked about her new romance novel “As the Crow Flies,” and it definitely caught my attention. Her main character, Samantha Weller, a forensic scientist turned paranormal novelist, was saved and inspired by a crow that helped her avoid an almost certain death.

When she buys an old bookend that looks just like her crow, her world is turned upside down and eerily begins to resemble her novels.

The book so far tells me as much about being a woman as it does about being a lesbian. I liked this description by Liz, a racing car enthusiast,  of being pulled over by a state trooper:

“Most troopers expect to pull over a young guy with an attitude,” she says, “and when they find a woman in a business suit, they don’t know what to do, except let me go with a warning.”

As it turns out there is not only a crow, but a restless ghost. And dogs.

And some paranormal twists and turns. I’ve never read a romance novel of any kind, gay or straight. But when I went up and introduced myself to Karen – turns out she’s read one or two of my books – I sensed right away how much we have in common.

Six dogs? They are a major part of her books.

Karen Williams struck me as the real deal. She is passionate about her writing. She is a novelist and a psychotherapist, and also  a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who holds degrees in communication arts, philosophy and clinical social work.

She has written about nature and the human-animal bond, and was awarded the Maxwell Medallion by the Dog Writers Association of America. I am always impressed by awards, I have never received one in my life.

Sitting there in the bookstore,  listening to this very interesting fellow writer and dog lover,  I had this idea.

Could a straight author set in his literary tastes and  ways like and review a lesbian novel that writes about romance and  “explores the quantum mechanics of immortality?” I’m interested in mortality, and dogs, and even crows. And I love mysteries.

Is this time for me to grow and learn and shake myself up a bit? Stretch the mind and peek over my sometimes narrow horizons?

So I bought a copy of Karen’s book. And I started reading her book tonight. I’m only a few pages into it, and I plan to write a book review about it.

I’ll wait to draw conclusions until I finish it, but so far, there is the same feeling I had in the bookstore. The story is just a story, and a readable one.

The love and sex are just love and sex. I get the sense I’m reading a story of romance, with some science fiction and spooky other-worldly stuff. It feels like a rich mix.

I like Samantha Weller already and want to know what going to happen to her and what the crow means.

It starts off like a good story and keeps on going. I have 250 pages to go.

I realize how vulnerable we are to labeling and cultural prejudice. I’ve never once thought a lesbian romance was a book I should read or was written for me. I’ve never thought of buying one, no one has ever recommended one to me.

But why not? People are people, romance is romance, dogs and ghosts are dogs and ghosts?

Karen is thoughtful and has a sense of humor, that is pretty obvious. So far, so good.

I don’t get the sense I’m reading a lesbian book, I get the sense I’m reading a book.

It’s not the genre I have historically loved or read, and I don’t expect that to change. I have hated labels all of my life, they just spawn hatred and stupidity. Look at the people on the left and the right, watch cable news for an  hour if you can stand it. Labels are sucking the soul out of my country.

But a good story is a good story, and Karen Williams looks to be a good and serious writer. We have a lot in common.

This will take me a week or so to get through. I’ll be back writing about it, and I can’t wait to see what it means for me.

You can see and buy this book on Amazon for $11.95.