Second Verse

by Jane Vollbrecht

It's been two years since Gail Larsen, editor for Outrageous Press, has so much as held hands with anyone. Her isolation is self-imposed, due to the guilt she feels over an accident involving her beloved Marissa. Then a special editing assignment throws Gail together with Connie Martin, one of the leading ladies of lesbian fiction. Gail is at first amused by Connie's pit-bull personality in a Pekinese body, but amusement turns to attraction, and attraction to heart-wrenching torment. Following an intense month working with Connie on her soon-to-be-released book, another opportunity comes Gail's way. Her lifelong friend, Penny Skramstaad, asks her to come to their hometown of Plainfield, Minnesota, to help clean out Penny's parents' house. For more than thirty years, Gail has harbored an unanswered longing for Penny. When Gail and Penny go to the homecoming dance at Plainfield High, old ghosts re-emerge, and Gail and Penny are forced to finally confront them. With Connie on one side and Penny on the other, Gail fears she's trapped between two women-one she'll never have and one she doesn't want. As Gail comes to know the truths about both Connie and Penny, she also comes to know herself, perhaps much better than she ever thought she might. One thing she's sure of: she wants a partner who will dance with her for the rest of her life. Can she find someone who'll last through the Second Verse?

174 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2007