Plethora

Overview: Kelli Jae Baeli began writing as a child, exploring poetry and journaling, and eventually moving on to short stories. After a romantic fling in the military with another female soldier, she decided to write a book based on the experience. The story that evolved took on a life of its own, but it became her first novel, As You Were. This was followed quickly by Armchair Detective, a book she said she wrote because she couldn’t find other lesbian fiction she liked at the time, and so wanted to write something she would want to read. She's been doing that ever since. "Plethora is a Southern Gothic lesbian hybrid filled with interesting and quirky characters and ribald humor." ~Kindred Ink Writer's Initiative Brenna Clay, a quirky bisexual author, escapes with her lover to the remote Ozark area of Hogscald. Brenna easily becomes distracted by the machinations of her proposed utopia--a place where Mother Nature is not always nurturing, and her nearest neighbor lives in a treehouse and thinks she's been inseminated by aliens. As an added bit of entertainment, the Bubbas have out their binoculars, and are watching from the knoll, having never seen a real, live "Lezbean Homo-Sek-shul." Meanwhile, Micah Rose Royce lives in Eureka Springs and works as a masseuse. Fresh off a prolonged disability, she is anxious to feel human again, but has difficulty getting started. Micah's social life almost magically increases, yet she finds the choices fraught with peril. Things are complicated by her tendency to give in to her sexual appetite. She trudges through the exasperating and often comical dating scene in real life and on the Internet, still desperately searching for a suitable partner. "Baeli is an expert at character development and infusing zany humor into the character's lives. I wasn't aware until I finished with the book, that the two lead characters, Brenna and Micah, had many autobiographical elements of the author's life. Baeli is also rare amongst authors in strong secondary character development. The character of Tilly was a hoot!