One of the things that has Erin and I looking so forward to reading the Young Love, Old Hearts anthology is that it is a mixed-orientation anthology with both M/M and F/F stories. These mixed-orientation anthologies often seem to us to be the exception rather than the rule. And, frankly, that’s fair: Many readers are only interested in either M/M or F/F relationship narratives.
But, the fact is Erin and I enjoy reading and writing both, and too often we feel like women who love women get less focus in LGBTQ publishing. As bi women that frustrates both us a lot, even though we often write stories — including our piece in YLOH — about men.
So basically, we think this anthology is awesome. And we’re excited to read it along with you, not just because a story we wrote is included in it, but because stories that also reflect the wide range of our own experiences are included in it. We hope you get a kick out of these stories too and help spread the word about how much fun mixed-gender and mixed-orientation anthologies can be.
I understand why there are more specific anthologies but as someone who once honed her craft in fandom, where m/f, m/m, and f/f could all coexist as long as the show or book series was populated enough, I like the idea of an “all kinds of queer” antho. Plus, my own writing often has more than one type of queer pairing anyway.
M/M is swarming with bi women, anyway, so there’s an obvious market for mixed-orientation stuff.