Works by
Lori L. Lake
(Writer)

1. Gun Shy (2001)
   While on patrol, Minnesota police officer Dez Reilly saves two women from a brutal attack. One of them, Jaylynn Savage, is immediately attracted to the taciturn cop--so much so that she joins the St. Paul Police Academy. As fate would have it, Dez is eventually assigned as Jaylynn's Field Training Officer. Having been burned in the past by getting romantically involved with another cop, Dez has a steadfast rule she has abided by for nine years: Cops are off limits. But as Jaylynn and Dez get to know one another, a strong friendship forms. Will Dez break her cardinal rule and take a chance on love with Jaylynn, or will she remain forever gun shy? ¶Gun Shy is an exciting glimpse into the day-to-day work world of police officers as Jaylynn learns the ins and outs of the job and Dez learns the ins and outs of her own heart.

2. Under the Gun (2002)
   Under The Gun is the long-awaited sequel to the bestselling novel, Gun Shy, continuing the story of St. Paul Police Officers Dez Reilly and Jaylynn Savage. Picking up just a couple weeks after Gun Shy ended, the sequel finds the two officers adjusting to their relationship, but things start to go downhill when they get dispatched to a double homicide–-Jaylynn's first murder scene. Dez is supportive and protective toward Jay, and things go all right until Dez’s nemesis reports their personal relationship, and their commanding officer restricts them from riding together on patrol. This sets off a chain of events that results in Jaylynn getting wounded, Dez being suspended, and both of them having to face the possibility of life without the other. They face struggles–-separately and together–-that they must work through while truly feeling "under the gun."

3. Have Gun We'll Travel (2005)
   St. Paul police officers Dez Reilly and Jaylynn Savage have been working far too hard. When they take off on a camping trip to northern Minnesota with good friends Crystal and Shayna, they expect nothing more than long hikes, romantic wood fires, and plenty of down time. Instead, they find themselves caught in the whirlwind created when two escaped convicts, law enforcement, and desperate Russian mobsters clash east of the privately-run Kendall Correctional Center. Jaylynn is taken hostage and must use all her resources to stay alive. Can Dez catch up with the criminals, short-circuit the Russians, and save Jaylynn? ¶It's a race to the finish as author Lori L. Lake uproots Dez and Jaylynn from the romance genre to bring them center stage in her first action-suspense thriller.

Other Fiction

• Ricochet in Time (2001)
  Being hated is an ugly, but very real experience, even in the land of “Minnesota Nice” where no one wants to believe discrimination exists. ¶But, what if you were hated for just being who you are? What if you were hated, not for what how you looked or what you believed in, but because of who you chose to love? ¶Danielle “Dani” Corbett and her girlfriend Meg O’Donnell know firsthand what hatred can cost. After a vicious and intentional attack fueled by nothing more than hatred, Meg is dead and Dani is left physically injured and emotionally scarred. Since her injury prevents Dani from fleeing on her motorcycle, which is her normal response to a crisis, she must find a way to deal with her grief and rage. But as one door has closed for Dani, another opens when Grace Beaumont, a young woman who works as a physical therapist at the hospital where Dani is treated, befriends her and helps her to heal. ¶With Grace's friendship and the help of Grace’s aunts, Estelline and Ruth, Dani manages to get through the ordeal of bringing Dani’s attacker and Meg’s killer to justice. Through her emotional journey Dani finds love, acceptance, and family. ¶Filled with memorable characters, RICOCHET IN TIME is the story of one lonely woman’s fight for justice – and her struggle to resolve the troubles of her past and find a place in a world where she belongs.

• Different Dress (2003)
  Different Dress is the story of three women on a cross-country music tour. Jaime Esperanza is the assistant production manager in charge of both stage and stars. The headliner, Lacey Leigh Jaxon, is a fast-living, heavy drinking prima donna with intimacy problems. She’s had a brief relationship with Jaime, then dumped her for a series of new band mates. Lacey still comes back to Jaime in between conquests, and Jaime hasn't gotten her entirely out of her heart. ¶Lacey Leigh steamrolls yet another opening act and, in desperation, the tour manager brings on board a folksinger from Minnesota named Kip Galvin, who wrote one of Lacey’s biggest songs. Kip has true talent, she loves people and they respond to her, and she has a pleasant stage presence. A friendship springs up between Jaime and Kip—but what about Lacey Leigh? ¶It's a honky-tonk, bluesy, pop, country EXPLOSION of emotion as these three women duke it out. Who will win Jaime's heart and soul?

• Snow Moon Rising (2006) -- Nominated 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction
  Mischka Gallo, a proud Roma woman, knows horses, dancing, and travel. Every day since her birth, she and her extended family have been on the road in their vardo wagons meandering mostly through Poland and Germany. She learned early to ignore the taunts and insults of all those who call her people "Gypsies" and do not understand their close-knit society and way of life. Pauline "Pippi" Stanek has lived a settled life in a small German town along the eastern border of Poland and Germany. In her mid-teens, she meets Mischka and her family through her brother, Emil Stanek, a World War I soldier who went AWOL and was adopted by Mischka's troupe. Mischka and Pippi become fast friends, and they keep in touch over the years. But then, the Second World War heats up, and all of Europe is in turmoil. Men are conscripted into the Axis or the Allied armies, "undesirables" are turned over to slave labor camps, and with every day that passes, the danger for Mischka, Emil, and their families increases. The Nazi forces will not stop until they've rounded up and destroyed every Gypsy, Jew, dissident, and homosexual. On the run and separated from her family, Mischka can hardly comprehend the obstacles that face her. When she is captured, she must use all her wits just to stay alive. Can Mischka survive through the hell of the war in Europe and find her family? In a world beset by war, two women on either side of the conflagration breach the divide-and save one another. Snow Moon Rising is a stunning novel of two women's enduring love and friendship across family, clan, and cultural barriers. It's a novel of desperation and honor, hope and fear at a time when the world was split into a million pieces.

Short Stories

• Stepping Out: Short Stories (2004)
  In these 14 short stories, Lori L. Lake captures how change and loss influence the course of lives: a mother and daughter have an age-old fight; a frightened woman attempts to deal with an abusive lover; a father tries to understand his lesbian daughter’s retreat from him; an athlete who misses her chance—or does she? ¶Lovingly crafted, the collection has been described as a series of mini-novels where themes of alienation and loss, particularly for characters who are gay or lesbian, are woven throughout. Lake is right on about the anguish and confusion of characters caught in the middle of circumstances, usually of someone else’s making. Still, each character steps out with hope and determination. ¶In the words of Jean Stewart: "Beyond the mechanics of good storytelling, a sturdy vulnerability surfaces in every one of these short stories. Lori Lake must possess, simply as part of her inherent nature, a loving heart. It gleams out from these stories, even the sad ones, like a lamp in a lighthouse—maybe far away sometimes, maybe just a passing, slanting flash in the dark—but there to be seen all the same. It makes for a bittersweet journey."
  
  Note:  In an interview with Josh Atervois, Lori L. Lake credits her Regal Crest editors, Barb Coles and Linda Daniel, for encouraging her " to quit tinkering and put the stories together in a book."I

See also:

• The Milk of Human Kindness: Lesbian Authors Write about Mothers and Daughters (2004)

-- Finalist, 2004 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction Anthologies
This remarkable anthology contains stories, essays, and memoirs by some of the brightest stars in the lesbian writing world: Cameron Abbott, Caro Clarke, Carrie Carr, Cate Swannell, Ellen Hart, Gabrielle Goldsby, Georgia Beers, J.M. Redmann, Jean Stewart, Jennifer Fulton, Julia Watts, Karin Kallmaker, Katherine V. Forrest, Kelly Zarembski, Lois Hart, Lori L. Lake, Marcia Tyson Kolb, Marie Sheppard Williams, Meghan Brunner, Radclyffe, SX Meagher, Talaran, and Therese Szymanski.

• Romance for Life (2006) with Tara Young, ed.
  A collection of 25 love stories from your favorite lesbian authors benefiting breast cancer research. The proceeds from Romance for LIFE will be donated, in the authors' collective names, to The National Breast Cancer Foundation and to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Contributing Authors: Robin Alexander, Lynn Ames, Bridget Bufford, Carrie Carr, Caro Clarke, Stella Duffy, Nann Dunne, Jane Fletcher, Vada Foster, Verda Foster, Jennifer Fulton, Gabrielle Goldsby, Melissa Good, Lois C. Hart, Ellen Hawley, Karin Kallmaker, Lori L. Lake, Lee Lynch, Marianne K. Martin, Val McDermid, Radclyffe, Elizabeth Sims, Jean Stewart, Ida Swearingen, and Jane Vollbrecht, with Foreword by Kathy L. Smith.