Jane Reynolds’s debut novel Just Good Friends? is out now (see the synopsis below) and to celebrate, Jane has written us a post about why she wants more from Chick Lit writers, particularly where gay characters are concerned…

I’ve been a big chick-lit fan for many years but have increasingly found that I’d get to the end of a book and find myself wanting ‘more’.

There’s one group of people almost totally unrepresented in Women’s Fiction at present, and that’s women who (although you’d never realise it from their appearance), are gay.

Sex and the City’s Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) ‘came out’, Ellen Degeneres and Portia Di Rossi’s marriage photos filled magazines world-wide; Mary Portas left her husband for a woman and even Soaps now have ‘proper’ lesbian couples, yet there’s still barely a single mainstream novel out there which features even the hint of a same-sex relationship.

As there probably isn’t a person alive who couldn’t honestly admit to never having had feelings for someone of the same sex at some point in their lives (whether it be someone they knew or on TV etc), my debut novel “Just Good Friends?” simply explores a close relationship between two women that just crosses the line into something deeper.

I wouldn’t call myself a lesbian; I’m just a woman who happens to be gay – if that makes any sense? It’s always come as a surprise to anyone I’ve ever told, but I’ve also had to live most of my life hiding my sexuality. The media have – over recent years – totally embraced the whole ‘lipstick lesbian’ culture, and it’s now only the Women’s Fiction market that are still lagging a step behind. This novel is aimed squarely at women who (like me), love Chick Lit, but who also like to read something with a bit of a twist!

Website: www.janereynolds.co.uk Twitter: @janereynolds8

Eleanor’s blissfully unaware that her husband Harvey’s having a steamy affair with a young woman at the Office and is about to turn his back on his lucrative City career. Ruth thinks her husband Simon is working long hours, but he’s more likely to be found tucked up in bed with his mistress (and plotting their divorce). In the middle of it all, a drunken kiss with her good friend Helen suddenly sends Ruth’s world into freefall, and what happens next changes all of their lives forever …

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