A reader says, "I've been reading your books since Black Ships and I've read all of them. While I enjoy your Stargate novels, I miss the strong, positive, queer characters from your earlier books. Now it sounds like your upcoming book, The General's Mistress, is a het romance. Is that true?"

Elza, the main character of The General's Mistress, is explicitly bisexual. Like Lydias in Stealing Fire, this is not subtext. This is not context. This is not weasel words. This is not something I'm saying at a con or in my livejournal that most readers will never know about. She has affairs with both men and women, and her scenes with her female lover are just as clear and frank as her scenes with male lovers.

That's one reason my editor made the comparison to Phedre in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series. Elza is extremely clear about this, and it's purely her choice. It's not non-consensual or accidental or occasional, or any of the other things that may "excuse" her sleeping with women. Elza sleeps with women the same way she sleeps with men -- because she wants to. And yes, this is historical. The real Elza is very clear in her memoirs that she slept with women as well as men. I hope you enjoy it! I certainly enjoyed writing it.