Two Romance Novels
Updates! From now on, the author will pay the postage for addresses within the United States. She is currently writing the third and final book on Ruth and Ruthie! Sappho In Shining Armor is getting close to completion. We will let you know when it is out. These books would make great holiday gifts for friends!
New! We can send to Audible subscribers free digital downloads of both completed books, limited to the first 50 requests, and this will continue beyond September 30. Email Marti at judgebellinger@aol.com to tell her that you would like the audio versions, and her return email will contain the code you will need to access the books for free. The suggested donation for both books remains at $20, with the author paying the postage and signing each paperback personally. And finally, if you make a donation, please tell us on the check or in the purpose area of PayPal that the money is for the books.
One of our newer members has decided to spend her retirement writing Lesbian romance novels for Old Lesbians who can still remember falling in love at a time when society found our relationships scandalous.
These two books are available to you for free. Mailing costs will be paid by the author. BUT if you enjoy the books, the author suggests you consider making a $10 donation to OLOC for each. Of course, you can give more if you want and are able to. No one should feel obligated to make this donation, but the author and OLOC would appreciate it. You can get the books ONLY UNTIL SEPTEMBER 30 by emailing judgebellinger@aol.com and they will be sent to the address you designate. What an easy way to support OLOC, and you get books out of the deal!
Most Lesbian women in the days before Stonewall kept their relationships and partnerships a secret for fear of losing employment security, straight friends, and family members. Our relationships were often endearing, very passionate, and the source of our strength while we lived honorable lives in the outside world. As a 70-year-old Lesbian woman who first knew her sexual orientation at 23, Martha E. Bellinger can still remember that first love with clarity and all the unbelievable passion she never knew was possible. She also experienced the angst and worry about employers and family members finding out her true sexuality, not fully coming out until age 34.
Her first award-winning novel, entitled The Two Ruths, tells the story of two women, both named Ruth (Ruth and Ruthie) who manage to find one another in rural upstate New York in the 1950s and fall in love with each other in their first Lesbian relationship. Ruthie runs a dairy farm and Ruth keeps house. This is loosely based upon the life of the author’s second cousin, Ruthie, who did in fact run such a farm and have such a partner. No one ever questioned their relationship because at that time and place, single women could live together, and society even felt “it was nice that these two spinsters had someone with whom they could live.”
The second novel, She Who Is Without Sin, is the sequel which tells you what happened to these partners as they remained together throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The second novel has more suspense, humor, and passion than the first. After reading the first book, if you wish to keep following this Lesbian couple, email judgebellinger@aol.com and this second novel will be sent to you with the author again covering the mailing costs. Another donation of $10 to OLOC is suggested, but not required, and both books will be signed personally by the author. What a win-win-win all around!
Review of The Two Ruths
By Julie Ford, 1952
The Two Ruths is Martha Emily Bellinger’s first novel, and it left this reader longing for more.
The setting of the love story between two women, both named Ruth, is evocative of Bellinger’s own childhood on a dairy farm in upstate New York. A combination of happenstance and destiny brings the two women together during a time, the 1950s and early 60s, when such love had to be kept secret from family and friends.
Despite their clandestine romance, both Ruths are active members of their small community and their church. As time goes on, they are surprised by the love and acceptance they are offered by their neighbors who have caught on to the truth of their relationship.
This reader was particularly interested in the theology expressed in conversations between these two longtime lovers. Bellinger writes these parts so well that it is not surprising to note from her bio that she was ordained in the United Methodist Church before she switched career tracks to enter the legal profession, retiring as a California Superior Court judge.
This book is such a pleasurable read that when I read the final page, I felt a familiar pang: delighted admiration of a well-written story mixed with the despairing knowledge that, now that I’ve read it, I can never again experience the joy of reading it for the first time.
Bellinger has generously offered a copy, shipped free of charge, to anyone who donates $10 to OLOC, if they can and feel so inclined. Take her up on this offer! This book is worth much more.