‘Something Like Summer’ Up for Lambda Literary Award

Jay Bell’s novel, Something Like Summer, was named a finalist for Best Romance on Tuesday for the prestigious 2012 Lambda Literary Awards, due to be awarded in June in New York City.

Blue Seraph Productions is co-producing the novel’s screen adaptation, with writer Carlos Pedraza penning the script, and J.T. Tepnapa set to direct the feature film.

“This nomination is a testament to Jay Bell’s fantastic story and compelling characters,” Pedraza said. “This ups the ante for us as we work to bring Something Like Summer to the screen.”

The novel is Bell’s second and most acclaimed, earning a spot in Amazon’s Best Books of 2011 list, with a customer rating of 4.7 out of 5, and outstanding reader reviews on the popular literary site Goodreads.

The awards celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender writing for books published in 2011. Winners will be announced June 4 in a ceremony in New York.

The nominations were announced in Los Angeles by  the Lambda Literary Foundation. Books from major mainstream publishers and from academic presses, from both long-established and new LGBT publishers, as well as from emerging publish-on-demand technologies, make up the 119 finalists for the “Lammys.” The finalists were selected from a record number of nominations.

Lambda set a record in 2010 for both the number of LGBT books nominated (520) and the number of publishers participating (about 230). That record has been surpassed this year, with more than 600 titles represented from about 250 publishers.

The other books nominated in the Lambdas’ Best Romance category were:

• Every Time I Think of You, by Jim Provenzano
• Settling the Score, by Eden Winters
• Split, by Mel Bossa
• Tinseltown, by Barry Brennessel.

LINKS

• 24th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists Announced
• Something Like Summer Facebook page
• Amazon’s Best Books of 2011
• Goodreads reviews: Something Like Summer
• Jay Bell Books

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