British Columbia writer Jane Rule, author of Desert of the Heart and a mentor to dozens of other B.C. writers has died. She was 76.

Rule died Tuesday of complications from liver cancer at her home on Galiano Island, B.C.

She is considered a pioneer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction and was an advocate for homosexual rights.

Her works include the fiction works Outlander, This is Not for You and Memory Board, all character-driven novels which sought to normalize stories of same-sex relationships.

She also wrote books of essays such as Lesbian Images.

Rule was born in Plainfield, N.J., on March 28, 1931, and educated at Mills College in California.

She immigrated to Vancouver in 1956 and held a variety of jobs to support herself while she wrote. 

She and her long-term partner Helen Sonthoff, who had a tenured position at the University of British Columbia, became Canadian citizens in the early 1960s.

Desert of the Heart, published in 1964, is about a professor of English literature who meets and falls in love with a casino worker in Reno.

It received a chilly reception in most quarters, but she was deluged with desperate letters from closeted lesbians who felt there might be someone who understood them.

It was made into a movie by Donna Deitch called Desert Hearts in 1985.

Sonthoff and Rule were part of a circle of poets and writers that welcomed many young writers, including Margaret Atwood, to Vancouver.

Rule also taught creative writing and English periodically at UBC.

Rule supported the Writers' Union and the gay liberation magazine The Body Politic, where she wrote essays and a regular column, So's Your Grandmother from 1979 through 1985.

She also defended Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium in its 15-year legal dispute with Canadian Customs Officials over imports of gay and lesbian erotica.

Rule spoke against gay marriage during Canada's debate about the issue in July 2005.

She was given the Order of British Columbia in 1998 and the Order of Canada in 2007.