Okay, I’ll put my hand up, I’d never read a specifically sapphic (lesfic) genre book before 2019. I’d read the more literary offerings, from Well Of Loneliness, to Tipping the Velvet to Oranges are the Only Fruit etc, because I’ve always loved literary fiction, but unless you could get it easily in Waterstones or the equivalent, I hadn’t gone searching. Honestly, I was so busy at work in the last few years, the only books I listened to on my commute tended to be business or management theory books. (I know, I know, all work and no play and all that…)
When I took early retirement and attended a Global Wordsmiths’ writing course it was like a whole new world opened up to me. Not only did I learn about the craft of writing (and have been learning ever since) I suddenly came across the rich seam of lesbian and sapphic fiction which I’ve been tapping ever since. I must have read and listened to hundreds of books since, and I love the breadth and depth of them; some have made me laugh, kept me gripped or made me cry.
But more than all that is the welcome of a group of like-minded souls I can discuss writing and books and exchange recommendations with, who share the same interests as me. They are all different and quirky: my friends; my tribe.
Attending writing retreats has been a real joy, even for an introvert like me. If you are debating whether it is worth it or not, the answer is definitely yes. To be taken out of our own environment where we can concentrate on writing and bounce ideas off each other, discuss plot holes or correct our literary peccadillos is priceless. That the workshops are often held in interesting places just adds to the attraction.
Come and mine the sapphic seam with me!
Website: https://evbancroft.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/e.v.bancroft.writer
Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and Blue sky all under evbancroft.
EV Bancroft’s story, On the Path to Glastonbury, is in SappFic Eclectic, Volume 5.
Butterworth Books 