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I’m so lucky that my wife is also a writer. This wonderful journey we’re on, these events we organise, the authors we help to publish: all of it, we do together. And when we’re writing our books, we love putting Easter eggs in them from each other. Madison Ford, my intrepid investigative journalist from Let Love Be Enough turns up to report on the destruction at Vatican City in Brey’s Fury’s Death. In my latest romance under Helena Harte, Sanctuary, you’ll find a rescued horse that hails from the ranch in Ally McGuire’s July release, Heart of the Storm. So when she thought “What if I checked in with my characters?” and wrote her short story for this year’s SapphFic Eclectic, A Love Letter to My Creations, it wasn’t a leap for me to answer that with A Letter to Her, where Luca from Stolen Ambition has a little rant at me.

What’s wonderful about having so much fun with our writing is that we’re free to do that now. We have our own categories on Amazon and Ingram and everywhere else that sells books. We’re recognised and celebrated. We’re in mainstream bookshops. We’re on TikTok! All the young queers can find our books and see themselves within the pages, experience sapphic lives through our words. And isn’t that as important as it is amazing? When I was a kid, I couldn’t have dreamed of going in to a library and requesting a book about lesbians who were movie stars or stunt riders or FBI agents and who got their woman and their happily ever after. And now? We’re everywhere, and that’s just as it should be.

And that’s why this anthology is so important to us. It’s why this is our fifth year of creating a completely free anthology of new and established authors for your reading pleasure. Because words hold so much power, and publishing something so positive like this is absolutely essential for our continued march toward total freedom and equality for all the world over.

Maybe you could share your experiences of why sapphfic stories are so important to you. We’d love to read them.

SapphFic Eclectic Volume Five will be available via our Butterworth Books website from Monday 1st July, 11 a.m. GMT

Happy ever after. Happy for now.

Do we still need them?

At an event recently, a young person said she doesn’t mind when there’s a sad/negative ending to a gay character in a book. She said that’s the way stories are.

Admittedly, we were a little surprised. But then, that’s her experience in a generation that, while still fighting against discrimination and rights issues, has never experienced what it is to have no books, no representation at all. They’ve grown up seeing queer folk on tv, in mags, and even in celebrity news. While us older generations remember what it was like to be desperate to see others like us, and when we finally did, it was in books where the gay character died, or was put in an institution, or one of them went back to the man, many young people already have their networks in place. And wow…are they excited to find queer characters in books!

We go to Pride festivals and young people gather in hordes to pick up books. While they don’t need the happy ever after, they’re still desperate for that representation. And isn’t that interesting? With their own groups, networks, social media…books remain a place of safety where they can play in other worlds with people who love the way they do.

Our question for you, as we get ready to release SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5, is this: why do you continue to read LGBTQ fiction? Do you think there’s a difference in the way our generations drink it in? We’d love to know your opinions!

SapphFic Eclectic, Volume 5, comes out on July 1st!

Ten years ago, I attended a literary event in Nottingham run by Victoria Villasenor. I had only just found sapphic books and was ‘eyes wide open’ to a whole genre I didn’t know existed. I could write academic literature, creating an argument and devoid of poetic description and emotion, but could I write a sapphic book?

              “How do I write a sapphic book?” I asked Victoria in the public question and answer section.

              “Just start writing, and when you have something, we can start to see what you’ll need to do,” she said.

During the next five years I spent a lot of time fiddling about going nowhere, all the while pretending I knew what I was doing. I never managed to complete anything worthwhile until the short story I wrote and sent to Robyn Nyx (Nicci), which she accepted for LesFic (Sapphic) Eclectic Volume One.

After I received Nicci’s edits, I could see that there was a lot I didn’t know and asked to attend a writers’ retreat with Global Wordsmiths, run by Victoria and Nicci. They obviously saw something in me, and I’ve worked hard since. With their guidance, support, and a bucket load of patience on their part, I’ve managed to write three books, Nero, Breakout for Love, and Brave Enough to Love. Currently I’m working on book four with a working title of Love in Africa. I’ve written a short story for Sapphic Eclectic every year as well.

The moral of this story is that Victoria gives out good advice. If you’re thinking of writing and wonder where to start. Just start writing and see where it takes you. Good luck!