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A Thing or Two About Yourself by Shoshana

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I have a literary studies background, so I read a range of books and theorists. Poetry is my favourite genre, and I’m especially enamoured of queer poetry. But many of these poets are either dead (hello, Sappho) or not very active on social media, if at all. In fact, I have to say that I haven’t sought out many poets online.

In contrast, the sapphic romance community is very much alive and well and active. I love being part of this community. It’s overwhelmingly welcoming, generous, and supportive. I like that the writers are happy to engage with readers. As a result, I want to be respectful of their privacy and time. 

I’m especially interested in reader reception and what draws people to sapphic romance: why they read it, what they get out of it, and how it has impacted their lives. It’s really fascinating and at times moving to see how sapphic romance has affected readers and allowed them to fully embrace their attractions and desires. 

Sapphic romance can offer readers an escape from the mundane and everyday, and it can also offer readers hope that they can find or rekindle romance and other connections that fulfil their needs. Moreover, you can learn a thing or two about yourself. Through reading J.J. Arias in particular, I have learned something about my need for control in matters of sex.

As an emerging author in the genre, I want to bring my own multiple minority perspective to sapphic romance. I want readers to see something of themselves in my work or to learn from the stories of others who do not look like them. I do not aim to be didactic, but rather to give voice and provide insights through sexy stories.

My next challenge is to write stories that are humorous. Humour is underrated and also difficult to effectively achieve in stories. I have dabbled in writing humorously, but not in the area of sapphic romance. Perhaps my first novel will be a rom-com in the style of Erica Lee’s The Last to Leave, which I think is a fantastic example of the genre, as it is both funny and hot.

Shoshana’s story, At the Art Exhibition, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Lesbodacious by Allison Fradkin

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I adore Young Adult fiction, especially own-voices Sapphic stories that vibrantly and valiantly validate and celebrate the characters, their feelings, and their lived experiences. Growing up, there was very little in the way of representation, respectful or otherwise. Fortunately, in the late 1990s, I discovered Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, which led me to another book of hers, Good Moon Rising. The latter, a love story between lesbian thespians, especially appealed to me because I also loved theatre. I felt like the book was written for me.

That’s why, when it comes to queer representation in literature, visibility is both viable and valuable; and there’s nothing more admirable than authenticity. There was far less reading material available back then for and about young women who were coming of age and coming out (at least to themselves), but seeing myself depicted in writing made me feel empowered and emboldened to embrace my lesbodacious self. Eventually, when I felt sufficiently safe, I shared this part of myself with the most important people in my life, and my unapologetic declaration of lesbi-independence was one for the books.

You’re welcome to friend / tag me on Facebook (Allison Fradkin).

Allison Fradkin’s story, Lady Balls, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Sapphfic Lottery Win by Arbor Lear

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Hi there, I’m Arbor Lear and I’m a sucker for a good romance.

That spark of a first meet, the smoldering embers that build into an inferno that then engulfs the heart, mind, and soul. That’s what draws me into the characters and the story. Sapphic stories were hard to come by when I was growing up. It was rare to see a representation without it being tongue in cheek or implied. While there were amazing early authors such as Sarah Waters, Rita Mae Brown, and Fannie Flagg who changed the dialogue, it really wasn’t until twenty years ago that our stories became much more mainstream.

Fan fiction was where I first started reading sapphic stories that captured my imagination and resonated with me. I branched out from there and then read Radclyffe, Gerri Hill, Jae, JJ Arias, Kim Baldwin, Melissa Braden, Brey Willows, Robyn Nyx, Carson Taite, and so many more talented sapphic authors. Their remarkable craft of building characters and weaving the lesbian narrative allowed me to escape into their books for years. The variety of genres and individual truths that are being explored today truly allows something for everyone. Through the years, I’ve enjoyed writing and constructing characters in my mind but never put it out there for anyone else to see.

I feel as though I’ve won the lottery as I’ve finally found a community of writers who are supporting me and my writing dreams. This community has allowed me to look behind the curtain and see my writing future filled with sparkling possibilities. I’m excited to explore with you the tales I want to tell, and I hope you enjoy my writing. You can follow me on my socials, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Instagram

TikTok

Arbor Lear’s story, The Starlight, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5. She’s currently working on her debut novel, Racing Hearts.

Books Under My Bed by Julie Logwood

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The first truly queer book I owned was an anthology of lesbian short stories that I bought at a yard sale in San Francisco, brought home and promptly hid under my bed. I was 16 and out, my parents were supportive, but having a whole world of queer stories to myself was so thrilling it felt illicit. 

I was, and remain, a voracious reader. As a kid I was drawn to stories of escapism, whether it was new worlds or ways of living differently in this one, I wanted to be transported, lost in other realities. By the time I purchased that slim tome, something had shifted. I had begun to search for myself in the worlds I was escaping to, and I was coming up short more often than not. That book was a balm, and began a lifelong affair with queer literature, from classics to camp. 

I still love a good escape, and delight in seeing echoes of myself and my community in the words of others. I recently happened upon a short story that casually featured gay parents, and I realized how hungry I’ve been, as a lesbian parent, to see my new reality reflected through fiction. The joy in that spark of recognition is what drives me to read in, and to write for, this wonderful community. There’s so much diversity in the stories to be told about queer lives, so many facets for exploration, and it’s the quest of a lifetime to find all the amazing authors bringing them to life.

I’m forever grateful to those giving these stories a chance, both by getting them out into the world, and by taking them in once they’re out there.  Without publishers and audiences willing to take a risk on them, my world as a reader and a writer would be much less fun. And there would be far fewer books under my bed. 

Julie Logwood’s story, Archival Enemies, is in SapphFic Eclectic, Volume 5.

Not the Odd One Out Anymore by Lee Haven

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You could say I discovered Sapphic fiction by accident. I was finishing listening to an audio book on my way home when I got the usual “if you enjoyed this book, you might like this” recommendation. The book I just finished was paranormal fiction. One of my favorite genres, together with fantasy. So, I opened the first recommendation in the list to read the blurb. I think I ended up reading it four or five times because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Partly because I’d never seen sapphic representation in a book before and partly because the blurb and book were in English. Which isn’t my native language, so I didn’t quite trust that I got it right. However, I got the audio book and started listening to it immediately. Even though it was a fairly long book I finished it in a day and a half and I was in tears by the end of it.

Listening to that book I found something I didn’t even know I needed at the time and that in a sense was seeing myself represented in a book. It had the power to make me feel less like the odd one out. It also made me feel less alone in the world. It threw me a lifeline at a time I really needed one.

After that I went looking for sapphic books and found out quickly that there weren’t many in my native language. I’m very happy that that has changed in the past couple of years. But I found many more books in English and through social media, the reading community that came along with it. Subsequently, it led me to fly to England a couple of years later to attend a book event in Nottingham. It gave me a community where I feel like I belong.

Facebook

Instagram

Welcome to my world

Lee Haven’s story, Blood Moon, is in SapphFic Eclectic, Volume 5.

Courageous and Legendary by Erin Rockfort

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I’ve always been an avid reader, always enjoyed the thrill of escaping into different worlds, into different people, into different ways of being.

In particular, I loved science fiction and fantasy, stories about galaxies and magic, spaceships and dragons. As a quiet, sometimes lonely kid, I was attracted to stories with compelling characters and complex plots, stories about triumphing the face of overwhelming odds. Connecting with fiction also gave me opportunities to connect with other people, to engage in animated discussions, debates, and theorizing about our reading.

When I got older, I realized how rarely I, as a queer person, was represented in these stories I loved so much. My favourite characters, all assumedly cisgender, settled down in happy heterosexual relationships. If there was a hint of queerness, it was only ever implied, and more likely than not, said queer-coded characters either lived lonely lives, or died tragically (or both!).

I don’t need to always see myself in the stories I love. Whether as a result of lifelong conditioning, or just my own inbuilt preferences, I am often happy to read about experiences other than my own. However, persistently feeling left out of things I loved didn’t feel good, and I began to feel terribly at odds with something that had otherwise brought me a great deal of comfort and joy.

Where I could, I attempted to find examples of queerness in stories, but to do so, I often had to look more into the realm of literary fiction, which has never been my favourite. Furthermore, these had the same problems as I had encountered in genre fiction — queer characters could only ever be implied, be sidekicks, be dead. When trying to talk to non-queer friends about this, I received silence and blank stares.

Seeing queer characters become much more prevalent in speculative fiction, in works like Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth and Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds, has been one of my greatest joys. Knowing that I can seek out stories that will live in my heart in the same way that some of my childhood favourites did, and knowing that those characters might be like me, might be queer and courageous and legendary — it kindles something powerful within me, something that might allow me to be courageous and legendary on my own.

I can be found on Bluesky as “pineapplefury” and on instagram as “thepineapplefury.”

Dog Eared Copies by Yvonne Heidt

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We can call it coming out of retirement or shaking off the years-long writer’s block of the century.
Either/Or
TomAto/ToMAHto

So, I did a thing. I wrote a paranormal short story for inclusion into Butterworth Books Sapphic Eclectic Volume 5.
And I appreciate that they have graciously allowed me a reintroduction to the Sapphic Lesfic Community.
The question was posed, what does Lesfic mean to you?
The answer is: Funny, and totally unlike me (sarcasm) I have a story for that!
I came out later in life and had no idea Lesbian Fiction even existed except in snippets of mainstream books.
Which in and of itself is humorous because I am an avid reader. Secret: And those books were all – gasp –
pretty well dog-earred.
It was the first trip I took to the local Barnes & Noble that I happened to come across the section I had never
seen before. I was a kid in a candy store. Not only was I a new lesbian, they had whole books on it! It opened
up a whole new world to me.
Now, before you think I grew up under a rock, ( I grew up in San Francisco – which makes it even more
hilarious) you’d have to know my coming out story. I have it nearly word for word in my debut book, Sometime
Yesterday. Natalie is trying to find a way to tell her mother and best friend that she’s attracted to another
woman. There are a few sentence omissions for space consideration.

“I have something to tell you.”
They both looked at her. “Okay, shoot.”
“I think I’m a lesbian.”
Mary paused for a second and took a sip of her drink. Her mother continued to look at her directly. Neither said
anything.
“Did you hear what I just said?” Natalie raised her voice a little. “I said I’m a lesbian.”
Silence.
“Mom, Mary? Say something.”
“Oh honey,” said her mother. “It took you long enough.”
Mary sipped her wine. “I’ve often wondered. But what brought this on? Is it because of what Jason did to you?”
“What do you mean it took me long enough?” Natalie asked crossly. “I didn’t even think about it until recently.
You’ve often wondered? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Her mother’s tone was gentle. “Honey, do you remember when you used to watch Lost in Space reruns when
you were growing up? What was that girl’s name again? The middle one, you know, cute, long, dark hair?”
Natalie smiled. “Penny, Her name was Penny.”
“Yes, that’s right, Penny. Do you remember telling me you were going to marry her?”
“Mom,” I was nine.”
“Okay, do you remember the Partridge Family? The oldest sister, Laurie? I seem to remember you having a
crush on her also.”
Natalie knew her face turned bright red. “Mom!”
“Oh, and let’s not forget how you would never miss an episode of Days of Our Lives, with that Hope character,
and – “
“Oh, I’ve got one!” Mary shot her hand in the air. “Pick me, pick me!”
Natalie’s mother pointed obligingly. “Your turn, dear. Go ahead.”
“Nat, do remember all the hair bands? You loved them.”
“Mary, they were men.”
“No, Natalie, they were pretty, pretty boys with lots of hair and they wore makeup.”

Me again: I still love those video’s of those pretty pretty boys – And no wonder I was confused!
My point is that Lesfic opened my world to a new community that I felt a genuine part of. I wasn’t on the
sidelines anymore.
To quote Natalie (loosely) again: “It was like all my life I’d been ordering pizza – when what I really wanted was
chinese food!”
Yvonneheidt.com
Facebook
Instagram

Yvonne Heidt’s story, Not This Life, is in SappFic Eclectic, Volume 5.

Bouncing Ideas by EV Bancroft

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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.

Follow your dream by AJ Mason

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Queer the Shelves is back again this year in Nottingham, even bigger and better. I am really excited to be seeing all my friends in this brilliant community of authors and readers of LGBTQ+ writing. It is also a chance to say hello to Jodie Klaire, who was (unwittingly) one of the prime architects in my original decision to start writing in the first place. Attending another conference in 2019, I found myself in her writing workshop on ‘Narrative Distance’. I had no intention at that point of putting pen to paper, I was just a curious child. However, by the end of the very enjoyable session I was starting to wonder if I could write something. Did I have a story inside of myself good enough to tell?

In the months that followed I pursued that dream, getting proper tuition from Global Wordsmiths on how to plot, develop and structure a book. How to create characters, give them a voice and make a reader want to turn the page to find out what happened next. The result was ‘The Helion Band‘. I took my love for all things science fiction and put women loving women at the heart of the plot. I also got to write a good old fashioned space battle! As soon as I had published, I had plans to write another book. Then cancer happened, and life got put on hold for most of 2023. In those long months, the friends I had made through my writing circled the wagons around me, offering comfort and encouragement. 

By the autumn, now in remission, I wrote the story in this book. The writing neurons in my brain fired up again, and words poured out. I am now writing my next book again. I am going to Queer the Shelves again and catching up with my ‘tribe’. Life feels good. I hope you enjoy my story and all the others in here. And, if you feel you have a story inside of you, be brave and put pen to paper. Follow your dream.

AJ Mason’s story, The White Bike, is in Sapphic Eclectic, Volume 5.

New Indie Author News!

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We’re super excited to announce that awesome author and Golden Crown Literary award winner, Michelle Grubb, has joined the ranks of Indie authors and will be publishing her next book with the help of Butterworth Books.

We’ve just got our hands on Michelle’s latest manuscript, so watch for more news of her crime thriller novel, as yet untitled!

Michelle is Tasmanian born and now resides in the UK, just north of London, with her wife. She’s a fair-weather golfer, a happy snapper, and a lover of cafes, vinyl records, and book shops. 
Michelle harbours an unnatural love for stray pieces of timber (she promises her wife she’ll build her something one day), second-hand furniture shops, and the perfect coffee. She can play six chords on her guitar, stumble through a song on her drum kit, and if you see her wearing headphones, she’s probably listening to Mumford and Sons while dreaming up stories and plot twists. It goes without saying that writing is Michelle’s favourite thing to do. Michelle can be contacted by visiting her website.