lesfic eclectic – Butterworth Books

A Starvation of Confidence by Rose Matthews

by Robyn_NyxJune 30, 2025Leave a comment

It’s Queer the Shelves next week and I know because I’m counting down the days. Being invited onto the panel of new authors has been the most exciting opportunity I’ve had all year; it’s also filled me with so much imposter syndrome that I’ve spent an hour trying to finish this sentence. When I was asked to write a 4,000 word short story for Sapphic Eclectic I was all over it. But 400 words on ‘what it means to be a storyteller’? Total paralysis! Couldn’t get a word on the page. So, like a fool, I’ve spent the past week in search of a cure for this syndrome. Here are my findings:

Firstly, I turned to a friend. I told her I felt like a fraud and an idiot calling myself a ‘storyteller’. I was hoping for sympathy. Instead, she pointed to the spreadsheet I use to track my daily writing schedule and confirmed that, yes, I was being an idiot, but I was also undeniably telling stories. I looked at my (beautiful) graphs and I thought: nah.

Aren’t storytellers supposed to be magical? Magic’s for other people, not me.

So, I turned to other blogs. Good lord, what a mistake: a deluge of talented, worldly, brilliant writers. Awards won, readers connected with, breakthroughs made. I was screwed! I’d never done any of this! Surely all these authors had burst onto the scene, fully formed, and had never had any insecurities ever. Again, I kept asking: what do you think you’re doing? Leave this to the professionals.

Finally I came back to the place I’d been avoiding: this blank page. Only by putting one word in front of the other does the problem become blindingly obvious: imposter syndrome is a starvation of confidence. It plagues you with ‘not _____ enough’ statements and it belittles the belief your friends have in you and it stops you from seeing all these talented people in your community as, y’know, people.

So that’s my cure for imposter syndrome: keep on keeping on. In other breaking news water’s still wet, but I think this might be a lesson everyone has to teach themselves at some point. So if you’re reading this and no one’s ever told you: if you tell stories, you’re a storyteller. The magic isn’t just for other people. It’s for all of us.

We need you now more than ever by Valden Bush

by Robyn_NyxJune 29, 2025June 16, 2025Leave a comment

I wake up in the morning and find the world is chaotic.

There are people fighting for survival in terms of land rights, religion and money. Every day we are bombarded with more information than I personally want or need. BUT the thing that I’ve found disturbing is the way that trans, lesbian, and people of color are being erased from the both the world and people’s consciousness. It is happening quietly, through the back door in many situations and censorship can take several forms. Removing the lesbian tag for marketing purposes on Amazon and Insta is one of these steps.

Why do I mention this?

We need storytellers to be loud and proud, to tell the world that we cannot be removed. To show, through our stories, that lesbians will continue to thrive despite everything. We have been fighting for what we have for a long while and we need to continue. Storytellers, artists and musicians are important to show the way. So keep writing and keep reading, we need you more than ever.

I reach for pen and paper by E.V. Bancroft

by Robyn_NyxJune 28, 2025June 16, 2025Leave a comment

Like many children, I grew up being read to—whether it was a poem about smugglers and highwaymen or a beloved classic like The House at Pooh Corner, I absorbed those stories and the worlds they opened up. As a shy girl with a speech impediment, I dreaded attention and rarely spoke. Instead, I took every opportunity I could to escape into the wild and magical realm of words.

The written word was always my friend.

By the age of six or seven, I was inventing stories and writing poems. Whenever asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said, “a writer.” Writing gave me a way to express feelings I couldn’t verbalise—and it still does. Like Cyrano de Bergerac I could only declare my love through poems, and deal with the grief of break up or loss through the written word. Even now, when I’m writing and want to tap into raw emotion, I reach for pen and paper. There’s something more organic about that physical act.

For me, storytelling is a way to reveal hidden emotions, forge connections, and share my unique perspective—a perspective grounded in empathy and understanding. Stories can spark change, pose questions, and challenge the status quo. They always have. Think of Dickens, Kafka and George Orwell—writers who brought injustice to light through fiction. My greatest hope is to write something that resonates with someone, makes them feel seen, and gives them hope.

That, to me, is success.

People remember how a story made them feel. We connect deeply with individual experiences—like the solitude of The Martian, or the unspoken ache of a hidden relationship in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere. Some stories stay with us forever. Those are two of mine. Which ones have stayed with you?

For the Community by Brey Willows

by Robyn_NyxJune 29, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

My mom would kick your ass, and she’d do it in high heels without breaking a sweat. The butch women she dated would just stand back and not interfere, knowing full well she could take care of herself. That makes it sound like my mom was some kind of bar brawler. She wasn’t, really. She just didn’t take anyone’s shit, and she stood up for anyone she felt deserved better. Even now, she’ll whack someone with her cane if there’s injustice occurring. She taught me to never back down from a fight. When I was being picked on at school by a girl three times my size, and I was leaving campus at lunch to avoid getting beat up, my mom found out. She was…not happy.

Off we went to the principal, who said I should just, “curl up in a ball and wait for help,” should it come down to me getting beat up. I thought my mom was going to crawl over the desk and throttle him. Instead, she stood up and said, “Let me tell you something. If my kid is going down, she’s taking a piece of that girl with her.”

I was given a pass to leave campus at lunch from that point forward.

Weirdly enough, that’s why I write lesbian fiction. I grew up in a lesbian household that was out and proud, and I was surrounded by so many powerful, smart, kick-ass women. It’s easy for me to populate my books with the kinds of heroines that surrounded me all my life. I write for the community I grew up in, for the community I’m part of, and for the community that supports me. I write for the people who don’t have the kind of network I do, who need to see happy endings and groups of friends they just might find themselves one day.

Brey Willows’ story, A Love Letter to My Creations, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Lurking in Their Words by Leigh Alder

by Robyn_NyxJune 20, 2024June 15, 2024Leave a comment

I can’t remember not loving books. From earliest childhood, I craved picture books and their glimpses into other worlds. After learning to read, I dove headfirst into the reality the author served up, and I stayed beyond the final word, closing my eyes and daydreaming, extending the story.

When I landed in university, I majored in English Literature. It kept me in a steady but daunting pile of novels that I had to read, although it usually wasn’t a chore. Still. Some of them were…challenging.

Around that same time, Olivia Records was in its nascence, Martina Navratilova was tearing up the tennis courts, and the second wave of feminism was trying to embrace sapphic culture. And in the midst of this heady milieu, I searched for more books. But rather than getting mired in the often depressing and demeaning lesbian fiction of the 1950s and 1960s, I wanted books that better reflected me and the changing culture.

Enter Rubyfruit Jungle, a book about a contemporary young woman coming out and living by her personal motto of putting her money into her head, i.e. getting educated.

After my formal schooling, I took learning into my own hands and lapped up the sapphist classics like Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein and found myself lurking in their words, between their lines, and in their symbols.

Fast forward to 2024 and we’re in the midst of a lesbian fiction explosion. Everyone from wonderful indie houses like Butterworth Books to “Big 5” publishers is looking to represent lesbian literature. But much of what’s available seems to fall into the youthful romance category. So, I tailor my writing not only to increase overall lesbian fiction offerings but to show a wider range of experiences: older women, women in unhappy same-sex relationships, women who don’t have a clear, linear direction in life. Women like so many of us.

As a child, teen, and adult, I relished finding myself in the pages of books. I hope to bring some of that same happiness to other readers.

Leigh Alder’s story, Bomb Cyclone, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Sweet Wrappers and Juice Boxes by Rhiannon Grant

by Robyn_NyxJune 19, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

Sapphic books are important to me as a way to see myself represented in stories. I love to read – it’s a running joke in my family that I’ll read anything, up to and including sweet wrappers and fruit juice boxes – and I read widely across lots of genres, but there’s something special about reading a book, something a complete stranger wrote and published for the world to see, and feeling a deep connection with it. I get that thrill when I read a book set in the city where I live (which is not an especially common setting for stories, unfortunately). I get that thrill when I read about a character with the same body shape or neurotype or habits as me (which leads to a possibly unfortunate fondness for extremely meta books about people who love reading). And connecting with a character over shared desires, such as a shared attraction to women, is a particularly strong version of that thrill.

My interest in sapphic and other queer stories was shaped by what was and wasn’t available when I was young. I have always read a lot, but I grew up in Britain in a peculiar time when Section 28, a rule banning teachers from ‘promoting homosexuality’, meant that nobody felt able to talk openly about homosexuality in schools but a lot of people were thinking about it. Neither the absolute silence of genuine ignorance nor the kindly quiet of acceptance were available. Instead, much was silenced, thought or hinted at but not said openly. That sort of thing annoys me immensely and when teenage me realised what was happening I went to public library to try and discover the voices which were missing in my school library.

I didn’t find much, and what I did find was mostly about men – a biography of Elton John stands out in my memory as a near but not quite success, definitely leaving me with more questions than answers! So exploring sapphic books and seeing the way online book selling and networking enables readers to find what they long for as well as letting authors reach their audiences, supporting each other as we connect through our shared interests, is a constant source of pleasure and excitement for me.

I talk about books and lots of other things on social media: @sapphicprehistory on TikTok, Rhiannon Grant on Facebook, @rhiannonbookgeek on Bluesky, and find other links from my website .

Rhiannon Grant’s story, Recoonection, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Pure Indulgence by Maggie McIntyre

by Robyn_NyxJune 18, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

When I came back to fiction writing in the summer of 2018, it was like turning a key in a rusty lock of an old garden gate. I had been so long away that all my creative muscles had almost atrophied. I felt like the poor woman in the 18^th century who was locked in an attic for twenty years by a sadistic husband, and now I could dance and play again. But my imprisonment had been self-inflcited.

I was writing. I had just completed an autobiographical account of my life as a grants assessor travelling around the world , which had been the first full length manuscript I’d completed since my thirties.

But then I discovered fanfiction, especially Archive of Our Own and delved into that wonderful resource, marveling at the talent of so many writers. I had a go myself, and ended up writing more than 480,000 words across twenty two stories for Carol and the Devil Wears Prada collection. It’s immediate, it’s free to post, the community is generous and caring, and it’s anonymous. You live or die by the quality and appeal of your writing, simple.

But then I wanted to escape the clutches of DWP and wrote my first, very bumpy sapphic novel, Isabel’s Healing, for which I was lucky enough to win the Lesfic Bard award for new writing, and those locked gates against passionate sexy fiction were well and truly opened.

It was a simple, age-gap, opposites-attract novel, by no means perfect. But it’s still probably my favourite. Isabel started a series, all set more or less around a women-led aid agency in London, with five more novels following the adventures of Isabel and friends. The fourth in the series, Love Under Lockdown, was runner up in the Lesfic Bard awards for Romance in 2022.

I have also written four novels set in California media land, with the second of those also being a Lesfic Bard runner up , this time in ‘action and adventure’, a stand-alone novel, and my own miniseries of fantasy adventures based on the late Roman empire.

I write because I love it, pure indulgence, whether with scratchy pen, fading cheap biro, laptop, desktop, tablet or phone. It’s like dancing and I think it’s an incurable disease! The only thing I hate is marketing, which is why you’ve maybe never heard of Maggie McIntyre!

Maggie McIntyre’s story, The Seduction of Rosie Barnes, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Disrupt and Disentangle by Louise Morley

by Robyn_NyxJune 17, 2024June 5, 20242 Comments

I’m an academic moving (slowly) into writing fiction. Why? I get so frustrated whenever I get the rare opportunity to read fiction myself. So many of the literary hot reads are profoundly heteronormative and bereft of characters who come anywhere near my experiences, feelings, aspirations. The LGBTQAI+ community, when allowed to enter, is also often represented in simplistic, monochromatic ways, with limited opportunities to intersect sexuality with other structures of inequality such as age and social class. And yet our lesbian lives are so diverse, rich and complex, and overflowing with dramatic opportunities! There is also an abundance of comic gold! The dating scene itself is like a gripping detective novel – trying to work out what on earth is happening and whether these people are really who they say they are!

I attempt to include different sources of knowledge and data in my writing. I’m a sociologist who has worked on five continents. I’m a public speaker, researcher, and academic writer – mainly on the topics of power, inclusion, equality, difference, and diversity. But I am also active on the lesbian scenes in London and Brighton, and regularly encounter situations that intrigue, puzzle, and excite me. They are screaming out to be explored, analysed, and narrated. I often find myself drawing on theories of micropolitics – that is how power gets relayed, withheld, and communicated through everyday practices, exclusions, coalitions, and language. It can often be via throwaway remarks that people reveal information about themselves, for example. I find that my sociological imagination can be extremely helpful in analysing the complexities that lie behind surface presentations.

But it also provokes accusations from some people that I overthink – something that I hotly deny. Critical thinking is central to my existence, and I won’t apologise for this feature! I also try to bring my insights from therapy into my understandings of relationships, anxieties, and responses. All around me, I hear platitudes, binaries, and certainties that I want to disrupt and disentangle. I used to try and provoke and stimulate in my academic writing and keynote presentations. Now I am aiming to do this via my storytelling. Join me?

Louise Morley’s story, Dear Lesbopops, is in SapphFic Eclectic, volume 5.

Lesbodacious by Allison Fradkin

by Robyn_NyxJune 15, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

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

by Robyn_NyxJune 14, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

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.