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Tag: SappFic Eclectic

Lurking in Their Words by Leigh Alder

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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

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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.

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.