sapphic eclectic – Butterworth Books

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

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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

by Robyn_NyxJune 13, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

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

by Robyn_NyxJune 12, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

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

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Welcome to my world

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

Courageous and Legendary by Erin Rockfort

by Robyn_NyxJune 11, 2024June 5, 2024Leave a comment

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.”