1 Question New Year’s Edition - Part 1
For New Year’s celebrations, I asked a few of our favorite authors one question. They were amazing good sports in answering and sharing their personal trials, tribulations and triumphs.
Here goes:
What makes you proud and what makes you cringe when you look back at 2022?
Jae
What I’m most proud of this year (and every year) is our community. There are so many wonderful people contributing to my Facebook reader group—one of them just donated two Kindles to anyone who needs a reading device but can’t afford it right now, and within half an hour of posting the offer, I had two emails by other group members, offering to fill the Kindles with ebooks.
But if you mean which of my own accomplishments in 2022 make me most proud… I’d say running huge endeavors such as the Sapphic Book Bingo and the Sapphic Book Advent Calendar—they’re a big time commitment but a great way to give back to our wonderful community.
What made me cringe is the looks (and sometimes questions) I’m getting whenever I’m putting on a mask before entering a store. I struggle to comprehend how wanting to protect myself and my loved ones would make me weird.
Caren J Werlinger
On the proud side, I completed and published my 18th novel, my longest at 123,000 words. I also decided to take up a new challenge by learning something completely new - the violin/fiddle, and I found an Irish fiddle teacher.
On the cringe side - I haven't written a thing since I completed that novel's first draft in June. I haven't gone that long without writing in about 15 years. Also, my violin playing still sounds like I just stepped out of a middle-school orchestra. On the upside, my Irish fiddle tunes sound fiddle-y, so there's that!
Anna Burke
This past year was perhaps the hardest year of my life in some respects. It was a year of humbling losses, and I went deep into survival mode. I didn’t put out a book. I vanished from social media, for the most part. I turned down almost every request for speaking engagements, public events, etc., and did what was necessary to get me and my loved ones through. I’ve spoken about some of my health struggles, and plan to be more open about that as time goes on in case it helps anyone else struggling with chronic, at times debilitating illness.
What I cringe about is twofold, I guess. I totally let down my Patreon patrons compared to previous years, which I hate, because I love them. Patrons, you will get the rest of the serialized novels someday! I promise! Can’t leave Miranda Stillwater and Nun Tuck waiting for too long.
The second part of the cringe factor is how much internalized ableism I discovered in myself, especially as I bemoaned all my perceived failures, from not writing multiple novels and short stories, to being able to perform basic functions, like walking and eating. There’s a Tumblr post floating around somewhere that suggests treating yourself the way you might treat a beloved pet or captive animal: with kindness and attention to its needs. I’m proud that after years of denial about my declining health I’ve finally learned to be a slightly kinder caretaker, so that I can stick around and write more stories.
Wow that was heavy. Let’s try again.
Take II: Cringe? Definitely the time a class of undergrads went on GoodReads and read reviews of my books aloud, while I, helpless, stood at the whiteboard making the full spectrum of embarrassed expressions. At least the reviews they chose were positive!
Something I’m proud about…these are not easy questions, Mila! The honest answer is I am proud I made it through this year. It was a toughie. But professionally speaking, I am very proud of the ending to my upcoming release, In The Roses of Pieria. I will say nothing more.
Virginia Black
What in 2022 made me proud? I’m over-the-moon proud of reprioritizing my family as The Most Important Thing, of getting my debut novel ready for the world, and of my kid for tackling the jump to high school. Oh, also proud of avoiding COVID-19 (knock-on-the-nearest-wooden-surface).
What in 2022 made me cringe? WHY WOULD I TELL YOU? :cough: I mean, I have those moments I wish I could go back in time and fix, like the time I had to have A Conversation about racial dynamics with someone I admire, or the time I said the f-word too many times on a panel, or the time A Very Famous Author approached me five minutes after I arrived at my first conference in the post-(ha!)-COVID era and I shimmied away from her like she was an alien robotic arachnid. Do those count? Because if not, I’ve got a whole lot of things from the wide world outside that are so cringe-worthy, my shoulders may never recover.
Melissa Brayden
Is it strange to say that I’m proud that I made it through the year alive? After a heart attack in 2021, I knew that the next year, statistically, had the highest rate of recurrence (1 in 5) and that if I could make it through 2022, the odds dramatically tilted in my favor. So, my goal was to live out 2022 unscathed, and I’ve just about done that. Whew! Also, I’m really proud of donuts for all the new artisan shops. Go, donuts, go. Your popularity is skyrocketing! You’re the homecoming queen of baked goods!
What makes me cringe? Social media when it’s used to tear other people down. I’m not a fan of the emboldened keyboard, and would love to see the online social worlds used for good, not evil – even in our own community. I also cringe at the fashion Target put out this year. I can’t wear those Little House on Prairie dresses and make them look cool. I’m not equipped, Ma Ingalls!
Kris Bryant
2022 was a good year professionally. I released three full-length novels and a novella while working full-time at an engineering firm. I’m proud that I pushed myself to hit my goal.
My cringe-worthy moment was when Brit Ryder won the Goldie for Erotic Romance and I tripped up the stairs, almost knocked over the microphone, and froze in the bright lights. I always think if they call my name, I’m going to be so smooth and then I’m like Mr. Bean at the podium. I still cringe reliving that moment.
Those are the given answers. The right answer for what I’m most proud is taking care of my mother every day up until the end of her life but that’s a big downer for readers to read and I want to keep it fun and light-hearted. D
Rachel Lacey
I'm proud of producing my first indie audiobook. That process had been intimidating me for years (and it wasn't nearly as hard as I had feared once I finally took the plunge!) I also completed two series this year, and I'm pretty proud of those books.
My cringeworthy moment of the year happened when I walked into a new dentist's office right after we moved to Vermont. They had given away my appointment (turns out they require you to confirm via text AND phone, not one or the other) I was pretty annoyed when I found out I'd driven thirty minutes into town for nothing. Then the receptionist asked what I do for work, and when I said I was an author, she wrote down my pen name, and I was so embarrassed because I'd just been complaining about their double-confirmation policy lol! It also makes me cringe when someone tags me in a negative review.
Monica McCallan
What makes me proud this past year: The community rebranding to the more inclusive term of "sapphic romance". I love it and I'm so excited to see it become the more common term used to describe books with wlw characters.
What makes you cringe this past year: Every single thing that El*n M*sk does.
Clare Ashton
There are probably innumerable things that should make me cringe because I don't half make a tit of myself on a frequent basis. Maybe because it happens so often I've become inured at last. Even when I grabbed a random woman's hand to lead her across the road instead of my nine-year-old daughter's. It should have been the time that my daughter slapped my bum in public. She has an infuriating habit of sneaking up on me, slapping my behind so I yell in surprise, then she runs off. This is usually at home, but this time, it was while I was paying for clothes at a long counter of Marks and Spencers. Except another woman with similar clothes also stood at the counter. I was not the one surprised.
It's been a long year, and at this point after Christmas excesses I'm struggling to remember what I did this last 12 months, let alone what I'm proud of.
I resorted to asking the kids:
9yo daughter: Nothing.
12yo son: You gave me my birthday present early.
9yo daughter after some thought: Did you stop your periods?
So maybe 2022 wasn't my finest, but it was fun, I remember that at least.
Stay tuned tomorrow for part 2 of authors confessing their proud and cringeworthy moments of 2022.
Happy New Year to you all! Thank you for being amazing and for all the support you provide to your favorite sapphic fiction authors.
If you’re wondering what the best New Year’s gift is for an author - the answer to this one is simple because it is always the same answer - reviews! Leave a review on a book you’ve enjoyed and make an author’s day!
Sending much love!