Few things in 2018 meant more to me than the reader reviews for Love & Estrogen. In fact, I made this cheesy little collage of the most frequently-mentioned words so I can look at it when I’m feeling more like an imposter than an author. (“Author” is still something I’m getting used to calling myself, but with Love & Estrogen out in the digital wilds—and my book Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States coming out in less than two months!—I suppose I better try it on.)
I poured everything I had into that little relationship memoir. In my day job, I don’t always get the chance to make my writing beautiful—and beautiful is exactly what I wanted Love & Estrogen to be. I pained over each and every sentence. And I think—maybe—it worked! When writing something so personal, there’s always the fear that you’ve managed to produce a story that will be interesting to yourself—and no one else. Which is why it was so gratifying that Love & Estrogen got the response that it did.
Aside from writing Love & Estrogen, winning a GLAAD Award was the professional highlight of my 2018. So now it’s on to 2019! Real Queer America will be out in March. That’ll be quickly followed up by a brief book tour—details on that to follow. What happens after that? Well, your guess is as good as mine. I have a jotted-down list of ideas for a second book and I’m trying to gather the courage to start writing. It’s hard to fight the bad voice inside that whispers to me my book stinks, so that’s my main project now: Building confidence. Trying to convince myself that I can do this thing again.
But after one of the busiest and most eventful years of my career, I’m happy to be facing some more open-ended time. Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll be looking back at something cool I did that I can’t even envision right now! So cheers to a new year! And thank you for reading.
Samantha Allen 