I had an interesting conversation a while ago that got me thinking as an LGBTQ writer.  How is it, he asked (it had to be a he), that so many lesbian couples look like sisters, they are so alike?  Could this be an insight into humanity as a whole, that we tend to fall in love with ourselves, or the nearest thing going?

This seems to be a popular myth, and on the other side of the coin lesbian couples are often taken to be sisters, simply because people have trouble conceiving the truth.  In fact in past, more homophobic, times couples often presented themselves as sisters to the outside world, and you’ll hear about one such couple when ‘Martine’ comes out in July.

I must say though, that none of the couples I know look very similar.  I also follow quite a few couples’ YouTube blogs and they don’t either, although a few, like Allie & Sam, seem to use make-up to look more similar than they actually are.

And then I thought of my Saltbury character couples and most of them couldn’t be more different.  There’s Debbie Stewart, the petite blonde who speaks like a dreamy hippy-chick but is actually fearsomely talented.  She’s paired with big, immensely strong, raven haired Martine.  There’s tall, super fit, athletic Carol and her gentle redheaded, oh-so-feminine beloved Tina.  My lovely Hazel is a busty Goth, obsessed that she’s overweight and totally unable to give up smoking.  But her pocket Venus girlfriend, Annie, a genuine beauty, worships the very ground she walks on.  Indian born Aleyse marries Ruth, the doctor’s daughter from Devon.  You’ll find out how they met when ‘Saltbury Tales’ comes out next month.  And so it goes on, with Yvonne and Julie, Penny and the older Hazel, and others.

In ‘History Girls’, though, I thought I’d play up to the stereotype a little, just for fun, and we first meet Ashley and Cassandra.  The two are school seniors who date a little tentatively at first.  They come from very different backgrounds.  They go to different schools and so far as anyone is aware they are totally unrelated.  Yet when they are first introduced they hit it off at once and everyone, themselves included, comments on how similar they look.  Even their hair is the same.  They are the same height; they have the same eye colour, complexion and similar, softly spoken voices.  They are, in fact, so nearly identical that Tina takes to calling them ‘The Twins’, while Yvonne calls them the ‘Tweedles’ after Tweedledee and Tweedledum.  The only obvious difference is that Ashley has a band of freckles across her chest and you only get to see those if you see her in her swimming costume.

The pair only get a first introduction in ‘History Girls’.  You will get to know them much better in ‘Fracture’, one of the books I have planned for 2023 and which is currently only half written.