Happy Wednesday Scribblers. I hope you are all doing well. Can you believe we are already into Fall? And it’s October. What a crazy year. This week I’m excited to bring you author Valentine Wheeler. Valentine is a Queer Romance, Fantasy and Science Fiction author who is published through NineStar Press. Also, Valentine is part of Wizards in Space Literary Magazine, which she will tell us more about. Let’s get to know Valentine.
Welcome Valentine, I’m so glad to have you here on my blog. We have your bio below, so instead why don’t you tell us what’s not in the bio, by way of an introduction.
Hi M.D. ! Thrilled to stop by--you know I’m a big fan of yours!
Ah, that is kind of you to say. I’ve enjoyed getting to know you.
Something that’s not in my bio? Well, I’m a nationally-ranked archer, and I box when it’s not a pandemic! This may lead you to believe I am athletic, but that would be an incorrect assumption.
I also absolutely love systems. Mail, transit, logistics--they’re my jam. If anybody wants ideas for stuff to submit to any magazine or anthology where I’m on the editorial team, send me stories about bureaucracy and systems gone wrong… or working just as intended.
Now that we know a little more about you, why don’t you tell us what got you into writing? What did you see that was missing in the writing world that you knew you could fill?
Honestly, I was never a writer growing up; I got into writing for the community. When I was in my twenties, I got very involved in fandom, and as you may know, the currency of fandom is creative work. That’s how you show your love for the source material and your fellow creators. So, to really feel like a part of the community, I felt like I needed to contribute to the massive creative group storytelling efforts going on. I started writing fanfiction in 2013, and moved to original fiction in 2017. I love the groups of writers I work--and share work--with. It’s an incredible, collaborative community that works to push its members to be better with a lot of positive reinforcement.
After reviewing your website and chatting a bit with you most of your works centers around bi characters? Why do you think it’s important for there to be greater representation of Bi people in literature and in the media in general?
I can only write from my own bi experience, even when I’m writing characters of other orientations, so that’s a start! It’s hard for me to write about people whose attraction, whether sexual or romantic, is limited by gender. But beyond that, there’s not much good bi and pan representation in fiction (for some GOOD recs, though, I made a thread for #BiVisibilityDay here). We’re often left out of the history of the queer movement, despite having been there since the start. I know so many bi adults who had no idea there were other people like them out there, who thought there was something wrong with them, who believed the stereotypes that persist about bi folks. Queer rep is good. Diverse queer rep--gender, race, orientation, class, age, ability--is even better. We all deserve to see ourselves in the media we consume.
Let’s chat about your upcoming book. What can you tell us about the story? What are we going to see in these characters? What’s going to make this novel stand out over all the other books out there?
I’m really excited to share Give Way with readers, because this is a book I didn’t mean to write. Seriously, I didn’t.
I wrote my first novel, No Parking, in 2018. It’s a story of two older bi women fighting a corrupt city official and falling in love accidentally. It’s soft and cozy and it’s about finding home and all the delicious food they eat along the way.
Marianne, the main character, is divorced, and she and her ex-husband Kevin have a pretty good relationship. He helps her out with her legal troubles, and they’re slowly navigating their way back to the friendship they’d shared before becoming involved forty years earlier. At one point in the novel, Kevin meets a man, and realizes he’s always been bisexual and hasn’t let himself admit it to himself. It’s a very small side-plot in No Parking, but it was one that apparently intrigued readers, because they wanted to know more about Kevin and his life and his story! So Give Way was born: the story of Kevin’s queer awakening and a surprise mail carrier uniform fixation.
Give Way is a novella about finding love and how it’s never too late to figure out who you are.
What can you tell us about the protagonist?
Kevin is a grumpy Massachusetts retired lawyer who isn’t really sure what to do with himself now that he’s got free time. His kids all have their own lives, his ex has her own problems, and now that he’s single, it’s awkward going out with all the old partnered friends he made back when he was married. He’s smart and he likes to leap before he looks and he’s never thought too deeply about his own inner life--mostly out of self-preservation. You know that old myth about sharks dying if they stop swimming? Yeah. That’s Kevin.
What can you tell us about the antagonist?
Well, the antagonist in this story is Kevin’s anxiety about his own sexuality and his age, and Awais--the love interest--has some internalized biphobia he has to work through. Really, the antagonist is “feelings.”
Tell us, what is it about writing that you love?
I love building worlds and figuring out how everybody in them fits together, and I love writing alongside friends; when it’s not a pandemic, I host a monthly writing meetup at a Panera near me, and I have a critique group I’ve been sharing work with for years. I love watching my friends’ writing improve and grow and change and I love watching them publish and succeed.
When you’re not working your full-time job, you also are the Fiction Editor and Logistics Manager for Wizards in Space Literary Magazine? Tell us about Wizards in Space.
Sure! We’re a literary magazine focused on uplifting new and marginalized creators--most of our published creators are queer, and nearly half are trans, and we’ve published work from over a dozen countries, ranging in age from 15 to 80. We began in fandom, making a space for folks to publish their original, non-fanfic work, and grew from there. We publish a print book twice a year that features 20-30 creators (who we pay! Money!) all pulled from our anonymous submissions. We also host open mics at conventions and lately online.
We’re really proud of our work, and think our books are absolutely gorgeous, both in content and design. Poetry, fiction, prose, art: we fill the book with things that move us and try to build a story through the issue. Check out some of the work here we’ve featured on our blog, and read what Wizards in Space means to our community.
Submissions close on October 15th (learn more here) We would love to see submissions from all your readers.
How did you get involved with Wizards in Space Literary Magazine?
My good friend Olivia Dolphin created Wizards in Space in 2016, and asked me to get involved because I had experience with editorial work, and am an expert in mailing things and spreadsheets. I joined the editorial team in 2017 for our third issue.
Where would you like to see Wizards in Space go in five years? What can people see coming from Wizards in Space Literary Magazine in the future?
Our sixth issue will be coming out around New Year’s, and we hope to keep growing from there! I have dreams of us publishing novellas in the future, and hosting more events across the world where people can present their work. We love collaborating with other organizations to help them build their audiences and reach new creators.
What can we see coming out from you next?
I’ve got two more stories in the No Parking universe in the works! The next installment will feature a nonbinary protagonist and their ex-girlfriend, the former prom queen to their homecoming king, ten years after graduation. I’m excited for it! I wish somebody would hurry up and finish writing it.
***
Thank you so much for stopping by today, Valentine. It was great having you. Do you have questions for Valentine? Leave them below and I’ll be sure to have her swing by and answer them.
Want to learn about some other great NineStar Press authors? Check out my interviews with these folks:
Interview with Author B. Rourke click here.
Interview with Author Glenn Quigley click here.
Interview with Author Riina Y.T. click here.
Interview with author J. P. Jackson click here.
That brings us to the end of our interview for this week. Please remember to drop me a heart/like letting me know you stopped by. If you want to help support me and Valentine, please consider sharing this post on your social media platforms to help keep the conversation going. Until next time I hope you stay safe and have a great week.
About Valentine Wheeler’s Latest Work:
