Month: April 2022

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Interview with Author Freya Marske

Freya Marske lives in Australia, where she is yet to be killed by any form of wildlife. She writes stories full of magic, blood, and as much kissing as she can get away with. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Andromeda Spaceways, and several anthologies. In 2020 she was awarded the Australian National SF (Ditmar) Award for Best New Talent. Her debut novel, the queer historical fantasy A MARVELLOUS LIGHT, is available now in hardcover.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Sure! I’m Freya Marske, a writer and podcaster based in Australia. I’ve moved through various flavours of geekdom in my life (shout out to my high school self, who was passionately into anime and also first in line for the opening screenings of the Lord of the Rings movies) but I’ve always been a reader of fantasy, so I’m delighted to have my debut fantasy novel published this year.

Where did you get your start in writing? How did you realize you wanted to be a storyteller?

I can’t recall a conscious choice being involved; I had a poem published in the newspaper at age 5, and never looked back! By which I mean I wrote on and off for years, including a lot of time in my twenties writing fanfiction and building my skills before I actually finished my first original novel.

Where did the idea for your latest book, A Marvellous Light come from?

The first seed of an idea that grew into the book was the question of who would liaise between a hidden magical society and an unmagical civil service, and what would happen if the wrong person ended up in that job. Because I always knew it would be a romance, too, I began to build the two protagonists—their backgrounds, their personalities, their relationship—at the same time as building the plot outwards from that initial idea.

What was the process like working on this story? Did you consult any resources while developing the background of your Edwardian magical fantasy?

I did quite a bit of reading about Edwardian society at the time, especially the daily life of the upper and upper middle classes and the kind of country manor house party that the book features. Plus I had to look into a lot of nitty-gritty details as they arose: the sort of cars that were popular, what the London Underground looked like in 1908, what a young man in mourning for his parents would have worn, etc. I enjoyed the process of learning about that time period and then weaving my own magical worldbuilding through it!

Regarding magical systems, oftentimes writers will build one based off familiar magic systems used in the past, i.e. magic schools, or fuse it with various other ideologies or systems, like Maggie Tokuda-Hall, author of The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea, fusing her magic system with marine ecology. Which makes me wonder how di you approach your worldbuilding?

…improvisationally.

Honestly, the magical system was the part I had the most fun with during the drafting process. I’ve always enjoyed those magic systems that don’t necessarily come easily to practitioners, and which have rules or constraints on what can and can’t be accomplished, but which also allow for creativity and wonder. The idea of using cat’s cradle string as a building block for gesture-based magic was my own, and I enjoyed teasing out the implications of it as I went through the book.

In a genre like historical fiction (much less historical fantasy), it can often be tough to describe queer identities without the queer language we have today. How did you work your way around that?

Absolutely—neither of my protagonists would describe themselves as gay, the word homosexual was I believe only just coming into English parlance, and they would feel uncomfortable with the word queer as it was used then. Despite having sexual experience with other men, neither think of themselves as part of a queer community, and a lot of their awareness of their own sexuality is around the necessity of it being secret. With all of that said: I wasn’t interested in telling a story about internalized homophobia or shame. Robin and Edwin take some time to recognize this aspect of one another, but once they do, the barriers to their love story unfolding are related to who they are as people, and the ways they’ve been hurt in the past. Not the fact that they’re both men.

What are some of your favorite parts of the writing process? What do you feel are some of the most difficult or frustrating?

I love the very beginning: when the outline is done and I’m leaping into a first draft, wrapping prose around my ideas and characters for the first time. And I find the final round of editing to be very satisfying, too. As an over-writer, I will always end up needing to trim unnecessary sentences and stray words, and I enjoy the process of making the end product as lean and punchy as possible.

There’s always a frustrating time for me around two-thirds of the way into a book. Now that I’ve written a few, I’ve learned to look out for those 66.6% doldrums! Somewhere around there I will become convinced that the book is terrible, I’m terrible, the entire thing is a waste of time, and nobody will ever enjoy it. It always passes. I just have to grit my teeth, trust the process, and write through it.

What can we expect from the main characters of A Marvellous Light?

I’ve been affectionately referring to Robin Blyth as a ‘sunshine himbo jock’, which tells you most of what you need to know. He’s good-hearted and straightforward and spent his university years on the cricket pitch or the river rather than studying hard, and he sincerely believes in punching his problems.

Edwin Courcey, the magician assigned as his liaison, is prickly and self-protective and vastly prefers books to people. With an analytical mind and a weak magical gift, Edwin has always been both interested in how magic works and frustrated by how little of it he can do.

Aside from writing, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

In my spare time I can be found having strong opinions about wine, gin and whisky, lurking in art galleries, and figure skating. Everyone always seems keen to hear about that last one—it’s certainly an unusual sport to have chosen in Australia! But I did it as a kid and then picked it up again as an adult. I love how it calls for the slow improvement of individual skills, but also demands musicality and performance.

What advice might you have to give to other aspiring writers?

Don’t give up! You’ll write thousands upon thousands of words as you’re honing your craft, and you’re always going to be looking ahead at the people who you admire and want to emulate, and feeling frustrated with where you are in comparison. It’s human nature. And remember that any book you read has been meticulously revised and polished: first drafts are allowed to be, supposed to be, a bit of a mess! Let yourself have fun discovering your own stories.

And finally: write exactly the kind of book you most want to read yourself.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but wish you were asked, as well as the answer to that question?

Hmm! Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked which books I’ve reread the most times in my life. I’m a huge comfort rereader, and there are some books I return to again and again. Topping the list are: Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle, Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Megan Whalen Turner’s The King of Attolia, and Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather.

Are there any other projects you are currently working on and at liberty to talk about?

I’m about to get started on book 3 of the Last Binding series; I can’t say much about it yet, except to say that one of its protagonists appears briefly in A Marvellous Light. But I’ve also written a couple of contemporary romance novels which my agent has just taken on submission—it’s very exciting to be back at the beginning of the process in a new genre!

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?  

This year alone I’ve really enjoyed Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo (m/m Southern gothic horror with fast cars and revenants) and The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (engrossing high fantasy with a central f/f pairing). In the romance sphere, married cowriters Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta brought out an amazing celebrity fake-dating story in The View Was Exhausting, and my favourite romance author KJ Charles finished up her Will Darling Adventures (a 1920s adventure series with stabbing, spies and m/m romance) with Subtle Blood.

However, to finish us off: one of my favourite books of all time—Regeneration, by Pat Barker—is a historical novel set just after the time period of A Marvellous Light. It’s about gay war poets, and trauma recovery, and no magic beyond that of kindness.

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International Asexuality Day 2022

Today marks the second International Asexuality Day. It’s a day to promote and highlight asexual, aromantic, demisexual, and other identities that fall under the ace umbrella. In order to help celebrate IAD, we’d like to highlight a number of Michele Kirichanskaya‘s interviews she’s conducted with ace authors and artists that are linked below.

Interview With Yasmin Benoit
Interview With Author Angela Chen
Interview With Maia Kobabe
Interview with the Gentle Giant Ace
Interview with Writer & Editor Kiara Valdez
Interview with Cartoonist Jarad Greene
Interview with Author Julie Sondra Decker
A QUICK & EASY GUIDE TO ASEXUALITY Interview with Molly Muldoon & Will Hernandez
Interview with Author Amanda DeWitt
Interview with Courtney & Royce of The Ace Couple Podcast
Interview with Author Claire Kann
Interview With Cody Daigle-Orians
Interview with Author Alechia Dow
Interview with Author Rosiee Thor
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Interview with Author F. T. Lukens

F.T. Lukens is the author of In Deeper Waters and five young adult novels published through Interlude Press. Their book The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic was a 2017 Cybils Award finalist in YA Speculative Fiction, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Winner for YA fiction, the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction, and on ALA’s 2019 Rainbow Book List. F.T. lives in North Carolina with their spouse, three kids, three dogs, and three cats.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi. Thank you for having me! My name is FT and I’m an author of young adult speculative fiction.

How did you find yourself becoming a writer? What drew you to young adult and speculative fiction specifically?

Reading and writing have been part of my life since I was very young. I daydreamed a lot when I was a kid and had a big imagination. I would plot out whole stories on the ride to school, but it wasn’t until about 3rd grade that I started writing them down. My first short story was about a knight rescuing a princess from a dragon and my teacher in school loved it so much, she printed it out and hung it in the computer lab. That was the first time my writing and imagination were validated. From there, I just kept writing. Short stories and fan works and journaling. But it wasn’t until much later that I gathered my courage and decided to try and write professionally.

As for speculative fiction, I’ve always been drawn to fairy tales and stories with magic and comic books with superheroes. I’ve always loved Star Wars which the original movies had just released when I was growing up in the 80’s. The story reflects many of the classic elements of young adult fiction – young hero on a coming-of-age, self-exploratory journey which I also found in many of the books I was reading at the time. Between Star Wars and Star Trek: The Next Generation and then the wave of popular sci-fi & fantasy media in the 90’s (X-files, DS9, Highlander etc), there really was a variety of speculative media to enjoy.

And I enjoy writing for an audience of young adults. The themes that young adult novels explore are important and relatable across a wide range of ages.

Growing up, were there any books or authors that touched or inspired you as a writer, or that you felt personally reflected in?

For my thirteenth birthday, my brother gifted me The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the more than complete version that had the first four books and two short stories) and from there I was sold. That book really influenced my sense of humor and how language could be used in different ways. Books by Mercedes Lackey and Brian Jacques and Robert Jordan and Ursula K Le Guin followed for my next several birthdays and I would read the first in the series and then go to the local library and check out the rest.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your latest book So This is Ever After? What inspires you in general as an author?

So This Is Ever After was inspired by a conversation I had with another author at a convention. Julian Winters is an amazing author who writes young adult contemporary and several of his books are romantic comedies. And we were talking about how I wanted to write a romcom but I’m just not a contemporary writer. And he said something along the lines of, well write it in a castle or a spaceship, and thus the seeds of the story were planted. I started thinking about the setting and the characters and the set-up on the drive home and then within about a week I had a whole plot and the first chapter written. The book really is an homage to everything I love – romance tropes and role-playing games and comedy.

Inspiration really can come from anywhere. For So This Is Ever After it was a conversation. For In Deeper Waters it was a fairy tale that I loved growing up. A few years ago, I was driving across a mountain and saw a lone electricity pole on the side of a steep incline in the middle of nowhere and I was like, how did that get there? And that started a line of thought that became a world-building element in something else that I’m working on.

How would you describe your writing process? What are some of the best/most difficult parts for you?

I start with the big picture and then work my way down to smaller details as the creative process progresses. Once I have the world building elements that I want to include, then I plot out scenes. I’m very much a plotter. I write scenes and details on notecards and place them in sequence. That way when I do have time to sit down and write then I know what scene I’m working on next and what needs to be included in the scene. The hardest part for me is staying focused while I’m working and maximizing the limited time I have to write and create.

Since GeeksOUT is a LGBTQ+ centered website, could you maybe tell us what queer representation means to you?

There was a second part to the question above about if there was a book that I felt myself personally reflected in when I was growing up. And while I can’t say a solid ‘no’ because there were characters that I related to and there were definitely stories that I loved, there wasn’t a singular character that I could point to and say, ‘yes, that character right there.’ Because while I’m certain there were books being written with queer characters, I didn’t have access to them. I didn’t know where to look for them. And even in spec media, where boundaries could be pushed, a lot of times it was always the alien, or they were only in the background, or they died, and that didn’t feel great at all. So it’s important to me that I write stories where queer young adults can see themselves as heroes and can have a happy ending and can be their authentic selves.

Besides writing, what are some of your other interests?

I love to crochet. I make amigurumi and post pictures of them on my Instagram. The first one I ever made was a little Yoda from a crochet kit and from there I was hooked (literally). Then I made a yeti from a pattern I bought on etsy and over the past several years I’ve made hundreds of projects ranging from dragons to unicorns to octopods and cacti. I love finding new patterns and working with different yarns to create something. My yarn collection rivals my book collection.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Be patient. Don’t rush into things and know that processes in publishing can be slow. But keep working. Keep writing the books and stories that you want to see in the world. Persevere. You’ll get there and I can’t wait to read your books.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but wish you were (and the answer to that question)?

I’ve not been asked about a playlist yet for this book. I don’t normally make playlists despite almost always listening to music while I write but I listened to so much pop punk while writing this story. And I did because that music was popular when I was really into role-playing games and in a sci-fi club which is where I learned about RPGs and character roles/tropes. So there was definitely some nostalgia when I was writing. Also pop punk songs are usually fast, short, and energetic, which really helps me with motivation and writing speed.

Are there any projects you are working on or thinking about that you are able to discuss?

I’m currently working on edits for Spell Binder which is my 2023 release. It’s a young adult urban fantasy-esque book about magic rivals who have to work together to save their mentors. It has a character that is probably my favorite I’ve written thus far and explores some themes that were really important to me the past few years.

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

I love this question. Here is a list of authors that everyone should absolutely check out: Julian Winters, CB Lee, Julia Ember, Ryan La Sala, Aiden Thomas, Maggie Tokuda Hall, Zoe Hana Mikuta, Zoraida Córdova, MK England, and Steven Salvatore.

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Interview with Author KD Edwards

KD Edwards, author

K.D. Edwards lives and writes in North Carolina, but has spent time in Massachusetts, Maine, Colorado, New Hampshire, Montana, and Washington. (Common theme until NC: Snow. So, so much snow.)

Mercifully short careers in food service, interactive television, corporate banking, retail management, and bariatric furniture has led to a much less short career in Higher Education.

The first book in his urban fantasy series THE TAROT SEQUENCE, called THE LAST SUN, was published by Pyr in June 2018. The third installment, THE HOURGLASS THRONE, is expected in May 2022.

K.D. is represented by Sara Megibow at kt literary, and Kim Yau at Echo Lake Entertainment for media rights.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Of course! I’m the author of The Tarot Sequence series, an urban fantasy that reimagines a modern world with a very real Atlantis. The series is built around several broad concepts: LGBT+ inclusion, found family, humor, tarot card imagery, a lack of toxic masculinity, and lots of immersive world-building in a society that blends science fiction and fantasy.

Congratulations on your upcoming book, The Hourglass Throne! Could you tell us what it’s about and where the idea for the book came from?

It’s the third book in a continuous series and is being released May 17, 2022 – I actually have nine planned books (three trilogies). My largest motivation for the series was to create a wildly different type of society free from many of the biases in our own culture. There is no “gay” or “straight” – Atlanteans operate on a very broad spectrum of gender and sexuality. I wanted to tell a story that honors urban fantasy greats – like Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher – while also featuring a cast of characters that I would have wanted to read as a young gay man.

As a writer, what drew you to writing fiction/fantasy?

I read SFF almost exclusively as a teen, and then moved away from it in my 20s and 30s. When I hit 40, I decided the world…. Well, the world kind of sucks at times. So I turned my back on contemporary fiction and dove whole-heartedly into escapism. I want people to ENJOY these books, and escape from the grind of doom scrolling. I want people to laugh, and care about the characters, and get lost in the wonder of this city I’m creating – a city built from teleported human ruins from across the world. I love that element of SFF. It can be uplifting, and can present a World we deserve. 

Since Geeks OUT is a queer centered website, could you tell us a bit about the LGBTQ+ characters featured in your books?

In the beginning, I thought I was something special for having a book with a lot of gay men. My readers – my very kind, awesome readers – disabused me of that. Since then, I’ve taken it as a point of pride to really explore the depth of the queer community. My main character, Rune, is demisexual, and in a relationship with a man. Quinn is Asexual. Layne, who was introduced as a 15-year old male teen, now identifies as gender fluid and uses “they/them” pronouns. One of my newest central characters, Lady Death, has had relationships with women in the past. I’m only getting started, too.

Were there any books or authors that touched you or inspired you growing up? 

I have a complicated relationship with the books I read growing up. The SFF was so important to my development but, looking back, I can see how homogenous the material was. And how male. It’s so powerfully obvious that those stories lacked diversity. Some of those series I cannot even talk about – especially the ones where the hero’s journey is built on raping others or violence against women. 

The urban fantasy stories I read as a young adult fare better. JD Robb’s In Death series; Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson; Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels…. I really adored a lot of the early urban fantasies. 

Where did you get your start in creative writing? What pulled you to fiction?

I can’t even remember a time I didn’t want to be a writer. Ever. I think the ability to escape this world and live in another has always been the draw, for me.

What’s something you haven’t done as a writer that you’d like to do?

One of the ways I manage a 9-book series is having huge, tent pole ideas for each book. That satisfies my craving for different sub-genres within SFF. For instance, I’ll have my Natural Disaster novel. I’ll have my Kaiju novel. I’ll have my Roadtrip novel. 

But given the constraints of the series I built, there are still stories I wish I could tell. I want to write a space station book. I want to write a post-apocalyptic tale….

What inspired you to incorporate Tarot cards and it’s mythology into your stories?

My own writing has always involved archetypes. I’ve been working on Tarot Sequence for close to 10 years, but the archetypes of Rune and Brand pre-date that by many years. That’s what I love about tarot cards – they’re built on human archetypes and appetites, like Love, Fortune, Nature, Death. My focus is on the major arcana cards, in particular. Given the unique identity of each major arcana card, it seemed like a good idea to build a nobility system around it. My main character, Rune, is the sole remaining heir to the fallen Sun Throne. These novels represent his journey in reclaiming his birthright.

Your last short story collection placed your characters into the COVID pandemic and under lock down. How did your own experiences during that time inspire that work?

Oh my God, those stories SAVED ME. I was just as lost and scared as everyone else during the start of the Pandemic. Putting Rune and Brand through quarantine was my way of coping with it. And it snowballed from there – the response I got from readers also looking for a distraction, or meaning, was fantastic. So I decided to make the stories canon – and haven’t regretted it.

Aside from writing, what do you enjoy doing in your free time? 

The Pandemic has changed everything. I moved from a workplace-based day job to work-from-home status. (And I love it.) I also stopped reading books in favor of watching international TV. It really opened my eyes to how perspectives change globally. It expanded my tastes, and gave me new ideas and ideas. I really, really need to get back to reading – but the TV habit still persists for now.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet, but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)? 

Hah! If you knew my readers, you’d know that there are very, very few unexplored questions. My readers are amazing, and supportive, and vocal. I am so freaking blessed. They exchange ideas with me, ask questions, make artwork, provide music recommendations… So I’m honestly at a loss at what question I haven’t been asked.

I suppose one question I don’t get often: The series is based in New Atlantis, formed after the fall of Atlantis during the Great Atlantean War. Every now and then a reader asks if I ever intend to take the story back to the abandoned homeland. And the answer? Oh yes.

Finally, what LGBTQ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

I am really loving David Slayton’s Adam Binder series. TJ Klune is one of my favorites. Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner books. Gideon the Ninth is magnificent. I know I’ll regret not spending more time on this list….so many suggestions that they bottle-neck in my brain. Oh! Hero by the late Perry Moore remains hugely influential for me. Gregory Ashe is a prolific sci-fi and mystery writer, and I love his Hollow Folk series.