Jessica Mary Best is a multi-award-winning freelance writer/editor, an amateur singer/songwriter and a well-intentioned ball of pure quivering anxiety. She is based out of Columbus, Ohio. Her previous projects include the scripted audio dramas THE STRANGE CASE OF STARSHIP IRIS and KEEP IT STEADY. She was also a staff writer on Hartlife NFP’s critically acclaimed podcast UNWELL: A MIDWESTERN GOTHIC MYSTERY.

I had the opportunity to interview Jessica, which you can read below.

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

Sure thing! I majored in Creative Writing, but I was too shy to try to write the kinds of stories that excited me, which were queer genre fiction. So instead I worked on “creative nonfiction,” like little humorous essays and I ultimately wrote a food memoir. From there, I got really into fandom and started writing fanfic. Somehow, this turned into scripting and producing The Strange Case of Starship Iris, which is a queer found family sci-fi audio drama.

What can you tell us about your debut book, Stars, Hide Your Fires? What was the inspiration for the story?

Stars, Hide Your Fires was a ton of fun to write. It’s a queer YA sci-fi mystery in space. There’s an attempted heist, ballgowns, banter, jokes, twists, turns, daring exploits, and snacks. The story was partly inspired by the “locked-room mystery,” like you can’t get much more of a locked room than a space ship.

As a writer, what drew you to the art of storytelling, specifically speculative and young adult fiction?

I love the amount of freedom you get in speculative fiction to build a world. You can really start from the ground up without having to justify why, for example, Stars, Hide Your Fires takes place in a universe where queer identities are incredibly normal and always have been, and Earth has never existed but somehow octopuses are still around.

How would you describe your writing process?

I have ADHD, so my best bet is getting to hyperfocus on what I’m doing. Generally I have a cup of tea and I play somewhat repetitive instrumental music in my headphones. (Different music for different projects; Stars, Hide Your Fires is brought to you by Maki Namekawa’s cover of the Philip Glass soundtrack for the movie Mishima.) Music, at least, repetitive instrumental music, makes me write a little faster and revise as I go a little less, which is better for getting words on the page.

Growing up, were there any stories in which you felt touched by/ or reflected in? Are there any like that now?

I read widely as a kid but I don’t feel like I often encountered someone like me. I think that’s partly because I didn’t fully understand myself. (I didn’t know that I had ADHD, depression, or an anxiety disorder until my early twenties, and I didn’t figure out what particular brand of queer I was until I was about 29—fairly major information to not have!) I also think those identities were just not widely understood when I was growing up, and so not commonly portrayed. To the extent that I do encounter something that resonates, it’s the character in a story that really wants all their friends to get along and values the group. Hardison in Leverage is an example of that, when he’s not antagonizing Eliot.

As a writer, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general?

I listen to a lot of music, not just repetitive instrumental stuff while actually sitting at the computer and typing, but songs to zone out to and walk around with and think about in the context of creating a story. “Time, As a Symptom” by Joanna Newsom helped inspire the the final episode of season one of The Strange Case of Starship Iris. “Radio” by Sylvan Esso, too.

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or challenging?

The most fun part for me is creating dialogue. I love putting characters who are very different from each other in the same room and coming up with ways for them to bounce off each other. The hardest part in my opinion is plot. I greatly enjoy making characters and making them talk to each other; I never know what they should be doing.

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

Well, it’s technically also writing but I write songs! I have a bandcamp (creepingdoubts.bandcamp.com) and I keep meaning to put more up there. My songs cover topics like “how is having a crush like believing in a conspiracy theory?” and “what if instead of Social Justice Warriors, we had Social Justice Necromancers who resurrected characters that didn’t deserve to die?”

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

I really like this question but I’ve honestly been asked great questions, here and elsewhere.

Maybe, “What is the most niche bit of knowledge that helped you write some detail in Stars, Hide Your Fires?”

Answer: my mom is a weaver and at some point she told me about these scientists who many years ago collaborated with artists to create a gorgeous piece of gold-colored fabric where the threads were all spun by spiders. Here’s a link.

What advice might you have to give for aspiring writers?

My main advice—keeping in mind I think there’s very little that’s universal, and nothing works for everyone—is that if you’re at the phase of being an aspiring writer where you need to just do a ton of writing and learn how to finish projects (because nothing teaches you how to end a story other than ending a story), it helps to stack the deck in your favor by filling the story with elements and tropes that you personally find exciting and fun. “Write what you love,” basically. I had a NaNoWriMo story that I got pretty far in one year except it was all building to a huge fantastical battle and I have zero interest in writing a huge fantastical battle. The bonus of working this way is that I think you’re more likely to enjoy what you’ve written.

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

I recently read On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and it absolutely knocked me out; it gets very intense and sad but it’s phenomenal. My all-time favorite book in recent years is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, which might also need a content warning in that it’s about humanity during a devastating pandemic. With that said, it’s ultimately a hopeful read in its way, and as a bonus, it made me feel justified in being a liberal arts major.