Interview with Author Alex Temblador

Alex Temblador is the Mixed Latine award-winning author of Half Outlaw and Secrets of the Casa Rosada, which received numerous industry accolades including Kirkus Reviews’ Best of YA Books 2018 and the 2019 NACCS Tejas Foco Young Adult Fiction Award. She is a contributor to Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, and a travel, arts, and culture writer with pieces appearing in Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and National Geographic, among many other publications. She lives near Dallas, Texas.

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

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

Thank you – I’m so glad to chat with Geeks Out. My name is Alex and I’m the award-winning author of Secrets of the Casa Rosada and a brand-new novel called Half Outlaw. I grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, but after moving between three other states, I made my way back to the Lone Star state and currently live and write in a 102-year-old haunted house that I bought in Dallas in 2020. Other fun fact: I’m half Mexican, half white, but I identify as Mixed or Mixed Latine. 

What can you tell us about your book, Half Outlaw? Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

Back in 2013, I was sitting between my uncle and my grandfather on the couch at a Thanksgiving celebration. My uncle turned to me and said, “You know I’m an outlaw, right?” I said, “Sure.” He then replied, “That makes you half outlaw.” It was the coolest phrase I’d ever heard, even if it didn’t really make much sense as to why he was saying it or what he meant. But it reminded me of how people always ask, “What are you?” when they’re trying to inquire about my ethnicity. Growing up, I used to say, “half Mexican” or “half Mexican, half white.” The phrase “half outlaw” reminded me of that and I thought – what makes someone a half outlaw? A story about a Mixed woman and her outlaw family unfolded from there. 

In terms of what Half Outlaw is about… it’s a road trip novel with magical realism elements and a structure that jumps between the 1970s and 1990. It follows Raqi (pronounced like ‘Rocky’), a half-Mexican, half white lawyer who must go on a cross-country motorcycle ride in honor of the white uncle, Dodge, who raised her after her parents died. Dodge had a substance abuse problem and raised Raqi within the community of his one-percenter motorcycle club called the Lawless. (Only one-percent of motorcycle clubs are involved in illegal activities, according to the FBI. Hence the term, ‘one-percenter.’ The fictional club in the novel, the Lawless, sell drugs and guns.) Raqi hadn’t talked to Dodge in 10 years, but she agrees to go on the motorcycle ride in exchange for the contact information of her Mexican grandfather, whom she didn’t know existed. 

As readers follow Raqi on this road trip where she meets some interesting people, I introduce chapters from Raqi’s past, so you get the full sense of what it was like for her to be raised in a violent, abusive, racist, and neglectful environment and how this trip affects her perspective of her past and person. Half Outlaw is a thrilling ride, but it can get pretty dark at times. Although the idea for Half Outlaw sparked in 2013, I wrote the full draft in 2017 when I was trying to deal with how the white side of my family behaved when Trump was elected and how that impacted me as a Mixed person of color. 

Readers might find themselves uncomfortable at times, or even pulled in different emotional directions while reading the book. This was intentional. I tried to take feelings that I’ve had as a Mixed woman in different situations – whether it’s been among my family, friends, school, or career – and put them in the story. 

What drew you to writing, particularly fiction and travel writing, which seems to be major elements of your writing journey?

I’ve always loved fiction. As a child, I read voraciously, especially books that let me explore different parts of my personality that I wasn’t sure how to express outwardly. I loved going on adventures as a woman warrior, a queen, a witch, or a historical figure who had insurmountable obstacles in their way. 

When I decided to pursue writing, I always had the intention to become a full-time novelist one day. After receiving my MFA in Creative Writing, I lived in Los Angeles writing subtitles and captions for TV and film, and then moved to Dallas a year later to become a freelance writer. One of my first gigs was with a TripAdvisor-owned outlet that doesn’t exist anymore. Within this job, my love for traveling expanded and I discovered that I could specialize in travel writing – so that’s what I did. My travel writing career has taken me to so many beautiful places like Thailand, Japan, Serbia, Bonaire, Mexico, Belize, Switzerland, Germany, and many more. 

I think it’s pretty awesome that I’ve been able to marry my travel and fiction writing into Half Outlaw, which is, in a way, a fictional travel narrative as Raqi travels between California and Arkansas throughout the book. 

How would you describe your general writing process?

When I’m working on a new novel, I typically write for 20 minutes as soon as I wake up. If I want to write more later in the day, then I’ll write more. However, it’s not something I make myself do. Once the first draft is complete, I let it sit for a few weeks and then pick it back up and start editing on the computer. When that’s complete, I edit it by hand, and then again on the computer before sharing it with a beta reader or my literary agent. 

For me, the most important part of the writing process is the editing phase. Writing the first draft is necessary but it’s in the shaping of the story through editing that I find the most joy and excitement.  

What drew you to writing? Were there any books or authors who you believe inspired you and/or influenced your own personal style?

Although I write some non-fiction, I’ve found that writing fiction has allowed me to process my emotions and my experiences in a way that feels safe to me. That’s ultimately what drew me to writing. It was a safe space to ask questions, work through my trauma, and tell stories that I hope will benefit the people who read them.  

I would say that I was influenced by a wide range of women of color writers like Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, Isabel Allende, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Louise Erdrich. However, it was Ana Castillo and her novel, So Far From God, that impacted me in a significant way as a writer. I can recall reading the first page of the book and having this connective moment between my heart and mind that said, “This is it. This is what I’ve been trying to write.” I hadn’t realized that I was looking for a writing language until I recognized it in Ana Castillo’s style of magical realism. If you compare our work, I think our writing styles differ greatly, but her novel was the catalyst to me exploring the magical realism genre and learning about how it’s connected to my Mexican identity. Everything came full circle when Ana Castillo blurbed Half Outlaw. I was beyond honored. 

Half Outlaw is a magical realism novel, and it’s something you’ll notice in the first sentence of the book. It may be a little jarring if you don’t read a lot of magical realism, but you grow used to it very quickly and find that it plays a role in Raqi’s perspective of the world and the trauma she’s endured. 

What advice would you have to give to any aspiring writers?

Write the story that you want to write, rather than the story you think is going to be sold or something that is ‘highbrow’ with flowery language and winding sentences. Trends in the publishing industry are so fickle and you can’t really predict what will be “hot” next. For instance, books that you read today were bought two years ago, so those trends have already come and gone. Don’t waste your time trying to write to a trend. 

Even more importantly, don’t try to write in a style that doesn’t come to you naturally. I think that’s the biggest mistake that writers make when they first start writing. They try to write like their favorite authors or writers and when it isn’t the same, they get disappointed, spiral out, and quit writing. Write what comes naturally. You’ll find more success and joy in this approach. 

On a last note: put most of your effort toward editing. Half Outlaw has gone through a countless number of edits, thanks to feedback I received from two beta readers, my literary agent, my publishing editor, and an in-house publishing editor. No book is well written in the first draft. Editing is the key. 

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)?

Your main character, Raqi Warren, is Mixed, and it’s something that you discuss in the Acknowledgements. How does her identity play into the story and why is it important?

Raqi is half-Mexican, half white, just as I am, and like me, she identifies as “Mixed.” People who are Mixed may identify as biracial, multiracial, or as “half-x and half-x.” It’s entirely up to the Mixed person to choose their personal identifier and this should be respected by others. 

I like to explain what it means to be Mixed, because despite this identity being one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S., we still don’t see a lot of fiction that features main characters who are Mixed. I didn’t grow up reading books where the characters were Mixed like me. It wasn’t until graduate school that I read short stories and books by Mixed authors with Mixed characters – and only because I went searching for it (these stories weren’t assigned to me to read). Today, I’m sorry to say, that Mixed representation in fiction is still considerably low, and most books with Mixed characters aren’t even written by Mixed authors. 

I wrote this book to work through the experiences that I’ve had as a Mixed woman in a world that was designed for monoracial (single race) and monoethnic (single ethnicity) peoples. For Half Outlaw specifically, I wanted to focus on the impact that monoracial family members have on Mixed family members. 

In Half Outlaw, you’ll see how Raqi navigated growing up in an all-white community as a Mixed girl with brown skin. While her “family” loved her, they also caused her harm in a variety of ways from using slurs in reference to people of color to speaking negatively about Mexicans and Mexican Americans. This is something I’ve experienced in my own life and with my own family, and I hoped that by writing this book, more Mixed people feel seen and understood. I also hope that family and friends of Mixed people can gain some insight into their relationships and behavior through Raqi’s story. 

Are there any other projects you are currently working on that you feel free to speak about?

I have two books in the works – another adult fiction novel that examines themes of sexism in mythology, motherhood, and loneliness, and a non-fiction book that I hope will be beneficial to creative writers. I’m trying to conceptualize a new novel idea but it’s in the very beginning stages of the outline and free writing process. I don’t know if it’ll end up being the next novel I write. I tend to write out a few ideas that come to me and then put half of them aside when I discover that the story doesn’t have legs. However, this idea has been brewing for well over a year in my mind and a few things have recently come together that make me think it’s the next story I need to tell. All I’ll say about this new novel idea is that it’ll have a cemetery, a slight love story, and examine the politics of women’s bodies. 

What books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

I could suggest book titles or authors, but I’d rather persuade you to read authors who have a different identity than you – whether that differing identity be in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, abilities, religion, culture, class, etc. As readers, I think we get too comfortable reading books where we feel ‘at home’ or ‘seen’ or books that let us escape from our day-to-day life. While those books are necessary and may be good for our mental health, I think the best things we can do for ourselves is to read stories from perspectives that don’t align with our own. 

In reading books by authors who have different identities than us, we may feel uncomfortable at times, however, that’s a small thing in comparison to the benefits we receive. In learning about a different identity, perspective, or life experience, we develop empathy and understanding for people who have different life experiences than us – and that is something that can go a long way in our society and personal lives. 


Header Photo Credit Shelbie Monkres

Interview with Author Emily X. R. Pan

Emily X.R. Pan lives on Lenape land in Brooklyn, New York, but was originally born in the Midwestern United States to immigrant parents from Taiwan. Her debut novel, The Astonishing Color of After, was a New York Times bestseller, winner of the APALA Honor and Walter Honor awards, a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize, longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and featured on over a dozen best-of-the-year lists. She received her MFA in fiction from the NYU Creative Writing Program, where she was a Goldwater Fellow and editor-in-chief of Washington Square. She was the founding editor-in-chief of Bodega Magazine, and went on to co-create the FORESHADOW platform and anthology. An Arrow to the Moon is her second novel. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @ exrpan.

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

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

Hello hello! Thank you so much for having me! I’m a Taiwanese and Chinese American writer based in Brooklyn, New York. I was born in the States and grew up moving around quite a lot, but I’ve lived in NYC longer than anywhere else, so I feel most like a New Yorker.

How did you find yourself becoming a writer?

I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember. I was raised on a daily dose of fiction from my dad, who’s a phenomenal storyteller. At bedtime, instead of reading to me, he would invent a new tale on the spot. And eventually he started encouraging me to help brainstorm, and we would spin out these complex threads, and play them out with my stuffed animals. My mom is also a writer—she writes creative nonfiction in Chinese—and has been publishing essays for pretty much my entire life. I remember being a small child and listening to her read sentences back to herself, watching her cross them out and rework them. She was always so engrossed. Growing up that way, I think it was just so much the air I breathed that I couldn’t help but fall in love with the written word myself.

What drew you to young adult and speculative fiction specifically?

Ah, I love this question. What I love about the young adult category is specifically the readers of young adult books. YA readers are so open-minded about genre, about format. They’re willing to try something very strange, or something completely different from what they typically read. It’s quite a different attitude from the readers of adult lit who make a beeline for the sci-fi shelves in a bookstore, or exclusively read romance, or only want to consume what they dub to be high-brow and literary enough. On bookstagram you see YA readers sharing stacks of their recent favorites, and so often it will be such a wide variety of genres, such different types of writers. I love that about the YA world. It feels like I have endless possibilities to play with, so many opportunities to blur genres and experiment, and the YA audience will be ready to try just about anything.

As for speculative fiction, I just can’t imagine myself writing anything that doesn’t have a touch of the strange or the magical. I remember being a kid and having those moments that feel perfectly encapsulated by the exploding brain emoji, wondering whether a wardrobe or an attic could truly have the power to transport me to another place. So many of my hours were spent searching among the trees for signs of the fae, wondering about the possibility of me being a changeling. Once I started reading about other worlds, about things that defied logic and physics, I couldn’t go back. All the stories I write will forever be fulfilling this ongoing fantasy for me—this idea that maybe if I just look hard enough at something, maybe if I tap on a stump the exact right way, walk past a wall at the exact right time, I’ll find something very special and out of this world.

What can you tell us about your upcoming book, An Arrow to the Moon? Where did the inspiration for this story come from?

There were two major points of inspiration. I mentioned before that my dad was always telling me stories. Sometimes he would tell me the legends and fairytales that he had been raised on himself. And my favorite of those were his stories about Houyi the divine archer and Chang’e the moon goddess—I asked to hear them over and over again. Throughout my childhood it always bothered me that I never saw either of those characters in the fairytale collections that I would find at school or at my local library.

The second piece of inspiration was, of course, Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, which I just fell in love with when I read it in school. I think it might have been my first time ever reading Shakespeare on the page, and I was so captivated by his way of playing with words. I’m also a fan of the Baz Luhrmann film from 1996. So I’ve known for some time that I wanted to do a retelling of Romeo and Juliet—but I wanted it to be more feminist, and I wanted to somehow capture what it felt like when I was growing up, before everything revolved around the internet. I was turning around in my head the idea of doomed, star-crossed lovers…and realized making Houyi and Chang’e my Romeo and Juliet was the perfect combination. 

Drawing from your work, it seems that East Asian mythology and culture is a large part of the heart of your work. Besides the story Houyi & Chang’e, are there any other mythologies or contemporary Asian drama/stories you’ve found yourself drawn to and taking inspiration from? 

I would actually say that the heart of my work is me wrestling with the same questions of identity that I’ve had all my life—especially as a kid who always found myself living in predominantly white neighborhoods, attending predominantly white schools. I never saw myself represented in the books that we were assigned, or that were handed to me in the library. I never saw myself represented in movies. When I went over to friends’ houses, they always had a different way of doing things compared to my family—it often felt like going on an adventure through a strange land. And so the way I think of it is that I’ve been aiming to write very American stories, imbuing my characters with pieces of myself and my truth. In The Astonishing Color of After, I simply incorporated elements from my own family. In An Arrow to the Moon I remade Houyi and Chang’e as Asian American teenagers in the 90s. So I’m not sure what other inspiration I might be drawing from next—at the end of the day it’s just about pinning my own experiences on the page, with the hopes that other Taiwanese and Chinese American people see themselves reflected.

Your debut novel, The Astonishing Color of After, is a beautiful YA novel touching on grief, mental health, and Taiwanese culture and identity. As a writer, what was it like writing this book, and do you feel changed as a writer or a person after having completed it?

Oh, thank you so much! It was certainly a difficult book to write, but for me it was a way of processing my own grief, answering questions that had been spinning in my head. I definitely feel like a different person from the me who was writing it. Sometimes I open the book up to a random page, curious to see how I’ll feel about my prose, and it so often feels like the words I’m reading could not possibly have come out of my brain. It’s a very bizarre experience. The cool thing about a published work is that it’s a snapshot of its creator at a very specific moment in time—or if the book was written over the course of many years, then it’s a collection of snapshots. The Astonishing Color of After is absolutely a time capsule for me. I can see myself mourning right there on the page. I can also see my fears about my writing career, my aching desire to share my words, to make myself known. My new novel feels very different to me because I wrote it when I was older and wrestling with very different things.

How would you describe your writing process?

I’m a chronic rewriter. On my first few drafts I’m writing my way through a dimly lit forest. I have some sense of certain events and situations I want to aim for, but I try to keep myself in the dark aside from those to leave ample space for discovery. I spend a lot of time in those early iterations figuring out what the story is even meant to be. And then on later drafts I’m reshaping, restructuring, cleaning up the mess and shining up the words.

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What are some you find the most challenging or difficult?

The first draft is probably the scariest for me. That’s when impostor syndrome hits me the hardest. The second most challenging aspect is trusting that I can take a mess of a manuscript and somehow make it good. It always gets so much worse before it gets better—kind of like decluttering and reorganizing a house. But it’s terrifying to start ripping things apart, throwing scraps here and there, attempting to rebraid the chapters.

The best moments—my absolute favorite moments—are always when I’m wrestling endlessly with a puzzle and finally a solution suddenly sparks in my brain, and it turns out that the answer I needed was connected to something I’d already written in another part of the book. Those moments make me feel like a sneaky genius. I love them because they remind me to trust in myself, and trust in the process.

If you could go back and tell your writer-self anything, what would it be?

Oh gosh. If I could travel back in time to visit young Emily, who so badly wanted to be writing and publishing books, who was so full of fear that that dream might never come true…I think I would tell her to be less afraid. To write what’s true to her. To ignore what feels commercial, what feels most “doable.” And to write the books she thinks are too ambitious for her to write.

What advice would you give to other aspiring writers?

I would tell them, first, to read constantly, and read widely. To read everything—even genres and age categories they have no interest in—and to challenge themselves to find at least three craft lessons in each thing they read.

Second, I would tell them that if there’s a glittering story idea that scares them, that they don’t think they’re good enough to write yet: that’s exactly what they should be working on right now.

Are there any other projects you are working on right now and at liberty to speak about?

I’ve got quite a few secret novels that I’m chipping away at, including an adult novel and a middle grade book. But those are on the backburner because I’m on deadline for a new YA novel that’s very different from what I’ve published so far. I think that’s all I can say right now—but I am very excited for all of these!

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

Oh gosh. Everything Malinda Lo writes. I must scream especially loudly about her newest book, Last Night At the Telegraph Club, which has at this point won a gazillion awards and is so absolutely deserving of all the hype. Anna-Marie McLemore is another brilliant writer who will forever give me brain envy, and their book When the Moon Was Ours is one I go back to quite often. Charlie Jane Anders, too—I will read everything she writes. I love love love her short stories, plus she’s currently publishing a trilogy—the first book is called Victories Greater Than Death, and it just has so much wonderful representation in it. It’s amazing how the landscape of publishing has changed. I remember being a teen trying to specifically find queer stories, and having to mostly rely on word-of-mouth recommendations. It’s so much easier to find these books now. There is still so much to be done in publishing, so many gaps to be filled—that work is endless, really. But also there is so much more out there, so many more people being given the opportunity to share their voices. It gives me a lot of hope.

Interview with Author Ash Van Otterloo

Ash Van Otterloo was born and raised in the Appalachian foothills, then made their home for seventeen years as an adult in Eastern Tennessee.

They currently reside in the PNW with their best friend and four wild forest gremlins. Ash is the author of CATTYWAMPUS & A TOUCH OF RUCKUS! (Watch for new announcements soon)

Whether or not their house is haunted is a topic for gossip among their neighbors. The ones, at least, that the ghosts haven’t monched yet! You can learn more about Ash at ashvanotterloo.com.

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

Sure! I’m Alder (Ash) Van Otterloo, my pronouns are they/he, I was born in Charlotte, NC, and grew up in North AL/GA/East TN. I’ve always loved expressing myself through language, though I got a later start in my author journey. I’m trans and nonbinary/agender, queer, a parent, a lover of nature and hiking, a lifelong learner, and I write middle grade books with a hint of spookiness and varying degrees of magical reaslism. I also work as a creative writing tutor and freelance editor. 

What can you tell us about your newest story, A Touch of Ruckus? Where did the inspiration for this book come from? Also, nice title by the way!

(Thanks!) A Touch of Ruckus is the story of Tennessee Lancaster, a girl who uses her secret gift (she calls it her ‘superburden’) of psychometry to learn her family members’ difficult secrets and play peacemaker to their constant bickering. She tries escaping the drama to visit her beloved grandmother inside an old growth forest, but there her gift does something new—it awakens a ghost from an old watch who starts haunting her! Her new friend Fox talks her into looking for ghosts on purpose, and soon, they’re both in over their heads. The ghosts have secrets to tell about the Lancaster family, and keeping the peace is not an option!

The story has cozy Halloween vibes, heart-in-your-throat haunting scenes, a tenderhearted nonbinary crush, themes of communication and the importance of mental health awareness…and SO MANY CORVIDS!

As a writer, what drew you to writing fiction/ fantasy, especially that intended for younger audiences?

I adore that fantasy allows young readers to explore their fears and feelings in a way that’s every bit as colorful, adventurous, intense, and fantastical as the strong emotions they’re experiencing at that age. Everything’s new, a little bit scary, and unpredictable! Fantasy can match those big feelings, stride for stride, and serve as a safe mirror—sometimes even a dress rehearsal—for the new experiences of growing up, but in a low-risk, high-empathy way. I really love that. Outrageous stories about struggling characters are affirming, and they say, “No, you’re not too much. Your enthusiasm, interests, anger, and sadness aren’t too big. Your fears aren’t, either. It’s okay that you have them, and you can learn to navigate them.” 

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

You know, I didn’t realize the pattern as a young reader, but I was consistently drawn to stories about community outsiders who overcame difficulties in communication or culture to find beautiful niches in the world to thrive as their truest selves. I loved Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, The Borrowers, Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web, the Pevensie children, and Beetle from The Midwife’s Apprentice

They were all often displaced or varying degrees of misunderstood yet managed to fight for their character arcs that included compassion, healing, and a desire to bring goodness to the communities that hadn’t embraced them at first. I think those notes of hopeful, Promethean fierceness really stuck with me, and carry over into my own writing. 

Also, what magic systems/worlds/ characters drew your attention then and now?

When I was young, I was so drawn to anything mysterious and weird! I loved cryptids, local ghost stories and legends, and anything that explored possibilities just beyond the realm of everyday life. That hasn’t changed much, though I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for old stories and archetypes, too, and seeing how we’re still using the patterns from legends and fairy tales today. I really enjoy trying to find new ways to explore older-than-dirt themes, because it makes me feel like I’m adding a useful link to a long chain of storytelling. 

Your first published book, Cattywampus (also another nice title as well) features a variety of queer characters, including a character that is intersex (which is still rarely seen in middle grade literature). What drew you to writing about this subject, and do you feel you draw on your own experiences as a queer Appalachian non-binary person while writing in general?

Writing Katybird was a unique undertaking! I needed to familiarize myself not only with many firsthand perspectives of others and the concrete details of what it means to androgen insensitive (Katy’s specific intersex experience), but I also had to become quite clear on how Katy’s experiences and mine intersected or diverged! 

Being nonbinary like me (which has to do with the cultural construct of gender) is different from being intersex (which is a distinct, physical experience). Many people who are intersex are also trans/nonbinary, while others identify strongly with their gender assigned at birth. I decided to write Katy’s character because many people from my home region view both gender and sex as attached purely to a very binary categorization of humanity based on physical sex characteristics—you’re “one or the other”—when this is simply not true. There’s so much variety encompassed in the human experience that falls outside the rigid physical and gender binary! In fact, there are as many intersex people in the world as there are naturally redheaded people! (For more information and a much better explanation of what it means to be intersex, please visit https://interactadvocates.org !) 

Tangible traits are sometimes a bit easier for folks to wrap their minds around, I think, especially for people who are resistant to new information. Careful, thoughtful education and inclusion can go a long way in stretching out people’s ability to perceive the world beyond their own very basic binary understanding. Both physical sex and experience of one’s own gender can defy categorization, and that’s a wonderful, normal, and beautiful part of reality. This is what I hoped to convey to readers. 

In a more general sense, Katy’s arc speaks to anyone who feels misunderstood or undervalued within their home culture, and encourages them to recognize their uniqueness as an crucial and precious gift to the community around them. 

While steadily growing, queer rural/ Appalachian life in literature is still underrepresented. What does it mean to you personally bringing this to the page?

Because queer folks have always existed (and will continue to exist!) in Appalachia and rural areas, I want to be careful when expressing my gratitude for the opportunity to write queer rural middle grade books. In one sense, I count myself humbly lucky to live in a moment in history where the stories are being valued and embraced in the publishing world, because wow, what a happenstance and privilege is that after all that waiting? But it’s not that those queer stories haven’t always deserved space—they absolutely have. So we’re not overly beholden to anyone for this. I view this moment more as a creative partnership that I’m grateful to take part in, as we begin to collaboratively bring balance to imbalance. The world needs queer perspectives, wisdom, beauty, and imperfections, just like it needs every other voice—and it’s lucky to have us. 

I do feel a strong sense of responsibility to write with excellence and honesty, and to do everything I can do hold the door open for more queer writers, especially those writing from intersections of racial diversity, neurodivergence, disability, and fellow trans writers, whose voices are still underrepresented from the region. It takes hundreds of queer rural stories from all different perspectives, walks, genres, interests, and styles to form a beautiful, lush body of work that any young queer person can visit and find themselves present. That’s the dream, ultimately. 

What are some of your favorite parts of the writing process? What are some of the hardest/ most frustrating for you?

I enjoy writing conflict and dialogue! Somewhat related, I love creating relationships between characters with opposing life philosophies, which is my favorite relationship dynamic in real life too. It’s so much fun to see characters challenge one another’s small beliefs just by being themselves, or gently nudging one another toward new understandings through love or opposition. Dreaming up odd couples then setting them free on the page blisses me out like nothing else. 

The most frustrating part of writing is absolutely navigating my own attention span, hands down. I’d write for days on end if my focus would let me! I’m a roamer, and I like to tinker with lots of different hobbies. But in some ways, this really drives me to try and hold my own attention with plot twists and compelling emotional arcs, so it probably works out best for readers in the end. 

What advice would you give to other aspiring writers?

Fight the urge to compare your writing to your favorite authors, and instead keep an open mind about what sort of writer you might be. Try lots of different stories and voices, and make sure you’re bringing your own heart and emotional experiences to the table. There’s only one you!

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

Weirdness of every sort makes my soul happy. I adore nature, especially plants, entomology, and mycology! I have a lot of tattoos, a ball python named Sophie Adder (Ghibli/snake pun), three cats, an old dog, and some really amazing kids who I’m lucky to raise. 

What’s your greatest fear? 

Clowns, hands down. The creepy ones are fine; they’re straightforward. It’s the cheerful ones you have to watch for. What do they want from us? It can’t be good.  

Are there any projects you are working on and at liberty to discuss?

I’m currently working on a contemporary MG about a 12yo whose mother is suffering from an addiction problem and mental health issues, which the MC compensates for by performing well in school and winning the approval of authority figures. When the mom ends up in rehab, the main character stays with an estranged aunt who runs a close-knit community garden, where they encounter kind, supportive new neighbors (many of whom are elderly, disabled, and/or queer). A mysterious Shadow begins following the MC, challenging their old rules for survival, and slowly the MC begins forming their own identity, separate from meeting their mother’s needs. 

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

I really strongly recommend fellow queer middle grade authors who debuted and sophomored in 2020/2021! We poured so much time and skill into our novels, and despite running into parent after parent looking for great MG books with queer representation, there’s a huge disconnect between the books and potential readers due to pandemic/lack of buzz. And, unfortunately, like everyone, authors are tied to a capitalist system in order for their books to reach young readers. 

If we want amazing queer rep in kidlit, we have to bolster demand via purchase of the big wave of queer MG books which happened to coincide with the pandemic. (Hie thee to bookshop.org!)

Authors Nicole Melleby, Kacen Callender, Kit Rosewater, A.J. Sass, Jules Machias, Jazz Taylor, Schuyler Bailar, and Kyle Lukoff are just a few of my favorites! I’ve also had the privilege of reading Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston (fall 2022) by Esme Symes-Smith, which is excellent.