Tag: Mermaid

Posted on

Interview with Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, Co-Editors of Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For


Zoraida Córdova is the acclaimed author of more than two dozen novels and short stories, including the Brooklyn Brujas series, Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence, and The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina. In addition to writing novels, she serves on the board of We Need Diverse Books, and is the co-editor of the bestselling anthology Vampires Never Get Old, as well as the cohost of the writing podcast, Deadline City. She writes romance novels as Zoey Castile. Zoraida was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and calls New York City home. When she’s not working, she’s roaming the world in search of magical stories.

Natalie C. Parker is an author, editor, and community organizer. She has written several award winning books for teens and young readers and has edited multiple anthologies including the Indie Bestselling anthology Vampires Never Get Old. Her work has been included on the NPR Best Books list, the Indie Next List, and the TAYSHAS Reading List, and in Junior Library Guild selections. In addition to writing, Natalie also runs Madcap Retreats, which has partnered with We Need Diverse Books and Reese’s Book Club to host the writers workshops for their new internship Lit Up. She grew up in a navy family finding home in coastal cities from Virginia to Japan and currently lives with her wife on the Kansas prairie.

I had the opportunity to interview Zoraida and Natalie, which you can read below.

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

N: Hi Geeks OUT team! Thank you so much for having us! Zoraida and I are both authors of young adult, middle grade, and, in her case, adult SFF and we’ve been friends since the day we met. Which was at the very beginning of our careers.

What can you tell us about your latest anthology, Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For? What was the inspiration for the project?

N: To tell you about the inspiration for Mermaids Never Drown we actually have to back up a bit and tell you about the first installment in the Untold Legends series, Vampires Never Get Old, which came out of a writing retreat. We were both floating in a pool that was far too cold for rational people to endure, and Zoraida breezily mentioned missing vampires. Suddenly we were deep in a discussion about how many vampires were missing from the stories we were most familiar with. Our solution was an anthology featuring an array of voices who were excited to revamp, if you will, the mythology we know and love. That book came out in 2020.

Z: Back in the pandemic days! It became an Indie bestseller and since then, we’ve seen one of the stories from Vampires, “First Kill” by V.E. Schwab, be adapted as a Netflix show, which was very exciting. And we sold two more installments featuring two more of our favorite cryptids/magical beings. Which is how Mermaids Never Drown came to be.

As authors, you’ve both written about merfolk before. This is also the second mythological creature you’ve tackled in this anthology series. May I ask what do you think draws you and the other writers from the Mermaids Never Drown anthology to this mythological creature?

Z: Mermaids have always been my favorite mythological creature. There are so many metaphors that can be applied to magical beings, but for me, the mermaid story is about straddling two worlds. As an immigrant living in the diaspora, what better metaphor could I choose? I’m not trying to belong to one world or the other. I belong to both, and that’s pretty powerful for me.

N: I’ve been captivated by mermaids for as long as I can remember. I’ve been a swimmer, a sailor, and a SCUBA diver and all of the mercreatures I write tend to be monstrous in some way, always hungry with sharp teeth and rough skin. That really fits my experience of queerness–I have felt monstrous and strange and also hungry and vicious at various points in my life, like I both did and didn’t fit in my own body or among regular humans. So for me, mermaids and queerness have a lot to do with finding home inside yourself, and making a new one in the world.

Zoraida Córdova Photo Credit Melanie Barbosa

For many people, mermaids and merfolk in general have often been a queer symbol, a marginalized creature traveling between different worlds, longing for love and freedom. Could you maybe tell us about some of the queer contributions to Mermaids Never Drown?

N: So many of our stories play on that theme of feeling trapped or pulled between two worlds, or on being denied access to spaces that feel crucial to identity or a sense of history. The stories in this collection use mermaid mythology and tropes to explore everything from intergenerational trauma to diaspora to queerness. In particular, I’m very excited for Rebecca Coffindaffer’s Storm Song, which grapples with sexuality and expectations. Queer romance is front and center in Julian Winters’s We’ll Always Have June, and Julie Murphy’s The First and Last Kiss. Katherine Locke’s Nor’easter features a nonbinary protagonist, andand several of the other stories have queerness braided throughout, including Kalynn Bayon’s Return to the Sea, Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s Shark Week, and the story I’ve co-authored with Zoraida, The Merrow.

What draws you to the art of anthology creation?

N: There is something really powerful about being invited into a story. As a queer person, stories about magical and mythical creatures have felt strangely off-limits. Anthologies give us an opportunity to change that, and while there’s no single collection that can invite every single reader in, I love working on projects that are opening doors rather than closing them.

Z: Short stories were my first love. From the classics we had to read in school, to the strange and experimental zines and flash fiction I found in college, to putting together these collections with Natalie. I love giving other writers a prompt and seeing what unfurls from planting that idea.

As writers, what drew you to the art of storytelling, specifically young adult, fantasy, and romance?

Z: The real world is a mess, to quote our favorite soft shell crab. From the moment I decided I wanted to be a writer in high school, I’ve been dreaming up worlds. Fantasy is a reflection of our world, but at a distance. I don’t think you can truly leave the problems of our worlds behind. In fact, it should power your fantasy and shine a light on what, as an author, you are trying to say.

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

N: When it comes to anthologies, my favorite part is always getting the stories and reading them for the first time. It’s exciting every single time and I love the tantalizing feeling of not knowing how our authors will have tackled the prompt. It reminds me that stories are limitless and a single prompt can inspire wildly different and robust creations–it’s a kind of magic. The most challenging part is deciding the order of the stories! Seriously, we agonize over placement. Every. Single. Time.

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

Z: There are so many. I loved all the teen urban fantasy that came out in the late 90’s and early aughts. Those books really shaped me as a writer. I grew up watching Latin American TV, so I did see aspects of myself reflected in Spanish-language television and media, but until recently, that wasn’t the case in US American books and media. I think the first time I felt represented in a show was the first episode of ‘Jane the Virgin,’ which came out in my 20s. I’m still waiting for a book to do that to me, as an Ecuadorian person, but I’ve still found connections with books that feature strong main characters like Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton, On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera.

N: The first books I remember feeling a deep connection to as a queer kid were the Heralds of Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. It was the first time I’d ever seen queer characters on the page who weren’t villainized. In fact, they got to be the main characters, have magic of their own and go on epic quests! Now, there are many queer books that reflect parts of me and many that don’t, and I love that we are getting to have that kind of expansion in literature. In particular, I’m currently obsessed with the works of Zen Cho, Andrew Joseph White, Tessa Gratton (I know Z already mentioned her, but I can’t help it), Adib Khorram, and Mark Oshiro.

Natalie C. Parker

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

Z: Natalie and I have a podcast called Untold Legends, where we deep dive (no pun intended) pop culture with our authors. Season one is all about vampires, and of course, season two is about mermaids. You can listen here.

N: I know this is giving the impression that Zoraida and I do everything together, but we also work with a new company called Electric Postcard Entertainment. Our mission is to act as a launchpad for creators whose backgrounds and experiences have long been marginalized by entertainment industries. Aspiring writers can learn more here!

What advice would you give to other aspiring writers?

Z: Read everything. It was the first piece of advice I received, and it holds true. Consuming stories–in whatever format–is part of the job. For me, it sharpens my sentences, and helps me figure out how I want my own voice to be different.

Any specific advice for those looking to create/organize an anthology themselves?

N: My best advice is to take your time and be really intentional about the project. The more focus you can bring to the idea at the pitch stage, the better the collection will be in the end. So, what I’m saying is that it’s good to be very clear about your mission from the beginning. 

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

Z: I’m working on my next adult book. It’s tentatively titled The Fall of Rebel Angels and is a love story between a woman suspected of murdering her former lover and a fallen angel who is cursed to search for his wings on Earth every one hundred years.

N: I am just about to announce two new projects that will be released in 2024 and 2025. The first is my first young adult horror novel, which has been a dream of mine for ten million years, and the second is a project I pitched as John Wick meets Adventures in Babysitting. Full details, titles, and covers will be released VERY soon.

Finally, what book/authors would you recommend to the readers of GeeksOUT?

Z: All of the authors in our anthologies have tremendous novels of their own. Make sure you check out their work!

N: What Z said! I will also offer a quick set of spooky season queer YA reads for consideration: My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham, You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayronn, The Honeys by Ryan La Sala, and These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall, and Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado.

Posted on

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.