Author Spotlight: RPGLit Sci-Fi Author, eskay

eskay (no pronouns/eskay) is a queer millennial who has successfully managed to turn a hobby of reading visual novels on YouTube into a hobby writing original fiction. eskay works as a proofreader and editor for video game writing, has 1cc’d ‘Embodiment of Scarlet Devil’ on normal difficulty, and is quite tired at the moment, thank you very much.

Author Links

Novel: 8pr.itch.io/mrrd
Bsky: @gravitygales.bsky.social
YouTube: catgirl.training (yes, that is a legitimate hyperlink)

As a debut author, can you share what you’ve learned through your writing journey, and how you found your own voice through that process?

In short: writing is hard. I was one of those people who had a bad experience with high school-level English classes and then took a while to recover. While I never lost my love of reading, something about how I was taught to regard literature killed my curiosity towards the written word.

It wasn’t until much later in life, when my wife and I began playing visual novels together, that I would rediscover that interest. Something about reading with a partner reignited my appreciation not just for the story portrayed, but the text itself. I began to notice how the specific choice and ordering of language could convey so much more than the words on their own ever could, and that led me down a rabbit hole I would never emerge from.

From there, I put in years of graceless practice, deep reading, and short story writing in order to find my voice. I also spent a lot of time writing fanfiction—having characters and settings pre-made and ready to go made it easier to focus on the actual craft of writing when ideas were scarce. I was also fortunate to have practice editing others’ writing, something I have my frequent collaborator ChaseFOX to thank for.

Comparing my own writing to others’ gave me a much deeper appreciation for the unspoken rules of written language. But having put in the work to get here, I can definitely say that I’m better of for it. Written expression is something that is uniquely in reach for anyone with patience and a keyboard, and if you had an early bad experience like I did, I would encourage you to revisit that passion if it catches your interest.

Tell us about your first novel,  Summoned to Another World, but All I’m Supposed to Do is Farm MYTHIC-RARITY RAID DROPS. Where did the idea for the premise come from, and what were your main influences?

The main premise of the novel came to me just before I was furloughed due to the pandemic. Having worked in various retail jobs for the entirety of my adult life, I was becoming increasingly radicalized by the disparity between the effort I put into my work and the compensation I received. It was becoming impossible to envision a future where I didn’t end up taking my own life, and having decided it was pointless to continue trying, I turned to video games as a coping mechanism. For a very long time, they were my refuge from the unthinkable.

It took a while longer before I recognized my unhealthy habits for what they were: escapism. And in naming that particular malady, the concept for this novel came to me. What if I did actually manage to escape from my daily life into a video game world—what would that change about my future? What problems would it solve? And would it even help things in the end? And then it took me six years to write the damn thing.

As for influences: I am definitely not the first person to write about living within a video game world, and I certainly owe a debt of gratitude to series like ‘Sword Art Online’ for popularizing it as a literary device. But most of my influence is taken from more placid and thoughtful takes on the trope, especially the early-aughts anime ‘.hack//SIGN.’

I also drew a lot from media that explore how humans use video games and the internet and as a means of communication, like the comic series ‘User’ and ‘Recovery of an MMO Junkie.’ And, of course, the game world I portray obviously borrows heavily from looter shooters like ‘Destiny’ and ‘Borderlands 2,’ with a healthy dose of ‘No Man’s Sky’ on the side.

While this is a light novel, it has some heavy themes. What drew you to explore the darker sides of specifically adult, queer life, within the genre/s of portal fantasy/pulp Sci-Fi?

This may be surprising to people who are only familiar with the genre in passing, but death-as-escape is an incredibly common trope among portal fantasy and isekai novels—especially those that wind up being adapted into popular anime (and are therefore more widely recognized in popular consciousness). I think there’s a common misconception about these stories that misses the underlying purpose behind them.

Many popular light novel series are dismissed as empty power fantasies or idle distractions, when the real reason they’ve become so popular is that they are always presented as an alternative to the dead-end struggles of modern life. The vast majority of these stories start with the protagonist dying, often regretting decisions unmade and a life spent toiling aimlessly. Thankfully, some otherworldly deity is quick to intercede and offer them a comfortable karmic rebirth in apology for their suffering. In this context, the fantasy being sold is not a sudden influx of incredible power for it’s own sake; it’s the prospect of not having to work a nine-to-five anymore.

The power is just the means to support that end. In that way, this genre was actually the natural choice for someone like me, who wanted desperately to write about suicide.

If there’s something different I’ve done, it’s only that I’ve made that initial death and the reasoning behind it the centerpiece of my story, and not merely the inciting action.

There’s also a kind of gratuitous permission to light novels that allows authors to write about difficult or upsetting subject matter without having to dress it up in the pretensions of mainstream literature.

Consciously or not, people tend to expect less narrative depth from a story featuring dragons and spaceships and talking guns, and that underestimation can allow authors the license they need to express difficult ideas. …Okay, not always. Sometimes a power fantasy is just a power fantasy. But that is not categorically the case is my point.

How did you go about world building within the video game world? Were there any constraints you applied or game mechanics you came up with that were challenging/fun to work with?

A common trap I’ve noticed with stories about video game worlds (or fantasy worlds using video game-like mechanics) is that they feel the need to explain the inner workings of their settings in meticulous detail, even when it’s not needed to move the plot forward. This often leads to needlessly technical info-dumps that can easily alienate an audience whose investment in your work you must fight to retain.

Early on, I made a conscious decision to leave everything about the mechanics of the game world as open-ended as I possibly could, and only specify details only when it made narrative sense to do so. This means that the actual mechanics I portray follow from the needs of the plot, and not vice versa. This would certainly be a terrible way to design an actual, literal video game, but hey—I’ve got different priorities. This is a novel, so the story has to come first.

Share your favourite scene or quote with us (if you can without too many spoilers). 

My personal favorite part of this story is a running joke involving a specific weapon that spouts incorrect Nietzsche quotes whenever it is used to defeat something. In writing about the allure of suicide and how to move past it, Nietzsche was obviously not far from my mind. That said, there’s a certain perverse joy I found in taking his well-considered thoughts and turning them into silly jokes about MMO game mechanics. I’m sure he would’ve been both confused and appalled.

Do you feel this experience has set you up for future writing projects, and if so would you also publish these on Itch.io, or are you looking at widening your distribution?

Having proven to myself that I can write a novel from start to end, I am now possessed by the desire to continue doing so—and unfortunately for my friends and family, that is now their problem to deal with. I have already started working on my next novel, though I’m still very early in the research phase at this moment. I chose to release Mythic-Rarity Raid Drops on itch because I had originally released some short-form interactive fiction pieces there. It just seemed easier than trying to find a different way to share a story that I wasn’t sure would even generate much interest in the first place. I don’t know if I’ll ever expand how I distribute my writing in the future. For all of my literary posturing, novels about suicidal trans women with talking swords are still kind of niche. For now, I’m content releasing it for free and knowing that it’s reached some small number of people beyond my own circle of friends.

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• Author Spotlight: Horror & Sci-Fi Author David W. Adams Date February 5, 2025 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Spotlight: Sci-Fi Author Chloe Clark Date January 7, 2026 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Spotlight: Queer Jewish SFF Author Avrah Baren Date November 20, 2024 In relation to Author Interview

Read our Q&A with After Dinner Conversation #author Justine Star Russell. #interview #writerinterview #authorinterview buff.ly/dZrBTki

They say no good deed goes unpunished. It's a proverb that proves to be prophetic for two of the people in Dean Koontz's new, disturbing, Depression-era horror novel "The Friend Of The Family," which he talks about in this new interview.
https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-the-friend-of-the-family-author-dean-koontz/
📖🎪
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#DeanKoontz #DeanKoontzInterview #DeanKoontzTheFriendOfTheFamily #DeanKoontzTheFriendOfTheFamilyInterview #Books #Reading #AuthorInterview #AuthorInterviews #BookTok #Horror #HorrorBooks

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs5eIuiXXjwpafHPb4q0exaMpMGIQSam8 #paranormal #ufo #ufomastadon #uap #uaps #ufos #authorinterview #author #ghosts #scarybooks #paranormalbooks #interviews #interview #youtube #youtubemastadon #creatormastodon

Read our Q&A with After Dinner Conversation #author Justine Star Russell. #interview #writerinterview #authorinterview afterdinnerconversation.substack.com/p/jan-18-q-a...

Take Five Interview: Densie Webb and WHERE YOUR HEART BELONGS

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https://writerunboxed.com/2026/01/11/take-five-interview-densie-webb-and-where-your-heart-belongs/

#TakeFive #AuthorInterview #DensieWebb #newrelease

With "City Of Others," author Jared Poon is kicking off a bureaucratic urban fantasy trilogy that — as he explains in this exclusive interview — was partially inspired by his personal work experience.
https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-city-of-others-author-jared-poon/
📖🏙️🌆
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#JaredPoon #JaredPoonInterview #JaredPoonCityOfOthers #JaredPoonCityOfOthersInterview #JaredPoonTheDEUSFiles #Books #Reading #AuthorInterview #AuthorInterviews #BookTok #Fantasy #FantasyBookSeries #UrbanFantasy #UrbanFantasyBookSeries

Poetry isn't always literal. Sometimes it's impressionistic. Or surreal. Or more about feel. It's why I'm not worried that Aase Berg called her new collection of poems "Aase's Death." Especially after reading this exclusive interview about it...
https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-aases-death-author-aase-berg/
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#AaseBerg #AaseBergInterview #AaseBergAasesDeath #AaseBergAasesDeathInterview #Books #Reading #AuthorInterview #AuthorInterviews #BookTok #poems #poetry

Author Spotlight: Dark Fantasy Author Ruth Easterling

Based in Michigan, forty- year old Ruth Easterling (she/her) has been writing for most of her life and has always dreamed of publishing a book of her own. Ruth leads a quiet life by reading and working day shifts. She is married to a wonderful man who plays a positive role in her life.

Ruth is a cat lover and owns several cats. She’s an introverted and quiet person who would love to travel the world someday.

Author Links:

Bluesky: @rutheasterling.bsky.social
Beneath Two Worlds: The Key Collector’s Saga – Books2Read, Amazon
Journey to Excalibur (The Key Collector’s Saga Book 2) – Books2Read, Amazon

In the aftermath of losing her baby girl at 25 weeks, Sloane Warwick’s world shatters further when her husband is murdered by the sinister Claude. A mysterious note and key thrust her into a new realm, where allies Grayson and Ella guide her in unlocking hidden powers. With Claude’s relentless pursuit to open a portal to Hell, Sloane must confront her grief and depression to stand against him. Joined by a dragon, she fights for her world’s freedom against Claude’s malevolent grasp.

What was the inspiration behind your series, The Key Collector Saga?

I am not sure, I just wanted a character that was grieving and had to save the worlds. I wanted someone who was suffering from depression to be a hero.

Can you tell us a little about Sloane, your MC? You have given her some heavy and difficult things to go through at the start (the loss of her baby at 25 weeks pregnant) for example, which may resonate with a few readers. Can you tell us how this character developed, and why you felt it was important to have her go through these experiences?

I myself suffered from early delivery and thought I could do something with my experience. I’m sure they’re are women out there who feel powerless and hopeless when they’ve lost their baby and it’s the worst feeling in the world. So I wanted someone to come out strong in the end. And grow to have hope.

What drew you to Arthurian myth as the crux of your fantasy series?

I’ve always been fascinated by king Arthur and the round table. But I have something different in store for my third book!

What is your favourite part of the worldbuilding in this fantasy world, and why?

Just growing the world and exploring what could be and what is! Sloane hasn’t been everywhere yet!

What is/are your favourite reader response(s) so far?

“The depth of emotion and the development of Sloane’s character make this a captivating read, with each page leaving readers eager to uncover what lies ahead in Sloane’s quest for redemption and freedom” was what one Reviewer has left and it tugged at my heart because that was what I was going for!

Do you have any future publication plans, anything we can look out for? 

My third book which will conclude the trilogy will be out sometime next year. I’m also working on a witch/vampire book but not sure if it’ll be a standalone or not yet.

All she has to do is get the legendary sword, Excalibur. It can’t be that hard, can it?

After the narrow escape from Claude and Jacob, Grayson and Sloane are back with their friends along with some familiar faces.

Now it is a race against time to get the last key. Sloane and her friends must get it from the fae. Only the fae request one last quest from Sloane before they hand over the key– she must get the legendary sword Excalibur.

With no leads but a vague idea, Sloane and her friends head out on a journey of a lifetime to retrieve Excalibur.

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Author Spotlight: Queer Noir Fantasy Podcast Writer and Host Alex Amenn

Nazime Page. Valerie Moore. Pepper Halloway. Alexander Phillips. Alex Amenn. Sam Amenn. They go by many names and personas.

They are an aro-ace, agender, autistic writer, podcast host, illustrator (but not a cartographer), sound mixer, producer, and marketer who loves all things anthropomorphic crocodiles, beyond questionable MCs, and Les Miserable references.

Say I Slew Them Not is the first entry in their Ferdarian Gazette series and they are currently
writing the second entry which will focus on Demons and corrupt religious organizations. When they are not working on their fantasy noir series, they are writing about disgruntled astronauts turned mercenaries for a mercurial alien queen. They also discuss asymmetrical warfare and colonialism on their history podcast: the Art of Asymmetrical Warfare.

Stay updated on their projects by following them on:
Instagram: @pepperdaphoenix and @ferdariangazette,
Tiktok: @pepperdaphoenix
and by checking out their website: http://www.theferdariangazette.com.

Operation Olive Branch: https://linktr.ee/opolivebranch

GoFundMe’s Highlighted by Authors for Palestine Event: https://afp.ju.mp/#info

For the AfP event we have selected the following 3 families to help boost their fundraisers. The details below were taken from the OOB spreadsheet.

Mohammed’s fundraiser: GoFundMe
Mohammed’s Instagram: @mohammedalbaredei

Ibrahim’s fundraiser: GoFundMe
Ibrahim’s Instagram: @ibrahimwithi

Rula’s fundraiser: GoFundMe
Rula’s Instagram: @rula_mohammed

You were one of the authors involved with the Authors for Palestine event – can you tell us why you chose to get involved with this, and which of your works you put up as raffle prizes?

I grew up believing that never again meant never again, and so I’ve been active in anti-genocide/pro-Palestinian organizing since Oct 7th. Organizing with others can be very energizing, but it can also be exhausting, especially when your own government handcuffs itself to Netanyahu’s genocidal regime. I was feeling pretty hopeless when I saw the call for indie authors to take part in this giveaway. Seeing so many amazing authors and friends come together and raise funds for Palestinian families was what I needed to recommit myself to the struggle.

Then I read Mohammed’s, Ibrahim’s, and Rula’s stories and I knew the giveaway was something I needed to be part of. I also really appreciated that the giveaway focused its efforts on three specific families. There is so much going on right now, so many families in need, and this endless amount of pain and loss, it becomes overwhelming. I appreciated that the organizers, I’m paraphrasing here, but basically they said, “yes, there is a lot of need, but let’s help who we can because we’re only human and we can’t save the world, but, basically, saving one person is like saving the world.” And I thought, “Yeah, they’re right. It’s better to do something than nothing.”

I’m proud so many of us offered a wide variety of gifts to those who donated, I’m proud we raised 1800+ for the families, and I’m proud so many of us involved are still fundraising and sharing the needs of Mohammed, Ibrahim, and Rula, even though the giveaway is officially over.

I offered two illustrated sci-fantasy e-zines. The first story is called Firebird and it’s about Grigori, a disgruntled and traumatized mercenary cyborg, helping Mara, a wrathful energy spirit, get revenge on her colonizers and abusers.

The second story is called Yusupov and Marinov: Merchants of Death and it’s about Ruslan Yusupov and Anatoli Marinov, two astronauts turned mercenaries for an alien queen, protecting a weapon’s manufacturing cockroach inspired alien from several assassins hired to kill him. Their mission, of course, goes horribly wrong.

Right now, the illustrated versions of these two stories are only available through the giveaway. If you want to read the non-illustrated version of Firebird, you can find it in Ezra Arndt’s pro-bodily autonomy anthology: My Say in the Matter.

Do you find your sense of social justice and activism informs the philosophy of your writing, in terms of narrative and character arcs? If so, how?

Yes, absolutely. I don’t think I can write a story that doesn’t deal with social justice and/or activism. My biggest author dream is for my work to be included in the growing canon of decolonial literature. At the same time, I’ve been struggling with that desire because can I, a white writer, ever truly write decolonial literature? What do I, a white person, know of social justice anyway?

My instinct, of course, is to set up an evil, all white empire and then create a group of minorities to overthrow said empire. At first glance that might seem like a good decolonial premise, but it also runs the risk of telling a story that is not mine to tell. So, then I add some upstanding white person who sort of believes in the empire’s evil lies, but then sees the error of their ways, and helps the rebellion help succeed. I’m no longer telling someone else’s story, but now I’m potentially telling a white savior story or, at the very least, I’m giving the white character grace. I’m “not all white peopling” my story.

So, I took a step back and I engaged with a lot of decolonial literature and came to terms with the fact that I’m still in the beginning stages of my own decolonizing, anti-racist, activist journey. I don’t have the answers and that’s ok. I don’t need to write from a place of authority on what is and isn’t decolonial. In fact, what I needed to do was be completely honest and vulnerable and say, “yeah I don’t know anything, but this is what I’ve learned so far. This is where I am, please, tell me where I’m going wrong.” And so, my stories become a decolonizing journal of sorts and I hope it proves to be a progressive story. Like I start with an okish (hopefully) foundation with Say I Slew Them Not and by the end of the series, maybe I’ve achieved something almost decolonial.

What does that mean in terms of writing? I’m not a hundred percent sure because I’m still working it out, haha. Right now, my two biggest writing principles are: First, my white characters hinder more than they help, especially if they mean well and they’re always learning, always changing, always growing. They are going to have core values or views that are colonial or racist, etc and the story has to be about the evolution of those beliefs. Some characters are going to be able to grow and change but I also need to acknowledge when that doesn’t happen and why. If they don’t change, that doesn’t mean they leave the activist sphere, but it means that their approaches aren’t always the best and they can’t always be trusted because they still have this baggage.

And then the narrative has to become about that white character dealing with that, and again sometimes they’re going to acknowledge their limitations and sometimes they’re not and that’s when they become a danger. I approach the arc of my white characters and my colonizer characters (especially if they’re well-meaning) as “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, because I think that reflects where I am in my own journey and where the United States leftist movement is in its journey.

Second, revolutionary violence is not only a direct response to the empire’s intransigent nature, but can be purposefully incited to further the empire’s goal. In the United States, we’re having a lot of conversations about “when violence is ok and when it isn’t and oh no you destroyed a Target store front! That is absolutely terrible!” Say I Slew Them Not joins that conversation and details why violence becomes an option for those fighting to be free, and how a white, colonial democracy will manipulate that violence to their benefit. No one is more treacherous than a white politician clinging to a colony and nothing is more insidious than colonialism. If a colonizing power can’t crush a revolution, it will destroy it with a thousand little cuts and betrayals.

White governments, in particular, are really good at turning people against each other, demanding compromises that undercut the resistance’s values, its leaders, and it’s goals, promising one thing and then doing everything in their power to turn that victory into a pyrrhic victory, and/or using the bigger colonial system to punish and suppress their formerly colonized subjects.

As a white writer, I can and do write about the destruction of these systems, but I also have to be brutally honest about how those systems are kept in place, how they survive long after they’re defeat because people will preserve that toxic way of thinking and nurture it until it’s strong enough to make a comeback, the lasting legacy and impact of this system on the formerly colonized and the colonizers, and that white people will commit to decolonialism until it reaches a certain stage and then it becomes too much.

I think as a white person, I’d love to write about that one white person who makes it all the way and it truly committed to decolonialism (and, for full transparency, there are a handful in the series), but as a decolonial writer, I have a duty to focus on those who struggle, those who falter, and those who fail, because we can never truly decolonize our minds unless we truly understand why it’s so hard to do it in the first place. Basically, if I’m feeling too warm towards my white characters I’m probably giving them too much grace, haha. But, I’m also still learning and I’m eager to see how other people respond to my stories. That’ll be the real test of where I am in my decolonial journey: if I can take feedback and adjust my writing, instead of getting defensive about it.

What gave you the idea to create Say I Slew Them Not in the text form of ‘found footage’ / a compilation of letters and edited interviews?

I was inspired by my love for history and its inherently biased nature. I was introduced to how skewed history can be by researching the American Civil War, but you can see it in every aspect of history because historians are reliant on primary materials and primary materials are written, collected, and preserved by humans who, themselves, are biased and so complete historical truth is almost impossible to achieve. You can only strive to get as close to the capital ‘t’ Truth as possible and that idea fascinates me.

I’m also a survivor of child abuse and nothing will make your question reality and the existence of truth more than your caretakers abusing you. So I already had this personal experience of not being able to trust my reality and then I go into this field, history, which is supposed to be academic and fact based, etc, and to find out yes, sort of, but also no, here’s a long list of biases that have plagued this field for centuries. I also specialized in asymmetrical conflicts from 1850-1950 and grew up during the United States’ war on terrorism, so not trusting anyone or anything became second nature, haha.

When I started Say I Slew Them Not, I knew I wanted to investigate the myriad facets of historical memory and how the past creates the future, but the future also creates the past because the very concept of past, present, and future rests on this concept of perspective and perspective is constantly changing. It took a lot of experimenting, but I eventually settled on this idea of a narrative at war with itself. So I took Kingsley’s memoir and made it the anchor for the reader and then slowly chipped away at that anchor by including letters, journal entries, interviews, etc. However, the additional material also needed to have obvious biases, because I don’t want the reader to feel comfortable picking one side over the other, because I’m not trying to tell that clean of a story. I want readers to have doubts at the end and to question everyone’s motives and perspectives.

How did you develop the political intrigue in the book, and what references and research did you do for it?

As an amateur historian with a masters in international relations, I have a lot of historical references and academic frameworks to use when I’m designing the political influences and intrigues in my stories. My biggest inspiration on how I write political intrigue is my very problematic favorite movie Lawrence of Arabia. There isn’t a single scene or line where someone isn’t playing someone else in that movie and characters are at their most dangerous when they believe the bullshit they’re selling.

Then again, if people didn’t believe in these “ideals” or “causes”, they couldn’t be manipulated. Also, politics (and by extension war) is always base. It doesn’t matter what kind of rhetoric is used, what kind of bravery is shown, what kind of sacrifices are made, at the end of the day, the goal will always wind up being something absolutely ridiculous and base. As Lawrence of Arabia puts it, the entire Arab Revolt (mostly because of colonial bullshit) achieved nothing more than a “British waterworks with an Arab flag on it. Do you think it was worth it?” Of course Lawrence of Arabia is a fictional account of a real historical war, but the real war really isn’t any less base and the colonial European powers weren’t any less manipulative and cruel than their counterparts in the movie. World War I in general is a great conflict to study if you want to understand how ridiculous, stupid, and base politics, especially global politics, really is.

So, when creating political intrigue, I find it helps to assume everyone is absolutely terrible, incredibly self-absorbed, only cares about their own self-interests, and will do absolutely anything to get what they want. The system doesn’t punish anyone for being terrible. In fact, all governments thrive and depend on people being their absolutely worst selves. There is no such thing as a noble cause in politics, only causes that sound noble, haha. Also, everything is political and can be used to a character’s advantage or disadvantage.

What challenges do anthropomorphic crocodiles pose to your writing process – what sort of things did you have to consider in terms of writing body language, choreography of action scenes, and so on?

This may be the gender dysphoria talking, but I actually found it easier to write about anthropomorphic crocodiles than humans. It’s a lot of fun to approach the world from a perspective that is so different from a human perspective.

It was also important to reflect how white (or in my world’s case, white human) superiority asserts itself in cultural, health, and social spaces without enforcing white supremacy in my own writing. Some of the things I had to consider was the size of crocodiles versus humans and how that is reflected in the human architecture vs crocodile architecture and public spaces.

How do clothes fit on a humanoid crocodile body, what aspects of the crocodile body/fashion style were humans going to find scandalous, disgusting, etc. What elements of the crocodile body would humans find attractive? How would the colonizers police crocodile bodily expression? I decided early on that humans would see crocodile people as inferior. How is that reflected in human-crocodile interactions and values?

I also had a lot of fun figuring out how gender works for crocodile people and how it works for human societies. I think the biggest challenge was considering dietary and health needs. If you put a real life crocodile in a tank, the tank needs to be 60%-70% filled with water.

Ok, so how do I reflect that health need in my world? Adult real life crocodiles need to eat anywhere ranging 2 to 5 pounds a day. How do my crocodile people access that amount of meat in a colonial human society?

Then there is the attraction aspect which was oddly fun to develop, haha. Crocodiles in general aren’t the most expressive animal. I tried to play around with what sort of expressions crocodiles could make with their snouts and then I pushed it by making their eyeridges more expressive than they really are. That wasn’t enough so I added cow-like fur ears to help express their feelings. And then I threw in antlers as well, because why not. Well those two features also matter when it comes to attraction. Do anthro crocodiles like really furry ears or not? What kind of antlers are considered attractive? What kind of scale and horn care is expected? How can anthro crocodiles make themselves more attractive? What do humans find embarrassing attractive about crocodile people and how do they respond to that realization? So it was a lot of fun and made me question a lot of social interactions and expectations that we humans take for granted.

How does the novel translate into a podcast script, and how does it work in that format?

Transforming Say I Slew Them Not into a podcast was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be and I think it’s because I went with a found footage/epistolary novel format. Say I Slew Them Not is an adult queer fantasy noir podcast about Kingsley Montivelo, an anthropomorphic crocodile being tried for war crimes he definitely committed. He must manipulate Alex, a traumatized journalist whose wife Kingsley once tortured, into saving his life by publishing classified documents that will implicate world leaders in their own war crimes. What? He’s done worse.

So basically, the main gimmick is that the story is a memoir plus additional primary materials collected by Alex, a journalist for the Ferdarian Gazette. This story was originally published in a series of articles in the Ferdarian Gazette and then Alex’s niece, Nazima, collects everything Alex published regarding the trial and organizes it into the podcast I’m releasing on September 28, 2024. And then she’s going to run a fundraiser to publish the podcast as a beautiful book, so keep your eyes open for that announcement.

Keeping this context in mind, I organized the script like a 50s radio show. So each episode starts with an announcement from Valerie, the Minotaur host, a short ad, and then the story is narrated by Pepper, a phoenix. Since I’m the one doing the actual recording, I had to think of a reason while all the characters sound so similar and so I just went with the, it’s all narrated by a single person excuse. In terms of the actual material itself, I didn’t change much. I guess it could be considered more of an audiobook than a podcast in that way. But I basically just read the chapter as is with some sound effects and music cues thrown in. I even managed to find free to use records of actual crocodile growls that I was able to use occasionally to stimulate the crocodile language.

And then Valerie wraps up the episode with a short recap of what you just listened to, what product sponsored the episode, and a preview of next week’s episode. Interested listeners can subscribe to Say I Slew Them Not now on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and anywhere else they listen to their podcasts. I’ve published a few teaser trailers and special features and will publish the first three episodes on March 18th, 2025. I also published additional information like character bios, maps, character art, etc on my website www.theferdariangazette.com

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Author Spotlight: SFF Short Fiction Author Elad Haber

Elad Haber has been quietly publishing short fiction for more than twenty years. He attended Clarion when he was eighteen years old. You might find his stories in various forgotten corners of the Internet or in the dusty backrooms of basement bookstores. He has recent publications from Lightspeed Magazine, the Simultaneous Times Podcast, and Underland Arcana. His debut short story collection, “The World Outside” will be published by Underland Press in late 2024.

Website: eladhaber.com
Twitter/X: @MusicInMyCar
BlueSky: @eladhaber.bsky.social
Threads: @ehaberrr
Book Link: underlandpress.com/world-outside

1. Can you talk us through the process of ordering the collection, and the selection of the stories in each section?

The stories in The World Outside are sequenced in a loose chronological order but also grouped together by theme. It is my hope that readers will be able to track my writing journey through the stories themselves, both in craft and in subjects I was thinking and working through as I developed as a writer.

I’ve always worn my inspirations proudly and after being introduced by a friend to the work of Angela Carter, specifically The Bloody Chamber collection, I set out to write a series of dark fairytale retellings and those were among my first publications. I always fashioned myself a Science Fiction writer because that was the majority of what I was reading at the time (although that will change), so the next few stories are me stretching my SF muscles with stories set after the apocalypse, stories about time (but not time travel), AI, talking stars, and imagining a future so hot, people take a drug called Chill so they can venture outside.

As I matured and branched out with my reading consumption, a discerning reader will be able to see Magic Realism and Horror start to filter into my work. Ruminations on death and grief, my take on a Golem story, and some experiments in psychological horror are the next few stories. And finally, with the last group, a bit of a homecoming with some overt Science Fiction pieces, a superhero story, a story about drugs that make you forget and some that make you remember, and imagining a future where sleep has been genetically banned.

2. What about short fiction led you to choose this form as the vehicle for your stories and themes? Do you think any stories would work in other formats?

I’ve always been drawn to the short form. I was that nerd in the high school lunch room reading copies of Fantasy and Science Fiction. When I started writing and submitting, probably too early as a awkward teenager, there were just a handful of print magazines and they seemed like these exclusive towers where the barrier to entry was so high and the quality of the writing so strong. Yet, I tried. I was young and confident and I was lucky enough to get into Clarion when I was just eighteen and about to graduate high school. It was a wonderful experience for me and even though it took many years after to finally start publishing, the lessons I learned – and the friends I made – were priceless.

Going back to your question, I’m a big fan of TV. If novels are like movies, short stories are like TV episodes. Sometimes they are short and quick and sometimes they linger for a while and demand a followup. That’s the beauty of short fiction. You could tell an incredible beginning to end narrative in a thousand words. They strip away side stories and meanderings and are lean and direct as if the writer is calling you over for a hushed confession that only you can hear.

As for other formats, one of my favorite pieces in the book (also my first professional sale) is “Number One Hit” and a few years ago a friend of mine reached out to me about adapting that story into a short film. We worked together on a script and started figuring out where we could shoot it. As often happens with these things, the project lost steam and was shelved but I heard recently there’s someone out in Las Vegas is trying hard to make that short film so I’m hopeful that will happen.

3. Do you have a personal favourite story (or favourite few), and what do you think the reader response will be to them?

I’ve been lucky enough to live in three major cities in my lifetime. I grew up in New York City, went to college in San Francisco, and have lived the last twenty years of my life in Miami. A few years ago, I was thinking about the stories I was writing and realized I had never written a story set specifically in Miami, this very important place where I’ve settled down, gotten married, had a daughter. So I started thinking about what a story set in Miami would be like and I started thinking about how hot it gets down here. But I didn’t want to write a story about climate change and its global effects, I wanted something that was more concrete and personal. I’m also a big dog person. I love having a dog and taking them for walks but then I started thinking about how would you take a dog for a walk if just being outside in the heat was dangerous? That was the kernel of the idea for “Stay in Your Homes.”

I put a lot of my various obsessions into that story. I’m a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and I kept an expanded edition of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass on my desk for years for inspiration. I also like to write about big drug-fueled parties as a kind of homage to my youth (not that I went to many of those types of parties, but I would have if I had been invited). Also, that story has an interesting publication story. It was originally rejected by the publisher and then only after they announced the Table Of Contents for the issue, the publisher emailed me to tell me the story had stuck with her and she was a bit hesitant about some of the darkness in the story, she said she had to publish something that really spoke to her. Additionally, it came out during the pandemic when we were all staying in our homes.

In terms of what I would want readers to take away from that piece, I think anytime I look forward in writing a Science Fiction story, I am very interested in ways in which a future civilization adapts to their environment. Whether it’s climate related or the aftermath of some kind of human folly, I believe humans will always find ways to survive. That’s the nature of all animals. In fiction, we always want to focus on the character. And, for my style of writing, I use a lot of first person perspective so character is always first but those background aspects of a civilization surviving allows for some kind of hope, even in a sad story.

4. Are there themes you would like to explore further that didn’t make it into this collection?

It’s clear we live in a fraught political climate, both here in the United States and abroad. I’ve always written stories that center on families or single characters, but as I grow and continue to develop as a writer, I’d like to cast my net wider. I’d like to write stories that imagine larger futures, either hopeful or dystopian, but stories will always have people trying to survive or live better and in that way, even the darkest stories have hope within them.

5. What is next for you in your writing journey?

For me, continuing to write and publish is the reward for two decades in the field. I’m hopeful the book will raise my profile a bit so when I do have something published, it gets more attention in this crowded landscape of published fiction. There’s so much good work out there and I just want to be one more voice sharing my stories. And, maybe, if I’m lucky again, to put out another collection in the future.

6. If you had to pick 3 things you want readers to take away from the collection, what would they be?

Great question! I wanted readers to really get to know me through this book. I included a short biographical statement early in the book as an introduction, not so much to the themes and subjects of the book, but me, personally. Then I let the stories speak for themselves and allow a discerning reader to get know me through my published work. I also wanted to put out a book that was different than your average single author collection. Often, writers pick a lane and stick to it, whether it’s a genre or general subject matter. But I’ve never been able to sit still like that. I imagine myself a slipstream or interstitial writer, a journeyman balancing on the lines and adding Fantasy elements into Science Fiction and vice versa. And over the last decade or so, taking in the amazing things happening in the Horror genre and trying my best to join that conversation.

And finally, to add my voice to the chorus of “Never Give Up.” As I mentioned earlier in this interview, I was lucky enough to attend Clarion at eighteen years old. But my writing journey since then has been filled with mountains of rejections. I’m forty-four now and putting out my first book. So to all the other writers out there, writing and getting rejected or publishing but feeling like nobody really cares: I see you. I believe in you. Never give up.

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Author Spotlight: Queer Cyberpunk Author Freddie A. Clarke

Freddie A. Clark (they/them) is the entity hiding in a thread of cables and flowers, a cyborg riding their motorcycle in the streets of a Cyberpunk metropolis, a masked alchemist traversing Venetian canals. Proud human slave of three former stray cats, Norse Pagan and hopeless nerd, Freddie is influenced by the work of William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Pat Cadigan, Anne Rice, and Neil Gaiman among many others. Their creativity draws from ‘80s aesthetic, movies and pop culture, and from an endless pile of books, graphic novels, manga and video games.

Website: freddieaclark.com

Instagram: @freddieaclarkauthor

Goodreads: Freddie_A_Clark

Itch.io: freddie-a-clark.itch.io

Book links for Umbra: books2read.com/u/4AdRDN

What were your main influences for Umbra: Tales of a Shadow, and how did they help to shape the book?

My main influence for Umbra: Tales of a Shadow was certainly Assassin’s Creed II, a game I always mention among its comp titles. I’m a big fan of the franchise, hence I’ve always loved the idea of writing a story about a stealthy assassin hiding in the dark corners of a breathtaking city, a silent shadow who uses his weapons and his charm to bring justice. Since Venice is one of the main locations in Assassin’s Creed II, the inspiration became even more obvious once I started drafting this story.

A fun fact I’ve never shared in the past: the idea for Umbra: Tales of a Shadow came to me exactly when, moved by nostalgia, I rewatched the first trailer from E3 2009! My love for Venice heavily influenced the world I described and it’s another inspiration worth mentioning, as well as my love for Cyberpunk literature, its detective aspects, and the concept of low-life/high-tech, like in the works of William Gibson and Richard Morgan.

What makes the themes of transformation and healing so important to you?

These themes are part of me and my personal history. My endless journey of self-discovery as a trans person made the theme of transformation particularly dear to me. My past experiences and trauma shaped the person I am; I wouldn’t be so proud of how far I’ve gone if healing hadn’t become an important personal goal. My identity affects my writing and that’s why the themes of transformation and healing are so recurrent in every story.

What elements of Venetian history did you include in the novel, and how did you adapt them for the story?

The historical facts that inspired the society of Florydia, Umbra: Tales of a Shadow’s setting, mostly come from Renaissance Venice. Figures like the Cortigiane Oneste, well-educated women who worked as sex workers and patrons of the arts, and the Lords of the Night, a mysterious judicial body of night vigilantes which was neglected by the men of power until its dissolution in XVIII century, have their counterparts in the city I created. Florydia’s government is also heavily based on the politics of the Serenissima and its several, intricate government bodies.

What made you choose cyberpunk as the genre for this story, and how does this genre create space to explore the themes?

Cyberpunk is my favourite literary genre. The idea of a Cyberpunk Venice is so rare it’s basically unheard of. Currently, Venice is a modern city with an ancient façade, a city in which modernity and tradition perfectly blend. I couldn’t help but imagine Venice in the future, with holograms, cyborgs, and neon lights. I described a counterpart of Venice as powerful as in the past, but even more modern than it is now, although still in love with its ageless and picturesque appearance. I can proudly say that the mix worked!

How do you see queerness and alchemy intersecting, and how do they work together in the novel? 

Alchemy is first and foremost a philosophical system based on spiritual growth. Alchemists weren’t merely ancient scientists, but philosophers as well. The stages of the Great Work were used by the legendary scholar Hermes Trismegistus as metaphors for self-discovery: the Blackening is the death of one’s old self, the Whitening is the awakening, the Yellowing is the awareness, and the Reddening is the illumination, the final stage of transmutation.

I went through these stages myself when I started exploring my identity and finally figured out my gender. Self-discovery as a whole is a concept that alchemy and queerness share. Besides, alchemy includes the concept of Rebis, the divine androgyne, the reconnection of spirit and body represented by a being who’s both male and female. I love this idea so much that the co-protagonist of this story, the non-binary alchemist Soleluna, is compared to the Rebis on-page.

Is there anything you wanted to include in the novel (facts about history, culture, alchemy, or philosophy) that you had to leave out in the end? Can you share one of your favourite facts?

There were many facts I would’ve loved to include in Umbra: Tales of a Shadow, but my favourite is the mask named Gnaga. This cat-shaped mask is tied to Italian queer history and was worn by gay and bisexual men during the Carnival as a secret code. This fact is canon in my story, but unfortunately I had to leave it out and it’s not mentioned in the book. If I ever write another story set in this world, I’ll definitely add it!

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Author Spotlight: Queer SFFH Author Shane Blackheart

Shane (they/them) is a disabled nonbinary author of dark queer fiction. They have been writing since they were seven years old, and they haven’t stopped since. They live in Ohio with their two cats.

They took part in the Authors for Palestine event in June 2024 and the GoFundMes of the families the event supported are linked again here in this interview. Please help if you can.

Author Links:

Instagram: @shaneblackheart
Threads: @shaneblackheart
Bluesky: @shaneblackheart.com
X/Twitter: @ShaneBlkheart
Website: shaneblackheart.com
Link for It’s Only A Little Death: little-death.carrd.co

Operation Olive Branch: https://linktr.ee/opolivebranch

GoFundMe’s Highlighted by Authors for Palestine Event: https://afp.ju.mp/#info

For the AfP event we have selected the following 3 families to help boost their fundraisers. The details below were taken from the OOB spreadsheet.

Mohammed’s fundraiser: GoFundMe
Mohammed’s Instagram: @mohammedalbaredei

Ibrahim’s fundraiser: GoFundMe
Ibrahim’s Instagram: @ibrahimwithi

Rula’s fundraiser: GoFundMe
Rula’s Instagram: @rula_mohammed

You were one of the authors involved with the Authors for Palestine event – can you tell us why you chose to get involved with this, and which of your works you put up as raffle prizes?

I just wanted to do something, but I can’t really afford to donate money and protests are out of reach for me because of my disabilities. What’s happening in Gaza is horrific, and this was the least I could do, although I’ll be doing more for sure if any other events pop up. I donated most of my current published work: Everything Is Wonderful Now and Open Wound, which are books one and two in The Requiem Series, and two short stories, What Lies Beyond and 3 AM, which are both gothic stories.

Do you find your sense of social justice and activism informs the philosophy of your writing, in terms of narrative and character arcs? If so, how?

Definitely. My biggest things are mental health awareness and bringing more visibility to trans masculine and nonbinary people. I’m really passionate about challenging harmful stigmas people often place on diagnoses I personally have, and at least in my first two books, I focus on that and how painful it can be to have to live with this stuff.

I don’t sugarcoat anything and I use blunt language because it’s important to, and the stories are based heavily on my own life. I also know how isolating and lonely it can get when you’re in really dark places or confused, so I hope some of my books can be relatable, like a friend to those who need one.

I just want to help change the narrative in any way that I can. I also include resources in the back of some of my books to encourage people to get help.

If you had to pick 3 words that sum up what your novel means to you, as the author, what would they be and why?

‘Liberating’ would be the first. Not only was it a much-needed change from writing about real-life trauma, it was just fun and validating to explore a different side of my sexual identity as a neurodivergent person, which is something I haven’t really gotten to do. ‘Nostalgic’ would be another because the vibes are close to my heart. I have a longtime love of Tim Burton films and campy, cheesy horror (including stuff like Rocky Horror Picture Show!), so this book is like comfort food to me.

It brought me a lot of happiness, and it reminded me of better times I sometimes forget. Also ‘hope,’ I think? I often worry, with my chronic illnesses and my mental health worsening over the years, that I’m slowly losing the ability to write fun stories, or to just be purely imaginative with my work, because of brain fog and just being tired a lot. This book reminded me that I haven’t lost that ability at all, which definitely gave me hope for my future as an author.

What role does memory play in your novel, and why is this an important theme?

It’s a theme I end up writing often because of my own issues with memory, rather it be forgetting things a lot or getting stuck in the past because of my mental health diagnoses, specifically the dissociative disorders I have. For the main character in the book, Silver, recovering memories, with the help of someone there for support, leads to them becoming a stronger person and being able to heal from some rough stuff.

Since they start out in the book with a fresh mind, having forgotten pretty much everything about their life, it’s a chance to view it all from a new perspective. They also have to keep a journal, so it’s very reminiscent of the kind of healing journey you’d go through while dealing with grief, trauma, or anything like that. Although it’s not good to focus too much on the bad memories, they’re really important because that’s how we grow and learn or do better. So, besides the fun and spicy parts of the story, it’s really a lot to do with learning from past mistakes, healing, and moving on from them.

What about campy b-movies & early Tim Burton led you to choose these vibes as the vehicle for your story and themes?

They were both my escape from reality for as long as I can remember, and they were a huge part of who I was growing up. Even recently, I re-watched the first Beetlejuice movie, which influenced the underworld in the book a lot, and I could watch it a hundred more times and not get sick of it. There’s just something about spending time in these morbid, weird worlds that feels like home to me, so I wanted to write something like it myself. My writing style is also kind of weird, as am I, so those vibes just fit.

Which part of the writing process did you most enjoy?

I always love writing the first draft, but especially for this one. This story just flowed from the minute I started it, and since I don’t do a lot of planning before writing, this was such a fun journey to go on and discover. There was just a constant stream of inspiration, and I finished writing this in a little over a week. I wrote for hours every day, which did not do my back or neck any favors, but I was just so excited about this one.

What made you want to merge sexual awakening with memory loss and memory construction? How does this interplay work in the book (if you can share without spoilers) and at what point in the writing/drafting process did this become a strong plot point for your book?

To get a bit personal, my relationship with sex and having a sexual identity of any kind is really complicated due to past trauma. Over the years, I’ve struggled with my own sexual identity, and since certain trauma memories related to that resurfaced, and I worked through some of them in therapy, I’ve had to sort of ‘reconstruct’ a sexual identity.

The main character, Silver, also has to work through some complicated issues with their sexual identity because of their past. This is why the monsters they confront, which hold their memories, also give them a way to explore their sexuality, even if it’s scary to them at first. The two things are intertwined, they can’t do one without the other.

The biggest reason why, without spoilers, has to do with how they died, which is a memory that had the strongest influence on pretty much everything. At the start of the book, I didn’t actually plan for any of this, haha. I wanted to write a smutty monster book, but by the time I got to Silver’s first monster, which is in chapter four, I got really invested in making it something deeper and more complex.

I wanted the sexual component to have a meaning to it, rather than just existing for smut (not to say there’s anything wrong with just writing smut, I’ve written plenty of it myself just for fun!). The journey to recover their memories was already a plot point, so I just intertwined the two.

What do you hope readers will take away from your book and why?

Although It’s Only A Little Death is categorized as erotica, I hope people can appreciate it’s overall story, and not just read it for the naughty monster scenes. I often mix erotic themes with more serious and emotional ones, mostly because sex is such a complicated subject for a lot of people. As the main character is neurodivergent, I also hope it shows that ND adults deserve to be sexually liberated too, if they want to and can be. The world infantilizes us too much.

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Author Spotlight: Queer Horror Author Kaos Emslie

Kaos Emslie (they/them) lives in Southern Arizona with their two children and three cats. They are surrounded by pens, paper, and books constantly. Their projects generally fall under the horror genre, but sometimes have romantic or fantasy elements. They have a dangerous caffeine addiction and are constantly fighting to keep a hold of their ever-slipping sanity.

Author Links:

Instagram: @nightmare.food_
Threads: @nightmare.food_
Website: kaosemslie.wixsite.com

What drew you to eldritch horror and what does that mean to you as a genre?

I think I just sort of fell into it with this story. I had been trying to read Lovecraft’s work for a year or two but he is boring as all Hell, so I had almost no understanding of the genre, I just knew something from somewhere else was bound to a House in a coastal town and it drove people insane, and that’s how I started this whole series in 2006. Now, I know a lot more about cosmic/eldritch/Lovecraftian horror and certain things that go with it. I throw a lot of psychological horror elements into my stories as well.

What were your main influences for Slaughterhouse, and how did they help to shape the book?

The comic series Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez and the book House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski really played the biggest roles in inspiring the story at its core. Without those two works, the story wouldn’t have developed into what it is now. It may never have existed. But Slaughterhouse, as its own standalone story, is a roadmap to madness, it is a period of my life wrapped up into neatly packaged chapters and scenes, it is a step behind the proverbial curtains into my mind. I took a lot of inspiration from music for this book–the chapters are all titled after songs.

What are the main themes of Slaughterhouse and how did these develop, did you always know you wanted to write a book centring on them or did they develop more organically?

Identity is the main theme of the book, and it’s strange because it feels like it has always been this way, but I didn’t really know what it was until I sat down and really took a deep look at the story and what I wanted from it. On the outside, it looks like a simple Good vs Evil story, but when you get down into it, there’s this Search for Self that Nightmare does, and with each move forward toward the end, they learn more and more about themselves as a person, as a god.

Tell us about the queer and mental health/disability rep in your novel, and why this is important to you.

Nightmare Carroll, our Main Character, is Nonbinary and Demisexual/Bisexual. They start the story in a Sapphic relationship. Nightmare was raised by a father who was there as a breadwinner, not a parent, and a narcissistic mother. They have C-PTSD. They have intrusive thoughts, Alexithymia (“no words for emotions”), and racing thoughts, and feel like they have trouble with empathy. Nightmare has ADHD and their experiences are based on my own. This book has been incredibly cathartic to write, not just because I feel myself represented in my characters, but because Nightmare has carried me through some extremely tough times. If it weren’t for them, for their story, I don’t know if I’d be where I am right now.

How do horror and sapphic romance go together in the novel?

Oh, I wouldn’t call it a romance–it’s all rather tragic, really. But we couldn’t have the horror without the love story. Nightmare needed a connection, they needed something emotional that made them human, a friend or a pet or something. Well, I wrote in Hannah and she sort of wiggled her way into Nightmare’s heart and I couldn’t stop it once it started. Lol.

Slaughterhouse (05 Oct 2024) is Book 2 of A Perfect Nightmare: can it be read first? What is the best way into your writing and what would you recommend to a new reader?

I’m all for reading books out of order! But seriously, if you want to stick to chronological order, Paint It Black is first, then Slaughterhouse. Serenade is sort of a prequel novella featuring Andy Hines, so it’s kind of a side quest you can check out between books.

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Author Spotlight: Queer Jewish SFF Author Avrah Baren

Avrah C. Baren (she/they) is a fantasy writer based in the DMV [D.C., Maryland, Virginia area], where she lives with a neurotic tuxedo cat. She is an alum of the Pitch Wars Class of 2021 and a graduate of the Futurescapes 2023 Writers’ Workshop. They spend their days researching mangroves and landcover change, which is probably why she mostly writes worlds with huge forests. They love writing fantastical tales with Jewish-coded and explicitly Jewish characters that explore our connections with nature and each other. When she isn’t writing, she is climbing rocks, working at the Renaissance Festival, and trying to become a wood witch.

Website: abigailiswriting.com

Threads: @avrahwrites
Instagram: @avrahwrites
Substack: @avrahwrites
TikTok: @avrahwrites

First Comes Death Amazon: https://tr.ee/WCYmU7IP9q

Of Stardust Amazon: https://tr.ee/IfaosyB7Xb

Of Stardust B&N: https://tr.ee/TRaBuDBTdO

Buy from an Indie Store: https://tr.ee/3zCAGC5fDG

Do you find SFF lends itself particularly well to the themes and character dynamics and development arcs that you like to write, and why?

What I love about SFF is that you can be as tied to reality as you like. Or not at all. It means you get to add layers of complexity to the themes you’re exploring or the arcs your characters experience. In particular, I love writing about characters coming into their own strength, whether it’s mastering a superpower or making peace with a curse in a way that has them coming out stronger. When you write stories in the speculative arena, there are so many ways to play with this dynamic. For example, Ivy and Dina, the main characters in FCD both get vastly different powers and vastly different abilities to use those powers. Ivy has control of her powers right away. For Dina, it’s much harder. Both of them learn so much over the course of the novel that makes them stronger, but because there’s a speculative element to their strength, there’s a layer of complexity I really enjoy. While there are ways to explore growth and strength in the contemporary world, the ability to play with fantastical elements allows you to ask so many different questions.

In your novel, First Comes Death, you explore the idea of people gaining certain abilities/powers after resurrection – what made you want to explore ‘superpowers’ for want of a better word, through this darker lens?

Like so many people, I have always been fascinated by the idea of having superpowers. I grew up watching Xmen and have always imagined what it would be like to live in a world like that. Xmen plays with the idea of superpowers presenting after an especially stressful life event. I wondered what would happen if you took it a step further. If you were “reborn” into your powers. How would you live your life differently with the combination of receiving a second change AND superpowers. And what if that second chance came with strings? I often go to dark places in my own head, even when playing with the idea of superpowers. Tying those dark elements into the story was a way for me to face them in a way.

Does the queerness of your novel interact and speak to the themes of transformation and change, and do you think there is something unique about queer stories over cishet ones – as in, some layers that queer stories are uniquely placed to explore and develop, e.g.? 

While the queerness in First Comes Death is somewhat normalized (most of the cast is queer), characters still struggle with how they interact with the world at large. I particularly think of Dina when I think about this question. She is on the verge of coming out when she dies and resurrects with uncontrollable powers. While other characters are fairly comfortable in their queerness, she starts the novel still in the closet. Many queer folks are not safe to or don’t get the chance to come out.

What I love about Dina’s arc is how she transforms and changes despite missing out on this moment and that she comes to accept herself fully even without officially “coming out”. Not only does she change by coming back with superpowers, but she also experiences this internal change of becoming comfortable in her own skin.

Queer stories about change and transformation are absolutely unique compared to cishet stories. I came out late compared to many people I know, and over the years it’s come with so much more self-doubt than I ever expected. And yet, I have also transformed more than I ever could have imagined, both in my aesthetic and how I view the world.

I think that queer people growing up in a heteronormative society must inherently experience this transformation. From imagining the world the way society tells us it is to seeing it for all its infinite possibilities, we have to do so much introspection that cishet people never have to do in order to understand our own queerness and rewire our brains and unlearn what society has told us about who we can be. And for those of us who have managed to do that, we are absolutely transformed. And I for one feel so much freer from having gone through that transformation.

Can you tell us more about your short story in the Of Stardust anthology – what is it about, and do you explore similar themes to your novel, or something different?

My short story, Unbury Yourself, is one of my favorite pieces. It’s about a creature from Jewish folklore called a Yeduah. A Yeduah is essentially a sentient plant being that is connected to the earth via a vine-like umbilical chord. In this story, a stranger arrives in the Yeduah’s forest and opens it to a world of possibility. It is still queer, but explores very different themes than First Comes Death.

I love digging into Jewish folklore because it helps me connect with my own heritage, as well as a piece of Judaism that was almost buried by centuries of forced assimilation. Not only does this story feature a small part of that folklore, but it also examines the impact of false promises and how seeing one small part of our big, beautiful world can leave you aching for more.

What are your favourite tropes and character dynamics to explore in your work, and why?

I am an absolute sucker for “I’ll find you anywhere” and WOW do I put that to the test with these globetrotting characters! I’m an emo kid at heart so yearning is something I absolutely love to have in my writing. And what could induce more yearning than two characters separated by strange powers trying to find each other all over the world?

What is your favourite reader response to your work so far, and why?

I put a few quotes from beta readers on the cover of First Comes Death, and one of those quotes is “SO SATISFYING AND GAY! AMAZING!” which is an absolute gem.

In general, I’ve also received some wonderful responses to Topher, one of they side characters. They’re just such a loveable nerd who will make sure they ask for your pronouns even in life-or-death situations. I’m so thrilled readers love them as much as I do!

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