Read My Six Elementals Author Interview With P.L. Stuart

Into The Reaches of My Brain

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by P.L. Stuart, and it’s now live on their page! If I recall correctly, P.L. and I first connected on Twitter just around the time that Queen of None came out. He bought the book and really connected with the story, and has been a wonderful champion of my work since then. I’m beyond flattered, really. You never know who’s going to resonate with your work, or where that connection will happen.

The interview is quite comprehensive, and runs the gamut from talk of Arthuriana, to discussing falling in love with books, to future projects on the horizon.

One of my favorite questions was about queer representation in fantasy. Here’s what I said:

There’s a deep line of “traditional” conservatism that runs through fantasy. I grew up in an Evangelical church, and fantasy was one of the only genres you were allowed to read. Especially the sort that love the reinforce the “men are men, women are women” narratives. And unfortunately, that’s still a lot of what we see selling and a lot of what’s still read.

But I know it’s changing because I have a daughter, and I know her friends. They aren’t just living more inclusive lives, they’re demanding more inclusive stories. It’ll take time. It can feel very frustrating and demoralizing sometimes. I lost it a few weeks ago on a Facebook forum, because someone shared a picture of their fantasy bookshelf that was all white male writers and asked if anyone knew “any female fantasy writers.” I just… it just reminded me that we still haven’t even gone over that hurdle yet.

My daughter’s favorite show in the world is The Owl House which doesn’t just feature a teen lesbian couple, but also has trans representation. She and her friends introduce each other by their names and their pronouns. The next generation is fierce. I’m just happy to do what I can to help pave the way for them.

You can read the whole interview here.

Thanks so much for having me, PL!