About Joshua Valentine:
Through bell bottoms and kaftans; paisley print and daisy trims, Joshua Valentine, both as a politically charged author and a campy DIY drag queen, serves as a living canvas meant to embody the tumultuous, volatile, and aesthetically pleasing epoch that is the 1970s, based on his belief in historical parallels and the idea that we are in a second coming of the 1970s and witnessing the New Age of Liberalism. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Lady Gaga, Eurythmics, and 90s techno-funk group Deee-Lite, Valentine uses a unique assembly of fashion, music, graphic art, and social commentary to create an elevated, multimedia reading experience that inspires visual and listening pleasure, as well as political insights. Come see his books – spanning science-fiction, mystery, and thriller, and all unabashedly political – in the flesh.
What inspires you to write?
The idea that I could be writing something that inspires another burst of creativity in another author, and that my work can simultaneously contribute to a national conversation on a topic, inspires me to write.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Gina Rippon, Lemony Snicket, and Bob Woodward.
Tell us about your writing process.
I like to treat my writing as autonomous in some sense, and only write when I feel an urge to write, almost like I have to let my talents rest and only access it when it's actively inspired. So, sometimes I may go a month or two without writing a single word, or I might write 300 words here and 300 words there, or sometimes over 1,000 words a day, for several consecutive days! It varies widely. I don't like forcing the words out, or trying to commit to a writing schedule. I like writing only when my mind and body feel like it, which is never consistent or reliable. It's almost like a premonition – it's not reliable, or something you can achieve on-demand, but when you witness it in your mind, you experience the most vivid, awe-inspiring moment of a potential reality. That is my writing process, respecting the balance between my talents and the subjective timeline of it. I also like to play the playlist I've made for each book – every printed copy of my books except for my trainwreck of a debut has a Spotify playlist included in the back that is meant to retell them musically.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I'd say I listen to them, but often times end up living through one or several of them. I often find the experiences I'm going through while writing somehow manage to subconsciously seep into the storyline, so while I try to treat the characters as individual, often they become extensions of my life.
What advice would you give other writers?
Always have an end goal in mind of what you want to get out of writing – imagine it, visualized it, and always have to fall back on and use for inspiration when you feel you want to give up on your current project, or switch gears to another when you are feeling your attention drifting away.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
Publishing traditionally is very hard, and I figured that with what I wanted Joshua Valentine to be – an unabashedly political, DIY drag queen author – I had to at least prove myself experimentally as a self-published author, and then try to market myself to traditional publishers. But lately, I've felt more inclined to just being self-published to retain total creative control, and create my own publishing team.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I definitely think as the market becomes more saturated with talents both self- and traditionally-published, authors and publishing houses alike will try to find ways to break through, especially on the Internet and social media outlets. I do think these breakthrough tactics might grow stale at some point, and become almost over-saturated and have diminishing returns. The current and near future of publishing reminds me of mainstream pop in the late 2000s prior to the arrival of Lady Gaga.
What genres do you write?: science fiction
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Link To Joshua Valentine Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
