👨🚀👩🚀VALERIE MIKLES: SCIENTIST BY DAY, AUTHOR BY NIGHT✍✍
Hello World!
Today, I have with me a very interesting personality, Valerie J. Mikles.
In her own words, she's a 'Scientist by day and Author by night.' She has 9 books to her name, including series, stand-alones and short stories. From her young age, she's been a black-hole hunter, and loves astronomy. Valerie currently works for NOAA/NASA as a Senior Systems Engineer on weather satellites. Her life motto is that she can do everything, just not at the same time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Read on to know more about her!
- What do you like about astronomy the most?
Gravity. We had a telescope when I was a kid, but looking at tiny dots in the sky never really captured my imagination. The fact that a star could collapse in on itself and create a black hole did. Black holes are so very strange, and when you’re studying them, you’re pretty much watching what they do and deciding whether that weirdness matches current physics, or whether the weirdness requires new physics.
- How do you connect science with writing?
They’re pretty distinct in my head. I definitely like stories written about scientists or set on spaceships and space stations. I like settings that escape Earth, because Earth feels like a very strange place to me. I think being queer, and not realizing I was queer, is a big part of that. I kept trying to fit into this “default human” mode. It’s easier to identify with the aliens in sci-fi stories, sometimes. Science is much more grounded in reality. Even when you’re getting persistent, coherent signals from space that could quite possibly be aliens, it’s more likely the black hole is just doing something weird again.
- What are your thoughts on the theory of panspermia?
From a science perspective, I don’t feel there’s much to it. The current theory is that the entire solar system formed out of the same cloud of interstellar gas. The elements that make life aren’t unique to Earth, so whether the precursors of life started on Earth or came by meteor, it doesn’t answer the bigger question about how life came to be. If you take those same elements to a different part of the solar system, the conditions are so different that you’re not going to get the same results. What if you want to take those elements and use them to seed life in another solar system? Well, the distance between us and the nearest goldilocks planet is so great, that it’s not likely to survive the journey. There’s a much higher probability that a local comet in that galaxy can gather the elements from its own gas cloud and spontaneously form amino acids there. But hey, it’s science. Prove me wrong. I was skeptical about gravity wave detectors at first, but now they’re using them to find colliding black holes!
From a science fiction perspective, the idea of different planets being seeded by the same source has been used in many places, as a way of explaining why humanoids appear on every planet. There’s definitely a lot of fun fantastical ideas to be explored.
- Tell us about your latest novel.
In April, I released a book called “The Qinali Virus.” It’s about an asexual, astral-projecting astronomer who is on a quest to save the human race from extinction. I put hints of my astronomy background and my background with weather satellites into the story, but I really enjoyed having the character explore her new astral-projection power. I like having a bit of the supernatural in my sci-fi.
My next book comes out in December. It’s called “Premonition” and it is part of a series I have called The New Dawn. I describe the series as Firefly meets Stargate meets Jericho, because we’re following the crew of a dilapidated space ship as they meet new cultures and discover new psychic powers that are evolving in the human race. There are also human-alien hybrids crossing parallel planes of reality.
- Who’s your favorite book character?
Kate Schechter from Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams. Yossarian from Catch-22 by Joseph Heller also stands out. They’re both kind of caught up in life situations that are beyond insane, and they cope with just the right amount of sarcasm.
- What are the most important magazines for writers to subscribe to?
I’m not really a magazine person, but I’d say any magazine that publishes short stories that inspire you. Reading is a big part of writing. Anything that keeps you reading, and reading in a market that you eventually want to write in, would be a good choice. If it’s a magazine you can imagine yourself writing for, read it. If you like Astronomy, check out https://astronomy.com. Sometimes, I answer the ‘Ask an Astronomer’ questions. They’re always looking for good questions.
- How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Five. Three are first (or second) drafts; Two are fully outlined concepts with scene fragments.(Dozens more if you count plot bunnies.) My method involves writing, then taking a break from that project and working on something else, then coming back. I wrote the draft for “The Qinali Virus” while waiting for my editor to get comments back to me for another book. Taking a break between edits is a great way to give your brain a refresh without losing your rhythm.
My current rotation includes:
Whisper – a sci-fi YA novella, currently out to beta-readers.
Echo (The New Dawn Book 8) - undergoing a rewrite to account for an ending change in Book 7.
Lost in Transit – a queer time travel novel, first draft finished a few months ago, and it needs work.
The Gentau Conspiracy – sequel to The Qinali Virus, currently in outlining phase, but I just figured out the villain and had to get my ideas down.
Connection – a sci-fi stand-alone, outlined but sitting on the back burner.
Next year, I plan to publish Echo and probably Whisper, but I might bump the Gentau Conspiracy up in line. (All of these are working titles.)
- If you are to be stuck on a new planet in the next week, what 3 things would you take with you?
Laptop, a telescope, a very good camera… assuming, of course, that all my basic needs are met and the resident aliens don’t suffer from the same kind of light pollution we have in cities here. Astronomy from another planet (especially if we could coordinate with Earth) would be awesome.
- How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?
About two months from conception to completion of a first draft (usually 80k-100k words). From first draft to publishing, six months to a year. I think if you give yourself 4 months to write, rewrite, and edit, then start bringing other people (beta-readers, editors) in for the second 4 months, then focus on the publishing for the last 4 months (cover art, formatting, final proofs), you can get a good product without spinning your wheels too much.
- Do you believe in writer’s block?
I don’t think writer’s block is something to believe in. It’s a way to describe a personal struggle, and when someone says they’re struggling, you accept that they’re telling the truth, and you find a way to support them. Is it a motivation struggle? A crippling self-doubt? A feeling that every idea isn’t good enough? … lots of things can get in the way of writing, and sometimes it’s easier to just say “writer’s block.” It’s not part of my personal writing experience. I struggle with getting my muse to turn off so that I can do other things. Every brain is different, and I think it’s important to trust someone when they share their experience, even when it doesn’t match your own.
- Is there anything you’re working on right now?
Aside from writing? I’m learning ukulele and guitar, and I have a YouTube channel with both original songs and covers. I’ve been putting together blog posts and gearing up for Asexual Awareness Week at the end of October. And I’m looking forward to my next book launch in December!
I hope you enjoyed reading about this author cum scientist cum choreographer cum film producer and much more.
VALERIES MIKLES: Valerie loves dancing, writing, astronomy, sci-fi, and grapes. She’s agender, aromantic,and asexual, and even though her labels describe many things she is not, her motto in life is “I can be everything I want, just not all at the same time.” Although she has yet to get paid to eat grapes, she was delighted to learn that people would pay her to study black holes, and spent much of her twenties as a black hole hunter. She was rewarded with an astronomy PhD, which promptly inspired her to move to L.A. to be a screenwriter. How she ended up working on weather satellites for NOAA, we may never know. Her passion for story-telling extends back to before she could write, and in fall 2017, she achieved a life dream and published her first book!
“The Disappeared – The New Dawn Book 1.”
On December 5, Valerie celebrates the release of “Premonition – The New Dawn Book 7!”
You can learn more about Valerie’s books on her website. Join her newsletter to get free short stories: http://www.valeriejmikles.com
An asexual activist, Valerie has written and produced a series of comedic short films featuring asexual characters. You can watch her films online at: http://www.aces-sitcom.com. Her third book ‘Trade Circle’ features an asexual protagonist, and interestingly, she created this character before she even knew there was a word to describe it. In April 2020, she released a queer sci-fi novel called “The Qinali Virus” featuring an aromantic, asexual, astral-projecting astronomer trying to save the human race from extinction.
LINKS:
Books: http://www.valeriejmikles.com
Everything else: http://www.valeriebean.com
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vjmikles/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/valeriebean
Blog: http://beanythingbooks.blogspot.com
Have a look at her sci-fi thriller series 'THE NEW DAWN', book 1 : THE DISAPPEARED
https://www.amazon.com/Disappeared-New-Dawn-Book-ebook/dp/B074JMSFZ7/
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