Welcome to the work behind the worlds. Not all stories have as clean a start as most novels do, but mine does:

I remember choosing to write my first story in seventh grade. A new school, new friends, and I had someone to impress.

In the end, the friendship happened on its own, but the writing stuck around.

My first two novels have been lost to file rot and laptop transfers and resets, but by the time I was in college, and November rolled around, I was ready to sit down and write the first thing I’d ever be proud enough to share with my friends and the world.

Only to then of course realise that the sharing itself is a whole other process and set of skills to learn. And slowly, over the course of a few books, I have learned, and will continue doing so, one book at a time.

I write for the emotional punch, always have. The best books I’ve ever read has had that one scene that twisted something in my chest, and I’ve been spending years learning the craft so I could do it myself.

As I learned, about writing and myself, there are other things I picked up along the way. A demand for queer characters. A need for nuanced, complicated relationships. A mission to put dragons into as many of my projects as I can.

My process has come a long way, to the point where I can almost call it reliable, and trusting it (and teaching others how to do it) has become the general challenge of my life. That and juggling too many projects at the same time.

No I will not put them down...

I am of course more than my stories and the process of making them, although not much more.

When I’m not hanging out with my own characters, I am probably hanging out with someone else’s. I am of course an avid reader and as such love organising my bookshelf, talking to others about the books I’m reading, thinking about which book to read next, and – on occasion – even reading some of the ones I already own.

During the plague times in 2020 I picked up sewing again, and this time around it stuck. I stumbled into the world of ren faires and cosplay, which has been lovely and a never ending abyss of more cosplay plans that I am not delusional enough to think I will ever get to.

One of my proudest creations apart from any of my books is a writing club I started for college, and have been aggressively trying to keep alive. It’s one of the most reliable doses of inspiration in my life. .

— Linda Effinger