Behind the Scenes with Trip Galey

Back in 2023, A Market of Dreams and Destiny welcomed readers into an alternate 19th-century London, where an indentured human in the goblin market manages to turn the world on its head, aiming for a brighter and better world for those who most deserve it. Shortlisted for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, this novel is Trip Galey’s stellar debut—but Trip is also a game designer (Faerie’s Bargain from Choice of Games) and an editor (I Want that Twink Obliterated! from Bona Books).

Now, Trip’s latest project, The Fall of the House of Valenziaga, is about to hit Kickstarter. I got a chance to chat with him about this new project, what he loves about SFF, and why he loves writing queer fiction (with queer creatives at all steps of the process!).

Alana: Badly describe your new novel in one sentence (then tell us what it's really about!).

Trip: A young man learns that if you want to tear down a house, you’re better off wearing a dress while doing it.

So, The Fall of the House of Valenziaga is about a guy called Virtus. He’s the heir to a Legendary House (similar to a noble house—but GAY) and his mother is… toxic, to put it mildly. Of course, the thing is, when you grow up with toxic parents you don’t always realise they’re toxic. You often don’t know any better or have another childhood to compare yours to, really. So the book is Virtus realising how terrible his mother is and then setting out to free himself—and the rest of the city—from her tyrannical dominance. Even if it means tearing down his own Legendary House to do it.

And it’s queer science fantasy, so envision a city beyond the edge of space and time that is made up of fragments of a thousand thousand lost and/or destroyed worlds, riddled with strange science and weird sorcery, and populated by unknowable beings that are all too human and humans that are occasionally unspeakably monstrous.

Plus QUEER. Metaphorically, literally, from a worldbuilding perspective, in terms of references and Easter eggs… in as many senses of the word as I could fit in.

Sometimes, more is more.

Alana: You've written about faeries and edited pulp fiction across all the speculative genres. Your newest title is science fantasy. Which genre is secretly your favorite (and why do you love all of them)?

Trip: Faeries, lol. It will always be faeries. There is something so primal about fairy tales, and I’ve always loved them and found them incredibly appealing. This was possibly helped a great deal by my not really fitting in with my family? My parents literally used to tell me to my face that they thought I might have been switched at birth. They meant hospital error, of course, but you can see why I’d identify so strongly with changelings at that point.

But I do quite honestly love all genres of fantasy and most of science fiction. I grew up in a very rural area. My family didn’t have television until I was sixteen16 and the internet came along even later. Books were my primary entertainment and escape and I was addicted. Also, I lived a three hour drive from the nearest bookstore, and this was before the Evil ’Zon arose. There simply were not enough titles out there to only love urban fantasy or only read epic or heroic fantasy. So I read them all!

I will always have a very soft spot for those books that show me something new, as well. Part of the appeal of genre fiction is seeing outside out everyday, lived experience, so books that depart from the norm, books that mash up genres and go on weird tangents? J’adore.

Alana: You are well-known for having references to other works sprinkled throughout your stories. Without spoilers, can you share a few titles that will grant in-joke access?

Trip: First, this question immediately started a particular scene from the film Evil Under the Sun, starring Peter Ustinov (and Dame Maggie Smith! And Dame Diana Rigg! It’s actually superb, you should all watch it sometime…) playing in my mind. But that’s a digression, so I’ll throw out a list and leave it at that.

Dynasty S03E16; The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny; The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan; The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells; Mommie Dearest (1981); Diamonds and Toads by Charles Perrault; POSE (all series); The Complete Kake Comics by Tom of Finland; RuPaul’s Drag Race (any series, really, but All-Stars All-Winners would be my rec); The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey…

…I am going to say I stopped there, and not admit that there were actually several more before I got ahold of myself and hit the delete key to bring it down to something more reasonable in size for a paragraph…

Alana: You've published traditionally and independently--what brought you to Kickstarter for this project?

Trip: I try to never do a thing for only one reason if I can possibly help it. 😅 My reasoning behind bringing this project to Kickstarter stems from a couple of things.

Kickstarter is, relatively, quick. Traditional publishing is amazing, but turnaround on projects in trad pub is measured in years, plural, most of the time. I’m hoping that this book will see the light of day much sooner than it would if it came through the traditional publishing pipeline.

This also applies to authors getting paid, unfortunately. Advances are broken into increasingly smaller pieces, further apart, these days. My partner and I are coming to the end of our UK visas, and this project is one way we’re hoping to raise funds to stay in our British home (particularly given what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic right now). This project, if successful, will pay out months or years before a traditional publishing house would.

Doing things myself also gives me a bit more creative control. Trad pub is not nearly so restrictive as people imagine, but with Valenziaga, particularly, I want to guarantee that I have a queer editor, a queer cover artist, a queer proofreader, and, if at all possible, a queer person involved in production every step of the way. (Yes, this book is that queer.)

And speaking of queer, the reality is that I also had professionals in the publishing industry look at the concept, and the setting, and the story, and advise me to simplify things if I wanted to improve my chances of selling the book on the traditional market. Science fantasy is weird. It doesn’t fit into easy sales scripts as well. But I didn’t want to make it pure fantasy, and I didn’t want to decrease the polyamorous mess(es) tangled up in the plot. So I opted to do this project on a more personal level.

Alana: Which of your characters would you most like to hang out with, and what would you do?

Trip: Oh no! Not a “favourite” type question! That means I have to choose!? Painful. (And it’s different all the time anyway!)

But as of this moment, I’m currently feeling that it would be… Thom of House Lakhsonen (from The Fall of the House of Valenziaga). He’s fun, and sweet, and always smells of leather. Plus, I’m rather stressed with everything going on at the moment, and he’s the kind of person who knows the best way to take care of you, whether that is cuddling on the couch and watching a film or going out dancing.

Given how much I’ve been working on everything, we would definitely just have a night in, with popcorn, a light-and-fun film, and a couple of books, so just read companionably.

Alana: What "one neat trick" do you use in your life, writing or otherwise? What advice do you follow that has made a difference for you?

Trip: I have struggled with toxic levels of perfectionism my whole life, and the thing I’ve found that works best for me to combat that is telling myself (as I write) that I will “fix it in post.” It really helps me get past that paralytic over-analysis of dramatic choices or dislike of how certain lines are reading in my head, or whatever other mind vampire is trying to suck the life out of my creative momentum.

In terms of writing advice, a big one for me is to read widely and deeply in terms of the “how- to” sorts of books, like On Writing, or Wonderbook, or The Fantasy Fiction Formula, but know that not every piece of writing advice, even if it is good advice, is suitable to every writer. We all have different brains and different processes. Writing is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. (And even this piece of advice may not suit everyone!)

Alana: What do you love most about writing queer stories right now?

Trip: I love that it’s not just an option—it’s encouraged! At least by large sections of the SFF readership and reassuring chunks of the publishing industry. And though trad pub (and even platforms that distribute self-published works) might possibly be wavering a bit in terms of support, considering current events, there are still excellent options for reaching an audience and making a living as a writer of queer books.

I love that there are so many queer books to read! I love reading widely and deeply and I love that there is no longer just a single book with a lesbian protagonist in science fiction, or just one trilogy with a (tragic) gay man as the protagonist in fantasy. My TBR is truly life-threatening at this point.

The thing I love most, however, is the connection with queer readers, and the expressions of enthusiasm and joy when someone finds a bit of their experience in a story where they don’t usually expect to see such things. It’s… just the best. 💙

Trip Galey’s The Fall of the House of Valenziaga launches on Kickstarter March 3! Visit the site to sign up for notification on project launch!