Hi everyone and welcome to my interview series Saturday Night Author Fever, where I interview authors with a bit of a 70s music and diversity theme. I personally love 70s music, especially disco music, and sometimes on Friday nights when no one is looking you can find me dancing to classic 70s songs such as September, Bennie and the Jets and We Are Family. However, books are my true passion and because of this, I thought it would be a great idea to mix my two loves and start this interview series. The questions will be similar every week, but with a new author every time, and I hope you’ll enjoy the answers as much as I have. Now let’s get this party started!
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This Saturday Night we welcome Alex Whitehall. Thank you so much for sitting down with me today in my galaxy of books.
Alex, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your books? What do you think about 70s music?My name is Alex Whitehall (they/them), and I grew up in a small rural/suburban southeastern Pennsylvania area. When I’m not working and writing (also known as “checking Twitter and Tumblr obsessively”), I’m watching anime and playing tabletop role-playing games with my friends. I am the epitome of cool. I currently have one novel out (Sharing a Pond) and two novellas (A Christmas for Oscar and Second Skin).
Music from the seventies is, well, classic. It’s the stuff that comes on the radio and I can sing almost every word (or hum the parts I don’t know…) and happily feel a little ridiculous as a rock out to it in my car. It’s not my primary music, but there are very few songs (that have survived on the radio to today) that I wouldn’t let play. I guess time weeds out the bad ones.
When did you feel like this is it, I’m an author whose words are going to be read by, and have an impact on, others?I’ll let you know when it happens! To me, it’s still kind of mind-boggling the idea that my words could impact others meaningfully, for more than just entertainment reasons. Even though Brent in Sharing a Pond is working through self-acceptance and Oscar in A Christmas for Oscar is dealing with overcoming his past–meaningful growth that could touch readers–I always feel like I’m just writing their stories. I hope that they move the reader and the reader can connect–and I hope that they are impacting the reader!–but I can’t quite comprehend that it might actually happen.
What do you want your readers to take with them after having read your books?Most importantly, I want readers to leave my stories with a sense of happiness/satisfaction. I want them to feel better for having read them. But I also want readers to leave with a better understanding of either themselves or others. If I can change one person’s heart into accepting themselves or someone they didn’t understand before, then I think my stories are doing their job.
What does the future look like for you, Alex? Future projects, releases etc.?Nothing soon to be released, although I have one book in submission (fantasy bear shifter m/m romance novella), one in revisions after feedback (near-future apocalypse m/m romance), one with beta readers (trans cowboy m/m romance), four that are finished and I’m waiting to re-read (shifters and vampires and contemporary, oh my!). I’m really excited about one of the shifter books that I’m sitting on, because it has a genderqueer character and an asexual character and I love them both to death–and I hope readers will too.
If one (or several) of your characters got invited to a disco, what would be the most unforgettable part of their night and why?If Brent, in Sharing a Pond, was invited to a disco with his partners, Corey and Shane, the most unforgettable part of the night would be dancing on the dance floor with both of them. It seems minor, but they’re a triad, so they aren’t always able to be as open with their relationship as other people–especially since Brent is rather shy and a worrier. It probably wouldn’t be his idea to dance (that would be Shane), but he’d love every minute of dancing with his guys.
You can easily look back at the 70s and see how the times have changed. If you look at the book community and publishing world today, what changes would you like to see for the future?I’d like to see a lot less in-fighting and bickering in the book community. Books are an escape, and obviously we need to live in the real world, but I feel like sometimes people forget that your reality might not match the reality of other people. IE, people experience things differently. I think if people remembered that (and actually stopped to consider it rather than basing their reaction only on an immediate emotional response), then understanding would be a lot easier–and in turn, a lot of the flare-ups that happen online wouldn’t happen. I’m not saying the immediate emotional reaction shouldn’t be discussed (and the trigger addressed as necessary), but I think the way the internet as whole handles things could use a lot of mellowing.
Alex, can you recommend two already published diverse books you’ve read and loved and one you can’t wait to read?I recommend Wanted, A Gentleman by KJ Charles, which is a fun historical (and I usually do not go for historicals), and Sons of Devils / Angels of Istanbul by Alex Beecroft, which is a two-part alternative history set that is heavy and intense but worth the work. I can’t wait to read Peter Darling by Austin Chant (already released, but I’m behind!).
Lastly, to end this interview, do you have a favorite 70s song to recommend your readers?“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, which is probably one of the most well-known songs out there, so it isn’t much of a recommendation. Sorry, but the heart loves what the heart loves!
Thank you so much, Alex, for answering my questions. I hope you readers enjoyed this interview, I know I did! Eager to find out more about Alex Whitehall? All information about them and their books can be found on their website. You can also find them on Twitter and Goodreads and buy their books on Amazon.
About The AuthorIf there are two types of people in the world, Alex Whitehall probably isn’t one of them, despite being a person. Their favorite pastimes include reading, horseback riding, sleeping, watching geek-tastic television, knitting, eating, and running. And wasting time on the internet. And spending glorious evenings laughing with friends.
While Alex prefers sleeping over doing anything else (except maybe eating), sometimes they emerge from the cave to be social and to hunt for food at the local market. They can be found blogging, reading, and tending after their aloe plants.
Since I promised a very 70s music-themed interview series, I have one last surprise, a favorite 70s song of mine (and there will be a new one every week yay). Now let’s get those dance moves on, here’s Bad Girls by Donna Summer.
Do you want to listen to all of the songs from my Saturday Night Author Fever interview series?To make things easier I have created a Spotify playlist that features all of the songs mentioned in my Saturday Night Author Fever posts. You can check out the playlist below or go here. Every time a new interview is published new songs will be added to it.
Thank you so much for tuning in this Saturday, what did you think of the interview and the music? Let me know in the comments below or on my Twitter!*Thank you to the lovely Claribel Ortega for the gifs used in this blog series. You have to follow her on Twitter and check out her website here.
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