Romance Sub-genre(s): Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy Romance
Steam Level: 2-3, mostly implied and closed-door, but often spicy subject matter
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Describe yourself in three words.
Firebrand Provocateur, Chaos
What are three fun facts about you?
I’m neurodivergent, which keeps life unpredictable.
I used to be a massage therapist.
I love octopuses. They both fascinate and terrify me.
What do you do for fun when you aren’t writing?
I’m an avid reader, so most of my time is spent reading. If I’m not reading, I enjoy coloring. When I do have a few minutes to watch TV, I enjoy shows like Star Trek, Stargate, Scooby-doo, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, The Twilight Zone, Bob’s Burgers, Supernatural, and Agatha All Along.
How did you discover writing as a possible career?
One day, I was driving to work and decided to see if I could write a book and publish it. So, I did. Everything sort of snowballed from there.
How did you choose your pen name?
Naomi Valkyrie is a combination of my given name and the spiritual name I chose in my early 20s.
Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
Anything can be inspiration for me. I’ve gotten story ideas from things I’ve seen on the side of the road, bumper stickers/car decals, music, social media posts, random thoughts, listening to other people, making observations about the world around me…
A lot of times random characters just pop into my head and start telling me their story and I write it down, not having a clue where it’s going until I get to the end.
What trope is your favorite to write?
Looking over my writing, I’d say the one that comes out most often is forged family – people brought together by circumstances who become important to each other. They aren’t always a functional family, lol, but they do care about each other. A close second trope would be enemies-to-lovers.
What is your favorite thing about being an author?
My favorite thing about being an author is the creativity of it - creating characters and worlds out of nothing and sharing them with other people. As is common with many neurodivergent people, I often feel alone. Knowing that I can share some of my inner landscape through writing often alleviates some of that.
What is your writing process?
I don’t have a process per se. It’s more like organized chaos. I don’t think I’ve gone about writing any book the exact same way. Sometimes, I just sit and start writing to see who speaks through me. Other times, I get pieces of scenes I build from. A lot of times it’s the characters who are loud with their story and won’t leave me alone until I listen to them. I think the only consistent thing that happens is that I write all my first drafts by hand.
What time of day are you most creative?
My creativity peaks at night/early morning. It’s the best writing time, even though I often have to write during the day due to my schedule.
What is your ideal writing environment?
My most ideal writing environment is on the deck of a cabin in the middle of the woods. But since that’s not happening, I make do with a home office where I am surrounded by E. A. Poe themed décor, and my stuffed octopuses, Inky, Ocho, Blot, Octavius, and Murky. Oh, and my stuffed jellyfish, Zap. I also have a Kokopelli, and various other stuffed creatures that oversee my work… sometimes with judgement, lol.
As an author, what challenges do you face?
A lot of my challenges come from being neurodivergent. Executive dysfunction and demand avoidance are huge hurdles that try to slow me down on a frequent basis. My brain doesn’t allow me to do things I want, and need, to do. Sometimes, I can find brain hacks to get around it. Other times, I have to wait until it passes, which can put me behind schedule. I’ve learned to try to build in some buffer time to allow for when things like this occur. It doesn’t always work, but I try.
Another common challenge from neurodivergence is burnout. ND burnout is more intense than what a neurotypical person might experience when they refer to burnout. I have to pace myself and remember that I can’t do ALL THE THINGS, and I definitely cannot do them as fast as other people. This can be difficult when you’re the only person running everything. I don’t have a team of people to help with social media and marketing, etc. So, there are times I have to switch between priorities to try to give everything attention that needs it. Often, this makes me feel like I am constantly falling behind.
And finally, I find it exceptionally challenging to get my name out there. Social media isn’t what it once was, and visibility is at an all-time low unless you have a huge marketing budget to pay for boosting posts and ads.
What is your least favorite part of being an author?
There are a lot of things I don’t enjoy about the admin/business aspects, but I especially dislike the constant energy required for social media marketing. I simply don’t have the time to be on social media as frequently as you need to in order to keep up the momentum of visibility. If I was always focused on that, I’d never get any writing done!
If there was one thing you could change about the writing/publishing industry, what would it be?
I think it’s a three-way tie between the persistent drama and elitism, the rampant piracy, and the introduction of AI creating technological vomit that is watering down the art.
What advice would you give aspiring authors?
There is so much I could say here, but I’ll try to keep it to the most important things.
- Have a plan
I started writing on a whim and it has taken 5 years, going on 6, to finally start seeing some progress. I learned everything the hard way. Zero stars, do not recommend.
- Listen to yourself
When you jump into writing, the amount of advice and information coming at you will feel like you are drinking from a firehose. Not every piece of information or advice is going to apply to you. Your job is to listen to yourself, your intuition, as you go through it all. Make choices based on what is best for YOU.
For instance, if you know you aren’t a person who likes to be on video, don’t let yourself get talked into putting your energy into making a bunch of videos. It may be working for other authors, but if you aren’t into it, people will be able to tell. Find a different path that works better for your personality.
People will tell you to “step out of your comfort zone.” Remember, there are two types of discomfort – the temporary discomfort of growth, and the kind that traumatizes you. It’s up to you to figure out which one of these each choice in your author business is for you.
- Don’t compare yourself to other authors
One of the biggest demotivators is comparing your progress to that of other authors. You have no idea what their situation is, so it isn’t fair to you to hold yourself to their standard.
- Know going in that it’s a marathon, not a sprint
Unless you happen to be in the lucky 1%, success is going to be a slow build. It takes time to get things going and build momentum. Have patience and set realistic goals.
A lot of new authors give something a try for a month, and if it’s not doing what they think it should, they try something else. You have to give things time. Three to six months minimum so you can get some decent data to evaluate.
- Not everyone has your best interest at heart
Keep an ear to the ground and pay attention to places like Writer Beware that report on the latest scams in the publishing industry. Unfortunately, there are a lot of places out there trying to take advantage of new authors.
When hiring cover designers, editors, etc., ask for references. It’s also a good idea to ask other authors you trust for recommendations for the professionals you’re looking for.
SIDE NOTE: Regarding cover designers – remember to ask for copies of the stock image licenses of every image they use on the cover. If you ever get challenged on your rights to an image, you’ll need those for proof!
- Be flexible
At the beginning, I said to have a plan. It’s also important to be able to be flexible with your plan. Sometimes life throws unexpected things at us, and we have to pivot suddenly. Have contingency plans, if possible. Be willing to switch paths if you need to.
- Understand that other authors are NOT your competition
This is a tough one because many of the marketing things you’ll see position other authors as competitors. There is plenty of room in the marketplace for all of us. We need to work together versus stepping on each other to get ahead. There may be a million shifter books out there, but yours will be different because YOU wrote it. Collaboration with other authors can be a huge benefit. The key is finding the authors that resonate with your values.
- Your first draft will suck, and that’s okay
The first draft is meant to be messy and discombobulated. It’s the beginning of the creative process. If you see something in the draft you don’t like, make a note to yourself to change it during edits and move on. Don’t get stuck in the endless loop of perfectionism, or you’ll never get it finished.
- Have a newsletter, because it’s the only source of contact you own
Even if you don’t send out a newsletter on a regular basis, it’s a good idea to build a newsletter list. If you ever lost access to a sales platform or your social media account, your newsletter list is the way you will contact your readers. It’s a great backup because you own that list and have control over it.
- Piracy is inevitable
It sucks, but it’s true. This was a hard one for me because it’s so discouraging to find out people are stealing your work, especially when you are offering ways for someone to read your book free - like being an ARC reader. But pirates gonna pirate. The best thing you can do is hire an anti-piracy service, like Muso, to scan the web and send take-down notices for you.
- Back up your shit!
Seriously, back up EVERYTHING – websites, newsletter lists, book files, cover files, etc. Save it in several different places because you never know when something is going to crap out on you.
- Have a plan for your estate
Authoring is a business. Make sure you have plans in place to keep things running should something ever happen to you. Create procedure documents so your relatives know how to work the sales platforms, newsletter services, swaps, ads, etc.
What is something you’d like to write, but haven’t yet?
All the story ideas that have piled up over the past 5 years that I haven’t gotten to yet!
Which parts of yourself are reflected in your characters?
Keeping in mind that I write fiction, so most of it is pure imagination, there are a few pieces of me sprinkled throughout different characters.
No Rest for the Wicked – Delilah’s snark
Hell Hath No Fury – Millicent uses sleep a lot as a coping tool, not to mention she’s often exhausted – a reflection of the chronic fatigue I experience
Sure As Hell – most of Jaru’s neurodivergent traits, and his uncertainty trying to navigate life – very reflective of my early adulthood, before I knew I was neurodivergent
A Cold Day in Hell – both women have difficulty expressing emotion, this is a reflection of part of my neurodivergence. I feel emotion deeply, but often don’t know how to express it outwardly
Fate, Frankincense & Funerals – not a character specifically, but the underlying spiritual tones are a reflection of an aspect of me (generally speaking, not specific to death)
House Valdis Series – Xenobia is reluctant to be in the spotlight and in leadership, she likes to run things from behind-the-scenes. SAME!
There are probably many more, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Which of your characters have special meaning to you?
Xenobia from the House Valdis series, because she started my adventure into writing. I also processed a lot of trauma while writing those books, very healing experience.
Jaru from the Life is Hell series, because I felt him the entire time I was writing, his struggle to understand how to step into life and fully live it.
Acheron from Fate, Frankincense & Funerals, because I have felt like an outcast most of my life.
How do you come up with character names?
Many of my characters come to me with their name already. If they don’t, I usually search for names by what they mean. If neither of those yield results, I go search through name lists until I find something with the right vibe.
What is something you love to hear from your readers?
One of my favorite things to hear is that a reader resonates with a character.
I also love it when a reader says they’ve never read a story like mine before. With so many stories out there, it’s nice to know that sometimes, one of mine stands out for a brief moment.
When you read, which authors are your go-to authors?
This is an extensive list since I am a mood reader, but I’ll narrow it down to the ones that seem to be chosen most often… in no particular order:
Nazri Noor
C. S. Poe
Elle Keaton
EM Lindsey
Aimee Nicole Walker
KA Merikan
Davidson King
NR Walker
Domino Finn
Jordan L Hawk
Morgan Brice
Onley James
Pandora Pine
Richard Amos
Tal Bauer
Laurell K. Hamilton
Where can readers find you online?
My works are listed here on https://www.kaleidoscoperomance.com/naomivalkyrie
FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/naomivalkyrie/
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/valkyrieoracle
Do you have any current ARCs or free downloads readers might be interested in?
You can find all the free downloads here: https://www.kaleidoscoperomance.com/freedownloads
ARCs can be found here:
What is your latest/upcoming release?
At the time of this post, The Cursed: Ezri is up for pre-order and is scheduled to go live December 21, 2024. The Cursed: Nicola is also up for pre-order and is scheduled to go live in March 2025.
Any other thoughts you'd like to share?
Reviews are important to authors!
A lot of readers are hesitant to leave them because they don’t know what to write, but a review doesn’t have to be anything fancy. You can write a one- or two-line review and it’ll be fine. Write about one of the characters you connected with. Write about your favorite part of the plot (just don’t spoil the plot twists). If you offer a critique, remember that authors are people, and critique with respect.
One important thing to note is that just because you may not have enjoyed the story line itself, doesn’t mean the book is bad. Is it written well? Does the story flow well? Do the characters have depth? Is the worldbuilding good?
There have been times I didn’t care for a story overall, but the execution of the story was great. So, I compromised and gave the book 4 stars with a note that it wasn’t the book for me, but it would be great for (insert name of romance sub-genre here) readers. I didn’t enjoy the story, but the technical aspects were well done, and I felt it needed to be recognized.
Also keep in mind that on major book platforms, star ratings are a little different in that anything 3 stars and below is considered a critical review, so it is suggested that you only use 3 stars and below on books that truly have issues. Too many critical reviews can inhibit an author’s ability to get visibility on the platforms. Three star and under responsibly!
5 stars – SUPERB
4 stars – Good
3 stars – Meh
2 stars – Nope
1 star – HELL NO
Regardless of what kind of review you leave, be honest, be respectful, and try not to post spoilers.
Happy Reading!