Valerie Valdes
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valerievaldes.bsky.social
Valerie Valdes
@valerievaldes.bsky.social
4.7K followers 1.9K following 2.4K posts
Sci-fi, fantasy, and romance writer. MtG story scribe. Co-editor of Escape Pod. Variety game streamer. VPXX/16. https://linktr.ee/valerievaldes
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valerievaldes.bsky.social
Convincing you to read my novel with the first sentence. Share yours if you want.

(The opening of Witch You Would)
Image of a bubbling cauldron. Text: Chapter 1. Penelope. The customer’s blue ombré hair spell sparked like fireworks as he leaned across the counter, ranting about how I was the worst spell caster in Miami. I hid my nerves behind my best helpful-employee smile. “Get your manager,” he snapped. Literally, he snapped his fingers at me. “I’m the only one here, sir.” Just me and my pepper spray.
November 12, 2025 at 12:56 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Modified Bluesky post originally by Psy Costanza @ganondalf.bsky.social. Text: You simply cannot make me spend my time on this stuff. Oh some dipshit said girls don’t like sci-fi? Well they do. No I’m not going to prove it to you. That’s not what my time is for. My time is for playing videogames and gazing lovingly at my wife.
October 26, 2025 at 1:06 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
This afternoon! Come watch me and Mur talk about romance and writing and romance writing, and other random fun stuff.
I Should Be Writing logo in the top left (cartoon Mur Lafferty holding a comically large fountain pen with sound waves and a microphone). Which You Would cover in the lower right. Swirling light purple background with darker purple wisps of magic-looking smoke. Text: Lia Amador (aka Valerie Valdes) joins a special I Should Be Writing. Tuesday, September 2nd @ 2pm ET. twitch.tv/mightymur
September 3, 2025 at 1:12 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
It’s midnight! That means Witch You Would is OUT NOW AHHH!

Sorry I’m going to be insufferable for a minute. Also, please come to the party!
Photo of Witch You Would flanked by a wooden spoon, a rolling pin, and a slate on a swirly greenish background, purple background for the rest of the image. Text: September 2, 2025 9pm - 11pm ET. launch Party. It’s Party Time. Come celebrate the release of WITCH YOU WOULD with us! twitch.tv/thekidsareasleep
September 2, 2025 at 4:11 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
do you see this shit Applejack
Young couple who just got married sitting at a small table together holding drinks, garden in the background, it’s a photo of a photo so you can see the reflection of my mom at the bottom a little
September 1, 2025 at 1:30 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
A baby deer was in my yard
Baby deer eating grass
August 29, 2025 at 5:28 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
This weekend! I’m teaching about how to write a series. writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/science-fict...
Image of three people in spacesuits at varying distances in front of a spaceport with mountains in the background and a rocket launching into the sky, Text: WDU Writer’s Digest University Science Fiction and Fantasy Virtual Conference August 22-24, 2025
August 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
If anyone wants to hear me read a scene with a stress toy, an indecent proposal, and a turkey vulture, come by my Worldcon virtual reading tomorrow!
Seattle Worldcon 2025 logo. Wednesday, August 13th, 2025 10:30am - 11:00am PT (1:30pm ET) Reading: Witch You Would! Friday, August 15th, 2025 10:30am - 11:30am PT (1:30pm ET) Workshops and Writing Programs: The ins and outs and pros and cons of various workshops and writing programs.
August 12, 2025 at 6:01 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Tried a new recipe for my husband, vegan maple pecan banana muffins. They came out great! Baby decided she hates the pecan aftertaste for some reason and will never eat them again. The rest of us are very sad for her, very sad. We will sadly consume the muffins in her stead.
Four muffins in different colored paper cups on top of a cooling rack
June 15, 2025 at 7:18 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Me: looking up types of wolves
Google: here you go
Me: 😳
List of types of wolves from a Google search, highlighted in the center of the list: werewolf
May 25, 2025 at 4:44 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
If you want to grab one of my books, that would be cool! Chilling Effect is the most likely one to be out there in the wild, and Witch You Would is up for preorder, but your kindly bookseller will no doubt be able to get the rest for you no trouble.
Stack of my books on a leather bench in front of white fabric, okay yes it’s the foot of my bed but it looks kinda neat I think? Books include Chilling Effect, Prime Deceptions, Fault Tolerance, Where Peace Is Lost, and Witch You Would.
April 26, 2025 at 4:09 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Hah, I just used it yesterday!
The word “nonplussed” must have been coined by someone with their own Emelia to deal with. I had indeed reached point non plus. The fields of my befuddlement were fecund.
March 13, 2025 at 4:57 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
I’ve posted some before yeah! I don’t have a pic of the new stuff but here’s an example, a raccoonicorn requested by a friend
pencil drawing of a raccoon with a horn like a unicorn, standing on green ground with a tree on the left and sun in the upper right corner
March 6, 2025 at 4:09 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
A few days late but I’m pleased to announce the winner of the first Casa Valdes Weekend Game Jam is Baby with her game Sword Star, it had the most cohesive game design, the most complete play experience, and was on brief (the brief was “swords”)
Still photo of Sword Star starting screen, on which a cartoon valkyrie and a big-mouthed yellow monster face off against a tree-filled hilly background
February 25, 2025 at 8:04 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
ngl I’ve accidentally cropped it this way like ten times while trying to make promo materials, and it makes me laugh every time
cover of Witch You Would cropped so only the word Would is visible between the two protagonists who are clearly looking at each other and thinking that
February 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
On February 7 at noon ET, I’ll be reading from Where Peace Is Lost along with other great authors! You can register here (it’s free): www.eventbrite.com/e/first-frid...
Strong Women, Strange Worlds Presents First Friday QuickReads of Sci Fi, Fantasy and Horror by Fiona Moore, Ioanna Papadopoulou, Jennifer L. Hart, Valerie Valdes, Shveta Thakrar, Anne E.G. Nydam February 7, 12 noon EST Free On Zoom Preregister now at StrongWomenStrangeWorlds.weebly.com
January 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Sometimes being a writer means spending a half hour trying to figure out how to describe finger slapping without actually explaining it because your POV character knows what it is and wouldn’t feel compelled to educate in the moment.
Sleeping cat labeled “me writing” next to yawning cat that looks like it’s screaming, labeled “me editing”
December 30, 2024 at 10:06 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Noir isn’t about Venetian blinds and a husky voiceover and a dimly-lot street. It’s not about a dame smoking under a spinning fan. Those are the cliches. Those are the Coca Cola commercials of noir. What I understand to be noir is the real grittiness that comes out of American realism - those films that channel the same spirit as George Bellows or Edward Hopper or Thomas Hart Benton. It’s the poetry of disillusionment and existentialism. The tragedy that emerges between the haves and the have-nots. And the have-nots are trying to breach their ambition through violence and, ultimately, worshiping a hollow god, which is money. So therefore it’s literally an exploration of the flip side of the American dream.
December 28, 2024 at 2:53 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
I have things to do but being a cat bed is more important
cat asleep on her human’s chest, curled up so white back paws are visible, not pictured: the lower back pain I’m experiencing
December 25, 2024 at 2:54 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Happy Christmas Eevee from Baby!
a drawing of an Eevee wearing a Christmas hat with grass and trees behind it, apparently it’s a lore-appropriate location from the Sword and Shield games that I haven’t played
December 24, 2024 at 4:45 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
no talk me I eepy
cat asleep with face buried in white socked paws
December 16, 2024 at 4:48 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
no talk me I angy
sleepy cat on top of her human
December 16, 2024 at 4:37 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
Turns out if you hold a cat like this for seven hours, the muscles around your left collarbone are gonna get wrecked.

The more you know.
Cat curled up asleep being held in the crook of her human’s left arm
December 8, 2024 at 12:21 AM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
I was working but she put herself between my chest and the lap desk and pushed it with her butt until the lap was all hers
triumphant sleepy cat lying on my lap with the defeated lap desk behind her, unreachable by the human who needs it for work
November 30, 2024 at 9:59 PM
valerievaldes.bsky.social
I don’t toot my own horn a lot but
Cover of Fault Tolerance by Valerie Valdes, in which a woman in a spacesuit falls out of a circular spaceship door, surrounded by a dozen cats wearing round space helmets, a giant robot hand reaching up to grab them
November 29, 2024 at 10:00 PM