interview: Shelly Greene

Today we have Shelly Greene visiting! Welcome, Shelly. What brings you here today!

Just fun! Programming isn’t a new release, but I think it’s the kind of thing your readers might like, so I just wanted to get it out there. (I have newer stuff as well, but Programming is the only one so far with a transgender character.)

What started you writing?

In second grade, my teacher gave me a folder of writing prompts that I could work on when the other kids were doing worksheets. That wasn’t the first time I wrote stories, but it did cement writing as something I enjoyed and wanted to do more of. Within a couple years I was hand-writing “novels” in pretty journals, and I was unstoppable from there. I was out of college before I finished something I thought I could actually sell—and I did! When I was thirty years old, haha. I’m never going to be a household name, but my writing brings me a lot of joy and a tiny trickle of pocket money. I call that victory.

Where do you write?

I can write almost anywhere. I get a lot done during downtime at work. When I worked retail, I would write on scrap paper and hide it in my pockets. Sometimes I end up writing on my notes app after I’ve gone to bed. Most of it gets done on my laptop at my desk, though. I keep everything on a flash drive that lives in my pocket wherever I go.

What do you like to read?

I mostly read fantasy and science fiction, and have a special fondness for things that blend the line between the two, like Star Wars and the Dragonriders of Pern books. My top three favorite authors, the ones whose new releases I will drop everything to read, are Lois McMaster Bujold, Jim Butcher, and Patricia Briggs.

What are the three books you’d take to a desert island? Why would you choose them?

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold – I get hungry for this book if I go too long without re-reading it.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher – I love the entire Dresden Files series, of which this is the third. It’s a favorite because I feel like it’s where the series really hit its stride.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen – a change of pace from the others! It’s hard to beat Austen for character development and use of language.

Writing is an intrinsically solo occupation. Do you belong to any groups or associations, either online or in the ‘real’ world? How does that work for you?

I’ve been in writers’ groups in the past, but mostly didn’t find it that helpful. In a writers’ group of any size, it takes so long for it to be your turn to be critiqued! And it’s hard to know whether to trust the other members’ judgments of your work, especially when you’re not familiar with their writing yet. So I’ve long since given up on writer’s critique groups. I am very active as a fanfic writer, though, and that’s quite a wonderful, lively community! You can definitely find critique partners (“betas”) if you ask around for one, or you can just put stuff out there and not worry too much about it being polished. It’s all just very supportive, and it’s hard to beat the immediate gratification of people commenting on things within hours of posting!

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I live within two miles of three of my siblings, so they’re most of my social life. I especially like to spend time with my adorable preschool-age nephews. They are a handful, but I love them to pieces. I also have a dog, an adopted senior Corgi/Golden Retriever mix. All fluff, no legs! And I do spend more time watching Netflix than I probably should—my current favorites are WandaVision, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and of course, The Great British Baking Show.

Tell me a little bit about Programming? What gave you the idea for it? How long did it take to write? What did you enjoy about writing it? What did you hate?

Programming isn’t my most recent release, but it is the one I think is most suited to your blog. This one had a very convoluted journey into its final form. Once upon a time, I took two male movie characters from a modern-day canon setting, made one of them an android because the actor had once played an android, and made a sci-fi fanfic out of it. Some time later, I “filed off the serial numbers” to make the story more original and see if I could sell it; that’s when the main characters became female instead of male. One day I saw an anthology submission call at a small queer press for science fiction stories. By the time I’d rewritten the story to fit the submission call, giving it a whole new setting and theme, it had become a very different creature from its fanfic origin. It was accepted for the anthology, only for the publisher to fold before the anthology was ever published. So my twice-reworked former-fanfic 8,000 word novelette ended up being published as its own thing by a different publisher, JMS Books. Bit of a wild ride!