Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Valentine. Nicole Valentine earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches the Brain Trust Workshop at the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, PA.
Before shifting to writing, she used to work at CNN.com in NYC where she helped build the first web publishing tool for a newsroom, so science and innovation have been a huge prat of her career from the get-go. She is also the former chief technology officer at Figment.com (now called GetUnderlined.com) and Space.com.
But her talents don’t stop there. A fellow crafter, when she was placed on bedrest pregnant with her daughter, she designed a line of literary needlework samplers that got picked up by a national distributor and became very popular for a number of years.
Nicole loves science and as a writer enjoys pondering the times when science falls short of explanation and magic has room to sneak in. She’s the founder of steaMG.org, The Middle-Grade Sci-fi Authors Alliance. A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity is her debut novel.
When not engaged in fictional world-building, Nicole can often be found with a hawk on her arm. She lives in Pennsylvania with her human family, two giant dogs named Merlin and Arthur, and two small cats named Tink and Pickwick.
In this episode Nicole and I discuss:
- The origins of A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity
- Using “real life anchors” to create a realistic magical worlds
- Using adults in middle grade fiction
- Time travel as a metaphor for grief
- Carving a place for upper middle grade
- Bringing real science to time travel
Plus, her #1 tip for writers.
About Nicole Valentine
Nicole Valentine earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches writing workshops at the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, PA. As the former chief technology officer at Figment.com and Space.com, Nicole loves science and as a writer enjoys pondering the times when science falls short of explanation and magic has room to sneak in. She’s the founder of steaMG.org, The Middle-Grade Sci-fi Authors Alliance. When not engaged in fictional world-building, Nicole can often be found with a hawk on her arm. A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity is her debut novel. She lives in Pennsylvania with her human family, two giant dogs named Merlin and Arthur, and two small cats named Tink and Pickwick.
A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity
He believes in science, but only magic can help his mom.
Twelve-year-old Finn is used to people in his family disappearing. His twin sister, Faith, drowned when they were three years old. A few months ago, his mom abandoned him and his dad with no explanation. Finn clings to the concrete facts in his physics books―and to his best friend, Gabi―to ward off his sadness. But then his grandmother tells him a secret: the women in their family are Travelers, able to move back and forth in time. Finn’s mom is trapped somewhere in the timeline, and she’s left Finn a portal to find her. But to succeed, he’ll have to put his trust in something bigger than logic.
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Link to Episode #276
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