It’s a treat to feature Julie Danvers in the Micro Q&A today! Julie is an all-around gem and I was thrilled when she agreed to do this interview. Her published works range from medical romance novels to very cool speculative short stories. I hope you’ll check out her writing!
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Myna: Congratulations on being featured in two amazing anthologies this fall! Can you tell us about each of them? Who is publishing them, and what kinds of stories can we expect?
Julie: Thanks! ShoggothTown is about Cthulhu running a detective agency because he’s bored of being an Eldritch god. It’s being published by Bona Books, in an anthology of SF by queer authors. There’s a planned launch party for the anthology at WorldCon in Glasgow, which I am sad that I can’t be at this year. The other story, Ugly, is a retelling of Cinderella, with Gus the Mouse acting as a pro-eating disorder coach for one of the stepsisters. It’s part of an anthology project my Viable Paradise cohort put together, so it’s very special on a personal level.
Myna: Is there a specific genre or theme you like to explore? How would you describe your writing style, in general?
Julie: I’m a psychologist by day, and I like to explore the intersection of mental health, social issues, and the disturbing nature of fairy tales and other lore. When I wrote Ugly, I had done a deep internet dive into the world of pro-ana coaches. I wanted to write about how toxic perfectionism isn’t anything new. Women in fairy tales do brutal things to themselves, physically and emotionally, in pursuit of beauty. Of course, when fairy tales were written, women didn’t get to write down their own stories, so every fairy tale has an unreliable narrator.
Myna: Tell us about your process. Do you have any special routines or practices to keep the words flowing?
Julie: In Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg says to keep your hand moving, and that’s my only golden rule in writing. But often, it feels like this episode of the X-Files where Mulder and Scully are trying to get a car up a muddy trail before they’re eaten by alien bugs. The car makes a little progress…then gets stuck or slides backwards.
Myna: Have you written other books or stories you’d like to mention?
Julie: I am the author of seven Harlequin medical romance novels. I used to feel self-conscious about revealing this, because I felt like “real” fiction had to be literary or speculative. But I recently had a conversation with a fellow writer friend about imposter syndrome and how we both tend to discount so much work that we care about, and it’s all just inner conflict and insecurity. The truth is, those seven romance novels are important to me. I needed to learn how to write novels, and sometimes readers just want a quick, fun read. I know I do! And again: death to toxic perfectionism. Writing is about getting your mental blocks out of the way so you can get words on the page. And if you’ve crafted a story with those words, you’ve made something that didn’t exist in the world before, and that’s exciting.
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Julie Danvers lives in Chicago and writes novels and short stories. She recently adopted two teenaged kittens who have finally started to get along, and are now conspiring to take over her life. Send help.
@juliedanvers.bsky.social
I Want that Twink Obliterated! Published by Bona Books: https://i-want-that-twink-obliterated-an-anthology-of-queer-sff.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention: https://new-year-new-you-anthology.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Myna Chang 
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