Ray Stoeve is the author of the young adult novel Between Perfect and Real, which received a starred review and was a 2021 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and Arden Grey. They also contributed to the young adult anthology Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. They received a 2016–2017 Made at Hugo House Fellowship and created the YA/MG Trans and Nonbinary Voices Masterlist, a database that tracks all books in those age categories written by trans authors about trans characters. When they’re not writing, they can be found gardening, making art in other mediums, or hiking their beloved Pacific Northwest.

I had the opportunity to interview Ray, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thank you! I’m the author of three YA novels, two that are already out—Between Perfect and Real, about a closeted trans boy who gets cast as Romeo in the school play, and Arden Grey, about a queer girl healing from her parents’ sudden separation while questioning whether she might be asexual—and The Summer Love Strategy, which is out May 7th! I contributed a short story called ‘Parker Outside the Box’ to the YA anthology Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. I also maintain a database of YA and MG books that feature trans and nonbinary characters written by trans and nonbinary authors, called The YA/MG Trans and Nonbinary Voices Masterlist. My pronouns are they/them, and I live in Seattle. In my free time I like to spend time outside, with my loved ones, making art in other mediums, and most recently playing Baldur’s Gate 3 as a tiefling druid.

What can you tell us about your latest book, The Summer Love Strategy? What was the inspiration for this story?

The Summer Love Strategy is a YA romcom about Hayley, a girl who’s perpetually crushing on unavailable girls. Her best friend Talia, on the other hand, almost never gets crushes at all. After Hayley’s latest unrequited love turns into heartbreak, the two of them come up with a step by step plan to help each other find their first girlfriends…but it doesn’t exactly go as expected! It’s got lots of queer, trans, and neurodivergent characters, a basketball subplot, and a pivotal scene at a MUNA concert, as well as deeper questions about what love even is, how to be in a romantic relationship, and how to confront the fears and anxieties surrounding those things.

I was first drawn to writing a romcom after reading the hilarious and heartwarming YA romcom The Summer of Jordi Perez (And The Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding. As a trans person, writing trans characters and their stories is very important to me, and at that time, trans girls were almost never positioned as the love interest in sapphic YA romances. I have a lot of wonderful trans femmes in my life, so I could not let that stand, and I decided to write a sapphic romance where the trans girl is the love interest. There is still a huge lack of trans girl characters and trans femme authors in YA as a whole, which needs to change. Lisa Bunker, Naomi Kanakia, and Charlie Jane Anders are some of the trans femme authors writing trans girls right now, so check out their books!

As a writer, what drew you to the art of storytelling, specifically young adult fiction and romance?

I’ve always loved to write because it helps me understand myself, other people, and the world around me. Writing stories helps me explore ideas, issues, and themes that are important to me, whether it’s something that has positively impacted my life or is something I struggle with. I love writing young adult fiction because your teenage years are such a pivotal time in your life, when you’re figuring out who you are, what’s important to you, and how you want to exist in the world. Everything is big and exciting and new, full of highs and lows. That makes young adult fiction a perfect lens to explore complex themes. As for romance, I’m just a very romantic person in general; I love love and am fascinated by relationships (of all kinds, not just romantic ones), so romance is really fun and interesting for me to write!

How would you describe your writing process?

I usually start with a spark of an idea in my head, a character or a theme I want to write about. I let it percolate for a while just in my head, and then I flesh it out into a short pitch. From there, I come up with more characters and work up a longer synopsis, which turns into an outline, and then I start writing based on the outline. As I write, I revise the outline based on the way the story is evolving as I draft it. While outlines are helpful, it’s also important to allow for discovery and transformation within the story as it’s developing, so I’m never too attached to my original idea of how the story should proceed. Sometimes your subconscious knows better than your conscious mind what direction the story should take.

Growing up, were there any stories in which you felt touched by/ or reflected in? Are there any like that now?

All of Tamora Pierce’s books were hugely important to me as a young person, and I still reread them from time to time. She wrote girls who were having adventures and challenging gender norms within her fantasy world, and that was very compelling to me as a young person. I very much related to characters who didn’t understand or didn’t want to live within the social and gender norms dictated by their surroundings.Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice series was also a formative one for me, as was Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters because it was one of the first YA books I read with a queer main character.

Today, Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg remains one of my all-time favorite novels. It makes me feel connected to queer and trans history and community, and those who came before me. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram, Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before by Karelia Stetz-Waters, Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff, and The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness are some YA novels that have meant a lot to me in recent years.

As a writer, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general? 

The queer community and our history and culture are a huge influence and source of inspiration for me. I’m also often inspired by music. My writing style has been shaped by the YA of the 1990s and early 2000s, and queer writers like Leslie Feinberg.

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or difficult? 

I actually LOVE revision! My brain thrives on problem-solving and putting puzzles together, so the process of rearranging, cutting, adding, and figuring out how to transform my existing draft into something closer to my ultimate vision of it is really fun for me. I also love creating characters and writing dialogue. Something that is challenging for me at times is pacing, especially when it comes to taking time to really set a scene. The dialogue and action comes so quickly for me that I often need to go back and add in more details and description to a scene.

Aside from your work, what are some things you would want others to know about you?

I make art in other mediums as well! I’m a musician who’s released an EP under the moniker James Rowan Ray (yes, I’m on Spotify!), and I’m also a film photographer who loves to photograph my loved ones, my surroundings, and shows and events. I’m also a big nerd who, in addition to Baldur’s Gate 3, also plays D&D (my current character is a Tabaxi sorceror, and I previously played a dwarf bard). And, I’m a Leo. If we were in person, I’d be doing a gay little hair flip right now to emphasize that sentence.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

I’ve been dying for someone to notice that the high school in all my books is the same high school, and ask me why that is…and the answer is that all my YA books so far are set in the same universe, at the same school, just in different years, and that includes my short story in Take The Mic! There’s not been an overlap of characters yet…but there will be in The Summer Love Strategy, and there are some characters from Between Perfect and Real who make a cameo in my fourth YA novel! I did this for two reasons: one is because I just didn’t want to have to invent a whole new high school for every book, and the other is because I love when books are connected but not necessarily part of a series. As a reader and as a writer, it’s so fun to find the points of connection in a world you’re invested in. I love incorporating little Easter eggs and surprises for readers. Plus, if anyone out there wants to adapt my books into a highly successful long-running streaming show, they have a whole interconnected world to draw on, just saying….!

What advice might you have to give for aspiring writers?

My two biggest pieces of advice are: write the story you really want to write, and find the method of writing that works for YOU.

If you try to write what you think will sell, or what other people want to read, it will kill your love for writing. Write what you feel most drawn to, and it will shine through in your story and find you the right community, agent, and publisher (if you want to go the traditional publishing route), and eventually, readers.

Similarly, don’t set up your writing habits the way you think you should, or the way other writers do it. Other people can provide inspiration and things to try, but no one approach works for everyone, and it’s important to find the habits and methods that work for your brain and your needs.

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

I have a fourth YA novel coming out in 2025, and I just turned in the draft back in February. The book is about Sidney, a nonbinary teen with undiagnosed OCD who’s determined to be the president of their school’s Queer Alliance for their junior year. When they end up having to share it with the annoying class clown, a trans boy named Forrest, their plan is ruined. But it turns out Forrest might not be so annoying after all…and that’s all I’ll say for now!

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT? 

Many of the books and authors I mentioned above are great picks; I also highly recommend Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari, as well as Godly Heathens and Merciless Saviors, the two books in The Ouroboros duology by H.E. Edgmon.

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Header Photo Credit JP Martin Media