Q&A: Trip Galey, Author of ‘A Market of Dreams and Destiny’

We chat with author Trip Galey about A Market of Dreams and Destiny, which is a high-stakes magical adventure across a London not quite like our own, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.

Hi, Trip! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hello! I’m Trip Galey and I write (mostly) fantasy with strong queer elements. I’m addicted to elderflower cordial and mint tea; I bake a truly epic chocolate cake and my snickerdoodles are second-to-none; and I don’t get to dance, roleplay, or read nearly so much as I might like to.

My pronouns are he/him, and my adjectives are cis, gay, and whimsical.

I currently live in London with my husband and my writing partner (two different people, btw) on the top floor of a drafty old Victorian house which we call the Writer Flat. We have some fantastic conversations (usually over breakfast or dessert) and somehow fell into starting a queer small press called Bona Books, focused on sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. I also teach writing as one half of the team at the Underhill Academy for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers.

Yes, I work too much.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I was a convert to the cult of reading from a very young age. But I didn’t engage in much writerly experimentation until I was at university. Oh sure, I wrote my own version of a Boxcar Children book when I was 10 or so, and in high school I dabbled a bit in writing a story based off of the entirely fictional (magical) adventures I definitively did not have with one of my then-best friends, but it didn’t spark for me then.

My extended family was full a lot of natural storytellers, however, and I was drawn into dungeon-mastering while at uni, so I really started spinning yarns there. Then I took a few writing courses, and it started to click. Though the first moment I recall actually loving the process of writing was for a screenwriting course. I still remember the line that sparked such joy, too! I haven’t managed to turn that script into a prose project yet, but it’s on the list.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

• Go, Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman
• The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Your debut novel, A Market of Dreams and Destiny, is out September 12^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Extra. Tricksy. Otherworldly. Queer. Shenanigans.

What can readers expect?

A Market of Dreams and Destiny will deliver a clever protagonist being clever (if he does say so himself!), a surreal and otherworldly goblin market full of wonder and terror, strange bargains and intangible merchandise, cameos from famous and nearly-forgotten characters from Victorian literature, nascent workers rights movements, two young men in love and in trouble, and various and assorted shenanigans. Always shenanigans.

There is also a talking cat. Everyone seems to love the talking cat. This will no doubt be no surprise at all to her (she’s called Bess, btw).

Where did the inspiration for A Market of Dreams and Destiny come from?

There’s a simple way to answer that and a complex way to answer that and I am absolutely going to choose the complex way!

So, the world of the Untermarkt came long before the book, and it had the seed of its inspiration in October 2010, in a Broadway theatre, where I saw a fantastic musical with full-on Edward Gorey-esque aesthetics whose vibes were off the chart and set my brain fuzzing about the metaphysical and emotional cost of creating art.

The inspiration for the story grew out of my academic research into the goblin market trope (also sometimes referred to as the Bazaar of the Bizarre), colliding with my personal experiences with (agricultural) child labour and in working retail. The economic systems that pervade the world around us are brutal and insidious and what better way to process some of that trauma than via creepy fey magic and characters trying to cleverly use loopholes to break exploitative contracts?

Deri as a character was inspired by the folktale of Dick Whittington (see how many parallels and references you can find!) and my obsession with Newsies. A narrative with exploited child workers forming a resistance movement, extreme queer subtext between the teen male leads, and extravagant dance numbers? What possibly could I have taken from that? 😉

I’m very much a magpie as a writer. I gather up shiny things (both in terms of inspiration and in terms of techniques and process) and then brood over them until they move themselves into aesthetic alignment.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I really love writing the twisty bits. There’s a moment where Deri gets clever with a bargain, setting it up so that the other party has two choices and whichever one they elect to go with, he wins. Then there’s the moment at the end which I won’t spoil, but yeah. Give me loopholes and split hairs and things like that. Love it. It can be mind-melting at times, but when it works, it’s just SO satisfying.

With this being a historical fantasy, can you tell us a bit about your research into the 19^th century?

So actually a lot of my research was into elements which, though I used them in the 19^th century, were more common in other periods (like contracts of indenture and street markets). The most interesting bit of research related to the 19^th century would be the workhouses. I knew I would be drawing on a lot of Dickensian vibes for the story, and that the major themes would resonate with economic exploitation, so workhouses were the obvious place to go.

I actually pulled up plans for various workhouses and used those for the basis of the one owned and operated by the Graspars. It’s even located in the same location as an actual workhouse of the period, on what is now Gray’s Inn Road. I walked the same route Owain walks early in the book when he returns from the Untermarkt. That was honestly one of my favourite parts about writing this book. Living in London, I was able to find bits of that history and go to what remains of it in person.

What’s next for you?

Hopefully by the time you are reading this, I will have completed the manuscript for the next novel set in the world of the Untermarkt. Once more the story will revolve around trading in an intangible item, though this time the consequences are, if anything, even more convoluted!

As I mentioned earlier, the Writer Flat has started a small press called Bona Books, and our first Kickstarter is live here and now, in the month of September (Unless things have gone very wrong, that is.)! It’s called I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! and will feature non-masculine heroes and villain in pulp-inspired science fiction and fantasy stories. You can find out more by checking the links.

For other projects and shenanigans that I either can’t talk about now or have yet to fully take shape, you can keep track of me via the links!

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Always! I’m going to recommend something old, something new, something borrowed, and something true (By ‘borrowed’, I mean a book a friend introduced me to that I love, and by ‘true’, I mean a work of non-fiction, truth occasionally being debatable).

The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany. (All of his short story collections, really!). An inspiration to and influence on Tolkien, Lovecraft, and Le Guin, Dunsany is arguably a core text of the genre. Read this if you want surreal and dream-like short fiction that often packs what could be 400 pages worth of story into about 400 words.

Teach the Torches to Burn by Caleb Roehrig. A queer take on Romeo and Juliet that is more than a re-telling, it’s a full-on re-imagining, and a rich and intelligent one (that not only keeps Juliet as a character, but also as a queer woman herself). Read this if you want a moving M/M romance that both comments on and is in dialogue with Shakespeare, queer love, and the pressures of the closet.

White Trash Warlock by David Slayton. The start of an urban fantasy trilogy that features a queer protagonist and a queer love subplot, but also addresses class issues in America as well. Read this if you want a fun and fresh urban fantasy with a working-class protagonist, a danger that threatens two worlds, and a M/M romance you can really root for.

Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language by Paul Baker. The “Bona” in Bona Books is from Polari. “Bona” means “good” (and we’re all about good, queer books). Fabulosa! is a fantastic introduction to a nearly-lost language and gives so much great context about the period it thrived in. Read this if you love learning more about queer history and queer culture.

Will you be picking up A Market of Dreams and Destiny? Tell us in the comments below!