An Interview with Author Daisy Loveless

Daisy Loveless has been writing since she was 12. She started on an old Tandy 1000 HX system, sitting for HOURS in her room that summer, typing away at the built-in keyboard, keeping herself out of her mom’s hair.

She “picked the pen up” again in 1999, writing fanfiction in the wrestling fandom. She dabbled in other fandoms, but her most successful genre was the wrestling fandom.

Daisy lives in Central NY with her best friend and their two dogs, Chase and Zelda.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

Well, I got this idea in early 2020, and it initially was planned as a WWE fanfic, ONLY to be sent to my Beta Girls… Then the pandemic hit and it morphed into a “What Could Have Been” situation. Eventually, I realized that I could shift the characters to original ones within the wrestling universe I created and still use the same plot.

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

It took over two years to find a title I liked. For the LONGEST time, I was just calling it WPWA #5.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

The Weeknd – Blinding Lights

Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams

I mainly invented songs for the book.

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

Writing a Romance Novel For Dummies to improve my writing. I’m in between recreational books.

I’m also reading a lot of books related to GIMP and Inkscape so I can design my own covers.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’m disabled with Cerebral Palsy and have been since birth. This is why you’ll see a LOT of my heroines having Cerebral Palsy, or CP for short.

When I was a teenager, I worked in a nursing home as a recreational aide. I also was a review blogger for about five years, from 2013 to 2018.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I’ve always loved the written word. Writing has always been a passion of mine. I started what could be considered my first “novel” at age 12 (in 1991). Later that fall, I remember printing out the first “chapter” of the story to hand in for an English assignment. While I did receive an A on the assignment, my English teacher told me that some parts of the story were “too risqué” for a 7th-grade assignment. Whoops. *giggle*

My second “novel” was written on a Macintosh Performa/LC 475 system. I can’t remember the name of the software I used for it, but it was part of a desktop publishing suite. I wrote what would be considered a “Mary Sue” in the literary world, using myself and “characters” that I knew personally. I never published it and, sadly, I never printed it out. I don’t think my school would have looked favorably at printing a story on their printers about their students in some of the situations I placed them into.

After that, I let writing go for a few years, concentrating on high school coursework and taking care of my sick mother. The only writing I did during high school was the various reports and essays we were assigned. I always got A’s for my writing, but I never really considered it a “calling.”

I “picked the pen up” again in 1999 and for over ten years I wrote fanfics, starting with first-person “Mary Sue” works, then transitioning to third-person.

About mid-2013, I discovered Amazon’s self-publishing program, Amazon KDP. After extensive research, I decided to throw caution to the wind and published my first book, 18 Wheels and 2000 Miles, in September 2013. This book is no longer available because it wasn’t up to my standards.

I started writing full-time in 2018, Since then, I have published nine books and have been part of an anthology to benefit ASAN: Autism Self-Advocacy Network.

Where is your favorite place to write?

My bedroom. I have my laptop on a riser and I use a separate mechanical keyboard to type.

Do you have any writing rituals?

Just opening Spotify and LibreOffice.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

I hope my readers have a better understanding of how CP affects a person’s body and the challenges a person with CP faces daily.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.