Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈

@spacevalkyries.bsky.social

4.2K followers 920 following 4.1K posts

📝sci-fi/fantasy writer V.M. Ayala (she/they) 🎮streamer, indie games, TTRPGs ✨anxiety/ADHD, chronic pain 🏳️‍🌈queer biracial Mexican American 🪐🗡️co-founder of @othersidespec.bsky.social 🌈 https://www.spacevalkyries.com/ 💌 [email protected]

www.spacevalkyries.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · Oct 22

IT’S OUT! IT’S HERE! I saw The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 at a Barnes & Noble near(ish) to me 👀

I knew I wanted to be a writer at 11. To see my stories in print and in stores was my guiding constant through childhood cancer. “Emotional Resonance” being in this means the world 😭💜

A picture of me pointing to The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 anthology. I’m wearing a black mask and a navy blue tank top. The book is beige with pastel blue and pink graphics. There are shelves of books in the background.

Me holding open the page where my short story “Emotional Resonance” starts. I’m wearing a mask and have the book covering most of my face.

A bit of gremlin excitement energy to this one. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 is covering most of my face. I’m wearing a mask. My eyes are wide with excitement behind tortoiseshell glasses.

44 67 340

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 9h

omg I appreciate you AND for making that a very lovely round number and ONE AWAY FROM NIIIICE

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 10h

two important notes:

1. when I draft these things, the actual dollar amount stays [math] until the absolute last second because a) y'all are wonderful and keep smashing goals and b) math is pain

2. we are 2 backers away from 269 backers, please let me be a mature adult and make a nice joke soon ty

OTHERSIDE - Kickstarter is LIVE! @othersidespec.bsky.social · 12h

We are $225 from MORE ART! We want to be able to commission one or more additional queer artists to create even more art! Think headers, dividers, the little flourishes and interior art details that bring things to life! Help us support more queer art! 👀

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hyb...

OTHERSIDE 2026: A New Magazine of Queer SFF!

A new queer-led literary magazine devoted to speculative fiction, poetry, and art by 2SLGBTQIA+ authors and artists.

www.kickstarter.com

1 4 10

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 11h

thank you again for the support and hype during #DVpit 💜

I wound up not using two moodboards, mostly because I couldn't quite figure out how to tie them to my pitch. But if you like flirty moodboards and/or atmospheric ones!! Please enjoy my DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN x PACIFIC RIM extra moodboards 👀

A romance focused moodboard for my novel! In the middle of the moodboard are two longer images. The top one is of two people dancing, their faces not shown. The bottom image is a woman dramatically lit looking down, a slice of light showing only part of her face and arm. On the diagonal top right and bottom left are black and gold then white and purple/blue texture photos to symbolize the characters as those are their dragon's color schemes. Then there is a black hole and two hands reaching out. The text on the top left and bottom right reads:

"You lead, I follow," she said, the traditional call and response."
"You lead, I follow," he echoed, and prepared for the dragonrider dance.

Moodboard of the solar system in my book! Text says Tour the Queztira System Today! Our New Home! Myriad Free For Over 150 Years! There are then five images from stock photos (mostly from Unsplashed). The first is for the closest planet to the suns, Ssyr, and has lava for the image. Next is Azon, with tall karst pillars, followed by Ondesar, a beach with deep blue water.

The next line is The Abyssal Planet, with purple quartz to represent Abyssal crystals. Then Diratus, which has a jungle canopy from the floor up so the trees look like river systems. And lastly Medus, which is a beautiful blue glacier since it's an ice planet.

1 20

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

aaaa thank you, honestly this means so much! I haven't made a moodboard in sooooo long and I was nervous it was awful haha. and I'm so glad the story is interesting too!!

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

very here for these comps and everything about this!!

1 1

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

aw yay congrats! best of luck with your querying 💜

1 1

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

aaa thank you so much!!

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

sadly probably not for a good long while! this is for a pitch event, so I'm still looking for a literary agent! maybe someday thouugh, I truly hope for it to get published someday 💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

thank you so much, I'm really glad it's been an interesting pitch for folks 😭💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

aaah thank you! 💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

im glad! I haven't made moodboards in aaages so this was fun!

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

I do love giant robot dragons! they are the coolest ✨

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

what's not to love about giant robot dragons!! 💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

sorry for all the moodboards today, kinda. I made them for DVpit and I am very happy with them and it has been fun to show them off but also 😅

2 18

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN x PACIFIC RIM

✨mecha dragons
🪐disabled protagonist
💜Mexican American diaspora worldbuilding
🌈bi love interest + an ex-BFF
🌌epic space opera
🐉a hivemind of corrupted dragons somehow back after centuries in an entirely new solar system—it's fine!

#DVpit #A #SF #Latine #DIS #LGBT

Moodboard of the evil hivemind of corrupted dragons. Everything is in red, there are three rows of three images, with a middle row having a text box in the middle.

First row: a broken red crystal, red filter spacescape, and a close-up of red crowing crystals.
Second row: red filtered snakescales (to stand in for robot dragons), text box that says: beware the Myriad, beware their crystals bright and red. Survive, survive, but don't let the Myriad take you alive. Third is a canyon crevasse in the shape of a menacing looking eye.
Third row: more angry red space scape and then a red filtered texture effect.

11 7 23

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

omg you're totally fine! it's hard to know the rules for these kinda events unless you're participating in them so it's all good 💜

1 1

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

ohhh this sounds amaziiing!

1 1

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

thank youuu I have been working very hard on it 🥺💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

ah yay thank you so much! 💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN x PACIFIC RIM

A disabled mecha dragonrider steals a prototype egg—and runs into a hivemind of corrupted dragons, an ancient enemy unseen for centuries. She must work with this irascible dragon and move past old grudges to save the solar system.

#DVpit #A #SF #DIS #Latine #LGBT

A moodboard for my DVpit pitch! Made from stock photos from Canva and Unsplashed and one NASA art render. Three rows of images. The first row is a zoom in of a snake's eye, edited a bit purple. The middle is a hyperspace-y purple light, the third is a NASA artist render of a water planet with two suns. The middle row is a purple crystal followed by a center box of text that reads: "I am Crescent Scar. And I am no one's dragon, I am not yours to command. We work together, or we don't work at all." After that is white outlines of butterflies. The third row is a closeup of a stone statue's scales meant to represent dragon scales, followed by space photo with a purple filter and the outline of a woman looking up.

6 1 8

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

seafoam is the best and I love him and also thank youuuu 😭😭

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

ajskgk thank you for beta reading it and giving me like real time updates at times, I thrived on that haha I APPRECIATE YOUUU 💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

thank you so much!!

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

aaaa that means a lot—fingers crossed!! thank you 🥺💜

val - V.M. Ayala 🏳️‍🌈 @spacevalkyries.bsky.social · 1d

I’m always glad to find fellow giant robot dragon enjoyers LOL 💜💜💜