Hi everyone and welcome to my interview series Saturday Night Author Fever, where I interview authors with a bit of a 70s music and diversity theme. I personally love 70s music, especially disco music, and sometimes on Friday nights when no one is looking you can find me dancing to classic 70s songs such as September, Bennie and the Jets and We Are Family. However, books are my true passion and because of this, I thought it would be a great idea to mix my two loves and start this interview series. The questions will be similar every week, but with a new author every time, and I hope you’ll enjoy the answers as much as I have. Now let’s get this party started!

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This Saturday Night we welcome Shira Glassman. Thank you so much for sitting down with me today in my galaxy of books.

Shira, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your books? What do you think about 70s music?

I’m a queer/bi Jewish violinist living in north central Florida. I’m best known for my fluffy queer fantasy series, but I also write f/f contemporary romance (usually equally fluffy) and the occasional SFF erotica.  I’m a gigantic nerd whose listening material is primarily classical music (and old-timey folk to fill in the cracks), so I’d have to think really hard about which pop songs I like even came from the 70’s to begin with! I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is the amazing soundtrack of Star Wars, and then the musical Sweeney Todd. Oh! I can say this. When we performed a medley of songs from Saturday Night Fever last year at the Mother’s Day concert, I thought it sounded really good with full orchestra because that kind of music already has a heavy string presence. That was pretty fun.

When did you feel like this is it, I’m an author whose words are going to be read by, and have an impact on, others?

Every once in a while I get someone telling me that my protagonist, Shulamit, reflects the way they feel about women and gives them validation. I live for that, because that’s exactly why I wrote her that way. I wanted her absolute fascination with women to be part of what makes her cute and lovable, because as a teenager I totally needed that kind of reassurance.

What do you want your readers to take with them after having read your books?

That Jewishness can be a warm ray of sunlight. That South Florida is a beautiful place. That all kinds of families are worthy of celebration, including the kind that you make by taking a platonic friend that closely into your heart. That two women or two men can have a happy ending together. That strong, athletic warrior women can uplift and encourage feminine and/or scared women instead of Not Like Other Girls-ing them–and often do, in the real world.

What does the future look like for you, Shira? Future projects, releases etc.?

If one (or several) of your characters got invited to a 70s-themed party, what would they wear and what song and/or person would bring them to the dance floor?

I love imagining Shulamit and Rivka in various AU’s, especially dancing for some reason; they’d probably have some amusing antics together but I’ll let you pick the song because I’m a little out of my depth here.

You can easily look back at the 70s and see how the times have changed. If you look at the book community and publishing world today, what changes would you like to see for the future?

I like how we’re shifting focus in the diversity conversation towards marginalized voices instead of just marginalized characters.

Shira, can you recommend two already published diverse books you’ve read and loved and one you can’t wait to read?

As usual I’m going to squee about Daughter of Mystery, a 19th century costume drama with magic, political intrigue, and lesbians, and Peter Darling, in which Peter Pan is trans and grows up to confront toxic masculinity and fall in love with Captain Hook. As for what I can’t wait to read: The Lifeline Signal, the sequel to the hopeful dystopian Chameleon Moon, has been out for a while but I haven’t gotten to it yet and need to.

Thank you so much, Shira, for answering my questions. I hope you readers enjoyed this interview, I know I did! Eager to find out more about Shira Glassman? All information about her and her books can be found on her website. You can also find her on Twitter, Tumblr, and Goodreads and buy her books on Amazon and Book Depository.

About The Author

Shira Glassman is a queer Jewish feminist and author of The Second Mango, Climbing the Date Palm, A Harvest of Ripe Figs, The Olive Conspiracy, and the short stories, f/f fairytales currently available from Amazon & coming soon to other places books grow. These novels feature women being supportive of each other and also include a Yiddish-speaking dragon.

Since I promised a very 70s music-themed interview series, I have one last surprise, a favorite 70s song of mine (and there will be a new one every week yay). Now let’s get those dance moves on, here’s The Down Beat by The Sugarhill Gang.

Do you want to listen to all of the songs from my Saturday Night Author Fever interview series?

To make things easier I have created a Spotify playlist that features all of the songs mentioned in my Saturday Night Author Fever posts. You can check out the playlist below or go here. Every time a new interview is published new songs will be added to it.

Thank you so much for tuning in this Saturday, what did you think of the interview and the music? Let me know in the comments below or on my Twitter!

*Thank you to the lovely Claribel Ortega for the gifs used in this blog series. You have to follow her on Twitter and check out her website here.