ISSUE 2 AUTHOR INTERVIEW: DEIRDRE WALKER
Welcome to NYGEL Issue 2! Our first interview guest is Deirdre Walker, author of the monstrously hot, sapphic, naga-fucking story “Riverbend.”
NYGEL: What piece of media was your gateway into monsterfuckery?
DW: I'm honestly not sure! The 80-90s were a wonderful time for it: we had Ariel and Ursula, the Beast, Gargoyles, the original Interview with the Vampire vampires, White Wolf's Werewolf, Vampire, and Changeling TTRPG books...It all kind of composted together in my brain that love (or lust) interests didn't have to be the same species as you. Frankly, given all the media we had growing up, I'm kind of shocked anyone who was a kid in the 80s and 90s isn't into monsterfucking.
NYGEL: What creature or character is your biggest 'hear me out'?
DW: I'm so boring, I can't think of anything that might be remotely controversial! Creatures like representations of the naga, mermaids, cecaelias, glaistig, satyrs/fauns, etc. where they're perhaps part human in appearance, but half (or more) definitely nonhuman. I'm pretty sure this is me unpacking bisexuality and being a third-culture kid and the idea of how we pass (or don't).
NYGEL: Did anything in particular inspire you to write this story?
DW: I've written more than a few tentacle and tentacle-adjacent stories (cecaelias, plants, slime-people) and wanted to shake that up. It was also wintertime where I live when I wrote this and I was channeling the idea of "anything but the frozen wasteland outside!"
NYGEL: If you could add a monster romance to any existing story, what would you choose and why?
DW: I'd love to see Regency and Victorian monsterfucking, to be honest, but not the "oh this werewolf is a guy who turns into a wolf" but "out on the moors lives a creature of moss and heather and hunger."
NYGEL: What would you like to see more of when it comes to weird and spicy fiction?
DW: Let our monsters be monsters - let them be inhuman, not just in looks, but in their thoughts and attitudes. Let them not all be altruistic; let the dragon hoard lovers because she likes pretty things and wants them for herself. Let the werewolf bang in his wolfman form because he wants to know if his lover will truly accept all that he is. Let the spider-dude (or chick) have their mate and eat them too. I'd also love to see sex become more mainstream and included in things of all lengths/sizes - let me have my epic fantasy series where the sex and worldbuilding are equally plot-relevant! Give me a planetary romance where it's literally traveling and fucking the way across the planet as you discover new people.
Be sure to check out Deirdre’s sapphic, scaly smut “Riverbend” in NYGEL’s second issue!
Dei Walker (she/her) is a Yankee abroad: a queer linguist, fibercrafter, and author living in China with her family. A speculative fiction and romance writer, she has published a number of spicy short stories, some of which may be found in various anthologies including Monsterotica, Impulse, and Many Hands, with less spicy work an Editor’s Pick at Gavagai, Dirty Magick Magazine, and elsewhere. When not writing, she’s usually tangled in yarn or ogling new fountain pens and inks. She can be found at deirdrewalker.carrd.coand at @dei2dei.bsky.social.
