Valerie Valdes

@valerievaldes

aka Lia Amador. Sci-fi, fantasy, and romance writer. MtG story scribe. Co-editor of Escape Pod. Variety game streamer. VPXX/16.

2.037 Folgt5.358 Follower3.054 Posts

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Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 12d

My Worldcon schedule is up! All my panels are virtual, and some I'm moderating. guide.lacon.org/people/a3f13...

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 13d

Highest of fives, fellow copy edit finisher!!

Sebastian: please stop trying to set me up with your coworkers
Sophia: I thought you decided to start dating again, what’s the problem
Sebastian: I’m running a spell experiment and I can’t tell whether the magic is working if I have outside interference
Sophia: I’m not outside interference, I’m your sister

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 13d

“I’ll put this up here where you can all see it,” Mrs. Velez-Nazzal said, placing the dragon on a special shelf behind her desk. It seemed to watch the classroom, as if judging them, waiting for the right student to claim it.
Emelia and Sebastian both independently, secretly, resolved that they would be that student.
By the end of the year, one of them was right.

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 13d

Our names were written at the top of the board in black dry erase marker, underlined and separated by a vertical line. Emelia had also drawn Sir Piente, breathing fire at my name—symbolizing that I was going to lose, she claimed. I kept rubbing the flames off with a tissue, and she kept drawing them back on.

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 13d

To celebrate finishing copy edits on Witch Is Mine, give me a page number and I'll share a non-spoilery quote! (If there isn't anything non-spoilery on the page, I'll ask for another number.)

Cover of Witch Is Mine by Lia Amador, featuring a woman in a business jacket and slacks with a dragon plushie on her shoulders and a fireball in her hand, and a man in a vest and bow tie holding an open book, a stack of books between them with pages and peacock feathers spiraling out of the top. Outside the cover are more peacock feathers and hearts and stars.

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 25d

MtG: Nauctis

Three-panel comic by floccinaucinihilipilification. First panel is a mermaid sitting on a rock playing a harp. Second panel is a pirate with a hat and eye patch saying, "I don't like the thing you are doing can you do a different thing that I like"
Third panel is a close up of the mermaid saying, "I will fucking increase the fucking thing"

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· 25d

Next weekend! My lecture is in the evening, but the conference is all day. writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/science-fict...

Circular picture of space with multiple planets in red, teal and white, a flying saucer zooming by in front of them
Text reads:
WDU
WRITER'S DIGEST UNIVERSITY
SCIENCE FICTION WRITING
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
JULY 25, 2026 5:00-6:00 PM ET
Drips, Dumps and Dropping the Anvil: Delivering Information at the Macro and Micro Level

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Jul 10

This weekend, I'll be at WriteHive's annual conference! It's free and virtual, check it out! www.writehivecon.org

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Jul 3

We had to eat here because my entire family could not stop making jokes about it, to the point that we had to explain the slang to Baby. Her response: "oh, it's like Uranus jokes, got it"

a red metal sign with hollow serif text, against a slightly reflective white wall, it reads "I ❤️ Yonutz!"

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Jul 2

My daughter, is very normal

a giant pin art panel, in which my daughter has recreated an extra creepy version of the Vitruvian Man with more arms and no legs

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Jun 23

"Are you busy?" Yes, I am BUSY: Bunny Updating Seriously You need to see this omg so cute

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Jun 7

Sometimes I get a hankering and allow myself to succumb to it

freshly baked vegan chocolate chip cookies on a parchment paper covered baking sheet, looking all soft and chippy

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· May 30

My editing assistant is making sure I stay focused, even when my laptop fan dies and I have to pull my backup laptop out of retirement for one last job. Squeak!

A plushie of the golden nug from Dragon Age Inquisition perched regally atop my laptop keyboard, screen and window curtain behind it

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· May 28

here you go

a terrible pen and paper drawing of Jace Beleren's face and hood definitely made by Ral Zarek and not by me

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· May 21

I an assured it is a time-honored tradition to take blurry pictures of bunnies from a distance and through a window.

blurry photo of a little brownish grayish bunny with ears perked up as it considers which of the grasses and weeds in my yard to consume

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Apr 29

I made this for Instagram because I am told that videos get more algorithm support there? But I can share it here, too! Why not! Anyway go read this story and also the other stories and then maybe buy some cards? I hear the Prismari deck is sick.

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Apr 23

Calvin and Hobbes dad lecture meme comic about how all SFF stories are actually either Omelas or The Cold Equations

final panel from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip noted in the post, in which Calvin is lying on his stomach in bed in the dark, eyes wide and brow furrowed, clutching his pillow

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Apr 18

Baby walked away from her Minecraft game for some reason, I look up from work and this is what I see. BEES!

a TV screen full of oddly large swarming Minecraft bees with the usual Minecraft controls at the bottom, what fresh apiary hell is this

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Apr 3

Baby wanted to make homemade Oreos so we gave it a try and... well we have some chocolate cookies anyway! The filling seemed a little too laborious so then we had an idea...

a confused-looking purple marshmallow Peep sits atop a round chocolate cookie, seemingly gazing into the camera as if to say, what are you doing

purple marshmallow Peep sandwiched between two chocolate cookies, only the barest hint of color peeking out, the top cookie is kind of tented because honestly it's too floppy and thin for this purpose

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Mar 19

I am a biotic god

my Clues by Sam results for March 18th, I solved it in 3:08 which was top 10% by speed and only 20% of others had a perfect solve, my face (not pictured) is very smug

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Mar 4

bulb season

several cream and peach colored irises or daffodils which are allegedly called poet's narcissus according to the app but that is not what it looks like when I search for pictures so pretty sure the app is wrong

close up of a buttery yellow daffodil, but like dark butter, maybe more lemony really, anyway hecking pretty

purple crocus of some kind with an orange stamen inside and thin green leaves sticking out of the bottom

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Feb 25

Son: Muffins backwards is what you do when they're fresh out of the oven Son: You sniff um Me: Son: sniffs muffins Me: Stop that

vegan blueberrry muffins cooling on a wire rack

vegan blueberry muffins cooling on a wire rack seen from the side so you can admire the heart covered paper cups

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Feb 14

Baby wanted to make these so here they are! I am easily persuaded, or perhaps she is very persuasive.

strawberries sliced in half vertically to look like hearts, with red and white striped straws pushed into the pointy ends like lollipop sticks

melted dark vegan chocolate in a metal mixing bowl with a wooden spoon

chocolate-dipped strawberry lollipops arranged on a sheet of parchment paper, some with coconut flakes sprinkled on top

Valerie Valdes@valerievaldes· Feb 12

I didn’t include it in the post, but here’s the mood board I sent to my editor, and yes that’s Gale from BG3, which I have not yet played but have watched a lot. I’m not sure who the artist is, so if anyone knows, please share!