Meet Luna Profir

Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org

Name: 
Luna Profir (she/her)

Which region are you based in? 
South

If you write, which genre?
Fantasy

Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres?
Hmm… I don’t know the sub-genres properly, but I do tend to prefer when there’s actual magic of some sort.

Your influences

Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?

Well, the easiest bit of that to answer is gonna be ‘how old I was’: less than 4. My mum read to me since I was little, and, as most autistic children, I didn’t feel that I fit in properly in this world, so as long as I can remember, I was fascinated by other worlds, wondering if maybe there was a mix-up and I was supposed to be in one of those instead (which is probably why I’ve never been keen on horror – that’s not a world I want to live in). Even now I know I’m autistic, I still don’t feel like I fit in, so I find comfort in reading other worlds.

How does that early influence show up in your work (writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?

That’s difficult to answer when I don’t know who I’d be without that influence. It’s such a huge part of me, I don’t know how to separate it out. There’s very little of SFFH I tend not to like (even horror; the worlds are fascinating, I just don’t want to live there). Also, since my autism was why I got into SFFH, my liking of it is basically an autistic trait, for me, so how it would affect me is a similar question to how my autism affects me – when I’ve never not been autistic.

Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?

Literally everywhere. My dreams are a melting pot of everything I’ve experienced, and they spit out things I weave into the stories I write. I have some molymods (colourful plastic used in science to make models of molecules) that I made a creature out of. When I went swimming, I imagined a whole bunch of aquatic adventures. I used to make toys out of all sorts of things, including scissors, pens, my fingers, and those metal chain thingies used to attach labels to clothes.

Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?

Mmm… I don’t tend to do ‘heroes’… I tend to like people’s work, not the people (many many times have people asked me if I’ve heard of a celebrity, I reply no, and it turns out I’ve got six of their songs in my playlist, or 3 of their books, or whatever, and I’m genuinely shocked to recognise the title). I do like Rick Riordan (pictured), because not only are his books really funny (from the Percy Jackson universe; I haven’t read any of his others), but he really tries for diversity (the earlier the book, the less diverse, reflecting the environment they were written in, but the later ones are great at it). Also, he uses his publishing company, Rick Riordan Presents, to publish authors from minority groups of cultures so that their stories can be written as well. So he writes good books, and helps equally good books be written as well.

Your work

You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.

Meeeeep! Uh, well, when I was 8ish, I created a character, then stuck her in everything I read/watched (as in, put her in the world next to the main characters), then my brain just kinda went with it, digressing quite far from the other person’s story, then I cut out what didn’t belong to me, and jammed the different jigsaw pieces together, and then tried to make that mess into a coherent story. Currently waiting for beta readers to come back to me to tell me if I did a good job. I’m not selling this very well. My characters are quite well developed, the story feels to me very jigsaw-y, but that’s because I know where all the pieces are and where they came from (some of the details come from places that don’t have anything to do the detail, because my brain digressed sooooo far, so I know for a fact none of my beta readers will recognise the source, even in the unlikely scenario that they have read/watched the exact combination of things I have). Anyway, hi!

What are you working on right now?

The same book I’ve been writing since I was 8. I’m now 22, and finally have a first draft. Really hoping the next draft won’t take as long.

Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?

I haven’t technically ‘done’ anything yet, unless you count English assignments in school. Also, stick out how? I’m always thinking about my story, because it was born from my life, so my life reminds me of it. All. The. Time.

Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?

I usually set myself Saturday to write, at my desk. I can’t do anything in the mornings, but after breakfast, I get out my pencil and start writing. Hopefully I stop for lunch; if not, I have to stop for dinner, because I eat with my family. Once I ‘stopped’ for lunch, which consisted of a sandwich hanging from my mouth as I wrote awkwardly reaching around my plate, occasionally pushing the sandwich back in. I can’t write if I know I’m going to have to stop, because I’m reaaaallly bad at stopping. At sixth form, I kept my writing book on me and wrote a bit every break, lunch, or few-minutes-before-the-teacher-comes-in, but that doesn’t work at uni, so now only Saturdays and summer.

(Pictured: Luna’s colourful bookshelves)

What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?

Um… I’ve heard many variations of this, from many sources, but something about ‘keep writing even if it’s not good, because you can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page’. (I’m confident about the wording after because, not at all confident about the wording before the because.)

What’s your writing soundtrack?

So… I have a playlist with about 4000 songs on it (and another with another few hundred). I listen to music pretty much my every waking hour, so while writing, I listen to… whatever’s next on the playlist. Unless it’s newer songs, I can’t concentrate if I’m listening to newer songs. Once I’ve heard a song at least twice in my headphones, I can write to it.

The Quickfire Round

Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Fantasy

Quiet or loud?
Quiet

Dark or light?
No, thank you. 60% light, please. Too much light gives me a headache, too little light and I can’t see what I’m writing.

Strict lines or genre blend?
I barely know what the genres are. I thought I was writing fantasy, but two of my beta readers are calling it ‘science fantasy’, so evidently, I’ve been blending accidently.

Awards or bestseller?
I’ll just be happy if people like it, to be honest.

Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction

Poetry or prose?
Prose

Plotter or pantser?
Uh… So, I came up with a detailed plot, forgot it, wrote down the main points, and now fill in the blanks as I go along. So, both but at different stages.

Reading or listening?
Reading. (With my rubbish auditory processing, listening doesn’t work at all)

Notebook or computer?
Notebook for first first draft, computer to tidy up first draft and work on future drafts (computers are better for editing, but I write faster in pencil, plus I can write notes to myself in the margins).

Favourite SFFH book of all time?
Eek! I’m bad at favourites! I can give you two series I really like: K.M. Shea’s Magiford series (big series made of trilogies) and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series (plus all the others in that universe).

Last book you read?
Crown of Moonlight by K.M. Shea (second book of second trilogy of Magiford series).

Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
Not exactly, but every birthday and Christmas, I’ll ask for the next Magiford books. But I’m not buying them…

Favourite podcast?
Can’t listen to podcasts, I don’t understand words I can’t see

The Home Stretch

What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?

Only one?! But there’re so manyyyyyy… I think the overall best (with the other advantages pushing close behind) is a community to discuss ‘what ifs’ without ‘but that’s not possible’. The whole point of ‘what if’ is that it’s not necessarily possible, but if…

Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.

Um… no ‘stuff’, as of yet, I’m working on it! In the meantime, feel free to say hi on Discord!