About Val Tobin
Val Tobin writes stories worth losing sleep over, drawing on her shady past as a software/web developer and her master’s degree in parapsychology. No butter tart is safe when she’s around, especially if there’s tequila to go with it.
A Conversation with Val Tobin
We sat down with Val Tobin to discuss her writing journey, creative process, and what inspires her stories. Get an inside look at her experiences and learn valuable insights from a fellow writer in our community.
Which writers inspire you and why?
J. R. R. Tolkien, Stephen King, Nora Roberts, and so many more authors inspire me that naming them all would create too long a list. They all write riveting stories that keep me turning pages or experiencing emotions through their characters and prose.
Do you have a current work in progress? Can you tell us a bit about it?
I have two current works in progress. Insult to Injury is a sequel to Injury in the Injured Love series. I enjoy writing romantic suspense, and wanted to do a story around Liz Logan, main character Dani Grayson’s best friend in Injury. Liz will find her leading man in Insult to Injury. It’s available for preorder on Amazon and will also be available at other retailers. The release date is June 1, 2025.
I’m also working on book five in my urban fantasy series Tales from the Unmasqued World. Each story in the series is inspired by a different card from the tarot’s major arcana. This one is called The Emperor: Father Time. I’m playing with the phrase “father time” here. More than one character has to step up and take on the role of a father (time to be a father). Father Time’s roll in the main characters’ lives will also factor into the story. Currently, I’m writing the first draft.
Where do your ideas come from?
My ideas evolve from thoughts that trigger concepts or internal debate. For example, Injury evolved from me thinking about an assignment my daughter had in grade eight. She wrote a biography of Marilyn Monroe, and part of the assignment was to create a list of interview questions. One question she came up with was “If you could ask your father anything right now, what would it be?” That question haunted me. Imagine yourself as a world-famous sex-symbol who never knew her father. What would that feel like? What self-talk would you have? It fascinated me. From that was born the character Dani Grayson in Injury. She’s an actress at the height of her career who is in that situation. The twist in my story, though, is that she learns through the media that her father never actually abandoned her. His remains are found and her mother is arrested for the murder. I explore what that does to her psyche and her relationships, which before this revelation have been quite toxic.
To learn more about Val, her books, and her writing process, please visit her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
You can buy Val’s books at Amazon, Books2Read, and her website.