Trip Galey is a debut author whose first novel, A Market of Dreams and Destiny, is launching in 2023. His interactive novel, Faerie’s Bargain, was published in 2021 and is set in the same world. Trip has degrees in English and Theatre, Shakespeare, Acting and Creative Writing. He works as a lecturer and was published in the Lambda, Ignyte and Locus award-nominated Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of A World That Wouldn’t Die. He lives in London and can be found digitally at linktr.ee/tripgaley.

Welcome to the Hive, Trip. Firstly, congratulations on your gorgeous story A Market of Dreams and Destiny.

How does it feel to have your debut out in the world?

Thank you and thank you for having me! And having a debut out is wonderful and terrifying and and complex and it all slips through and around you so fast! I can’t honestly tell who got the better of this deal, me or the goblin merchant that offered me this chance! (And no, I won’t tell you everything I paid for it, but I will say it definitely cost me four years of my life and an unspecified measure of sanity.)

The standard Author Bargain then….

Tell our readers a little about it; what can they expect?

For this one, they can expect that more is more. Fairy tales were a huge part of the inspiration, and fairy tales are larger than life, they strain credulity, and they operate by laws and logic all their own. This version of London has been steeping in fey magic for a long time now, and that has an effect on people, on things, and on places. 

Expect talking cats, sentient bells, odd historical details, twisting and twisted goblin bargains, characters too-clever-by-half, a very solid wodge of literary references and cameos, and, above all, shenanigans. 

Give us an insight into your characters, Deri and Owain? What was it about their story that made you want to tell it?

So this book started out as an outgrowth of my academic research into the goblin market trope in science fiction and fantasy works. That’s where we get Deri. I wanted someone who was indelibly bound to the market, who loved it deeply, but was also at odds with it in some sense so he could push against it, see what is and it not possible, and really explore. 

Owain, now, Owain came along because Deri needed someone to love and be loved by. I always wanted to see myself in the fantasy I read growing up, and there was precious little representation of the queer community then, so for this book I really wanted to make sure there was that thread of a love story woven into the tapestry. 

It’s pretty simple, really. I wanted to tell their story because gay love is still very much a rarity in science fiction and fantasy. 

A Market of Dreams and Destiny wears its influences boldly on its sleeve; Rosetti’s Goblin Market, Dickens,Shakespeare… Firstly, what is it about Goblin Market that called to you?

If we’re talking strictly Rosetti (and not the trope of the goblin market as it has evolved in more recent fantastika), it’s the merchants, and the way that they are a mix of human and other (usually animal). There is something so compelling to a being that is both familiar and strange all at once. Liminality has a huge power over me and the merchants in Rosetti embody that! (Pun intended. They almost always are, with me!)

My favourite is the one that “like a wombat prowl’d obtuse and furry”!

And secondly, were there other influences not so apparent?

I could probably write a whole essay just on this question. I know precisely the date I got the seed idea that grew into the world of A Market of Dreams and Destiny, and it involved seeing a musical about the life of Edgar Alan Poe. That was well over a decade ago now. 

Other influences…listen to The Bargain Store by Dolly Parton; play a few sessions of Changeling: the Lost; find some of the really weird fairy tales and read them, like the one where you can tame a magical horse by tossing a flint and steel over its back. And of course, then go and read luminaries like Gaiman, and Dunsany, and le Guin. You should find some fragments of each if you look hard enough. 

The threads of the bargains and deals do become quite complicated and yet all are resolved perfectly – did you have an equally complicated method to keep track whilst writing, or are you in fact part-goblin yourself?

Funny you should ask that, as my parents would routinely remark throughout my childhood that I “must have been switched at birth” because I did not fit in with the rest of the family at all. I was always off with the fairies, reading, and the like. Not always easy in MidWestern America! 

So yes, entirely feasible that I, all unknowing, am part goblin. Not impossible given that my approach to keeping it all straight was basically try and hold everything in my head as long as possible while pacing back and forth muttering “does this work?” to myself over and over. 

Trust the chaos (and have a team of truly, truly excellent beta readers with impeccable eyes for detail to back you up!) 

If you were a merchant in the Untermarkt, what would you sell on your stall and what would be your most prized item?

Given how I spend most of my time? I’d sell daydreams, waking fantasies, and the occasional surreal night terror. Each one would be caught in a fragment of stained glass, the careless arc of ink across parchment, or a knot of red thread. But the most precious item on display would be a small statuette that suggests the form of a dancer in motion. It’s never precisely the same any time its looked upon, and it has the power to make any one dream come true.

That is a perfectly magically answer and I LOVE it.

Just for fun, how would you pitch your book as a 1-star review?

Too gay. Not enough talking cat. One star. 

I have to confess, I genuinely complained to my best friend “The talking cat doesn’t turn up nearly as frequently as I’d like.” 

Sorry. Anyway –

Can we hope to return to the Untermarkt? Are you able to tell us anything about what you’re working on next? 

The way to the Untermarkt will open once more in September of 2024, if the auguries and portents are correct! Expect more weird fey bargains, the consequences thereof, and, of course, shenanigans. There will be some familiar faces and several new ones, and we’ll see a bit more of the London above the Untermarkt. 

And if you cannot wait until then, I did pen an interactive novel set in the same world as A Market of Dreams and Destiny where you play as a merchant of the Untermarkt trying to make your fortune, or dabble in politics, or pursue a love of your own. That’s called Faerie’s Bargain: The Price of Business, and it is available now from Choice of Games!

And/or you can sign up for my newsletter for a free novella set in the world of the Untermarkt! Expect warring sentient roses, a former Victorian explorer fighting a debilitating curse, and the wry and wisecracking Godson of Despair. 

Always up for shenanigans!

Finally, what is the one thing you hope readers take away from your writing?

The one thing I hope readers will take away from my writing? A moment of wonder, be it beautiful or terrible.

Thank you so much for joining us, Trip!

Thanks again for having me!

A Market of Dreams and Destiny is out today from Titan Books!

You can pick up your copy on Bookshop.org