Guys, I’m making some changes. And I think you’re really gonna like it.
This year has been really transformative for me in an unexpected way. For a long while, I’ve felt like I was wandering through a murky bog with a half-lit lantern, checking over my shoulder going, “Man, I hope I stumble into a writing career soon.” Then 2026 comes along, and lightbulbs pinged above my head at an incredible rate. Things that I had previously categorized as “I would do this, if I weren’t so scared” were now being thrown into the category of “I literally have no reason not to try this”.
FUN CHANGE #1 I HAVE A NEW PEN NAME
K, you ready, for the reveal??
“Val Stowaway”
Ta-da!
FUN CHANGE #2 I’M STARTING A BUTTLOAD OF NEW SOCIAL MEDIA
Yeah, you’re right. I’ve already put a book on Amazon under Val Manwill. And that’s true. But to be honest with you, I never tried with that book. You know? I hired an artist to illustrate a cover that I really loved, but beyond that, I never marketed it or even spoke up about it.
SOOOOOOOOOOOO in order to give my writing career a voice, I’m making videos, baby!
Both blogs and long-form videos will come out once a month on the 7th! (My lucky number) But tons of other videos and content on my Instagram and Tiktok. So if these blogs feel few and far between, PLEASE consider subscribing to get more Val all month long!
Recently I realized that I have never actually shown you guys my writing space. And my writing space is really cool (in my own little personal opinion). So I would love to take you on a little tour by showing you some pictures!
This is my studio.
It’s right off the playroom, so that I can never get a moment’s peace or any actual work done.
Here I have all my witchy pitchies, featuring my favorite photograph of Helen Keller and Norman Rockwell’s depiction of Jo from Little Women. And, of course, my calendar of stickers that I’m always talking about. (Don’t mind the date, I always write my blog posts in advance lol)
Over here I have a big white board, so I can easily jot down different ideas and brainstorm.
These are my lovely, year-round, witchy shelves with all my beautiful little trinkets and things. At least three of the items that I’m showing you in this tour secretly open and have surprises inside, but I’m not going to tell you which ones they are because they are secret.
Fun fact about me is I collect little fabric flowers that mysteriously get lost and find their way to the ground. Whenever I am lucky enough to find one, I put it in a little jar and then label on the bottom where I found it. So every single flower that you see here was found by me in the past five years in a mysterious place.
This is my flip book. I use the calendar design on Canva, but instead of making a calendar I just compile an aesthetic board for each of my book ideas. (Which is a lot, so not even all of them are represented here. This is actually an outdated flip book.) It’s kind of like having a physical Pinterest board on the wall.
My random side wall of pictures. That kissing painting- for some reason everyone in Peru has this painting hanging in their house. I vowed to put it in my own house because I saw it all the time and really liked it. It’s has a very Shakespearean feel to me. Those bells on the wall were actually used in my wedding. Instead of doing like a ‘sparkler send-off’ when the bride and groom leave and get into their cars, we had everyone ring bells. That’s a replica John Lennon jacket. It’s the jacket he wears on the Rubber Soul album. I also have a piano in my studio. I don’t play the piano very well but I really enjoy composing music so that was a HUGE birthday gift one year.
I also have a stage in my studio lol. Being able to teach theater was one of the biggest reasons that we ended up buying the house. My husband saw it on Zillow and was like, “!!! Val this has a little stage! We HAVE to go see it!” You know, to be honest with you, I’m pretty sure this room is supposed to be a media room. Like a “theater” not “theatre” haha. So I kind of stole this room for myself. But it’s got good creative vibes, so it works!
Overall, I just really love my room. It was the one place in the house where I felt like I could just let my quirkiness explode. That I could just go for it and be maximalist, and witchy, and funny and anything creative that I felt like. So that’s it! I really love my studio and I hope you enjoyed the tour!
Hello. I turned 34 last week. My age feels both accurate and inaccurate. Like I don’t feel 34 while sitting on my office chair with my feet tucked under my butt. But I guess I do feel 34 when I drive my minivan to pick up my kids from school. The heartburn and the back pain screams 34 haha.
Anyways, to celebrate my age I wrote 34 random facts about myself, one for each year I’ve been alive. You’re welcome.
I was born in the same exact hospital that I birthed my first child in.
Dinosaurs have been a special interest of mine ever since I was two.
One of my earliest memories is giving myself the chicken pox. I was jealous that my mom counted all of my sister’s chicken pox and so I snuck into her room when she was asleep and tried to “breathe in her germs” hahaha! Unfortunately, it worked and I got WAY sicker than she had been.
I wrote my first story at three or four. I drew it as a four panel picture on a Mac “Kids Pic” program. And it was about the chicken pox I gave myself lol. (“I got chicken pox”, “Then Mom gave me a bath”, “Then I felt better”, “The End”)
I’m the middle child in my family. I have a sister three years older than me and a brother five years younger than me.
I’ve always held my pencil “weird”. Resting on my middle finger instead of pinching it or whatever. My first grade teacher tried and tried to correct it but I still hold my pencil that way as an adult.
When I was in second grade I was obsessed with Santa’s reindeer. I wrote them each individual letters instead of Santa that year.
In third grade I purposely sat in the back of the class so I could write stories in my blue denim notebook all day instead of pay attention to the teacher. I filled that notebook and I still have it.
At 9, I briefly took acting classes but I couldn’t sing worth a dime so I never got cast in any significant roles
I started directing my own plays and performed them for all the other 5th grade classes. (This was the skit I had my friends do haha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfLdFZ4my9g )
The only time I got a ticket or a pink slip in school was when I snuck under the fence to play in the creek next to our elementary school. My mom wasn’t even mad about it. She was more mad about the girl who tattled on me.
In Jr. High, I had a red guinea pig named Joe.
At thirteen, I wrote, directed and starred in a play I put on for my local church. It was a comedy called, “The Foot.”
I was obsessed with the original Twilight Zone. I even threw a Twilight Zone party for my friends. That TV show would become a massive influence on my writing.
Took 4 years of French in secondary school because I liked this guy in my class. Can’t remember a single word and speak fluent Spanish now lol.
In high school, I wrote a full-length feature film with my friends. A low-budget student slasher. (What else?) It wasn’t very good or anything lol but it ended up being a creative catalyst for a lot of the kids who worked on that project, including me.
I got shingles my senior year. How does that even happen? Haha. The haunts of giving myself the chicken pox
One year I repeatedly got cast as a monkey in a few different plays. Type casting I guess.
I studied Classical Acting at Southern Utah University until I ran out of money and had to move back home.
One of my favorite hobbies when I was 20 was exploring abandoned buildings. One time the cops came and my friends and I hid ourselves inside an abandoned school. (oops)
I lived in various areas of Peru for a year and a half. Lima, Trujillo, Salaverry, and Neuvo Chimbote.
Twenty-two was one of the worst years of my whole life. Like the entire year. Birthday to birthday. Just horrific. I couldn’t think of a single good fact I wanted to say about this year. So I guess that’s my fact. Unlike the popular song at the time, I was not feeling 22 lol.
Coincidentally, twenty-three was one of the absolute best years of my life. Even at the time I called it “The Golden Year”. I ended up meeting my soul mate when I was 23.
I used to work in Accounts Receivable at a printer company and got in trouble for writing during work (Heh heh heh. It wasn’t funny to me at the time, but now it is.)
I left my job at the printer company and went back to school. In my Intro to Educational Psychology class, the professor said that “the things we chose to do in our free time as children reflects as close to our true selves as possible.” That’s the moment I realized how much story-telling has been a passion throughout my life.
When I was twenty-six, I began writing regularly and have not looked back since!
The first time I had ever set foot in the Phoenix area, was when I stepped off the plane to live here.
I found out my first story was going to be professionally published while I was in active labor with my second child.
At twenty-nine I had this life-changing Beatlemania phase that… never went away lol.
We moved into our first house the exact weekend that everything shut down for the pandemic.
I have three spectacular kids and I’m not just saying that. I really love each of those three people so dang much.
I published my first book on Amazon at thirty-two.
I got my first screen-writing credit at thirty-three.
At thirty-four, I still sit on my office chair with my feet tucked under my butt haha
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