Hi, I'm Valerie. To the best of my knowledge, I'm one of only five women in the world to create military comics. If there are more, please let me know!
At 45, I'm probably one of the matriarchs of the Tapas family. I'm the mother of one child in college, one child about to graduate high school, a dog, three cats, and numerous people who call me Mama despite not actually being related.
I spent most of my childhood in southern California, always trying to escape one bad situation or another. Years of bullying by my peers, including violent abuse, actually encouraged me to foster some creative talent and immerse myself in all the nerdy delights my parents and grandparents encouraged - music, science fiction, comics, history, the great outdoors, anything to help me relax and get away.
I wrote my first poem at four and first attempted writing a comic at six. Somehow, I got the impression that I couldn't just write and could barely draw, though I do enjoy lettering and will do some occasional touch up art. I went through a variety of careers, including technical theater, repertory theater, construction, firefighting, emergency medical services, farm and ranch work, and home health and hospice care. A rare medical condition has kind of put a damper on all this physical work, but as long as I can write, I will.
I'm third generation American, a US Air Force brat, and the granddaughter of a German engineer who got in trouble for making a snarky comment about Hitler, barely escaped Germany with his life, then joined the US Army and put his skills to use against the Nazis. As a kid, I thought GI Joe, Sgt. Rock, and such were pretty cool, but I was more interested in history, not just military themed comics. So I jumped at the first chance I got to script some true stories about the troops, found out that I not only liked it, but people thought I was pretty good at it. And the rest is, well... pardon the expression... history.