Nerdology 101: Why Write?
Hello, nerdy beloveds. Welcome back to Nerdology 101. I'm your host, Maria Levato, and this week you’re going to discover the why behind my writing. Let’s get into some Nerdology!
The Official Bio:
Every author has one, here’s mine. As seen on the homepage of this website, this is my official bio:
“Maria Levato is an author, BIPOC woman, and disabled veteran. She has written three books as an indie author, The Islands of Rune (2023), Journey to Rallem (2025), and The Fate of Angels and Demons (2026). Maria also writes the Nerdology 101 blog on this website.
Outside of her writing, Maria serves the writing community in other ways. She’s the chair of the PRO Advisory Committee for the Romance Writers of America and an ambassador for the Washington, D.C. chapter of The Authors Guild.”
You didn’t come here for that today, though, did you? You want the goodies. So, let’s move right along.
The Fun Bio:
Oh, babes, you’re in for it now.
Who I am and what I do are two very different topics. While my work is a huge part of who I am, there’s so much behind the scenes that doesn’t make it into the bio. If you can’t tell by the name of this blog, I’m a nerd. Niches are my thing. Most nerds, being moderately sane human beings, pick a niche and stick to it. I, however, never have and never will claim to be sane. Thus, I have somewhere in the realm of 5,000 niches I consistently obsess over and another 1,000 or so that come and go with the wind. There are certain core ones that, in my mind, are all interconnected and lead back to a single hobby: Culture. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, a national art museum or a ren faire, writing or folding Reese cup wrappers into flowers so I have an excuse to eat a whole bag of minis, deep diving on mythology and history, or passionately raving about current events because I think we should treat people like people, it all comes down to culture for me. I don’t care which culture; I love them all.
Cultures humanize people in a way few other things do. Cultures surrounding race, ethnicity, and nationality are often what we think of when we think about culture, but under each comes a plethora of subcultures that make the experience even richer. Some of the favorite examples in my life now are Black Goth/Alt/Punk/etc. culture (music like Magnolia Park, collectives like Punk Black, events like Blerd Con, etc.), nerdy culture, Irish resistance music (like Chasing Abbey), Indigenous empowerment culture (music like Young Spirit, stores like Eighth Generation, etc.), and even kink/BDSM. Exploring these subcultures has always been what interests me most because it’s such a fun, supportive, and connective way to widen my own perspective. So, there I went, deep into the nerdom where I eventually discovered all of that stuff I love. The books, the anime, the art, the travel, these spaces are where I feel most like myself because so many other people are also free to be themselves in it.
Of course, then I grew up. Life happened; it sucked. Somewhere in there I lost track of who I was. What do we do when we lose something? We retrace our steps. Where had I last seen myself? Why, in the nerdom, of course. After remembering how happy this stuff made me, I was like, “hey, you what sounds like a fun way to cope with life?”
“Writing stories about nerdy shit and sex!” My brain replied.
It wasn’t really what I had in mind, I was thinking something wayyy less demanding, but my brain insisted so that’s what I did and now I love it. Three books later here I am explaining to you how a childhood love of culture resurfaced as the unhinged, smutty coping mechanism I sell to other people who are also fond of unhinged, smutty coping mechanisms. It’s really a full circle kind of thing. I love this life, though. It allows me to be connected to all the awesome things that I love by creating and adding something to the bookish subculture and wider nerdy community.
That’s pretty much the summary of how I became a writer and why I choose to write diverse, creative, outside the box, spicy fantasy books. You should give my newest one, The Fate of Angels and Demons, a read. The special edition can be found HERE and the paperback and ebook formats can be found HERE. Hope to see you back next week for another segment of Nerdology 101. Until then, have a nerdy week!
