Welcome friend! Through Cy, Grayson, and a wonderfully eccentric cast of humans and robots, J. P. Lacrampe explores questions of usefulness, purpose, and what it means to care for one another in Valet. I’m thrilled to welcome J. P. to the blog today to chat about the inspiration behind Valet, writing robot characters with heart, and the ideas that shaped this memorable debut. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!
Valet
For fans of Kevin Wilson and Andrew Sean Greer, a helper robot and his 35-year-old ward embark on a mad-cap adventure to save the fate of the family company in this whimsically speculative ode to Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster.
Cy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system. But that’s easier said than done when he’s tasked with helping his owner’s 35-year-old son “get out of his funk.” Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didn’t inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesn’t have a master’s degree, and he just can’t seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. He’d rather eat synthesized mozzarella sticks and make pottery at his studio, Kilning Time.
When Grayson learns of Charlotte’s plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. It’s not just the family business at stake, it’s all the technology—like Cy—their dad invented over the years. So he does what anyone would he steals the flash drive with his father’s most important work stored on it and plans a corporate takeover. If only he knew what that meant.
To make matters worse, a fellow VALET deserts his owner and asks Cy to help him hightail it out of town, Grayson’s first real date—and her dog—keeping showing up at inopportune times, and the behemoth tech company wants this deal closed yesterday. Grayson, Cy, and their trusty golden retriever, Sasha III, must go on the lam until they figure out exactly what to do, and whom to trust.
A hilarious, mad-cap adventure that is as tender as it is insightful, Valet asks not just what it means to be human, but what it means to be family.
Get to know the author: J. P. Lacrampe
Hi J.P.! Welcome to Armed with A Book. It is a pleasure to chat with you. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
I’m a writer, basketball junkie, and teaching professor at Santa Clara University and SJSU. I live in the Bay Area with my family: my wife, our two small kids, and a border collie who occasionally responds to the name of Olive.
Valet is equal parts adventure, comedy, and heartfelt reflection. What first sparked the idea for this story, and at what point did you know Cy would be the one telling it?
I had a student write a research project about AGI becoming so advanced and human-like that we’d be forced to endow civic rights upon it. I thought that idea was super interesting. And, to me, narrating the world around you is a fundamental part of being human, so I wondered what that would sound like for a robot. Then I imagined a robot watching me flounder about in the world, rolling its eyes and sighing, and I thought that captured something funny and true about being human. So I knew from the start that Cy would be the one telling the story. He’s the chief vehicle for whatever satire and insight the story holds.
Cy observes humans with such sincerity and curiosity. What was one aspect of being human that you especially wanted to portray through his eyes?
The human impulse to do something, even if it doesn’t totally make sense. We are such busy creatures, even if we’re still figuring what exactly we should do and why. I love when Cy tries to decipher human impulses.
I found the concept of Cy’s utility score similar to how we measure ourselves by productivity and task-tracking. Was that parallel intentional from the beginning?
Absolutely! Cy being an android creates some distance for irony, and that hopefully allows readers to see a world that is somewhat different for their own but also a reflection. So the human obsession with quantifying and monitoring how we stack up against the people around us certainly sparked the idea for a utility score.
One of the fascinating ideas in Valet is that technology evolves at an incredible pace while humans remain… well, human. What technological advancement in your imagined future made Cy—and robots like him—possible?
Well, I’ve been telling people that, although the book is marketed as “science fiction,” you will definitely not learn any science from it. Mostly because I don’t know the ins and outs of the tech involved. What interested me was the very notion that you spelled out: that despite significant and speedy changes in how we live our lives, some persistent — and uniquely human — problems remain. The tech acts as a crucible for these elements in a way.
I had an interesting time visiting the Killjoy Collective. Would you tell readers a little about it and what role it plays in the story?
The Killjoy Collective is a reactionary group who cloister themselves away from the conveniences of modern technology (they’re a little noisy and pretentious about it, as you can imagine). I come from a contrarian family, so I wanted to include a counterpoint in the book, individuals who refused to go along with the rest of society (but whose lives were still altered by technology nonetheless).
San Francisco feels like more than just a backdrop—it becomes part of the novel’s personality. What made it the perfect setting for Cy and Grayson’s adventure?
Thank you! I always want the setting to feel critical to the story (i.e., that the story couldn’t just happen anywhere else). I lived in San Francisco for twelve years, and I love the city. It’s such a complex and beautiful place. The fog and the hills and the pastel Victorians give it a timeless feel, but then the endless stream of Waymos and the shiny corporate headquarters seem futuristic. That tug between the past and the future is important to the book, in my mind.
Your novel has some wonderfully unexpected moments of comedy. Was there a line or scene that made you laugh after you wrote it?
Larry is my favorite comedic character. His desperation leads to some of the funnier moments in the book, I think.
Looking back at the manuscript, what is one significant difference between your first draft and the finished novel?
So many! Writing a novel is a more collaborative process than I think people realize (certainly than I realized). The book developed considerably during revisions, first with my amazing agent and then with my two wonderful editors at Saga. The character arcs — and the emotional payoff for these storylines — were probably among the more significant changes. Making sure that every character in the book feels as multidimensional as possible, with their own dramatic need and a path toward resolution.
If you were assigned your own VALET robot for one week, what is the very first task you would ask it to help with?
Childcare.
If Cy could read one human book, which would you want him to read first?
A Confederacy of Dunces.
Which character would Sasha III choose as her favorite human?
Definitely Grayson. He may struggle to take care of himself, but he always takes care of her.
Would you rather spend an afternoon making pottery with Grayson or debugging software with Livi?
Pottery with Grayson. But begrudgingly so.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for the questions and for reading Valet! It’s humbling to think that someone would take time out of their day to crack its cover and start reading. I don’t take it for granted.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me!
Thank you, reader, for joining me and J. P. today!
Valet is now available wherever books are sold! Be sure to check your local library too. Add this book on Goodreads. You can read my review here.
Many thanks to the Saga Press/S&S for the review copy and the interview opportunity! I appreciate every book that meets me in my mailbox and every author who will take a few moments to chat about their book.
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