Week of Joy (Day Six): Heart of Fire by J. Damask (A Mini Interview)
J. Damask (a.k.a. Joyce Chng) was kind enough to answer a few questions about her new book, Heart of Fire, which hits digital shelves in September. The book comes from Masque Books, a digital-only division of Prime Books, a notable small press genre publisher (notable most recently for releasing the absolutely amazing Yoon Ha Lee collection, Conservation of Shadows — check out the Skiffy and Fanty interview here). In other words, Heart of Fire is sure to be damned good! Though you’ll have to wait for a little while, you should bookmark this page and remember to buy it in a couple months! Now for the mini interview: If you had to describe your novel to someone who doesn’t read a lot of genre fiction, how would you describe it? It is set in Singapore, has a lot of mythological animals and creatures and Singapore food. And oh yes, it has werewolves. What do you think makes fantasy such a compelling genre for so many readers? I think it’s compelling, because it allows readers to slip into other worlds. You know, make-believe world. It’s like Narnia! How would you say Heart of Fire fits in with the rest of your work? Does it share certain sensibilities or thematic concerns? It does, come to think of it. I tend to examine tropes of transformation and transfiguration, as well as motifs like family ties and relationships. To me, the family is central and it does appear in many of my stories. I often wonder if this is an Asian thing, to feature the family as an important motif/theme. As a Singaporean author writing in English, what would you say are your greatest challenges in terms of reaching audiences abroad (particularly in other English-speaking parts of the world — not just “the West,” mind you)? Authenticity? (Then again, what is authenticity?) I am Singaporean Chinese. So, I sometimes feel that people would want me to write in Mandarin Chinese (no, I couldn’t – and my last (and only) Mandarin spec fic story was written when I was a kid as a school composition). I think people want to see an “authentic” voice, so to speak. I think there are no such things as authentic voices. What one thing that you know now do you wish you’d known when you first started treating writing as a professional endeavor? That it couldn’t be a full-time job. That it won’t be easy for people from Southeast Asia? (Wait, that’s two things…) And, last, for a silly question: If you had to choose an animal to write your next book for you, which animal would you choose and why? A wolf. Because it’s cool. (But hey, it doesn’t have opposable thumbs…) —————————————————— About the Book: Jan Xu, wolf and pack leader, faces more dangers when she saves a foreign male wolf in love with one of her ancient enemies, a jiang shi, a Chinese vampire. Throw in a love-struck drake—and Jan finds her situation suddenly precarious, with her reputation and health at stake. How much is a wolf going to take when everything is out of control again and her world thrown into disarray? How is she going to navigate the complexities of Myriad politics while keeping her pack and family intact without losing her mind? The third book of the Jan Xu Adventures will see Jan Xu’s continual fight as pack leader, her clan’s Eye (seer) and mother of three young children. Her mettle, courage and love for her family will be tested to her utmost limits.
8 SF/F Writers Who Changed My Life (#WeekofJoy)
Books change lives, right? Well, they certainly changed mine. Books have been a part of my life since I was a kid, though I honestly didn’t understand their true value until much later in life. They were entertainment in my younger years. I read Goosebumps and Hardy Boys because they provided quick, fun narratives (and some of the former were actually kinda scary at times — they seem ridiculous today, of course). I even read comic books as a kid, for the same reasons everyone read comics in their youth: fun! But I wasn’t a literature nut in my younger years. I wanted to play video games or do stupid things on my bike — I honestly don’t know how I survived childhood, because I used to do some monumentally stupid things on my bike. Despite all of that, books eventually smacked me upside the head and changed the way I viewed them and the way I viewed life in general. I read or discovered these books during what I would consider to be pivotal moments of my life. Some of those moments were dark times; others were quite happy and exciting. But none of them were exactly same. In chronological order, here are the eight science fiction and fantasy writers who changed my life: Richard A. Knaak The first adult fantasy book I ever read was Richard A. Knaak’s Dragonlance novel, The Legend of Huma. I won’t pretend it’s a great work of art, or a great piece of fantasy (well, it’s a fun piece of fantasy, but Dragonlance isn’t exactly known for the best writing in the universe). I would later go on to read his DragonRealm series — a much more interesting and well-written set of relatively short fantasy novels. I think it’s fair to say that I was always a reader or viewer of genre fiction, having watched Star Wars so many times as a child that I eventually had to justify owning three different VHS copies to prevent ruining my really good copy (the Leonard Maltin versions, which I still own). But I had never really grown fond of SF/F literature. That was until someone introduced me to Dragonlance. The Legend of Huma introduced me to a whole new sea of stories, and reading that particular book would one day give me fuel for an interest in writing genre fiction (I’ve never wanted to write anything else, really). Without that book, I don’t know what I would be like today. A genre fan? Probably. A scholar in the field and a wannabe writer of SF/F? Probably not. (This is a familiar narrative, no?) George Orwell I also discovered the wonders of science fiction in high school. However, rather than having George Orwell’s incredible and canonical novel 1984 thrust at me by my friends, I had the novel thrust on me by a teacher (duh). And lucky me. I attended two high schools as a teenager: one in Oak Harbor, Washington, and another in Placerville, California. Of all the English classes I took while in Oak Harbor, only one managed to make reading interesting. That class had us reading things like Watership Down by Richard Adams, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, and, of course, 1984. And since that class, I’ve re-read Orwell’s novel at least six times. The book made me realized that literature could have depth, that re-reading a work could actually change your experience of it. That book also helped turn me into a science fiction nut. And every time I re-read the book (less frequently now than when I was in my early 20s), I discover something new. That’s the mark of a good book, if you ask me! I think it’s safe to say that my interest in literature as an academic subject began here. The Person Who Wrote Beowulf The short version of the story goes like this: during my senior year of high school, my English teacher assigned Beowulf, as often happens in high school. Instead of having us write straight literary analysis, however, she asked us to take the core themes of the story and come up with our own poetic versions. Thus began a month-long journey to rewrite Beowulf (with a friend). The weird part? We actually took it quite seriously, while others in our class sort of dilly daddled the way a lot people do when it comes to these kinds of assignments. We went to the library and looked up British history (the place where we intended to set our version of the story), dug up maps of the pre-Norman-invasion British Isles, and tried our best to fit our re-worked version into that new world (Grendel’s lair ended up on the Isle of Man). We plotted the entire story, developed all of the characters, and then I started writing. And then came the all-nighters. After a weekend of intense writing (in what I then thought was proper “Old English” style — heh), I strolled into class on Monday with a 31-page epic poem in tow. I still have a vivid memory of my teacher’s eyes opening wider than should have been humanly possible at the sight of our work. She had expected something like 5-10 pages, not 31. And we got an A. You might be wondering how this changed my life. Throughout my youth, I recall writing a lot of stories. For the most part, these were horror stories (I still think that movie with the evil severed hand somehow stole my ideas); they weren’t very good. But it wasn’t until that Beowulf assignment that I realized I really had the writing bug. From that point on, I started writing with more fervor. Clearly that bug never truly left, because I still write fiction as often as I can (not as much right now due to PhD work, though). Without Beowulf, I’m not sure I’d be where I am right now: an English major and a published writer. Alan Garner I’ve written about my experiences with cancer here,