By Alaina Leary

Happy Pride Month! Today we’re pleased to welcome Malinda Lo, C.B. Lee, and Misa Sugiura to the WNDB blog to discuss their work.

Malinda Lo

Malinda Lo is the critically acclaimed author of several young adult novels, including most recently A Line in the Dark, which was a Kirkus Best YA Book of 2017 and one of Vulture’s 10 Best YA Books of 2017. Her novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s nonfiction has been published by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Toast, The Horn Book, and the anthologies Here We Are, How I Resist, and Scratch. She lives in Massachusetts with her partner.

What can you tell us about your forthcoming book, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, which is set in Chinatown in the 1950s in San Francisco?

It’s coming out in January 2021, and there will be more to know soon.

You also wrote on your blog that you’re revising your next novel after Telegraph Club. Is there anything you can offer as a teaser for our readers?

It’s way too early for that, but thanks for asking!

You have said in other interviews and during panels that you do quite a lot of background research on your books. What do you like best about the research process? Do you think your approach to research helps you with accurate and engaging world-building?

I love using the research process for digging up ideas. For example, when I wrote Ash, I researched a lot of English and Irish fairy folklore, and I used that folklore to guide the way I wrote about fairy tales and actual (fictional) fairies. Similarly, when I wrote Huntress, I researched traditional Chinese medicine to help me think about how the magic system worked in that world. 

Research also helps me get to know characters better. In A Line in the Dark, the main character, Jess Wong, is a comic book artist, but when I started thinking about her I didn’t know much at all about comic books. So I read a couple of nonfiction books about how to draw comics, and I talked to two comic book artists themselves to learn about their process. All of that helped me to understand Jess more.

You’re well known for your Cinderella retelling, Ash, but you’ve also done quite a lot of work compiling statistics on LGBTQ+ young adult books. Were you inspired to start this research because of the state of the industry when Ash was published? How has LGBTQ+ representation in YA changed since you began this work?

I was inspired to start the statistics stuff when a couple of YA authors revealed that an agent had asked them to de-gay their manuscript. I was curious how many LGBTQ+ YA books were being published in comparison to all YA books, and I wanted to have numbers to back up my theories.

In the past ten years, the number of LTBTQ+ YA books has increased substantially, and many identities are being represented now that weren’t represented then, including asexual and nonbinary identities. There has also been an explosion in books about queer female characters, which is really great because historically, YA books about queer characters were largely about gay male characters. And queer YA now spans many genres, including science fiction and fantasy. When Ash was first published, it was one of very, very few fantasy novels about a queer character. I’m glad there’s so much more to read now.

(Also, if anyone wants a more detailed analysis of the last ten years, I wrote up an overview last year here.)

In addition to writing novels, you’re also an accomplished journalist. What do you find different about writing journalism from writing fiction? Are there any best practices you use across all your writing? 

For many years I was an entertainment reporter and I wrote on deadline, so for me, one of the biggest differences is that I can write nonfiction on demand. It does not require the deep emotional preparation of writing fiction. They’re just two totally different modes of thinking and being.

However, writing so much nonfiction has taught me one big thing I also use in fiction: I don’t wait for inspiration. Even though I have to prepare myself mentally and emotionally to write fiction, I never wait to feel “inspired.” I work on a regular schedule, usually from 9 am to noon, every weekday, and some days also from 1 to 4 pm. I plan my schedule as far in advance as possible, and then I show up. Some days are wonderful and fluid, but usually, it’s much more choppy. However, every day is part of the process, good and bad.

Who are a few authors who have inspired your work or your writing practice?

I’ve been inspired since I was a kid by Madeleine L’Engle, whose books always look directly at the biggest mysteries of life, including religion. I really admire that, and her work continues to speak to me as an adult.

And once Sarah Waters said that she notes down how many words she writes every day. This seemed a little obsessive to me at first, but then I started bullet journaling, and now I keep a writing log. Every day I note down what I did, even if it’s just “thinking.” And yes, I’ve definitely written down “thinking” more than once!

What other books do you think that your work is in conversation with? Are there any upcoming or published books you’d recommend?

I think that A Line in the Dark is in conversation with books like Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott—psychological thrillers about girls or women who don’t exactly tell you the truth. Ash is very much in conversation with Robin McKinley’s retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” Beauty.

If you love romantic fantasy like Ash or Huntress, I recommend The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski, which came out a couple of months ago. It’s Sapphic, sexy, and so, so thought-provoking. I absolutely adored it. This fall you should keep an eye out for emily m. danforth’s new novel, Plain Bad Heroines. It’s published for adults but if you liked her YA debut The Miseducation of Cameron Post you won’t want to miss this one. Don’t worry, it’s very queer!

What is one question that you wish you were asked more often (and the answer)? 

When will your book (name any title!) be turned into a movie or TV series?

I don’t think people ask me this because…come on, I write queer YA books and before the last couple of years, Hollywood has not been keen to acquire them. But you know what, I wish people would ask because that would mean they think it’s possible. I’d love to be able to answer “next year,” but realistically my answer is this: I hope it will happen at some point in my life. Dear Universe: please make it happen. The rights are available!

C.B. Lee

C.B. Lee (she/her/hers) is a Lambda Literary Award nominated writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy. Her works include the Sidekick Squad series (Duet Books), Ben 10 graphic novels (Boom! Studios), and Out Now: Queer We Go Again (HarperTeen). CB loves to write about queer teens, magic, superheroes, and the power of friendship. Lee’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Wired Magazine, Hypable, Tor’s Best of Fantasy and Sci Fi and the American Library Association’s Rainbow List.

How would you pitch the Sidekick Squad series to potential readers in one or two sentences?

Queer teens take on a corrupt government superhero agency in a solarpunk world, with adventure, robots, and other shenanigans.

The Sidekick Squad series is filled with a variety of LGBTQ+ teens, including an asexual/aromantic spectrum character. When in the writing process did you decide you wanted this series to feature a diverse group of LGBTQ+ characters?

From the very beginning, I wanted to center this series on marginalized teens; the entire “Not Your” titling of every book in the series plays with expectations and defining oneself when society and groups of people label you a specific way. The first book “Not Your Sidekick” really captures the tone of frustration that I had upon seeing specifically queer characters and characters of color relegated to supportive roles such as being the sidekick or best friend or someone there to prop the main character up without any nuance or complex storyline of their own. I wanted to write a fun adventure story which featured complex identities that do exist in the world today, including youth who were out and sure of themselves and also those who were questioning and learning more about themselves.

In the Sidekick Squad universe, you played with the way superpowers are perceived. Do you have a favorite superhero origin story or superpowers mythos from other stories? 

I’ve always loved superheroes and their stories because not only were they larger than life, they also tackled a lot of great issues about identity and who you are, through the lens of having powers (or not) and trying to do good. The X-Men series also very early on tackled a lot of issues about people who were different and just were that way and were fighting for acceptance in their world. There’s a very poignant scene that was brought to life beautifully in the 2000 movie when Bobby tells his parents he’s a mutant for the first time. His mother responds, “Have you tried…not being a mutant?”

It was such a parallel to coming out and it resonated with me so much, and many comic books and fantastic media were able to interpret issues and draw parallels to them to the time. I think what draws people to these superhero characters is that they’re larger than life but at the same time have human flaws and are relatable as people. Some more of my favorite comic heroes growing up were the Teen Titans– Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire. I loved their dynamic, their teamwork, their friendship and how they worked together to fight for justice. I also love Jubilee from the X-Men as well as the Young Avengers; I’m quite excited to see queer characters flourishing in the live-action Runaways series as well.

I think the fun of superheroes is that they’re inspiring; it’s not really about the powers, but how they use them. The fantastic element is the draw, but what really keeps me writing (and reading) about superheroes are the characters themselves and their journeys.

If you could choose a superpower for yourself, what would you choose?

My ideal superpower would be to be able to stop time and have a little bubble to myself where I could catch up on sleep and deadlines and reading for fun. I feel like time would be the most valuable asset; very often I feel like there is never enough to do all the things I want to do.

You were also featured in the anthology Out Now: Queer We Go Again edited by Saundra Mitchell. What was it like writing a short story for an anthology and how was that different from writing a series of books? How did you come up with the story you wrote for the anthology?

Writing a short story was so much fun! It’s a very different challenge from writing a series because every word counts and you want to be able to tell a complete arc and a little glimpse of a world with very limited space. My short story “Lumber Me Mine” is about Jasmine, who’s entering senior year after a big breakup and is learning to define herself without her ex-girlfriend. I thought of the idea of Jasmine meeting a new crush in woodshop after injuring myself attempting to do woodwork and the idea grew from there about it becoming a meet-cute.

You have been vocal about the importance of writing LGBTQ+ Asian characters in media and books. Can you tell us a little bit about how this informs your own writing? Do you have any favorite pieces of media (movies, TV shows, comics) featuring Asian LGBTQ+ characters or by Asian LGBTQ+ creators?

I think it’s very validating to see something you thought only you experienced as something known. I grew up thinking I was both too Asian or too American or not enough of one or too much of one or the other. And even within that being Chinese and Vietnamese, I felt a huge disconnect as well, with how much of the languages I’m able to speak, the intersection of culture and growing up American is very complex as well. My identity definitely informs my writing, with that experience seeping into many characters, that yearning to belong, the nuance of multiple backgrounds at play.

As a teen, I had a lot of attraction towards other girls that I just figured was feelings of friendship that I didn’t really understand. I didn’t really see many bisexual characters growing up, let alone an Asian American one. I didn’t think I was a lesbian because I was also attracted to guys, and I thought all these other feelings I had were broken and wrong.

It wasn’t until my twenties when I figured out that I was attracted to more than one gender and that it was a normal, valid thing. In my writing, I want people to be able to not only enjoy a fun story, but I also want people to be able to see themselves and to see others who aren’t like them, because that’s a powerful thing, to be able to be present and visible.

Often times I feel like it’s easy for people to just think of identity as this one, singular thing, but it’s really the intersection of multiple experiences and communities, and everyone is different. People of color in the queer community have specific experiences and stories that are unique to them, and I hope as more writers and readers start to create and consume more stories that we will be able to see these intersectional experiences.

Some of my favorite pieces of media with LGBTQ+ Asian characters include classics like Saving Face by Alice Wu, which was such a pivotal moment for me in media to see two Asian American women falling in love alongside a complicated family narrative that touches on love and family and navigating how we process shame about ourselves and how that influences how we see ourselves. Ash by Malinda Lo is also a beautiful fairytale retelling lush with fantasy that was also one of the first times I’ve seen the intersection of my identity in print. Other works I’ve very much enjoyed are Picture Us In The Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert, It’s Not Like It’s A Secret by Misa Sugiura, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, and Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan.

Is there anything you can tell us about any works-in-progress you’re working on or future dream projects you’d like to write? 

I am currently working on the last book in the Sidekick Squad series, Not Your Hero. A new project also was recently announced as well, a retelling of Treasure Island as part of MacMillan’s Reclaimed Classics series.  I’m quite excited about this project as I’m setting the story in the South China Sea at the twilight of the golden age of piracy and it’s been quite fun to work in the historical genre.

What other YA series or stories centered around superpowers do you think your books are in conversation with? Are there any upcoming or published books you’d recommend?

The Dreadnought series by April Daniels, Gabby Rivera’s America Chavez series and G. Willow Wilson’s Miss Marvel series are a profound look at identity and defining your own strength. I also love Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine Complex series, an adult series with multiple Asian-American characters navigating superpowers and monsters in San Francisco in a super charming and delightful way.

Upcoming I’m excited for a number of new releases, including Malinda Lo’s Last Night At The Telegraph Club, Aiden Thomas’ Cemetery Boys, Julia Ember’s Ruinsong, Traci Chee’s We Are Not Free, and so many more!

What is one question that you wish you were asked more often (and the answer)? 

I love talking about craft and writing process! I find it so fascinating to learn about the many different ways authors write and how they bring a story together, from idea to richly developed character arcs. For me, I feel like each of my books has been so different from concept to novel, whether it’s coming up with the character first and then building the world or imagining a world around it and creating whole new political and economic systems, or being inspired by a real place in time. Many of the dramatic landscapes in the Sidekick Squad series were based on real places I’ve hiked and spent time in—the deserts of Nevada, the redwood forests of the Pacific Northwest, and the historical novel I’m working on now draws from my time spent kayaking in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. Writing science fiction feels very different to me from writing historical fiction and it’s been quite fun exploring the new challenges coming from working on something with a fantastical element or exploring and expanding events that have happened in the past. I feel like my writing process is always changing, and it’s fun to chat about new ways or old ways that keep coming back.

Misa Sugiura

Misa Sugiura’s ancestors include a poet, a priestess, a samurai, and a stowaway. She the author of two critically acclaimed young adult novels, It’s Not Like It’s A Secret and This Time Will Be Different. Misa was born in Chicago, raised in the suburbs, went to college on the East Coast, and taught English as a second language in Japan before moving to Silicon Valley, where she now lives under a giant oak tree with her husband, two sons, two cats, and a gray-banded king snake.

How would you pitch This Time Will Be Different to potential readers in one or two sentences?

CJ Katsuyama is a Japanese American girl who hasn’t found a passion or a sense of purpose, and whose main source of comfort is her family’s failing flower shop, where she’s learning how to make floral arrangements that might make people’s desires come true. When her mother decides to sell the shop to the family who originally cheated the Katsuyamas out of it during the Japanese American internment, CJ finds her purpose—but she’ll have to fight more than her mother to achieve it.

TTWBD really explores the aftereffects of Japanese internment camps on contemporary Japanese-American families. Why did you choose to use CJ’s family flower shop as a path for showing that and what understanding did you want readers to take away from the book?

I chose the flower shop for its historical significance and its usefulness as a symbol. Before the war, most Japanese-American families were involved in agriculture of all kinds, at all levels: from fruits to vegetables to flowers (both as tenant farmers and as owners), and from seed wholesalers and farmers to grocery stores, plant nurseries, and flower shops. I chose a flower shop over, say, a lettuce farm partly because of the obvious romantic element. But I also liked the idea that flowers represent both CJ’s connection to her past and her disconnection from it since flowers in a flower shop have no roots.  Finally, flowers have so much symbolic and emotional meaning, both in Japanese flower arranging and in Western flower arranging, and I loved the idea of being able to use them to highlight the characters’ hopes, dreams, regrets, etc.

CJ in TTWBD has a strong relationship with her aunt, who helped CJ’s single mom raise her, and family and roots are strong themes in the book. Why did you want to show the bonds that happen in families outside of two-parent households and how influential other relatives, like CJ’s aunt, can be?

In the book, CJ’s mom tells her, “You don’t need a dad to be happy, or successful, or any of those things…You’re here, and I’m here, and we love each other, and that’s all that matters.” I really believe that this is true–that there are lots of ways to be a happy family that aren’t necessarily the traditional two-parent nuclear model, and I think it’s important for teens—especially teens with nontraditional family structures—to see those families in books, movies, and televisions shows. I gave CJ this wonderful aunt for the same reason, and to show that it’s okay to rely on other relatives and trusted adults if your parent/guardian/caregiver can’t provide everything you need. I grew up essentially without any relatives (they all lived in Japan and Canada, and this was in the days when communication options were limited to letter-writing or expensive long-distance phone calls) and I always wished for a relationship like the one CJ and her aunt have, so that’s probably another reason behind it.

The love interest in TTWBD is bisexual and CJ doesn’t react in a biphobic way to this information. Were you intentional in making that decision? Why is it important for characters to be accepted as bisexual on the page by other characters?

I was very intentional about it. We’ve come a long way in my lifetime in terms of LGBTQ+ acceptance and understanding, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Biphobia—and transphobia, as long as I’m here on my soapbox—in particular, are sad for me to see, because bi and trans populations face discrimination from within the queer community as well as from without. My hope is that by allowing a character’s bisexuality to be fully accepted and embraced by other characters on the page, to make it simply part of who they are without questioning or challenging its validity or beauty, will help normalize bisexuality for everyone as simply one way to be a human being.

Both TTWBD and It’s Not Like It’s a Secret center around imperfect, complicated teens, but you write in a way that allows the reader to empathize and truly get to know your characters. Why do you think it’s important to show teens when they’re making mistakes and learning to take accountability and learn from that?

Thank you so much! I do love messy main characters because they are so relatable (to me, anyway). I, myself, am a mess, and I’ve gotten myself into some awful situations because of things I’ve said and done—hurt people’s feelings, or missed big opportunities, and just generally screwed things up for myself and for others. It’s so easy to feel like, “Oh, well, it’s screwed up beyond repair and there’s nothing I can do about it now. I’ll just ride this out and hope everyone forgets about it.” The problem is that the hurt can often fester and harm people, especially when we’re so wrapped up in ourselves that we can’t see it. It’s happened so many times in our nation, as well as between families and individuals. I like to raise the possibility with teens that no matter how badly you screw up, you can make things better by acknowledging your mistake and making amends. And if the person you’ve harmed is beyond apologizing to, you can still balance your mistake by trying to put some good into the world.

Is there anything you can tell us about any works-in-progress you’re working on or future dream projects you’d like to write?

I have an as-yet-untitled novel coming out next fall that I like to think of as Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before meets, well, the perfect match would be The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth, which is coming this September; basically it’s a sweet, tropey, lesbian fake-dating rom-com with a twist. As for dream projects, I’ve always wanted to write a Rick-Riordan-meets-Japanese-gods-and-legends MG fantasy. It’s waaaay out of my comfort zone, but maybe one day I’ll get brave enough to try writing one.

What other YA novels do you think your books are in conversation with? Are there any upcoming or published books you’d recommend?

Oh, so many favorites! Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki is an easy, obvious (and delightful) parallel, since it features a Japanese American lesbian protagonist and a diverse cast. Other books that my books share space with Frank Yoon’s Frankly In Love, Tell Me How You Really Feel by Amina Mae Safi, and Love From A To Z by S.K Ali. Kelly Loy Gilbert’s Picture Us In The Light is more serious and Stacey Lee’s The Downstairs Girl is historical, but I think they share some diversity and social activism DNA with This Time Will Be Different. As books published in 2020, Abigail Hing Wen’s Love Boat, Taipei, the previously mentioned The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth, We Are Not Free by Traci Chee (about the Japanese American internment), and I.W. Gregorio’s This Is My Brain In Love are great reads for anyone who likes my books.

What is one question that you wish you were asked more often (and the answer)?

What’s something you’ve learned about publishing a book since becoming an author?

I’ve learned that there is so much more to publishing a book than just writing it and printing it. I have an incredible team behind each of my books; my agent champions my books with the publisher, my editor, and her team are the only reason that people don’t have to read 400 pages of nonsense between the covers; the design team and the cover artist make those beautiful covers; my marketing team makes sure my book gets seen and talked about, my publicist and her team make sure that the seeing and talking about keeps happening. Not only that, but amazing organizations like WNDB and all the authors of color who have gone before me have helped create the space for books like mine to breathe and thrive.

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Alaina Leary (Lavoie) is the communications manager of We Need Diverse Books. She also teaches in the graduate department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College and is a book reviewer for Booklist. She received a 2017 Bookbuilders of Boston scholarship for her work in the publishing industry. Her writing has been published in New York Times, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, Allure, Healthline, Glamour, The Oprah Magazine, and more. She currently lives in Boston with her wife and their two literary cats. Follow her @AlainasKeys on Instagram and Twitter.