First of all, welcome to We Need Diverse Books! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thank you, I’m thrilled to be here! My background is eclectic: I’m the daughter of Chinese immigrants; I was born in Chicago and grew up in Caracas, Venezuela until age 17. I worked for a decade as an environmental attorney, first at the Department of Justice, where I focused on environmental justice, Native American issues, endangered species, and marine conservation, and then at the nonprofit Oceana, dealing with destructive fishing practices and marine pollution. When my girls were young, we moved to southeast Virginia and I quit the law to try my hand at children’s illustration, which led to writing picture books and middle grade.

How would you describe your book Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation?

Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation is an action-packed adventure with heart, set in a high-tech near-future. In a hyperconnected world under corporate control, twelve-year-old Hana can’t wait to get meshed—to have her brain connected to the multiweb. When she discovers a corporate plot that threatens her classmates about to be meshed, she must rely on her wits and newfound allies—new friends, junkyard hackers, and a qi gong master—to save them, all while navigating complex family dynamics and secrets.

Where did the inspiration for this story come from?

I’ve always loved reading about new tech and cool science facts, and the premise of a society where people are directly connected online at all times was fascinating to me. I was also inspired to write a fun, exciting story with lots of heart like the kind I grew up with, but featuring characters that looked like myself and my family.

As a writer, what drew you to storytelling, especially middle-grade and speculative fiction?

As a life-long avid reader, my favorite genre is speculative fiction, both science fiction and fantasy. Speculative fiction is a great way to explore important issues while being fun and entertaining. One of my favorite sci-fi subgenres is cyberpunk, and in Hana Hsu, I wanted to explore its themes—what it means to be human in a high-tech age, what happens when corporations gain too much power, and the individual versus the collective—in a middle grade-friendly way.

I love middle grade because readers are at the age when they fall deeply in love with reading. The stories we read at that age are the ones that stay with us our entire lives. My goal as an author is to write a story that resonates deeply with someone beginning their grand reading adventure.

Growing up were there any narratives that sparked your love of storytelling or that you felt you could relate to in terms of personal representation?

The stories that I loved growing up were not diverse. Stories like Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain, The Fellowship of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle captured my imagination, but it never occurred to me that I could be an author telling my own stories. As a teen, I read adult books that had Chinese and Chinese American representation, like The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, but it wasn’t until I had children of my own that I read awesome children’s books by authors like Lisa Yee and Grace Lin. I love that we’re in an era when it’s so easy for kids to see themselves in all sorts of books.

How might have the desire for representation played a hand in your motivation to write Hana Hsu and the Ghost Crab Nation?

Representation wasn’t my main motive for writing Hana Hsu, but as with most my stories, I center characters who share my ethnicity and background. Hana Hsu is set in a near-future United States influenced by Chinese culture. I wanted to write a world where these cultural details are an unremarkable given. For example, people use Mandarin slang, they take their shoes off when they come into a house, and Chinese food is standard fare. I threw in my experience growing up in Venezuela by having Hana’s grandmother love the telenovelas I grew up with. I also made almost every character a BIPOC one. The three main kid characters come from diverse backgrounds: Hana is Chinese-American, her friend Chuck is Japanese-Jewish, and her friend Tomás is Latinx.

Looking at your literary background, it seems you have a strong interest and love for science and nature. Could you tell us where that come from?

My love of nature comes from growing up in Venezuela and spending time in its beautiful, wild places. We went to the beach a lot, hiked in the hills near my apartment building, and one of my favorite memories is a family trip to the interior of the country where the Amazon rainforest and the Gran Sabana (great savannah) is, with its unique tepuys (the flat-topped mountains that are featured in the movie Up). It was the most off-the-grid I’ve ever been: we drove for days on two dirt tracks through the plains and carried our own water and gasoline, camping by streams and ending up at the border of Venezuela and Brazil. I didn’t study science formally, but I’ve always been fascinated with curious and interesting facts, and the natural world is an endless source of those.

How would you describe your writing process? What are some of your favorite/ hardest parts of the process for you?

I’m a plantser, a mix of a plotter and pantser. Generally, I’ll come up with a premise and a character and start writing the first chapters without any preconceptions of where the story will go. About two chapters in, I’ll get stuck and pull out my plotting tools (my favorites are Save the Cat, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, and Michael Hauge’s plot and character arcs) and figure out the story. I’ll identify the major plot points and fill in the rest by pantsing; it’s always fun to explore, but it does take more effort to revise. I share my drafts with trusted critique partners, who are so pivotal in helping me hone my stories.

Whatever stage of the process I’m in is the hardest and my least favorite part! On a more serious note, I enjoy revision better than drafting, because I prefer completing a puzzle with existing pieces to laboriously handcrafting the pieces to begin with.

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

My question is: What is an unusual childhood memory that might make it into one of your stories one day?

When I was about ten, I lived through a legitimate mass hysteria in Caracas. Rumors ran rampant and people honestly believed aliens had invaded and a tidal wave would inundate the city (which sits 1,000 meters above sea level) on a certain day in August. One could tell who was an alien because the whites of their eyes would be yellow. Everyone who could, fled the city on that day and it became a ghost town; no one went to work and everyone stayed off the streets. Even the American ex-pat community seemed caught up in the rumors. Several families we knew scheduled their vacations back to the States for that week. It was completely wild, and we couldn’t believe anyone could believe it, yet my dad stayed home from work that day too. My teenaged cousin visiting us from the States was entirely bewildered by the situation.

What advice would you have to give to aspiring writers?

I highly recommend: (1) reading a lot of recently published books in your age group and genre, (2) getting feedback from trusted critique partners; and (3) staying in a learning mindset. No matter what stage of writer you are, there’s always something new to learn from a craft perspective. Oh, and write, write, write.

Are there any other projects you are currently working on and at liberty to talk about? 

I have a number of projects in the works, from early ideas to drafts. I’m very excited about a Chinese myth-inspired fantasy at the moment.

Finally, what are some books you would recommend to the readers of WNDB?

There are so many amazing recent middle grade books with diverse characters. For science fiction, I highly recommend Last Gamer Standing by Katie Zhao, Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee, and The Last Cuentista by Donna Barbra Higuera.

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Sylvia Liu grew up with books and daydreams in Caracas, Venezuela. Once an environmental attorney protecting the oceans, she now spins stories for children, inspired by high tech, ghost crabs, and strong girls. Sylvia lives in Virginia with her family and a very fluffy cat. Find Sylvia on Twitter @artsylliu.

 

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Michele Kirichanskaya (she/her) is a freelance journalist and writer from Brooklyn, New York. Currently studying at the New School, when she is not writing, she is reading, watching an absurd amount of cartoons to survive reality, and creating content for platforms like Hey Alma, Salon, The Mary Sue, GeeksOut, ComicsVerse, The Gay & Lesbian Review, and more. Her work can be found here and on Twitter @MicheleKiricha1.