Apopolis receives an interview invitation from author Atom Yang whose first novel Red Envelope is to be published on December 4, 2015. Apopolis asks Mr. Yang some questions about his literary debut… and here are the author’s responses.
A: First of all, tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to write your first novel, Red Envelope. What inspired you to write it?
I was born in the States but my parents raised me like an immigrant–so I grew up with an outsider perspective that’s informed every aspect of my personal and professional life. I came to write Red Envelope first because I had fallen in love with a wonderful man, and his encouragement and support helped me to heal some old wounds that kept me from writing for the last ten years, and second because my heart always loved romance–from When Harry Met Sally to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon–but I never quite had the courage to acknowledge it. Now I understand romance to be powerful, transformational, playful, and life affirming; plus, it’s the most popular genre in publishing, which means that it has a wide reach when it comes to entertaining and shaping societal norms.
The inspiration for Red Envelope came from a personal experience, when I brought my partner to my family’s Lunar New Year celebration. It was the first time I brought someone, and so it was also the first time I came out to my extended family unequivocally. It was also the first time for my fiance to experience a partner’s family–all of them–fully accepting him, even as his own family continues to struggle with his orientation. Other inspiration for Red Envelope came from geek culture, beloved romantic comedies, and the Chinese tale of The Cowherd and Weaver Girl.
A: Why do you use a pseudonym as a writer? Are you afraid that writing an LGBT novel under your own name may adversely affect your personal life or career?
I’m proud of my writing, and have no fear that my stories will adversely affect my personal life–my friends and family are supportive and nurturing of my endeavors, and I’m completely out with them. As for my writing career, thanks to the work of activists big and small in our communities, I don’t think penning queer themed work under my real name would keep me from future opportunities.
However, currently I also work in the mental health field, and it’s an important part of that profession to remain as neutral as possible–we call it tabla rasa or “blank slate”–so that clients can feel like they can talk to us about anything (and not be judged or misunderstood). That’s hard to do when they might read a work of romance or erotica by me, and assume that I’m only capable of dealing with the topics in my stories! Leonard Nimoy once wrote a book famously titled, I Am Not Spock because people kept mistaking him for a character he played, and not a real person who was an actor.
A: How did you come to decide on the ethnicity of the main characters?
I decided on the ethnicity of the main characters in Red Envelope based on my personal experience and the desire to write about diverse characters, especially protagonists.
There are a lot of white, twenty-something, muscular, upper middle class men in romance. I wanted to create narratives that offered a different perspective: diverse characters who were strong and took on active, prominent roles in a story, relationship, and sex.
This doesn’t mean that I sat back and relied solely on my own, limited experience for writing the character of Clint–I had to research Chinese New Year practices and myths, interview first generation Chinese people, etc. to make sure that my story had some sort of authenticity and accuracy. For example, right now, I’m working on a story about a Cantonese guy–I’m only half-Cantonese and I don’t speak that dialect or know the history, so I have a lot of work to do to make the story believable.
Similarly, for Weaver, he’s based off of people I’ve dated, but he’s also an American expat working in China, and that’s an entire culture unto its own, that appears invisible if all we see is the color of his skin.
A: How long did it take to get the novel published and how challenging was that process?
You know, if I answered like Picasso, I’d say it took my whole life! And the truth is, it was a story long in the making, because I had to go through a lot of hard times, self-doubt, and finally, experience a great love before I could write it, before I could take all the romance, optimism, and creativity in my heart and pour it into words, sentences, and paragraphs. The short answer, though, is that I took 21 days to write Red Envelope, and the manuscript was accepted for publication 17 days after submission.
I didn’t find the process challenging, mostly because I had worked in the publishing industry over a decade ago in comics, as both a writer and editor, and knew what to expect.
The publisher for Red Envelope was a dream to work with–respectful of my voice, and didn’t change much in my story to prepare it for publication. I also respected my editor and her knowledge of the genre, so I trusted that the changes she requested were to make my work better and more accessible to the target audience. I wanted to be a published author with integrity, and I’m happy to say I got my wish.
A: What are your future plans as a writer?
I plan to create the best stories I can, in literature and maybe someday in film and TV, about the people who populate our lives, look back at us in the mirror, and make the world the beautiful, heartbreaking place that it is.
Hello Quentin!
Thank you for the interview and the opportunity to share my work with your readers on Apopolis!
Take care,
Atom