Q&A with Janie Chang

  

Photo by Ayelet Tsabari

 

 

Janie Chang is the author of the new novel The Fourth Princess. Her other books include The Porcelain Moon. She lives in British Columbia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Fourth Princess, and how did you create your characters Lisan and Caroline?

 

A: I’ve always loved Gothic novels and toyed with the idea of writing one, but never thought of setting such a story in China until I came across a photograph of Dennartt, a Western-style house built in 1899 on the outskirts of Shanghai by a wealthy Englishman.

 

One of the classic tropes in a Gothic novel is the mysterious mansion that holds a dark secret, and Dennartt seemed like the right house – with a few embellishments.

 

I created Caroline first, after reading about the railway disaster of 1910 in Wellington, Washington state, and thought about how different life would be if you survived such a tragedy.

 

As for Lisan, the year 1911 was the key. By 1912, the Qing empire would be no more, and China would be a republic. But in the months and years leading up to 1912, there was bound to be political intrigues, not to mention social changes as China tried to modernize. I imagined a young woman unwittingly caught up in the struggle for China’s fate.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: For this novel, I spent a lot of time looking at photographs and descriptions of the grand Western-style houses, some of which are still standing today. Some of these homes were originally on huge lots. One property was described as being 10 acres in size, with its own stables for polo ponies and carriage horses.

 

What was unexpected though, was learning that wealthy Chinese also built Western-style homes in Shanghai, not traditional Chinese courtyard homes. These were sometimes spread out over several buildings to house four generations and all the family’s household servants.

 

But then, why should I have been surprised? Shanghai was the most westernized of all the cities in China. It makes sense that rich Chinese would want to show off their status by hiring foreign architects to design lavish, modern mansions.

Q: In our previous Q&A, you said of this novel, “After two novels set during the World Wars and one set during an earthquake, I want to work on something fun to write and fun to read.” How did your work on this novel compare with your work on some of your previous books?

 

A: Less research! I already knew quite a bit about Old Shanghai, thanks to previous research for earlier novels. And by its very nature, Gothic demands that that house should be the big source of atmosphere, of danger and tension.

 

But being a historical novelist, I have a tendency to gravitate toward using historical events – outside influences – as drivers of plot. So about one-third of the way through the first draft, I realized that too much history was diluting the Gothic mood, so I rewrote those chapters to bring focus back on the danger coming from within the house.

 

Q: What are some of your favorite Gothic novels?

 

A: Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Rebecca are the classics. Newer titles would be The Lost History of Dreams by Kris Waldherr and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: At this moment, I’m doing homework, which means research on the next solo book. And these days I need to clarify “solo” book since Kate Quinn and I have plans to collaborate on another book together.

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just that I’m really looking forward to going on book tour in Canada with Kate; her next book, The Astral Library, releases a week after The Fourth Princess, so the timing is fortuitous. We’ll get to travel together again!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Janie Chang. 

Q&A with Virginia Pye

  

Photo by Margaret Lampert

 

 

 

Virginia Pye is the author of the new novel Marriage and Other Monuments. Her other books include The Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Marriage and Other Monuments, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: Marriage and Other Monuments is set in Richmond, Virginia, where my husband and I raised our two children and lived for 17 years. We moved there as Northerners who had never before lived in the South, though my mother was from South Carolina and my extended family are all Southerners.

 

Over our years there, we put down deep roots in Richmond, and came to love it as a terrific smaller city, with unique qualities and people.

 

I wasn’t in Richmond in the summer of 2020. I was locked down in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where we had moved in 2015. But I was deeply concerned about Richmond and as involved as I could be from afar.

 

Our son was living on his own by then, across the street from the J.E.B. Stuart statue on Monument Avenue. His apartment building suffered damage from an alley dumpster fire, presumably set by counter-protestors. Helicopters flew overhead many nights, and tear gas wafted outside his windows.

 

I was fearful for him, but I also respected the many people of all ages and races who came out to take part in the protests in a positive way. It was a complicated, painful, vivid summer.

 

Many nights I stayed up until one, two, three in the morning watching videos posted on Instagram by student journalists from VCU and others as they documented the marches, protests, and riots.

 

I followed the removal of the Confederate monuments closely, even alerting Richmond friends one morning when I saw online that a crew was on its way toward the Stonewall Jackson statue so they could witness the removal.

 

My long-distance interest prompted my imagination, resulting in this novel, entirely a work of fiction. None of my characters are based on real people and the precise details of the protests and marches that summer have been shaped by the story I invented in the novel.

 

Q: As you noted, the novel is set in Richmond in 2020--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Setting is everything. I’ve published two novels set in historic China and one novel in Gilded Age Boston—settings and time periods that I loved exploring. Those books required research to build a believable sense of those places.

 

Marriage and Other Monuments is set somewhere I know well from having lived there and visited over several decades. Way back in 2017, I wrote a novel that tried to capture the specialness of Richmond. My agent at the time tried to sell it without success. I kept hoping I could still place a story there.

 

When the events of the summer of 2020 took place, I knew it was time to return to Richmond in my imagination. I wanted to create a story that respects the city’s many complex qualities. 

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: While working on this novel, I called it Monuments and Marriages. Actually, early on in the process, I called it Of Monuments and Marriages, until an agent said that title sounded like a 19th century treatise. Too highbrow and old fashioned.

 

I sold the book as Monuments and Marriages but as I spoke with my editor, she helped me see that the title wasn’t dynamic enough. It was too static. In a phone call, we tossed around ideas for ways to riff on Monuments and Marriages.

 

I think I blurted out Marriage and Other Monuments and we both instantly knew that was the right title. It has the charge I’d hoped for. It asks unspoken questions: what does a marriage memorialize? What does a marriage stand for? What does a marriage signify?

 

People I know who’ve been married a long time immediately respond when they hear this title. They get it that a marriage is a construction—much like a literal monument—that has many meanings, some of which can feel set in stone.

 

Q: The writer Joanna Rakoff said of the book, “An engrossing, timely family saga, Virginia Pye’s Marriage and Other Monuments explores complicated truths about race and class—and love and desire—in the contemporary south, shining a brilliant light on the turmoil of 2020 through the lens of history.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I’m flattered and pleased. It was my goal to tell a compelling, page-turning story that also touches on important contemporary themes, such as race and class in a Southern city.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Crazily enough, I’ve gone back to a novel that I first wrote in the early 1990s. It was the second novel I ever wrote, and I put it aside when my first child was born.

 

Set in the 1980s, Making Love tells the story of a group of friends who move to New York City after college. It focuses on their entangled relationships, in particular a clandestine love affair between Amber—newly married to Richard, her college sweetheart—and her former lover, Don, who is bisexual and who, early in the novel, is diagnosed with AIDS.

 

When Amber learns this news, she becomes afraid that she, too, might be infected, which, at that time, could mean an early death. Out of fear for her own life, and guilt over her secret romance, she becomes caught up with a cult-like group that pushes participants to uncover past sexual traumas through group pressure, encouraging participants to break with their perceived abusers, often identified as their families.

 

As some readers will recall, in the ‘90s there was a wave of incest revelations and then counter positions that introduced the term “false memories.” I’m looking into all that business, as well as telling a story about a new marriage, and a young woman afraid to choose who to love.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I hope that readers enjoy Marriage and Other Monuments and find it entertaining and thought-provoking. If you do enjoy it, I hope you’ll consider inviting me to in person or virtual book groups, bookstore visits, or other events. And drop a review on Amazon or Goodreads! And please feel free to reach out via my website: www.virginiapye.com. Happy reading!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Virginia Pye. 

Q&A with Seema Yasmin

  

Photo by Lucas Passmore

 

 

 

Seema Yasmin is the author of the new middle grade book Maysoon Zayid, The Girl Who Can Can. It's the first in her Muslim Mavericks series. Yasmin's other books include Unbecoming. She is also a physician and a journalist, and she lives in Las Vegas.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Maysoon Zayid, The Girl Who Can Can, which focuses on the comedian Maysoon Zayid?

 

A: I’ve long being a fan of Maysoon Zayid’s voice, her comedy, writing and activism. I am constantly inspired by her humor and refusal to be defined by other people’s expectations.

 

As soon as I had conceived the idea for the Muslim Mavericks middle grade series, it made sense for Maysoon to launch the entire series! I wanted kids to meet a disabled Palestinian comedian whose story is joyful, ambitious, and unapologetically her own; someone who expands what kids believe is possible.

 

Q: How did you research Maysoon Zayid’s life, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I interviewed Maysoon, watched her stand-up comedy sets live and online, read her books, and researched cerebral palsy.

 

What surprised me most was how intentional she was as a child about imagining futures that went beyond imposed limitations. Her dreams were expansive in a way that kids will love reading about.

 

Q: What do you think Noha Habaieb’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Noha’s illustrations bring warmth, movement, and joy to Maysoon’s story. They capture her confidence and humor while also making disability visible in a way that feels natural and empowering rather than symbolic or instructional.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope readers come away understanding that there is no single way to dream, succeed, or belong. Maysoon’s story shows that creativity, persistence, and joy can take many forms. Ultimately, I hope every person who engages with this book and other books in the Muslim Mavericks series is inspired to dream bigger.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My own stand-up comedy shows! I’m also continuing to work on the Muslim Mavericks series while developing additional fiction and nonfiction projects for young readers which center curiosity, representation, and bold imagination.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Volume I of the Muslim Mavericks series is part of a larger commitment to telling Muslim stories that reflect real diversity, across disability, culture, personality, and ambition.

 

Maysoon Zayid, The Girl Who Can Can isn’t meant to stand alone as “the” Muslim story, but as one vibrant example among many. I hope it helps make space for even more voices to be heard. Inshallah!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Feb. 10

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 10, 1890: Boris Pasternak born.

Q&A with Janet Constantino

  

 

 

Janet Constantino is the author of the new novel Becoming Mariella. She is a psychotherapist, and she lives in Sonoma, California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Becoming Mariella, and how did you create your character Mariella?

 

A: When a friend asked me, "If you could write about anything you wanted to write about, what would it be?" I immediately thought of Italy, my pull to everything Italian, and my Sicilian relatives.

 

When I was a young adult, I stayed with relatives in Siracusa, and visited my grandmother's birthplace, Carlentini, and visited relatives in Catania, where the first and last parts of the novel take place.

 

Also, one of my cousins in my family, with whom I stayed, is named Mariella. So I immediately thought of her, and her beautiful name. 

 

Q: The novel is set in Sicily and San Francisco--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Both Catania (Sicily) and San Francisco have the feel of characters in the novel. Almost as if the story couldn't be located anywhere else. The setting is deliberate and essential because of the personalities of the cities, the proximity to the sea, and the hilly parts, along with San Francisco's North Beach Italian community, and is heavily influenced by Italian culture.

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way? 

 

A: I knew the last line of the story right away, but I didn't know how I would get there until I'd written the whole novel. There were hundreds of changes along the way, along with new character introductions and eliminations.

 

Q: How was the novel's title chosen, and what does it signify for you? 

 

A: As I mentioned, I took the name of Mariella from a cousin. The Becoming part (suggested by my publisher) points to Mariella's developing sense of self and to following her own path in life, which is a deeply held value for me, not only for Mariella in the novel but also for my psychotherapy clients.

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: I've started a sequel to Becoming Mariella. I don't yet have a title, and I have no idea how it will end. Also, I'm revisiting some earlier work: a novel with lots of Latin dancing, and some earlier short stories.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: My work as a psychotherapist has heavily influenced my writing. Not directly, because I don't write about clients, nor with psychotherapeutic jargon. 

 

But my work has deepened my empathy and understanding of human nature and behavior, so hopefully, that understanding gets reflected in a genuine sense of how characters think, act, and develop.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Lorena M. Proia

  

 

 

Lorena M. Proia is the author and illustrator of the children's picture book How to Be Best in Class. She also has written and illustrated the book How to Make a Sandwich. She lives in the Boston area.

 

Q: What inspired you to create How to Be Best in Class?

 

A: My inspiration was twofold. My memories of the real Phebe are always the spark to my creative flame.

 

First, I wanted to use the very funny and disastrous experiences from our obedience classes and weave in my own experiences of feeling different. I often thought, I wish I’d known as a kid that I wasn’t broken.

 

I didn’t learn I had inattentive ADHD until I was in my mid-40s. I never understood why everyday “simple” things were impossible for me, yet I’d be able to solve the usability issues of some complex software just by looking at the problem.

 

After my diagnosis, I realized that this brain of mine brought unique gifts that allowed me to excel where others struggled.

 

Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first—or both simultaneously?

 

A: I do the story first. Once I have it working, I create the pacing with boxes for each page and – wait for it – stick figures! This way I can get the image in my head down without investing the time in finished sketches. From there, I take my storyboards to my editor and we work on it until it’s solid.

 

Once the story is complete, I sketch it all out, then I work with a wonderful art director to bring it to life. Together we refine the images, and the story is always adjusted slightly along the way.

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between your characters Rae and Phebe?

 

A: I think Rae and Phebe are like many human and dog relationships. They love each other completely, but Phebe’s excitement and intelligence can often collide with Rae’s expectations. And Rae doesn’t always understand that her mischievous dog is just… well… being a dog.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?

 

A: For the child who sees themselves in Phebe, I hope they learn that even when the “simple” things seem hard, they still have gifts and abilities and sometimes, that means making the complex feel easy.

 

For the child who sees themselves in Rae, I hope they learn that their dog or classmate isn’t “bad” when they can’t get it just right, but instead are doing their best and just see the world differently. And that difference can make the world a more enjoyable place.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I’ve been drawing like crazy trying to create awareness for my Kickstarter campaign. I’ve been making reels for Instagram and Facebook and having a blast doing it.

 

I’ve been drawing Rae and Phebe in WWII-reminiscent recruitment posters. It’s a playful homage to these iconic posters, and it has been a delightful process of wordplay and visual metaphors.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: It’s worth remembering that when someone can’t seem to get the simple things right, it doesn’t mean they’re not as capable. What it may mean is that while they have to try very hard to do the things that you perceive as simple, they’re magnificent and intelligent in ways you can’t even imagine.

 

There’s a little story about Phebe that’s the perfect example of this. I went out forgetting the Chinese takeout box on the table. When I came back, she managed to eat all of the leftover fortune cookies while delicately removing each one from its cellophane wrapper and leaving them on the floor along with all of the paper fortunes.

 

I bent down and picked one up. It read, “Your exuberance and intelligence are often misunderstood.” I laughed and couldn’t have agreed more! That one went right on the fridge!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. This Q&A was conducted in partnership with Lorena M. Proia. Back this book on Kickstarter to help reach its funding goal AND enter this giveaway for the chance to win an extra-special bundle featuring a signed copy of the first book in this delightful series, How to Make a Sandwich, a matching set of Phebe-n-Me T-shirts (one child size and one adult size), and a gorgeous collection of 12 blank note cards with Phebe-n-Me designs.

Feb. 9

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 9, 1874: Amy Lowell born.