“She should have been more mature for a 40-year-old.” That’s a paraphrasing of a book review I read recently. It made me wonder if this person actually knew any 40-year-olds. Sure, there are people who should know better no matter how old they are, but why would a protagonist that age have to act mature, …
The other day I went on an aimless walk while listening to an interview with the writer Nnedi Okorafor. She’s a very interesting interview subject overall, but one thing she said in particular really struck me: I’ve always existed on a lot of fault lines, and that does fuel what I write. She then went …
Filipino Heritage Month follows Asian Heritage Month/AAPI Heritage Month. May and June kinda knock my mixed-race brain around. I sometimes feel like I don’t belong in these conversations – especially as a writer – but at the same time I feel like I deserve to celebrate my heritage as much as any Asian does. So …
Asian Heritage Month, Filipino Heritage Month, and The Quiet is Loud Read More »
In June 2021 I had a lot of fun as Open Book’s Writer-in-Residence, and so I’m excited to announce that I’m now writing a regular column for them! My first article is about my experience with the highs and surprising lows that arise after publishing a book. It’s a must-read for anyone who has a …
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Eden Boudreau on the Dear Lonely Writer podcast. The time really flew by as we talked about writing journeys, character-driven fiction, identity and belonging, small presses, and connecting with your people. You can listen to my episode here, and after you’re done I highly recommend listening to …
I’m having a lot of fun with my Substack newsletter. It’s been nice to return to slightly longer forms of expression considering, you know, *gestures vaguely at the state of social media*. I realize that this blog/journal can count as a longer form of expression, but honestly I’m still not sure how to best use …
I’m grateful to ECW Press, Diaspora Dialogues, and the Ontario Arts Council for awarding me Recommender Grants for Writers to write Seeker of the Lost Song, my fantasy novel-in-progress blending elements of Filipino and Finnish culture and history. It’s truly an honour to have this support. Arts funding is critically important not only to those …
I did a Q&A with Susan Sanford Blades in the January edition of her Girls to the Front newsletter! Thank you, Susan. It was fun to talk about the timeline of writing The Quiet is Loud, worldbuilding, its themes, and of course – its food. I didn’t consciously draw on those childhood examples when developing …
I’m honoured that The Quiet is Loud was recently reviewed by Erin Della Mattia for Prairie Fire. An excerpt: The result is a complex and ambitious novel about how we construct our identities when we feel like outsiders, whether that be as a person with exceptional capabilities, a child of immigrants, or a mixed-race person …
I’m excited to moderate an AugurCon panel: Worldbuilding the Real World: Creating the Fictional Here, featuring Kim Fu, Natalie Zina Walschots, and Maria Dong, discussing worldbuilding in our own reality. Worldbuilding is one of my absolute favourite things about writing, and I’m eager to hear how these talented writers approach it in their own work. …
