Many members of my family have seen ghosts, but I haven't, and am not sure I want to...so instead I write about them. When I'm not writing about ghosts, I'm writing non-creepy web and promotional copy for businesses, nonprofits, and public agencies or writing non-fiction essays (some of which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and Salon.com).
I'm also a near-native of Los Angeles, the setting of the Days of the Dead series. I arrived there from my birthplace in the mysterious east (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) at the age of the 3 and earned two degrees in English from Stanford and a doctorate in linguistics from UCLA. After 10 years as a university professor and researcher (and writing unintentionally terrifying things like my first book, "Remnant Movement and VSO Clausal Architecture: A Case Study of San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec"), I returned to my roots as a writer. I've never looked back.
1. What
inspired you to write Days of the Dead?
A couple of things. One, I’ve
always been fascinated by ghosts and by stories of people who claim to have
actually seen them (like some members of my family). Thus, I wondered what life
would be like if that were a normal state of affairs. The second inspiration
was my background growing up in Los Angeles—while I’m not Latina myself (I’m
Chinese-American), many of my classmates were, and if you live in L.A., it’s
impossible to go through the day without hearing someone speaking Spanish, even
if you’re just sitting at home flipping through TV or radio stations. Also, in
my previous career as a linguistic researcher, I did most of my research on an
indigenous language of Mexico (San Lucas Quiavinà Zapotec, spoken in central Oaxaca), and luckily for me, many
speakers of the language had emigrated to the US and lived in Los Angeles. I
got much of my data from them, and learned a lot about what they had
experienced personally as new immigrants trying to fit in and build new homes
in a sometimes hostile country.
2. What
were Elena’s ultimate goals in the story and how did they reflect on her?
While Elena is a journalist by
profession, she is primarily interested in social justice – for her, reporting
is a way of speaking truth to power and defending the exploited. So when the
housekeeper, Graciela, goes missing, Elena’s goal is not just to passively
report what happened to her, but to find Graciela herself. As a result, she
tends to take her stories very personally, which is not always a responsible or
healthy quality in a journalist. So Elena’s passion for doing the right thing
is both a strength and a weakness.
3. Can
you describe the relationship between Elena and Mona—two women from two
different worlds?
Theirs is definitely an “Odd Couple”
type of relationship! I guess Mona, being a bit needy, is drawn to Elena
because she is so strong and independent and because she is so patient and
(mostly) non-judgmental. And while Elena knows that Mona is a bit of an
emotional basket case with a flair for bad decisions, she values Mona’s
intelligence, kindness, and loyalty, as well as the fact that Mona knows her
well enough to fully accept her without judgment, warts and supernatural gift
and all.
4. What
are some of the main socio-economic issues that you explore in this book and
why did you explore them?
In Days of the Dead, Elena’s
primary goal is fighting racism, especially against Mexican Americans, and
promoting economic justice issues such as a living wage and ensuring the
justice system treats rich and poor Americans equally. I chose these issues
because they seemed to make sense to me in light of Elena’s character—she’s
driven by her passions, and her passions are driven by her personal experience.
Given her ethnic and family background, these seemed to be appropriate causes
for her. While I do believe these issues should be taken more seriously, my
goal wasn’t specifically to promote them, but to give Elena her “why”.
5. What
do you hope readers will gain from your book?
Above all, I hope they will
enjoy themselves! But if readers also come away with an added appreciation of
L.A.’s cultural diversity and start to think a bit about what it means to be a
member of a minority group (or a white person in a majority-minority city like
Los Angeles), all the better. I didn’t write Days of the Dead to teach anyone a
lesson—L.A.’s mix of cultures just felt natural to me since that’s what I grew
up with, and I was just following the old advice to write what you know. But
after workshopping the story with my writing group in rural Florida, where I
live now, I realized that for many Americans, this mix seemed terribly exotic
and strange, and the story may be an opportunity to show them another part of
the “real America”.
6. What
do you like best and what do you like least about being a writer?
What I like best is having a
healthy and constructive outlet for my random thoughts, fears, and passions. I
write a lot of horror stories (I’m a member of the Horror Writers Association)
because I have an unfortunate tendency to fantasize worst-case scenarios, so I
write stories about them instead of internalizing them and wrecking my life. I’m also really into birdwatching, so as a
favor to my local Audubon society, I submitted an article on a rare local
sighting to our local paper. Not only did it get published there, it also got
picked up by NPR, The Weather Channel, and the Washington Post, among other
outlets. (And I didn’t get one red cent for my efforts. Pfft.)
And this brings me to the
downside of writing: It’s generally not taken very seriously as a profession.
Writing is also my day job—I do web content writing and ghostwriting and have
years of experience writing for Fortune 500 companies and governmental
agencies, but my main competition is always some random dude with a spell
checker who does half-assed work for pizza money. And alas, the only difference
a lot of prospective clients see is the price.
7. Who
are some of your favorite authors?
They’re all over the map! I
wrote my college honors thesis on Virginia Woolf, whose writing is just
breathtaking—I used to cry myself to sleep wondering why I couldn’t write like
that. Stephen King is always fun to read and always comes up with interesting
premises for his stories. Junot Diaz does neat and original things with
language. Carl Hiaasen can weave political and environmental issues into his
fiction and educate readers while making them laugh, which is not an easy thing
to do…the list goes on.
8. If
your book would be turned into a movie, who would you imagine playing the part
of the main character? (Actor can be ANYONE, living or dead.)
Good question! I don’t watch very much
TV or see a lot of movies, so I don’t have a lot of candidates in my mental
inventory. Elena’s definitely not a real sexpot, nor does she care a lot about
her appearance, although I imagine her being attractive enough, so not someone
like Jennifer Lopez. Maybe someone who’s good at making strong, unconventional
characters sympathetic and human – I liked how America Ferrara portrayed her
character in Ugly Betty; maybe she’d be a good choice.
9. Are
you working on anything right now?
I’ve already completed a draft
of the sequel to Days of the Dead, which I’m now revising, and starting to
draft the storyline for the third book in the series.
10. And,
finally, what do you think is in store for the future of Latino literature?
My hope is that in the future,
stories with Latina/o protagonists are no longer pigeonholed as just Latino
literature, and that people of all backgrounds will be attracted to them and recognize
some common ground with them. I also envision seeing more Latinos and other
peoples of color playing prominent roles (as writers or characters) in
mainstream genre literature (horror, mystery, romance, speculative fiction,
etc.) – this is already starting to happen. It will be a great day when a
Latino/Latina or other person of color could write about people and themes
reflecting their background and be recognized not just as a great
Latino/African-America/Asian-American writer, but a great American writer,
period.
Up next: A review for Days of the Dead
