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“Me” enough for my own story
The first storyteller who taught me the value of stories was my Taiwanese immigrant mother. Her lessons and advice always came couched in a long-winded story or parable or anecdote rather than as a simple, straightforward admonishment, delivered in an “are you listening?” tone that demanded her audience’s attention more forcefully than did the most skilled orators’. I’m telling you, Rome’s best senators had nothing on my mother. As an impatient teenager, I perfected the art of the eye-roll thanks to the hours I’d had to listen to her recount the fable about the frivolous prince who pierced his ear and thus pierced his destiny and died a poor, penniless…
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Grandma stories, and the gaps they bridge
You may have heard folks talking about their grandma stories, especially folks from various diasporas. But if you don’t know where these stories come from, or why they’re so important in diasporic cultures, or why they’re called grandma stories—well then, pull up a chair and stay a while, because have I got a story for you.
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Telling the grandma stories
For the longest time, I hesitated to write anything Chinese-flavored because I didn’t feel Chinese enough. I hesitated to write anything Taiwanese because I didn’t feel like I understood the deep division between China and Taiwan well enough. I felt deeply ironic writing from my love of European mythology because I’m definitely not white enough. And I constantly felt a certain social responsibility — along with a healthy dose of guilt — to understand the other half of me, the half that faces outward, and the half I least understood.
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Making space for the underdog, at SpikeCon 2019
I was incredibly honored and fortunate to speak on 4 panels at SpikeCon (which was also Westercon 72 and NASFiC 13) this past week: “Gay Wizards and Lesbian Sorceresses,” with co-panelists Erin Ruston, Baen author D.J. Butler (author of the Witchy Eye series), and Adam McLain, moderated by B. Daniel Blatt “Editing vs. Beta Reading,” with co-panelists best-selling author Dan Wells (author of the John Cleaver series, which started with I Am Not A Serial Killer), TOR senior acquisition editor Susan Chang, and Melissa Meibos, moderated by Joe Monson “Privilege and Passing in Genre Fiction,” with co-panelists YA author Aften Brook Szymanski (author of Con Code, among others), B. Daniel…
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And That … Was That
A couple of my Salt City Scribes once asked me, “Hey, you have a lot to say during our group meetings. Why don’t you ever speak at these writing events you’re always telling us about?” I told them, “Because I’m not credentialed enough.” They asked, “Does it matter?”
