“I’m feeling a little bit braver about writing myself into my stories” - an interview with Marie Lu, 14-time bestselling writer
Interview by Isabelle Pan
One of our co-founders (also secondary school teacher by day), Isabelle, attended the Penguin ‘House of YA’ Litfest at Waterstones Piccadilly in London earlier this month, and got the chance to interview Marie Lu, 14-time New York Times bestselling writer, and author of the YA novel ‘Stars and Smoke’ out since March this year .
When I first read the blurb for Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu, the combination of romance with pop-star-turned-spy plot made me question how much depth there would be in this story - therein lay my first mistake.
It is not uncommon for adult authors and readers to turn their noses up at YA literature, on the assumptions that the story will be frivolous, and the writing, basic. Stars and Smoke is yet another YA (or NA, i.e. ‘new adult’) novel that proves those assumptions wrong.
So, naturally, when besea.n was invited a few months ago by Mediahive to attend the Waterstones x Penguin House of YA Litfest in August, I was quietly excited. I always love finding new YA literature, especially by authors of colour. It is not just my experience, but probably that of many other adults my age, that, as I was growing up, some of the only books by authors of colour that I read were by Malorie Blackman and Adeline Yen Mah. Other than that, all around me, I was told that the gems of literature lay in the writing of pale, stale, males from centuries yonder in the past.
Every Middle Grade or Young Adult book I read is a balm for the soul of younger - and present-day - Isabelle. So, with this invite to House of YA Litfest, I was especially excited to hear from Marie Lu and Natasha Bowen, whose books I had not yet read but which interested me the most. This article will spotlight my interview with Marie Lu (if you’d like to read my interview with Natasha Bowen, teacher-turned-author of Skin of the Sea, please keep an eye out on @readingwithmisspan on Instagram).
Marie Lu is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, having written the hugely successful Legend series and amassed fans all over the globe. She is a veteran dystopian, science-fiction and fantasy YA writer, and has been publishing novels for over a decade. During the pandemic, she felt needed a safe place to go to in her writing, but dystopian fiction and science fiction no longer felt so safe a place to turn to. Instead, she turned towards the concept of a romance spy NA thriller, set mostly in London.
Marie’s writing makes her stories of teens and new adults relatable to readers, young or not, and we see that starkly in Stars and Smoke. As our main characters we have Winter Young, whom we hastily assume will be shallow, superficial, and driven by material things and fame, and Sydney Cossette, who presents a sarcastic, cynical facade - in short, the grumpy-sunshine trope that is familiar to romance readers. Yet, the weaving of flashbacks in Stars and Smoke give the main characters a depth that took me by surprise.
In addition, for readers of the Asian diaspora in particular, Stars and Smoke will be particularly appealing not only because its male (romantic) lead is a Chinese American pop star (reminiscent of our real-world BTS), but also due to the exploration of his family background and of the traumas that can be present in Asian diaspora families, as well as the Chinese Mandarin pinyin that crops up in dialogue with his mother!
In terms of representation and writing Asian culture into her books, Marie herself states (in an author panel later that day at House of YA fest), that, over the years, with the publishing of more and more books, she was ‘feeling a little bit braver about writing [herself] into them’. This was a change from when she had been ‘pretty anxious about that early on’. Nowadays, although ‘there’s still a lot of space for improvement in diversity for YA and for fiction at large’, the landscape for writers of colour is different, but Marie believes that overall the change is encouraging.
Previously a video game design artist at Disney, and a keen gamer, Marie has been inspired by the story-telling in video games while crafting her stories and characters. In the past she has revealed that sketching her characters is part of her writing process (here are sneak peeks of Marie’s sketches of Sydney and Winter for this book). In the author panel at Waterstones, she revealed that she is inspired by the levelling up in video games, and she incorporates this in her books ‘where the character is levelling up, and they acquire new skills and new talents and move on to the next step’ - certainly an important ingredient for the young adults in her stories. In addition, when creating a story, Marie told the audience that, as she is a visual person, she sees the story as a movie in her head - or even a video game, because she is ‘changing how it's going’. Safe to say that Marie is slowly changing the landscape of diversity in YA literature, and we hope to see more empowering Asian characters in her future stories.
Marie Lu at the Penguin House of YA Fest | Credit: Rishma Dhaliwal and Isabelle Pan
Together, Izzy and Marie had a short but wonderful conversation on the joy of YA literature, representation, mental health in Asian diaspora communities, the inclusion of Chinese language in this book, and the references to London within this book.
[Below is a transcription of an audio recording of Isabelle’s and Marie Lu’s interview, which you can hear on our podcast, ‘But Where Are You From?’, at the top of this page or wherever you get your podcasts.]
Izzy: Welcome back to Where Are You From? So where are you from as a podcast by besea.n, and besea.n stands for Britain's East and Southeast Asian network. So my name is Isabelle Pan and I'm here at the Waterstones Penguin YA book festival with Marie Lu. Marie Lu, you're a best selling author, multiple times bestselling author. So welcome.
Marie: Thank you, Isabelle.
Izzy: So just to introduce myself, I'm a languages teacher in a middle to high school. I'm a co founder of besea.n and also love promoting reading for young people. So firstly, how are you enjoying your time in the UK?
Marie: Oh, I love it. I've always enjoyed coming over here and my husband, I usually come over really once a year something. I love London. It's one of my favourite cities in the world. Yeah.
Marie is a prolific Young Adult fiction writer | Credit: @marieluthewriter Instagram
Izzy: So you've written quite a few YA novels and your new novel Stars and Smoke is a YA novel. What do you enjoy the most about writing YA novels?
Marie: I love YA because it feels so immediate. There's everything that's happened to the characters feels like, it's the end of the world, and it's happening right now, and they have to tackle it immediately. And there's something so refreshing and fast about that. And I think that's what draws a lot of people to reading YA.
And it's also that you never really grow out of that coming-of-age story. You know, even no matter how old we get, our lives are constantly changing. We're constantly adapting. And I think there's something really special about that young adult period of time where everything is changing in your life, and you're set taking that step into adulthood that we can all relate to. So I love reading YA for that. I love writing it for that.
And I also think YA's very hopeful. It's, you know, a category where it feels like you can make changes for the better in the world that you're in and that things can end well. And, you know, I love adult fiction, but sometimes it can be very depressing. And I love that YA, it kind of feels like a more hopeful, more optimistic space.
Izzy: Yeah, I love that word 'hopeful' because, I do feel the same. Sometimes when I feel down, I just pick up a YA book and I feel more optimistic.
Marie Lu’s sketch of Winter Young | Credit: @marieluthewriter Instagram
Izzy: So, I really loved the book.
Marie: Thank you.
Izzy: And I love the sophistication in your writing of the characters in both Winter and Sydney, the lead characters. And Winter is a male Chinese American pop celebrity. He is adored by his hordes of fans. And you depicted him as you know, almost insultingly handsome. And as you know, Asian boys and men are not always depicted as romantic male leads on screen, maybe sometimes on the page. So why did you pick Winter as your [romantic] lead character?
Marie: Yeah, I've always been deeply frustrated by that. When I was growing up, I love music. Like most teenagers do love pop music. I had posters of Britney Spears on my wall. There was nobody in America who was Asian American who was huge, and that I could idolise that I could see as like N*Sync or Backstreet Boys or anything like that. And, I always thought that was so frustrating. You know, in order to see someone like that in music, you had to look overseas, you have to go to Asia.
But I think the music industry, like many other industries, was and is incredibly difficult for Asian Americans to break into. And I've always been really frustrated by that. I despise the emasculation of Asian men and boys. My husband is Filipino American. And I remember when I was writing Warcross, which is the first time that I put in an Asian male romantic lead, and Hideo, I remember us having a talk about it. And he just kind of almost instinctively said, you know, maybe you should make the lead white because I don't think people will be attracted to an Asian guy and their story.
And that broke my heart because he's Asian American and, and he had internalised that, and I just kind of looked at, I was like, I will make him Asian American. I did make him so Asian and he will be so hot! And so that's what I did with Hideo, who was also insultingly handsome and I, and that's kind of become a trend of my stories. Like if there was an Asian guy that he's gonna be insultingly hot.
So that was my inspiration going into writing Stars and Smoke. I wanted Winter to feel like the, you know, Asian American phenomenon that I never had as a kid. It's been really great to see that kind of changing and music these days. You know, I know BTS is from South Korea, but I'm a huge fan of them. I love seeing them getting that kind of superstardom around the world. I feel like it's becoming more and more evident in media that Asian Americans are attractive and that we can be leads and that we can be romantic interest. So we can be all kinds of characters. And that's something that I wanted to capture in that book and push forward.
Marie Lu and her husband Primo Gallanosa | Credit: @marieluthewriter Instagram
Izzy: When I was reading your book, insultingly handsome sounds cheesy, but it actually really works. And it's funny to see Sydney, like, get annoyed with herself every time she finds him handsome.
So one of the family storylines we follow in the book is showing some of the traumas in Asian American families, and some of the mental health struggles in our communities as well. It's obviously really sad to read, but it's really familiar with some of the readers who, you know, have Asian parents. So talk to us a little bit about this theme in your book.
Marie: Yes, absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up. I think that, as a community, you know, we're not a monolith. Obviously, everyone has their own individual stories. But there are some themes that kind of run more commonly through a lot of our lives. And I think one of them is this kind of taboo of talking about mental health and Winter faces that with his mom, he loves her. And she has done her best with him. But she also has her traumas that she is confronting, based on things that had happened in her life that she has tried to get over and that trauma has passed down to Winter, who lost his brother who was the light of his mother's life, and [Winter] was always the afterthought.
And we see how that trauma can continue and how it has changed his entire life's trajectory, you know, he's just a boy who never got enough love as a kid. And as a result, he's just determined to become famous, because he's like, I cannot get enough love, I need all of it, I will never be happy until everyone loves me. And that changes his entire life trajectory.
So I wanted to portray that relationship, because I wanted to show that his mother is not a villain, you know, she is a complicated person as well. But it doesn't mean that she can't inflict something deeply traumatic on her son as well. And they have trouble talking about it. Their conversations are always stilted and awkward. And it was a very difficult, complicated relationship for me to write. But, but I hope it came across correctly.
Izzy: Yeah, I think you really did. So another thing I really loved in your book was the inclusion of Mandarin Chinese. You included some dialogue in pinyin, even with the tones on the vowels. So what was behind your choice to include the pinyin?
Marie: First of all, it's because I'm a little bit illiterate in Mandarin, I don't know how to read and write it. But I do know pinyin pretty well. So I wanted to show that there were pieces of his heritage that he's still kept, you know, he was born and raised in America. But he is Chinese American. And I wanted to show that even though he is an individual in his own right - you know, being Asian American doesn't mean that you necessarily have to speak your own language or that you know it or anything - but in his case, he does. And I just mirrored that off of myself. I think his understanding of Mandarin is about my level, where it's very clear that I'm American, and that's where I grew up. And that's my experience. So that's Winter's experience as well. But I also wanted to put in a note to remind you like, "Yes, he is, of Chinese heritage, you know, this is the family that he came from".
Isabelle and Marie Lu | Credit: Rishma Dhaliwal and Isabelle Pan
Izzy: My final question is: one of the settings in this book is London, where you and I are right now. And I really love the references even down to like the candy from the UK, and Alexandra Palace, which is where a big event happens in the book - and that's where I used to go ice skating when I was younger. So, that was really nice. How did you enjoy writing about London and researching London? I know you said you've been here quite a few times.
Marie: Oh, that means a lot to me that you enjoy that because you're from London. I love London. It's one of my favourite cities in the world. My husband, I had actually tried to be here. And one time I ended up not because of family, but I love being here. I love it feels like the crossroads of the world. I love that. You know, when I come here, I feel like a little person in this giant sea of humanity from all over the world. I love it. You can walk on the street, you'll hear like 10 different languages, you know, in five minutes, and it's completely normal. I love that feeling of being lost in the sea of the world, which I feel more here than anywhere else. So I wanted to capture a little bit of that.
I wanted to also write it as if it was a tourist talking about because what you're from like, I'm not from London, I know I can write that kind of experience so intimately, but I wanted to feel like somebody who had come to this city. I experienced it for real and gone to some of those places. So I had a lot of fun researching.
Izzy: Well, thank you so much. I really enjoyed meeting you and having this conversation. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the festival and then also the rest of your stay in London.
Marie: Thank you so much Isabelle, this was a wonderful conversation, so much fun.
Marie Lu’s new book Stars and Smoke is out now in hardback in the UK.