SLJTeen Talks with Malinda Lo
RSSJulie Scordato -- School Library Journal, 09/16/2009
You’ve written many articles for afterllen.com, including academic pieces on pop culture from the X-files to Chinese cooking in America. How was writing your first novel different?
Ash was actually not my first full-length novel. I wrote three full-length novels when I was a teenager. Writing Ash was like rediscovering the fun and joy I had back then in making up stories. Fiction and nonfiction are different but what I enjoy about both are their similarities. I enjoy using fiction techniques in nonfiction and nonfiction techniques in fiction.
Is there one idea you would like to see readers take away from Ash?
Falling in love with someone of the same sex is completely natural.
How did you come up with the idea for Ash?
When I decided to go back to writing fiction, I decided to write the story I’d always wanted to read. Cinderella was my favorite fairy tale when I was a child; I’d always loved Robin McKinley’s fairy tale retellings, and she never tackled Cinderella. So I decided to go for it. The first draft was not at all gay—Ash fell in love with the prince. I gave that draft to a friend to read; she thought the prince was not so interesting, but this other woman (the Huntress) was more provocative. Upon rereading it, I realized Ash was falling in love with this woman and I had written that subconsciously. I was a little wary about writing a “lesbian Cinderella,” but once I decided to do it, I went for it—rewrote the book with the same-sex romance in mind. I think I wrote about seven or eight drafts of the book from beginning to end; it’s been a seven-and-a-half-year process from the first idea to published book.
You’ve already finished a companion novel to Ash, set hundreds of years earlier and focused on the first huntress of the kingdom. How were you able to complete it so quickly?
I became a full-time novelist. It was just a year ago that I quit writing for afterellen.com. I was working over 60 hours a week for afterellen.com, and when you work full time, writing is left to evenings and weekends. To write fiction full time has been a dream of mine since I was a child.
The biography on your Web site lists says you’ve lived all over the world—including Boston, Beijing, London, and Los Angeles. Plus, you’ve also traveled widely. Is there a place you haven’t been to that you’d love to visit?
My partner and I are actually going to southern Ireland next year. I’ve been to Northern Ireland but not to Dublin, and I can’t wait to go. The faerie world constructed in Ash is largely drawn from Irish and British folklore. The name Sidhean, for example, is based on the Gaelic term Sidhe, a race of fairies who lived in the hills.
You’ve written about LGBTQ (lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender,questioning) literature for teens on AfterEllen.com. What do you think is the biggest indicator of progress in this area of teen literature… and what’s the next big hurdle?
The fact that LGBTQ books are being nominated for mainstream awards like the Printz and the National Book Award are great markers of progress. These books are also moving beyond the “problem novel” trope, which is wonderful because it means that LGBTQ characters can experience coming-of-age rather than coming out. The next big hurdle, I think, is gender—in our society as a whole as well as in representations of our society in books/TV/film. Not only transgender issues, but gender nonconformity in general is almost invisible (or disparaged) in our media. That is a huge issue for me.
What kind of feedback have you gotten from readers in these early days after the release of Ash?
I’ve been getting some feedback from teens; I think I can tell by the emails which readers are gay or not. I’ve gotten more feedback from AfterEllen.com readers who have been following me and it’s really amazing. I think a lot of queer women have been just waiting for a book where being gay is not a problem.
(Photo credit: Patty Nelson)
Julie Scordato is teen services/youth services leader at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio.
