Cel's Big 4 Interview: Malinda Lo

Malinda Lo was born in China and moved to the United States as a child. Ash, her first novel, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Lambda Literary Award for Children’s/Young Adult, and was a Kirkus 2009 Best Book for Children and Teens.

Her second novel, Huntress, is a companion novel to Ash and is an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Her young adult science fiction duology, beginning with Adaptation, will be published in fall 2012. Formerly, she was an entertainment reporter, and was awarded the 2006 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for Excellence in LGBT Journalism by the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association for her work at AfterEllen. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and has master’s degrees from Harvard and Stanford Universities. She now lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog.

Cels: Thank you so much for dropping by and visiting us here at Burn Bright. Both our reviewers who read Ash and Huntress fell head over heels for the stories, and for myself, Huntress is one of the most thought provoking, heart-wrenching novels I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Not only does it contain a poignant and beautiful love story, here we meet two amazing young women who must face the choice of obligation over their feelings. I enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t society placing the obstacles in front of them, but the girls’ own career aspirations that challenged them. How important do you think works of fiction are when it comes to challenging/changing societies ideal/beliefs?

Malinda: Thank you! That is such a compliment!  Fiction can be so powerful, I think, because the format of the novel is so intimate — it’s like having someone whisper inside your brain. I love that the connection a reader can develop with a character can be so close. With a good book, you really get to know a character, and often you come to identify and sympathize with them. If you don’t share their beliefs that can push you to broaden your own, or at least gain some understanding into why they think differently than you do.

As a writer of fiction, I don’t purposely write to change anyone’s ideals or beliefs, but it’s not a black-and-white situation. I have to be true to the characters and the story I’m telling, but also, my own beliefs probably come through in the fiction I write. I believe that’s the case with every writer, though. I’ll probably never write a story that is sympathetic to a homophobe, for example, because I doubt I’d ever want to.

Cels: Ash is the tale of Cinderella with a unique new twist. Which fairy tale’s captivated you as a child?

Malinda: You’ll be shocked to learn that my favorite fairy tale as a child was Cinderella. 🙂 I even loved the Disney version! As I grew up I came to have a more complicated relationship with the Cinderella story than I did as a child, but I think I still identify with the tale of someone who works very hard and ultimately is rewarded for her labor. The reward I’d want now is different than the one I wanted as a six-year-old, but it’s still the same general story. Also, I’m a romantic!

Cels: You have a new novel “Adaptation” releasing later this year. Can you tell us a little bit about what’s in store for us?

Malinda: It’s very different from Ash and Huntress. For one thing, it’s contemporary science fiction, set in the United States, so there aren’t any enchanted forests or fairies! It was a very fun book to write; I sort of think of it as my version of a popcorn movie. There’s a lot of action and exploding thingies, and also quite a bit of making out. (Really, more than I expected!) It’s inspired by my love for The X-Files, so you can expect conspiracies and mystery and some creepiness. I hope people enjoy it!

Cels: Which of your fictional characters burns brightest in your mind and why?

Malinda: Currently I’m writing the sequel to Adaptation (yes, there is a sequel!), so I’m very deeply in the heads of those characters. There is one, in particular, who seemed to spring from my imagination fully formed from the very beginning. I feel a little guilty about saying this, but this character is hands-down my favorite character I’ve ever created. (I can imagine all my other characters making faces at me.) Sometimes creating a character is like pulling teeth — I can’t figure out why they want to do things or even what they want to wear. But with this character, I knew all of it from the get-go. I have no idea how or why, but I think the magicalness of this character’s birth is part of why I love this one so much. (You noticed I said nothing about who this character is, right? Ha!)