With her debut novel Ash, a queer retelling of Cinderella, former AfterEllen.com editor Malinda Lo immediately established herself as an exciting new voice in Young Adult literature. In 2009, Ash was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Children’s/ Young Adult. Lo’s follow-up novel, Huntress, is set in the same world as Ash, only centuries before. We recently spoke to Lo about her book, the state of queer YA literature and her participation in the upcoming Diversity in YA tour. AfterEllen.com: Huntress is the prequel to your debut novel Ash. How did you come to write the books in that reverse order? Malinda Lo: When I wrote Ash I didn’t have any intention of writing anything else set in that world. Huntress kind of snuck up on me because I had to write a second young adult novel – I had a two-book contract – and I found myself thinking a lot about one thing Kaisa says to Ash. She tells Ash that, in the past, the King’s Huntress was kind of like an ambassador between the human kingdom and the land of the Fairy Queen. I started to wonder what exactly Kaisa meant by that, so I began to flesh out the story that is now Huntress. It’s about the first huntress in the Kingdom, so it’s kind of an origin story.
AE: You’ve said that the Chinese text The I Ching influenced Huntress. Can you talk about that? ML: Sure! The I Ching is a foundational book of Chinese philosophy that has deeply shaped and influenced Chinese society over thousands of years. It’s a philosophy about change, which is probably why the title is often translated into English as Book of Changes. The I Ching was used in ancient times as a divination tool, but the thoughts within it have also influenced other Chinese philosophies, such as Taoism, which is also a major influence in the word of Huntress.
From what I understand, The I Ching is about dealing with the fact that the world is in constant flux. Everything changes, and so we as human beings and as actors in the world need to learn to adapt to that change. There are lots of complicated, interesting issues entwined within The I Ching, such as fate vs. free will, self vs. the greater society, etc. These things do come up in Huntress as the main character, Kaede, tries to figure out what her path in life is, and whether or not she can change her destiny.
AE: You capture a frighteningly real dystopia in Huntress. What inspired this vision? ML: Thank you! I love dystopian novels, actually, and I’ve definitely been inspired by them. But I think the idea of an unending winter is quite a familiar motif in fantasy. The thought of a land wasting away is very symbolic. Also, I started writing the book in the middle of winter, so maybe that was part of it!
AE: The creatures that occupy this world are very detailed and imaginative. Did you have to sketch them first? I have this image of you writing at a desk surrounded by drawings of fairies. ML: Well, I didn’t sketch any fairies, but I did have images of fairies to look at. I have this wonderful, giant coffee-table book called The Complete Encyclopedia of Elves, Goblins, and Other Little Creatures (written by Pierre Dubois, illustrated by Claudine and Roland Sabatier), which I’ve pored through repeatedly. It has amazing illustrations of fairies and magical creatures from all over the world. I got some great ideas from that book.
AE: It seems like this must have been an interesting book to write because there is such a wide range of scenes and characters and worlds. What did you enjoy writing in this book? What was challenging? ML: Huntress was really challenging for me to write; it was definitely the most difficult book I’ve written so far. I think that’s because I was working on it right when Ash was published, so I would get all this feedback online about Ash that contributed to my feeling a ton of pressure to live up to people’s expectations for my next book. I had never dealt with that before, since Ash was my first novel. I’m very happy that Ash has been so well-received, of course, and in retrospect I think the pressure forced me to learn how to step back from all the Internet commentary and focus on what I personally wanted Huntress to be like.
Most of the parts of Huntress that I love the most were extremely hard for me to write. I love to write romantic scenes, but making the romance work was so hard! I love to write action, but I put the characters in some really hairy situations that even required me to diagram out what was happening (like little football charts). I’m very proud of what I’ve done with this book, though. I learned a lot!
AE: How do your young adult readers – gay and straight alike – respond to the queer characters and relationships in your stories? ML: I get wonderful emails from queer readers who have told me that reading Ash helped them to feel more comfortable with their own sexual orientation, and I love that. And I get emails from straight readers who say things like, “I had no idea this was going to be a lesbian romance but I loved it!” So that’s nice, too.
AE: Has the queer element of your work and the fact that it is listed for Young Adults caused any controversy? ML: As any LGBT person probably knows, sometimes people don’t like us because of our sexual orientation or gender identity. So, yeah, sometimes homophobic people don’t like my books. But I have been lucky that my books haven’t been on the end of any major controversy.
AE: What do you hope your readers get out of your stories? ML: I hope they have fun! I just want to tell enjoyable stories that can take readers away from the real world for a little while.
AE: Do you think there’s anything missing from contemporary Young Adult fiction? ML: Fantasy and science fiction about queer girls, for one thing. That’s what I want to read. I want adventures and thrillers that star LGBT characters – not as secondary characters, but as main characters. I want those LGBT characters to have awesome, sexy romances that are front-and-center.
Realistically, I doubt there is going to be a sudden onslaught of YA fantasy and science fiction about queer teens. But I am certainly doing my part to write that kind of book!
AE: What are you working on now? Returning to the gothic boarding school mystery you thought you’d be writing when the idea of Huntress took over? ML: Ha, no, unfortunately the gothic boarding school mystery is on hold, but I reserve the right to write it later! Currently I’m working on my next YA novel (Adaptation, coming out in fall 2012), which is a sci-fi-ish tale set in the near-future United States. It’s sort of X-Files-like in that it deals with government conspiracies about UFOs, and two teens who are caught up in a bunch of weirdness when their car crashes in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada. And of course, there are queer girls.
AE: Speaking of queer girls, do you miss writing for AfterEllen? ML: Sometimes I do! I think what I miss the most is the sense of queer community at AfterEllen, because my day-to-day life now as a young adult novelist is pretty darn straight. People in YA love to talk about cute boy crushes, and usually I’m just sitting there with a smile plastered on my face as my mind wanders off to dykier pastures. Who would’ve thought I’d miss the Hot 100?
AE: Tell us about the Diversity in YA tour that you’ll be participating in. ML: I’d love to! I’m doing the tour in May. I’ll be traveling to San Francisco, Austin, Chicago, Boston, and New York – and in New York we have a special LGBT session at the LGBT Center – to celebrate diversity in young adult fiction from May 7-14. This is a project that I cofounded with Cindy Pon, a friend of mine, when we realized we both were releasing Asian-inspired fantasies at the same time. We have about 25 other fantastic children’s and young adult authors joining us across the country, and I think it’s going to be so much fun.
I hope some AE readers can come out to see us! You can get more information about the tour at our website, www.diversityinya.com, or my own events at www.malindalo.com.
