Can you enlighten our readers what it took to go for leaving a successful (regardless boring) Law Career to writing Hello Kitty Must Die? What was the process of finding an agent and publisher like? And how did you know it was a right choice?
It took about 8 years of abuse and misery for me to go from the law to writing. In my last year of law, I had a senior partner who called me “lazy, stupid, and incompetent” every day for a year at a tax law firm. Because he was simply the smartest man in the world, who never makes a mistake. It’s not easy working for an infallible human being. So I left. And after a lot of soul-searching, wine-drinking, whining, astrological consultations, tarot readings, astrological readings, I finally realized that I needed to go back to my original childhood dream of becoming a writer. I bought a new laptop because the one I had was about 8 years old. Then I started writing.
After writing Kitty, I queried about 225 agents, got 6 offers and finally signed with an agent in Oct 2008. Well, after helping me get Kitty into fine shape, she changed her mind and dropped the novel without submitting it anywhere. So I requeried Josh Getzler who was at Writers House at the time and signed with him. Josh had to go to 31 editors before Ben Leroy at Tyrus Books took it.
I knew it was the right choice because it felt great. And it worked. Good things happen when I write. Good things don’t when I don’t. Nothing says “right” more than when the Universe supports your decision.
Have any changes been implemented due to your novel?
No changes that I know of. I guess it hasn’t had that big of an impact on the world yet. But I do know of one agent who has changed his attitude towards his slush pile because of Kitty. He called me months after I already got an agent because he let Kitty sit in his slush pile forever. And now he goes through the pile more regularly. So I’m glad I made a difference in how an agent views his slush pile.
Your debut novel was obviously filled with much personal chararistics as well as a mix of fictional ones.
A recurring theme in your book is feminism and breaking away from traditional Asian cultural while at the same time appeasing overbearing father who set these standards.
After writing these books did you feel it opened discussions for your family as well as families across the countries?
I don’t think it opened discussions for me because by the time Kitty came out, I was 32. I was 31 when I wrote and sold it. I was no longer a lawyer but a quirky writer. And as such I was deemed not premium dating material… at least in the Asian world. A lot of my really Asian (like who are really into the traditional Asian) values didn’t like the novel at all. And the Bay Area Asian-American writers basically ignored it. One writer actually said, “Avert your face.” No surprise from an Asian man.
A lot of the Asian writers didn’t like it because it wasn’t the traditional immigrant story yellow girls like me are expected to write. The Amy Tan mother-daughter weep fest. The “oh it was so sad not to fit in because I’m yellow” story. Or a story based on some traditional Chinese myth/legend. It was different. And when something’s different, my peeps don’t seem to like it. Oh well.
You call Hello Kitty a satire. What in your heart influenced you to believe that satire was the weapon of choice to get your message/agenda across?
Satire picked me. I didn’t pick it. My first novel was a Agatha Christie wannabe. Because I was thinking money and book deals. But guess what? It didn’t sell. It wasn’t me. So it didn’t work. So I decided to write from within, letting all the weirdness and whatnot come out in my own natural voice. And it came out the way it did. I love black satire. It feels natural and right.
And it’s also different from the other Asian novels. From the “I can’t fit in” or “my mother had to work herself to death in a laundromat to raise me” kind of stories out there. It’s funny. I feel like in the Asian literary world, it’s okay to be an artist or writer only if you are writing what is expected.
“It’s okay to step out of the box, but only if you all step out in the exact same time-approved way.” Like it’s okay to go into music, but it had better be the violin or piano. That kind of thing. So I thought getting my point across in a subversive way would be much more effective, fresh, and fun.
Can you give us some insight into you other novel Apologies Not Included? Who would be interested in read it, why would they be and how do you personally feel about the outcome?
Apologies Not Included. It’s my unwanted baby. Unwanted by my agent who thinks it should be buried where no one can ever read it. But it’s my baby and I love it. It’s a dark, tragic coming-of-age story. It’s not as sassy or as funny as Kitty. It’s characters are tragic, flawed, suffering and they don’t have a good time.
It was inspired by my miserable college experience and writing it was a little like what Briony Tallis in Atonement was trying to do for herself. I reshaped the past through fiction in order to make sense of it for myself. And as a result, I think I wrote a pretty good novel. But my agent hated it. It was different and he kept comparing it to Kitty. He refused to send it to any publisher.
So after a year and a half of being tortured by the characters who yearned to live and be read, I e-published it on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. Fans and readers have told me they loved it. And I’m glad the novel is being read.
Apologies should be read by anyone whose life didn’t turn out like a fairy tale. Anyone who had high hopes and dreams and did everything right and still didn’t get what they wanted. Yeah… for a lot of people.
[...] an interview with Zak Winters on Everything But Urban, author Angela S. Choi details how difficult it was for to publish her novel Hello Kitty Must Die [...]