With Kaylie Seed
Photo by Eric Heidle
Readers learn about epigenetics (the study of how our behaviours and our environment affect our DNA, essentially changing how it works) and I’m curious, what kind of research did you need to do on epigenetics? Was this always meant to be a central theme in The Many Daughters of Afong Moy?
Fortunately, scientists, biologists, chemists, and geneticists at Emory University, MIT, Sarah Lawrence, and Harvard (just to name a few) have done a copious amount of research and as a writer of fiction I’m able to stand on their shoulders and look taller (and smarter) than I really am. Their trailblazing work is documented in countless scientific papers, which are written for peer review, not pleasure reading. My job was to harvest as much science as I could and present it in a way that would not only be understandable, but compelling. While also projecting where I think this technology might take us in a few short decades.
In a way, it’s analogous to how Arthur C. Clarke proposed the concept of satellite communication in 1945 before Sputnik 1 was launched into orbit in the late 50s. I have this vain hope that the concepts presented in the book might someday become reality, if only so I can iron out the wrinkles in my own epigenetic past.
That was always the central theme, to find a way to relive the past and correct mistakes or reshape regrets for the next generation. Because everyone wants a do-over, right?
As a follow up to the question above, what inspired you to look into epigenetics in the first place? It is a fascinating field of study to read about.
I owe it all to Van Halen. Seriously. My interest in epigenetics began, when my twelve-year-old son, Taylor, found Van Halen on YouTube and declared them the greatest band ever. I’d never played Van Halen’s music for him, but that was my first concert back in 1984 (with David Lee Roth in leopard print Spandex).
At the time, it seemed like a weird parent/child coincidence. Then he fell in love with Genesis, another band I liked back then and I became convinced that in addition to my hairline, overbite, and blood type, Taylor had somehow inherited my dubious taste in music.
That’s when I began reading everything I could find on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, which is the study of how behaviour and environment can alter the function of our genetic code. It’s also the study of how those phenotype changes in our DNA are heritable, affecting subsequent generations.
Readers may not know that Afong Moy was a real person, that she was known as the first Chinese woman to step onto American soil in 1834. How did you originally learn about her? Did you know that you wanted to write about her immediately or was she a historical figure that stayed with you awhile until you found the right story for her?
Back in the early 90s the San Francisco Examiner ran a full-page dedicated to Asian American Heritage Month. I remember a detailed chronology from 1587, when Filipino sailors first landed in what is now California, to Kristi Yamaguchi winning the gold medal in the Olympics in 1992. On that timeline were things like the death of Vincent Chin, the opening of the Angel Island Detention Center, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, but also a curious mention that read “1834, Afong Moy, the first known Chinese woman in the United States, is put on display in a New York Theater.”
Decades later that I thought about fictionalizing her life, but there didn’t seem to be enough there for an entire novel and her life story ends so mysteriously and tragic. But once I went down the epigenetics rabbit hole, I realized she could become a wonderful root character in a multi-generational story. I could give her a voice as well as a moment of redemption.
There are six different women characters that the reader will follow throughout The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, each set in a different period of time and many based on real life events. Was there a specific character that you enjoyed creating the most, and if so who and why?
I loved writing Greta’s story. Not because I’m a tech executive but I did take computer programming classes at Olympic College while in junior high, so I was kind of a turbo-geek. Or as Greta says, “I’m polynomial in a non-polynomial world.” I can relate to that struggle to fit in. I mean, I was a kid taking Pascal, and everyone else in the HP computer lab seemed like they were in their 70s. (In retrospect, I’m sure they were in their late 20s or 30s and I probably made them feel just as old as they made me feel like a toddler).
And in case anyone’s wondering, after being asked to write a program to track hotel occupancy (and not create video games as I’d hoped) I quit. Thus, becoming that rare fourteen-year-old college drop-out.
As a follow up to the question above, did you find any of these characters difficult to create, and if so who and why?
The hardest was Lai King because most of her story takes place on a ship. Not just any ship, but a steam barkentine. What’s that? Exactly. It’s a sailing ship that also has a steam engine, founded in this liminal space between the old world and the industrial age.
I should mention that despite spending a lot of time on the ocean in my 20s, I now get horribly seasick with even the slightest motion of the sea. Friend (and author) Hugh Howey once invited me to join him aboard his catamaran, which was in Fiji at the time. I said, “You will quickly tire of me barfing over the side.” To which he replied, “Don’t sell yourself short, I would never tire of watching you barf over the side.”
What was your process for writing this story? Did you know from the beginning the way each of the main character’s stories would intertwine or did parts of the story/characters come to you as you were writing?
Honestly, my process involved staring out the window and daydreaming for hours, wallowing in self-doubt, second-guessing myself, worrying endlessly about if I could ever write my way out from under the shadow of my first book, then finally taking a deep breath and going for it.
Since this book has a lot of moving parts, I wrote a fairly detailed synopsis with the story arcs of each character and how the novel would end. But the rest I make up as I go because I enjoy the discovery aspect of writing.
Also worth mentioning is that I always take my opening chapters out for a test-drive by reading them in front of a live audience. If people are dyyyyyyinnng to know what happens next, I keep going. If they’re staring at their phones, then I’ve failed and need to start again.
What is your “must-read” book recommendation and what book has had the most impact and influence on your writing?
My must-read recommendation is Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. It’s an award-winning graphic novel that is both timely and somehow timeless as well. I always recommend that book clubs read at least one graphic novel per year. If not, they’re missing an entire world of literature. In the U.S. we’re like teenagers looking down on other art forms without even trying them. The rest of the world has known graphic novels, manga, and other forms of sequential art transcend the written word and can do more to stir the imagination than film.
As far as the book that had the most impact and influence, I’d have to say the Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. It was the book that turned me from a writer into a storyteller.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are trying to navigate the publishing world?
I’m going to quote the late, great Harlan Ellison who said, “Write for the wisest, wittiest, most intelligent audience in the universe. Write for yourself.” Though Jason Mott put it best when he talked in an interview about how at some point a writer needs to decide which is more important, writing for themselves, or writing for money. There’s certainly some overlap and there’s no wrong direction, but as an artist you need to figure out which is more important and lean in that direction. I have so much respect and admiration for Jason because he wrote Hell of a Book doubting an agent or publisher would want it, but it was the book he wanted to write. Oh, and it won a National Book Award.
Do you have another novel in the works or a new project you’re working on? When can readers anticipate it?
Because The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is fairly complex, has so many timelines, and features so many characters, as I was writing it I swore to myself that my next book would be easier. One point-of-view character, one timeframe, and in a contemporary setting. That was my plan. But once I started the research it was clear that plan was wishful thinking. I can’t say what it’s about but it’s another mash-up of historical and speculative fiction. And I will undoubtedly be cursing myself along the way for breaking that promise.