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Welcome to the Tuesday Author Interview with Christina Boyd for the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
CHRISTINA: Recently, I bid and won a critique edit for my manuscript Woman in the Painting by bestselling author A.H. Kim. The auction was in support of We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) 2024 Authors for Voices of Color (AFVOC) Auction and raised $32,850. Ann was quick to connect with me in early December to critique my first thirty pages. Her notes were actionable and encouraging. When we met on a Google call, I found her as friendly and knowledgeable as I hoped. I knew I had to interview her once I learned she wrote a modernized Sense and Sensibility. Relative Strangers, featuring two half-Korean sisters, their ex-hippie mother, multiple messy love affairs, and one explosive secret that could ruin everything.
When did you first think you had a book to write and how did you start?
ANN: I was first inspired to write fiction after reading John Green’s young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars. There was something about the story – two young cancer patients falling in love for the first time – that touched me deeply. It inspired me to write my own YA novel about first love but from a Korean American girl’s perspective.
I started by simply opening up a new Word file on my computer and typing. No outline, no writing classes, nothing. One year later, I had a finished manuscript. Although I wasn’t able to get an agent for that first book, I was bitten by the writing bug. I was determined to become a published author and knew I had to work for it. I wrote every day, took writing workshops, and read books such as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.
For my second manuscript, I wrote an adult novel inspired by my real-life experience supporting my brother and his daughters while my sister-in-law served time in a women’s prison. The show Orange is the New Black, based on Piper Kerman’s fascinating memoir, had just come out on Netflix, so I knew my story might have popular appeal. That manuscript ended up being my first published novel, A Good Family.
CHRISTINA: What a fascinating road to publishing. Wouldn't it be amazing to see your book on Netflix? Let's put that thought out into the universe, eh?
What do you wish you had known before you started writing a book?
ANN: Structure matters. I think the reason I wasn’t able to land an agent for my first manuscript is that it had no structure. It was just a mishmash of scenes strung together with a vague sense of plot.
After seeing my frustration trying to get an agent, my husband bought me a copy of K.M. Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel Workbook. I have to admit I scoffed when he gave it to me: writing fiction is not a recipe that you can simply follow, I thought. But the workbook ended up being a lifesaver by showing me how to structure my scenes in a way that made the story propulsive. I continue to use the workbook as a guide for my subsequent writings.
CHRISTINA: Indeed. Structure does matter. I think whether someone figures that out with a draft or after they have written the first draft, structure connects all the moving pieces, builds a stronger story. I'll check out Weiland's workbook. Thanks for the recommendation.
Is there one of your characters you most identify with and why?
ANN: I identify with almost all of my characters. In A Good Family, the reader might correctly assume that I identify with Hannah, the Korean American law librarian who dutifully helps her brother while his wife goes to women’s prison. But I also identify with Beth, the icy-cold Swedish-American Big Pharma executive who is sent to prison. Beth says and does the things that I would love to do in my secret inner world but don’t act upon, because I try to be “nice.” Almost all of my characters have at least a tiny bit of me in them because I think it’s important for characters to be fully formed and human and not simply stereotypes or foils.
CHRISTINA: Makes perfect sense. I think readers can tell when characters are contrived to check a box, without a voice. It's hard to connect with those characters.
Do you put people you know, or their characteristics, in your book?
ANN: Of course! The hazard of being related to or friends with a writer is that your life, your words, even your name are fodder for future novels. Sam, the brother in A Good Family, makes a speech in Chapter 3 that is almost verbatim the speech my brother gave at his fiftieth birthday. The conversation between sisters Amelia and Eleanor in Chapter 10 of my second novel Relative Strangers is inspired by a real-life conversation I had with my own sister when she called to tell me she was quitting her dream job in New York City to move to Omaha—a—place she’d never even visited. I’ve named characters after friends, neighbors, and one of my two sons—which my other son frequently reminds me to rectify.
So far, what is your greatest accomplishment as a writer?
ANN: I went from never having written a single word of fiction in 2012, to being a published author in 2020–eight years from dream to reality. I think that’s pretty awesome.
Going on a coast-to-coast book tour in 2024 and meeting my writing idols was also a highlight.
CHRISTINA: I think that's pretty awesome, too! I look forward to seeing what next you have in the works. Thank you so much for your time with this interview. And I can't thank you enough for donating your time and expertise for the WNDB 2024 AFVOC Auction and then all your outstanding help with my novel. When I am published, I won't forget it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.H. Kim (Ann) was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. as a young child. Ann was educated at Harvard College and Berkeley Law School and practiced corporate law for many years in San Francisco before taking an early retirement and moving to Ann Arbor.
Ann is the author of two novels: A Good Family, which was inspired by her experience supporting her brother and nieces while her sister-in-law served time in Alderson Women's Prison, and Relative Strangers, a contemporary and humorous retelling of Jane Austen's beloved classic Sense and Sensibility. You can connect with Ann via her website, Instagram, Facebook, and Goodreads.
Wow, great interview! I've picked up Relative Strangers and the Structuring Your Novel workbook because one can never have too much Sense, Sensibility, and Structure in one's life. (Okay, maybe too much structure, but I could sure use a little more!) Thanks, Christina and A.H. Kim!
Wow, great interview! I've picked up Relative Strangers and the Structuring Your Novel workbook because one can never have too much Sense, Sensibility, and Structure in one's life. (Okay, maybe too much structure, but I could sure use a little more!) Thanks, Christina and A.H. Kim!