INTERVIEW: Deborah Wong Likes Immortalizing People She Knows in Her Characters

Welcome to the Tuesday Author Interview with Christina Boyd for the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

CHRISTINA: I connected with Deborah Wong, a Malaysian author, on social media a couple of years ago. Maybe it was a Twitter event? I am thrilled to see her debut novel published this summer in Asia and this fall here in the US.

Do you listen to music while writing? Do you make up Playlists for your books?

DEBORAH: Definitely. There’s a set I listen to when writing and a book playlist on Spotify which I included the same on the novel, for readers to relate to the characters and storylines when reading the book. Here is the playlist if anyone is interested.

CHRISTINA: If you could have dinner with three people, who would be at your table—and how might that go?

DEBORAH: Oh, how I love this one, Christina! Sylvia Plath, Anne Rice, and Frida Kahlo. Subtly elegant chaos. I’ll be happy to learn about confessional poetry, debating that it’s time to fan-cast an Asian-descent Vampire Lestat, and probably get lost in the iconic Mexican painter’s charisma.   

CHRISTINA: I would totally enjoy sitting at that table, too!

If you could tell your 21-year-old self anything, what would you share?

DEBORAH: You’ve made it! But this is only the beginning.

CHRISTINA: Aw, that is a sweet sentiment.

What is your current project or latest release?

Me in Your Melody, Published November 2024

DEBORAH: I’m currently revising a project I’ve been dipping my feet in and off for the past ten years.  

CHRISTINA: Good luck. I hope the words are flowing.

Do you put people you know, or their characteristics, in your book?

DEBORAH: Yes, I do. I mean, what’s more interesting is to witness their astonishing expression upon discovering themselves being ‘immortalized’ into pages via an imaginative lens. Additionally, the family characters in Me in Your Melody are based on my real-life family (except for Emily’s cousin Daniel and Uncle Raymond’s wife, Auntie Noon.)

CHRISTINA: That's fun!

What’s more difficult to write? A love scene or a love letter or something else?

DEBORAH: In this book, there is a love letter written from the male love interest's point of view. It’s appealing to accentuate his intense emotion toward the female protagonist, to establish that realistic feeling in that particular scene.  

CHRISTINA: So far, what is your greatest accomplishment as a writer?

DEBORAH: When overseas/international readers took pictures of my book at their bookstore or snatched the last copy of my book. Book reviewers and readers expressed their resonance and understanding toward the characters and the storylines, meaning my book is reaching out to the right audience. 

CHRISTINA: I bet that is an incredible feeling. Validating. Congratulations. Best wishes for the next projects. And thank you for taking time out for this interview.

Deborah Wong, author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deborah Wong is a Rhysling Award and Pushcart Prize nominated Malaysian poet. She holds a LLB (Hons) from University of London and the Associateship of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (AMII). A devoted fan-fiction writer, she finally answered the call to be a storyteller, by attending the summer intensive creative writing program at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her writing can be found in Ricepaper Magazine, Thought Catalog, Blood Bath Literary Zine, Strange Horizons, Dark Matter Magazine Halloween Edition, and many other local as well as international online literary journals and anthologies. She self-published Autopsy of Sentiments, a personal and intimate confessional poetry chapbook about grief, unrequited love, and kinship. Deborah writes full-time and lives with her family in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, a modern city famous for higher education institutions. Me in Your Melody is her debut novel.  

You can connect with Deborah on Instagram and Threads: @deborahbie and Twitter: @PetiteDeborah. You can find her book here as well as Penguin, her publisher.