Author Interview: Isabel Yap

Today I am interviewing Isabel Yap, author of the new short-fiction collection, Never Have I Ever.

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DJ: Hi Isabel! Thanks for stopping by to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Isabel Yap: Hi! Thanks for having me. My name is Isa; I’m a writer from the Philippines. I started going by Isabel when I moved to the US, which is a decade ago now–mostly because when I introduced myself I would sometimes get, “Oh, Lisa?” as a response. I write fiction and poetry, I’m trying to learn how to write novels, and I work in the tech industry as a product manager. I like fanfic, manga, museums, places with lots of trees, and sweets of almost any kind.

DJ: What is Never Have I Ever about?

Isabel: Never Have I Ever is my debut short story collection. It collects stories written between 2011 and 2020, which span the genres of contemporary fantasy, near-future science fiction, horror, epic fantasy, and fabulism. It’s about being Filipino, so faith, food, and family are significant themes. It’s about grief and loss, the awkwardness of your twenties, and several different types of monsters, some who are friendly, some who are girls, some who are both.

DJ: Being an author, what do you believe makes a good short-story? How does it differ from wiring novel-length stories?

Isabel: I still don’t know how to write novel-length stories, though I’ve been trying with varying degrees of seriousness since at least 2005. Writing novels is extremely difficult, and I basically take Kelly Link’s cheeky view that novelists who say short stories are harder to write are lying. I’m really not one to ask for a comparison, having only managed one of those lengths so far. As for what makes a story good, there are specific things I care about: I like some attention to the line, I appreciate resonance, and I love it when I’m either surprised or my expectations are met exactly. I like when stories give me physical sensations. There are certain relationship arcs that are totally my jam, that will be easy for me to fall into; but I can be convinced to like almost anything if the execution delights me in some way.  In the end I think what makes a good story–no matter the length–is that, at its core, it’s about something real. I want to feel that the author crafted it thoughtfully, trying to get that realness across. In its bones it has to have truth, whatever that means for the author and the eventual reader. 

Author Interview: Stephen Deas

Today I am interviewing Stephen Deas, author of the new fantasy novel, The Moonsteel Crown, first book in the Dominion series. 

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DJ: Hi Stephen! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Stephen Deas: Well… male, early fifties but young at heart, good sense of humour… Oh, wait, you probably mean the books? Right. So, I’ve been publishing novels under various names in various different genres for… fifteen years I think. But what got me started writing was fantasy. It was reading fantasy that made me want to write stories of my own, the first stories I tried to write were fantasy and it was as a fantasy novelist that I was first published. I’ve been off doing SF and crime and historical stuff for the last few years… it’s seven years since The SIlver Kings came out. Wow. It doesn’t feel that long. Anyway, I’m really pleased to be writing fantasy again for Angry Robot, and particularly pleased that it’s The Moonsteel Crown.

DJ: What is The Moonsteel Crown about?

Stephen: Essentially, it’s a trio of misfits who hang out as part of a small-time crime gang calling themselves The Unrulys. The boss has ambitions and so he falls in with a shady character who wants to use the Unrulys to steal something special and just happens to know where and when it might be possible. So our heroes are roped into doing the job, which they do, only to discover that what they’ve stolen is far too hot to handle, and that, like or not, they’re now in the middle of something much, much bigger than them. Most of the rest of the story is about them trying to extricate themselves from this mess with their skins intact while everyone is out to get them, occasionally stabbing each other in the back, and also dealing with their own ongoing problems.

DJ: What were some of your influences for The Moonsteel Crown and the series? 

Stephen: That’s hard. The Moonsteel Crown is quite contained in scope but the series is going to broaden out later. So when you look at the setting for the series as a whole, it’s basically the classics of epic fantasy: Tolkein, Moorcock, all those old names. It’s difficult to remember – the bones of this story were laid down twenty years ago. But when you get into the nitty-gritty… I wanted to write something where the characters weren’t particularly special, and were mostly just trying to survive. I hadn’t read any grimdark then (I want to say it didn’t really exist, but someone will immediately prove me wrong, so let’s say I hadn’t discovered it). There are definitely echoes of Scott Lynch, but again, he hadn’t been published either, back then. I guess there’s a streak of Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork in the grubbiness of Varr. I sort of wanted a Fellowship of the Ring who were all ‘No! We don’t want that! Nothing to see here, move along! You take it!’ and tried their absolute damndest to spend the whole story getting drunk in The Prancing Pony while somebody else sorted out the whole saving-the-world business.