GSB welcomes Australian best-selling author, Kylie Chan, for a “pixel side chat” about her Dark Heavens trilogy, Oriental mythology and the art of storytelling.

GSB: Thanks for chatting with me, today, Kylie. As we got our introduction thanks to some little blue firebird sending you the link to our review, I’m eager to discuss the series with you, and how it (finally!) came to the American shores.

KC: Thanks, Justine. It’s taken 5 years for the books to go over to the US. I think one of the main delays was that the main characters aren’t American, and publishers weren’t sure American audiences would want to read books that didn’t center around other Americans. 

GSB: I think, for the most part, we genre fans have no problem accepting people from other places; heck, we still flock to the church of Roddenberry, who featured a green-blooded, pointy eared alien as part of his holy triumvirate.

GDB: Personally – as my review of White Tiger says, in detail – I loved the characters, and the originality. And for anyone picking nits, we do get Leo, from Chicago. He’s a nice dose of America in the story, I think. The hardest part for me, as an American reader, was keeping your name, “Chan” straight with the name of one of the 2 leading characters, John “Chen.” When you were writing the book, did that ever catch you up?

KC: When I was living in Hong Kong, I sometimes had name issues. I recall one old lady stopping me to argue that I was spelling my name wrong, and it should be “Chen.”  It came down to where you were, geographically, much of the time, whether people accepted “Chan,” or insisted it should be “Chen.” But  I never had any problem remembering that John was “Chen.”

GSB: At the practical level, if we Americans were going to visit Australia, to perhaps buy the second trilogy – Journey to Wudang, which doesn’t have American release plans – yet – would we be looking for hard backs or paper? And how close is the price exchange?

KC: The books are all paperbacks here, too. But, in the Australia the book are $20 – American -  a piece.

GSB: One of the real strengths of White Tiger – and, as I’m almost done reading Red Phoenix, now – is the way you let your characters carefully unfold. They’re layered, “like a parfait”, as Donkey would say. While many authors imply similar methods, you seem to have a patience for letting the story and characters develop at their own rates, instead of eventually rushing, a bit, to give readers a “safety net” peak behind the curtain.

KC: That’s the way the characters come to me. The characters just  unroll as the story comes together. It’s just the way I tell a story. It may be because  when you have kids, or deal with people  with short attention spans, you constantly have to have something new, right around the corner ,to keep them entertained.

GSB: As I mentioned, there’s actually a second trilogy, and I know you’re working on a third one. Any chance we’ll see those here in the states, too?

KC: I think they’re sitting back and waiting to see how the first trilogy does in the US, but I have high hopes you’ll get all of the books over there, too.

The second trilogy, Journey to Wudang hit the best seller list in Australia – the overall list, not just the genre list – so, hopefully we’ll  see something similar happen with the books as they’re released in the US.

There’s a graphic novel in the works, also. It’s a prequel to White Tiger; it begins  in 1720, and ends right before White Tiger begins.  I just started the work on it, with a very talented anime style artist, Queenie Chan – no relation.  This graphic novel should be out in about a year; and right now is only an Australia release.

GSB: What made you zoom in on Chinese mythology? It’s not one you see as often on book shelves.

KC: I wanted to write a story that had was new and different  and I love the novelty of the Oriental mythologies.  I’m actually Chinese a couple generations back, on my mother’s side, too.

GSB: What about utilizing the history and mythology of the natives of your home country?

KC: To write about Aboriginal myths, I’d actually have to get permission from Aboriginal leaders, and it’s not an easy process. I didn’t need that leave to draw from the Oriental mythologies.

GSB: So….I have to tell you, I was a little put out with you at the end of White Tiger; not that I didn’t  love it, but because it just….stopped.

KC: I know. Each book ends on a cliff hanger. (insert slightly evil laughter, here) I always wish I could see the looks on my readers’ faces when they get to certain points in each book, and the ends. The best part of being a writer is seeing people’s faces at conventions when they’ve read the first book, and then the whole series.

!!!MINOR SPOILER ALERT – SKIP THIS NEXT COMMENT IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY SPOILERS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS – YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!

KC: I have noticed male readers are bothered with Leo having AIDs. But I hope I’m helping to give a face to AIDs, someone that readers can relate to, and see the person beyond and above the disease. Plus, all of the fans really love Leo and don’t want him to die.

GSB: That leads me to another question. Do you fall for your characters, too? Is it hard to write the tragic, or simply mean, parts of the story?

KC: I can  write the “mean” parts of the books easily, because I love thinking about the reactions of the readers. It’s like dragging you through a horror house, or on ghost train, watching the readers get more and more scared.

GSB: I will grant you that; there were points in WT where I wanted to cheer – likewise, in Red Phoenix – and others where – no offence – I sort of wanted to throttle you.

KC: ~laughs~ That’s exactly the reaction I want, the experience I want for my readers.

GSB: I think one of the big offsets is that the books could be very dark, very grim, but there’s a sense of lightness to them, as well – the yin and yang of your story, I suppose.

KC: I’ve  been told by most fans they like that that they’re not as dark as they could be; the humor underscores the darkness, and makes the darkness harsher and more powerful.

GSB: I agree. When it worked for Shakespeare, you can’t really argue the effectiveness of the technique. Or even more contemporary masters of fantasy and horror, like Hitchcock.

KC: The best example of a true horror story, that’s wholly contemporary,  was the Doctor Who episode with the gas masks.

GSB: Yes, that was chilling. And instead of humor offsetting the horror, it was the clear love and human spirit shining through “mummy.” Sticking with Doctor Who, “Don’t Blink,” with the Angels, was wall climbing creepy for me, and it did have those elements of humor, that made the angels all the more terrifying.

GSB: What can you tell us about Journey to Wudang, and the third trilogy? Without spoilers, of course.

KC: First, the books really are 1-9, not 3 trilogies, and should be read in order, beginning with White Tiger . There is a definite end in sight – I already know where their stories end – and then it will be done. But the publisher thought it would be better to break them up into 3 trilogies, so that’s what they did. Also, the titles of the first 3 books were thought of by the publisher; but often, now, I name them on the fly. My agent will ask me, “so what’s the next trilogy going to be,?” and I’ll think wildly a moment and then blurt something out.

GSB: Well, then I just have to ask…what’s the name of the final trilogy?

KC: Ummm…..I’m trying to remember what I said, but I think it will be The Celestial Battle Trilogy. That’s the working title, anyway. And the last 3 books aren’t named, yet.

GSB: Any other differences between the Australian versions and the US versions?

KC: On the Australian covers, the type is a little different, but that’s about it.

GSB: Do you have any say in the cover design? Do they ask for your feedback?

KC: The publisher sent me stock photos for the covers, and concepts, and I got to give some feedback, but I didn’t have any  final say for any of the covers. Some fans have even come up to me to point out the inaccuracies in outfits and weaponry. I agree, but point out that in many cases, the images were picked for their visual appeal, not accuracy. Overall, I think they’re lovely.

GSB: Any chance we’ll see you at any US conventions? Like DragonCon, or WorldCon?

KC: I don’t get to do cons outside Australia, yet, because the books just hit the US. SupaNova is the main con she does; it’s the big one in Australia.

GSB: Without asking for geo-locators, where are you living, in Australia, now?

KC: I live in Brisbane; it’s the home to a lot of rather famous scifi and fantasy authors, actually.

GSB: So how did a nice Australian lady become a “Chan”?

KC: I met my ex-husband in Canberra; then we went to Hong Kong to visit his family and got married in China with a traditional Chinese ceremony . The ceremony was lovely. We lived in a few places around Australia until our son was 6, then moved to Hong Kong . Ultimately, I just missed Australia too much, and he wanted to stay on, so we parted amicably about 5 years ago.  The kids and I moved back to Australia, at that time.

GSB: If you were one of your characters, who do you think it would be, and why?

KC: It would probably be Leo - although I’m not a 6’5’’ black gay American man – but we share a lot of qualities.

GSB: Taking it one step further, if you could be one of the mythological characters from your books, which one would you be?

KC: I’m  like John’s turtle, so I would be the Turtle Shen (god.)

GSB: Can you give us Americans a forecast of things to come, form the rest of the series?

KC:  One elderly fan came up to her & said, “I love your books, they have wonderful raunchy sex.”

~laughter~

GSB: Well, it’s not a Circle of Life without some good sex, in fantasy or real life, so I think that’s grand. Thanks, again, Kylie, for talking with me.

FOR MY FELLOW AMERICANS, HERE’S THE SKINNY:

Red Phoenix is the second book in the series, and it hits our shores and shelves Tuesday, September 27^th (which it already is, technically, in Australia, as I write this up, from Florida, but don’t think to hard about it. It’s a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey thing.) I’m roughly 3/5 of the way through the book, right now, and it’s even better than White Tiger – although, having not reached the end, yet, I’m not sure if there will be urges to throttle poor Kylie all over the US, when the final page is turned, if she’s left us hanging too far up the cliff. Luckily, book 3, Blue Dragon, comes out in October.

 (I know this isn’t how you’re accustomed to seeing our full length articles, but, the site’s host is having technical issues, and we didn’t want our readers to miss this wonderful interview, so here it is…and it’ll be on our site, in the normal fashion, once our host resolves their issues.)