Hi. Yes, how are you doing, Kelly? I'm doing great.
How about you? Absolutely fantastic. Looking forward to sharing a conversation with you,
and we're going to start it off with one thing. My granddaughter pronounces
her name Mia m i a. But I've also worked with people her name
is Maya spelled the same way. So how do you pronounce the girl's name
inside your book? It's MIA's, Hay, it is Mia. All right,
let's go for the MIA's. Then. I love what you're doing.
The reality of Miya is so spot on in the way that so many adults
or young adults like her want to be able to share the story. But
but Mia is challenged because she has a writing instrument, which I love.
But she's walking into a camp that is filled with lots of computers. This
is so spot on reality. I love this about this book. Thank you.
Yeah. I mean it's a send of the nineties, and I remember
struggling with that, just thinking, oh, I don't have the same tools,
you know, can I even do something? Of course, these days,
you know all kinds of people with fancier technology and connections and money and
history that I don't have. But but you know, it's important to still
get out there for this story to come to life. How did you put
yourself inside the mind of Miya, because I mean you're an adult now,
but were you able to easily go back into those shoes and li an adult?
I don't know. I mean I have three kids, so they are
one is in high school, one in middle school, and one in in
elementary school, so they definitely help. But the other thing is that I
really had my favorite year happen in fifth grade. I mean I think I
really peaked in fifth grade. I had a great teacher, I had my
first crush. I remember we lived by the beach that year. It was
just such a magical year that for some reason, whenever I write that,
I can just easily tap into that time in my life. When did your
writing journey begin? Because and the reason why I bring that up is because
you're talking about the fifth grade. Mind started in the second grade because the
teacher believed in me. Was it was it the same for you? Yes?
Yes, absolutely, And like shout out to the teachers out there,
I mean that you really, you guys are making such a difference. But
yeah, for me, I mean that first year in America, I was
in the first grade, and I didn't speak a single word of English.
They even wrote that on my report card, which I still have, that
she only began talking in the last week. And so that first year was
really hard. But in second grade, I think what happened was towards the
end of second grade, I wrote something and it was this, you know.
It was a short little paragraph on my experience coming to America and how
the airplane made my ears vibrate and I couldn't eat anything, but I was
hopeful about where I was going to go in this country and what I was
going to do in this country. And it was a very moving piece,
even though it was riddled with grammar mistakes. And my teacher said, this
story has a lot of emotion. His like, emotion is what makes writing
good, not the grammar or the spelling. And I was like, thank
God, somebody told me that, and just go and give me permission to
keep trying. Basically, and I've always I've always loved writing because it gives
me that opportunity to tap into the creative universe. I mean, sure,
I'm a great reader in the way that I'm inspired by others who write,
but at the same time, you've got to be able to trust your own
creative path. And so many writers, especially young young authors, they'll put
away their writing and we never get to see it because it's hidden away in
a box. Absolutely absolutely. I mean I recently discovered something that I wrote
and I kind of dusted it off and it's coming out as the picture books.
But yeah, it's like you know, and that's okay. Sometimes stories
do need to you know, they need to marinate a little while in our
computer or whatever. But you're right about having that confidence of having that faith
in your voice. And that's what I'm really trying to get through these books
and is telling young people your stories matter. You know, we all have
a top story. Don't don't be ashamed to tell it. Don't be afraid
to tell it. Whatever you're going through, even if it's a little different
from everyone else, there's someone in the world who's going to understand. And
part of that story includes someone like Loopy. We all have a Loopy in
our life in the way that they want to skip ahead and do other things
in life. And you're going, my god, all I want to do
is just be your friend. Can we just hang for a little bit?
And Mia struggles with that, Yeah she does. It's hard, especially when
you know we've all struggled about a friend who's kind of outgrowing us or they're
not on the same pace and we're like slow down, slow down, And
that's something that is a really hard part of friendship. But another part of
friendship is letting people be who they are, and even if that means gipping
ahead, supporting them and cherishing what you have together when you have it.
Did you have a Djason in your life? You knew that you love some
Jason. But the thing is, though, is that you didn't have the
courage of the confidence is say, Jason, can we can we just be
okay, let's be boyfriend and girlfriend or can we just go out? Oh?
You know what. Jason is based off of two real people when we
work at the hotels. One kid was in my school but did not go
to my class. He was not in my class, and he never went
around to the motels with his dad. The other motel owner that we worked
for, he had a son. He did not go to my school,
but he definitely came around all the time with his dad and we used to
figure all day long. We used to fight a lot, and I remember
writing the series trying to Reconcile, which which Jason am I going to put
in? And then my editor said, why don't you just combine all these
people and make them be in your class? And I was like, oh
my gosh. It was like a lightbulb moment. When you write, do
you put photographs in front of you? And the reason why I bring that
up is because in the radio world, that's how they train us to go
one on one ton to physically see who the listener might be. And the
way that you write, we feel like that you're sitting right here with me,
I'm going, how does she have this down so well? Well,
you know, it is kind of like you're watching a movie in your head
before you write the scene. You're kind of like imagining it in your head,
playing it like almost like you're a director. I don't have a picture
of them, but I definitely have post its where I'm like, don't don't
forget the point of this scene, whether it's you know, Mia appreciates where
she is, or she learns more from all the really interesting characters that she
meets of Chinatown. You know, just don't forget the point of the scene.
But yeah, to get in the moods for certain scenes, like there's
one really special scenes at the end of the book with Mia and Jason,
and I listened to a lot of music to prep for that scene because it
was it was a scene I wanted to write ever since I first started the
series. That was like six years ago. I've been planning the scene,
but we had to get there. We had to earn the scene, the
characters had to go through all kinds of development to get there, and so
when it was finally time to write it, it was like, ah,
I remember, I had like us Tha pulling from that moment. Though,
That's what's fun about writing, and I wish listeners would understand that that.
Man, it really is a celebration of receiving when when you put it on
a page, absolutely it is, and it becomes everyone's story. After the
book is published, I always say, it's not my story anymore. It's
everyone's story and it's what you make of it. How do you deal with
that though, when it's time to relinquish it, because that's always been a
tough cookie. Because I'll put my writing in what I call fermenting, and
then because I want to be able to you know, let us sit over
there for a little bit. But then okay, now I can Now I
can relinquish it. You know, I do know in steps, because you
know, you do feel like it's your baby and you're worried about giving your
baby up. So I'm always worried about it, and so I always have
to kind of almost trick myself, like I'm actually only sending it to my
agent and I can still pick it back. And then it's like, oh,
I'm actually only sending it to my editor and I can take it back.
It's okay. But once it gets through that final copy at its stage,
you're just like, all right, it's it's definitely not mine anymore.
It's everyone's story now, and you almost go through a little bit of a
grieving process, But then you remember what you're doing it for, which is
to reach people, and you celebrate. Well, the book cover itself.
I mean, we're not supposed to judge a book by its book cover,
but on this one right here, what I love about it. And maybe
it's because I'm a broadcast instructor, but we live in this digital age where
everybody thinks they've got a voice and can have a voice, and for me
to be in this with top story. That to me is speaking a language
saying share your story or someone will write it for you. Yeah. Yeah,
and you should be the one to write it. It's your story,
own that story. If you're proud of that story, right, take it
wherever you can, take it to the highest level. And you know when
I said that, as a kid, I started a little newspaper or my
community because I wasn't seeing our stories make it into the La Times where I
was living, So I started in a little newspaper. I printed it at
office depot. I remember the people at office people were like, what are
you doing? And I just gimuted it. I put it at the Frozen
Yogurt shop and at the library, and it was a little thing that I
did, which was me taking that first step to sharing my thoughts with the
world. Well, that's your connection. And maybe that's the reason why I
love this story so much is because you do know who your reader is,
you know who that community is, and you're so willing to give that to
them so they can have something to read. Absolutely, and I really hope
that reading this book. I mean it takes place in Chinatown, San Francisco.
I hope people go and visit it because it's a beautiful place and there's
a lot of great food there and you're not You're going to have such a
great time. You're not going to regret it. I've been there. There's
also a lot of great shopping there. Man. You got to go there
to spend the entire day or two days there because there's a lot of great
deals always in Chinatown. Absolutely absolutely, and it's cheap. It's a really
powerful place where can people go to find out more about you as well as
the front desk novel. Yeah, they can follow me on social media.
I'm at Kelly yang HK. I'm on Instagram and Twitter or Access they call
it these days, and you can see me on TikTok making a fool of
myself. You can also find talk Story in bookstores online wherever books are sold,
and he can go to my website Kellyan dot com. Hellove it.
Please come back to this show anytime in the future, Kelly. The door
is always going to be open for you. Thank you so much. Thanks
for having me. Will you be brilliant today? Okay, you too,
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.