Good morning, Gracie. How are you doing today? Hello, very well,
thank you. How are you? Absolutely fantastic, very excited to talk
about the new book They'll last fall in realm, because this is going to
be a summer read. This is what what young adults are going to be
taking with them when they go to the beach. That would be amazing if
they did. To put yourself in right back in here again with with the
books, I mean, because it's it's got to be like a sport or
a game to be able to be that author, put it out here for
readers to attach themselves too, and then you're back in your game again writing
new books. What is that journey like for you? Oh, you know,
it's the most interesting thing because, as you will know, the time
that it takes us to writing a book and completing the book and then when
it comes out into the world is quite a large amount of time. And
so by the time that you're you know, for example, right now,
me talking about and promoting my last book and this series I'm already working on
you are ye, So you really do have to pull yourself out and put
yourself back into old me and remember what that was like. So it's a
really fun experience. Actually, it's almost like walking down memory laid a little
Well, I'm so I'm so glad that you said that it's fun, because
so many people think that, well, I'm not getting that time back,
so why should I write? And it's like, no, you got to
follow the path of Gracie Kim because she makes it fun and she puts messages
in those paragraphs. I mean, you really do work it. Oh,
thank you, it's very kind. I mean I think ultimately my wish is
to entertain, you know, I just want people to be able to pick
up my books and be transported and experience magic and adventure and just had a
good time. And if they can take away some messages that I'm hoping to
share, I mean, that's just an extra edit bonus. You talk about
that magic, you are really good at bringing that magic forward as the author
and creator. How do you envision the magic before it becomes words on a
page. I wish I could say I envisage it, but I really don't.
I mean, I'm a plotter, right as opposed to a panther,
as in I don't write by the seat of my pants. I really do
outline and plan before I write. But at the same time, I feel
like the really yeah kind of the mysterious magical stuff. That's the stuff that
happens without me realizing, and it's only afterwards and looking back I'm like,
oh, why did that and what does that mean? Does it appear in
dreams? Or while you're driving down the road all of a sudden this idea
comes you and you're going, whoa, there we go, here we go,
let's have some fun with this. Sometimes it comes out like that.
Although those types of ideas are usually at the very beginning of a world or
a new series, where I have those kinds of oh, how about this
and maybe I could include that, I find that when I'm in a series,
the ideas come more like they almost kind of jump out. Yeah,
yeah, so I love this idea of that creative Well, you know that
creators have this well and they fill it when they're not creating or writing.
They're filling it with things. They're reading, things, they're watching conversations that
they've been part of life, being in nature, just experiencing. Yeah.
I was gonna say, I'm so glad that you said that. And the
reason why is because so many readers really they dive in and it's book after
book after book after book. I want to make sure that the reader knows
you've got permission to be a writer as well, go enjoy both sides of
that imagination. Absolutely, I think we're all storytellers. I think being human
is to be a storyteller, and it just so happens that some of us
do it in this very specific form with writenal word. But I agree,
I absolutely agree. And I think once you feel that creative well with life
essentially and everything that we consume and enjoy, then when you do exercise that
muscle to write, I think we surprise ourselves because all that stuff is already
there. You would just have to pull from it and pull it together in
a way that only you can. I think that is creativity. Do you
believe in the theory that you know, like when you do have a book
like The Last Fallen Realm, you know people will say, well, I
want I want to do books of magic. I want to do things where
there's adventure. You've got to be able to read those books before you can
write about them, isn't that correct? You have you have to be able
to follow the plan. I really do think it's important if you want to
write in a certain age category or a certain genre, to know what's happening
in that area. Children's writers I meet, well, I wouldn't say a
lot, but some children's writers I meet are reading books that were published decades
ago, you know, And I think that's also incredible. We can draw,
like I said, ideas from everywhere, but it is really exciting to
know what pantings currently right now in the contemporary world. So yeah, absolutely.
At the same time, some of my most interesting ideas have come from
reading completely outside of what I would normally read, So I would say,
just read read everything in your heart. Who is Riley? Have you met
Riley in real life? Or is it just a character? I think essentially
Riley is a little bit of me put in our completely different world. Yeah,
and I don't think I meant for her to become that way, but
I think it was just as a process, so much as me got pulled
into her the day. A lot of me is not her, but a
lot of me is also her. And I wonder if I'll say that for
every character I ever write. I wonder, because you know, we are
such a multitude as human There is so much inside us that is contradictory,
and there's so much to pull from. But I do feel like there is
a lot of me in Riley though now in putting the books together, I'm
sure you do research. And the reason why I bring this up is because
I'm a third don taekwondo, and the thing is is that in order for
us to grow in any level of taekwondo is we had to study the history
and the origin of where it came from. Do you do the same thing
with your stories? You've got to go get the history? Or are you
creating history by writing the characters? I think there is a definite given like
a pull and push and pull there. Yeah, Because for sure, I
think it's important to learn the history, because if we don't know where we
came from, how do we draw from it and take it to the nicklible.
What I found really actually quite challenging is that because so many of these
Korean mythological stories and folk childs were passed down orally, it was very difficult
to know what was accurate quote unquote, And what I quickly discovered is that
actually, when it comes to mythology of folk tales, it is as accurate
as the storyteller who tells it, and they change naturally over time because three
tellers ad flair, it's adapted to the modern environment. These things are a
natural progression of story, and so that gave me a lot of confidence,
I guess, to really put my own creative spin on these stories. So
that's been a lot of fun for me, but also being able to draw
from from whethy stories come from. What's your daily discipline for writing? Do
you go in you give yourself three hours or a certain amount of pages?
I have none. Can you please give me some disciplines? I find a
very focus. My poor little daughter who's three, struggles to find me even
when I'm right next to her when I'm in that mode because I'm just so
lost and would I would rather do that than you be eating or sleeping to
them so focused, and then when I'm out, I'm out. So I
really actually admire writers who can do that thing where they go and every morning
and they put some time assign they just turn that muscle on and they do
the thing and they come out and they repeat again the next day. Do
that. So far, I haven't found a way to do that very effectively,
but perhaps it's just more practice. Please come back to this show anytime
in the future. Gracie. The door is always going to be open for
you. Oh, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Will
you be brilliant today? Okay, thank you