Foreshadow (and the last three years of writing)
Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA comes out October 20, nearly three years after I first wrote the short story “Fools” inside this anthology. It’s been an age! A whole era, creatively and otherwise. Every time I read it, it's like a look back in time.
In January 2018 when I wrote “Fools,” I was in the middle of drafting the second or third version of the manuscript that I queried this year (I would not get past 30k of a draft until 2019). You can see the influence of it—the shared themes (the building of stories and one’s place in it, and how that awareness shapes a person), the remnants of my manuscript’s first setting, the first person present. Some ideas are eternal: I have always loved writing heartless girls, literal and figurative. And both stories—like all my original stories—are specifically written with an Asian diaspora lens.
A few months after submitting to Foreshadow, I was told I was shortlisted. A few months after that, I got an email that made me shriek loudly and without explanation to my two poor friends who were in the same room at the time: Sabaa Tahir selected my story. It took me half an hour to read the email in entirety because I was busy telling everyone (it's a lot slower when I have to type everything in capslock). Later that year, I worked with an editor for the first time, the lovely Alexa Wejko. I added entirely new elements to “Fools” in order to anchor its strongest themes (I’m a chronic kitchen sink-er; I tend to put everything into my stories and pick out the straggling bits later). We did a few rounds and I also got copy edits (alas, I don’t have the name for who did mine, but thank you for tidying my words).
Then in February 2019, my story went up! It was my first new writing posted online in two and a half years. I got exceptionally nice comments, many Howl’s Moving Castle comparisons (unbelievably, I didn’t consciously take Howl as inspiration but it's obviously there), gorgeous fanart, agent interest for my manuscript, and something to link to on my sparse website at last.
And it didn’t stop there! As you can see from the very real photos of the very real advance copies, the thirteen new voices in the digital Foreshadow YA anthology are becoming a physical anthology. Exactly two years after I wrote “Fools,” I got to revisit it for Algonquin’s copy edits. I saw pass pages, a cover from the incredibly talented Sarah J. Coleman, my name in trade reviews, and most recently, advance copies. In the same time, I also—finally!—finished my stubborn ever-changing manuscript, queried, and signed with an agent.
In less than two months, Foreshadow will be in bookstores. Inside, you can read “Fools” and twelve other short stories from new YA voices, as well as craft essays from the pair who started it all, Emily X.R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma. It's been an amazing experience, both behind the scenes—so many administrative things that went smoothly!—and in everything we got to show off, and it wouldn't be possible without the efforts of the Foreshadow staff, the Algonquin staff, the many who have supported Foreshadow along the way, and especially Nova and Emily and their vision.
Three years have been a long time and no time at all. Publishing is full of stressful unknowns, but this anthology has been a positive beacon the entire time I've been part of it. ♥️
Buy Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA from Indiebound / Barnes & Noble / Amazon
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