This interview was conducted over the course of September - November 2003 via e-mail. Please don't quote or use this material for publication without permission from William Han or Leonard Chang. Thanks.

--Bill Han

Q: So, it's been four years since I last interviewed you.

A: Actually, from the first time you e-mailed me, it has been closer to five. I can't believe how complicated and detailed this web site has become. I remember when you did it as a text-only site, when the World Wide Web was still just taking off. In fact almost everyone who's explored this site has commented to me what a great job you've done. It's pretty much the only place where all my reviews and interviews have been gathered, and I'm extremely grateful and pleased by it. For the record, I should say that : A) you've done this for free and in your spare time, and B) you've helped a lot of readers, critics, and students by having this clearinghouse of information.

Q: Speaking of information, I re-read the many interviews you've given over the years, and I notice you don't reveal that much personal information. Is that intentional?

A: No, not really. I haven't thought about that until you just mentioned it. I think it's because the questions usually revolve around novels and writing, and my personal life seems almost tangential to the answers. Besides, I'm quite boring.

Q: Well, I wanted to do an interview that would add more to the site than what we have, and wonder if it's okay if I ask a few more personal questions.

A: Fire away.

Q: What do you do other than write?

A: Not a whole lot. I read. I occasionally teach. In terms of hobbies I'm very into outdoor activities, and in particular I enjoy rock climbing... Oh, wait a minute. Now I know why I don't talk too much about personal things.

Q: Why?

A: Because people begin reading too much into it in connection with my fiction. As soon as I wrote that line I thought, "Now everyone is going to assume I'm Allen Choice, because Allen is getting into rock climbing." And that's just not true. In fact, and this is a personal tidbit, I once went to reading with a woman friend and someone asked her if she was Serena or Linda.

Q: From the Allen Choice novels--Serena is Allen's current girlfriend, and Linda was his ex-girlfriend?

A: Yes. It was a startling moment for my friend because she hadn't even considered the possibility that someone would assume Allen Choice's girlfriend was based on the author's friend. As an author I'm conditioned to expect that autobiographical fallacy, and I'm always prepared to deflect the question. She wasn't.

Q: What did she say?

A: After a moment of surprise, when she gave me a brief, confused look, she recovered quickly and replied, "Neither."

Q: So you avoid personal information in order not to give readers more reason to confuse your protagonists with you? That's interesting. I didn't know that.

A: It's not intentional. It's just a warning flag that goes up right before I give an answer. On some level I don't mind the confusion, since it injects a certain amount of verismilitude for the reader's benefit, but there's a natural tendency to confuse Allen Choice with Leonard Chang.

Q: Okay, so getting back to original question, we won't assume you are Allen Choice, but what else do you like to do in your free time?

A: I read a lot. I go to the gym all the time. I go running and hiking when it's nice out. I enjoy all kinds of films. Typical stuff. I told you I'm boring.

Q: One thing I've noticed is that as your webmaster I get a lot of e-mail meant to be forwarded to you. A lot of people seem to ask you for writing advice. Some even want you to read their manuscripts. What do you do about that?

A: I try to be encouraging, but I just don't have the time or inclination to help everyone. Generally I'll recommend they join a local writing group, take writing workshops, and read books on writing as well as all the fiction they can within their intended genres. What's funny is that often I'll get requests from people who've obviously never read my work; they just found the web site on a search engine or something, and want advice about being a writer or even for me to read their work. That takes a certain amount of audacity to ask a writer to read their work when they haven't read the writer's novels. Also it's surprising because what if they don't like my fiction? How do they know my advice would be any good? It's puzzling.

Q: And you usually get paid to read and critique other people's work.

A: I used to get paid. I've scaled back my teaching duties because it's too much work away from my own writing. But yes, it would be like a stranger knocking on your door and asking you to debug their computer because they know you're good with computers.

Q: Let me ask a few of the questions I know you get asked a lot via e-mail: How do I get a literary agent? How do I get published? Etc. etc.

A: Okay. The best web site I've seen for questions about getting a literary agent is run by a friend of mine from grad school, the novelist and short story writer Todd Pierce. It's www.literaryagents.org, and has a lot of good tips. Before you send your manuscript to an agent, make damn sure it's really good. This is when you'll join writing workshops, take classes, even go to a writing program. Get unbiased hard-hitting criticism and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I've taught writing for almost ten years now, and the hardest thing to explain is how much rewriting novelists do. Novice writers finish a draft and think it's done. But the first draft is never, ever near done. That's when novice writers begin to give up. They don't want to rewrite, so they either start a new novel (which has the same kinds of problems and needs to be rewritten) or they do a slapdash job on the rewrite, because they just want to finish it. Then, after the critiques, the rewrites, the revising, the polishing, you approach the agent, and Todd's site will guide you from there.

Q: This is a little daunting, though, isn't it?

A: Yes, it can be, if all you're doing is trying to get published. But if publishing is the only goal you have, you're bound to be disappointed. Half of the writers who publish first novels don't go on to publish a second. Do you know why? They realize that's it's not what they thought. It's too difficult, with little reward. However, if publishing is not your main goal, but writing really good novels is, then you're never disappointed. And if you're really intent on writing good novels, then publication will inevitably follow. Here's the test: Would you write knowing your book may never get published? That's the key.

Q: Would you?

A: Yes. Writing is an art that I cannot live without. Before I wrote fiction I wrote letters. I was an avid letter-writer from age six on. I wrote because it was my way to communicate. I was never much of a talker.

Q: Okay, that's it with the FAQs.

A: Okay. Now, what?

Q: An update on your work and the direction your fiction has been going in?

A: Okay. You mean my movement into mystery and thriller fiction? It's funny how people are so careful about asking me that. Every so often I run into scholars and academics who teach my work, and it isn't until I bring it up that they then say, "Yes I was wondering about that." I've written about why I've done this in many places, including that nice web site on crime fiction [thrillingdetective.com], but it's essentially this: I wanted to do something different. I want to write the novels I want to read, and I've been wanting to read some really well-written crime fiction with an Asian American protagonist. There's not a whole lot out there (definitely nothing out there with a Korean American man as the investigator), so I decided to satisfy my needs. I've always read crime fiction, even as a kid, so it wasn't too tough to dive in those waters.

Q: With three Allen Choice novels finished, how many more will you do?

A: I'm not sure. I've always wanted to write a series, so here's my chance. I also want to try other kinds of thrillers, maybe even a spy novel. But I feel like I have so much time as a writer. I'm relatively young in Writer Years, and I want to explore this arena a bit more. Perhaps after a handful of novels I'll try something else.

Q: What does that mean -- "writer years"?

A: Most American writers don't get going until their mid- to late-thirties. In earlier generations, writers like Roth, Bellow, and Updike all started in the twenties, but since then the time when writers begin publishing has been pushed back a decade. Ted Solotaroff, the former editor and essayist, has surmised that the subsequent generations have needed more time to mature. There are exceptions, of course, and those exceptions are often celebrated in this youth-obsessed culture, but generally most of the writers I know all got going in their thirties.

Q. But not you.

A: Well, I'm just beginning to hit my stride, and I'm now firmly entrenched in my thirties. I would agree with Solotaroff's hypothesis. I think Isabel Allende once said that no novelist should start writing until she's forty. Perhaps there's some truth to that, although Hemingway and Fitzgerald had long peaked before then. Again, maybe it's different now. Because I've known since high school I wanted to be a novelist, I got started pretty early. My friend Joe and I actually started co-writing a novel in high school. In college I wrote (but ultimately discarded) two novels. By the time I hit grad school I was raring to go.

Q: And now?

A: Now I feel like I know what I'm doing. One reason why I'm not at all self-conscious about working within a genre is because I'm very confident and secure about my writing. Good writing is good writing, and it doesn't matter if the novel is in the Mystery section or the Literary Fiction section. Those artificial categories dissolve over time. I'm writing for the long haul, and the novels I write now I hope will outlast me. I hope.

Q: Thanks very much. I guess I'll do another interview in four years.

A: And thank you again for all your hard work on my behalf. I really do appreciate it.

Copyright © 2003 by Leonard Chang and William Han.