This interview was conducted over the course of April - June 2008. Please don't quote or use this material for publication without permission from William Han or Leonard Chang. Thanks.
--Bill Han
Q: I've known you for over a dozen years now.
A: Yes, we met at the UCLA conference on Korean American literature back in 1995. I remember it because you had read one of my stories when most people at the conference hadn't even heard of me. You even had a copy with you.
Q: The story in Bamboo Ridge: "Bonita Hills Day Trip."
A: A small Hawaiian literary journal that maybe you and a handful of others read. It was the first short story that I got paid for, and a literary agent read it and contacted me. He eventually became my agent. I was really surprised you had it with you, that you flagged it.
Q: It was the first story in the journal, and began in a very surprising way. You didn't try to depict Asian Americans in a nice light. The protagonist was very offensive.
A: Offensive Asian American characters weren't new. Frank Chin predated me by two decades. But I get what you're saying. That was an angry character.
Q: And then you let me handle your web site.
A: You did this for free, and in your spare time, and I appreciate it so much. I also want it known for the record that you asked on a few occasions to update the web site technically. You know how to make it fancier with Flash and all that, but I declined. I like how simple and straightforward this web site is, and the fact that anyone (from using old-fashioned dial-up or surfing wirelessly on their iPhone) can check in and see everything without something crashing. You told me that 10% of visitors to this site still use dial-up, and until that figure falls to zero, I want to keep this site simple and fast. So, anyway, thank you. I am in the very, very lucky position of having friends who help me out in many ways, including doing this interview.
Q: This leads me to my first question. You haven't had a novel published since Fade to Clear. You published a novel every two years or so since 1996, but now it has been four years.
A: Yes. Fade to Clear came out in 2004. You're wondering about the next novel?
Q: I'm not the only one. I asked readers to submit questions. This was a theme. A couple people wanted to know if you were writing a new Allen Choice mystery. One person asked point blank if you were even still writing.
A: That's funny. Well, I am writing and always have been, but it's a fair question. The owner of M is for Mystery, a great bookstore in the South Bay, actually called me one morning to ask me the very same question. My answer to him was that I am working on a novel, and it's taking a while. My answer to you and the other readers is more or less the same, but I can elaborate, if you'd like.
Q: Yes, that's what we're here for.
A: Essentially I've slowed down because I realized that I write not just to publish, but to explore characters and stories, to investigate everything through writing. When I was in college I had access to some of the best libraries in the world, and took advantage of this by researching all my favorite authors, tracking down interviews, reviews, biographies... everything, and I learned a lot about the writer's life. One of the authors I researched was J.D. Salinger, and something that struck me was the fact that he stopped publishing, but never stopped writing. In fact he wrote, "There is a marvelous peace in not publishing.… I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure." This was in the New York Times in 1974, and in other pieces I learned that he actually had finished novels that he chose not to publish. This was inexplicable to me as an eighteen year old. It's not so strange now, over two decades later as a working writer.
Q: Why?
A: When I first started writing, I wanted to be published because it legitimized my artistic calling; it confirmed and affirmed in my and other peoples' eyes that this was a creative endeavor that was also a profession. You could point to my books in the bookshelves as proof that I was indeed a writer. Now that I've proved it, I find that the basic desire to write and disinter the intricacies of people and relationships and the various other concerns I have has grown with age, and I love writing more now than ever before. I learn about myself and others through writing. I disentangle the knots of life through writing. But this is separate from publishing. I've written essays that I don't bother submitting for publication because it's meant for me, not for others. This, of course, takes time away from my novels, and my pace has unequivocably slowed.
Q: What kind of essays?
A: Personal essays, or variations of them. Thought pieces.
Q: Philosophical?
A: Not in the academic sense. They would never pass muster in an academic journal, nor even in a creative nonfiction journal. Whenever I have something I need to figure out, I tend to do with writing. Sometimes it coincides with a novel I'm working, sometimes it doesn't. I am also writing scripts with a co-writer, and teaching, and rock climbing, and generally trying to enjoy my life a lot more than I used to, so this also eats into some of my novel-writing time.
Q: But you are writing novels?
A: Oh, yes. I have a new novel I'm working on, entitled Crossings, that I hope to finish within the next couple months.
Q: The next two months? So it's almost done!
A: Yes, I worked longer on this one than any of my others. I wrote three completely different drafts of this. That's one reason why it took so long.
Q: Tell me more about the process. What do you mean by "three completely different drafts"? Do you mean three different novels?
A: In a way. One version centered on one story, one point-of-view; another version had a separate storyline woven in. Another version took that storyline out and expanded the point-of-views. The central story was essentially the same, but the way we looked at it and how it was told changed with each version. I also experimented with the punctuation, the voice, the structure... many things.
Q: How long does this process take?
A: I wrote a complete version, a full novel, for each pass, so each one took a year or so. Then I had friends read it, give me their thoughts, and then I put it aside to let it simmer, and went back to it, and figured out what I needed to do to make it better. So I started again from page one, and started over. This is more or less the process with all my novels, but this one took a little longer. This isn't unusual -- most novelists undergo this kind of rewriting and revising process. F. Scott Fitzgerald said of The Great Gatsby that what he cut out could've made another novel.
Q: What can you tell us about Crossings?
A: It's about Korean immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Q: Like your first novel?
A: The Fruit 'N Food dealt with recent immigrants, yes, though the focus in Crossings is a little broader and is about the west coast, particularly the San Francisco Bay Area.
Q: What prompted you to write this?
A: I don't want to get too into this right now, because I'm still working on it, and I guess I'm a little superstitious. Until a work is finished, I hestitate talking about it, because I feel like you can "talk it out" rather than put it on the page. Part of the fun for me is the discovery of writing, of learning things about your characters and the story as you write them. If I talk too much about it before it's on the page, the work loses something -- sponteneity perhaps, the juice of life.
Q. All right. A few people e-mailed questions, and I thought I'd present them to you.
A: Sounds good.
Q: How much of your fiction is autobiographical?
A: That's a question I get often, and I'm not sure how to answer that. In fact, Bill, didn't I talk about this in another interview? Well, no matter. My answer probably changes every time I answer it, simply because there's no clear demarcation point. I think any good writer will pull things from their lives, from people they know, and then transmute that into something new, different, unique and unrecognizable. When my Allen Choice novels were published I got more questions about autobiography than ever before, and I think it was because of the intimacy of the voice, of the character, and the sense that there was something real beneath the surface of the presentation. This is wonderful, but it's also a little distracting for both the reader and the writer -- if you're constantly wondering what's real and what isn't, you might be missing the true character on the page. So you can see how I'm avoiding the question. But I will answer it: some of it is autobiographical. Some of it isn't. The ratio depends on the novel, the character, the stories, etc.
Q: Point taken. Question #2: What do you do in your spare time?
A: I like that question because it's easy. I started rock climbing about six years ago, and now I'm pretty dedicated to it. If I'm not writing or reading or teaching I'm either climbing or training for climbing. It's a sport and lifestyle that fits me wonderfully well -- it's both a solitary and social activity; it requires full physical and mental focus; it has a great close-knit community wherever you go, anywhere in the country, even in the world, a community that from my experience is open, non-judgmental, and intelligent; climbing takes you outside to some of the most beautiful areas in the world; and, finally, it's relatively an inexpensive sport and hobby, at least the kind of climbing I do, which is bouldering -- that is, very little equipment and paraphenalia is needed: it's just you and the rock... Wow. Just writing this makes me want to go climbing.
Q: Final question: What future projects do you have planned?
A: Oh, now back to hard questions. I always have books I want to write, and that list seems to grow longer with every year, but as I mentioned earlier I'm slowing down and also have more interests, so it's hard to determine which one rises to the top. I've been thinking about switching gears for a bit. I've been working on screenplays with a co-writer, which is a whole new and exciting learning experience, but I'm also thinking about trying non-fiction as well as working more along the lines of socially relevant and investigatory fiction. In other words, I'm not sure. I know I have readers out there wanting another Allen Choice novel (the other day I called a friend of mine, and her mother was babysitting the grandkids, and she, the mother, while she had me on the phone, asked me when the next Choice novel was coming out; I was caught completely off-guard, let me tell you... pleased that she was a fan, but startled by the colliding of my work and personal life...), but Allen is happy right now. Seriously. We last left him with Serena, enjoying that blissful moment of connection -- finally, the deep connection he's been searching for all his life -- and I really, really don't want to shake him up and see what's wrong and what more trouble might get into. I really like him, a lot, and I feel like if I knock on his door, barge in and start writing about him, bad things are going to happen to him. He has that knack, you know, of attracting trouble. So I figure I'll leave him be for a while, let him have some fun. That's the least I can do for him.
Q: Thank you.
A: Thank you for doing this.
Q: We'll do this again in another 4 or 5 years, if that's okay with you.
A: Absolutely. I'll still be here, writing and climbing.
Copyright © 2008 by Leonard Chang and William Han.