SG WONG ON WORLD-BUILDING, HELPING WRITERS GET PAID, AND GOING INDIE WHEN YOUR MAJOR PUBLISHER DOES NOTHING FOR YOU (MF GALAXY 084)
WRITING HARDBOILED DETECTIVE
FICTION IN ALTERNATE HISTORY CRESCENT CITY, VALUING YOUR OWN WORK, AND HOW TO
WRITE “THE OTHER” RESPECTFULLY
SG
Wong is the creator of the Lola Starke hardboiled detective series set in
Crescent City, California, in an alternate history in which China colonised
North America. Arthur Ellis Award-finalist Wong is also a sparkling stalwart of
Edmonton’s literary scene as an organiser of writer conferences. She’s one of
those outstanding individuals whose endless energy benefits everyone in the
community.
In this episode of MF Galaxy, SG Wong discusses:
- The impact of going indie on her work and creativity
- How writers must view their own work
- Under what conditions writers should conduct seminars in schools
- Her approach to world building her magnificent alt-earth setting of Crescent City, and
-
How writers should approach writing characters who possess an ethnic, racial, or other identity unlike their own.
Along
the way, Wong refers to Gail, meaning the novelist, writing teacher, and
literary organiser Gail Sidonie Sobat. SG Wong spoke with me live onstage at
Authorpalooza 3 at Devaney’s Pub in Edmonton in April, 2015.
At
Authorpalooza 1 from October 2014, I spoke with comic book and video game
writer Andrew Foley. Andrew Foley writes for Beamdog Game Studio in Edmonton,
and wrote the graphic novels Parting Ways
(illustrated by Scott Mooney and Nick Craine) and Done to Death, illustrated by star-artist Fiona Staples. But to
some, Foley is best known as the writer of the graphic novel Cowboys & Aliens, and that’s the
subject of “Andrew Foley’s True Hollywood Stories.”
Comments