Another month, another friend I’ve asked, what’s eating you? This month, the prolific Ai Jiang tells us about compulsory procrastination, and creative space as a state of mind. Ai’s most recent book, A River From the Sky is a compulsive read, a fitting high stakes conclusion to her Natural Engines duology, which has some of the richest world-building I have read recently.
Cover of A River From the Sky by Ai Jiang
What's Eating Ai Jiang?
1. Wam ups first! Writerly this or that. Would you rather:
a. [x ] write to music, or [ ] write in silence
b. [ ] share early drafts for feedback, or [ x] work in the cloister of your mind
c. [x ] snack while writing, or [ ] no crumbs on your fancy keyboard
d. [ x] perfect that paragraph now, or [ ] highlight it for later, and carry on
d. [ x] eat a fly's leg, or [ ] write a 150-word summary of a 100k novel
2. Tell us about your writing rituals and/or anything you absolutely must do/have to get writing. Or lack thereof, you rare, strong, individual.
Procrastination. I seem to attempt to do everything non-urgent on my to-do list before I actually get the writing, and that also includes binge-watching a show that has caught my attention and calling it research, which, to be fair, I think counts!
3. What does creative space mean to you, and how do you get to it?
To me, creative space comes in the form of a state of mind almost like a fever dream. Whenever I get into the momentum of writing, I might disappear off the face of the earth for two weeks and write for 12+ hours a day—sometimes pulling all nighter(s) if I'm really in the swing of things. I'm actually not quite sure how I get to it, but I do know that writing during the quite hours of night, between 10PM to around 6AM is when I'm most productive. Definitely not sustainable, but... That, and deadlines I suppose—the need to finish writing something ASAP.
4. What is your biggest personal (not structura) hurdle/challenge in your writing life, and how do you try to resolve it?
Time management—does that count as structural? I feel like it probably does... But from my answer about procrastination, you can probably tell I'm not the best at prioritizing things. Though that does mean sometimes I get things done extremely fast and other times just making deadlines.
5. What type of spider are you?
Hmm, maybe a Star-bellied Orb-weaver—non-confrontational and nocturnal... heh.
6. Tell us about one of your comfort foods, and what it does for you.
Dried preserved olive slices—sweet. It's something I grew up eating and always brings me comfort.
7. "Click, click, click, go the spider's mouth parts as she approaches. And then she stops. <Humans prefer to chew?>
According to my food and nutrition's class from the nineth grade, we're supposed to chew a piece of meat 80-100 (?) times before swallowing so it can properly digest, which is wild.
8. And you're free to leave the web, but only after you pimp your work. Our TBR list demands it.
My novella duology, Natural Engines, is complete this year with A Palace Near the Wind and A River From the Sky, and I have my debut novel forthcoming this fall titled An Empire in the Clouds. Very excited to see more and more science fantasy books as well as spec fic out in the world!!
++++++++
July was a month of polishing recent manuscripts and not starting anything new, although I did write a new lit flash that I’m excited to hear on. ***Among other things***
I read a bit more than last month; notably Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto back to back (with Cool Machine waiting on my TBR shelf), Pink Slime, the Upstairs Delicatessen, and Ghost Wall. I’m still reading a few ARCs from friends, almost done with Wole Talabi’s knock-out Fists of Memory, and getting into Drew Huff’s The and Helen Jones’s The Domino Man.
And I got to panel with the indefatiguable Dr Teo You Yenn, together with poet Joshua Ip, at An Evening with Unease: Conversations with Teo You Yenn, Eliane Boey, and Joshua Ip, hosted by SMU College of Integrative Studies's Lien Fung's Colloquium. Dr Teo is the author of Unease: Life in Singapore Families. We talked about unease at limited options in how we “do” family and parallels with the uncanniness of self-erasure.
Dr Teo Yeo Yenn speaks at “An Evening with Unease”
Boey reads from Small Bites, at “An Evening with Unease”
What does self-erasure taste like? What's with the spiders (is that a metaphor?) Listen to me read the opening to SMALL BITES at my LACon virtual reading at 1800 hrs PDT on Sunday, 30th. Link forthcoming.
