Episode #160: How much of your real life do you put in your books? with Karen S. Chow
Welcome back to Kids Ask Authors! Karen S. Chow and Grace Lin answer this amazing kid question, “How much of your real life do you put into your books?”!
TRANSCRIPT:
Grace Lin: Hello, I'm Grace Lin Children's book author and illustrator of many books including the middle grade novel When the Sea Turned to Silver. And the picture book a Big Moon Cake for Little Star. Today I'm here with Karen Chow, the author of the middle grade novel Miracle. Welcome, Karen.
Karen Chow: Hi Grace. Thank you for having me.
Grace Lin: Thanks so much for joining us today. Are you ready for today's question?
Karen Chow: Yes, I am.
Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a kid named Layla and they ask, “how much of your real life do you put in your books?”
Karen Chow: So the short answer is, quite a lot. I think I was inspired reading Grace's books.
Grace Lin: Aw.
Karen Chow: When she wrote The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat and Dumpling Days. And I started to read them when I was writing a lot. And so much of Grace's life was in the PC books that, and it was so similar to my life when I was growing up and I really resonated with that. And I just thought I could do that too. I could write about my Asian American experience. So I did. It took a long time for me to actually write about my dad passing away, but originally when I wrote the first draft of Miracle, it was all about my dad. And a lot of scenes were lifted from real life, even though I wasn't as young as Amy, the main character.
And over time the revisions came and he's still in there. His personality is very much there, but he's not the focus anymore. And that's actually real life too, because when somebody passes away, you really have to connect with your mom and your siblings and the people who are left in your life. And so that's what happened in the book too, which I really like. That was what-
Grace Lin: Let's back up just a little bit. Can you give the listeners just a little overview of your book Miracle? And then we can... just so they get an idea of what you're talking about.
Karen Chow: Oh, okay. Yes. So Miracle is about 11 year old Amy Chung. She is a violinist and she loves music and she is very, very close to her father who has always had cancer like her entire life. And in the book, his health starts to decline and he gets sicker and sicker and he eventually passes away. And then she goes through this grieving time and a little bit of depression where she doesn't really know how to continue because she loved him so much and she ends up seeing a therapist who helps her see a new path for her life and how to get better and how to recover. And through her music, she's able to heal and get to the other side.
Grace Lin: Aww, that sounds so lovely. And that's so touching that you put your own life of your father in that book too. Did you put anything to do with the music in your real life in that book?
Karen Chow: Yes. So I played piano from a very young age, and then I played flute when I was old enough to play flute when band was offered in school. And so I played piano and flute all the way up until I graduated high school. And then I played flute on into college. The strings part because she's a violinist. I actually ended up playing cello for a couple years. I just paid for it out of my own money and learned how to play strings. And so that music and that passion is all in there too.
Grace Lin: Aww. Now, before I interrupted you to tell our listeners about your book, you were talking, I want to bring you back to that thread, I'm sorry, to how you're saying how important it was to have those relationships and those relationships that you put into the book. Did you want to continue that? Did I interrupt you too much? I'm so sorry. I just wanted to make sure that our listeners were able to put the threads together, but you were talking about how important the relationships, I think you were beginning to talk about the mother relationship a bit.
Karen Chow: Oh yes. So in the book, the advice that she's given is to connect with her mother, who she has a harder time connecting to because she's just not as close to her mom. And that is very similar to my real life too, that there was a little bit of a disconnect between me and my mom, and also between me and my sister. And so the advice that Amy got in the book to connect with her with the people who are left, is just so poignant. That's what you need to do when somebody passes away or when you lose somebody in your life, you need to connect to somebody who's left and develop that relationship there and that will help you on your new path. It's not the path that she thought she was going to go on, but it's the path that she ends up going on.
Grace Lin: And that's why I feel like the title of the book is very apt. Because it's kind of a miracle, right? In how life is kind of a miracle.
Karen Chow: [inaudible 00:05:44].
Grace Lin: And it's actually a little bit of a miracle how my books with The Year of the Dog and Dumpling Days kind of inspired you, that's so touching.
Karen Chow: I know. I'm so excited to talk to you today.
Grace Lin: Well, because the question was how much of your real life do you put in your books? And just Layla, I'll tell you for my books, especially the books that inspired Karen, they're very much inspired by my real life. I would say they're like 90, 97% true. Some of the things that are not true are usually because I would say things would happen to my mom when it really happened to an aunt because I just didn't want to put another character into the book or sometimes I change the timeline up a bit, but they all pretty much really happen. So that's my real life in books too. But it's kind of really nice to think that when you put your real life in your books, you can inspire other people to do the same. So that's why I'm so happy to have Karen on today.
Karen Chow: Thank you.
Grace Lin: So thank you so much, Karen, for answering today's question and thank you Layla, for asking such a great one.
Karen Chow: Thank you so much.
Grace Lin: Bye.
Karen Chow: Bye.
Today’s Kids Book Review comes from Mina! Mina is reviewing Miracle by Karen S. Chow.
I am reporting on a book called “Miracle”. The author of this book is Karen S. Chow. This book is about a girl named Amie who feels alone when her Ba-ba passes away. She even loses her ability to play her favorite instrument, the violin. This book is called Miracle because it is about the love and hope that Amie feels over time to help her grieve Ba-ba’s death. I like this book because the author includes musical words throughout each chapter. Another thing I like about this book is the friendship between Amie and her best friends, Rio and Bella, and how this friendship helps Amie to regain happiness after Ba-ba passes away.
Thank you so much Mina!
More about today’s authors:
Karen S. Chow started writing novels as a college sophomore at Arizona State University, while earning a degree in electrical engineering. Now, she is an engineer by day and middle-grade novelist by night. She lives in Gilbert, AZ, with her family. Karen is represented by Andrea Cascardi at Transatlantic Agency.
Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.
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