Tell us a bit about your latest work.
My upcoming book is called The Starlight Contingency! It is Titan AE meets Nikita! It’s about two orphaned amateur thieves named Duke and Scarlett Nam. One night, in the middle of a heist gone wrong, they take shelter in a mansion that randomly transforms into a spaceship and exits Earth’s orbit. Scarlett and Duke wake up to find they are now prisoners aboard the Titan International Spaceship, which contains the last hundred-thousand members of the human race. It turns out an alien warship entered the solar system and destroyed the Earth not long after they stumbled onto the Titan, so now Scarlett and Duke have to survive with what’s left of humanity aboard the Titan.
It is also the first book in a trilogy, so books two and three are in the pipeline as well.
What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?
I almost always have elements of Found Family in my work. I love the idea of total strangers meeting, becoming friends, and becoming supportive of each other. You can’t choose your parents, but you can choose who becomes your family in the end and I always love writing about that.
What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?
It started off with my parents. My parents read to us as kids, so we grew up with a voracious appetite for books. My mom actually used to drop us off on the weekend at the library and we’d stay there and read while she ran errands the whole morning, and she never had to make us do that—we loved it. So I’ve always had an intense love of fiction, so as I got older, I started writing fanfiction with my friends (and that is also why my pen name is Kyoko M) and then midway through college, I attended a lecture by Jackson Pearce, a local author who talked about publishing books. I then realized that was something I wanted to do, so I wrote The Black Parade in 2010-2011 and then started shopping it around to agents. After about two years, I made no progress and my dad asked me to look into self-publishing. I did another year or so of research, then determined I could learn how to do it, and the rest is history.
What inspires you to write?
Lots of things. Some of my ideas came to me in a dream, like the main throuple/polyamorous relationship in Of Cinder and Bone, and there is also a high fantasy YA epic I’ve written that was inspired by a dream I had (unfinished, long story, but it will eventually see the light of day in some form). Some ideas are things I’m just really passionate about, like conservationism in my Of Cinder and Bone series, or things like healing from abuse and trauma and making your own family in my Black Parade series. The direct inspirations sometimes also come from others works I loved in the past. The Black Parade is directly inspired by both John Milton’s Paradise Lost and the 2005 film Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves. Of Cinder and Bone is directly inspired by Jurassic Park (1993) and Reign of Fire (2002). The Starlight Contingency is directly inspired by Titan AE (2000) and Nikita (2014). Often, I see something and love it and want to pay it tribute in something that I write, especially if it’s something that inspired me when I was young.
What would be your dream project?
I really, really want to be either a staff writer for a television show or a screenwriter for a major production. I just want to know what the actual process is like, from conception to execution, in adaptations via film/TV. I find it fascinating and my life’s goal is to have just one thing I’ve written adapted in any format, any director, any budget. Ideally, I’d love to win a contest for a screenplay I wrote and have it optioned for film and picked up by a large studio, but I also know most authors have this same crazy dream, so I acknowledge it’s unlikely, but I have actually finished my first screenplay and intend to begin shopping it in 2025 to at least try for my insane dream goal.
Another dream project would be since I’ve now written for Marvel Comics twice, I’d love to be able to contribute literally anything to the Marvel Cinematic Universe someday, in any tie-in or any capacity that they would have me. It’s been an honor to have the chance to write short stories for Marvel anthologies, and I certainly hope they consider me for any of their future projects.
If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?
Yes, The Starlight Contingency for sure. I wrote it for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2011 and it sat in my document folders collecting dust for an entire decade until it was unearthed by John Hartness, the owner of Falstaff Books. Because I wrote it in a month, it has a bunch of things in it that had to be updated for the times and revised and changed. I like the changes, but I wish I’d had a little bit more time in the tight publication schedule to go over a few more character beats. There are some things I wanted to write for the two main leads that were more detailed, but simply got cut for time, so I hope that when I start the third book, I can touch on those places I wanted to improve.
What writers have influenced your style and technique?
As a kid, I read all kinds of things, but I’d say the series I read the most was the Redwall series by Brian Jacques (may he rest in peace). I devoured those books as a kid. They are so dynamic and engaging. My favorite thing is that the series never talked down to kids. They were often very emotional and moving and they had a fair amount of violence and serious subjects, but I still think it remains one of the best fantasy series of all time. It’s so well-written and I’m still fond of it to this day. I heard a rumor that they want to make another run at adapting it into a series and I really hope it happens, and with a decent budget. I’m aware of the cartoon series it had years back, but it’s very easy to tell they had a tiny budget and couldn’t quite do what was needed to make it a faithful adaptation.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Most of the time, the most difficult times for me are when I’m writing from Point B to Point C in any given story (so if Act One = Point A, Act Two = Point B, and Act Three = Point C, that is) and then the first round of editing. I hate editing. It means I have to read my own book about 800 times, so by the time it’s ready to go to a beta reader, editor, and proofreader, I hate my own book from simply having read it so many times to finish the revisions.
How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?
I certainly think my writer friends help me become a better writer. I love hearing them describe their books and poems, as it often will trigger a new thought or give me an idea in return. I have been very fortunate to know some extremely talented and compassionate writers over the years, and we all are trying to help one another grow their careers. In particular, I am part of a local group of POC authors who often throw events or cross-promote one another, and that in turn gives me the confidence to keep writing, even during tough times.
What does literary success look like to you?
It’s very hard to measure success in publishing these days. My goal with anything I publish is to simply entertain someone for an afternoon. I know that sounds vague, but really, I’m here to create a world that someone can escape to in the event that their life is less than satisfactory. Fiction has always been my escape, so I welcome the ability to do the same thing for other people. I want to be able to help them smile or maybe show them something new or be their comfort food book series when they need to feel safe. Anytime I get a detailed review that says they enjoyed the world I created, I consider that success. I just want to tell stories and have people enjoy them.
Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?
I would also like the plug two of Milton J. Davis’ upcoming anthologies and then one that I am included in as well: The Spacefunk anthology and the Terminus III anthologies will published in 2025, so please look up MV Media Atlanta for all the details for both of them. The Spacefunk anthology is a science fiction anthology penned exclusively by black, African, and African-American authors and poets, and the Terminus III anthology is a speculative fiction anthology penned exclusively by black, African, and African-American authors as well.
I am also a contributor to Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson, which is a Marvel Comics/Titan Books anthology that will be out January 20th, 2025. It is available directly from Titan Books, Amazon, and all major retailers of books. It should eventually be available in all formats upon release: ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
For more information:
- Visit: http://www.shewhowritesmonsters.com
- Or find me on most social media platforms as @MissKyokoM
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