Author Interview: Cindy Pon

Earlier this week, I reviewed Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon. It was absolutely GORGEOUS and well-worth the wait! Cindy was amazing enough to stop by and answer some burning questions I had about whether or not her Phoenix duo stemmed from fairy tales or her own imagination.

Here's' a sneak peek at the interview:

Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building, especially because, despite the Chinese influence, Xia isn't China? How did you bring everything together?

That wasn't the difficult part. The difficult part was allowing myself the freedom to make stuff up! I had to realize and accept that I wasn't writing a historical or even a historical fantasy (which would have to take place in a certain time or place in our history), but creating my own world inspired by China.

Once I gave myself that freedom, it was easy to just write Ai Ling's story the way I envisioned it. It is no different than what Tolkien or Lewis or many fantasy authors did, use real culture and myth but also create your own for your fantasy world.

The Book Rat and Books From Bleh to Basically Amazing are both hosting the interview in its entirety on their respective blogs (click their names for access!). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I definitely learned something new; thank you!

Cindy, thank you again for a great interview. I hope to one day go back to the world of Xia and delve into your beautiful storytelling once more!

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