We're so happy to feature an interview with Nghi Vo! Her book, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, is included in our Essential List of the 25 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far).
Who are the authors you look to for inspiration?
Neil Gaiman,
Octavia Butler, and
Angela Carter were fairly formative for me when I was younger. These days, when I’m looking for inspiration, I really enjoy just about everything written by Ursula Vernon/
T. Kingfisher. I don’t think anyone has stepped into the gap left by
Terry Pratchett like Vernon has, where things are dark and human and funny and heartbreaking in almost equal measure. There’s this persistent erroneous belief that things that are dark are not funny, or that things that are human are without hope, and Vernon never makes that mistake.
When it comes to writers that I find inspiring, the thing that they all have in common is a certain awareness and understanding of how people are. We’re endlessly complex and varied, with experiences so diverse that it seems like finding common ground must be impossible. However, the writers I find the most inspiring locate that common ground again and again, and they remind me that at the end of the day, all we have is each other and all we can ever do is our best.
However, the writers I find the most inspiring locate that common ground again and again, and they remind me that at the end of the day, all we have is each other and all we can ever do is our best.
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What appeals to you about writing science-fiction/fantasy?
I love the possibilities of science fiction and fantasy and I also love the process of writing it. For me, writing fantasy begins with a specific premise. I have to work backwards to understand how the premise came about, and then I have inch my way forward to understand how the premise plays out. It involves a kind of speculative engineering that is a lot of fun for me.
Plus, dragons. Why would I ever choose a world that doesn’t have dragons over one that does?
What authors did you read growing up?
Growing up, I read many of
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies, edited by Ellen Datlow. They were lined up on the bottom shelf at the library, and I thought they were so pretty as a set. I read Leslie Charteris’s
The Saint series for much the same reason. I also picked up Christopher Stasheff’s
Warlock series because I found the first book at a garage sale and thought the cyborg horse on the front was really cool.
When it comes right down to it, I was an opportunistic reader. I definitely had my preferences, but I would largely pick up anything as long as it had enough words to keep me distracted for at least a few minutes.
When it comes right down to it, I was an opportunistic reader.
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When did you realize you were a writer?
I don’t know if there was any single moment of realization; writing was just something I did because the materials were easy to come by and it looked sort of like schoolwork so I could get away with doing it virtually any time. Paying my bills with writing money was a pretty big deal, as was the first time someone said they saw themselves in my work. Maybe the first time I put it on a tax return?
What does your writing workspace look like?
I write at my desk facing the window overlooking the street. It’s located behind my couch and usually crowded with the wreckage of between two and six hobbies at any given time. I have lists of things to do tacked up on the walls and a fair number of pens and notepads lying around. I’ve discovered that having a few different ways to write down notes is a good thing. Usually, my cat isn’t terribly far away.
How much and what types of research do you do while writing?
Mostly my research starts before I even know it’s research. I’ve picked up a book or an article that sounded vaguely interesting, and then I get this little ping in my brain that tells me I should stop sleeping and read up on that topic and nothing else for the next forty hours or so.
Sometimes, that’s where it stays, and I just walk around with too much information on curse tablets from ancient Greece or medieval boar hounds in my head forever. Sometimes it turns into a book or a character.
I keep notebooks full of random facts and resources, as well as snippets of novels I have yet to write. Occasionally these notes are fantastically useful, oftentimes they’re not, but I suspect that making them is part of a composting process that is essential to the way that I write.
Occasionally these notes are fantastically useful, oftentimes they’re not, but I suspect that making them is part of a composting process that is essential to the way that I write.
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What scares you the most as a writer?
I’m a little worried about how long people will keep paying for my work, but when it comes to writing itself, I’m not often afraid. Writing is something I do. I love it, but I love a lot of things. I can’t imagine a world where it’s something I don’t do, but if that happens, I know that I’ll survive it and do something else.
What do you want your readers to take away from your books?
Ideally, I want my readers to know that they’re not alone and that while the world is dangerous, so are they. At the very least, I hope I gave them an entertaining way to spend a few hours.
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Nghi Vo became a writer because while there were alternatives, none of them suited her as well as a lifetime of endless research combined with simply making it up.
She is the author of
Siren Queen,
The Chosen and the Beautiful, and The Singing Hills Cycle, including
The Empress of Salt and Fortune and
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain.