Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Reader tangents. I am Emma skies. This is my readers podcast, and today is not only technically my very first episode, it's also a really special episode because I have a chance to sit down and do an interview with Yume Kitase. For those of you who don't know, Yume is a speculative fiction author whose debut novel, the deep sky, was released last year, a closed spaceship mystery thriller of sorts that takes place on a deep space mission to save humanity. And her second novel, the Stardust Grail, comes out on June 11, this time an anti colonial space heist with a struggling grad student and her many tentacled friend to save an alien civilization. Listeners may have seen the deep sky on a ton of 2023 Best of Sci-Fi lists from places like the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Book Riot, Bookbub, and appearing in nominations for the Goodreads Choice Awards, Libby Awards, and Audie Awards. And in 2024, the Stardust Grail has been popping up all over most anticipated lists. And as someone who's had a chance to read it, I can say it's very well deserved. I really, really loved this book. The Stardust Grail comes out June 11, and assuming that I have timed this correctly and this podcast came out when I mean for it to, you can head to your local bookstore and or library right now to pick it up. And with that introduction, let's get on into the interview. Here's the episode. So, Yume, thank you so much for being here today. Like, I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: My pleasure. Thank you so much.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Of course. So for anybody who is listening, just to really set the stage here, I sent Yume a message asking if she wanted to come on and record this, and I cannot express the level of, like, I don't know what I'm doing that I put in this message. So it was very nice of you to agree to come on. I think I was like, you know, this is a brand new podcast. You're going to be my first interview. Very much. The implying message is, I have no idea what I'm doing. Do you want to come hang out?
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Oh my God. I feel like that lowers the pressure so much for me that I was like, that's great. I actually also will say that I have followed your content when I was a baby author last year, sort of figuring out the whole social media book talk scene. And so I've been. You're one of the first people that I think I followed, and I've been really enjoying your content for a really long time and, like, taking notes from you about, like, how to do stuff.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Thank you so much.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: I just like enjoying, enjoying your recommendations just as a reader. So. So, yeah, no, and so when you reached out, I was like, yeah, that's great. Let's do it.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Oh, that's so exciting. Okay, so I'm super excited and not at all nervous about that. It's totally fine. Yeah. So just to get right into things. So we're talking about largely, we're talking about the Stardust Grail today. So you've got a brand new book coming out next week. So I mentioned it in very brief terms in the intro, but for those who are just hearing about it for the very first time, can you give us a little bit of information about the Stardust grail?
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is a interstellar space opera.
It's a heist. It's also got a little bit of horror and adventure, and it's about a young woman. Who can I call a young woman in 30? I mean, I'm in my thirties, so I'm going to say I would also.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Classify that as a young woman.
I'm approaching that, and I still feel like a young woman.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: It is a Woman in her thirties who has just spent the last ten years stealing artifacts from museums to return to alien civilizations, and she's given it all up after a disastrous job gone wrong. But her friend comes back and asks her to do one last job, and so she leaves her hideaway in a university where she's been trying to start a new life as a graduate student to go try to steal this artifact that could save an alien race from extinction and possibly doom humanity in the process.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: I'm such a sucker for a one last job. It gets me every time.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Especially as somebody who keeps saying that I'm going to quit my day job and then keeps going back to the day job.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Just one more bit. Just one more bit, and then I'm done. I promise.
So to start out at the time that we're sitting down to record this, you're just about a week out from. The release comes out on June 11, so you'll be kicking off your book tour the same day. How you feeling? Are you getting sick of that question yet? How are you doing?
[00:03:55] Speaker B: You know, actually, I feel so much calmer about it than last year. Last year I was a debut author, and, you know, it's just the unknown of, like, what moves the needle.
The answer is nothing. So now I'm just, like, much more calm about it because I know that I could. I could run around and do a bunch of things, but chances are they won't necessarily increase sales or anything like that. So I just have to hope that people find the book and like it and tell their friends about it and what will be will be. And I'm very excited. I'm doing a pre order campaign again, not because I think it will actually result in more sales, but because I think it'll be fun and, like, people will have a little thing. And I just wanted something to say thank you to people who ordered early. So it's a little bit of character art that I commissioned that I think people will enjoy.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you just posted that on your instagram the other day.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. And it's by this artist who goes by the handle Cherry and sisters. And. Yeah, just fabulous, fabulous artwork. Manci is the artist's name.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: It looks great. I'm really excited for that one.
Which partially answers my second question, which is that given that Stardust girl is your second novel, are you feeling a lot. You're feeling a lot calmer than you were for the deep sky, which last year was your debut, know a little bit of what you're doing now, know a little bit of how things are going to go?
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, you know, the other thing is that, um, the deep sky was written from a very intense place of feelings. You know, it was written during. I like to say that 2023 novels are all pandemic novels because, yeah, given the pub, given how long it takes books in trad publishing to get from, you know, publication to. From being written to getting to publication, a lot of books that were published in 2023 were written in 2020. And so, like, the deep sky, you know, there's a lot of, like, intense feelings that we were all going through during that time. And, you know, I think deep sky is very. Has some very raw moments that are sort of a reflection of that. And I like to say, by contrast, the Stardust girl is sort of like my revenge travel, in the sense that it's like, you know, it's post lockdown when I wrote it. And, you know, I think you can. You can sort of probably tell and, like, the lightness of it, it's more of a souffle of a novel.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Especially because, I mean, you've got the deep sky, which is your closed ship book. You're very much isolated in one place, and then in the Stardust girl, you're like, let's get out of there.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of travel. It's expansive. You're going to new places and meeting new people, and, yeah, it's a little bit more far reaching than the confinement of locked room mystery.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: So in the Stardust grail to kind of start wading our way into conversations with the Stardust girl, being a heist novel, of course, this has the heist crew starts with our main character, Maya, picking up members along the way. So what generally or specifically for this book comes to you first? Is it the plot or the characters? Did you start with Maya and the crew and build the heist, or start with the heist and build the crew?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: That is a good question. I guess I always start. I start with premise, and then I start adding characters, and then I try to outline a plot generally, before I write the whole thing, especially because I wrote this on deadline. This book, I think, had to be written in about, basically half a year. So I definitely outlined the story. And then as, you know, as you go through the first draft, you start to discover who these characters are a little bit more. And then I always go back and I sort of do a deepening of a backstory and character after I've sort of met them a little and walked with them a little bit. So I guess the answer is both at the same time.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Fair enough. Fair enough.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: You know, I sort of do a backstitching as I go and try to deepen my new formula is basically all vibe for 20,000 words without, like. Without like a, you know, with a sort of general sense of the outline, but not a clear outline. And then I'll go back and I'll re outline the book, and I'll write the whole thing from the beginning. Okay. And that's. That's basically how. That's my pants compromise of, you know. Okay. I guess I have to plot stories, so it gives you a little room to, like, explore, meet characters, discover sort of what the tone of the story is, and then, you know, go back and sort of do it from the beginning in a more organized manner with the story sort of clear. So it's definitely a parallel process.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: So in terms of plotting versus panting, would you say that you're comfortable pancing and then you kind of go in and do the plotting you feel you have to?
[00:08:06] Speaker B: No, I think now, I guess I would characterize myself as a reformed pantser.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Okay, fair enough.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Meaning now, there's definitely a lot of spreadsheets involved, but they can be a little chaotic.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Do you find that that's made you more comfortable in your process.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I hate to say it, but it actually works. I mean, I know there's some people, like Stephen King included, who just are panthers and will always be pantsers, but for me, being able to write something on a tight deadline and also, like, not waste a lot of time sort of going on circles on things, outlining definitely, unfortunately does work.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: That feels like the classic, like, I hate to tell everybody, but it turns out that waking up early and going for a walk does in fact make you feel better.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: It's horrible news. Yeah, exactly. I'm also a reformed night person.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Cause I have to wake up early. Yeah, exactly.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: I'm still at that point where like all of my most productive hours are in the middle of the night and I don't know how to change that.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: I think I'm productive at night, but I have to say. So in college, many years ago, there was one time I went to breakfast. I happened to go to breakfast and I looked around and I was like, oh my gosh, all of the people that I want to be are here at the breakfast table.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: And I was like, what does this mean? So I was like, I would like to be these people. So it was like all the students that I really admired who were very high achieving or like, you know, doing really interesting things. So I was like, I will become a morning person. And so I, that was when I started to sort of train myself to wake up earlier. It's not always pleasant, but I have reformed and now I go to bed early and wake up early. Yeah.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: More power to you. I'm trying, I try. But, man. So in getting back to off off our tangents, I do think, no, I've not, I've not told you this yet because I think I just came up with it yesterday, is that I do think the name of the podcast is going to be reader tangents because I cannot stay on topic for more than five minutes at a time. So it's very on brand.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: I'm going to enable that. Sorry.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Fantastic.
So in the scopes of the future that you create in writing science fiction novels, you've got near future in the deep sky, far future in the Stardust Girl. And I think there's this really interesting balance of existential dread largely in climate disasters, and also balancing hope at the same time. Sort of the plan and the deep state sky, the extensive interstellar future, the queer normativity of both of these stories, is that balance something that you feel yourself, that sort of like grappling with the two at the same time?
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I've always considered myself a pragmatic optimist, and part of that is my day job. My career has been in government. And I think you kind of have to be a bit of an optimist to sort of throw your entire life into that, because if you don't believe that the world can be better, then what are you doing?
What are you doing with your life? So I like to say that working in government is sort of trying to think about what the world should be, and science fiction is sort of like thinking about what the world could be. And so there's sort of an interesting intersection between the two. So, yeah, no, I think I'm fundamentally an optimist, but obviously, it's hard to be in this world and not see everything that's going on and feel very concerned. And so I think that's where the little bits of darkness come in.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Do you think that writing it out in that way has been cathartic at all, or has it kind of made things worse?
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Writing the deep sky was definitely cathartic when I was working pretty intense hours during lockdown and sort of contending with some of the serious things that we were working on. So that was definitely cathartic. I think that the Stardust girl was more escapism in the sense that it doesn't really wrestle with how we will get past our current crises without alien intervention. So there's a little bit of deus ex machina in that. So I think for that reason, I wouldn't say it's a roadmap to optimism or hope in that sense.
But deep sky, I would say, definitely is thinking about what could or should we be doing.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: And I think there's themes in the deep sky that are really important, that are, I mean, it's kind of hitting home that the plan in the deep sky, the premise is about sending these specific people off to go, start populating on a different planet. And sort of the tone that strikes that it's not about saving the earth, it's about saving humanity. And the difference that that is and where do you land on that? Just in terms of, like, I guess as we start thinking about going into space for various reasons, is that something that you think we should be looking at, or is that something that, I mean. I mean, obviously, long term, we're not talking about, like, colonizing other planets at this point?
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that's really hard, because on the one hand, I'm a kid who went to space camp and, you know, astronomy camp and, like, you know, I've always just been enthralled by the idea of venturing out into space. And I wanted to be an astronaut for a long time when I was in high school, but. Yeah, but it is, on the other hand, if you're being realistic, the most habitable planet, no matter what we're doing to it right now, is still the earth. Not just in terms of the fact that we're already here, but the chances of getting to a planet that is in reach in some way, then you have to terraform the whole thing to make it more like earth. We would be much better off. I think it would be much easier, except for the politics, to just, you know, restore what we have.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: But so, so I. So I think, like, from the practical perspective, I guess I tend to be sort of sympathetic to the view that, like, our focus really should be on that and not going so far away. But then there's like, you know, like I said, the part of me that always has yearn to sort of see that and voyage elsewhere. And so I do understand the impulse.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: And then speaking of the idea of climate disasters and things that are happening here, you mentioned this a little bit, but I know you've done work in public service and New York City politics. How does that background sort of transfer into the genre fiction?
[00:14:20] Speaker B: So this is not an answer for the Stardust Grail, but the thing that I like to joke is that there's a map at the beginning of the deep sky that has all of these different modules for the spaceship. And the way that I sort of developed what each module was because I went and I looked at all the different city agencies, like, you need a department of sanitation, you need Department of Environmental Protection, and sort of, like, you know, have little modules match those different functions. Yeah. So that's basically the short answer of, like, the most explicit way that it influences in terms of just, like, letting.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: You know, like, this is what is needed to run a. What is, you know, for all intents and purposes of sort of a sort of living, breathing community.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. And then for the starters, I mean, for any of the speculative fiction I read, I think that I often think about the sociological aspects of it and, like, you know, how different factors influence how society might evolve and, like, what, what our rules and government might look like and, you know, what, how the politics might form under certain conditions. And so, you know, I think that's, that's always going to be what I'm thinking about just because of my training and my background. But, you know, when I write, when I write science fiction, as I sort of world build, that's always sort of in the back of my mind.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Speaking of world building, what a wonderful segue to my next bullet point. Thank you for that. So the Stardust grail in particular deals with a lot of things on this sort of huge, grand Sci-Fi scale. Right. We're off Earth. We're in many other planets. We're in many other spaces that I think you're able to still make really relatable and easily understandable to all of us that are firmly stuck on earth. Things like being a lost and struggling student, grad student. And then you've got larger themes. Colonialism, anthra centrism, sort of jurisdictional politics. And that balance, or is that balance of recognizable and relatable politics being interwoven into the interstellar? Is that something that you are, like, very intentional with in your world building? Or I guess the more efficient question is how does your world building go along and does that kind of just happen? Or is it something that you're super intentional about?
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Oh, that's a really good question.
I would like to say that everything I do is intentional, but I think some of it comes across from the subconscious.
That's the vibing, I guess that happens at the beginning, but, yeah, no, I mean, I think the Stardust Grail, I certainly was thinking about different things as I wrote it, in particular, japanese history and the complexities of that. Japan has a historic moment when Admiral Perry shows up and forces Japan to open its borders and sort of cracks open.
The sort of forces Japan to start letting people in and interact with the world. Sort of like first contact in a way. Right, right. And then sort of, you know, of course, the darker flip side of that, when Japan tries to go and colonize its neighbors and, you know, commits its. Its own terrible acts against its neighbors. And so, like, you know, just, I think I was thinking a lot about that history and, you know, how to capture that, you know, as I was running, it wasn't meant to be like a direct analogue, but I think definitely there's a little bit of influence there.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah. In terms of just like, I mean, I guess if you're thinking, like you said about the way that we progress throughout history, like, how does, how does what we do now in our history, how is that going to change or how is that going to stay the same however many years in the future?
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Right, right. Yeah.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Offhanded question, too, because I either can't remember. I didn't catch it. What century is the Sardis grill in.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Oh, it's intentionally a little bit vague.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Because, okay, I was like, did I know something?
[00:17:45] Speaker B: I have a spreadsheet that tells me. But I also, like, don't want to ever. You know, that's always the problem with science fiction, is that if you write a book that's called 2001, 2001 comes and goes.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: So I think I intentionally did not ground it in an explicit year, although I think in my sense it's a couple hundred years in the future. And I have a very detailed, like, sort of tally of like, you know, how many years have passed and, like, when first contact. But in my mind, it's basically like, first contact is like maybe 1020 years from now. And then there's a bunch of historical events that happen from that point. So you'll see when they go, at the very beginning of the book, there's a tour of a museum that sort of recounts the history. And the first contact room has a bunch of laptops and stuff like that. So it happens in our era.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: There's a moment early in the book that I really loved where Maya sees a physical book, and I think she's standing on the other side of the room and she's like, I just want to smell it. She's like, I just want to smell this book.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Who among us has not been there, truly?
[00:18:48] Speaker A: And it's like, I'm kind of a sucker for moments like that in books. Like books about books, moments about stories. It's like the Leo, like Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme, like, that's me. And it gets me every time. And I'm like, okay, so we're post 22nd century, like doing the math in my head.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think also I'm not one of the people who thinks that books will ever completely go away. I mean, I think that that sort of was heralded. Oh, are we about to go on another tangent, maybe?
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Oh, go for it.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, I just, no, I just think that, you know, when ebooks first started coming out, and I see this as somebody who loves ebooks and loves audiobooks, and I think audiobooks now are like, amazing production value. But, yeah, I think when, when other formats started coming out, people were like, oh, that's it, books are done. And, you know, it'll be. And I think, like, you know, in part because of book talk and social media and stuff like that, there's been, you know, I think, a renewed energy around print. And so I just think that people are a little bit too quick to sort of say that the books are over. I think people, I mean, I still acquire quite a few books, and I think that books will be around, at least in physical form, for quite a while longer, until maybe we have no.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: More paper, and then we're all just like, looking at a book on a table from 200 years ago. I want to smell it.
No, I think. I think I've been reading ever since I was a kid. And I remember that's kind of always been. The thing is, like this way that we both simultaneously act like nobody reads, which is clearly not true. Not that there's nothing to be said for literacy, but literacy rates and things that we need to be looking out for, but we'll simultaneously talk about, nobody reads anymore. Book sales are down. Nobody looks at books anymore. And then you look at the absolutely crazy years that publishing has had in the last few years, and it's just not true. And like you said, ebooks and audiobooks, both of which I can say are good for the Stardust girl. I listened to the audiobook a little bit for this one as well. It's phenomenal. I love the narrator.
[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah, Catherine, she and I actually had a couple video chats before she did it. And, you know, I just. I haven't listened to it all the way through. I've only listened to the first couple chapters. But I'm excited because I think she really, just from the conversations I had with her, it seems like she really sort of understood what the mission was. So I'm excited to hear it.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: I love hearing that you actually got to talk to her. I've only, within the last handful of months, I think, found out that that is not the case for most authors.
You guys don't usually even get to hear the audiobook or know who's narrating it until it comes out.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: I know I've always been with the deep sky. Was tempted to request my audiobook, Netgalley, because that was. That seemed like less intimidating than trying to ask for a copy. And actually, now that I think about it, I don't think I ever got a copy of that. But this time around, the production team sent me a copy, so I have it in my phone and I could, theoretically, I could listen to it. I just haven't had time.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Yeah, my previous. Oh, sorry, go ahead.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: No, I was just gonna say another author friend of mine has done that, has requested their netgalley arcs for every single one of their own books. Been denied every time.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: The indignity, although my review ratio is pretty good, so I get approved.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Usually I just hit 60% in mine. I'm trying to rehabilitate my ratio. It's been a rough year.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: The exciting thing is when I get auto approved, I'm like, wow, I've arrived.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: But are you auto approved for your own publisher?
[00:22:14] Speaker B: No. Dang. I think my own publisher is maybe the one that is usually the slowest to approve me. So I don't know what that means. But I will say that my review ratio is pretty good. So I think that helps me get approved very quickly, usually.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: So to get off the tangent.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, sorry.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: That's fine. It only took us like five minutes. Again, whole point of this is tangents. So, man, where was I? We're talking about Sci-Fi books. We're talking about books. We're talking about your book. So we're talking about a very far future here in Stardust scroll. And I think often in far future, especially interstellar Sci-Fi it's somewhat common to see earth and humans get painted across with a very like, homogeneous brush where we expand out into the universe, we bring in alien races, and then in the story, we are just capital H humans. And the homogeneous brush that is often painted is usually, especially in western literature, like a sort of white western culture over top of it. But in both of your books now, but especially in stardust grow, where we do exist in this new ecosystem, Maya Hoshimoto isn't just, you know, capital h human. She's very much, I believe, a half japanese human. She is a grad student. She's living in New Jersey. She's got these different sides of her identity, both as a human who spent much of her life off earth, a person of trying to connect with family she's never known in person. And I don't really know how to phrase this into a question, but if you want to just expand on that idea of wanting to keep that culture alive and wanting to maintain that humans are going to continue to be human and continue to have our cultures throughout this time.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I think part of it is I am a firm believer that no matter where the globalization obviously has created a lot more sort of fluidity between cultures and, like, transference of cultural values and media and all of that. But I'm a firm believer that homogeneity is not the future. Like, I think no matter what, we will, you know, either for darker, like, nationalist reasons, you know, maintain our sort of tribal identities or, you know, also just because of geography, like, I think, and also pride. Like people, people love their culture and their identity and they want to preserve it. So I think, I don't believe that homogeneity is the future, aliens or not. But I also think from, like, a geographic standpoint, if you go and you settle other planets, I think chances are their culture will eventually evolve separate from whatever culture is happening on Earth. So I thought it was realistic to preserve both the national identity on top of the sort of distinct locational identity being in that settlement off world. And I guess, actually, now that you think about it, this goes back to maybe your question about how does working for New York City government sort of influenced my writing? Because it's sort of like New York City as a great example of this. Right. Like, New York City has a very distinct culture within the US, but also go to any neighborhood in New York, and there is a distinct population and culture in those different neighborhoods. I mean, that's what makes New York City so fun, and it's true of most major cities. And so I guess when you think about, like, what an interstellar community would look like, I think it would be sort of like that. It would be like, you know, you'd have the, you know, what it is to be human, and then, you know, what it is to be japanese human, and then what it is to be japanese human born offworld. And I think all of those different pieces would be sort of distinct. And that's also something that I made sure was sort of reflected in the aliens that they come across.
You know, that you can have distinct cultures within the alien race itself, because to me, if you have a civilization that spans or, like, a people that span hundreds of worlds, like, it makes sense to me that the people who live over here are going to have very different values than the people who live over here.
So I did try to make that sort of clear. I think there are a lot of times where you'll read, I don't know whether it's movies or books, but sometimes people represent it so that you have a certain alien race and their culture is uniformly x. Right. And I just don't think that that is likely to actually be the case.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So just imagining them as you would imagine us evolved. Evolved similarly culturally. Things change. Things diverge.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Yeah. That was a very long winded answer. I'm sorry.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: No, perfect. Long winded is good.
Okay. So as it states in the synopsis, there is a space heist in this. I do have to say my own tangent. I really appreciate the synopsis of this book. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the synopsis of this book because it lays out exactly what the book is. And then you start reading it and you're like, oh, my God, it's so much more. And it really makes the decision to, like, not put too much of that in the synopsis where we, a friend and I were reading this at the same time. She also had the arc and we were kind of going through it. We're getting to the same parts and we're like, oh, this is still going. Oh, we're introducing new things. Like, we didn't know any of this because, similarly, we had both just read a book that, like, reveals way too much in the synopsis. So this is just a shout out to. I don't know if that. If you were the synopsis or somebody at Flatiron, it was definitely a group effort.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: So if I recall correctly, the way our synopses are written generally is my editor will sort of take a first pass, or maybe it's one I can't actually can't remember, but it's a group effort with my editor, my agent and I will sort of collectively read it. And I think part of it is it could be that we wrote the synopsis before anyone besides me had read it.
I could be wrong about that. But anyway, it was fairly early on, I think, in the process. So maybe that was also a reflection of nobody else knew.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: It's fantastic.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: I could be misremembering, but, yeah, it's sort of like when my third book was announced, actually, they put out the blurb while I was still writing. I was still writing the first draft, and so I was like, I guess we'll see if this is accurate.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Guess it stays close to this now.
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: So, as it states, there is a space heist involved in the book. I've read a couple of heist stories recently, and I'm so curious, what's the process like for that? What does your planning look like for writing something out like that? Because the reader has to get this very intricate heist, but you have to have all those moving pieces to make it work.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's sort of like writing mystery. That is where the plotting is actually pretty important because there's the stages of a heist where it's like you have to make a plan and the plan goes wrong. There's a little bit of some reader expectations, I think, that built into that, you got to think about how do you construct it so that each person on the crew has a skill that sort of comes into play? And why do you need a crew in the first place. So basically, you construct the puzzle, and then you have the character, sort of. At least for me, this is how I did it. You figure out how the, the people are going to get through that puzzle, and then you have them go shopping for the tools that they need. I don't know. I don't think that's a requisite part of a heist. But I think the shopping montage that precedes the heist is always a lot of fun.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Okay, so that led me to two questions. I'm so glad you got the shopping, because I did have questions about them. There's a market scene, the first of which is, do you play d and d?
[00:29:18] Speaker B: I've tried it once or twice and want to do more, but have not actually played it.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: All right. Because I immediately was thinking like, oh, shopping episode. Okay. You know, we're getting all our stuff back. And then aside from D and D, just like, in general.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: But I'm a, you know, I'm a millennial, so, you know, I grew up watching Mary Kate and Asher movies, I guess.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: Fair enough. Fair enough. And then, like, in general, are you, are you a gamer? Are you, do you play video games?
[00:29:41] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Okay. I knew it because I was reading, there is a, there's a scene in the market, and the entire time I was reading it, I was like, this is a stealth section. This is a stealth section in a video game. I bet she's a gamer.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I haven't played recently just because I haven't had time to have any fun in the last, like, you know, couple years, but, yeah, no, I definitely have.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: So, Tangent, what's your favorite video game? What kind of games do you like to play?
[00:30:07] Speaker B: Oh, I'm gonna be really old school and say, civilization. The civilization series. Ooh, okay. My be all, end all. It's like my favorite thing. And definitely in a couple weeks when I'm past my next draft, that's how I'm gonna reward myself because. And put it in yours.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: A little treat. You're just like, I'm just gonna sit down with Civ five maybe, and really just put some hours in.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: I also like playing games on my phone. I feel like there's, like, a huge wealth of games that have come out on phone that sort of run the range. Of course, I'm not blanking on every single one that I've played in the last five years.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: It's like asking somebody what their favorite book is, and they forget every book they.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. But I do want to try. I have Baldur's Gate three downloaded, and I just, I haven't had time to play yet. Oh, there's, I know there's, there's a computer game that I played that's really fun called we, we were here.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: I love that whole series.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: I've played all of them.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Devastating.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So good. I love, I love games like that where it's like you gotta, you have to collaborate and try to get the thing.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So for listeners, we were here is a series of puzzle games that you play with another person. You have to play with a secondary player, and you and the person you're playing with are in separate puzzles that you have to work together to solve. And then occasionally things may not work out for your partner. That may just be the way it goes.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: You may have to watch them drown over and over and over again because.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Of your mistakes or because you did it on purpose. Oh, in my scenario, and I'm yelling at her on the right, like, oh, I don't know what's happening. I'm pressing the button. I'm not pressing the button to save her. I want to live.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's probably games that are, if you're the kind of person who fights with your partner on, you're trying to figure out directions to a place, it's probably a game that you should not play with them because you will probably end up breaking up.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Yeah. The biggest struggle that we found when my friend and I were playing it is that so I have aphantasia. I can't visualize anything. I have no visual imagination whatsoever. Oh, God. Yeah, we ran into a puzzle.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: It'd be a hard game to play.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it was rough. She had a, she had a puzzle where she had the laid out cube. And then I need, I was looking at the, like, full cube, and we couldn't do it because I could not build it in my head what she was explaining to me, and I ended up having to, like, get a piece of paper and, like, build it physically because I was like, this isn't working. My brain doesn't work like this.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's like. But it looks like a bird. And you're like, I have no idea.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: Couldn't tell you what that means.
Couldn't tell ya.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Baldur's gate three is probably a good one for you to have waited until post release. I imagine that will take over your life.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: That's why I have waited, because it sounded like it was pretty addictive, but I'm excited to try it.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: I've stayed off it, but I do hear that would kind of take things over.
And then once you're through, because you're on book tour until July, right?
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And then I'm gonna go to the world fantasy and science fiction convention in Scotland.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Oh, very exciting.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: So you've got all that coming up. And then you did mention your third book has been announced. The blurb of it has been announced. We're going to get to some submitted Q and a questions in a minute. But before we get there, what's coming up for you?
[00:33:20] Speaker B: So it's a book. It's going to be grounded science fiction, speculative fiction, sort of in the vein of, I would say, closer to, like, Emily St. John Mendel type level of specular fiction. And it's about two sisters who are sailing around the world to try to find their missing third sister. It's about sisterly love and what you would do to save your siblings.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: All right, so is that a 2025 release?
[00:33:47] Speaker B: 2025, yeah, as long as I can get these revisions done on time.
[00:33:51] Speaker A: Is that where you're at in the process right now?
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Yeah, my editor and I.
My editor is going to get me some feedback, I think, this week, and then I'll start digging into the revisions of my very rough draft, and I think I have to get it to them, like, complete, complete by September. So on top of the book tour, that's what I'll be doing this summer.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: All right, listeners, if you're hearing this, that means you're on the publicly available version of this podcast episode. Our full discussion went for another 20 minutes and is available exclusively for my Bindery subscribers. We discuss the parts of the writing process Yumei enjoys most, how she thinks she might have fit with selection process for the mission in the deep sky, the other books she wrote before the deep sky, and whether we might see them in any form in the future, and more like the fact that I may have managed to shock her with my favorite Star wars movie, but she was very diplomatic about it. For full access to our entire conversation, as well as other exclusive content, you can subscribe to my bindery at skiesreads dot bindery.com. that's s k dash iesreads dot bindery.com. and don't forget that as of today, you can pick up the the Stardust Grail by Yume Kitase at your local bookstore or check it out from your library.
