Tell us something unexpected about yourself!
I am a so-called Renaissance man. I like classical music, opera, Greek/Roman art, Renaissance art, Impressionist art, Classical literature (e.g., Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Ovid, Virgil), English Renaissance literature (e.g., Shakespeare, Marlowe), and Victorian literature (e.g., Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot). My novels reflect that in the present-day setting.
How did you get into writing?
It seems I was born to it. I wrote my first novella at age seventeen, which was published in the high school literature club magazine.
Where did you get the inspiration for your current book?
Opera has been my passion since my adolescent years. I have sung operas in workshops, at private lessons, and with opera companies, both in concert versions, and, on many occasions, performing on stage with full costume and make up. I know how challenging life is for opera singers, musicians, artists, actors, writers, and poets in Manhattan, New York City, as I have lived among them. They are the present-day Bohemians. I wanted to write about their lives and loves. My wish has culminated into the current book, “The Other La Bohème.”
How long did it take you to write this book?
I wrote it, rewrote it, workshoped at the MFA program, then completely revised it, and polished it … so in total I spent more than ten years to complete this book.
Have you got any writing rituals?
Each writer has his/her own style (or rituals) in writing a novel. In my case, I foster the idea in my mind for a long, long time. At one point I feel I have to spit it out, otherwise I go crazy. Then I write it down in the morning, afternoon, evening, like a madman.
How important is marketing and social media for you?
I love writing, and I am a very private person. So I do not really enjoy book promotion as an author. However, I was told that regardless whether we like it or not, these days all authors must do it. In this sense, social media is an excellent marketing tool at the present time, when the Internet has made the physical distance virtually non-existent.
What advice would you have for other writers?
I received an MFA in creative writing at The New School in New York City. As always the case, at the school we workshopped the works of students in the class. Most of them were young. As MFA students, they wrote well (how to write). But what they wrote were immature and not so inspiring. So I usually tell young writers this: In order to write an inspiring novel, you have to live your life first. When I visited the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC some time ago, I saw a war veteran (a masculine ex-soldier), placing one of his hands at one part of the names curved on the wall, bowing, meditating, and almost crying. He must have been honoring his dead friend-in-arms. He had gone through the horror of the war. Then he can write a novel. — It’s the same. If you live through your life, you experience despair, sorrow, joy, and happiness. Then you can write an inspiring novel (what to write). You can learn the technique (how to write) later. So again, live your life first if you want to become a writer.
What are you reading now?
My new novel, “The Other La Bohème.” It's a great novel; I cannot stop reading. 🙂
What's your next step?
Last year, I published my debut novel (Remembrance of Blue Roses). This year I published my second novel (The Other La Bohème). Next year I am going to publish my third novel. The title? You'll see.
What are your top 3 books of all time?
This is impossible to answer. May I answer by three writers? — Homer, Shakespeare, Dickens.
Do you read your book reviews?
Yes, every one of them. Some are completely out of picture (i.e., the reviewer did not get the essence of my novel), while other reviewers caught what I was trying to express in my novel. For the former, I feel awful, but for the latter I feel grateful. A friend of mine (who happens to be an artist) told me that once we place our art work (novel, painting, sculpture, song album, etc.) in the public, no matter how great the work is, some people do not like it, and bush about it; the artists (including writers) must endure it. I think this is absolutely true.
Follow Yorker Keith on Twitter: @ykrh00101
