YELLING as I finally get to reveal the cover for Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor, my middle grade adventure in the vein of Chinese Percy Jackson meets Yugioh!
SO MUCH LOVE TO KARYN LEE FOR THE COVER DESIGN AND @Velinxi FOR THE ILLUSTRATION!
I SERIOUSLY HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS COVER SINCE I GOT IT MONTHS AGO
THANKS SO MUCH TO MY EDITOR @sarahrmccabe AND HER TEAM AT S&S MCELDERRY FOR GETTING ME LITERALLY EVERYTHING I WANTED AND MORE 😭 I MEAN LOOK AT THIS QIN-DYNASTY-ACCURATE SEAL SCRIPT YING
As someone who writes stories deeply rooted in my Chinese heritage, I'm extremely grateful that my publishers have listened to my input and made my covers so culturally authentic. I gave S&S 22 PAGES of reference materials, and I'm glad they didn't just boot me out, LOL -
anyway for a preview of what this book is like, here are some of the chapter titles:
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The payment schedules in publishing are so weird, like my small advance for Iron Widow was split into 5 and I have no idea when my royalties will start coming so if I didn't have alternate income I'd be in poverty despite my book hitting the bestseller lists week after week 😣
OH to clarify, this was a 2 book advance that was split into 5, which I think is relatively normal..? I've definitely heard of people who've had 1 book advances split into 4 or 5 now though 😫
Since people appreciate transparency in this industry: #publishingpaidme 16k USD / 20k CAD for Iron Widow (per book in a 2 book deal), paid out over 2 years on signing, delivery, and publication. Pretty sure I've sold this many copies less than a month since release ;_;
ok it was actually $519 for all the spaying stuff because there was also a $100 charge to clean her teeth, and then there was tax, but here's how the fees added up:
Oh my god @KaijuKombat, N/F/Ts aren't going to be a thing, STOP TRYING TO MAKE THEM A THING. You are grossly misrepresenting the Ultraman brand by associating with a pyramid scheme like that. Your success at this game is lower than the anatomy quality of your models.
What the hell are you doing making people buy N/F/Ts for access to a fighting game???
NO YOU'RE NOT, YOU ARE TRYING TO GLEEFULLY GRIFT PEOPLE
Stumbled upon this mini PBS documentary on the historical China Town in Wyoming and it's actually super fascinating and enlightening regarding the early Chinese Americans there, especially the ways they kept their culture alive in, well...Wyoming
Apparently the Chinatown in Marysville, California had an expensive silk dragon imported from Hong Kong and they would loan it out to Chinese communities across the West Coast for their New Year's celebrations, so they actually had to stagger all celebrations -
- because there was only one dragon to go around for parades 😂
brooo i love domestic fluff so much you have no idea, i had to delete so many fluff scenes from Iron Widow because word count 😭
Things that got cut out of Iron Widow:
- Actual scenes of Zetian and Shimin learning to ice dance
- Zetian and Yizhi making breakfast!
- Yizhi doing a face mask while Shimin's lying across his lap
- Zetian and Shimin getting their minds blown as Yizhi drives them through Chang'an
my agent: xiran why did this book turn into slice of life 2/3rds of the way through