Interview with Amanda Sun

I recently got the chance to sit down with author Amanda Sun to talk about her YA debut INK (Paper Gods #1). The self-proclaimed nerd was a delightful interviewee. We managed to happily get off topic many times, but I was still able to get a lot of information out of her, more than I could even put in this write-up. 

  Though she was an archeology major in school, Amanda let me in on the secret that she's terrified of spiders, hence her inability to become the female Indiana Jones. Spiders or not, though, I'm not sure if the archeology gig was really in the cards for Amanda. She said she has always had characters in her head and has been writing since she was a little girl, and although Amanda managed to keep growing beyond the age of sixteen, her characters never did. She confessed that there's a freedom in writing about teenagers/young adults, because they have the belief they can do anything. After all, all teenagers think they're invincible. 

It was evident pretty early on that Amanda loves the Japanese culture. After spending two months there on a student exchange program when she was seventeen, Amanda fell in love and said she goes back every few years. When asked why she chose to make Katie (INK's heroine) an American who moves to Japan after a tragedy, she said she wanted to make Japan more accessible to people who have never experienced all the wonders that make up its culture. With Katie being an American, she was able to acclimate the reader with her character. As in every culture, Amanda said Japanese people think differently, and by making Katie a foreigner who stood out, she could show her readers the differences and similarities through Katie's experiences. 

Since multiculturalism is such an important factor to her, I had to ask Amanda if she thinks she'll ever write about other cultures. After having visited the Cook Islands and loving it (who wouldn't?), she said she would love to write about Polynesians. Since I got her to confess that she is currently working on a middle grade fantasy, perhaps we'll get to see a character or two of Polynesian descent pop up. 

Lastly, we talked about Hollywood's current trend to take hugely popular YA books and turn them, for better or for worse, into movies. She's a huge fan and said, if that convinces more people to pick up a book, then she's all for it. And if they ever make a Hollywood version of INK, I will be the first in line to buy a ticket.

--Rosie Bindra