We chat with author Axie Oh about The Floating World, which is a romantic YA fantasy where an amnesiac sword-for-hire and a village girl with a strange magical power become entangled in worlds-altering events…. and each other’s destinies.
Hi, Axie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Of course! My name is Axie Oh and I’m a Korean American author based out of Las Vegas, where I live with my two pups, Toro (named after Totoro) and Leila. Besides being an avid reader, I love playing JRPGs and watching anime and K-dramas. I studied East Asian history and literature at UC San Diego and got my MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve always loved stories, but I first started writing my own while at UC San Diego. I wrote flash fiction and would post them to the now defunct Figment.com. While at school, I also took classes where we had to produce short stories and short pieces. I didn’t write my first novel until I had graduated—a big, sprawling YA Fantasy that I absolutely loved, and want to go back to one day. I submitted my second novel, Rebel Seoul (A YA-Sci Fi set in a futuristic South Korea), to the New Visions Award*, and the rest is history!
The New Visions Award is an annual award given out by Lee & Low Books to an unagented, unpublished author of color. If you win the award, they offer you a contract to publish your book.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: (Disclaimer: I’m interpreting this as first novel(s) I read that comes to mind). Every book in the Royal Diaries series, starting with Cleopatra.
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Little Prince – It was the first time I consciously realized a book could touch the soul.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Right now, C. S. Pacat’s Dark Heir, as it left off on the most diabolical cliff-hanger, and I need to know what happens next. Also Villains are Destined to Die 7—for the same reason.
Your latest novel, The Floating World, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Studio Ghibli meets Final Fantasy
What can readers expect?
Adventure, romance, magic, and demons, plus a dark underworld setting and a lush world in the sky! Also steampunk elements, like airships and secret laboratories.
Where did the inspiration for The Floating World come from?
The starting point was a Korean legend about celestial maidens—magical women from the sky who come down to bathe in waterfall pools on earth, taking off their wings to do so, and the specific story “The Woodcutter and the Celestial Maiden,” in which a human steals the wings from one of the maidens, trapping her on earth. From there, I thought “what sort of powers would a celestial maiden have?” And then gave her Light-based powers. Then to contrast with her, I created the hero, who I wanted to have dark/Demon-based powers—the main inspiration for him came from video games, anime, and even K-Dramas.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really love writing side characters, and so I had so much fun writing Yurhee and Tag (rebels who add a lot of humor to the book), as well as Jaeil, the third POV character who is the son of the villain, and has villainous moments himself. As for moments, there’s one that occurs in a climactic point in the book that I absolutely love—it happens toward the end, and it’s from Sunho’s (the hero’s) POV.
Can you tell us a bit about your process when it came to worldbuilding for The Floating World?
Since the world felt very big, I drew myself a map to begin with (a world map as well as a city map), both of which were taken and transmuted into much more beautiful forms by mapmaker Virginia Allyn for the final book. Then because I wanted limits to the magic in the book, I created only two sources of magic – a stone that has magical properties (it’s only found beneath the Floating World, and is the reason the landmass is levitated off the ground) and the magic of celestial maidens—women with Light-based, wind, and healing powers. With these elements in place (the map and the rules of magic), I was able to then write forward.
In general, when worldbuilding, I try to focus on the ways in which the characters interact with the world; I want it to feel believable and lived in, and so even if the characters are in an underworld city that’s completely enshadowed, they’re still eating delicious dumplings with savory pork and leek filling or feeling the rush of wind as an aircraft putters by overhead.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I originally wasn’t sure of the “voice” of my heroine, so I wrote the entire book in first person point-of-view so that I could get to know her. And once I finished the book, and understood who she was, as well as her character arc, I rewrote her chapters in third person point-of-view.
What’s next for you?
The sequel to The Floating World, The Demon and the Light, releases this October. Otherwise, I’m taking some time to work on just-for-me projects until I figure out what I want to do next!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
So many! Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan, A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury, and Coldwire by Chloe Gong to name a few! (I also recently read A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim and absolutely loved it—it releases in June).
