We had the pleasure of speaking with author David Yoon again, this time all about his latest release City of Orange, along with the imprint he co-founded with his wife Nicola Yoon, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, David! We last spoke a year ago! How has the past 12 months been for you?
Time flies! It’s good to be here again talking with you. Career-wise, the last 12 months have been great! City of Orange is coming out, the Frankly In Love film adaptation is progressing, our Joy Revolution imprint has official launch lineup, my wife sold a book, etc. Lots of exciting stuff going on.
In terms of the pandemic, this last year has been the Acceptance stage of grief. My wife and I decided that we have to get out there and live our lives as best we can, instead of waiting for everything to “get back to normal” like we’d been doing. Waiting was a recipe for madness! So we’ve gotten better at masking up, vaxxing up, testing frequently, and mitigating risk whenever we can. It’s been pretty awesome to be back in the world again. One good thing I’ve managed to get out of this disastrous pandemic is a profound sense of what really matters: friends, family, following your passion, and learning to just chill the hell out when your body tells you to.
Your latest novel, City of Orange, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Five words? You guys. 🙂 Here goes:
The world has ended—again.
What can readers expect?
City of Orange is an apocalyptic story, but maybe not the kind you’re used to. There is of course desolation and survival and threats all around, but I really wanted to focus on the main character and his struggle to remember how the world ended and to find his lost family. An apocalypse can be a metaphor for all kinds of things in literature. In this book, it’s really about how you muster the will to go on when you suddenly find yourself in a world that has suddenly become totally unfamiliar. For this reason, some readers have thought this book is a metaphor for the pandemic, but it was really inspired years ago when I became a new father and my life completely changed. I think there are key moments in life when you’re thrust into an unfamiliar world and are forced to use all your ingenuity and courage to not just make it through, but thrive. The post-apocalyptic world of City of Orange serves as a similar challenge to the story’s main character.
Where did the inspiration for City of Orange come from?
So like I mentioned, I started writing this book shortly after my wife gave birth to our daughter. It was such a topsy-turvy time—everything changed, time had no meaning, and suddenly I had these borderline feral paternal instincts about taking care of my wife and new baby. Having a first child really distills your world down to its essence. It also raises the stakes in life dramatically. Your job, your car, your clothes all start to feel silly compared to family.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
City of Orange is actually my first novel! Before I wrote the first draft, I was terrified at the idea of writing something so long. I put it off forever. But the my wife literally forced me to do National Write a Novel Month, and over the course of November I reached the goal of 55,000 words. It was as thrilling as finishing a marathon. It would never have happened had Nicki not forced me into it. It would be years before I had the courage to actually show it to readers for feedback and revision, but at least I had a real first draft to work with. Not many people get that far. If you’re an aspiring writer and have a finished draft of a novel, you really should congratulate yourself on doing what the vast majority of people cannot.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
The character of Byron, who’s the protagonist’s best friend, was a treat. His name is ironic; he thinks he’s a tough-guy romantic hero, but really he’s a big softie with a generous soul, as well as kind of dumb. At heart, he’s the opposite of toxic masculinity. He is all my best guy friends rolled into one.
Another favorite part to write were the many flashbacks with the protagonist and his wife and daughter. They’re full of not just love, but resentment and exhaustion and regret. I can’t write a book without love. Love is the thing we live for. It’s the thing that motivates everybody!
You’ve now had four novels publish over the past four years. Are there any key lessons you’ve learned as a writer since Frankly In Love released in 2019?
The biggest thing I’ve learned is that a writing career is a long-term affair. Nicola hammers this message into me on an almost daily basis. A writer isn’t their first book, nor their latest; a writer is their entire body of work created over years. This sounds so obvious when I think about my own favorite authors. Like, whenever Kazuo Ishiguro writes a new book, I buy it automatically, and my conception of his work expands. I don’t think of him as the guy who wrote Remains of the Day—I think of him as a singular artist using words to explore truths. I want to be him when I grow up. 🙂
The other thing I learned is to be the cool boss. Being a writer is, in reality, being a small creative business owner, which means you’re your own boss. I used to be a hard-driving workaholic, until I realized I was being a jerk boss to myself. Now I know to take breaks, celebrate milestones properly, and pace myself. Be the cool boss!
You and your wife, Nicola Yoon (author of The Sun Is Also a Star and Everything, Everything) have teamed up to launch Joy Revolution, a new imprint for Random House Children’s Books, which is dedicated to young adult romance novels by people of color. With the first acquisition made earlier this year, what’s the process been like?
It’s been an honor. Our mission is super simple: to publish love stories starring people of color written by people of color. So many books about POCs focus on trauma and racism, and while those stories are crucial in fighting injustice, there’s a whole other side to life that doesn’t get told nearly enough as it should. Especially when you compare the narrow gamut of POC stories to the wide, freewheeling world of White stories, where characters are allowed to be whatever wacky personalities authors can dream up. Joy Revolution is dedicated to filling that narrative gap by showing people of color in stories that are funny, romantic, cozy, silly, and all the other things that express the full breadth of humanity. It’s a very basic (and very important) concept, because the more POC are portrayed as simply human, the more they will be perceived as being simply human. It’s been the pleasure of a lifetime to be able to read so many high-quality manuscripts with diverse protagonists produced by a growing pool of super talented POC authors.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a YA book with Nicola, which has been super fun. She’s my favorite author and now she’s officially my favorite writing partner, too! I’m also working on my next adult novel—all I can say is it’s a modern retelling of an old classic. This is on top of my City of Orange book tour next week, getting to launch our first Joy Revolution books, and pitching TV/film ideas with Yooniverse Media. Lastly, I’m having a lot of fun my newsletter, David Yoon Shares Everything He Knows, which has been a beautiful oasis of community away from the cesspool of social media. I once read somewhere—and so far it’s turned out to be true—that the second-best thing a person can do is to share everything they know. The first is to love someone.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
I’ve been on a hot streak with great books lately, so here you go:
- The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan—genius concept for a social thriller that beat the crap out of me but kept me coming back for more.
- The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin—gorgeously written western about a one-man killing machine gunslinger who’s also Chinese American? I mean come on.
- The Fervor by Alma Katsu—Historical zombie horror set (wait for it) in a WWII Japanese internment camp. A riveting detective suspense story.
- A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan—A dry, funny, unsettling parable about the evils of social media manifested into one of the most bizarre twists I’ve ever read.
- The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam—Absolutely absurd and hilarious sendup of tech startup culture so dead-on that I felt like I was back in my days working as a user experience expert.
