SATA

• A Line in the Dark Dutton Books (New York, NY), 2017

1. Ash LCCN 2020289377 Type of material Book Personal name Lo, Malinda, author. Main title Ash / Malinda Lo. Edition Revised Trade Paperback Edition. 10th Anniversary Edition. Published/Produced New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2019. ©2009 Description 277 pages ; 21 cm. ISBN 9780316531313 (pbk.) CALL NUMBER PZ8.L773 Ash 2019 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 2. A line in the dark LCCN 2017003862 Type of material Book Personal name Lo, Malinda, author. Main title A line in the dark / by Malinda Lo. Published/Produced New York, NY : Dutton Books, [2017] ©2017 Description 281 pages ; 22 cm ISBN 9780735227422 (hardcover) 9780735227439 (paperback) CALL NUMBER PZ7.L778786 Lin 2017 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

• Last Night at the Telegraph Club - 2021 Dutton Books for Young Readers, New York, NY

• Malinda Lo website - https://www.malindalo.com

  BRIEF BIO
  Malinda Lo is the critically acclaimed author of several young adult novels, including Last Night at the Telegraph Club. Her debut novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s nonfiction has been published by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Toast, The Horn Book, and the anthologies Here We Are, How I Resist, and Scratch. She lives in Massachusetts with her partner and their dog.

  Here is how to pronounce Malinda’s name.

  Why is diversity important?
  Over on tumblr, trickwriter asked:

  Hello! My name is Sam, and I'm a huge fan of your books. I'm also doing an article for school newspaper on diversity in books, and I would love to have a quote from you in the piece. Why do you believe diversity in books is so important? Thank you!

  My answer:

  Hi Sam! I get this question a lot. A lot a lot a lot a lot. So much so that it makes me wonder: Do people really not know the answer to this question? Or are they not listening to the answers that have already been given, many many times by many different people? I don’t mean to pick on you — you’re not the first to ask me this question and you certainly won’t be the last.

  So I’m going to answer this here again, and this is going to be the last time I answer this question for anyone. You can quote me. :)

  Why is diversity in books important? Diversity is not important. Diversity is reality. Human beings are not all the same. We come from many different places and have many different identities and experiences. Having only one kind of human being in the stories being told is flat-out bad storytelling. Diversity is reality. Let’s stop erasing that.

  P.S. I’m very glad you’ve enjoyed my books!

• Lambda Literary - https://www.lambdaliterary.org/2020/12/malinda-lo/

  Malinda Lo on Writing a Coming-of-Age Love Story
  Malinda Lo on Writing a Coming-of-Age Love Story

  Author: Todd Wellman

  December 23, 2020

  In Malinda Lo’s forthcoming Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Dutton Books for Young Readers, January 2020), protagonist Lily Hu feels the challenging pull to act on her nature. Lily, a young Chinese American girl living in 1950s San Francisco, realizes that her love for another girl might endanger an already fragile defense against the deportation of her father.

  Lo’s practiced hand has previously brought us the novels A Line in the Dark, Ash, Huntress, Adaptation, and more. Booklist’s starred review of her latest notes it as “a must-read love story in an uncommon setting…alternately heart-wrenching and satisfying.” Lo writes with such care that even the slipped reveal of a photo or the squeak of a book display may call up danger. Lo teases us with questions: Will the hero end up with the other girl? Will the political pressures on Chinese Americans deter her? What will become of her family ties? Can this book possibly unfold toward anyone getting what they want?

  On the eve of the launch of her book next month, Malinda Lo spoke to Lambda Literary about writing the novel, reaching a queer and Asian audience, and breaking prescribed literary rules.

  What’s been something you’ve celebrated recently?

  One fun thing that happened just this past week: I was very surprised to see that O, the Oprah Magazine, included Last Night at the Telegraph Club in their roundup of queer books to look forward to in 2021. I shared that with some friends, and they were all so excited because everyone still thinks of Oprah as the book goddess. When nice things happen for my books, I often try to just brush them off because I don’t want to jinx anything; I’ve been doing this since 2009, so I have learned that things happen, things don’t happen, and not to get too hung up on one thing or the other, but it was really nice to have that happen the other day and to see that my friends and other people on the Internet were so excited about it. It reminded me that it’s OK to celebrate some of these small triumphs.

  Congratulations on the notice.

  It helps that it was also totally unexpected. Going on Twitter sometimes can be a little nerve-wracking. If people tag you and mention your book, it’s like, “Do I want to look? Do I not want to look?” So this was very surprising in an extremely pleasant way.

  Is there a difference between getting a notice from a mainstream publication versus a niche one?

  I really appreciate all of the positive reviews. The same day that the O thing came out, I shared a starred review from The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, which is from a very niche organization that really speaks to educators, and I was really so pleased by the review. They really got the book, and I thought that was wonderful. But people on the Internet don’t know what that is, so they were much more interested in the O thing. When it comes to smaller media, the people who know about that niche, they are really excited. As a writer, I’m so happy when anything like that happens from really anyone. It’s so lovely when random people on Instagram take a beautiful picture of my book and tag me. It’s so nice that someone takes the time to do that and share that with me.

  Did you have a reader in mind when you wrote this book?

  I always write for myself first, and then I want to reach readers who are like me, so I’m really interested in reaching readers who are queer women and girls, queer Asian women and girls. And then it goes out from there. It’s a historical novel, so I’m hoping people who love historical fiction will enjoy it. I’m hoping Asian Americans who are not queer will enjoy it. It really goes into Asian American history in a way that doesn’t happen very often in fiction being published today. And I’m hoping that queer readers who are not Asian American will be able to connect with the book.

  What do you think about the idea that the clearer you are about your audience, the less diffuse you’ll be?

  That’s a really interesting question. I approach this from a variety of ways. I, increasingly, am thinking about the reader. When I first started writing, I was totally thinking about what I wanted to hear, the story that I wanted to read, and that’s what I would write. The more books that I write, the more I actually think about what would make a satisfying reading experience for whoever’s reading it. A lot of that depends on the kind of book it is. Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a historical novel. It’s also a love story. People are going to go into it because of the packaging. If I have an idea of what the expectations are, I can work with that and try to either deliver on them or give the reader cues along the way that it’s not going in the way they expect. That’s something I never really grappled with until very recently—I’m not really sure why—but it has become increasingly important to me to deliver a satisfying read. But again, it depends on the genre.

  If I was writing a dark thriller, there would be different things I would do. Maybe because I’ve written in so many genres, and I’ve switched around so much, I think about that more and more with each book: What kind of book am I writing? Who am I writing this for? What are they expecting? Am I going to give it to them or not?

  As I was reading the new novel, I felt it could be called a romance novel, but I hesitated to say that to others because I didn’t want someone I was speaking with to pigeon-hole the book to one specific genre.

  When you talk about the book or when your PR department talks about the book, do you have similar moments of deciding not to limit descriptions too much, even though you have a good sense of who you’re writing for?

  I actually don’t think of it as a romance novel. I think of it as a coming-of-age novel with a love story. I’m not a big historical-romance reader, so I can’t say I was writing one. I know there are ways historical romance novels are structured that I would not know how to do—however—the book recently sold to the UK, to Hodder & Stoughton, and they are publishing it as an adult novel, and they are categorizing it directly as historical romance. I have no objection to that; if it reaches readers who want to read it, that’s great. In the US, because it’s YA, and everything is coming of age, it is an identity novel. The main character is coming out, she’s coming to terms with her identity as a Chinese American, as a queer person. And it is also a romance. However, the marketing copy has situated it within this greater historical context of McCarthyism and Red Scare in the 1950s, which is when it takes place.

  I have noticed that when some book bloggers promote it as a book they are looking forward to, they immediately categorize it as an immigration novel or a novel about deportation or a novel about communism. That stuff is in the book, but that is definitely not what the book is about.

  The book is a love story. If you go in there thinking it’s about immigration and communism, you will be sorely disappointed. The marketing copy immediately jumps to the political and race issues because, within YA especially, there’s been a huge focus recently on books about racism and immigration, and I totally understand that, and I get it, but it’s sometimes difficult to publish a book about a marginalized identity that is not an issue book and have people understand that’s not what it is. That’s been very surprising. I did not expect that.

  One of the slyest parts of the new book is the comparison between the parents’ desires for freedom and romance, explored in the callbacks, and Lily’s desire for freedom and romance in the present-day of the novel.

  The reader gets a sense of edges of acceptability and that different generations may recognize different boundaries. A book like LC Rosen’s novel Camp shows characters deciding to prioritize someone’s safety at home by postponing a portion of honesty until he’s an independent adult. Do you see such limits to authenticity for your characters, especially since Lily’s expressions of freedom may have negative consequences for her parents?

  No, I don’t think so. I think it’s important to be true to the story and go where it leads you to be true to the character. When I wrote the character of Lily, she told me what she wanted. I tried to make her do other things, but what she wanted is what happens in the book. She’s very aware of the political situation and the concepts, which is why she makes the choices she makes for the first ninety percent of the book. The characters are all very aware they are Chinese Americans living in America in the 1950s, but people will do what they want. If someone wants something, they will try to get it.

  In the prologue, as read in the pre-release copy, you use the simile, “like the slender-legged foals in Bambi learning to walk,” to give readers a rich visual of a pageant. Talk about the way you enjoy language that helps us see your scenes, not just know about what’s happening.

  I love a sense of place. I love describing places. In the early drafts, there was too much description of San Francisco. I’d go around describing all of it, detail by detail, even trash on the sidewalk. I used to live there, so I was returning to San Francisco in my imagination. I love describing place; it’s something I’ve always been drawn to. I really enjoy describing rooms and houses. I enjoy describing the inside of nightclubs. Some authors are much more interested in dialogue, and that’s not me. I’ve always found dialogue not to be my strong suit. I’ve worked on it. I can do it. I had to describe a lot of fashion in this book too, and for some reason, fashion was really hard for me. It is the opposite of place. It’s kind of like pulling teeth. The Bambi line was a line my editor suggested. He suggested Bambi because it came out at the time in the book, and Lily would have seen it. When describing things from her perspective, I always tried to think of metaphors she, herself, would know, to keep it in the time period and her point of view.

  Malinda Lo
  The veracity of the book is pretty remarkable. Your descriptions feel like a camera sweep through a place: For dancing, we see dancing; we’re not told there are dancers.

  I remember reading Sarah Waters’ novel The Paying Guests. There’s a party in that book, and there’s a party in my book. When I get stuck, I pick up a book by someone I admire, where I think they’ve done what I would like to do, and I read their scene and try to analyze it. Something I noticed Waters did: She made the furniture active. The furniture did things. A table would crouch as opposed to saying there’s a table over there. I try to do that in my party scene—but also throughout. I tried to make it so the world around the characters was living and not just inert. My novel A Line in the Dark takes place in New England in the winter, and the landscape of New England in the winter is just creepy. You can use that to deliver mood and emotion, so I try to think of things I’m describing as doing things.

  The scariest object in Last Night at the Telegraph Club is the precarious book rack, at which Lily sneaks reads of a same-sex romantic paperback in an out-of-the-way spot in the store. The reading won’t give her away; it would be the squeak of the display. We sense the danger of surveillance, and at once, the secret-reading scenes feel historic and contemporary—about an action people used to take, yet some people still have to take. What is your hope for those today who have to be more secretive about accessing queer literature?

  I understand. I have been the person sneakily reading a book in the library and not checking it out. I hope that if someone is sneakily reading this book, they get some comfort from it and feel seen. There are times when you cannot reveal yourself, and Lily knows that. That’s just, unfortunately, life. It’s just so hard. We’re in a much better place now than in 1954, but I absolutely understand that it’s not safe for people to come out in certain places or times or locations or contexts. I don’t come out at certain times. When we used to leave the house—when I would go places and get a Lyft or a taxi from the airport or be in a different city and the driver tries to talk to you—I don’t come out in those times, and I’m usually traveling to do a book event about my extremely gay book. I don’t come out in a lot of situations, even now, when I’m not in control or don’t have the power. As a woman, I know there are certain locations where I have to watch out for things, and if I come out as a lesbian in those situations, it generally makes it worse.

  What rules do you break when you’re writing?

  I hate all rules. So: prologues. Everyone’s like, “Don’t have a prologue.” I love prologues. I think I’ve managed to have a prologue in every single novel I’ve written.

  Your website does a great job of highlighting local ways to pre-order your book. What’s behind this choice?

  Since my first book came out in 2009, independent bookstores have been the one place I can go to consistently find my books. One of the major ways people discover my books is through independent bookstores that carry back-list titles and don’t immediately return books after the first month. I’m extremely grateful to independent bookstores for continuing to support my books, going on eleven years now. Without them, I would not be here probably. Also, independent bookstores are just so great. I love visiting them. They are so cozy and lovely, and the people who work there love books, and they have a curated selection. It’s a relief to go into a bookstore to be able to look around. I miss that a lot. Some of my best events ever have been at Porter Square Books in Cambridge. I just love them. Starting this past summer, they have allowed ten people at a time in, so I’ve gone a couple of times. I can’t stay away.

  I hear you. Recently, I stood outside of Boswell Book Company, calling in, waiting for my book to be brought out to the no-touch cart. I called for someone else waiting too—someone who didn’t have a phone to call for their order. It was very neighborhood-y. I’m predicting people will grow in their love of independent bookstores. What do you predict for the future of queer #ownvoices writing?

  More. It’s exploded in the last four to five years, and I think there will just be more. I’m very excited about that. When I was first published in 2009, I was often the only queer author at various YA book events, and I hated that. I really did not want to be the only one. There was obviously more than me, but we were never in the same place at once. I just love that there’s more now, and there should only be more in the future.

  This interview has been edited for clarity.

  Last Night at the Telegraph Club
  by Malinda Lo
  Dutton Books for Young Readers
  Hardcover, 9780525555254, 416 pp.
  January 2021

• From Publisher -

  Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels including most recently the science fiction duo logy Adaptation and Inheritance (Little, Brown). Her first novel, Ash, a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Her novel Huntress was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her website is MalindaLo.com.

• Fantastic Fiction -

  Malinda Lo
  China

  Malinda Lo was born in China and moved to the United States as a child. She grew up in Colorado and has since lived in Boston, New York, London, Beijing, Los Angeles and San Francisco. She is the former managing editor of AfterEllen.com, the largest entertainment news website for lesbians and bisexual women. Malinda now lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog.

  Genres: Young Adult Fantasy, Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction

  New Books
  January 2021
  (kindle)

  Last Night at the Telegraph Club
  Series
  Ash
  1. Ash (2009)
  Huntress (2011)
  thumbthumb

  Adaptation
  1. Adaptation (2012)
  1.5. Natural Selection (2013)
  2. Inheritance (2013)
  thumbthumbthumb

  Novels
  A Line in the Dark (2017)
  Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021)
  thumbthumb

  Omnibus
  Love Bites (2010) (with Ally Carter, Eden Maguire and Gabriella Poole)
  thumb

  Series contributed to
  Tremontaine Season One
  4. A Wake in Riverside (2017)
  Tremontaine: The Complete Season 1 (2017) (with Patty Bryant, Joel Derfner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Ellen Kushner, Racheline Maltese and Paul Witcover)

• Wikipedia -

  Malinda Lo
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Jump to navigationJump to search
  Malinda Lo
  Lo at the 2017 Texas Book Festival
  Lo at the 2017 Texas Book Festival
  Occupation Writer
  Nationality American
  Period 2009-Present
  Genre Young adult, fantasy, science fiction
  Relatives Ruth Earnshaw Lo (grandmother)
  Website
  www.malindalo.com
  Malinda Lo is an American writer of young adult novels including Ash, Huntress, Adaptation, Inheritance, and A Line in the Dark. She also does research on diversity in young adult literature and publishing.

  Contents
  1 Personal life
  2 Writing career
  3 Research on diversity
  4 Bibliography
  4.1 Stand-alone novels
  4.2 Series
  4.2.1 Ash and Huntress universe
  4.2.2 Adaptation series
  4.2.3 Riverside series
  4.3 Stand-alone short stories
  4.4 Selected nonfiction
  4.4.1 Articles and interviews
  5 External links
  6 References
  Personal life
  Lo was born in China and moved to the United States at the age of three. She graduated from Wellesley College and earned a master's degree in Regional Studies from Harvard. She enrolled at Stanford with the intention of obtaining a PhD in Cultural and Social Anthropology, but left with a second master's degree.[1]

  Malinda Lo was made a member of the faculty of the Lambda Literary Foundation's 2013 Writer Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, along with Samuel R. Delany, Sarah Schulman and David Groff.[2]

  Writing career
  Lo began writing for the culture blog After Ellen in 2003, and at one point served as the managing editor.[3][4]

  Her first novel, Ash, was published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2009.[5] Ash was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Fantasy and Science Fiction, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Lambda Literary Award.[2] Her second book, Huntress, was published by Little, Brown in 2011.[6] It is set in the same fantasy world as Ash, which mixes Asian and European influences.[7] Her third book, Adaptation, was published in 2012. Reviewers at Kirkus Reviews and elsewhere have compared it favorably to the television program The X-Files.[8] The X-Files was also the subject of Lo's graduate research at Stanford.[1] A sequel to Adaptation, titled Inheritance, was published in 2013.[9] A stand-alone thriller novel, A Line in the Dark, was published in 2017 and was named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus, Vulture, and Chicago Public Library.[10]

  Research on diversity
  In 2011, Malinda Lo co-founded Diversity in YA, a website and book tour to promote and celebrate diverse representations in young adult literature, with fellow young adult author Cindy Pon.[11] Diversity in YA highlights books with characters of color, LGBTQ characters, and disabled characters and collects data on the number of books with diverse characters and authors that are published annually. Starting in 2012, Lo has periodically published analysis of the diversity in Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestselling young adult novels. Her 2013 analysis showed that 15 percent of New York Times bestselling young adult novels featured main characters of color, 12 percent featured LGBT main characters, and three percent had main characters with disabilities.[12]

  Bibliography
  Stand-alone novels
  A Line in the Dark (2017)[10]
  Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021)[13]
  Series
  Ash and Huntress universe
  Ash (2009)
  Huntress (2011)
  The Fox (2011), short story set after Huntress, published in Subterranean Magazine, summer 2011 (Subterranean Press # 19)
  Ash is also found in Love Bites 2: Arizona / Ash / Blood Ties / The Secret Circle: The Initiation and the Captive (2010)

  Adaptation series
  Adaptation (2012)
  Inheritance (2013)
  Natural Selection (2013) Short story, online
  Riverside series
  Ellen Kushner wrote the Riverside series, beginning with Swordspoint!

  Malinda Lo contributed to Tremontaine, the prequel to the Riverside Series. The prequel was written by Ellen Kushner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Joel Derfner, Racheline Maltese, Patty Bryant, and Paul Witcover with cover art by Kathleen Jennings, and was published as a digital serial by Serial Box in 2015–2016.[14]
  Stand-alone short stories
  "One True Love" (2012) in Foretold: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction, edited by Carrie Ryan, republished in Heiresses of Russ 2013: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction (2013), edited by Tenea D. Johnson and Steve Berman
  "Good Girl" (2012) in Diverse Energies, edited by Tobias S. Buckle and Joe Monti, republished in Futuredaze 2: Reprise (2014), edited by Erin Underwood and Nancy Holder
  "Ghost Town" (2013) in Defy The Dark, edited by Saundra Mitchell
  "The Twelfth Girl" (2014) in Grim, edited by Christine Johnson
  "The Cure" (2015) in Interfictions: A Journal of Interstitial Arts, Issue 6, November 2015, found online[15]
  "New Year" (2018) in All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages, an anthology edited by Saundra Mitchell, February 2018[16]
  "Meet Cute" (2018) in Fresh Ink, an anthology edited by Lamar Giles, August 2018[17]
  "We Could Be Heroes" (2018) in Autostraddle, October 1, 2019, found online[18]
  "Red" (2019) in Foreshadow, Issue 1, January 2019, found online[19]
  "Don't Speak" (2019) in The New York Times, "Viewfinders: 10 Y.A. Novelists Spin Fiction From Vintage Photos," June 28, 2019[20]
  Selected nonfiction
  A letter to her sixteen year old self, in The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to their Younger Selves (2012), edited by Sarah Moon and James License
  "Forever Feminist," essay in the anthology Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World (2017), edited by Kelly Jensen[21][22]
  Articles and interviews
  Notes & Queeries (2008-2009) a monthly column for AfterEllen.com[23]
  The Lo-Down (2005–2009) a monthly column for AfterEllen.com[3]
  Malinda Lo has written various freelance articles, and further articles for AfterEllen.com[3]

• The Nerd Daily - https://www.thenerddaily.com/malinda-lo-author-interview/

  Home Writers Corner Author Interviews
  Kajree GautomKajree Gautom·Writers Corner·January 22, 2021·3 min read
  Q&A: Malinda Lo, Author of ‘Last Night at the Telegraph Club’

  SHARE
  1
  Acclaimed author Malinda Lo returns with a new poignant story set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s; a gripping, sensitive and heart-wrenching story about first love, history and identity. We chat with Malinda Lo about her new book Last Night at the Telegraph Club, publishing, writing and so much more!

  Hi Malinda! Tell our readers a little about yourself!
  Hi! I’m an Asian American lesbian writer. My best known novel is Ash, a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist, but I’ve also written novels in several other genres. I love to genre-hop, but the one consistent theme is queer female characters. I like to joke that my brand is lesbians!

  If you had to describe Last Night at the Telegraph Club in five words, what would they be?
  1950s coming-of-age lesbian love story.

  What was your biggest inspiration behind writing Last Night at the Telegraph Club? How did the idea come to you?
  The novel originated in a short story, “New Year,” that was included in the anthology All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell. That story was inspired by two nonfiction books I was reading at the time: Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt and Wide Open Town by Nan Alamilla Boyd. The two books have nothing in common, but in my head they combined to create a character named Lily, a Chinese American girl in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1950s, who is fascinated by rocket science and also realizes she might be a lesbian.

  How long did it take for you to write Last Night? Were there any scenes that didn’t make it to the final copy that you really liked?
  Three years! There was one scene that didn’t work for the book, but parts of it found their way into the book in dialogue. So even if you write scenes and end up cutting them, they can still influence the story.

  Your previous books are thrillers, science fiction and fantasy. What was different while writing a historical fiction? Did you have to approach writing differently in contrast to your other books?
  The main difference for me wasn’t about genre, because historical fiction is a lot like fantasy. There’s a lot of world-building involved. The biggest difference was that Last Night at the Telegraph Club is not plot-driven; it’s all about character development. That meant I didn’t have to stress about plot as much, but it took a lot of layering during revision to deepen that character development.

  What was the hardest part to write in Last Night at the Telegraph Club? And which was your favorite?
  Without revealing any spoilers, the climax (at least the scene I think of as the climax) was the hardest for me to write, because that’s the scene where everything I had seeded earlier in the novel had to finally come together and work. Also, it was pretty emotionally draining for me; I got headaches every time I worked on it. My favorite scenes to write were in chapter 42, because it brings the main character into a new stage of her life.

  The past year had been nothing but bizarre. How does writing and publishing a book in the midst of a pandemic feel like?
  In some ways it’s more stressful, because all the normal elements of a book launch, like book events and travel to festivals, are gone. But in other ways it’s a relief. You’re not doing that stuff, and nobody else is either, so you might as well quit worrying about it!

  What are a few things you wish you knew about publishing before venturing into the industry?
  Publishing people are generally lovely, but it’s a business, and you should do your best to not take it personally. I’ve written about the most important things I’ve learned in my first decade as an author on my website if you want more details.

  If you could say something to the aspiring writers out there, what would it be?
  Don’t give up.

  Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
  Out this month: Kristin Cashore’s Winterkeep, the fourth in her Graceling Realm series. It’s a brilliant and immersive read.

  See also

• Horn Book - https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=five-questions-malinda-lo

  Five questions for Malinda Lo
  by Katie Bircher
  Nov 07, 2017 | Filed in Authors & Illustrators
  Photo: Patty Nason.

  In Malinda Lo's new YA thriller A Line in the Dark (Dutton, 14 years and up), four teenage girls — narrator Jess, her best friend and longtime secret crush Angie, Angie's brand-new girlfriend Margot, and Margot's bestie Ryan — must carefully navigate volatile dynamics of friendship and romance. And that's before somebody winds up dead.

  1. You've said the idea for this book came partly from a conversation with editor Andrew Karre about Tana French's adult crime novel The Secret Place. It's a favorite of mine too! What is it about twisty murder mysteries that captures readers' attention?

  ML: Traditional murder mysteries are interesting because they're ostensibly about a horrible thing — murder — but underneath that, they're about restoring order to a messed-up world. By the end of a whodunit, the detective has taken the reader through all the reasons why this terrible thing happened. Through that explanation, and by seeing the killer captured, the reader feels a sense of catharsis.

  Crime writers like Tana French or psychological thriller writers like Gillian Flynn take a slightly different perspective. I think French's procedurals do some of that restoring of order, but her criminals are often ordinary people, and through the investigation we begin to identify somewhat with them. Plus, her detectives are quite flawed, and we come to see that justice isn't simple. Flynn, through novels like Gone Girl, flips order on its head. You go in for a roller-coaster ride through the darkness of the world. I always leave her books feeling very unsettled.

  I guess what I like about a twisty mystery is the state of not knowing, coupled with the confidence that by the time I get to the end, I will know.

  2. About two-thirds of the way through A Line in the Dark, the point of view switches rather dramatically — which allows you to conceal and reveal important information for readers. When did this structure come into your thinking about the novel?

  ML: Not until the second draft. The first draft was entirely from Jess's perspective, but I was unsatisfied with it. It felt ordinary, and it needed something to bring it into sharper focus. It was Andrew [Karre] who suggested changing the second half into a more distant third-person narration, and the moment he suggested it, I knew instinctively it was the right choice. It immediately problematizes Jess as the narrator. When the switch occurs, the reader should begin to question Jess's reliability. The reader should also feel momentarily disoriented, because something major has happened.

  However, I've been surprised that some readers found the switch so dramatic. Perhaps it shows that Jess is an engaging character, and you want more of her. But this book isn't about making the reader comfortable.

  3. Why did you cast Jess — of your four main characters — as narrator?

  ML: It was always Jess's story. I wanted to write about a queer Chinese American girl who was in unrequited love with her best friend, and that's Jess. Although I do have a soft spot for Margot.

  4. Jess is a talented comics artist, and the project she's working on throughout A Line in the Dark in some ways parallels the novel's events. Are events in your own life reflected in your writing in a similar way?

  ML: Of course! I find it interesting that authors of fantasy and science fiction novels are rarely asked if their books are based on their personal experiences, because all writing is based on personal experience. I may not have gone on an epic quest through a haunted forest, but the feelings in my books are often based on feelings I've had. Real-life events, in fantasy and science fiction, can take on metaphorical significance that they can't in a so-called realistic novel.

  That said, I also find it interesting that people often seem to believe that authors of realistic fiction are directly translating their personal experiences into their work. The fact is that telling a story is a transformative experience. There is rarely a one-to-one translation onto the page unless you're writing memoir, and even then, memory is unreliable. I think that the best books feel emotionally true, and that truth has to be rooted in real-world experience.

  5. Has tracking stats on LGBTQ main characters informed your writing and/or vice versa? What changes have you seen over time?

  ML: Learning about the kinds of LGBTQ characters and story lines that are predominant in YA fiction has mostly shown me what I don't want to do. For example, popular depictions of lesbians often end up with them dead; this is the "bury your gays" trope. When I wrote A Line in the Dark, which involves murder, I purposely chose to write against this trope.

  There have been so many changes in LGBTQ YA over time — too many to explain here. But all of the information is on my website, www.malindalo.com.

  From the November 2017 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.

• We Need Diverse Books - https://diversebooks.org/qa-with-malinda-lo-last-night-at-the-telegraph-club/

  Q&A With Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club
  January 19, 2021 by We Need Diverse Books

  Q&A With Malinda Lo, Last Night at the Telegraph Club
  By Alaina Leary

  Today we’re pleased to welcome Malinda Lo to the WNDB blog to discuss her young adult novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club, out January 19, 2021!

  Acclaimed author of Ash Malinda Lo returns with her most personal and ambitious novel yet, a gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s.“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.
  America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

  Last Night at the Telegraph Club
  What prompted you to want to write a book set in Chinatown during the Red Scare?

  This book began as a short story, “New Year,” which was published in the anthology All Out. When I came up with the idea for the short story, I had just learned that in the 1950s, San Francisco’s lesbian bars were clustered in North Beach, located just a couple of blocks from Chinatown. I used to live in San Francisco, which is such a walking-friendly city, and I had this gut feeling that Chinese American lesbians who lived in Chinatown at the time must have known about these bars. I wanted to tell a story about one of them.

  There is often criticism from the LGBTQ+ community, especially from queer women, that queer women’s media is so focused on historical settings, such as Carol or Portrait of a Lady on Fire. But most of those pieces of media featured white protagonists. Do you think that LGBTQ+ historical fiction needs more intersectional representation?

  I have heard these criticisms since the early 2000s, when pretty much the only historical fiction about lesbians was written by Sarah Waters. All of her books have been turned into TV series or movies, so she has had a profound impact on the representation of queer women in media—but she is simply one author. I’m pretty sure that if you look more closely at the representation of queer women in media, only a tiny fraction of it takes place in historical time periods. The vast majority of fiction about queer women is contemporary because until very recently, most people denied the fact that queer people even existed before modern times.

  Historical fiction in America and the West is certainly very white-centric—just like all fiction—and I’d definitely love to read more historical fiction about queer people of color.

  Do you consider yourself a plotter or a pantser? Did you follow that same routine for this book or surprise yourself?

  I am both! Every book is different, and I surprise myself every time.

  You’ve spoken about the extensive research you usually do as part of your process of writing a book. What was that like for Last Night at the Telegraph Club? Can you share a piece of research with us that you loved learning?

  When I started working on this book, I didn’t know much about the 1950s at all; it had never been an era that fascinated me. So I had to start at a very broad, general level, and gradually dive deeper into the details. I even visited the GLBT Historical Society’s archives in San Francisco, where I listened to a recorded interview with a Chinese American lesbian that they had in their files. She worked at a San Francisco department store in the late 1950s, and in her interview she noted that many of the managers in the women’s departments were lesbians who had graduated “from Wellesley or something.” That cracked me up because I went to Wellesley, and when I graduated from college in 1996, department stores still came to my college to hire us. Sadly, I didn’t work that detail into the book!

  In addition to homophobia and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments of the time period, Last Night also dives into racism, xenophobia, and immigration. What was different about immigration during the Red Scare, and were there any similarities to the barriers facing immigrants, particularly Asian and Chinese immigrants, today?

  Immigration to the U.S. has always been very complicated, and for Chinese and Asian Americans, it has often been restricted due to racism. The Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese (and later, Asian) immigrants from 1882-1943. In the 1950s, a strict quota system didn’t allow many Asians to immigrate. It wasn’t until the Immigration Act of 1965 was passed that large numbers of Asians were able to come to the U.S.

  So, during the 1950s, very few Asians were allowed to immigrate to the U.S., which is a little different than today. However, one thing hasn’t changed. Asian Americans are still treated as perpetual foreigners, no matter how long we’ve lived in this country. I’m often asked about immigration in relation to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, but the main character, Lily, is a second-generation American citizen. She and her mother were both born in the U.S., but the white people she meets often think she just arrived from China. That kind of thing still happens today.

  What’s the most useful thing you’ve learned about writing since you published Ash?

  I’ve learned to truly value the time I spend writing a novel on my own before it’s published. That’s when the story is mine alone, and it’s a precious time.

  If you could be on your dream panel to promote this book, what would it be about? Who are some other authors you’d love to have on it with you?

  I’m so fortunate that I’ve been able to put together two dream panels for this book already, with the help of my publisher! I’m talking with Emily X. R. Pan for one event, and with Kristin Cashore for another. I’m really looking forward to them!

  The vast majority of fiction about queer women is contemporary because until very recently, most people denied the fact that queer people even existed before modern times. Historical fiction in America and the West is certainly very white-centric—just like all fiction—and I’d definitely love to read more historical fiction about queer people of color.

  Can you tell us about some of your favorite scenes to write between Lily and Kath? (You can keep it spoiler-free.)

  I loved writing the scene in Thrifty Drugs when they talk about a lesbian pulp novel, and I also really loved writing the bowling scene. You’ll see!

  The scenes of Lily and Kath interacting with LGBTQ+ safe spaces (so to speak: They were as safe as you could get during the time) feel so incredibly real. Where did you draw the emotional resonance of these scenes, beyond the historical accuracy that was needed?

  Thank you! Well, I spent a lot of time in lesbian bars when I was younger, and although back then I didn’t think I was doing research for a future novel, I’ve used a lot of that experience to write those scenes.

  Lily and Kath have a slow burn romance, which makes sense for the characters and the time period. What do you love about writing a slow burn and what do you think is essential for writing an effective romance, regardless of the era when it takes place?

  People may not believe this, but writing romance does not come easily to me; I strongly prefer writing murders! 🙂 I wrote Lily and Kath’s love story in the way I felt it would naturally develop in real life. I didn’t think of it as a slow burn romance in that trope sense; rather, I thought of it as a coming of age story.

  Last Night at the Telegraph Club is interspersed with timelines involving the characters in the book and switches point-of-view to give the reader a deeper look at how everyone’s lives connect. Was it difficult to keep the timelines straight? Did you have a process for plotting out the book according to your characters’ timelines as well as historical events?

  I think the main storyline of the book is pretty straightforward—there’s no mystery to solve or thriller to the plot, just Lily moving forward in time and through relationships. I wrote the other point-of-view scenes separately from Lily’s main story, and I wrote them all at the same time, so it was pretty simple to keep things in order. The difficult part was not in the organization, but rather in developing emotional resonance. That came with time and revision.

  You used Chinese characters in the book when Lily and her family were speaking full sentences in dialects of Chinese. Why did you make this choice? When you do this, as well as when you felt anything needed a footnote, there were footnotes for the reader. What do you think it adds for readers familiar with the terms and characters to see Chinese characters and terms in the text without being taken out of the story for an explanation primarily meant for unfamiliar, often white, audiences?

  I decided to use Chinese characters in some cases because the romanization in use in the 1950s was not standardized, and thus it was impossible to guarantee it could be understood by today’s readers. Also, the characters speak several dialects in the novel, and these dialects are all romanized differently. Chinese characters, on the other hand, are the same regardless of dialect, and when you see them on the page, it’s clear that it’s Chinese. It is its own language, with its own history and culture and tradition. Romanized Chinese of the 1950s was for the benefit of non-Chinese Westerners, mostly white people.

  I’m sure that the reading experience is different for those who can read the Chinese characters, versus those who can read the romanized versions, versus those who can’t read any version of Chinese. That’s the way it is in the real world, too.

  At the same time, I wanted to make sure that every reader understood what was being said, and I knew that it would be impossible for most people to google the Chinese characters or romanizations. I was inspired to use footnotes after seeing Kevin Kwan use them in Crazy Rich Asians, and I think they work to make the reader note that they are reading a translation. I wanted that to be clear, so the reader could have a sense of insider versus outsider culture.

  Without spoilers, can you tell our readers what it’s like to craft a historical novel about LGBTQ+ characters that isn’t hopeless and overly traumatic?

  I’m not sure if I’m capable of writing a book about queer characters that’s hopeless and overly traumatic! I just wanted to make sure there was a sense of hope at the end. That was important to me.

  What other books do you think Last Night is in conversation with? And do you have any recommendations for recently published or forthcoming YA books?

  It was definitely influenced by Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters and The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith.

  For 2021, I’ve had the chance to read a couple of excellent forthcoming queer YA books: Eliot Schrefer’s amazing science fiction thriller, The Darkness Outside Us, and Britta Lundin’s fantastic contemporary about a female football player, Like Other Girls. I can’t wait for both to come out!

  ******

  Malinda Lo HeadshotMalinda Lo is the critically acclaimed author of several young adult novels, including most recently Last Night at the Telegraph Club and A Line in the Dark, which was a Kirkus Best YA Book of 2017 and one of Vulture’s 10 Best YA Books of 2017. Her novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s nonfiction has been published by the New York Times Book Review, NPR, the Huffington Post, The Toast, the Horn Book, and the anthologies Here We Are, How I Resist, and Scratch. She lives in Massachusetts with her wife.

  ******

Lo, Malinda A LINE IN THE DARK Dutton (Children's Fiction) $17.99 10, 17 ISBN: 978-0-7352-2742-2

Queer romance, friendship rivalries, and ominous secrets twist together in Lo's latest enthralling tale. Chinese-American Jess Wong has known her white best friend, Angie Redmond, since grade school--the problem is she's loved Angie for nearly as long, unrequited. When Angie begins dating Margot Adams, a wealthy white student at a nearby private school, Jess knows she should be happy that her friend is happy, but as jealousy and suspicion about Margot eat at her instead, her friendship with Angie begins to crack apart. Jess tries to throw herself into her comics art, but even there, themes of loyalty, love, and betrayal arise. As tensions reach their breaking point, a classmate and friend of Margot's is discovered murdered in the park, and the resulting upheaval and search for a killer sheds light on some harrowing truths about everyone. Lo has delivered an intricate tapestry of narrative, woven in a labyrinthine pattern of secrets and colored with intersecting hues of Chinese-American identity, the dark intensity of relationships, and telltale stains of blood. A sudden (and likely disorienting) shift from Jess' first-person perspective to a more detached third-person narration serves the practical purpose of providing information; together with police interview transcripts to which Jess couldn't be privy, it artfully signals to readers that Jess is no longer in control of the story...or the facts. Mesmerizing. (Thriller. 13-17)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Lo, Malinda: A LINE IN THE DARK." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A502192071/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ed6074c2. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

Lo, Malinda. A Line in the Dark. Dutton/ Penguin Random House, October 2017. 288p. $17.99. 978-0-7352-2742-2.

Jessica loves Angie. Angie is Jess's best friend, but Jess wishes she were more. When Angie comes out and begins dating Margot, a student at Pearson Brooke, the area's exclusive boarding school, Jess is riddled with anger and jealousy. As a talented artist and a student at West Bedford high school, Jess has created her own manga characters and story line, and she has worked hard to refine her drawings, enough so that she has earned a yearlong participation in the Pearson Brooke Arts Exchange Program during the afternoon. Jess is very observant and watches everything that takes place around her. Angie loves Jess as a best friend, but their relationship becomes strained under the weight of what is not said. Additionally, Margot's best girl friend, Ryan, has issues, too. When Jess discovers an exchange of love letters between Ryan and an older male teacher at Pearson Brooke, tensions explode and Ryan is soon found dead of a gunshot wound following a party at Margot's house. As the police investigate, Jess must decide whom to protect.

A love triangle-murder mystery, A Line in the Dark explores the tortured and angst-ridden mind of Jess as she struggles to come to terms with her love for Angie and, simultaneously, her fear of losing her best friend if her love is not reciprocated. Each of the main characters is well crafted and show realistic emotions. The longing that Jess experiences is painfully visible to everyone but Angie, and both Margot and Ryan use this information against Jess. Told mainly from Jess's perspective, her observant glance on her world resembles the illustrated world she creates with her manga characters. Aside from kissing and light touching, sexual interactions are implied, and there are only a few mentions of drugs and drinking. Give this to readers who like psychological thrillers with tension on every page.--Etienne Vallee.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Vallee, Etienne. "Lo, Malinda. A Line in the Dark." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 40, no. 4, Oct. 2017, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A511785020/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9965a0f1. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club. By Malinda Lo. Jan. 2021.416p. Dutton, $17.99 (9780525555254). Gr. 9-12.

For 17-year-old Lily Hu, San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s is home to her community and culture. However, despite having friends and loving parents, she struggles with a sense of belonging. Rather than fixating on boys, like her friends, Lily dreams of working at the Jet Propulsion Lab (where her aunt works) and traveling to Mars. Slowly, Lily realizes that more than her life goals are in play here, as she recognizes that she is attracted to women rather than men. That includes Kath, the other girl in her math class, whose goal is to fly airplanes. After the two connect over an ad for a male impersonator at the Telegraph Club and begin frequenting the establishment, Lily's life changes forever. Fearful of exposing her feelings and of her family being labeled Communists (as a result of the Lavender Scare), Lily is faced with hard decisions about herself and those she loves. Writing beautifully with a knowing, gentle hand that balances Lily's unease and courage, Lo presents a must-read love story in an uncommon setting: the midcentury queer Bay Area at a time when racism, homophobia, and McCarthyism held tight grips on the citizenry. The author's notes are a wealth of historical information and discuss the seed from which this alternately heart-wrenching and satisfying story grew. --Jeanne Fredriksen

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Fredriksen, Jeanne. "Last Night at the Telegraph Club." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 5-6, 1 Nov. 2020, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A643989195/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=76163341. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

Lo, Malinda LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB Dutton (Teen None) $17.99 1, 19 ISBN: 978-0-525-55525-4

Finally, the intersectional, lesbian, historical teen novel so many readers have been waiting for.

Lily Hu has spent all her life in San Francisco’s Chinatown, keeping mostly to her Chinese American community both in and out of school. As she makes her way through her teen years in the 1950s, she starts growing apart from her childhood friends as her passion for rockets and space exploration grows—along with her curiosity about a few blocks in the city that her parents have warned her to avoid. A budding relationship develops with her first White friend, Kathleen, and together they sneak out to the Telegraph Club lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality as well as their relationship to each other. Lo’s lovely, realistic, and queer-positive tale is a slow burn, following Lily’s own gradual realization of her sexuality while she learns how to code-switch between being ostensibly heterosexual Chinatown Lily and lesbian Telegraph Bar Lily. In this meticulously researched title, Lo skillfully layers rich details, such as how Lily has to deal with microaggressions from gay and straight women alike and how all of Chinatown has to be careful of the insidious threat of McCarthyism. Actual events, such as Madame Chiang Kai-shek’s 1943 visit to San Francisco, form a backdrop to this story of a journey toward finding one’s authentic self.

Beautifully written historical fiction about giddy, queer first love. (author’s note) (Historical romance. 14-18)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Lo, Malinda: LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A643410607/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=17a869a5. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

"Lo, Malinda: A LINE IN THE DARK." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A502192071/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ed6074c2. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021. Vallee, Etienne. "Lo, Malinda. A Line in the Dark." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 40, no. 4, Oct. 2017, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A511785020/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9965a0f1. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021. Fredriksen, Jeanne. "Last Night at the Telegraph Club." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 5-6, 1 Nov. 2020, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A643989195/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=76163341. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021. "Lo, Malinda: LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A643410607/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=17a869a5. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.

Word Count