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WORK TITLE: Inside Darkness
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.hudsonlin.com/
CITY: Toronto
STATE: ON
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
Not found in LOC
PERSONAL
Female.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and romance novelist. Works a day job, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
AVOCATIONS:Knitting.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthology Teacher’s Pet: Lessons Outside the Classroom, Ninestar Press, LLC (Albuquerque, NM), 2018.
SIDELIGHTS
In addition to her 9-to-5 job in Toronto, Canada, Hudson Lin writes LGBTQ romance novels. Raised by immigrant conservative parents, Lin notes that she has lived with conflicting viewpoints about life in general. As for her writing, Lin told a Queerly Reads website contributor: “As with many authors, my hard drive is full of half-finished stories collected over many years of dabbling in writing. It wasn’t until 2015, when I was working abroad with few friends around, that I managed to get something finished. I posted it online and, to my surprise, I got really positive feedback and suggestions that I should become a published writer.” After another round of positive feedback following the of posting another story, Lin made a New Year’s resolution in 2017 to write and focus on getting published.
In 2018, Lin had a story published in an anthology and also saw her first two novels published. In her novel titled Inside Darkness, Lin tells the story of Cameron
“Cam” Donnelly, who has just come back home to New York after working overseas as an aid worker for the past decade. Earlier in his career as an aid worker, Cam saw a gay acquaintance in Kenya brutally murdered. As a result, Cam decided that for his own protection, as well as the safety of those around him, he would keep his sexual orientation hidden. Overall, the experience and his subsequent years working with the disadvantaged has had a profound effect on Cameron, who is not only tired but also jaded. As a result, he suffers from a minor case of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “I write a lot of my own psychology into my characters,” Lin noted in the interview for the Queerly Reads website, adding: “This isn’t to say that I have PTSD, because as far as I know, I don’t. But I do have other issues with mental health, and I often tap into those when developing a character.”
In the novel, Cam is having recurring nightmares but refusing to admit to himself that his mental health is not good. Before long, he is drinking heavily and falling into deep depression. Then one day he runs into Tyler “Ty” Ang, a journalist Cameron met in Kenya while Ty was on assignment. At the time there was plenty of sexual tension between the two but there was also a certain amount of hostility as well. Nevertheless, the two men end up having a one-night stand.
As their paths continue to cross in New York and the two sleep together, Ty watches as Cam becomes increasingly depressed, a feeling he can identify with because of his own difficult childhood. “The men are sympathetic, realistic and mutually compassionate,” wrote a RT Book Reviews Online contributor. Ty’s mother died when he was only eight years old, leading him to grow up in foster homes. His Asian heritage makes him feel like he must live in Chinatown, a refuge he believes from the blatant racism he has encountered throughout his life. Nevertheless, Ty is determined to remain as aloof as possible, dedicated to being unfettered by any deep relationship as he wants to focus on his career. Finally, however, Ty realizes that his relationship with Cam is much more than sexual. The only issue is whether or not Ty can help Cam overcome his PTSD and depression.
“Lin approaches her characters with thoughtful consideration, allowing them to grow and learn with each other’s support,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, calling Inside Darkness “a compelling love story.” A Publishers Weekly noted the “deft handling of the lovers’ psychological wounds and convincing buildup of their” love, thus making the novel “a rewarding story.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2018, review of Inside Darkness.
Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2018, review of Inside Darkness, p. 69.
ONLINE
Lin Hudson website, http://www.hudsonlin.com (September 2, 2018).
RT Book Reviews Online, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (June 11, 2018), review of Inside Darkness.
Queerly Reads, https://www.queerlyreads.com/ (July 15, 2018), “Queering the Craft: Interview with Hudson Lin.”
About Hudson Lin
Hudson Lin was raised by conservative immigrant parents and grew up straddling two cultures with ofttimes conflicting perspectives on life. Instead of conforming to either, she has sought to find a third way that brings together the positive elements of both.
Having spent much of her life on the outside looking in, Hudson likes to write stories about outsiders who fight to carve out their place in society, and overcome everyday challenges to find love and happily ever afters.
When not engrossed in a story, Hudson knits, drinks tea, and works the 9 to 5 in the beautiful city of Toronto, Canada.
Jul 15
Queering the Craft: Interview with Hudson Lin
I'm very excited to be featuring Hudson Lin today! Lin's work has really stood out to me this year, and she has two releases this summer: First in June was Inside Darkness, which I reviewed on RT Book Reviews (RIP), and this month is Three Months to Forever.
She generously stopped by to discuss writing, publishing, and race in fiction. Let's begin!
Hannah: Thanks so much for agreeing to be interviewed on Queerly Reads! 2018 seems to be your breakout year, with an anthology contribution in Teacher’s Pet and two novels. What was your journey leading up to so many back-to-back releases?
Lin: As with many authors, my hard drive is full of half-finished stories collected over many years of dabbling in writing. It wasn’t until 2015, when I was working abroad with few friends around, that I managed to get something finished. I posted it online and, to my surprise, I got really positive feedback and suggestions that I should become a published writer. It had always been a dream of mine to be an author, but I never thought that was in the realm of possibility, so I had a good laugh and brushed aside the comments. About a year later, I wrote another story and posted it online to more positive feedback and more suggestions that I should try publishing. So at the beginning of 2017, I made a New Year’s resolution to do just that, try to become a published author. I spent most of that year writing the stories that are now being released. I still don’t quite believe that anyone would want to publish my writing, let alone buy my books!
H: I love the sheer number of countries your stories take place in or mention, spanning three continents. What are some of your favorite books that don’t take place in the U.S. or England?
L: Ah! This is such a good question! I had to go back through my Goodreads list to jog my memory, but unfortunately, it seems like my memory was correct: I’ve only read a handful of books set outside the US or the UK.
One of these is Want by Cindy Pon, a young adult novel set in Taipei, Taiwan with a racially diverse cast and queer characters. Sometime in the near future, the world is being crippled by pollution and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened dramatically. A group of young people hatch a plan to bring down an evil corporate empire that preys on the poor and the environment. I love this book because it shows people of color taking charge and kicking ass, the female characters are really strong leaders, and the queer content is woven into the story seamlessly.
One last thing, I think I like setting stories in different countries because I see so little of that in my reading. I love to travel and I love imagining stories playing out in the places I visit. Setting can be a character unto itself, bringing an extra dimension to the story, creating new and interesting conflicts. I wish there were romance novels set in other parts of the world!
H: What is one piece of advice you would give to writers starting out in their querying/submissions process?
L: I’m not sure I’m the best person to give advice, since I’m still starting out myself! But I will say this: as with any career, a lot of it has to do with luck. Hard work and talent are both important, but sometimes the stars align the right away and everything happens, and sometimes they don’t. There are so many factors that go into becoming a published author, and most of them are completely outside the control of the author themselves. So if things aren’t going the way you’d like them to, it isn’t necessarily that you’re doing something wrong, it could just be that the time isn’t right yet.
H: Your portrayal of PTSD rang really true for me with Inside Darkness. Do you have any specific writing methods for “digging deep” into the psychology of your characters?
L: I write a lot of my own psychology into my characters. This isn’t to say that I have PTSD, because as far as I know, I don’t. But I do have other issues with mental health, and I often tap into those when developing a character. Writing is cathartic for me. It allows for self-examination and then provides an outlet to process my thoughts. I guess if the psychology of a character rings true, it means that I’ve successfully described all the strange and convoluted ways my brain works!
For Inside Darkness, I spent a lot of time scouring blogs of aid workers who had been diagnosed with PTSD, including those from the queer community. Since I’d spent some time as an aid worker myself, I found myself identifying with some of the things they wrote. What ended up in the book is a combination of my own experiences of the field, snippets gleaned from those first-hand accounts, plus a great editor/sensitivity reader who made sure I wasn’t completely off base.
H: On the topic of digging deep: Your essay on racial diversity in fiction is such an important read. You expressed something I see in myself as I take on writing an f/f romance for the first time: This ease with writing about a dominant social group you don’t belong to (e.g. white people, men, white men) but this internal soul-searching that needs to be done to bring truths about your own identity to the page. You wrote, “I include at least one East Asian character in every story I write. And it’s hard, so much harder than I imagined it would be.” Was there a kind of “click” moment where you realized you needed to do this as a writer? Maybe in spite of or because of the inherent difficulty?
L: If there was a “click” moment, I think it came as I was scrolling through Twitter, hehe. But seriously, I had no idea there was a movement for more diversity in romance until I joined the writing community on social media. Once I realized this movement existed, I couldn’t not try to contribute; it would have been like denying who I was.
I’ve spent my whole life trying to fit in with the crowd, trying to diminish what makes me different so as to be more easily accepted. Presenting myself as an East Asian author and writing East Asian characters is doing exactly the opposite: I’m highlighting that I’m different, I’m leaning into my difference. Not only is that going against a lifetime of habits, but it’s also opening myself up to criticism, potentially from people who know less about being Asian than I do.
But if I—someone with the lived experienced of being Asian—don’t write authentic and nuanced East Asian characters, who will? If I want to see the romance genre become more diverse, who else is more qualified to add an East Asian perspective than me? I’m not saying I’m an expert on all things East Asian—I’m not. But I have bits and pieces I can contribute, and combined with bits and pieces from other people, we can create a much richer landscape where everyone can belong.
H: What can we look forward to from you in the future?
L: My latest release is Three Months to Forever (out on July 20th from Dreamspinner Press) about Ben a white man who is sent from Toronto to Hong Kong on a three-month work assignment. He meets Sai, an older Hong Kong lawyer, who has a complicated relationship with his father and his work. They quickly fall in love, despite several lost-in-translation moments, but what will they do when Ben’s three months come to an end? Set in Hong Kong, Three Months to Forever is as much a love story about the city as it is a romance about two men. Readers can expect lots of references to cultural landmarks and plenty of food!
FollowingThree Months to Forever, I’ve got several other stories in the works (though no set release dates), including an m/m romance set in LA about a Dreamer and his law school classmate; an m/f romance set in Toronto about former law school rivals who find themselves on opposite sides of new case; and an f/f romance featuring Izzy from Inside Darkness.
H: YAY!!!! F/F FOREVER! Thanks so much again Hudson!
L: Thanks so much for having me!
You can get Three Months to Forever from the publisher here. You can find Hudson Lin on Twitter and on her own website.
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Print Marked Items
Lin, Hudson: INSIDE DARKNESS
Kirkus Reviews.
(May 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Lin, Hudson INSIDE DARKNESS Riptide (Adult Fiction) $17.99 6, 11 ISBN: 978-1-62649-788-7
A journalist and an aid worker fall in love amid the hustle of humanitarian work and world news.
Tyler Ang and Cam Donnelly couldn't be more different. Cam is a "lifer," a refugee aid worker who has
been in the field for too many years. He's worked in many corners of the world, doing his best to better the
lives of the people in his charge. But when a reporter and his crew show up at his refugee camp in Kenya,
he is distracted in a way he can't let himself be, for multiple reasons. Tyler is an up-and-coming journalist
looking for an angle that will make his new company realize he's better than what they're using him for. The
reporting he does in Kenya is bound to help him rise in the ranks. The two share several chance encounters
after Cam relocates stateside, and they decide to pursue something deeper. Unfortunately, they each have
their own issues: Cam suffers from severe PTSD from his years in the field, and Tyler has to deal with
blatant and unconscious racism from all sides, leading to his own uncertainty regarding where he belongs.
While this isn't a coming-out story, Cam's PTSD is influenced in part by actions he relates to his being gay.
Lin approaches her characters with thoughtful consideration, allowing them to grow and learn with each
other's support. The love story is almost underplayed as both Cam and Tyler get their lives in order, and it
works.
A compelling love story that doesn't back away from dark situations.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lin, Hudson: INSIDE DARKNESS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538294095/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b72de62c.
Accessed 26 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A538294095
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Inside Darkness
Publishers Weekly.
265.17 (Apr. 23, 2018): p69+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Inside Darkness
Hudson Lin. Riptide, $17.99 trade paper (269p)
ISBN 978-1-62649-788-7
Lin (Stepping Out in Faith) opens the In My Own Skin contemporary romance series with two emotionally
scarred protagonists learning there's more to life than work. Early in his career, Cameron Donnelly, an
international aid worker, witnessed the brutal murder of a gay acquaintance in Kenya. He swore to stay
closeted for his own and others' safety, and focused on the relief work he feels called to. Tyler Ang, whose
beloved mother died from cancer when he was eight, grew up in the foster system and has made his way in
television journalism, but feels trapped in New York City's Chinatown beat because of his Asian heritage.
After Cameron and Tyler enjoy a brief romantic encounter in Nairobi, the two reconnect in New York and
savor steamy sex while resisting commitment. Cameron attempts to treat his trauma with alcohol abuse, and
Tyler's professional frustrations prompt him to look for work abroad. While some supporting characters
remain underdeveloped, Lin's deft handling of the lovers' psychological wounds and convincing buildup of
their genuine care for each other make this a rewarding story. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Inside Darkness." Publishers Weekly, 23 Apr. 2018, p. 69+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532906/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=301e3c1d.
Accessed 26 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532906
RT Rating:
Genre:
Romance, Contemporary Romance, M/M
Sensuality:
Hot
Published:
June 11 2018
Publisher:
Riptide Publishing
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5 GOLD: Phenomenal. In a class by itself.
4 1/2: TOP PICK. Fantastic. A keeper.
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3: Enjoyable. A pleasant read.
2: Problematic. May struggle to finish.
1: Severely Flawed. Pass on this one.
INSIDE DARKNESS
Author(s): Hudson Lin
Featuring heavy topics handled with light prose and true-to-life characters, Inside Darkness pulls readers in with compelling conflict and characters. It’s ultimately about two men trying to survive and thrive in New York City, and their day-to-day struggles will capture readers and keep them hooked. The men are sympathetic, realistic and mutually compassionate, making a memorable duo for Hudson Lin’s rich and lovely debut novel.
When Cameron Donnelly leaves Kenya after years of aid work, he’s drained, lonely and struggling with PTSD. Journalist Tyler Ang met Cameron during one of his first story assignments outside of New York City, where he’s perpetually placed on the “Chinatown beat” by his racist employer. After initial sparks fly, the two men are surprised to run into one another again in NYC, where repeated chance encounters make Tyler a witness to Cameron’s rocky new start in life. As Cam spirals and Tyler feels compelled to help, it becomes clear that their attraction has outlasted their one-night stand on another continent. (RIPTIDE, Jun., 269 pp. $17.99)
Reviewed by:
Hannah J.