Ask the Author: Jennifer Sun

“Ask me a question.” Jennifer Sun

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Two Tales of the Moon: I was lucky to have won a copy of your book on Goodreads, and just received it yesterday. My question: Did living in China previously help to formulate your plots and processes, or was that not relevant? Reason I ask is that I travel often, and find that my best ideas are seemingly based on where and with whom I'm with at the time. Just curious.....Thank You

Jennifer Sun Hi Tom,

Having lived half of my life in China definitely helped to formulate part of the themes of Two Tales of the Moon, but my life here in U.S. so far made the themes whole. I think my life experiences in both China and U.S. are definitely relevant in terms of what main messages I wanted to send through the book. But when it comes to developing plots and characters, I do agree with you that visiting places that you use as settings in the book, or meeting locals of those places can provide you with good ideas or even inspirations sometimes. I visited Shanghai, NYC, Montauk Beach many times while I was writing Two Tales of the Moon. What I considered the best scenes and dialogues in the book came from those visits.
Thank you for your interest in my book, I hope you'll enjoy the reading.

All my best,
Jennifer

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Ms. Sun, There are a handful of characters in the story. When you set out to write did you have a road map of the characters and where they end up? Or, does your writing take on a life of its own as the story unfolds in front of you?

Jennifer Sun Hi Chris, I began with outlines for each chapter, mainly for plot and themes. I knew how the characters of Lu and Will would develop, evolve, along with their romantic relationship, which in the original version, was a tragic one. For the rest of the characters in the book, I either had a rough sketch or made them up as I went along. When the draft of the novel was finished, I did compare it with the outline, they were far apart, as far apart as the two worlds where Lu and Will came from.

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Why did you title your book "Two Tales of the Moon"?

Jennifer Sun Because even if the story line is around an international merger between two tech companies in the U.S. and China, the main theme of the book is about love, family, and relationships, the dynamics between father and son, mother and daughter, sisters and brother, and between colleagues and friends. The main characters in the novel, Will, Lu and Sage, their cultural background and upbringings could not be more different, and their outlook on life may vary, but as human beings they all have to face disappointments, make life choices, and struggle through dilemmas and challenges along the way. So I decided to use the Chinese moon fairy folklore in the Prologue as the guiding frame of the book, one folklore, two versions - for the little girl Sage, the moon tale is symbolic of love and longing and reunion, for little Lu, it's disappointment, separation, and displacement. In the end, how we interpret the moon tale is up to the readers, because no matter where we were born and what our upbringings are, our life choices control our destiny.

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What was it like to transition from being an executive to being a full-time writer? And related to that, did you start thinking about the plot for this book while still in the business world?

Jennifer Sun The transition from the daily routine of a financial manager to that of a full-time writer was quite easy - I don't have to get into a car, fight the traffic to get into the office anymore. Instead, I get up every morning, have a cup of coffee, sit myself down in front of the computer and try to write. What I've found is the amount of discipline that's required for a writer is actually far more than when I was working in the business world. You have to show up for work every day - it's ninety percent hard work and ten percent inspiration, or artistic talent. I get up around 4:00AM almost every day and write for about three hours, some days words flow nicely; on other days, I stare at the screen until my eyes bleed with not much to show for.

In terms of developing the plot and characters of Two Tales of the Moon, my life in the business world definitely helped making the story believable. Each of the main characters in the book is not based on any particular person I know in real life, but I felt somewhere and at different times in my professional life, I have met all of them collectively - from Will and Lu, both successful in business yet with a personal life burdened by their pasts, to Kevin the back stabber colleague, to Lu's mother who sold her soul to the communist government in exchange for a privileged life, to Sage the eternal believer in happily-ever-after-life. Whether we choose to hate them or love them, together they present, I would like to quote the IndieReader review,"a compelling story that reveals that the human struggle is the same regardless of one’s past or cultural upbringing."

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Jennifer Sun It's the increasingly complex relationship between the West and East, be it economic or political. My most recent book, "Two Tales of the Moon" is a fiction about that relationship between U.S. and still the Red China, how the two countries economic interest and political rivalry impact our lives: how it can bring out the best and sometime the worst in us. It makes me ponder what could happen in the future, and compels me to look into the past in order to understand what is happening in the present.

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How do you get inspired to write?

Jennifer Sun First, I read, I read at least 2-3 hours a day. You can get a lot of good ideas for your writing from reading. Than I go out to run, running does something to my brain, and enable me to turn what I read, together what I have observed and experienced in life into scenes, dialogues, and plots in my novel.

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What are you currently working on?

Jennifer Sun My second novel. For now I'll call it "of brotherly love". A story with settings in contemporary London and Shanghai but with references to the two cities history.

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