Elka Ray's Blog, page 3
March 20, 2017
Elka Ray speaks to The Word Magazine about crime fiction
When did you first come to Vietnam? What brought you here?
After high school I spent six months backpacking around Southeast Asia and loved it so much that, along with journalism, I studied Asian Studies back home in Canada. I moved to Vietnam on New Year’s Eve 1994 “for one year”.
What were you doing in Vietnam prior to writing creative fiction?
Writing, editing and communications work.
When did you move to Hoi An? Why Hoi An?
My family moved to Hoi An the summer before last. We wanted to live near the beach. After nine years in Hanoi and 11 in Ho Chi Minh City, we craved cleaner air, more natural surroundings and a place where our kids could run around.
Hanoi Jane was your first novel — published in 2011. What were you trying to depict in the novel? How successful has it been?
Hanoi Jane is a light, funny romantic mystery about a young American reporter, Jane, who becomes obsessed with her ex-fiancée’s new girlfriend, who seems too perfect to be true. What starts as a bid to recapture the past takes Jane on a wild adventure.
I wrote the book when my kids were tiny. I was exhausted and needed distraction. While the story is 100 percent fiction, it was inspired by my years of being young and single in Hanoi.
Hanoi Jane was originally released in Singapore and the UK, then republished in the US. A Vietnamese-language edition came out a few years back. I was really happy to get some local readers.
Many people associate Hanoi Jane with the actress and activist Jane Fonda and her 1972 visit to Hanoi. How have you dealt with the Jane Fonda connection?
The book’s cover makes it obvious that it’s light entertainment, not biography.
Because of the Vietnam focus, your work has a natural audience of people who either live or have lived in Vietnam, and people who’ve got some other connection to the country. How difficult is it to attract readers who don’t have the same connection?
I’d guess that many of my readers have some connection to Asia, or at least like to travel. For Hanoi Jane, most readers are women. But I’ve also gotten emails from guys saying they found it hilarious. I read fiction set in places I’ve never been and suspect others do to.
Your recent book of short stories, What You Don’t Know, focuses on the crime genre. What interests you so much about this genre?
I’ve always been fascinated by what motivates people, especially when their actions seem illogical. The tag line of What You Don’t Know is “Tales of obsession, murder and mystery set in Southeast Asia”. The 10 stories in the collection feature characters motivated by dark emotions like jealousy, greed, lust, fear and revenge. It came out last summer and is getting good reviews on Amazon.
The protagonist in your latest novel, Saigon Dark, is American-Vietnamese. What problems did you encounter trying to understand the mind and outlook of a Viet Kieu living in Vietnam?
This book came out from Crimewave Press in mid-November. The story follows Lily Vo, a Vietnamese-American pediatrician, recently divorced and living in Ho Chi Minh City. When tragedy strikes, Lily is very isolated and makes a choice that requires her to keep a dark secret. I made Lily Viet Kieu to emphasize her isolation — she’s always on edge, feeling like she should understand things she doesn’t.
I have a lot of Viet Kieu friends and a Viet Kieu husband. But good fictional characters are like people — you can generalise to a point but they’re all different, with their own strengths, flaws and problems. Lily’s my favorite character so far — a strong and in many ways admirable woman trying to cover up a major crime.
What makes Vietnam and Southeast Asia such a good setting for your work?
A story requires conflict — good versus bad, right against wrong — and there are more moral grey areas in developing countries.
If you were to discover photocopied versions of your work on sale in the tourist areas of Hanoi or Saigon, how would you react?
As well as writing fiction for adults, I write and illustrate a line of kids’ books about Vietnam (stickyriceworld.com). I’ve found rip-offs of my illustrations — modified with dodgy slogans in an ugly font. If you’re going to steal from me, don’t add insult to injury!
Reposted from the Word Vietnam
June 20, 2016
Bad drivers
On a recent visit to Vietnam, football star David Beckham snapped a photo of a bareheaded woman trying to snap a shot of him while driving a scooter with a baby between her feet. She’s since been charged with breaking Vietnam’s traffic laws.
Vietnam’s netizens have responded to the photo with outrage, accusing the pictured lady of embarrassing Vietnam. But the sad truth is that even though wearing motorbike helmets became mandatory by law seven years ago, many people – especially in Vietnam’s capital and so-called “cultural heart”, Hanoi – don’t wear them. Even worse, many of those adults who do wear helmets to avoid police fines don’t bother to put them on their kids, since a legal loophole prevents police from fining non-helmet-wearers aged under 14. Hence, Vietnam’s most vulnerable citizens are the most likely to be among the 14,000 people who die on its roads each year.
Anyone who knows Vietnam well is probably wondering what charges this lady will face. Everything she’s doing is done daily by thousands of drivers all over Vietnam. Talking on the phone, or texting on your motorbike as you drive? All the time. Carrying a small baby between your legs? Infants are often propped up to stand on the moving bike’s seat. This woman’s transgressions could have been far, far worse. Think five people on the bike, or a small fridge strapped to the back. Unlike many guys on the road at night, she’s probably not drunk. She’s ignorant all right, but she has company.
So far, Mr. Beckham’s snapshot has garnered 18,000 comments on Facebook. As we approach the Year of the Goat, let’s hope that this photo results in more concrete changes than just the arrest of one silly scapegoat.
Hanging out
This may be the best-ever use of a goal post. I saw it on An Bang Beach, near Hoi An, Central Vietnam
June 19, 2016
Changes
It’s been a while since I posted. I could make excuses and say I’ve been busy and that would be true — I have a 1/2 time job, run a small souvenir company, write and illustrate books and have small kids. I’m always busy. Plus I’ve been traveling – really fun trips to southern Cambodia, Hawaii and Central Vietnam. And we’re preparing to move this summer… Blah blah blah. But the truth is: it’s not busyness that’s stopped me from posting but a general sense of malaise.
Now I’ve lived in Vietnam long enough to know that, like any relationship, things go up and down. There are periods of bliss: DID YOU SEE THAT?! THAT’S AMAZING! I LOVE THIS PLACE! and dips of disdain: HOLY PHUC. DOES NOTHING EVER GO AS PLANNED?! Normally, my feelings towards Vietnam say more about what’s going on with the rest of my life – love, work, health – than they do about my locale. But in this case, I think a major change in my surroundings has forced me to look beyond my lushly treed bubble.
And what I see isn’t pretty.
The house where we’ve lived for five years was surrounded on three sides by thickly treed empty lots. My office overlooked dense jungle. Yes, it was an illusion, given that suburban streets lay behind the trees. But it was a fantastic illusion. Every single day, I appreciated it. And I knew that despite my prayers, it wouldn’t last forever.
The view from my office
Sigh.
Some months back all the land around our place was clearcut. Every. Single. Tree. Gone.
Cue the sappy Disney Afterschool Special music but I knew every bird and squirrel in those trees. I knew where their nests were. And I knew the skinny, skittish stray dog that lived in the abandoned hut in the woods and refused to come within twenty feet of me, despite the fact that I fed him three times a day.
Yes, I know there are earthquakes, wars and tsunamis. Real tragedies happening to real people, right this minute. But watching that little dog run in panicked circles as the bulldozers crushed his home was tragic. The silence – no birdsong, no frogs, nada – after the chainsaws finally stopped was tragic too. The ravaged lot – still empty, still ugly – is also tragic, as is the knowledge that I’m part of the problem. The house where I live was once a swamp, home to countless birds and animals. Tigers. Less than a century ago tigers roamed these parts.
Looking at the wasteland next door makes it impossible to ignore the truth: more people, more traffic, more pollution, more money being earned and spent on useless stuff, more trash, less nature.
Like the rest of the world, Vietnam is changing. I just hope it’s for better.
Good morning, Hoi An
It’s official! After years of dreaming, months of dithering and some frantic weeks of giving stuff away and packing, we have moved! Goodbye Saigon and hello Hoi An, or more specifically An Bang, a small fishing village by the beach some 10 minutes from Hoi An’s UNESCO-listed Old Town. 2 kids, 3 pets (2 of whom are still missing in transit…), 2 motorbikes, 3 bicycles, and a whopping 239 boxes… How did we amass so much stuff? It wasn’t so long ago – well, 20 years – that I arrived with nothing but a backpack!
Smells like teen spirit?
Since Vietnam’s baby-wipes market is covered, this enterprising company decided to branch out to the next (obvious?) market …
Welcome to McVs
They won the war but…
It’s hard to think of a more Capitalist symbol than the golden arches, now found beside Saigon’s iconic Post Office in District 1. Gold star on red. Golden arches on red. At least nothing clashes.
Saigon’s book street
Nguyen Van Binh, a little street that runs along one side of Saigon’s Central Post Office in District 1, has been transformed into “book street”. The street is lined with dozens of kiosks and open-fronted bookshops, as well as cute cafes. Best of all, book-lovers can browse in peace – cars and motorbikes aren’t allowed. Every city should have a street like this!
Read all about it!
If you love smart crime fiction, mysteries and suspense – and are looking for more stories set in Asia, here’s the link to my new publisher’s newsletter. New subscribers will get a free short story by fireman-turned-crime-writer Tony Knighton: Crime Wave Press Sign up for special offers!
May 31, 2016
Elka signs on with Signature Literary Agency
Elka is thrilled to have a new agent – the hardworking and so insightful Ms. Amy Tipton of Signature Literary Agency.
