Harbour of Hungry Ghosts and events update

A bunch of news and events have been announced recently so before I pack for Worldcon, let’s have a summary!

Harbour of Hungry Ghosts

Book Brunch made the announcement so it’s official, I have another two book deal with Orbit!!! HARBOUR OF HUNGRY GHOSTS will be published 2026 with sequel to follow. If Fathomfolk is the book of my conflicted diaspora heart, HHG is the book of pure indulgence. I started writing it when we didn’t think Fathomfolk would sell, and my agent suggested I work on other projects instead. At the time I asked him about time periods and trends, and like all good agents he was very cagey about what was “in”, but said the Victorian era is always perennial. And I, like the contradictory soul that I am, decided that I wanted to know what was happening in Asia in the 19th Century instead. As soon as images of Qing Dynasty clothing and Opium War era conflict were cemented in my head, I knew I wanted to write about Chinese hopping vampires.

Hopping vampires, or jiangshi, are from Chinese folklore but massively popularised by 1980s Hong Kong films such as Mr Vampire. These are not sexy sparkly vampires, but more like rotting zombies who are so stiff that they cannot bend at the knee or elbow (hence the hopping, or jumping really). Mr Vampire was very hammer horror, both slapstick and terrifying in the way daleks that cannot climb the stairs are still scary. And most importantly in my brain, the jiangshi always wore Qing dynasty outfits. This was not actually due to a rash of vampires in the 17th-19th Century, but because Hong Kong film studios had lots of spare Qing dynasty clothing for extras from other epic historical films they were making.

I did a tonne of reading around the historical period but also around folktales involving jiangshi and was pleasantly surprised to discover most of the “rules” were invented by the 1980s and 1990s films. This was really fun for me as it gave me permission to make more stuff up! And as is apparently my trademark, I wanted to mash Eastern and Western folklore together to see the results.

HARBOUR OF HUNGRY GHOSTS is also an ode to the fierce action women I love reading and watching from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Princess Mononoke, Katniss to Shae Kaul. I’ve not finished drafting it yet but am having great fun along the way.

Politics and social media

I don’t normally talk about politics and the news much as an author. I am someone who has a lot of thoughts but I’m also aware I am not an expert in many of these areas, and I would rather boost other voices and listen. At the same time there’s a lot of pressure to nail your colours to a flag, to use your platform, to make statements about issues. My statement has and always will be my work. FATHOMFOLK is a book about immigration and diaspora identity, albeit with mythological creatures. About prejudice and institutional racism. About figuring out how to belong, how to hope in a place that might not want you. It is a queer normative world with strong female leads. I know that makes it a hard read for many, at times myself included, but I believe SFF can both be a place of escapism, but also a place to ask questions and start discussions. I don’t have the answers. If I did, I would be running for office, not writing fiction.

All I wanted as a kid, was to have a book in a bookshop and library, to have that grainy thumbnail photo at the back of a book. Technology and expectations have changed since then, and increasingly we are expected to be out there. Public facing. Show and telling bits of our lives. Raising voices. Many authors do it, and do it well. I have so much respect and support for many of them. But others, as recent dismaying news has shown, might talk the talk but behind closed doors are a completely different person entirely. Either way, how much an author engages in social media and the politics of the day is a personal choice. It isn’t part of our jobs, we certainly don’t get more money or to be more politically engaged! And there are a number of personal reasons people might not want to either.

What’s happening in the real world right now terrifies me. The dehumanising of black and brown folk both at home and overseas makes me sick to the stomach. When I have more spoons, I will boosts voices who articulate this better than me. But right now, the best I can do is stay offline. I wanted to state this both so people understand why I am so quiet at times, but also to say if you are also feeling overwhelmed by it all, you are not alone.

Events

Thursday 8th August, Waterstones Glasgow with K.X. Song and Andrea Stewart

Friday 9th - Sun 11th August, Worldcon in Glasgow - various panels

Thursday 22nd August, Waterstones Deansgate Manchester with Frances White, Genoveva Dimova, Emma Sterner-Radley and Sarah Brooks.

Sat 14th September, ESEA Authors Lit Fest at SOAS, London with Anne Chen, Eva Wong Nava, Mina Ikemoto Ghosh and Maisie Chan

Sat 14th and Sun 15th September 2024 To Be Continued con, Bedford

Other events to be announced.