I'm a Guest of Honor at BayCon 2024! <3
And here's what they are asking me!
Hi Folks!
At this moment, I am finishing one last change to the new book. I should be done with that this weekend. Yay!
And once that is done, I am going to go over the whole thing one or two times and then it will be ready to give to my agent and hopefully my editor! It's been a long time coming, but I'm super happy to have come this far. I'm thrilled with it, and I look forward to bringing it to you.
I keep thinking of the theme song from “Enterprise,” which I suspect I like more than most Star Trek fans. But it has been a long road. And a long time.
But thanks to the wonderful reception my last book received, I do feel my time is finally here.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I want to do something a little bit different over the next few days. BayCon 2024 will be held this July 4th weekend. I believe that it is the longest running science fiction convention in the Bay Area! And the theme will be “pure imagination!”
Isn't it a cool theme!?
In any case, I am going to be BayCon 2024’s Writer Guest of Honor and I am thrilled! So far, everybody on the planning committee has just been amazing to work with--I've just felt so appreciated and seen. One thing is certain: I am a very very very lucky writer.
Thank you so much.
Now, the publicity people at BayCon have given me a list of questions for me to answer at my earliest convenience. Which means I better hurry with this. What I thought I would do though is to give the folks on Substack a sneak preview of my answers.
So over the next two or three days, I'm going to tackle two or three questions and share them with you. I hope you all visit the BayCon site, and if you are in the area, come by and say hello!
So anyway! Here we go!
Q: Not everyone may know that you’ve published poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Are you partial to one literary genre over the other? What drew you to speculative fiction?
I think in some ways for me that question’s backwards. Sometimes a poem is a poem. Sometimes a short story is a short story. And sometimes a song is a song. I feel that each form has its own special magic, and often I find myself writing in a form for no other reason than this is the magic that has called me. My one goal is to capture a feeling or a thought or an idea and share it with people in a way that is beautiful, however one might define that.
That being said, I've been on quite the ride with science fiction fantasy/speculative fiction. I've always liked speculative fiction. I know that many of us have had rough childhoods. Me, too.
Speculative fiction gave my mind and by soul a place to exist where I could still wonder and believe. Speculative fiction helped me envision a future that I could imagine and help create and live in. And it still does.
Q: Your novel Light From Uncommon Stars makes us hungry, both for the story and for the savory descriptions of food eaten by characters in the book! What inspired the emphasis on culinary experiences?
I'm so glad my book made you hungry! And that's part of why I love to write about food. That's why I love to cook food. Food literally brings us all to the table. Think about a potluck. People bring foods from their kitchens and their cultures and they share them. And the more dishes people bring, the larger the table—and the healthier the appetites—the more amazing the meal is going to be.
Also, I'm asking so much of my readers. I'm asking them to think about queer issues or issues of race or sex. I'm asking them to think of worlds where magic and science coexist. My next book is going to ask people to consider the end of all reality! I'm asking a lot from readers.
But when I write about food, I think that maybe I can give readers a place to sit down, enjoy the smells and tastes look around them—to reflect on where they've been and where they are now.
Q: You play a number of musical instruments, including the violin, which is featured prominently and lovingly in your novel. Have there been any new additions to your repertoire?
Thank you. Learning how to play the violin was one of the most wonderful and unexpected benefits of writing Light From Uncommon Stars. The violin and I are going to be friends forever. After the violin, I started to explore fretless instruments. I think that as a writer and as a poet, fretless instruments are so much fun. When you just get the note right, there's a resonance that comes from the strings that is so affirming.
I now have a 5-string fretless bass. I'm not particularly great with it, but it’s so much fun! I'm playing Chinese wuxia and xianxia songs (Think “Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” except an octave lower.)
That's it for now! I'll probably post again tomorrow or Monday.
Again, please visit BayCon 2024!!!
Much love!
<3 Ryka
Cannot wait to pre-order your next book 😜