Ask the Author: Rin Chupeco
Answered Questions (53)
Rin Chupeco
Unfortunately, The Philippines doesn’t have publishers who acquire local translation and distribution rights for international books! Bookstores buy directly from publishers instead and don’t get Tagalog rights!
Rin Chupeco
I was fortunate enough to have read so many good books in advance of their publications, so that would be Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Sky Wells, Resurrection Girls by Ava Morgyn, and My Fate According to the Butterfly by Gail Villanueva! I fell back on rereading some other favorites I was able to get early this year, including Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir and Wanderers by Chuck Wendig!
Rin Chupeco
Always write about things that genuinely frighten you. I'm not necessarily talking about just ghosts and poltergeists and zombies; I mean take the things that can go wrong in relationships or friendships, or take issues with family and love and society issues, and then twist it until it becomes creepy and off-putting, and make that a particular hunger to fuel any ghosts you write. I took the shortcomings that come with abuse and injustice and named it Okiku. I took twisted forms of familial piety and let it run loose in Aokigahara. The abstract becomes more frightening when you make it personal. Good luck! <3
Rin Chupeco
Technically I don't become a writer through Goodreads - it's just that people on Goodreads adds my books here!
I went through the usual querying route - looked up agents I liked, emailed them my query letter + book chapters, waited to hear back to offer representation! I live in the Philippines and thought it might be a different experience for me than a writer in the US, but it absolutely isn't!
This is for the traditional route, by the way - indie/self-publishing will be a lot different, with you taking on the promos, book design, marketing, etc. instead of your publisher doing most of it for you! Good luck - hope to see your books in stores one day! :)
I went through the usual querying route - looked up agents I liked, emailed them my query letter + book chapters, waited to hear back to offer representation! I live in the Philippines and thought it might be a different experience for me than a writer in the US, but it absolutely isn't!
This is for the traditional route, by the way - indie/self-publishing will be a lot different, with you taking on the promos, book design, marketing, etc. instead of your publisher doing most of it for you! Good luck - hope to see your books in stores one day! :)
Rin Chupeco
Thank you! A heartsglass on its own is just basically a glowing ball of light. The jewelry pendant cases are the ones that give it its shape, though this will vary among socio-economic classes!
Rin Chupeco
Thank you! <3 Hope to write even more in the years to come!
Rin Chupeco
There will be! It should be out this year!
Rin Chupeco
Hello! You should just get a "entry sent!" confirmation on the page itself after you hit send! as long as you didn't get any error messages it should be in the database!
Rin Chupeco
Yup! Particularly people's penchant for being afraid of them, but at the same time continuing to seek help from them when they get hexed by someone else. Hypocrisy is a huge theme in the series
Rin Chupeco
The Never Tilting World is actually more Assyrian-inspired. My 2020 book, Wicked As You Wish, is the one with the Filipina MC!
Rin Chupeco
Zoroastrianism, yes!
Rin Chupeco
Sorry to hear that! My thing is that I don't want to write books that read like other books I've written before - it's always going to be a study in ongoing experiments for me! In 2019, I have a new series called The Never Tilting World, about a world ruled by goddesses that had stopped revolving, where the main enemy is the environment. 2020 is my if-fairy-tales-were-historical retelling/political commentary, which doesn't have an official title yet!
If you mean if I plan on writing more horror, I do have a lot of book ideas for that and at least one I actually have an outline of already (I'm a big fan of creepypasta, as a sortof hint to what I had planned), but I have other books in the pipeline that publishers favored more. Hopefully I get to publish them in the future, too!
If you mean if I plan on writing more horror, I do have a lot of book ideas for that and at least one I actually have an outline of already (I'm a big fan of creepypasta, as a sortof hint to what I had planned), but I have other books in the pipeline that publishers favored more. Hopefully I get to publish them in the future, too!
Rin Chupeco
A little of both! I'm Chinese and also studied Japanese culture, so I took a lot of influence from those. There's also a bit of Zoroastrianism involved because the whole Legend of Blade that Soars and Dancing Wind is that with a Chinese naming aesthetic. Using the examples you gave:
hua - "flower" in Chinese
asha-ka - "asha" is "truth" in Zoroastrianism, and "-ka" usually is attached to female names and means "scent" or "perfume"
cha-khana - "cha" means tea in Chinese, "khana" is my invention
(I was never taught the pinyin / English phonetic spellings of Chinese words though - that happened long after I graduated school- so with these I usually just went for what looked natural to me when writing it down!)
hua - "flower" in Chinese
asha-ka - "asha" is "truth" in Zoroastrianism, and "-ka" usually is attached to female names and means "scent" or "perfume"
cha-khana - "cha" means tea in Chinese, "khana" is my invention
(I was never taught the pinyin / English phonetic spellings of Chinese words though - that happened long after I graduated school- so with these I usually just went for what looked natural to me when writing it down!)
Rin Chupeco
The Shadowglass will be the third and final book!
Rin Chupeco
Thank you! The Girl from the well was sold as sort of a duology, so at this time there are no plans for more books. I won't say no to more in the future should an opportunity present itself again, though! :)
Rin Chupeco
I wished I'd mentioned it much earlier, actually! I have friends named Tea that were pronounced "Tey-uh" and it never actually occurred to me until much later that people would have a harder time of it!
Rin Chupeco
Thank you for the support, regardless - I really appreciate this! :) I can't really do much about it at this point - preorders are a lot cheaper than the in-store book prices though, (and there'll be goodies for preorders if you also sign up at https://t.co/K6UeT4w6xn!) so I'm hoping people would opt for the former instead.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
Rin Chupeco
Hello Noelle, and thank you! I'm glad you like the series! <3
Unfortunately, buying my books before its official release date... actually hurts me in the long run, as these won't count toward first week sales and will affect publishing decisions on any future series I make. :(
I'm not sure why they're choosing to release this earlier, and it might not sound like it's a big thing, but this can wind up being a make or break deal when it comes to gauging book popularity in the industry.
If you see more copies of The Heart Forger at B&N stores BEFORE March 20, please do let them know that they shouldn't be doing this!
Unfortunately, buying my books before its official release date... actually hurts me in the long run, as these won't count toward first week sales and will affect publishing decisions on any future series I make. :(
I'm not sure why they're choosing to release this earlier, and it might not sound like it's a big thing, but this can wind up being a make or break deal when it comes to gauging book popularity in the industry.
If you see more copies of The Heart Forger at B&N stores BEFORE March 20, please do let them know that they shouldn't be doing this!
Rin Chupeco
Thank you! The Bone Witch is a planned trilogy, with the last book releasing in 2019!
Rin Chupeco
Thank you!
The Philippines, where I live, is a strange mix of cultures - we have several Chinese, Filipino and Western, and Middle Eastern influences, and I wanted to envision kingdoms with them in mind, each having varying degrees of influence. (Kion, of course, forms the melting pot.) The overarching Middle Eastern influence though, is inspired by the Ayyubid dynasty under Saladin.
Asha are inspired by geisha, but Dark asha are more reminiscent of the Filipino mangkukulam / witch doctor, albeit with better dress.
The series itself is about family, specifically siblings - I had an older brother I never knew (miscarriage before I was born) so writing a story where a sister raises a brother from the dead might be a bit on the nose / wishful thinking on my end. But I'd like to think my brother would have been a lot like Fox!
The Philippines, where I live, is a strange mix of cultures - we have several Chinese, Filipino and Western, and Middle Eastern influences, and I wanted to envision kingdoms with them in mind, each having varying degrees of influence. (Kion, of course, forms the melting pot.) The overarching Middle Eastern influence though, is inspired by the Ayyubid dynasty under Saladin.
Asha are inspired by geisha, but Dark asha are more reminiscent of the Filipino mangkukulam / witch doctor, albeit with better dress.
The series itself is about family, specifically siblings - I had an older brother I never knew (miscarriage before I was born) so writing a story where a sister raises a brother from the dead might be a bit on the nose / wishful thinking on my end. But I'd like to think my brother would have been a lot like Fox!
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Oct 27, 2019 07:34AM · flag