Interview with Jeannette Ng
Interview on 5/28/2018 US 5/29/2018 UK
This is was my first interview in such a long time, that I should have asked and had a recording of the interview. So this will not be a verbatim more or less on the notes I took from the said interview with Jeannette Ng.
The main influences in her book Under the Pendulum Sun are the works of V.C. Andrews the author of Flowers in the Attic. In the way, she would describe a piece of architecture making the place and the objects within the narrative their own characters. She went into a quote on what she meant by this "The bead was like a swan with its wings stretched out". Jeannette went into detail about how gothic writing tends to highlight the buildings and objects within were as most would go into detail on a scene or emotion. One set example is from her novel, there is a scene that describes a hallway during the night when the light of the moon hit it and the how she made the garden in the book be more like the Victorian era set of standards. This brought to me the memories of the movie Labyrinth in how the place its self is a character, also Ben the Gnome gardener reminded me of Hoggle. Not to mention the ball in the second half of the book, in which she recommended the novel Winter Song by S.J. Jones.
Ms. Ng went into what sparked her inspiration for her first novel was a Victorian Missionary book she found at the University library, (which was quoted after some alterations in Under the Pendulum Sun), on how it described the Chinese in such a way she stated that sounded more like fairies or Faye
and how it would be so general in a description, for instance, a Chinese person has two eyes, legs, arms (for real it was the same for the African Americans durring that era in the USA as well). Which led us to talk about a book called The History of Whiteness that would describe how White people would think about themselves and how it changed over the years. At one point it was thought that they were the strongest most aggressive people and that is why they are to rule over everyone, and now it that the White Man is more intelligent and moral so he/she should rule. (That reminded me of a Jet Li movie, that I thought was a part of his One upon a time in China movies, but after a bit of research, it was really Fearless).
I then asked her when did she start writing, and to find out that she started at a young age. She was 6 yrs old and in primary school writing, making maps, telling stories to her young relatives. There was a radio show she and friend or cousin would record in an alternate fictional country reading letters from the audience as if they were on a train traversing this fictional world. (It resonated with me as I had a similar experience but more of building worlds and civilizations).
One of her favorite Podcast is the spectacular Welcome to Nightvale (which is my top podcast as well), in the way they use the turn of phrase. Her favorite Doctor is #9 from the 2005 rebirth of the show. Also, she recalled a particular mix up with another Jeannette Ng out there who is an editor, almost received a prerelease of a book, somehow that fell through. She does love to LARP (Live Action Role Play) with the pageantry of costumes and swords is how she can utilize her imagination.
As for any new books or works in progress, the answer is sort of. There are a few that she has tried out but may come back to them at a later date. I do wish her the best of luck and I do see great works in her future. For more on Jeannette Ng here is a link to her medium profile and her twitter handle is @jeannette_ng.
This is was my first interview in such a long time, that I should have asked and had a recording of the interview. So this will not be a verbatim more or less on the notes I took from the said interview with Jeannette Ng.
The main influences in her book Under the Pendulum Sun are the works of V.C. Andrews the author of Flowers in the Attic. In the way, she would describe a piece of architecture making the place and the objects within the narrative their own characters. She went into a quote on what she meant by this "The bead was like a swan with its wings stretched out". Jeannette went into detail about how gothic writing tends to highlight the buildings and objects within were as most would go into detail on a scene or emotion. One set example is from her novel, there is a scene that describes a hallway during the night when the light of the moon hit it and the how she made the garden in the book be more like the Victorian era set of standards. This brought to me the memories of the movie Labyrinth in how the place its self is a character, also Ben the Gnome gardener reminded me of Hoggle. Not to mention the ball in the second half of the book, in which she recommended the novel Winter Song by S.J. Jones.
Ms. Ng went into what sparked her inspiration for her first novel was a Victorian Missionary book she found at the University library, (which was quoted after some alterations in Under the Pendulum Sun), on how it described the Chinese in such a way she stated that sounded more like fairies or Faye
and how it would be so general in a description, for instance, a Chinese person has two eyes, legs, arms (for real it was the same for the African Americans durring that era in the USA as well). Which led us to talk about a book called The History of Whiteness that would describe how White people would think about themselves and how it changed over the years. At one point it was thought that they were the strongest most aggressive people and that is why they are to rule over everyone, and now it that the White Man is more intelligent and moral so he/she should rule. (That reminded me of a Jet Li movie, that I thought was a part of his One upon a time in China movies, but after a bit of research, it was really Fearless).
I then asked her when did she start writing, and to find out that she started at a young age. She was 6 yrs old and in primary school writing, making maps, telling stories to her young relatives. There was a radio show she and friend or cousin would record in an alternate fictional country reading letters from the audience as if they were on a train traversing this fictional world. (It resonated with me as I had a similar experience but more of building worlds and civilizations).
One of her favorite Podcast is the spectacular Welcome to Nightvale (which is my top podcast as well), in the way they use the turn of phrase. Her favorite Doctor is #9 from the 2005 rebirth of the show. Also, she recalled a particular mix up with another Jeannette Ng out there who is an editor, almost received a prerelease of a book, somehow that fell through. She does love to LARP (Live Action Role Play) with the pageantry of costumes and swords is how she can utilize her imagination.
As for any new books or works in progress, the answer is sort of. There are a few that she has tried out but may come back to them at a later date. I do wish her the best of luck and I do see great works in her future. For more on Jeannette Ng here is a link to her medium profile and her twitter handle is @jeannette_ng.
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