I'm thrilled to have a fellow Seeker, wonderful writer and great friend, Camy Tang, at Cup of Faith today!!!! I just finished her last book in the Sushi series, Single Sashimi, and I loved it!!! It's definitely my favorite of the three.
Welcome to Cup of Faith, Camy!Thanks for having me here, Janet!
Your books focus on the ups and downs of a big Asian family. Can you tell us about your family life growing up? Perhaps share some memories from your childhood?
My family isn’t actually very big (the large Sakai family is based off of stories told to me by friends about their large Asian families). But like the Sakai family, our gatherings are always focused on the food.
(I personally think that Asian people are all obsessed with food, because where they gather, there’s always food around.)
My mom and grandmothers are terrific cooks. My favorite holidays are:
Christmas, because we’d get Mom’s Chinese chicken salad, Grandma’s lilikoi (passion fruit) chiffon pie, and prime rib.
New Year’s, because we’d get Grandma’s mochi soup (mochi rice balls in seafood flavored broth with Japanese greens.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
When I was five. Okay, no, maybe I was eight. I had just read Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey and knew I wanted to write novels, too.
What was your favorite scene to write in Single Sashimi?
The first kiss! I won’t give it away because it’s a bit of a surprise, but it was SO fun to write partly because it came out of nowhere! I was as shocked as Venus.
Tell us what your typical writing day is like.
Messy.
Seriously. LOL
I typically start off answering emails since I want to get my more urgent writing business out of the way so I can have some “creative space.”
If I have critiquing jobs to do through my Story Sensei critique service, I do them in order of priority (basically, whoever hired me first).
Lastly, I spend time in my writing. When I’m in the brainstorming stage, I try to have as much time slotted as I can, because sometimes it takes a while for the creative juices to get flowing.
When I’m in the writing phase, I can pretty much write anywhere, anytime, for any length of time. This is when my Alphasmart comes in very handy.
What are your favorite leisure activities?
Knitting! Oh my gosh it’s not even funny how much I love it.
In fact, I would even venture to say that I NEED it. The action of knitting relieves my stress.
I don’t know how it does it, but the repetitive movements just help me calm down.
I think everyone should knit. Plus, unlike crochet, you don’t necessarily have to look down when you knit, you can often knit without looking. Like I do in front of the TV. :)
I find knitting relaxing too, but only if its scarves or an afghan, something that doesn’t require getting the shape right. My first knitting project was a baby sweater for our first daughter. I must’ve thought she was part octopus. Even rolling them up, the sleeves were so long, she never wore it. LOL
Thanks for sharing a peak at your life with us today, Camy!
Thanks for having me here, Janet!
Camy
Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. She used to be a biologist, but now she is a staff worker for her church youth group and leads a worship team for Sunday service. She also runs the Story Sensei fiction critique service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things like dumb dogs (namely, hers), coffee-geek husbands (no resemblance to her own...), the writing journey, Asiana, and anything else that comes to mind. Visit her website at http://www.camytang.com/ for a huge website contest going on right now, giving away ten boxes of books and 30 copies of her latest release, SINGLE SASHIMI.
