– Thanks for joining us here at YALC. We would love you to introduce yourself.
Thanks for having me! I’m Cindy, a queer Vietnamese-American author based in New York City. I work as a designer full-time while moonlighting as a content creator and writer.
– Can you give our readers an overview of your YA novel The Secret World of Briar Rose?
The Secret World of Briar Rose is a queer Sleeping Beauty reimagining that follows a cynical thief searching for her missing sister and uncovering a portal to a dream world, where the titular character and demon who cursed her have been hiding. Everyone inside this shared consciousness has their own past they’ve tried to bury, but not everything can be repressed if left unaddressed.
– And, if you could do it in just 5 words or less, what would they be?
Sleeping Beauty recontextualized as depression.
-What first sparked the idea the Sleeping Beauty reimagine story you created?
I’ve had a recurring wish since I was little where I wanted to sleep forever and never wake up. I coped with this by writing and consuming stories for escapism. One day, I connected this desire to the tale of Sleeping Beauty and wondered: What if she wanted to sleep forever too? What if this wasn’t a curse, but some respite from depression and grief? I was excited by the idea of using Sleeping Beauty as an allegory for depression and suicidal ideation, and a story that would focus on characters who run away from their world rather than save it.
– Who was your favourite character to write and why?
Unoriginally, my favourite character to write was the main character, Corin. She’s the thief who uncovers the dreamworld, and her cynicism gets challenged in this seemingly perfect paradise. I enjoy writing flawed characters, and it was rewarding for me to dig deeper behind her anger to uncover her vulnerability and fears. A big theme in this book is escapism, and besides that being shown in the literal plot, Corin’s escapism is more complex where she uses cynicism as a way to avoid her true feelings of grief and shame, as well as protect herself from the vulnerability of hoping for a better future.
– Is there a character that you relate to?
Also unfortunately, Corin. I think a lot of people want characters to reflect their values, but for me, Corin reflects a lot of my flaws and I’ve dialled them up even more for her. She represents the worst, unpalatable parts of my depression, particularly the cycle of self-loathing and rumination. Her character lets me give in to being deeply flawed and human, so for anyone who has hit rock bottom (especially several times), I hope she is solace for them too.
– What influenced your idea to choose Corin, rather than the princess herself as the main protagonist?
I love anti-heroes, and I wanted the protagonist to be a character who is not involved in the fairy tale at all, so that the contrast of someone from reality disrupting the dreamworld would be even more stark. I see Corin as someone who would ordinarily be a background character, especially in European fantasies and fairy tales, because she is a dark-skinned eldest daughter of immigrants who has had to survive poverty and war. She does not have magic, wealth, or heroic qualities. She is someone who, unfortunately, many stories and people see as a necessary casualty to war, left behind and forgotten. I see this book as one that shows what really happened while Sleeping Beauty was sleeping, and there is a person like Corin that you would have had no idea about, because stories are often tools that people use to decide who gets to be visible and invisible, and who is seen as a hero or a villain. I wanted different perspectives to recontextualize the story we knew before. Corin is a new perspective of someone who can meet Sleeping Beauty and say, “You have the privilege to run away from your problems and hide in fantasy and magic, but people like me have to live with the consequences of them.”
– How did the world of Gyldan evolve during the writing process?
I wanted to show a stark contrast of Gyldan before Sleeping Beauty fell asleep and after, so at first, Gyldan seemed to be a utopian, prosperous kingdom that met the unfortunate fate of losing its only heir, therefore succumbing to poverty and invasion. But as I grew older and more politically conscious, I returned to Gyldan with the knowledge that many times, what’s considered prosperous is thanks to the invisible labour of immigrants and the expense of those less fortunate. Although we spend most of the story in the dreamworld, I wanted the little bits and pieces you see of Gyldan to reflect something close to our own reality as the characters deconstruct the systemic issues the kingdom has.
– Is there a particular scene that felt rewarding to write?
There is a chapter titled “Another dream” and it happens after the climax. It’s like an alternate reality where you see the idyllic life these characters could have had if they were unburdened by the actual circumstances of their reality. These little moments of peace are tinged with bittersweetness because you know this isn’t possible. This felt rewarding for me to write because at this point, we have been through so much with these characters that, hopefully, readers will experience the beauty and yearning for the simple and mundane things, especially at a point of peak emotional investment.
– Is there another character’s backstory you would like to explore in another book?
I think there’s potential to explore other characters’ background stories like Lilith and Ezran, and perhaps even a future story with Malicine since they are an immortal creature. But I very much prefer standalones and think not everything needs to be explored. I like having characters exist within a singular story for a specific purpose, and standalones are great with tying things neatly from beginning to end.
– Did you have to do much research before you started the writing process for the book?
The book is based on my experience with depression and suicidal ideation, so I guess my “research” was my therapy sessions, haha. But in general, I’ve read books that helped me better develop the story and its narrative themes – particularly “Disfigured” by Amanda Leduc, which made me think more critically about how fairy tales shape our understanding of disability and how stories depend on its characters finding a “cure” as their happy ending.
– How did you come up with the title? Was it a hard process?
I came up with the title during the 3rd draft of rewriting this book. I don’t think it was a hard process; it just took me a while to get there. I like how the title sounds mysterious and focuses on an otherworldly place, while clearly referencing the Sleeping Beauty story.
– If Corin could ask you a question about why you created her story the way you did, what do you think she would ask – and how would you answer?
Corin would ask, “Why the hell did you make me suffer so much?!” I would answer, “Because I was suffering too.” And then she would probably curse me out or beat me up.
– Where do you write?
I write primarily at home at my desk, but I also like to go to cafes to write because it helps me get in the zone. Sometimes it’s hard to stay focused when I’m at home, especially when my bed is right there, tempting me to nap instead.
– What does it mean to you to write queer fantasy for young readers today?
I never thought I would write a queer fantasy, because I was straight for the first 25 years of my life and had always consumed and created stories with straight characters. But maybe I was so heteronormative because I lacked exposure to queer stories. When people see that this is a queer fantasy, there is an assumption that this must mean there’s a queer romance, but I see queerness as an identity you find when you realize that you can be more than what you thought before, and your future can be more than what society or culture or even you, yourself, thought it would be. That’s what my characters come to terms with, and I hope young readers learn that they can be so much more too.
– What is your favourite genre to read?
I read all kinds of genres! Fantasy, literary, horror, nonfiction, memoir. It’s hard to choose. For fantasy, I love stories that focus on characters and relationships primarily, while the fantasy part is more of a backdrop.
– Where can our readers find you on social media?
I’m @readwithcindy everywhere from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Substack, and even my website at readwithcindy.com.
– Finally can you give us your favourite quote from a novel (it can be yours!)?
This quote from Malicine in my book got a lot of laughs from people: “Stop trying to kill yourself. You’re going to ruin my floors.”
Cindy Pham, author of THE SECRET WORLD OF BRIAR ROSE
(First Ink, PB £9.99, out now)