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GalaxyTalks Interview Session with Kylie Lee Baker author of The Keeper of Night
Hi to all the amazing readers, today we have a very special guest on the session of GalaxyTalks. Kylie Lee Baker, the debut author of The Keeper of Night, released October 12, 2021. You can go ahead and check out my review of The Keeper of Night. So without any further ado, let's move on to the amazing chat session I had with Kylie.
Shreya: If you were to describe your book in one sentence, how would you do it?
Kylie: A half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami soul collector escapes Victorian England and flees to Japan’s
underworld, where she makes a dangerous deal with the Japanese goddess of death.
Shreya: You've has chosen a biracial protagonist, throughout the book we see her struggles while trying to find a place of belonging, like many people, feel given their biracial identity, how was the writing experience, did the inspiration also come from your own personal encounters?
Kylie: Ren’s search for belonging and frustration at gatekeeping everywhere she goes is drawn from my own experiences as a biracial woman. I’ve lived in different cities across the U.S. as well as in Europe and Asia and have learned that gatekeeping and racial purism exists everywhere. Writing about Ren discovering this through her journey was cathartic because the story is framed such that it directly and unflinchingly calls out how unfair this is for mixed-race people. The whole story is basically a condemnation of casual gatekeeping, which feels very good to write, but very scary to actually publish because it opens up a very personal topic to a lot of criticism and racism.
Shreya: You've incorporated Yokai's and urban legends in the story, there are numerous Yokai's how did you finalize which ones you'll include?
Kylie: A lot of Yokai are specific to certain regions or climates—Yuki Onna, for instance, is a snow Yokai—so I deliberately chose Yokai from very different parts of Japan so that I could take the reader to lots of different places. Some people don’t have a very three-dimensional understanding of Japan outside of anime, so I wanted the scenes in Japan’s “real world” to feel rich and diverse. I also chose the final Yokai because she’s known as one of “The Three Terrible Yokai” of Japan, so-called because she’s one of the most destructive, threatening Yokai out of all the thousands. That felt appropriate since the reader generally expects the “final boss” to be the most powerful.
Shreya: Half Japanese Shinigami and Half British Reaper, what inspired the idea of the story, and how was the further research process?
Kylie: I was inspired to write this story because I had a lot of feelings about how biracial people are treated and felt ready to explore that through fiction. After reading an early draft of Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang, which explores Vietnamese mythology, I was interested in exploring the mythology of my own heritage. I combined that with my obsession at the time with shows that take place in Victorian England, like Penny Dreadful and Black Butler to create a new sort of death mythology that wasn’t limited to one particular place.
Shreya: How would you describe the feeling of holding the finalized copy of your book in your hand?
Kylie: To be honest, none of it feels real yet. I often jokingly liken it to how some moms say that when they hold their babies, at first it just feels like a baby but it doesn’t quite sink in that it’s your baby yet. I think it might feel different when I actually see my book in stores for the first time. Listening to the audiobook was actually more of a shock than holding my author copies because I got to hear Ren’s voice, and that made it feel much more real.
Shreya: Kill, Marry, Kiss: Ren, Hiro, Neven
Kylie: Oh my gosh! Neven is a bit naïve at times but he’s such a sweetheart, so I think he’s the only marriageable one. And Hiro is just so swoony and romantic, whereas Ren is about as romantic as a block of cheese, so I would have to say kiss for Hiro. I don’t particularly want to kill Ren, but if we’re being honest, she probably deserves it more than Hiro or Neven.
Shreya: What is the best part about being an author?
Kylie: Getting to know other authors. For instance, I can’t tell you how cool it is to go from being a distant fangirl of June Hur’s books to having her read my book, blurb it, and tell me how much she enjoyed it. At 26, I’m on the younger end of debut authors, and it’s been so incredible to get to know authors who are older than me, who I might not have naturally fallen into a friend group with if we weren’t all writers. I love seeing them succeed at juggling their day jobs, being moms, and writing, because they inspire me and give me hope that I’ll be able to do all of those things one day
too.
Shreya: Do you have any personal favorite urban legend, except the ones you've included in the book?
Kylie: Kuchisake Onna is a ghost who has a smile carved into her face like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. She wears a mask and asks unsuspecting victims if they think she’s beautiful. If they say yes, she takes her mask off and says “do you still think so?” If they say no, she carves a smile onto them too. If they lie and say yes, she follows them home at night. It’s a lose-lose situation, so it’s better to just not talk to strange ghosts you see out at night.
Shreya: Finally, are you working on something new?
Kylie: Yes! I’m working on a project that takes place in China. I think it’s safe to tell you that much like The Keeper of Night, it’s about death and has a biracial main character since that probably wouldn’t shock anyone. I’m very excited to write a book in China because that part of my heritage is very important to me.
That was an amazing session with Kylie, she is such a sweetheart. You can visit Kylie on her Author Website | Twitter | Instagram
Death is her destiny. Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can. When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death… only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side.
Kylie Lee Baker grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her work is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, & Irish) as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a BA in creative writing and Spanish from Emory University and is pursuing a master of library and information science degree at Simmons University. In her free time, she plays the cello, watches horror movies, and bakes too many cookies. The Keeper of Night is her debut novel.
That's all for today's post, if you're still reading, may you get all your TBR conquered. If you want to connect with me, rant to me about mutual books, or are looking for a friend, ahead are my social links, hope to see you soon.
