This month, we have picked "Dancing In Circles" by JJJ000YYY for Book of the Month. If you'd like to read this story, we encourage you to check it out in our My Heart Beats for You reading list here.
❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Logline:
Kannika, aka Nika, is about to perform again for Songkran. She's confident in her dancing and thought nothing could shake her until her eyes find someone in the crowd.
Excerpt from the Book:
"Nika, swy jing jing!" An auntie gave my arm a hard pinch with a smile.
I kept it together but inside I wanted to just shrink in embarrassment. I was in my twenties yet I was still being treated like a baby by the older women.
"Ready?" My mother asked me.
"Yeah," I said absentmindedly.
"Nervous?" She asked and I nodded. "Here, eat. Will help with the stage fright."
She handed me a plastic bag of sticky rice and fried pork from her purse and gave me a tube of lipstick right after.
I wasn't too keen on eating at the moment so I placed the food to the side.
"Nika, it's time!" My mother called out excitedly and I jumped to my feet. I did an awkward shuffle out of the tent and when I got close enough to the steps of the stage, I took off my shoes and placed them to the side so I could give a better performance.
About the Author:
J. A. Jumphol is a queer Thai Canadian that loves writing fiction with intersectional diversity to match. From coming-of-age contemporaries to disaster teens with powers to Thai-inspired high fantasy, there is no genre ze is unwilling to write.
During the day, xe works at the largest book chain in Canada and enjoys recommending books to book lovers and friends. In between writing and work, he is either watching movies or is attempting to tame their forever growing collection of books.
Interview:
1. What influenced your story? What inspired you to write it?
A few things influenced the story. I grew up going to the wat and participating in a lot of Thai community culture events which included doing traditional Thai dance on stage during Songkran. I still vividly remember the chaotic process of getting ready for a dance and the amount of people in the community that would help with hair or make up or just pass by and just give encouraging compliments in Thai. Also pinching, a lot of pinching. I'm also queer and wanted to incorporate that aspect into the story too. It definitely started out as a panic moment as I tried to sort out my feelings for a friend and it definitely is reflected in the character.
The story was written for the 2023 Songkran writing contest and I was excited to write something about my culture especially since it was for one of the biggest celebrations in Thailand.
2. What were some challenges you faced while writing your story?
Definitely names. Naming Eri was a hard process to go through since there's a lot of culture that comes with Thai names in general. Not many people know this, but a lot of Thai people tend to have their legal name and a "silly nickname" given when the person is still young. The silly nickname could be something relevant to the person or it could be something that seems really random to an outsider. I decided to go with Eri since it was a more likely name that a trans person would pick for themselves and Eri might've been uncomfortable having any links to him prior to his transition.
3. What message do you hope to convey with your story?
Not everyone has it figured out when they're legally adults would be the message of the story. We are constantly learning about ourselves no matter how old we are and everything is a constant ongoing process.
4. Do you have any advice for other authors who are interested in writing Asian Fiction?
Research, research, research. Even if you are from the culture you're writing about, research anyways since you might discover something you haven't thought about before. I had a few times where I learned the reason why my culture did certain things and that I never really thought twice about or have gotten explanations that my own family could never fully vocalize since to them it was just how things were.
5. If you could write another story to be featured on the profile, which of our reading lists would you write it for?
The Never Forgotten reading list. I haven't written a story that specifically has taken place in Ancient Asia yet but I would love to try one day especially a story with a Thai setting. It would be really fun and interesting to research what life was like in ancient times as well as I feel Thailand isn't explored much in terms of purely historical settings.
6.If you are an author of Asian descent, what's one cool fact about your culture you can share with us?
Last names in Thailand are actually a recent thing as of 2023, last names in Thailand have been around for only 110 years. That's why it might be hard to find out the most common Thai last name of Thai origin since most families with those last names haven't been around long enough.
❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀
Thank you JJJ000YYY for giving us the opportunity to interview you and chat more about your book!
