This month, we have picked "Maricayana: The Beginning" by Akasayana for Book of the Month. If you'd like to read this story, we encourage you to check it out in our Never Forgotten reading list.
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Logline:
Watching his father die after refusing to fight with anything but the righteous white martial arts, Wening disguised herself as a man and embarked on a journey to find the perfect dark 'silat' path teacher. By a curious twist of fate, she stumbled upon Kelana Klawu, the mysterious dark silat warrior whose deadly reputation preceded himself.
Excerpt:
Throwing herself to the ground, Wening groveled so low she practically kissed the dirt. "O' Venerable Guru, The Mighty Terror and Harbinger of Doom, please accept this humble one as your pupil!"
Kneading his temple, Kelana Klawu groaned. "For a hundred times, I'm not your guru and I don't– can't– won't take any pupils," he sighed exasperatedly. "In fact, I'm looking for a teacher myself. A white martial arts guru."
"WHAT?" Wening snapped her head up. "B-but... WHY?"
"Believe me, you don't want me to be your teacher."
"I don't?"
"You're doing this because you heard I was an heir of a famous dark martial arts school," Kelana Klawu said with surprising patience, "the truth is, I was probably adopted. So whoever you thought I was, I'm not."
About the Author:
Akasayana (she/her) is a Southeast Asian writer who loves to explore and incorporate cultural and historical elements from Nusantara, especially Java, into her stories. Her stories mostly involve a healthy dose of hurt/comfort, angst with a happy ending, self realization, slow burn romance/bromance, and a sprinkle of magic. Her ultimate goal as a writer is to create stories that move people, either in English or Indonesian. Since she can't choose between coffee and tea, Akasayana decides to make matcha-espresso her favorite beverage.
Interview:
1. What influenced your story? What inspired you to write it?
I'm a sucker for good martial arts stories, so I've always wanted to write one myself. I mostly blamed it on BTV's old xianxia series like "Journey to the West" and Indonesian early 2000s historical or wayang tales-inspired costume dramas such as "Tutur Tinular" and "Mahabharata."I'm also not so fond of a strict dichotomy between the black and white, the good and the bad, the right and the wrong. So I figured it'd be exciting to play with the concept and blur the line a little to show that in reality, life is composed of many shades of gray.
2. What were some challenges you faced while writing your story?
There are several, but they are mostly in my head. Researching and finding inspo for my stories can be challenging, but they're such an integral part of writing a satisfying story, so I actually find myself enjoying the process of doing so. However, things like self doubt, the urge to have everything perfect, and the fear of receiving bad reviews can be super debilitating, especially when compounded with procrastination and getting stuck in a slump.
3. What message do you hope to convey with your story?
MARICAYANA tells the story of two people whose desires keep getting skewed and shifted by the universe. I think life is like that. Things often don't go according to our plan and original expectation, but that doesn't necessarily mean that what awaits us in the end is nothing but disappointment. It may be unexpected and different from what we initially wanted, but bad? In fact, it may as well be exactly what we need. I hope people can see this reflected in my story and proceed to fully enjoy life with all its dynamics.
4. Do you have any advice for other authors who are interested in writing Asian Fiction?
Whether or not you are of Asian descent or have lived somewhere in Asia, here's what I think matters the most when writing Asian Fiction: show genuine respect to the people, place, and culture you base your story on and present it for. You may get some facts wrong, but it really shows when your story comes from a place of respect instead of mere tokenism. Also, Asia is huge and extremely diverse. So as not to misrepresent people from certain countries or ethnicities, it might be better to be specific in choosing what elements to incorporate in the story instead of doing a generalization or half-baked cultural mishmash.
5. If you could write another story to be featured on the profile, which of our reading lists would you write it for?
Perhaps "Shattered Memories."
6. If you are an author of Asian descent, what's one remarkable fact about your culture you can share with us?
We write stories using scripts such as the Latin alphabet, Chinese Hanzi, or Arabic abjad. Javanese script from the Indonesian island of Java, on the other hand, is not only used to write a story, but in and of itself is a story. The whole twenty basic letters (aksara nglegéna)--ha, na, ca, ra, ka, da, ta, sa, wa, la, pa, dha, ja, ya, nya, ma, ga, ba, tha, nga–actually form a poem that tells the story of a tragedy that befell mythical King Aji Saka's faithful servants.
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Thank you Akasayana for giving us the opportunity to interview you and chat more about your book!
