London-based Malaysian fantasy writer, Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown was first published in 2015 as the first book in her Sorcerer Royal trilogy. She has won the IAFA William Crawford Award for her short story collection Spirits Abroad. Sorcerer to the Crown was a finalist in the Locus Award for Best First Novel and long listed for the 2015 Tiptree Award.
Hello Zen. Tell us about Sorcerer to the Crown.
Sorcerer to the Crown is a historical fantasy novel set in 1800s London, about England’s first African Sorcerer Royal. Zacharias Wythe is trying to sort out the looming catastrophe of the decline in England’s stocks of magic when his plans are hijacked by ambitious runaway orphan Prunella Gentleman … who’s just made the biggest discovery in English magic in centuries.
What initially inspired you to write Sorcerer to the Crown? And to make a freed slave the hero? Did you initially plan to give it a Malaysian hero?
A novel’s too big to have just one source, so lots of things inspired it. I grew up reading British period literature from the 19th and early 20th centuries (it was cheap and plentiful – you learn to love what you get). In particular, the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer were a major inspiration for Sorcerer, as were the comic stories of P. G. Wodehouse. I thought it’d be interesting to write that sort of Merchant Ivory film/silver fork novel with a black man at its centre.
There were a lot of black people in the UK around that time, especially though not exclusively in London. And we know quite a lot about their lives – they wrote letters, poetry, essays – so I was interested in exploring what one such life might have been like. Plus magic, because why not!
Because that was the genesis of the story there was never a point at which the hero of this particular book might have been Malaysian.
What else are you currently working on? When will the sequel to the Sorcerer to the Crown come out?
I am working on revisions to the sequel, which is due out some time in 2017. Other than that I have a very busy day job, do events and conventions, and am trying to fit in research for the third book, as it’s going to be a trilogy.
In what ways does Malaysia inform your writing?
I suppose being from a relatively small country that nobody in the West cares about – a postcolonial, multicultural, Southeast Asian country – has given me a certain perspective. If you have a background like mine, culturally you’re always seeing double.
That said, the fact that I grew up in Malaysia has as much to do with my writing as the fact that Neil Gaiman grew up in Britain has to do with his. It’s either everything or nothing.
Sorcerer to the Crown draws strongly on themes of colonialism and racism. Are these themes a result of growing up in Malaysia?
They are a result of living in the UK, actually.
What’s your writing process for novels? Do you throw a lot away? Do you write every day? Are you a planner or do you fly by the seat of the pants?
I throw a lot away. I write almost every day. I draw up painstaking tables and diagrams in advance, write according to plan, and then chuck at least 50% of it away and start over.
What 3 artworks (books, music, visual arts, films) have most inspired you?
For Sorcerer to the Crown in particular – and I’ll leave aside the other sources of inspiration I’ve already mentioned:
1) The Museum of London Docklands exhibition “London, Sugar & Slavery”;
2) The painting of Dido Belle and her cousin Elizabeth Murray attributed to Johann Zoffany;
3) The letters of Ignatius Sancho.
Many thanks for your time, Zen.
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Interview by Jane Routley– SFFWorld.com © 2016
