Thoughts with JC Kang, Chinese Medicine Doctor, Martial Artist and Author of 'Songs of Insurrection

With Chinese scientists turning sci-fi to sci-ence, breaking barriers by cloning a monkey (and with non-embrionic cells), I thought it fitting to pay homage to barrier breaking science fiction author, JC Kang.

Martial arts instructor and Chinese medicine doctore, JC Kang has had an unhealthy obsession with Fantasy and Sci-Fi since he was introduced to it at an early age. As a Publishers’ Weekly Booklife Award Quarterfinalist, Kang is no no stranger to technical yet colorful writing. When penning his multicultural epic fantasies, he combines his geek roots with his professional experiences as as a doctor and martial arts instructor.

Find Kang's latest release, Songs of Insurrection, on Amazon!

Goodreads

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1. What inspired you to write Songs of Insurrection specifically?
Specifically? There’s a sordid, convoluted story behind it. Basically, I wrote what would become Book 3 of the Dragon Songs Saga first. However, my crit partners connected more with the secondary characters than the main character, Kaiya. I decided to write a prequel, to try make her more relatable; and then I wrote the sequel.  In the meantime, I was querying Orchestra of Treacheries (originally Book 1, now Book 2), and agents were telling me the jump in time from chapters 1 to 2 to 3 were too jolting. At that time, I was critting one of Pam Godwin’s Dark Erotica thrillers, and immediately felt connected to a main character who I wouldn’t normally be interested in, and saw how the author used tension.  With that in mind, I stripped out the first two chapters of Orchestra of Treacheries, and bookended a story between them.
 
2. What inspired you to write Fantasy and Science Fiction?
I read a lot of fantasy as a kid, and used to play Dungeons and Dragons. The Dragonlance Chronicles made me want to write.

3. Does your heritage influence your writing, and if so how?
All that fantasy I read as a kid featured mostly Caucasian characters, and if a PoC did appear, it was most likely to be a villain.  At that age, growing up in the South, and very much in denial of my identity, I didn’t think twice about it. It wasn’t until college that I became something of a Born-Again-Asian. Even though my militancy had since moderated by the time I started writing, I wanted to begin with an Asian-themed story.

4. A good amount of popular Science Fiction and Fantasy novels and movies do not feature minorities leads, especially Asian. Why is this and how can it be remedied?
I think it is a reflection of the market.  So much classic fantasy are set in a medieval pseudo-Europe, and that has set the standard for the trope. I would hazard to guess that most SFF readers are Caucasian, and perhaps the publishing companies assume they want to read about that classical setting.
 
As a member of many online SFF groups, I can tell you that is NOT the case. While there are certainly readers who fall back on classic tropes, many more are clamoring for something new, something different; and if mainstream publishers aren’t willing to take that risk, Small Press and Indies sure are.  It’s just a matter of showing to diehard readers that the quality can be just as good as a traditionally published book.  Contests like Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO are a great way.

5. When reading a book, does the gender or ethnicity of the author impact the voice you assign the novel in your head?
Not really.  Actually, one of my biggest complaints with the movie versions of my old favorites, The Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings, is that they totally ruined the voices and faces my own imagination had come up with!

6. What advice would you give your younger writer self?
Don’t skateboard

7. Tell us more about your Chinese Medicine practice and your Martial Arts!
I always wanted to learn martial arts because of Bruce Lee in the 70s and Ninjas in the 80s. I specifically wanted to learn Wing Chun because of its connection to Bruce Lee, but I didn’t have a chance until moving to Taiwan in the 1990s.  I was fortunate to have found an awesome Sifu  in Lo Man Kam, the nephew of Bruce Lee’s Sifu, Ip Man.  While I was training there, one of my Kung-Fu brothers introduced me to his acupuncture master, Dr. Betty Long, and I started apprenticing under her.  The cool thing about learning these things is that I can put them into my writing!

8. What’s next for JC Kang?
The Dragon Songs Saga is complete at four books, but there are two other series in the same world that intersect with it. I am chronologically following a popular secondary character from the first series, the half-elf/half-Asian ninja Jie.
 
I’m almost done with the second revision of Masters of Deception, Book 1 of Series 2. It takes place in my world’s version of Renaissance Italy.  In addition to Jie, it also features an “Italian” con-man Diviner; an “Ethiopian” Sorceress looking to restore her clan’s honor; and an “East Indian” “Jedi” apprentice who struggles with the ideals of his order and his personal desires.
 
Book 1 of Series 3 is a conflict between the Chosen people of the Sun God, and the descendants of said God’s mortal son. The first draft is done; and I started writing a prequel to all three series, about a one-eyed fisherman who acquires a glass eye possessed by a demon.