C.B. Lee is an author of young adult and middle grade fiction, including the NYT Bestseller Minecraft: The Shipwreck. Their works also include the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selected A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix, the Lambda Literary Award-nominated Sidekick Squad series, Ben 10 graphic novels, Out Now: Queer We Go Again, and From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back. Lee’s work has been featured in NPR, Teen Vogue, Wired Magazine, Hypable, Tor’s Best of Fantasy and Sci Fi, and the American Library Association’s Rainbow List.

I had the opportunity to interview C.B., which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi! Thanks so much for having me. I’m C.B. Lee, and I’ve been writing books for about ten years! Whoa, time flies. I love writing queer stories – I first got started wanting to write the stories I wish I could have read as a teenager. My favorite genres are evolving, but I will always have a soft spot for science fiction and fantasy. 

What can you tell us about your most recent book, Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe? What was the inspiration for the story?

I used to walk home from school in elementary and middle school, and often would daydream while doing it. One of the streets was lined with jacaranda trees, and it always felt magical being under the awning of those purple blossoms and having them litter the street. Part of a recurring daydream I had to entertain myself was what if you could walk from one universe to another, and the other one would be filled with magic. I never really let go of this idea, and parallel universe travel is one of my favorite tropes. Speaking of tropes, we can’t not talk about coffeeshop AU’s. 

To anyone who has spent time in any fandom, the coffeeshop AU is a staple – it’s a source of comfort, delight, fluff, and can be anywhere from a quick and cute one-shot to a long, drawn out slow burn. I love the fandom community so much, and fanfiction is such a creative space where people find connection and an endless combination of exploration of character dynamics and stories. The title obviously is a homage to a love of fandom, and also the liminal coffeeshop where Brenda and Kat first meet, and the cozy feels. 

As a writer, what drew you to the art of storytelling, especially romance, fantasy, and young adult fiction?

I love how stories really open our eyes to our own journey, because no matter how different or fantastical a universe is, what really brings us together are those emotions and transformations that characters go through. We all feel, we all strive and cry and react and try our best in the world. I think storytelling has always been a part of me from a very young age; and I always wanted to tell stories, to brighten someone’s day, to bring someone on an emotional journey. And it’s so fun, to go through the twists and turns and really bring someone full circle on something you created! 

Young adult fiction is such a special place in my heart; I think we all can relate to everything young adults go through because we all go through it. In many ways the story of finding yourself, learning who you are—it’s relevant to just being human. 

Fantasy in general I think started for me with just the sheer delight of being in another world, where anything can happen. I read every fantasy novel I could get my hands on as a child; and being able to tell stories in this genre has been such an honor, to create my own worlds and bring people on that journey has been so much fun. I think creating a whole magical universe with its own rules has been one of the most rewarding things in storytelling, because it’s all—it’s all you. You make up how the money system works, how the magic structure works, how energy and clothing and culture—it’s limitless. 

How would you describe your creative process?

I used to be very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer; I would just dive into a story and go for it and figure out some of the details later. When I wrote the Sidekick Squad series, the first novel was a NaNoWriMo project, so a lot of it was written out of order, just to get words down each day. I got to 50k in a month, but after November I had a lot of work cut out for me. I stitched together scenes, I added new scenes to bridge things, I moved things around, I completely rewrote things. I set up the start of the rest of the series, but I realized with the second and third books that I couldn’t use the same process because they had to build upon one another, and there had to be a foundation for the rest of the series that the last books had to answer questions in the first. So I had to put those questions into place, and this required outlining. 

I taught myself outlining writing this series – I had a series outline and each novel outline, and while each novel has evolved significantly since then, I use this similar outline style for each project I write moving forward. I start with the characters – who are they, what do they want and need, and is that actually what they want or is there a question behind the question? Then we go into the story and how they try and get it. Then I write out the major beats of the story, and then detail any specific scenes that come to mind. This stage is all very rough, very stream of consciousness. If at any point I get more ideas, I just write them all down and I come back to it later.

I think in one word, my creative process is very fluid. It all depends on what’s needed for the day. Sometimes it’s structured, sometimes spontaneous.

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or challenging? 

My favorite element is that of discovery. I think setting up a problem in the novel and then figuring out how to do it – how you get the characters not just from A to B but realize you can address some underlying trauma. It’s really challenging sometimes when you paint yourself in a corner—I feel like I do this all the time. I get my characters into situations, then I have to get them out of it—and it’s my fault! But it’s truly fun. 

I think the hardest part about writing is getting in your own way. Overthinking things. Imposter syndrome. Hating everything you create, and wanting to throw it out. All of this is normal for most people doing most things, probably. 

As an author, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general?

I really find a lot of inspiration from other folks right now telling their stories. I’m in an era where I’m really enjoying and unpacking Chinese and Vietnamese folklore and mythology, as well as history not just on immigration but a lot of ways culture has evolved and interacted and infused with other cultures. I think my creative influence when I was younger came from other authors – I read widely, everything from Octavia Butler to Diane Duane to JRR Tolkien and fantasy and science fiction was what I primarily read. And then when I started reading other genres, I found myself learning a lot from romance and horror and mystery and stories, about different ways for characters to have emotional journeys.

I can say the biggest source of inspiration is my mom. She’s such a incredible force of nature, but she would never admit to it. She worked so hard to get our family to safety and to build a new life, and now that her kids are grown and forging their own lives she is finally getting to build one for herself, filled with hobbies and things she enjoys. And I think that’s beautiful. 

Aside from your work, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

I’m nonbinary! I feel like talking about it is relatively new – I updated my pronouns on my socials while I was on hiatus, but didn’t really say much more about it. It’s been really validating seeing the they/them pronouns on my new printed bios! I’m still fond of seeing my old bios too – it’s just a journey marker of where I’ve been and my discovery process.  

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

I don’t think I’ve ever been asked about the food in my books! I have so much fun writing food. My editor Emily Settle who I worked with for Clash of Steel sent me so many joking upset comments about how hungry she was after the market scene where Xiang is just roaming around the city smelling everything and eating everything. I love food so much, and writing it feels so good – I feel like it just gives a terrific sense of place and immersion. 

What advice might you have to give for aspiring writers out there?

Keep writing. I think a lot of folks feel like the story in their heart might already be done or overdone, but no one can do it like you. You’re the only one who can. You’re the only you in the universe, whose thoughts and experiences make you, you. I think the world needs these stories, and you need to tell it. 

The second thing I want to say is to make time to write. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It can be five, ten minutes a day. I think since becoming a parent the most challenging thing for me is making time to write. I used to be really precious about it. I needed the right conditions: a nice cup of coffee, a beautiful café, access to a plug. Or writing from home, with an endless stretch of time. Two to three hour block minimum. But I don’t have that kind of time anymore. I write in stretches when I can. Twenty minutes. Half hour. I’m exhausted after the day and baby’s now asleep. I write. I write on my lunch break at work. These would be the kind of moments that I would have never considered before because they were too short, and I wouldn’t get much done. But when I think about when I finished NaNoWriMo and all my other projects on deadline, I didn’t wait for the perfect conditions to exist. I wrote when I could, and all those little moments added up.

The last thing I want to say is you have to make it in order for it to exist. So make it. Make it badly. Make it in a rush. Make it like no one is going to see it. Make it because you want to. You can always fix it later. But you can’t fix it if it doesn’t exist. 

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

Still working on Not Your Hero, and a few other secret things in the works! 

Finally, what books/authors (LGBTQ+ or otherwise) would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT? 

I can’t recommend enough Julian Winter’s books; I think they’re all so lovely. His newest I Think They Love You is so wonderful. If We Were A Movie by Zakiya N. Jamal for sweet romcom feels and Dead & Breakfast by Kat Hillis and Rosiee Thor for those who want a good queer murder mystery. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki is a constant favorite of mine as well. For the upcoming fall, I think Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler has such beautiful homecoming vibes, I think it’s the perfect autumn sapphic book filled with longing and discovering who you are. 

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Header Photo Credit Caroline Tran