Bei Lin is a Chinese Canadian author based in Vancouver. She has lived on three continents and visited over thirty countries. Travel and food are her passions, along with giving her characters their well-deserved happily-ever-after. When she’s not writing, she’s daydreaming about her next trip and eating chocolate cake.

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

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

Thank you for having me! I’m a queer, Chinese Canadian author based in Vancouver, Canada. I’ve lived on three continents and travelled to over thirty countries. Travel and food are my passions, along with storytelling and giving my characters their well-deserved happily-ever-after.

When I’m not writing, I’m daydreaming about my next trip and hunting down the best local eateries.

What can you tell us about your book, From Beijing, With Love? What was the inspiration for this story?

From Beijing, With Love is a contemporary queer rom-com where a Chinese-Dutch programmer struggling with OCD and heartbreak finds himself stranded in Beijing, forced to rely on the help of the cynical-but-gorgeous PhD student moonlighting as a tour guide. As life pushes them together over and over again, time spent together feels less like vacation and more like finally finding home.

This story was inspired by a trip I took in the fall of 2023. There wasn’t a cute tour guide, but I did spend time in Beijing, my hometown of Xi’an, and Tokyo. While on this trip, I had a difficult time managing my OCD and anxiety. My therapist at the time—one with a penchant for cardigans and chamomile tea—had told me to write to my inner child as a healing exercise. So, at night on this trip, when the sleep paralysis monsters kept me up, I started writing notes to my inner child that everything was going to be okay.

I called him Danny.

After flying home to Amsterdam, I started writing a love story centered on someone with OCD who never believed in his own worth, stuck in a foreign place by himself. While I saw Daniel clearly before I even typed out the first word, it took me a few drafts to truly see Yang, whose struggles with identity and family mirrored my own.

Unknowingly, I borrowed so much more from my own life and history to craft Yang than I ever did for Daniel, down to Yang’s grandma’s apartment in Xi’an and his PhD research.

As a writer, what drew you to the art of storytelling, especially romance?

I truly believe that there’s a power to storytelling. A good story is both a magnet and a mirror—pulling us in while simultaneously allowing us to see ourselves. And I’m drawn to romance because I love vulnerability, big, messy, uncontainable feelings. And most of all, I love love.

How would you describe your creative process?

Despite being meticulously organized in my daily life, I’m woefully disorganized when it comes to writing. I’m not a planner or a plotter. Writing often feels like I’m driving in the dark where I can only see as far ahead as the headlights show.

As such, my first drafts are typically fast but always incredibly messy. There’s no elegance to it, and it’s riddled with grammar and spelling errors, but it’s where I find the shape of the story. The subsequent drafts are where the characters show me who they are, their wants and needs.

My writing sessions are always accompanied by music. My playlist has everything from EDM to reggae, musical theatre, and C-pop. These sessions are also oftentimes accompanied by my giant Ragdoll kitty who makes typing difficult as he likes to use my hand as a pillow. 

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

My favorite element of writing is the discovery aspect of it. I’m not a plotter so I often have no idea how a scene would end when I first start writing it. It feels like letting the story take the wheel and letting the characters reveal themselves to me on their own terms.

The most challenging aspect of writing is perhaps the craft of writing—constructing gorgeous yet effective prose.

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

A huge source of inspiration for From Beijing, With Love is the three cities featured in the story. This story is rooted in their beauty, complex and sometimes flawed present and history, and of course, their food. This story is truly a love letter to Asia and Asian food.

Other creative influences include the wonderful queer stories across all mediums, languages, and cultures I’ve had the fortune to experience.

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)?

Question: If From Beijing, With Love is ever made into a movie, who would your absolute dream cast be?

Answer: Hudson Williams for Daniel and Simu Liu for Yang. And they are both Canadian!

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

Publishing is a long road paved with rejections, probably more so than other industries. There will be moments where it’ll inevitably break your heart and possibly have you sobbing on the floor (been there, done that).

To make all that worth it, you must write for yourself. You have to imagine a world where no one else would ever read (let alone like) your story. In that world, it’s just you, your words and your characters. Hopefully you like them more than just a little bit.

In short, write the weird little stories of your heart.

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

I’m currently working on a story set in Amsterdam. It’s a speculative murder mystery with a queer romance subplot. It’s a love letter to Amsterdam, a city I called home for five long years. 

Compared to From Beijing, With Love, it’s more plot-driven and melancholic. If From Beijing, With Love is summer meets autumn, this second book is winter meets spring. 

Finally, what books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

My favorite authors include Casey McQuiston, Alexis Hall, Alison Cochrun, Cat Sebastian, TJ Alexander, and many, many more. In particular, I love Casey McQuiston’s Red, White and Royal Blue, Alexis Hall’s London Calling Series and Glitterland, and Alison Cochrun’s The Charm Offensive. All of these works are queer love stories featuring complex, sometimes messy, and chaotic characters with their vulnerabilities on full display, much like From Beijing, With Love.