MOLLY X. CHANG is the author of the international bestseller To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, and is a first-generation immigrant born in Harbin, China. The Nightblood Prince marks her YA debut.

First of all, welcome back to Geeks OUT! For those who might not be as familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Hello! My name is Molly X. Chang and I am the number one international and New York Times bestselling author of To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods and the Good Morning America Book Club Pick, The Nightblood Prince! 

What can you tell us about your latest book, The Nightblood Prince? What was the inspiration for the story?

Yes! So The Nightblood Prince is a book I have wanted to write for so many years! I think I wrote the first few chapters in 2016, but the idea has followed me for as long as I can remember! There is this Chinese phrase called 红颜祸水—literal translation is blushing beauty, troubled waters— which is something history has used to blame women for the mistakes of men, and how beautiful women are these dangerous creatures who lure men to their demise. The most famous example in the west is Helen of Troy, and the most famous example in Chinese history are characters like Daji (a fox demon who seduced the Emperor Zhou and caused the fall of his dynasty, allegedly), Yang Guifei, Xishi, and many more. I have always found how history is told and retold fascinating, and how men limited women’s right to read and write and leave our voices so we can’t be heard from beyond the grave. I wondered if these women had voices, what kind of stories they would have left behind? And so bloomed the original idea for the character Fei, a prophesied empress of all empresses, but she is haunted by visions of calamity and feel this pressure to save the world from the future in her nightmares. She also doesn’t want to become an empress, she lowkey just wants to see the world and eat good food and enjoy her life instead of being locked up in the palace. My friends always joke that if Fei could go on a gap-year, the events of the book wouldn’t happen, haha.

 Was there any media (i.e. books, films, music, etc.) that influenced you while writing The Nightblood Prince?

I think the original Chinese proverb influenced me a lot. I have also wanted to write a double villain love triangle book with vampires since I read Twilight when I was a teenager, but I wanted it to fill it with Chinese culture and folklore, and characters who looked like me! Twilight was the book that helped me learn English, and helped me make my first friends in this country, so it is a book that has a lot of sentimental value to me. The dedication for The Nightblood Prince is “To those who seek solace between ink and paper and live a thousand lives as heroes and villains and everything in between. I write to help you escape, always.” Because I think a part of me will always write to help others escape the way Stephenie Meyer helped me. 

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

I think my first interaction with books was when I was in my early teens, after I moved here from China. Because I grew up in a small town, I dealt with a lot of bullying and racism, so school was not easy. There is something so comforting about escaping into a fictional world after a bad day at school. And I will always remember the feeling of escaping into the pages of a fictional world after a difficult day. 

How would you describe your creative process? How was your writing process changed/ stayed the same since your debut?

My creative process always start with the main character, and I think every book is its own process/journey because every book has a different narrator. Fei and Ruying (the main character from my adult debut, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods) couldn’t be more different. I was literally joking with one of my author friends about how Ruying is all anxiety and paranoia and overthinks everything, but because Fei is raised inside a palace where she never got to experience real life, or suffered any real consequences—because she is constantly being protected by Siwang. So Fei is kind of reckless and… doesn’t think before she does something? Ruying is anxious and always think everything will crumble and fail because she wasn’t protected as a child and faced so much trauma. Meanwhile, Fei thinks everything will always work out because everything has always worked out for her—until it didn’t, but that’s a spoiler, haha. So it has been fun to write about Fei’s growth as a teenage girl who makes mistakes, and learn life lessons and grow. Ruying also had a lot of growth in her book, but in different ways. Writing two polar opposite characters has definitely helped me train my ability to tap into a character’s voice better. 

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

I draft my first drafts in spreadsheet, a fun fact that is often met with wide eyes of horror, haha! 

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)?

Oh wow, one thing I always love to talk about is Taylor Swift so I would love for someone to describe my books in Taylor Swift songs! For The Nightblood Prince it will be “Cassandra” x “The Prophecy”. For To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods it will be “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” and “I did something bad” 

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

Write the book you want to read, and don’t let anyone tell you that your dreams aren’t “realistic”. 

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

Yes! The sequel for The Nightblood Prince is coming out soon! I can’t tell you the title, but I am obsessed with the title! And I just saw the first draft of the cover and she is glorious! And the sequel to my adult fantasy To Kill These Monstrous Gods will be available on February 2, 2027! I am so tired but so excited, haha! 

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

One of my favorite books of all time is An Ember In the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir and I like to think if I recommend it to enough people, her publishers will do a special edition with all of the bells and whistles like sprayed edges and gorgeous artwork endpapers. That series is one of my favorite series ever, and Sabaa was the first author of color I saw writing characters who looked like her, and she gave me the confidence that maybe I, too, could write about characters who look like me!