Emiko Jean, MIKA IN REAL LIFE: A Novel

[0:02]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast that you're listening to right now

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[0:54]Amiko Jean is the author of Mika in real life a novel and this is one of our guest-hosted episodes by Alicia

[1:04]Fernandez Miranda whose own book my what if year is coming out from Zivi books in February

[1:09]When Amiko is not writing she is reading most of her friends aren't imaginary

[1:14]Before she became a writer. She was an entomologist fancy name for bug catcher a candle maker a florist and most recently a teacher

[1:21]She lives in Washington with her husband and children

[1:24]Unreally twins and she loves the rain. All right, hi everybody and welcome back to mom's don't have time to read books

[1:30]I am here with Emiko Jean the author of Mika in real life

[1:35]But actually I just want to talk to you about your twilight fan fiction. That's what we're here really to talk about today

[1:41]Yeah, you're not the first you're not the worst to bring it up and it still

[1:46]exists on the internet

[1:48]Okay, so I did I did a cursory Google and I did not find it so yeah

[1:52]It's very under an anonymous name and it will pay anonymous, but yeah

[1:58]I think that's you know, it's not unheard of for a lot of writers to start like you know in fan fiction or kind of

[2:05]replicating the stories that they

[2:07]You know, we're really drawn to it

[2:09]I think I read in like an Stephen King's book that he even started when he was very young

[2:13]Kind of taking the the comics or the books that he was reading and making up stories based off of those

[2:19]That's so awesome. I have never

[2:21]Thought to do that, but now I'm thinking there's maybe like a whole world of Gilmore Girls fan fiction out there that I could be writing

[2:29]Right now

[2:31]Reaping yeah, yeah, okay. We're not really here to talk about your twilight fan fiction

[2:36]Although maybe after this cause over you can send me some of the pieces

[2:39]We are here to talk about the brilliant Mika in real life

[2:42]Which is a book I just

[2:44]Enjoyed and I know I'm not the only one because I've seen it all over the place

[2:48]It's been a book club darling for the past past a little bit of time and so it's very very exciting

[2:54]So congratulations on it. Thank you. So why don't you start by telling our listeners? What the book is about?

[3:01]Sure, so Mika and real life is all about

[3:05]Mika Suzuki whose life is a mess

[3:08]For example, like her last relationship ended in flames her roommate slash best friend might be a hoarder

[3:14]She's a perpetual disappointment to her very traditional Japanese parents and most recently

[3:20]She's been fired from her latest dead-end job and she's at this point

[3:24]Her lowest point when she receives a phone call from Penny the daughter that she placed for adoption

[3:31]16 years prior

[3:33]Penny is young and enthusiastic and really wants to forage a relationship with her biological mother and

[3:40]Mika really wants to as well, but face with her own inadequacies

[3:46]Mika tells a teeny tiny white lie about her life

[3:51]Where she is far more put together than she actually is and it slowly snowballs from there and things take a turn when

[3:59]Penny decides to surprise Mika with it in person

[4:03]Visit and Mika is forced to take this life that she's created on the phone with Penny and make it into something

[4:10]Real it's such a fantastic premise and

[4:15]It's got so many twists and turns that I think people will not expect from it

[4:18]Where did the idea for this book come from? How did you kind of I know that you or I think that you were working on this book

[4:24]When you did your last interview with Libby on mom's don't have time to read books for your previous book

[4:29]So the idea's been there for a while. Where did it come from?

[4:33]Yeah, I think it's always hard to kind of pinpoint the exact moment where

[4:38]You know

[4:39]Inspiration like takes root

[4:41]I remember I was promoting Tokyo ever after which is the book that I was on the podcast for last and I had to

[4:49]Take some pictures for social media

[4:52]And this was like right. I think right when the pandemic was starting

[4:57]And I had my eye twins and my partner was out of town

[5:02]And I needed to take these photographs like very very quickly like within 20 minutes and

[5:08]Um, I of course they were like also like throwing tantrums and like just it was all of them

[5:13]It was all mess and I lure them into like a side room with like a snack and television of course of course

[5:20]The greatest pencil known to mankind

[5:24]And so I like did my hair, but I only curled the front and like I painted the you know the nails on like one hand because that's all

[5:31]That was showing the photo and I kind of heard this moment of like why am I doing this like the world was falling

[5:37]In a part I felt like I was falling apart and like why did I feel so much pressure to present myself in a certain way

[5:45]And I think that was really the moment where you know, make it in real life that question started like why

[5:52]Would someone fake a life and and what would drive them to do that and for me

[5:57]I mean, it was very clear

[5:58]She had this abundance of love for her daughter

[6:01]But she also wanted her daughter to be proud of her and so she reconstructed her life

[6:07]And it's such a it's so funny that that's kind of the you know

[6:11]One of the seeds of where this came from because they're a lot of her

[6:14]The fiction that she constructs about her life is to do with these Instagram posts that she had because they've been seen right by her daughter

[6:20]So she has to kind of go back and see what she posted and then be like

[6:24]Oh wow, okay, this is this is the exact life that I need to construct

[6:28]Which is you know

[6:29]I mean when you think actually about how much people do put together what it is ends up on social media

[6:34]Especially on Instagram, which is so visual. It's like you can you can really kind of see that realistically happening to someone

[6:40]Yeah, I think you know when I look back at that time

[6:44]I was also a relatively new mom and I did my fair share of mom Instagram scrolling

[6:50]And I saw a lot of really perfect relationships with of mothers with their children

[6:56]And I remember feeling

[6:59]Bad

[7:00]Like that I didn't have that same that same experience

[7:04]And of course, you know, I was stuck kind of up in a whirlwind of like form hormones and all that kind of stuff

[7:10]So now that I have had some separation from it and that I could kind of synthesize it all

[7:16]That's of course not what's really going on

[7:18]There's a lot more going on behind the photographs and this book kind of you know, uncovers that yeah

[7:24]I think it does and we were talking before about our shared experience of having twins

[7:28]And I'm so grateful that I was not on Instagram when my twins or babies actually because it would have been terrible and also

[7:35]I'm sure I would have put like the one really cute picture that was the outtake of like the 45 pictures of someone screaming at me to do something

[7:44]Which still honestly happens, so you this is your first adult fiction book that's out. Is that correct? Yeah

[7:51]That is correct. Yeah, okay

[7:52]Ever after was YA and I was wondering a bit about the difference in your process writing an adult fiction book

[7:58]And also if you ever thought about this being a YA book with Penny as the kind of

[8:05]You know the narrative point of view or if this was always a book about Mika and her experience or her at the center of it

[8:11]I guess yeah, it's so funny once I addressed the book

[8:13]I kind of realized that Penny probably could have been her own character lead the lead in an YA book

[8:19]You know with her struggle, you know with adoption and I'm trying to figure out who she is

[8:24]But this book was always adult. I think it was because

[8:27]You know the themes that I wanted to explore, you know like intergenerational trauma and motherhood

[8:34]Those are far more suited for an adult book. I also wanted to incorporate

[8:39]Different points of view and you can't necessarily always do that with a young adult book usually

[8:44]It's very centrally focused on who their protagonist is

[8:48]And so I always knew that Mika in her life would be better suited for for an adult book

[8:55]And did your was your process any different? I'm looking so I can see behind you

[8:58]This is not a video podcast of course

[8:59]But there's some like beautiful grids behind you with colored post-its

[9:04]So maybe you're working on something has did your process change in the writing of this book and you know

[9:09]You've now written multiple books

[9:10]So how has your what is your process and how has it evolved over time?

[9:15]Yeah, I mean, it's definitely an evolution. So with my first book, which was a was a young adult thriller

[9:23]I wrote by the seat of my pants

[9:25]I don't know if you're familiar with the pants the pants are term

[9:30]Were you just right and draft a whole book and it was a mess and I think I had to revise it

[9:36]Probably a couple dozen times before I got it in shape and ready for it to be submitted

[9:41]And after that book I started to work from an outline and since then my outlines have gotten much tighter in terms of

[9:49]Not only what's happening in each scene and plot lies but character arc

[9:54]And thematically so I'm much more intentional now with knowing where the

[10:00]character is going to start and where I want them to end up, not only like the main character, but all of the side characters and figuring out how their journeys influence each other.

[10:09]And especially with what semantics I want to explore. I'm really passionate these days about exploring like what it means to be a yellow body in the United States.

[10:20]And there's really no right way or expression of that. And so I've been able to mine that in several books. And the grid behind me actually is for another adult book.

[10:30]And it's my like I found with adult books, I need to create more of time more timelines and history around them, especially when I dig into like the characters past. So much of what happens to us as young people influences how we are as older people.

[10:49]And so I've had to do more work around past life events and also like historic like what's happened historically in their lives too.

[10:58]And that's what that line.

[11:00]Are you are you like a very dead. Do you like get up and write, you know, in the morning, like do right for a certain amount of time every day, or you really diligent about your kind of schedule, or do you just go one inspiration strikes.

[11:12]Yeah, so pre kids. I love to be a nighttime writer like the nighttime was the right time. So I love it. But I have since adjusted.

[11:22]I think as many people do when you have children my life now revolves around like their lives. So I wake up, I get ready and I write from like eight to four if I'm drafting.

[11:34]And then I have a very, you know, delineated turn off switch. So I turn it off before and then I go back and you know the next day. Yeah, that's very good.

[11:44]You mentioned these this kind of theme. I definitely picked this idea of, you know, took you over after and me can real life. You've got these young and older Japanese women who are growing up and predominantly white communities in the US.

[11:56]And you, you're, you've got these brilliant details and these very cheeky observations about the West Coast specifically, I think, and maybe Portland specifically, but I just want to, I want to read you two of my favorites from the book.

[12:10]The first was a scene where Mika is in church with her parents and the church is being described and says behind her was especially commissioned Asian Jesus.

[12:19]The woodworker used only fallen logs found on non tribal lands and plastic pieces harvested from the floating garbage patch in the Pacific ocean, which I just, it's that has really stuck with me.

[12:30]And then we've got, it's temple, a tepid apple kombucha. I got it from the goat yoga studio across the street. I mean, if there was ever like a, like a West coast, I mean, I've, I'm East Coast are by birth and now I live in the UK, but like this is what I think of when I think of Portland and Washington, the Pacific Northwest.

[12:47]So tell me a little bit about that sense of place and also particularly about creating, you know, these women who are, as you described, you know, yellow bodies in America.

[12:58]Yeah, so I grew up in Portland. I grew up on the West Coast. So it's very much alive inside of me.

[13:05]And I really try to make it a character or any sort of setting a character within a book. And you know, of course, some things are exaggerated, but I, what you just read actually wasn't

[13:19]exists in Portland.

[13:21]And the church that Mika goes to is inspired by a church that I attended as a young person that was in all Japanese congregation in South, South is Portland.

[13:32]And a lot of the experiences that Mika and also, as in me and Tokyo ever after go through our mirrors of my own experiences, growing up in the Pacific Northwest in a majority white community.

[13:45]And, and kind of what happened to me. I grew up, I grew up in a time where it wasn't polite to talk about race. And so when I was confronted with my race when someone would make a remark about it, I was told just to ignore it.

[14:01]And so in that way, I was really erased. And I really didn't know how to handle my own identity. I didn't know what my identity was until much later in life.

[14:12]I remember when I was younger wanting to be blonde and to be white because that was the standard of beauty at the time and not being celebrated for, you know, who I was in my Japanese American identity.

[14:25]And a lot of those struggles and put them put them on the page to feel cathartic to do that to be able to like go back and kind of create these fictional characters who are maybe better equipped or more able to deal with that than you were when you were younger.

[14:39]Yeah, in many ways, I'm, you know, sometimes I reinvent what happened to me.

[14:45]You know, so for example, if I have a character that's, you know, facing a microaggression, maybe they're more equipped to say something, you know, in that moment where, you know, as a as a young person, I would remain silent.

[14:58]I give them the journey that I wish that I had had. So when I did to hook you over after, it's me really comes to know herself and her identity much sooner than I did as a young person.

[15:11]And Mika, you know, although she has trouble accepting herself. She's pretty strongly rooted in her Japanese American identity.

[15:19]She's just never felt like enough as a woman, which I feel like is kind of, we all feel that way as women sometimes. Yeah, totally.

[15:26]This book, it seems like it's been very well received. I know it's been GMA book club, Reclaire book club. Are you happy with the reception? Do you feel like you've really hit your stride now like this is, you know, go in the way you want it to go?

[15:38]Yeah, I'm, I'm really happy. You know, I never start when I write a book. It's always, it starts with myself. Like what do I want to write about, you know, how's this going to be fulfilling for me.

[15:49]And then you were later on about how it's going to be received and, you know, the people will like it and be welcoming up it.

[15:59]And, you know, sometimes it can very much feel like a shout into the void, especially when you're alone in writing something because you're not sure if people are going to connect with it.

[16:08]But I've been, you know, fortunate to have, you know, these connections made and connections made in big ways and have, you know, women reach out to me and say like they've felt this way at one time in their life.

[16:19]And, you know, the Japanese American community reaching out about about the book and some of the things in it. So it's been really, it's been really neat.

[16:26]That's so awesome. And what's that's for you. You've got this fiction project you're plotting behind you. Is that where you're focusing most of your time right now?

[16:35]And still I'm developing another young adult novel and I am writing another fiction novel and that's, you know, us writers are kind of secret.

[16:46]Look at your projects, but so I can share right now that I hope to like share more soon.

[16:52]That's exciting. I am working on a novel right now and I spend most of the time just because I think this is terrible.

[17:01]No, that's the process. Yeah.

[17:03]It feels good. What other people tell me they feel like that. Oh, thank God. Okay. I know. That's awesome. So I host podcast called quit your day job.

[17:10]So I'm very fascinated by people's careers and their career paths and yours is very unique.

[17:16]You've got it in your bio. So you've got candle maker, florist, entomologist entomologist entomologist bug person.

[17:24]How did you find all those jobs and what led you to writing?

[17:30]Good question. So I always loved reading and I always loved writing as a young person.

[17:37]And I think that the majority of what I read and consumed was by white authors and had white characters. So I guess subconsciously, I got the message that I could enjoy these things, but I could never really be a part of them that I could never actually be published or writer.

[17:52]And so I just kind of moved on, but I was really lost, you know, during a lot of my twenties like I was just trying new jobs.

[17:59]So look at them, aside from entomologist, which I love, I love bugs still, but a lot of them were like creative pursuits. So I was, I think I was a very creative person and I was really looking for an outlet.

[18:13]I've always, you know, like making things, you know, I even love it.

[18:18]So where does this have, I don't know if this is necessarily within the creative umbrella, but like I even love like cleaning or like the acumen because you can see something that you've done right like I like making things.

[18:30]And so I think that's what I was doing. I just hadn't quite found the right path and I was working at job, which I won't say say what and I'll tell you why.

[18:40]I was deeply unhappy at it. And I was kind of a token hired so I was hired to run like the diversity program.

[18:47]And I was the only person color on staff and I was so unhappy.

[18:51]And while I was supposed to be working, I began writing my first novel like on the job, like I would pretend to be typing emails.

[18:59]And writing hackers. Yeah, of this book into like drafts of emails.

[19:05]And I realized how happy it made me, you know, and it was at a time where I was financially secure enough to which makes a big difference. Yeah.

[19:14]I decided to quit that job and give myself, you know, a certain amount of time to to finish this book and pursue it.

[19:23]And so I did and that's that's kind of where everything took off for me.

[19:29]But yeah, I did. And you know, it's great though. I don't think I would choose any other path because I've used all of that in novels now. Yeah.

[19:38]That I've written, you know, one of the one of the novels that I'm developing now has an entomologist in it. And I wouldn't have that.

[19:46]I wouldn't have that restraintable from if I hadn't worked all of this and come to writing, you know, later in life.

[19:54]And writing, what else would you be doing professionally question.

[20:00]it's so hard to imagine. It's so hard to imagine. I have a teaching degree. I would probably be

[20:09]teaching and and reading a lot and probably putting a lot of that into the classroom that kind of

[20:14]that passion for reading. Yeah, that's amazing. Teaching kids like little kids or yeah, that's always

[20:20]amazing. Actually, when I do meet people who have young kids that aren't teaching kids, I'm always

[20:25]really, really amazed that you would want to pursue a career that involved other children

[20:29]around you all the time. I say this as a mother that really loves my children, but I also really

[20:34]love when you go to school with the real teachers. I am looking at this as I know mom stuff, but I am

[20:40]like my kids are like poised for kindergarten next year and I'm very much looking forward to like

[20:45]kindergarten and having them out of the house and having kind of that space to myself. She's so

[20:50]totally understand. That's amazing. Do you gave some great advice on your last time on this podcast?

[20:56]We always like to finish up with advice to aspiring writers. You can give your same advice again

[21:01]if that's like your turn to advice or new advice if you have it. But what advice would you give to

[21:06]aspiring writers? I would say that it doesn't have to be perfect. That's something that I've

[21:18]learned throughout this process is that it's your writing is probably never going to be perfect

[21:23]even when you get something published. You're going to go back and be like I wish I had done this

[21:27]differently. It doesn't have to be perfect. I also want to say I want to encourage people to write

[21:33]authentically. I've gone through the experience of writing with my debut novel. I wrote a

[21:39]white character. I wrote outside of myself because I was trying to get published and I've had

[21:44]far more success and fulfillment writing authentically. So really mining things that are important

[21:49]to me and things that I care about. That's such a good advice. I think if you care about it,

[21:53]other people are going to care about it too. It's going to shine through. This has been such a

[21:58]wonderful chat. Where can listeners find you online for more information about what you're up to?

[22:04]I'm on Instagram and that's usually where I post if I have something exciting going on and I

[22:10]believe my handle is Emiko Jean books. I think that's right. Thank you. Sorry for stalking

[22:18]you online. I was doing my prep. This has been amazing. Thank you so much for joining the podcast today.

[22:25]Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read

[22:30]Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to

[22:35]Read Books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zibiowans.com and sign up for my virtual book

[22:40]club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan

[22:44]at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing

[22:49]this fantastic intro and outro music.