Amber Chen is a Singaporean-Chinese author of SFF and contemporary fiction. She spends much of her free time living within Chinese fantasy novels and dramas and also drinks one too many cups of bubble tea. One of her webnovels, The Cutting Edge, has been adapted for television. You can find her on TikTok, Instagram, and X @AmberWrites88.

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

What can you tell us about your debut book, Of Jade and Dragons? What was the inspiration for this project?

Of Jade and Dragons is a YA silkpunk fantasy that draws inspiration from real historical figures and events from the early Qing dynasty. It follows our protagonist, Aihui Ying, as she disguises as her brother to infiltrate the apprenticeship trials of the prestigious Engineers Guild in order to find her father’s murderer and seek justice for his death. If you like C-dramas, girls in STEM, airships, mechanical beasts, and maybe some yearning, then this might be the book for you!

OJAD was inspired by the story of the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the woman he loved the most, Harjol, and the girl-disguised-as-a-boy trope draws from the Chinese classic tale, The Butterfly Lovers. In that story, the main character, Zhu Yingtai, disguises as a boy in order to study at a boys-only academy, and she managed to do this because her father was willing to support her dream of pursuing an education.   

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

I’ve always been an avid reader, but I didn’t think of writing my own stories until I was in university. While binging TV dramas (I watch a lot of these) in between lectures and tutorials, I realised that 1) there were so many unsatisfying plot points and endings out there and 2) unfortunately there was a finite supply of content for me to indulge in, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and start writing my own stories.

My dream has always been to see one of my stories make it to the screen, which was why I had some training in screenwriting to begin with. I’ve always been a big fan of C-dramas and K-dramas, particularly those in the fantasy-romance genre, so when I first started writing my own stories, that was the genre that I naturally gravitated to!  

As a self-proclaimed fan of Chinese fantasy novels and dramas, I’m curious to know what are some of your favorites, and if any inspired Of Jade and Dragons?

My favourite Chinese fantasy novels are written by one of my all-time favourite authors, Tong Hua. Many of her novels have also been adapted for screen, such as Scarlet Heart and Lost You Forever. I’ve read every single book that she has written, many of which have brought me to tears. I think Of Jade and Dragons very much references the storytelling style of many Chinese fantasy dramas, in terms of the plot structure and the tropes it employs, although it doesn’t draw from any specific one J 

How would you describe your general writing process?

I always begin with the end in mind! Once I have the ending of a story vaguely sorted out, that’s when I’ll start drawing up a rough outline for the plot of the entire book before I begin drafting anything. I would consider myself a “plantser”, so I do have a plot skeleton mapped out before drafting, although it doesn’t go into great detail and I very much leave the story to unravel itself as I try to make my way to one plot beat to the next. I also prefer to edit as I go along, so my first drafts usually end up pretty clean!

Growing up, were there any stories you felt touched by/ or reflected in? Are there any like that now?

One of my favourite series as a kid was Tamora Pierce’s The Song of the Lioness series. I absolutely loved following the journey of Alanna as she trains for knighthood, and the struggles she faces in the process being a girl disguised as a boy—which somewhat parallels the journey of the main character in Of Jade and Dragons, Ying. I think this series really resonated with me because it reflects some of the common struggles and challenges that young girls face growing up, so Alanna was a very inspiring character for me.  

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

Other than learning from the stories written by my favourite authors (like Tong Hua mentioned above), I also draw inspiration from the webnovels I read, dramas I watch and the random bits of history that I enjoy researching about. I love Chinese history and mythology, and there is a great wealth of material there that inspires me to spin my own stories!  

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

I love character development, so I very much enjoy spending time in the heads of my characters trying to work out how they think and behave based on their life experiences in order to craft authentic character arcs. Ironically that is also one of the most challenging parts for me, because my prior training in screenwriting has left me with a bad habit of not digging deep enough into the internal thoughts and emotions of my characters! When you write for screen, everything has to be seen through the camera lens, which means that there’s a very different balance of what you can show versus what you can tell, and that makes a whole lot of difference to the way characters are portrayed and developed.

Many authors would say one of the most challenging parts of writing a book is finishing one. What strategies would you say helped you accomplish this?

Finishing a book is definitely one of the hardest parts of writing! I typically don’t begin on a project unless I already have a clear ending in mind, because if I don’t, then I end up getting confused and distracted along the way. Once I have an ending sorted out, I then proceed to create a brief outline for the project—a list of bullet points that sketch out the main plot beats of the story. This then becomes my story map! I find it helpful to have this map worked out before I start drafting, because it provides me with little “road markers” to work toward along the way! 

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

I am a bubble tea addict and I’m also a big K-pop fan—very much an EXO-L and a Carat J

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)?

What is the number one thing on my author bucket list? And the answer to that would be: receiving fan art of my characters! I’m always super amazed at the beautiful art that readers produce for their favourite book characters, and I would love to be able to see my characters reproduced in the eyes of their readers one day!

What advice might you have to give for other aspiring writers?

I think it’s useful to not insist on chasing perfection in your writing, because that perfect product you spend years and years working on will still have to undergo surgery once you get your agent, and then more surgery when you sign with an editor. There will always be more chances to refine your work at later stages of the publishing process, so go easy on yourself and learn to let go of your book baby when the time is right!  

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

I’m currently working on edits for Book 2 of the Fall of the Dragon duology, so hopefully we are
on track for publication one year after Of Jade and Dragons is released 🙂

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

Some recent favourite books I’ve read (some of which are going to be released within the year!) are The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow, Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin and Darker By Four by June CL Tan. I would definitely also recommend anything written by Ken Liu and Cixin Liu, two of my favourite SFF authors!