In today’s Author Spotlight, Sydney Dunlap chats with author Stan Yan about his middle-grade graphic novel, THE MANY MISFORTUNES OF EUGENIA WANG.
Stan is an award-winning, first generation American-born-Chinese, Denver-based writer, illustrator, caricature artist and instructor. He helped to co-found the Squid Works comic creator cooperative and was a board member of the Colorado Alliance of Illustrators. Stan is a recent co-Regional Advisor for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (RMC-SCBWI) and a co-founding professor of the online kidlit art school, the CuddlefishAcademy.com. You can find him online at stanyan.me.
All About the Book
In this hilarious and heartfelt debut graphic novel, a girl born on a day considered unlucky in Chinese superstition starts to wonder if she really is cursed when she’s troubled by visions of doom set to occur on her thirteenth birthday.
Twelve-year-old Eugenia Wang has never celebrated her birthday on her actual birthday, April 4th, because of her mom’s belief in the Chinese superstition that four is an unlucky number. And that’s not the only thing Mom’s strict about; she won’t let Eugenia go to a summer comic art camp because she thinks art is a waste of time. This year, Eugenia is determined to defy her mom by applying for the camp, having her party on her actual birthday, and inviting her super cute crush while she’s at it, too!
But when Eugenia gets hit in the head with a sneaker during PE, she starts getting unnerving visions of impending doom about her upcoming birthday. It might be the aftereffects of her head injury, or maybe she’s just anxious about turning thirteen. As the visions get worse, even affecting her artwork, Eugenia suspects an unseen force may be sending her messages. If she’s haunted after all, Eugenia will have to figure out why before it’s too late. Even more horrifying, she may have to do the unthinkable: admit her mom was right.
Interview with Stan
Sydney: Congratulations on your new book release! THE MANY MISFORTUNES OF EUGENIA WANG is such a cool mix of spookiness, humor, and oh-so-relatable tween angst. You do such a great job of balancing these elements. Was it difficult to craft this? What were your biggest challenges?
Stan: I’d be lying if I were to say it was easy. I think my biggest challenge was making it paranormal, because I discovered you’ve gotta create a paranormal ruleset and be consistent, which made plotting this story extra difficult, then after getting editorial notes, even harder. Any change I’d make would create a cascade of dominoes through the rest of the story.
Praise for This Book
Sydney: Your graphic novel has been praised by Kirkus with this glowing review: “The panels, which vary in perspective, adding visual interest, support the tone of this dramatic, funny, and touching graphic novel. . . Readers will relate to Eugenia’s struggles over meeting family expectations, following her passions, navigating relationships, and negotiating daily life as a tween. Slightly spooky and filled with humor and heart.” What inspired this story?
Stan: This story was inspired initially by a “bucket list” challenge to myself to write and illustrate a comic that actually scared me. I’m a huge fan of horror, but horror comics didn’t really seem to spook me at all, but I thought there had to be a way. In film and novels, I found that most of the things that tended to scare me related to a child character, so I thought I’d make my protagonist a child. So, by accident my story became a children’s book.
I tried to think of what I was scared of as a child, and I remember (ironically) having existential fears of death, so I inserted that into the story. As I wrote an early draft, it quickly became evident that my story didn’t scare me, but I liked it. Later, after getting a manuscript critique from an editor, who convinced me to simplify my story and make it contemporary, I completely rewrote it, reconceiving the main characters, and reimagining how the protagonist would fall into visions of her death on her 13th birthday, and in the process, I felt like it became scary again!
Characters
Sydney: Eugenia is a great main character. Your other characters are compelling and interesting as well. Do you have a favorite secondary character? Who and why?
Stan: While I find most readers’ favorite secondary character is Peanut, I feel like he’s mostly an emotional proxy for Eugenia, which I admit is adorable. But I think her best friend, Keisha, is my favorite character. I think Keisha is the hilarious free spirit that Eugenia wishes she could be, and I love her humorous interactions with her dads. Keisha is a loyal friend that really believes in Eugenia, and I think that’s what we all want in a bff.
Inspiration
Sydney: How amazing that you are such a talented artist as well as a wonderful story creator. Have you always loved art? When did you decide to tell stories?
Stan: Well, thank you so much! I do feel like what I do is less a result of talent and more a result of passion. My earliest memories of holding a pencil in my hand were of me drawing the same stick figure doing different things in boxes I later found out were called “panel borders.” I was doing comics before I realized it! Drawing has always been simply my muse for telling my stories, and that’s what I loved about my art practice. I never had a shortage of stories to tell, so I got a lot of practice training my hand to do what my brain wanted it to do. As I often say, “you don’t run a marathon before you’ve run a mile.”
(Interspersed below are a few images of the same scene from rough idea to finished product.)
Takeaways
Sydney: What do you hope readers take away from this book?
Stan: There’s a lot of things I’d love readers to take from this book. First and foremost, I just want my readers to be entertained: I want them to laugh, be spooked, maybe get a bit misty in places. I also hope it leaves them thinking about my story after they’re done. And I’d love for my story to spark conversations and debates about what people think happened in it. Hopefully, it’ll be a book club favorite! Lastly, I hope aspiring authors and illustrators will feel they have permission to create stories with characters who look like themselves. I didn’t want to perpetuate the lack of representation in my available school library reading that led me to not consider this for decades by default.
Process
Sydney: Where/when do you prefer to write?
Stan: I don’t have a normal place I like to write. I find that I often am drawing all the time but not writing, or writing all the time and not drawing. That’s how being on a book deadline is for me. So, while I find myself most often just writing at home at the dining room table out of necessity (and proximity to the kitchen and refrigerator), sometimes it’s on the couch, or maybe at Panera Bread…anything I feel like I need, but I don’t have any sort of magic preference.
Influences
Sydney: What are some current books that have influenced you as a kidlit graphic novelist?
Stan: THIS WAS OUR PACT by Ryan Andrews was an amazing book that I felt like meshed all of the aspects of graphic novels together seamlessly. I also have really been influenced by STARGAZING by Jen Wang. I don’t know if these are as current as you were looking for. But GHOST BOOK by Remi Lai was a more recent masterpiece I hoped my books could become like, even if her work hadn’t perceptibly influenced my work yet.
Advice
Sydney: What is your advice for aspiring writers?
Stan: My best advice for writers is to read a lot. My second best advice for writers is to craft an emotional story arc for your protagonist and probably a few of your other main characters.
Upcoming Projects
Sydney: Can you give us some insights into what you’ll be working on next?
Stan: Well, depending on when this is published, my next project might not be announced yet, but you can get a little sneak peek into its universe by looking at my weekly Sunday webcomic, Peter Cadaver (salemcharteracademy.com).
And for the lightning round:
Sunrise or sunset? Sunrise (not by choice, but that’s when my body gets me up now)
Favorite place to travel: Hawaii (as long as your wife doesn’t break her shoulder)
Favorite dessert: Mochi filled with red bean paste
Favorite music: Depends on what I’m doing, but if I’m not needing to write or do panel layouts, I tend to always love listening to 90’s grunge, particularly Hole, The Screaming Trees, and the like.
Favorite book from childhood: If the library card was any indication, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE by Maurice Sendak was. I checked that out over and over.
