Interview With Author Alia Luria
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an author, lawyer, knit designer, and artist that loves travel, photography, chronicling my adventures, and meeting new bookish people. I’ve written two science fiction novels, Compendium and Ocularum. Ocularum is coming out later this year. My first collection of personal essays comes is also available for preorder, titled Geri o Shimasu: Adventures of a Baka Gaijin. I also have work published in multiple anthologies, including a personal essay in Women Write Now, which was originally published by Northwest Review, and a craft essay in Pen & Pulse: Essays on Writing, Craft, and the Writer’s Journey.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Geri o Shimasu: Adventures of a Baka Gaijin, and it is a collection of personal essays, haiku, and paintings inspired by and recounting the five months during law school that I lived in Tokyo, Japan. I lived there in 2008, and I’ve always wanted to write a collection of stories about the experience, and 2020, during COVID, with all our travel restrictions, I began thinking about what I wanted to convey and what the experience meant to me.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have the unusual habit when I’m writing personal essays of coming up with the title first and then holding loosely in my mind the general message I want to convey. Then I start to piece together specific story points and events that flesh out that theme. I had a general idea and title for almost all of my essays in Geri o Shimasu before I started writing the stories themselves.
Another unusual writing habit that I have–I sometimes journal in haiku form. I might be laying in bed or driving in my car and be thinking about something that’s happened to me that day or that I notice, and I’ll start composing a haiku about it. Then, I’ll pull out my phone and write it in Ulysses. I have a document called Scrapbook in Haiku for those times.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When it comes to my science fiction writing, Ursula K. LeGuin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler have been huge influences. I love female classic science fiction writers. I also love Andy Weir and think his brand of writing speaks to me as well on the sci-fi front.
With respect to personal essays and memoir, I’m influenced by authors like David Sedaris, Tina Fey, and Amy Schumer. Generally, I like authors that tackle extremely tough, sensitive or trying topics with humor.
When it comes to haiku, I think that Jack Kerouac is a great American author to look for how we take such a specific art form and make it our own.
What are you working on now?
I am in final edits for Ocularum, my second science fiction novel, and follow up to Compendium. I am also working on a new essay collection of personal essays and craft writings, titled Preposterous Bloodshed, and an as-of-yet untitled novel that brings together political intrigue, economic slavery, and spycraft… in space.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
BookBub used to be an amazing resource for getting my book downloaded and read, but there are so many amazing resources that have popped up since 2015, and I think there’s endless opportunities for writers to be creative in their platform building, whether it’s through Insta and TikTok, through Substack, blog tours, vlogging, or other creative means. The sky’s the limit!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read a lot and read broadly. Some authors will say that they can’t read books by other authors, because it interferes with their authorial voice, but you can’t develop your own voice without learning the nuts and bolts of craft, and you won’t learn either the basics or the advanced techniques of writing without reading, widely. Read a lot. Read critically. Think about what you read. Think about what you liked and didn’t like about what you read and why. Break it down and analyze it. Blog about it or journal about it. But reading lots of types of books and lots of different authors will help you craft your voice and help you understand and apply various perspectives, narrative distances, world building elements, and other things critical to being a writer.
The second piece of advice is write a lot. It doesn’t have to be a novel, a story, or anything. Just sit down, set a timer, ask yourself a question, and start to write. And write about whatever comes out of your head. It can be your grocery list, what you want to binge next on Netflix, why that book you just finished won’t leave your brain. Anything. It’s about training yourself to write with no judgement and no filter. If 500 words of gibberish comes out, well, that’s 500 words of junk you got out of your head for the next time you sit down. And who knows? That random thought could turn into a story idea or a novel or a memoir some day.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you’re feeling down because of criticism, whether it’s a bad review, a particularly harsh workshop session, a rejection letter, or anything, open up your favorite book site, be it Goodreads, Storygraph, or whatever… and find your favorite book. Find one that transformed your life, the one or you can’t live without, and then go their listings. Then, filter by 1-star reviews. Read about what people have to say about your absolute favorite book. Or maybe pick the current NY Times #1 Book and open that listing. Again, click to 1-star reviews. Everyone loves different books. Everyone has different preferences. Take constructive criticism if it makes a point you feel is valid and be open to thinking about that point and what you can do about it, but don’t let criticism crush you. I guarantee your favorite book has numerous haters, and that’s okay. People’s preferences are not your problem. And their personal attacks are definitely not your problem. Take what’s useful and ignore the rest.
What are you reading now?
I just finished The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa and started Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida. I have a huge TBR pile of books, but I’m working through some of my magical realism backlog so that I can post close readings and do tiktoks that would appeal to readers of Geri o Shimasu.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m working through the final steps of getting Ocularum ready for final edits, then I’ll secure a cover designer to refresh Compendium and Ocularum. I’m also doing a bunch of events this year for the release of Geri o Shimasu and plan on traveling back to Tokyo in September to do readings at my old school and to document my travels for a potential follow-up book of essays.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would bring The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle, and On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.
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