Interview with Melissa Yi - S. 10, Ep. 17

My guest for this episode of the Crime Cafe podcast is award-winning author of crime fiction and work in other genres, Melissa Yi.

Check out our discussion about her plans for the Hope Sze medical thriller series, as well as her young adult, romance, and fantasy writing, along with her experiences with Kickstarter. And get to know a bit more about Cthulhu.

You can download a copy of the transcript here.

Debbi: Hi everyone, this is the Crime Cafe, your podcasting source of great crime, suspense, and thriller writing. I'm your host, Debbi Mack. My guest today is an author who follows the maxim, write what you know. She's an emergency doctor who writes a medical crime series. She also has been nominated for the Arthur Ellis and Derringer awards for her work. She's also written in a wide variety of genres, including young adult, romance, science fiction, and fantasy.

It's my great pleasure to have with me today, Melissa Yi. Hi Melissa, how are you doing today?

Melissa: I’m so good, Debbi. I just want to tell you that I did end up winning the Derringer Award.

Debbi: Oh, that's awesome. Excellent. Way to go.

Melissa: Thank you. One year nominated, one year win, you know, these things come and go, but when you win, you should take it.

Debbi: Oh, yeah, yeah. I didn't know that. So I'm glad you mentioned that. Yeah, definitely mention it. So about your latest book, it's a young adult novel, isn't it?

Melissa: Yeah, I'll see if I can get it to stay in frame. Okay, great. I love it. The Red Rock Killer.

Debbi: Yes. Yes. Tell us about it. What inspired you to write this book?

Melissa: Okay, well, did you know that the International Thriller Writers every year they have the Best First Sentence Contest? And I look, yes, and it's free to enter. I think you have to be a member though. And membership is free too. And so then they have all these bestsellers who will go through and then pick out their favorite sentence. And I looked at some of the sentences and I was like, okay, I'm going to write one, too.

So I wrote, just trying to remember correctly. “The summer I turned 14, my mother told me I could do whatever I wanted. So I decided to find the Red Rock Serial Killer.” And after I sent it in, I was just like, what a strange sentence.

So I wrote, just trying to remember correctly. “The summer I turned 14, my mother told me I could do whatever I wanted. So I decided to find the Red Rock Serial Killer.” And after I sent it in, I was just like, what a strange sentence. Like, really? Why would a 13 year old be looking for a serial killer? I mean, okay, if it's for a podcast or something, but in real life, like, it's just sort of odd. But I kept writing it a bit. And I was like, you know, obviously, she wants to do this. She has a mother like, I just kept writing. And then that sentence won the best first sentence from Allison Brennan, who's a New York Times bestseller. So I was like, awesome.

Yeah, this is amazing. And then shortly after that, they had a contest where R.L. Stein and some other judges were going to pick the best middle grade crime novel that was written by a Black, Indigenous or person of color. And the prize was to come to Thriller Fest in New York and $1,000. So I was like, oh, I already have this book that I started, kind of out of nowhere.

So I'm just going to keep going with it. And as I was writing, I was like, okay, her name is Edan, which is a name that means fire and it's spelled E-D-A-N. And her mother thought that this was a good name for somebody who was born in the desert, because when I looked it up, I didn't even know where the Red Rocks were.

But my choices were, oh, you could basically be in Quebec, Canada, or you could be in Las Vegas. And I already have a series that’s set in Quebec. So I was like, we're going to Las Vegas. And that was fun for me, like, you know, it's a different country and because I'm Canadian and stuff.

And she had two best friends. And one of them is Callie Yang, and she's a swimmer and she's a good girl, you know, like she's the teacher's pet kind of thing. And the other one is Barstow. And he's pretty well off, like he's the best. Well, he's the most well off out of the three of them, which is a bit of a bone of contention with him and Edan, not because they want it, but just because Edan's mom is a single mom and she doesn't have as much money. And he loves video, but they both love video games, like they're always playing Stardew Valley and stuff. So I'm like, OK, I have these three teenagers who are going to end up finding a serial killer.

And what happens? And in this case, it was they end up going hiking for Callie's birthday and find a barrel in the desert. So there's not, you know, explicit blood and guts or anything like that. They don't end up seeing a body, which makes it more middle grade and younger YA. But it's just a lot of fun. I love her.

There's actually also a finalist for the, I'm going to have to think of the correct name. It's the Claymore Award for the unpublished manuscript for the Killer Nashville. So people really enjoy Edan if they meet her. And she's also the cousin of Hope, who is my main protagonist. Although they haven't met each other yet. So that part is not done. But for now, she's an innocent 13-year-old finding bodies in the desert.

So people really enjoy Edan if they meet her. And she's also the cousin of Hope, who is my main protagonist. Although they haven't met each other yet. So that part is not done. But for now, she's an innocent 13-year-old finding bodies in the desert.

Debbi: Wow. Very interesting. Fascinating how a contest like that where you came up with a single line led to a book.

Melissa: I am the kind of person that I just love randomness. So if you show me something, I will try and make something out of it. But you know how they say, like when you're writing poetry, one line drops from the sky. This is a book that felt like it kind of dropped from the sky.