95. MARIE LU: Blending The Godfather with alchemy magic and shifting into writing for adults

Marie Lu's been on my LiteraryHype Podcast vision board since before this was a podcast & it was just on YouTube. I fell in love with Marie's writing in the Steelstriker/Skyhunter duology & she hasn't failed me yet. She's shifting from writing for teens in the YA space into writing for adults with her latest novel, Red City. It's like blending The Godfather with The Magicians & adding alchemy. This week on LiteraryHype, Marie & I are talking all about the complex relationships, her creative process, & food.

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Transcript

00;00;05;26 - 00;00;26;09
Speaker 1
Hi and welcome to the Literary Hype podcast. I am Stephanie, your literary hype woman. And today's Off The Conversation makes me so happy. I have wanted to get this author on the show for a very long time since it started. Long time I absolutely love her books, her worldbuilding, her descriptions. They're just so beautiful. I love them so much.

00;00;26;13 - 00;00;49;14
Speaker 1
But now Marylou is stepping out of the way genre a little bit. And we've got an adult debut from her. This is called Red City, which is pitched as Godfather meets The Magicians in a world of alchemy. So lots to talk about in this, the magic, the relationships. We were talking about it all from San Diego Comic-Con well, welcome to Literary Hype.

00;00;49;14 - 00;00;53;24
Speaker 1
It's so exciting to have you on. I've been wanting to talk to you about your books for so long.

00;00;54;02 - 00;00;55;23
Speaker 2
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

00;00;56;10 - 00;01;06;08
Speaker 1
So first, I want to talk a little bit about Steal the Steal Trigger, do ology, because that's was my introduction to you. And oh, good. The worldbuilding and the descriptions in that book are so incredible.

00;01;06;08 - 00;01;07;29
Speaker 2
Will you talk.

00;01;07;29 - 00;01;13;10
Speaker 1
A little bit about your process and how you create these worlds because that does carry over into your new book, Relativity. Yes.

00;01;13;22 - 00;01;34;23
Speaker 2
Thank you so much. I'm so glad that you read the Sky Henry series. That makes me so happy, I think is a little bit different with each series. How the worldbuilding happens. I think with Sky High in particular, I was reading like this nonfiction book about what the world would be like, like 5000 years from now. So it was in such a long period of time that it got me thinking about like what?

00;01;35;02 - 00;02;02;17
Speaker 2
Like what? Relics from Our World Today will stick around. So, so that was inspiration for that series. And then Read City is obviously set in today in the modern day, but with alchemy and that was inspired a little bit here and there by all kinds of things, by The Godfather, by Alchemy, Magic in general, like Full Metal Alchemist, you know, is one of my favorite enemies and just wanting to tell a story that's set in the here and now.

00;02;02;17 - 00;02;05;24
Speaker 2
So it depends on the the series. Yeah.

00;02;06;02 - 00;02;10;17
Speaker 1
So with Rent City this, what do people need to know about this book before they go pick it up?

00;02;10;19 - 00;02;43;14
Speaker 2
So Read City is my adult debut, and it is The Godfather with Alchemy Magic. It's set in an alternate version of L.A. called Angel City, where Alchemy is real and it's being controlled by these very powerful magic mafias, these syndicates. And it's a love story. It follows these two young alchemists named Salman R.A., who are childhood best friends, and then unwittingly of course, get recruited into rival alchemy mafias and then find themselves on opposite sides of this, like, magical war.

00;02;43;14 - 00;02;46;03
Speaker 2
So that's kind of the the basic gist of it.

00;02;46;20 - 00;02;49;06
Speaker 1
Dun dun dun dun dun dun.

00;02;49;13 - 00;02;50;17
Speaker 2
Chaos ensues.

00;02;51;15 - 00;03;01;09
Speaker 1
Them being on rival sides kind of also gives it a little Romeo and Juliet vibes. It's definitely childhood friends, lovers. That's a, I would say, decently popular trope.

00;03;01;13 - 00;03;09;03
Speaker 2
One of my favorite tropes for sure is solid true. Like an extension of enemies to lovers, friends to enemies to lovers. Yeah.

00;03;09;06 - 00;03;14;11
Speaker 1
Yeah. So if magic were real in this world, what would you want it to look like?

00;03;14;25 - 00;03;16;10
Speaker 2
You in our world.

00;03;17;01 - 00;03;19;23
Speaker 1
Since this is so close to reality, but with magic.

00;03;20;19 - 00;03;45;29
Speaker 2
Right? I mean, I think alchemy would be pretty cool to have in reality. In the book, you're able to turn like there's like different classifications of Alchemist, so you can be an elemental. So you kind of specialize in the elements or you can be a bio alchemist, which is basically like you can touch someone's shoulder, you can change the chemistry of their body, which changes how they feel in certain moments and what they're thinking you know, be cool and kind of scary to have.

00;03;45;29 - 00;03;51;11
Speaker 1
But a particular version of the alchemy that's in your book that you would want to be able to do.

00;03;52;04 - 00;04;08;26
Speaker 2
I think it would be pretty cool to be an elemental is just from like some of the visual scenes are really fun to play with. So there's a moment where one of the alchemists just like steps in the beach and the whole like coast just freezes. It's not very practical, but I think it would be cool to see.

00;04;09;01 - 00;04;12;08
Speaker 1
I mean, it would be definitely cool to see, especially for California because it's so hot, right?

00;04;12;10 - 00;04;13;01
Speaker 2
I know we.

00;04;13;01 - 00;04;13;18
Speaker 1
Need a break.

00;04;13;24 - 00;04;19;27
Speaker 2
That's true. That's true. Actually, some of them could probably make like AC, like going with you as you walk. And I could probably use that.

00;04;19;28 - 00;04;22;09
Speaker 1
Ice in California because it's hot. It's a little hot.

00;04;22;15 - 00;04;23;10
Speaker 2
It's a little bit hot.

00;04;24;15 - 00;04;41;16
Speaker 1
Also at the beginning of the book, you have these so many descriptions about food. It made me so hungry. And then like sitting here, we can smell pizza. And so it's just making me hungry all over again, talking about writing about food and where that love comes from.

00;04;41;16 - 00;05;00;08
Speaker 2
You of course, I love food. I have also been kind of like enticed by random food smells here. I think I can't help letting it squeeze into all of my writing because I think it's a fundamental part of worldbuilding as well as talking about food, how people consume it, what kind of society or in this case is the real world.

00;05;00;08 - 00;05;18;06
Speaker 2
But Sam, as a character a lot of her upbringing is surrounding what her mother is capable of doing with food. Her mother is a great cook. They don't have a lot of money. So her mother is very inventive with how she changes like leftovers into like a new amazing dish. And so for her, that's a that's a huge part of her childhood memories.

00;05;18;06 - 00;05;34;10
Speaker 2
And it was a huge part of my childhood memories. Right. That's very much based on, you know, me growing up as a child to immigrants and my mom coming up with all these very inventive ways of like, you know, here are like the five things that we have left over. And we can make it into a fried rice or we can make them into dumplings or whatever.

00;05;34;29 - 00;05;37;18
Speaker 2
And it always seemed a little bit like like magic of its own.

00;05;38;05 - 00;05;40;15
Speaker 1
That's true. It's cooking is its alchemy in itself.

00;05;40;20 - 00;05;44;16
Speaker 2
It really is. Yeah. Changing something into something more desirable. Yeah.

00;05;45;00 - 00;05;56;00
Speaker 1
I mean, she just touched on her relationship with her mother, which is especially it's oh, it's from talking about this. We'll talk about her relationship with her mom. Yeah, I'm just doing that.

00;05;56;08 - 00;06;20;05
Speaker 2
Yeah, for sure. I think that was probably the most complex relationship I had to write in that series. And and, you know, Sam and her mother are not quite me and my mother, but I wanted to portray the immigrant experience as authentically as I could. And I think that I wanted to show this idea of how we all are trying our best as parents.

00;06;20;05 - 00;06;38;09
Speaker 2
And as children. But life has a tendency to get in the way of that. And I think that, you know, now I'm a parent, and I think all the time about this, like the intersection of like, how do you make a good life for them, but also be there for them? And that conflicts also are a lot of people more.

00;06;38;09 - 00;06;52;22
Speaker 2
So if you don't have the funds, if you don't have the means to be able to be there for your kids all the time. So it's like you're working to try to support them, but you're also but in doing so, you're not there for them. And so that push and pull is very much a part of Sam and her mother's relationship.

00;06;52;22 - 00;07;09;06
Speaker 2
And I wanted to to show Sam side of that, but also her mother's side of that so that we get a couple of chapters in the book, which is also from Sam's mother's point of view. That's very new for me since I'm used to the way world. And this is the first time I'm writing from like the point of view of a parent, and she's talking about what it's like.

00;07;09;06 - 00;07;21;16
Speaker 2
So you see all the mistakes that she makes with Sam and, you know, things that she regrets, but she's trying, you know, so it was a very it was a difficult relationship to write yeah. But I they're very close to my heart.

00;07;21;29 - 00;07;35;21
Speaker 1
And on the flip side of that is her relationship with Ari. So having that we used to be really close but now there's a lot of stuff between us that makes it very hard to be close. So I thought about that particular relationship.

00;07;35;21 - 00;07;39;00
Speaker 2
Yes, of course. Yeah. They have some bad blood no.

00;07;39;13 - 00;07;45;00
Speaker 1
Just a little bad blood. Don't come for me, Taylor Swift. I didn't mean that. Sorry.

00;07;47;13 - 00;08;03;00
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think I. So Ari was inspired by this kid whose name I can't even remember. I was like, in fourth. I moved around a lot in elementary school. And there was a school that I always stayed in for, like, a few months. And so I didn't know anybody and didn't have any friends in there. And then I left.

00;08;03;00 - 00;08;17;12
Speaker 2
And so there was this one boy who sat next to me. We don't we weren't friends, but he was very friendly. Like, he was just a nice kid. And, like, you know, he would pass you a pen if you needed one or, you know, if you missed the notes, he would just kind of like slides, like you're just like a nice kid.

00;08;17;12 - 00;08;31;18
Speaker 2
And for someone who didn't know anyone in the school, I just had this, like, memory of being grateful for that kid, for, you know, we never really hung out or anything. I don't even I don't even know his name. I think I even asked for it. And and then I left. And so I have no idea who he was.

00;08;31;18 - 00;08;50;07
Speaker 2
But, you know, that kind of that feeling of somebody who's you can just kind of cling to for a second, you know, stayed with me and then spirt like the origins for Ari and Sam and how they are just two kids who are lonely and in this new world, and they find each other and become friends and then get torn apart horribly.

00;08;51;12 - 00;09;03;02
Speaker 2
And that was kind of like a rumination, too, on, like, friendship and what power can do to that and what can love withstand, you know, power and ambition and all of that.

00;09;03;02 - 00;09;15;19
Speaker 1
And so, yeah, you mentioned that this is you're adult debut. Yes. What was it about this story that made you want to write it as an adult story instead of continuing on as a author that is very well known for books?

00;09;16;08 - 00;09;37;23
Speaker 2
Thank you. I think this story has been stewing in my head for a long time, and I but I always knew that it wasn't going to be Y.A. because some of the themes that I wanted to bring to the forefront, I didn't feel particularly comfortable telling it in Y.A.. And I also think that Y.A. is so good at telling the immediate story, you know, like everything is happening in that moment, right?

00;09;37;23 - 00;10;07;17
Speaker 2
So it's like, this is happening right now. This is how I'm feeling right now. And you don't have the context of like a history of a life or like a wider lens necessarily. And so I knew that this story wasn't that kind of I didn't need that kind of immediacy, but it did need this this timeline to show the ramifications of a consequence, like all the way through a life and how long it can take for something to percolate, you know, through your life, through someone else's life, and so on.

00;10;07;24 - 00;10;13;28
Speaker 2
So I always knew it was going to be adult. I just it took me a long time to figure out what that really meant. Yeah.

00;10;14;07 - 00;10;27;22
Speaker 1
And I saw a post on Instagram, which was one of your sketches, which a lovely sketches. Oh, my goodness. Wish I had that much ability. Oh, my goodness. But you told Sam a yawner, so how does that influence the story?

00;10;27;29 - 00;10;49;07
Speaker 2
Yes, it's our influences. Everything about this story, the whole the whole metaphor of alchemy being this striving, this eternal striving for perfection, this relentless pursuit of ambition. And Sam, you know, is a girl who's going to her whole life being unseen. You know, she's that girl you see at the party. And then nobody really talks and they don't remember that she was there.

00;10;49;15 - 00;11;13;25
Speaker 2
You know, she's she just has nobody notices her as she's growing up and she's like this long. She's an only child of an immigrant mother and no one has time for her. And so she has this eternal, deep yearning for someone to see her, to be seen, to make a mark, to know that she's worth something. And it leads her down all kinds of terrible paths because she's just looking for love.

00;11;14;03 - 00;11;20;26
Speaker 2
Anywhere she can find it usually finds it in the worst places. So there's very much even real.

00;11;20;26 - 00;11;22;19
Speaker 1
Love if it's in.

00;11;22;19 - 00;11;23;07
Speaker 2
Three.

00;11;23;07 - 00;11;23;28
Speaker 1
Places.

00;11;23;28 - 00;11;24;19
Speaker 2
I know.

00;11;24;19 - 00;11;25;10
Speaker 1
The questions.

00;11;25;10 - 00;11;27;05
Speaker 2
We all questions, questions.

00;11;28;05 - 00;11;33;22
Speaker 1
But with the sketches, how does drawing help you with your creativity and the writing process?

00;11;33;22 - 00;11;58;07
Speaker 2
That's such a great question. I feel like drawing is another creative media that I can use, which also gives my writing brain a rest so sometimes when I'm just like, I cannot write anymore today, I will kind of pivot and just start sketching because I still get to be creative. I'm still in my books world, but I can kind of turn off the, you know, this, which is after a while it does start to feel numb.

00;11;59;10 - 00;12;04;07
Speaker 2
So that helps my creative process. And sometimes I will figure out like plot things or character things that way.

00;12;04;17 - 00;12;10;01
Speaker 1
One thing we have in common is a love for K-pop. How does music help with your writing process?

00;12;10;22 - 00;12;31;20
Speaker 2
I love that yes. I always have music on always when I'm writing. Like it is never quiet in my head. It's usually soundtracks or something because if I have like actual lyrics on I, it does start to distract me and I can't really draft or anything. You mentioned K-pop. I've got the entire K-pop Demon Hunger soundtrack just playing on repeat, as do always everyone.

00;12;31;21 - 00;12;36;20
Speaker 1
Number of booths playing K-pop. Demon Hunter soundtracks around here is insane. It is everywhere.

00;12;36;21 - 00;12;44;11
Speaker 2
I love it. So I had to find like instrumental versions of them so that I can, you know, still write but hear the song.

00;12;44;25 - 00;12;45;26
Speaker 1
I'm going to do that now.

00;12;45;26 - 00;12;46;22
Speaker 2
Yeah, they're pretty great.

00;12;48;25 - 00;12;54;27
Speaker 1
So you do have a book series do ology that involves a sea musician.

00;12;55;15 - 00;12;56;08
Speaker 2
Yes.

00;12;56;08 - 00;12;56;24
Speaker 1
Stars and.

00;12;56;24 - 00;12;57;22
Speaker 2
Smoke. Yes.

00;12;58;11 - 00;13;01;20
Speaker 1
Are there any chances we'll get a third one in that series?

00;13;01;21 - 00;13;14;02
Speaker 2
Oh, Stars and Smoke. I would love to write more in Stars and Smoke. I had so much fun with that series. Right now, I don't have plans for a third book, but never say never. I will return to that world in a heartbeat if I get a chance.

00;13;14;22 - 00;13;17;14
Speaker 1
I mean, it's very Jackson Wang coded and I love it.

00;13;18;00 - 00;13;19;05
Speaker 2
I'm glad to hear it.

00;13;19;05 - 00;13;24;12
Speaker 1
I'm just like the way he talks. I'm like, this is if Jackson Wang got pulled into being a secret was.

00;13;24;16 - 00;13;25;12
Speaker 2
Like a spy, which.

00;13;25;12 - 00;13;25;27
Speaker 1
He would be.

00;13;25;28 - 00;13;26;10
Speaker 2
Never, never.

00;13;26;10 - 00;13;27;24
Speaker 1
Black because he talks to everybody.

00;13;27;24 - 00;13;29;08
Speaker 2
I know he would be a terrible spy.

00;13;30;14 - 00;13;33;15
Speaker 1
But nobody would suspect him because he does blab about everything.

00;13;33;24 - 00;13;36;15
Speaker 2
Maybe that's his friend. Maybe he pretends to blab.

00;13;36;15 - 00;13;41;03
Speaker 1
Maybe that's why he holds all these parties and is hanging out with everybody. He's just really working it.

00;13;41;15 - 00;13;43;24
Speaker 2
He's good at it. Then he did a really good or really bad.

00;13;45;02 - 00;13;46;03
Speaker 1
Jackson, let us know.

00;13;46;04 - 00;13;48;12
Speaker 2
Yes, Blake, twice of your book.

00;13;49;13 - 00;13;55;28
Speaker 1
And in looking you up because I like to look at people found that you were a video game designer back in the day.

00;13;56;06 - 00;13;57;18
Speaker 2
Disney yeah.

00;13;57;21 - 00;14;00;28
Speaker 1
How was that helped how you tell stories?

00;14;01;05 - 00;14;26;12
Speaker 2
It was really fascinating. I was a graphic designer for it and an artist, and I got recruited to be an intern at Disney, which actually where I met my husband. You know, we were both interns in the same program, and it was a think tank where all you did was come up with video game idea. So I was brought on as an artist, and there were a couple of game designers in the group and programmers, and we would just prototype games for Disney.

00;14;26;12 - 00;14;47;22
Speaker 2
And it was like the best corporate job I've ever had. And I think it was my exposure to it was first of all, it was my first exposure to a creative industry of any kind. So before that, I don't think I really understood that, you know, you can actually have a career in these things, and this was a perfectly professional, acceptable, you know, profession in an industry.

00;14;47;22 - 00;15;12;27
Speaker 2
And I think I needed that to have confidence to become a professional writer. So in that sense, it absolutely led me to becoming a writer. And it also was just really nice to collaborate with people and watch how a story is told in a game sense, which is a completely different way of telling stories as novels. But at the end of the day, I think the written word is kind of like the the birth place of all kinds of stories.

00;15;12;27 - 00;15;26;03
Speaker 2
So, you know, you fashion tell stories, movies tell stories games tell stories. But it all comes to, I think like the novel is probably the purest form of story. And I think seeing it in other forms really helps me appreciate how to put together a novel form.

00;15;26;09 - 00;15;29;09
Speaker 1
So what's next for you in the novel world?

00;15;29;22 - 00;15;42;07
Speaker 2
What's next? So I am currently working on the draft for book two and I am also working on another Y.A. series, which I cannot talk about yet, but I can't wait to hear more about it with you guys.

00;15;42;13 - 00;15;52;23
Speaker 1
I can't wait to hear about it. Slips so much already, just because it's the last question we always ask, because this is literary hype. What books are you hyped about right now?

00;15;52;25 - 00;16;12;15
Speaker 2
Oh my gosh, so many now. I'm like going through them and my dad taught him Mafia is one of my favorite writers and people in the world. I love that. Watch Me has started off the Academy series again. All of her books are amazing, though, and she has the next book in her, this Woven Kingdom series coming out in the fall.

00;16;12;15 - 00;16;35;17
Speaker 2
So I am really excited about that. Ransom Riggs has the next one in his The Extraordinary Appointments of Leopold Barry Part two coming out. It's Underworld which I can't wait for someone. Here's our series. You know, if you haven't read An Ember, The Ashes, one of the best white fantasies of all time, I could we could talk for like hours about you know.

00;16;36;08 - 00;16;44;23
Speaker 1
It's either I either get two responses to that question. Either Have I ever read a book I can't think or I'm going to talk for 10 hours.

00;16;44;23 - 00;16;46;20
Speaker 2
And we're just there's no in between.

00;16;46;20 - 00;16;55;28
Speaker 1
There is no in between. You either can think of every book you've ever read or none of that is true. Well, thank you so much for taking time to talk to literary back here at San Diego Comic-Con.

00;16;55;28 - 00;16;57;15
Speaker 2
Thank you guys for having me.

00;17;00;14 - 00;17;15;27
Speaker 1
Thanks again to Marie for hanging out with me at San Diego Comic-Con to talk about her debut adult novel, Red City. If you want to get your hands on this, which I know you do because Marie is fantastic and you definitely want to check this one out, the links to do so are down in the description as well as where to find her on social media.

00;17;16;06 - 00;17;26;28
Speaker 1
If you enjoy this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the literary podcast. Give us some stars and leave a comment so people know you're enjoying this content. Thanks so much for listening to the Literary Hype podcast.