Kim Fay-Interview with the Author

The Reading Cafe would like to welcome Kim Fay-the author of The Map of Lost Memories which was released in August 2012.

Click HERE for Kim’s website

TRC: Hi Kim and welcome to The Reading Café. We would like to start with some background information. Please tell us something about yourself?

Kim: Born in Seattle, I spent my childhood in small towns around Washington State. After graduating from Washington State University, I worked for five years as an independent bookseller at the Elliott Bay Book Company. I traveled a bit in Europe and Asia during this time, and I decided I wanted the experience of living in a foreign country. I went back to school for certification to teach English as a foreign language, and the first job I was offered was in Vietnam. From the moment I arrived, I fell in love with the country and surrounding region, and from that point on, they have been the focus of my writing. Before the publication of The Map of Lost Memories, I created and edited the To Asia With Love guidebook series, and I also wrote the food memoir, Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam.

TRC: Your biography states that you lived in Vietnam for 4 years and travelled throughout Southeast Asia. What was the occasion for your adventure in Asia?

Kim: Asia has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My grandpa was a sailor in the early 1930s, and he often told my sister and me stories about Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo—all sorts of intriguing, exotic-sounding places. Because of this I’ve always had a fascination with that part of the world, not to mention that it twined Asia and storytelling in my mind. I think it was natural that I ended up living in Asia. Even though it was new to me when I took my first trip there (to Thailand) when I was 22, it felt familiar, and during the time I lived in Vietnam, I felt at home. I think there are places in this world that touch something deep in our hearts, and Southeast Asia is that place for me.

TRC: Many authors start their love of writing at an early age. What was the catalyst that started you on the path to writing?

Kim: I can’t say that any one thing inspired me to become a writer. Certainly, my grandpa’s stories helped. My dad also made up bedtime stories that he told to my sister and me, all part of a saga about a pair of crime fighters, Raggedy Kojak (a bald Raggedy Ann doll) and Mousiestein (a rodent version of Frankenstein). In addition, my mom started reading to me when I was an infant; while my dad was at work she would keep up both entertained by reading novels aloud. Books and stories were the foundation of my life, and so when I wrote my first book at the age of ten, it was an organic part of my evolution as a reader and lover of stories. I still have that book: The Mystery of the Golden Galleon (62 hand-written pages complete with illustrations). By the time I graduated from high school I’d written about a dozen novels. I kept on writing until decades later I finally published The Map of Lost Memories.

TRC: THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES is your latest novel. Would you please tell us about the premise?

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Kim: I have a friend who has told me to describe my novel as a female Indiana Jones meets The English Patient. While this might sound silly, in a way it’s true, since it blends a mystery and adventure with character development and a strong sense of place. Influenced by both Nancy Drew and Graham Greene, The Map of Lost Memories is the story of Irene Blum, a young American woman who in 1925 is passed over for the curatorship of a Seattle museum. Irene had built the museum’s international reputation, and she is devastated until her mentor gives her a hundred-year-old diary, whose owner claimed to have seen scrolls containing the lost history of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer empire. To restore her reputation, Irene sets off for Cambodia, in search of the secret temple believed to contain these scrolls. Along the way, she travels through Shanghai and Saigon, where she is joined by a drug-addled temple robber, a handsome bar owner and an archaeologist who specializes in the Khmer temples. It turns out that each person has his or her own reason for wanting to find the scrolls, and that each is tied to one another in ways Irene never could have imagined.

TRC:  Would you please tell us how your experiences in Vietnam inspired your novel?

Kim:  Vietnam inspired my novel in a roundabout way. When I first moved there, a friend gave me a book called Silk Roads. This is the true story of Andre and Clara Malraux, a young French couple who looted a Cambodian temple in the 1920s. Their experience provided the spark for The Map of Lost Memories. Because I was living in Vietnam, Cambodia was accessible to me. As well, living in Vietnam, I became fascinated by the colonial history of Indochina (now Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) and the moral issues posed by colonialism, all of which play large roles in the novel.

TRC: How much research was involved in the writing of THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES?

Kim: Aside from the plot, every aspect of this book (geography, botany, architecture, clothing, transportation, etc.) involved in-depth research. This could mean reading travelogues from the 1920s or traveling to a specific place, given the item I was dealing with. Aside from spending time deep in the jungle, I visited the site of most of the book’s scenes. For example, I spent days in the National Museum in Phnom Penh, studying the artifacts and taking in the atmosphere—the museum provides the setting for a crucial confrontation between Irene and her traveling partner/rival Simone Merlin. Period travelogues were particularly useful because they helped me understand the voice of the era and the pacing of travel at that time. I also had a great time on the Internet. I could spend hours scouring the Web for photographs. In fact, I was able to use vintage postcards and an old map to create a diorama of 1920s Phnom Penh.

TRC: What difficulties or challenges did you face writing this particular novel?

Kim: The biggest challenge for me when writing fiction is character. Plot is great fun; setting is pure pleasure; but character development can break me! Characters appear to me easily—all of the characters in The Map of Lost Memories existed from the very start, with the exception of the Cambodian woman, Clothilde. But once characters exist, they often baffle me. I have to write to find out who they are. I revise and revise, with one draft layered over the top of another. As I do this, the characters grow organically with the story, and then I’m able to step back and understand who they are and write them fully as I enter the home stretch. When I started writing this novel, I thought Irene was just in it for revenge and adventure. I didn’t know that she and the others would become so interested in the ethics of art ownership and historical identity. This was such a fascinating aspect of the book that caught me completely unawares. And even though it’s a struggle, I’m glad my mind works like this. If I knew everything about the characters from the start, the writing process would be a bore, and the story would become flat. Strangely, as difficult as it is for me to work with my characters, The Map of Lost Memories is a story about character development. The adventure aspect is the backdrop for a story with twists and turns reliant on how the characters are evolving as the book progresses.

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas with other authors, friends or family. With whom do you bounce ideas and why?

Kim: While I write in solitude, I do not consider writing a solitary pursuit. I love talking about my stories and characters, and will happily talk about them with anyone who will listen. I have a writer’s group that I adore, and one particular woman in this group is essential. Connie Brooks was by my writing side for most of the fourteen years it took me to write The Map of Lost Memories. She came to know the story and characters as well as I did, so when I got stuck and certain that I could never figure something out (usually, the latter involved me calling her in tears), she knew exactly how to talk me down from the ledge. I think there is nothing greater than the moral support a writing group or writing friends give. But I also think it’s crucial to choose your writing entourage carefully. Just as it doesn’t help to have people who pick apart every word you write, it doesn’t help to have those who love everything you do—that’s what moms are for!! The thing I appreciate most about Connie is her tough love approach and her true respect for what I’m attempting to achieve. A good writing friend never imposes her own wishes on a story. I can honestly say that without her and the support of so many others, The Map of Lost Memories would never have been published.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Kim: There will definitely be a sequel to The Map of Lost Memories, although it’s difficult to talk about without revealing spoilers. But that’s not my next book. I’ve had another novel meandering around in my head for the past ten years, and now that The Map of Lost Memories is published, I’m excited to dig into it. Taking place in Vietnam between 1937 and 1975, it’s the story of an American woman born in Vietnam who goes on to become a culinary anthropologist. Along with studying the country’s imperial cuisine, she also feeds homesick soldiers. I want to use the book to explore the domestic side of Vietnamese life during an era associated solely with war. I also want it to be a love song to the country. But because of my affection for Nancy Drew, I can’t help myself—there will also be a murder and a mystery to be solved.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Kim: No, thank you. Your questions are great!

LIGHTNING ROUND

* Favorite Food – I have a hard time playing favorites, because I’m fickle and love different foods depending on the mood I’m in

* Favorite Dessert – my mom’s raspberry pie

* Favorite TV Show – The Rockford Files

* Favorite Movie – The Year of Living Dangerously

* Last Movie You Saw – Cisco Pike

* Dark or Milk Chocolate – Dark

TRC: Thank you Kim for taking the time to answer our questions. We wish you all the best.

Kim and Random House are offering a copy of THE MAP OF LOST MEMORIES to one lucky member at The Reading Cafe.

1. You must be a registered member at The Reading Cafe.

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We would like to emphasize the email address.  In the last few months there have been several potential winners who have not responded to our attempt to contact them using Facebook and Twitter.  Email is the easiest and most efficient.

4. Giveaway open to continental USA and Canada only.

5. Giveaway runs from October 7-9, 2012