Litro Q & A: Steph Cha

STEPH CHA

Steph Cha is a Korean-American feminist crime novelist based in Los Angeles. The LA Times has described her as possibly “the world’s only author of Korean American feminist noir.” Her new novel, “Dead Soon Enough” (Minotaur Books) is out now.

Litro: How long did it take you to write your first novel, “Follow Her Home”?

Cha: I finished the first draft while I was still at Yale Law School and by the time I graduated I was determined to pursue the glamorous life of a writer. So, I moved home with my parents and spent days writing and querying in bed as I had no desk in my room.
I’d be the first to admit that my life has been exceedingly easy, but, in relative terms, this short part of it was pretty hardFor six months after the bar exam, I spent a lot of time wondering if I’d put all of my eggs in just the stupidest basket.

Litro: Can you tell me a bit about your writing process?

Cha: The expectation in the mystery world is a book a year, which is pretty crazy. My first book took me over a year and a half each, with another two years or so for editing. It took some adjustment to get to a place where I could bang out a manuscript in a year, but I am there, more or less. I’ve had to arrange everything else in my life to accommodate my writing life.

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