She spent a long time revising, working with her agent for a year.Ĭho focused on new characters for “The True Queen” because after trying to write about Zacharias and Prunella for three long years, she had a tough time making things feel fresh. She grew used to finishing and starting to shop them around in a quick time in the past, and focusing all her writing time and energy on a single novel that may not sell was something difficult for her emotionally. In the year 2014, she released her first short story collection called “Spirits Abroad”.īefore writing “Sorcerer to the Crown”, she had written two “drawer novels”, and finds that she is really still learning how to write a novel. Her debut novel, “Sorcerer to the Crown”, the first book of her “Sorcerer Royal” series, was released in the year 2015. It taught her to enjoy stories that were set in alien worlds that featured strange people that spoke another language, and had intricate, mysterious social customs. She started writing stories when she was only six years old, after learning how to read at around age three or age four.Īs a child, she read a lot of nineteenth century North American and British fiction while growing up in Malaysia during the twentieth century. Zen feels that when she dies, she wants to look back at her life and see that she spent as much time as possible with her loved ones and that she had written many stories. She tries to write a bit every day, but never at the cost of her social time. She read law at Cambridge and lives in London, where she works as a lawyer and writes stories. She writes science fiction, fantasy, and romance. We cannot do this work without you.Author Zen Cho was born and raised in Malaysia in the year 1986. If just half of our readers signed up to give $6 a month, we wouldn't have to fundraise for the rest of the year. Help us keep BIPOC-led media free and accessible. With over 1,000 Rainmakers, the Emerald is truly community-driven local media. Rainmakers give recurring gifts at any amount. The South Seattle Emerald is brought to you by Rainmakers. (Pictured: Jasmine Throne-inspired art by Before you move on to the next story … 📸 Featured Image: “The Jasmine Throne” is about Malini and Priya, two South Asian women, whose love and magic makes for the ultimate sapphic fantasy story.

She navigates reckless romance and self-destruction and tries to find herself between all her worlds.Įditors’ Note: The author’s name has been removed from this article in order to protect their privacy. The protagonist is a Palestinian American woman whose story is told through vignettes between America and the Middle East. This contemporary fiction novel explores the struggles and consequences of being queer and growing up within a conflicting culture and religion.

Black water sister