We moved to Southern California when I was 8. We’d spent the previous four years in the humid northeast, and my toddler years in my even-more-humid homeland of Taiwan, so it was quite a change. I don’t remember much of my coming-of-age, but at some point in my 30s, I decided to run the Death Valley Marathon.
I don’t know when I first became obsessed with deserts. All I know is, running the race that day was a gift. Sound travels so far in the desert. There weren’t a whole lot of people there, so there wasn’t a lot of cheering apart from the beginning and end of the race. Wildlife wasn’t scared off, since we were all pretty well spread out by a few miles in.
Anyway, we got married in Death Valley a few years later. We try to go back each year, if we can. And then, more recently, I decided to set a book there.
I’ve long wondered about the role of women in the Old West, so my next book, a historical YA mystery, will turn around this theme. And I’m happy to say that I’ll be spending a week or so in Death Valley, where there were a few Borax mines and a few scrappy silver mines–and more than a few women who shaped the towns that sprang up around those mines.
June 3, 10:30 AM, I’m giving a talk on historical fiction at the Amargosa Opera House for the Tecopa Shoshone Writers Group. Here’s the flyer! Hope to see you there! I’ll cover what works for me, and what pitfalls I’ve encountered. I’ll also be doing a soft reveal of the cover for my new book, A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic. (The actual reveal is June 9! Mark your calendars!)
If you come, drop me a line and let me know you’ll be there!
Text reads: Tecopa Shoshone Writers Group Presents Writing Historical Fiction with Yi Shun Lai. Saturday, June 3, 10:30-12. Bring a bag lunch and take an optional tour of the Amargosa Opera House after the workshop!* About the Author: Yi Shun Lai is the author of Not a Self-Help Book: The Misadventures of Marty Wu, a novel; and Pin Ups, a memoir. Her YA historical novel will be published in February 2024 by Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum imprint.
She was the ‘Front Lines’ and ‘Broadening Your Bookshelves’ columnist at The Writer magazine, and teaches at Bay Path University’s MFA program for creative nonfiction. You can find her work at Shondaland, Brevity, and more. Visit her on the web and sign up for her newsletter at thegooddirt.org, or follow her on TikTok @yishunlai.
