In Conversation With : James Zerdnt - Writer of "The Korean Word for Butterfly"

Dear Mr. Zerndt,

First of all, I really enjoyed reading your book. It was quite a different experience for me given that I haven’t read a book about Korea.

 Next, thanks a lot for accepting to do the interview.

Diving into the questions!

    Jan @ RM:   Korea is not a country which has been talked about much when compared to other war ridden countries like Syria or Sri Lanka. What really prompted you to base your story on that country?

James : I taught English in South Korea back in 2002.  A lot of the book is based on experiences I had while working there.

Jan @ RM: The names of your protagonists are rather simple. Any particular reasoning for this?

James : I was tired of reading books where the characters were given names like Frog or Hand or Beatrix Whistle as if giving a character a bizarre name makes them interesting. I wanted to create complex characters with simple names. I wanted their actions to make them interesting.

  Jan @ RM:    The characterisation at first seemed so similar to me, in sense they all had a common “sad” element but as the story progressed I was able to understand various dimensions to them. Did you really plan it that way or did it just happen?

James : I planned very little with this book. As it started to unfold, I started to see the parallels between Billie and Yun-ji. That aspect of the story I intentionally manipulated, but many of the other threads in the story just sort of fell in place as it evolved.

  Jan @ RM:    Abortion – A thoroughly sensitive issue – Did you have second thoughts about writing about it? Did you think it might backfire in spite of running a disclaimer?

James :I have no regrets in writing about this subject. I have great compassion for those who go through it, and I wanted to express that through the characters in the book. I never expected it to sell, and the disclaimer is just there to warn people about the content.

   Jan @ RM:    We are from India; our audience isn’t really exposed to books about Korea or abortion. Of course, the latter is a big taboo out here.  Would you hesitate to market your books in our country? Did you have a specific audience in mind while writing this book?

James : I would not hesitate to market the book anywhere based on the subject matter. If abortion is taboo, all the more reason people (men, particularly) should try to understand those that undergo the procedure.

And, no, I didn’t have any specific audience in mind when writing the book. I try not to think of those types of things when working on something. It’s all about the story. Financially, this may not a very wise thing to do, but I am rewarded in other ways.

   Jan @ RM:    How has the progression from writing short stories to a full length novel been?

James :My first novel, The Cloud Seeders, was a bit more difficult for me as it called for a lot of world building.  I’d never attempted anything like that before, so it was tough. If you change one aspect in the first chapter, it has to be consistent throughout the remainder of the book. A time-consuming and maddening thing at times.

As for The Korean Word For Butterfly, I wrote the first draft of this novel about nine years ago. I wasn’t happy with it and had pretty much given up on it. It was written from the POV of a character in the book, Joe, that we hear very little from in the new version. But as soon as I figured out that Moon and Yun-ji had to be in the book, the re-write went fairly quickly.

Now some quick fun questions

·        Coffee or Wine?

 Coffee or whiskey.

·        What’s the worst piece of advice that you have been given?

“You’re too old to do that.”

·        If you could steal one thing except money without being caught...it would be...?

The President’s wedding ring.  Just for kicks.

·        Tap Dancing or Waltz?

Um, waltz.  If I knew how.

·        If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?

Arby’s.

Once again, thank you!