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Presenter: Welcome to Ask the Author, the podcast where kids get to ask published authors how they write their stories.

Presenter: In this episode, we are asking the author, Eric Huang, all about how he decides on the themes for his books. Hi, Eric!

Eric: Hi, my name is Eric Huang. I write stories for children, including the Guardians of the New Moon series, which is a four-book series all about fantasy, inspired by East Asian and Chinese myths and legends.

Presenter: Eric’s first book is called Ming and Miaow’s Great Race. It’s all about a very grumpy temple cat called Miaow, who just wanted a quiet life catching mice.

Presenter: But when the Jade Emperor announces a giant race for all the animals on Earth, Miaow gets pulled into the adventure along with Ming - a bold shapeshifter who’s determined to become his best friend.

Presenter: Let’s hear Eric read the start of his first book, Ming and Miaow’s Great Race.

Eric: ‘The Jade Emperor was bored. The King of Heaven had just finished his favourite breakfast - the same mushroom dumplings he ate for breakfast every morning, followed by hot pu’er tea, served in the jade cup gifted to him by the goddess of tea, Tie Kuan Yin. He sighed. There wasn’t much to do these days, not since he had completed the really big project of making the Earth. The Jade Emperor hadn’t done everything himself, of course. Pangu, the hairy-horned giant, had done the hardest work. He had divided the murky Yin from the clear Yang to separate the Earth from the sky. The snake-bodied Nüwa had taken over from there. She had fashioned four pillars to hold the sky above the Earth, keeping the two separate so that the Jade Emperor could fill the surface of the new planet with life.’

Presenter: We’ve got questions for Eric about how he writes his stories. So let’s Ask the author!

Presenter: When you choose the theme, do you sometimes accidentally choose the theme, or do you just choose it on purpose?

Eric: I guess the theme’s sort of, it’s accidental and on purpose, because it kind of just comes. When I’m sitting down to write a story or the next book in a series, I just… brainstorm in my head, I talk it over with some friends, and the theme just kind of comes after the conversation and after I think a lot about the characters, and I also do a lot of research. I look up magical creatures, gods and goddesses and legends, and these also help me come up with the themes.

Presenter: What made you pick what type of book to make? If it’s a fiction or a comedy or drama?

Eric: I guess I naturally prefer stories that are funny, but also stories that are fantastic and set in magical lands. So I suppose I gravitate towards those themes, and I suppose that most of the stories I write are quite easygoing, happy, funny, but with fantastical elements, magical creatures and whatnot.

Presenter: When you get your ideas for the message, do you ever think of something that’s happened to you or a friend, or did you just make it up?

Eric: Most of the characters, settings in my books are all inspired by things around me, so I absolutely am inspired by my friends. A lot of the characters are based on my friends or just people I know. Actually, Miaow from the books is based on my real-life cat McNulty. Ming, his best friend, is based on my sister, and Ming has my sister’s personality. All of the books have a message too, and they’re usually about friendship, accepting others, following your dream, being true to yourself. And I suppose these are questions I’ve looked at for myself and also helped friends, family with as well. So they’re always in my mind, especially the idea of friendship and respecting other people.

Presenter: What inspires you to get the ideas to write your books?

Eric: You know, when I was younger, I used to think, oh, to be a writer, you have to know so much, you have to be an expert at something or other. And whilst I do a lot of research, most of what inspires me is just things that happen in life, whether it’s a song I heard, something someone said on the bus the other day, friends, family, hmm, everything inspires me.

Presenter: Have you ever been in the middle of writing a book and then thinking of another idea for a book?

Eric: All the time. So it’s fun, but also one of the problems of writing is that when I’m thinking of stories, I’m not someone who plans out the story in advance. I sort of just write until it comes about. And often I’ll write a story down a certain way and then realise, oh wait, this doesn’t work anymore. And then I have to rewrite it, which changes the story. So when I finish a book, I have all of these fragments of other stories. So…yeah, all the time. But I guess it’s great because then I have other ideas I can use for later.

Presenter: What do you use to plan? Do you plan it out on paper or take little notes? Or do you just plan it or do you just do it whilst you’re writing the book?

Eric: Yeah, I have a lot of author friends who have post-it notes and charts and plan things, and I’ve tried doing that, but I just can’t. For me, I just write until it no longer makes sense. I guess it’s sort of like thinking out loud. I kind of write out loud if there’s such a thing. I just write, write, write until it starts forming itself. There are times when I do have to create a timeline just to make sure that everything makes sense, but I generally just kind of plan it as I go.

Presenter: When you’re making a book, do you ever make it about a dream that you’ve had and you want it to come true, because it’s that magical and you can feel it happening when you’re writing it?

Eric: Yeah, for sure. I wish I could be an adventurer. And, you know, I actually studied palaeontology, so I wanted to dig for dinosaurs when I grew up. And I just thought, you know, oh, it’d be like adventurous, sort of like an Indiana Jones-type of existence, and I suppose that what I’m writing in the books is this kind of spirit of adventure and, you know, a world that is still, unknown and full of possibilities and potential.

Presenter: Thanks so much, Eric. We just have one final question for you.

Presenter: Do you have a top tip about how we can write fantasy stories or stories with other themes?

Eric: My tip on writing a fantasy series is to get to know a lot of myths and legends. And for me, I grew up reading a lot of Greek myths, also Norse and Egyptian myths. And because my parents are originally from China, they told me Chinese myths. It just made me realise there are myths and legends from all over the world and I think if you want to write fantasy, get to know all these legends because there are so many weird and wonderful things.

Presenter: Today we learned that story themes can come from lots of places, from myths and legends from real life and even from people and pets around you.

Presenter: And that writers don’t always plan everything first. Sometimes they discover the story as they’re writing it.

Presenter: And if you want to write fantasy, Eric says reading myths and legends from around the world is a great place to start.

Presenter: If you are ready to hear from another amazing writer, you can find more Ask the Author episodes on the BBC Bitesize website. Thanks for listening!