Monday, August 3, 2009

Guest Blog: Sang Pak author of Wait Until Twilight


Before I begin, my thanks to Karen for lending me some time on her turf. She’s creating some good karma. Having said that…my first novel is coming out this summer and maybe out by the time you read this. It’s entitled Wait Until Twilight. It’s a southern gothic/coming of age tale but it was the southern aspect that seemed prominent while I wrote it. All the elements are there. The country roads, hot humid summers, the kind of rundown beauty one might imagine of a small southern town. But the one thing I shifted into an alternate reality was the language. I instinctively kept the drawl scaled down even though from an experiential reality, and if anyone has spent time in the rural deep south they know the drawl is thick and it’s real. I think it reflects the “Southerness” in me. Being Korean American, I don’t think that would register immediately. Even the drawl I used to have growing up has faded after many years of living overseas and far away from the American south. But if one listens closely it’s there. After a few beers it becomes even more prominent.

To be honest with you, if one writes southern dialog with a true drawl, it can read like Faulknerian or Mcarthian hieroglyphics for the uninitiated. Something to be occasionally deciphered. Yet, even the dialogue in the most inveterate southern writer belies the drawl that’s found in the rural south. They are all toned down. This of course is because novels are reflections not of the actual world but the inner world of the writer that has been cultivated from the totality of their experiences and their desire to express this. This includes everything they’ve read, whether the bible or the works of Shakespeare. It all influences the writer. And this can be seen in the dialogue of the southern writer. I think if I’d stayed in the south instead of leaving after high school, the dialogue I wrote would have probably contained a much stronger drawl. Again it would have most likely been instinctual.

Being raised in the south is a very specific experience. No doubt even more specific for someone of Asian descent. But the interesting thing about the south is that for all the complexities many of which are dark, at its heart it is welcoming. And for anyone spending their formative years in those welcoming arms it’s impossible not to walk away with an implicit understanding of the southern heart and mind….and tongue.

Visit Sang at http://www.sangpak.com/ Wait Until Twilight releases tomorrow.

8 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

I've tried to keep the Southern expressions without writing too much dialect. As you mentioned, it can be hard to decipher for the uninitiated! But expressions like "buggy" for "shopping cart," "supper" instead of "dinner," "fixing to," "cutting on the light"--I use all of those.

Great post!

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

Anonymous said...

what a haunting cover. I'll look forward to this one.

KyungMee said...

Just a fan of your site..am not in process of writing a book. But find this a good place to return to see of new authors and commentary on them. I too, am Korean American. Adopted around 7 years old. I recently started a blog (still very new to process). Maybe you can check it out. I am combining short pieces, poems, photos, and videos to make a complete story of my life, family, and experience as a Korean American Adoptee. I am trying to get some feed back to see how I can make it better and even turn it into a book one day...The address is http://homeiswithin.blogspot.com
thanks!

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Honestly, Korean-American writers like Sang Pak are fast rising and presenting their ideas pefectly.

Maggie May said...

Interesting...

and my family always said 'fixin to'
'cuttin up' 'supper' and 'shopping cart' - we are from Mississippi

and commode for toilet...

Orchid said...

All ya'll left really good comments. I'm fixing to pick up this book any day now. I've been waiting for this so long I started feeling lower than a doodle bug. I know once I get it, I'll turn up the lamp and stay all night reading until my eyes look like two fried eggs in a slop jar.

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