Yes! Loveboat, Taipei is now a Paramount Plus original film! The film stars Ashley Liao and Ross Butler as Ever and Rick, Chelsea Zhang as Sophie and Nico Hiraga as Xavier. Arvin Chen directed. The announcement in Deadline can be read here and the first look in Entertainment Weekly here. Watch on Paramount Plus, AmazonPrime, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

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The adaptation process is incredibly exciting, rewarding, and highly uncertain. At every step, so many people need to come together to make it all happen. My film manager told me not to celebrate the film until we were in the car, driving to the premiere. I’m grateful for the community and creatives who helped us get there!

The process:

• It begins with a strong book launch. After ten years of writing and querying and getting rejected, I started shopping Loveboat, Taipei. I was thrilled to receive multiple offers from agents overnight, This created buzz around the manuscript, and my brilliant agent Jo Volpe held an auction among publishers, knowing the publishing house would stand behind the book for marketing purposes. Sure enough, once we announced the book deal, scouts, producers and studios began calling my reps. We were on our way.

• Next was the choice of a producer. I met with a number of folks, and we talked through questions like: do you see this as a feature film or a TV series? Is this a full blown musical, given the big dance themes, or are we simply going to lean into the dance elements?

• Next up, the screenwriter. We heard what are called “takes” from wonderfully talented writers — their vision for how to condense a 400-page novel into a 100-page script. It was such a privilege to hear so many different creative visions.

• Our director and director of photography came on board shortly after, and we turned to casting! For me, having open casting calls was crucial, because I knew we would need to discover new young talent. I’m so happy that our ensemble included a number of first-time actors. I was thrilled Ross Butler came aboard and delighted to discover the talented Ashley Liao. Meeting, working with and befriending the cast has been one of the highlights of the process for me.

• Then on to production! A lot of advanced planning goes into preparing for filming on set, including developing lookbooks, designing sets, location scouting, securing shooting permits, choosing costumes and buying them, and deciding on lighting, shots, angles, blocking, and so much more. The reason there are so many names listed at the end of a film is that there are so many roles to play, and each person plays an important unique one.

• Actual filming time on set is the shortest part of the process by design, since this is also the most expensive! We filmed in Taipei at the height of covid, when the borders of the island were closed, and we each spent 2 weeks in quarantine on our way in. Once we were through, we were free to live life as normal, at a time when the world was shut down. It was a magical time!
  We filmed each shot of each scene multiple times — roughly 6-8 times, to provide options for the post-production editing room. The takes varied in emotions, energy levels, and other experimental and alternative lines.

• Post-Production. Finally, our director cut together the footage into the director’s cut, and then the editing process began.

• In August 2023, Paramount+ launched the finished Love in Taipei film into the world. Altogether, from signing the contract to launching the film on Paramount+, the process took 3.5 years, and by the end, hundreds of people had touched the project. I’m thrilled to have Loveboat in the world, and to have the journey continue in the trilogy of books.

I’m grateful for the outpouring of love for these stories and characters. The best ways to support authors is to share their books with others! During a book’s launch, pre-orders go a long way, especially in this challenging time when supply chains are being disrupted. Book clubs, library events and local articles are all incredibly helpful in building the readership and community. And ratings on platforms like Goodreads and Amazon help share more perspectives with a wider audience.

For films, it’s the same! Spread the word and rate on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, Metacritic and other film review sites.

Signed books are available in many of the SF Bay Area independent bookstores and Barnes and Noble, as well as independent booksellers like Vroman’s in Pasadena, Books of Wonder and Yu and Me Books in Manhattan. If your local bookstore doesn’t have a copy, you can ask them to ping me and I’m happy to send bookplates out to them.

First of all, that’s wonderful that you are writing. There are so many stories still untold. My best advice is to focus on craft: read widely, especially in your genre. Write the best manuscript you can and find other writers to critique it. If you are looking at traditional routes of publishing, then the next step would be to find an agent. For fiction, a completed manuscript is usually necessary.

For nonfiction, sample chapters and the table of contents are sufficient to query agents. A strong platform also helps and depending on the topic, may be a prerequisite.

Most of all, don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to produce a completed work that you’re happy with, or to find critique partners or an agent. Write if it feeds you and keep going because you love it.

All my life.

My brother and sister are twins, three years younger than me. When we were little, we used to sleep in the same room and I would tell them “Group Stories.” We’d start off listing the characters, which were us, our cousins and our friends. Then I’d make up stories of us kids living on our own in a forest and going on adventures.

I’ve also kept a journal since fourth grade, so writing is like breathing to me. Of course, I had to keep my real thoughts and feelings to myself in case someone found it. So when I look back on my writings, a lot of the substance is hidden in codes and the subtext.

I began seriously writing when I was pregnant with my second—my writing career is as old as my child! But it wasn’t until I attended VCFA that I finally had the courage to call myself a writer.

I absolutely recommend VFCA!

It’s an incredible community of talented writers and teachers. For writers just starting out, I recommend taking a few local writing classes, to build skills and get to know an instructor who can write a recommendation that speaks to your writing, willingness to take feedback and abilities to contribute to a classroom.

Since I live in the Bay area, I took a few classes through Stanford’s Continuing Studies and attended SCBWI workshops.

What finally made my decision to attend VCFA was the Highlights Foundation Whole Novel workshop. I got to work with Varian Johnson, who taught me how to arc out a plot. I also hung out with and ask a million questions of Rita Williams Garcia, Coe Booth and Sara Crowe, who were all on the Highlights faculty that week. I was sold. I work full time, so I wrote at night from 9pm-12am after the kids were in bed, and used my vacation to fly to VCFA for the 10-day residencies twice a year. It wasn’t an easy few years, but it was worth it.

Even if you are already a published author, there is no limit to the master mentoring of its world class faculty. I got to work closely with Printz Honor A.M. Jenkins, Alan Cumyn, Newbery Honor and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt, and Martine Leavitt. I workshopped with so many other incredibles, including National Book Award winner, Will Alexander. For Loveboat, I had the chance to talk my ideas over with Shelley Tanaka, and even after graduating, I’ve exchanged emails with her, including pinging her from the airport on my way to Taiwan!

Last and most importantly of all, VCFA is a nurturing and supportive community you will be a part of for the rest of your life.

I met I.W. Gregorio (NONE OF THE ABOVE) at an SCBWI conference in 2008. We bonded over our shared dilemma navigating demanding jobs, kids and our desire to write. The talented Sonya Mukherjee (GEMINI) joined us shortly after.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to exchange work with wonderful writers from SCBWI, VCFA and in the Bay area. I feel incredibly blessed to have learned from Sabaa Tahir (EMBER IN THE ASHES Series), Stacey Lee (THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL), Stephanie Garber (CARAVAL trilogy) and Kelly Loy Gilbert (CONVICTED), who unwaveringly supported me through rejections and writing heartbreaks and as I doubted my own abilities.

The key to CPs is to learn from each other! Find ways to be helpful. Even if your skill sets are different, you can help with something you are good at, like editing or supporting on social media.

And be honest. Good CPs serve as sounding boards, and never pull punches when something’s not working. You want CPs who won’t let you go out with your slip showing.

Ten years of toil and some strokes of luck!

In 2008, I e-queried the fabulous Jo Volpe with my very first novel, FOXSTONE. She printed it out and actually snail-mailed me a hard copy with her hand-marked editorial notes, saying she really believed there was something there. Although she ultimately turned it down, I was encouraged!

I followed her career over the next ten years as she started her own agency, New Leaf Literary, and rose to meteoric heights, with clients I admired greatly, like Veronica Roth, Leigh Bardugo, Marcus Sedgwick and Holly Black.

(Holy cow, someone pinch me—is she really my agent?)

I was lucky enough to have many incredible agents interested in representing LOVEBOAT, TAIPEI. But when Jo offered and I had the chance to meet her and her team in her beautiful office, it felt like I had come full circle.

Loveboat is an actual cultural and language program set in Taiwan. My husband and I both attended, though not the same summers. My main character, Ever Wong, thought it sounded like torturous summer school—but as she discovers, it’s so much more fun!

It’s not easy and I still haven’t figured it out. I don’t think we can have it all at once, but I hope we can over a lifetime. For me, life seems to change every six months. I am constantly asking myself what my priorities are. My husband is great about keeping the most important things squarely in front of my eyes whenever I want to chase shiny new things—or, frankly, when my own insecurities make me want to hedge my bets in writing.

When I had kids, I took a step back from my crazy up-to-100-hours a week legal practice by going in-house. It was a hard decision for me to step off the track after going full speed through Harvard, Capitol Hill, Columbia Law School and clerking on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. But even my judge gave me permission. I still remember her telling me, you have your little boy, and to guard the important things in my life.

But I also love the balance of work and writing. My head is full of imaginary characters, and my work full of real ones. At different times, the writing kept me creatively engaged while the work kept me stable. When work got crazy, writing was my home. My boys are older now, and I’m trying to keep up with them, so it feels like the right time to be leaning in again.

I like to think it’s all just me. I have a few AI and VC-inspired novels in the works.

Figuring out my social media is probably the best illustration of how I’m navigating these different aspects of my life:

• Facebook is mainly friends and family.
• LinkedIn is my venture capital, artificial intelligence, law and policy life.
• Instagram is my young adult novel writing life. I’m just getting started there.
• Twitter is a weird blend of all three, because for some reason, everyone finds me there. Someone suggested I have two Twitter accounts, one for writing and the other for venture capital etc. But I decided against it. I want my life to be integrated. That’s the hope, anyways!
• Tiktok is relatively new for me. I’m just getting started there so come join the party!

I love craft books! They’re like candy.

For Writing

• Story, Robert McKee
  Anatomy of a Story, John Truby (his wife, Leslie Lehr, is an amazing critiquer and story coach)
  Story Engineering, Larry Brooks
  Save the Cat, Blake Snyder
• Plot Whisperer, Martha Alderson
  Hooked, Les Edgerton
  From Where You Dream, Robert Olen Butler
  Getting into Character, Brandilyn Collins
  The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, Diane Wynn Jones
  On Writing, Stephen King

For Film

• The Big Picture, the Fight for the Future of Movies, Ben Fritz
  Story, Robert McKee

Creativity

• Getting Unstuck, Timothy Butler
  Originals, Adam Grant

I periodically offer opportunities to win critiques. Sign up for my mailing list below to receive announcements about this and other book news.

I highly recommend taking local writing classes, joining SCBWI or considering programs like VCFA or Hamline. You can find amazing critique partners there.

And when your manuscript is ready for submission, programs like Pitch Wars can connect you with amazing authors who can help get your manuscript into shape. Facebook communities like Binders Full of YA Writers can also help you connect with other writers.

Congratulations! Finishing a novel is no easy feat so celebrate!

I highly recommend a 2-month subscription to Publisher’s Weekly, which will give you a sense of what agents are buying. Two websites, agentquery.com and querytracker.com, are also helpful tools.

Then read the acknowledgments of your favorite books. Agents are frequently thanked there and you can then find their websites and guidelines for how to query them.

Next is to write a killer query letter positioning your book in the market. A comparison to other titles is always helpful. Include a short pitch of the story followed by your credentials and samples pages, depending on each agent’s guidelines. Be sure to tailor your query letter to each agent’s specific needs. Finding an agent can take a while, so while you are waiting to hear back, get started on your next work-in-progress. It’s much more productive than checking email every few hours. 🙂