Why did I write When the Blue Moon Wakes?
Recently, I was asked to prepare an author letter for my publishing team at Bonnier to present to buyers at retailers such as Waterstones with important background information on what inspired me to write When the Blue Moon Wakes, and why it was important for me to tell this story now.
I thought I’d share my answers below:
Why did you write this book?
As a Korean adoptee, I set out to write a story about the vast and turbulent history of my birth country—its founding myths, sweeping sagas, ancient customs and beliefs. What started off as a deep dive into my Korean identity soon became a morbid fascination with a very specific turning point in the lesser-known Three Kingdoms Period of ancient Korea. Specifically, the year 653 when Queen Seondok of Silla, the first female regnant of her time, was being challenged for her right to rule. The corrupt king of Baekje was about to dismiss a prophecy of his own downfall. The common folk were dying due to widespread famine, disease and drought. Meanwhile, the entire peninsula was about to be conquered once and for all. This period of social instability, political unrest, class greed, abuse of power, and matrilineal ascension came together to form the perfect storm for Shin-young’s story and her subsequent uprising in When the Blue Moon Wakes.
Why now?
In 2019, I was the recipient of the Wheelers Centre for Writing’s Kat Muscat Fellowship awarded to a writer whose work exemplifies the themes of defiance, empathy and feminism. With this fellowship, I was able to travel back to Korea to conduct important research for this book.
It was an exciting opportunity to revisit a country I hadn’t seen in years, and a shock to see how quickly it had changed. I was immediately struck by how Korea’s relentless desire for progress, development, and modernisation has led it to become the global face of consumer industries such as tech, RPG gaming, beauty, fashion, film, TV and music. But Korea is a country whose unique identity has always been shaped by hardship. From Japanese occupation, to the Korean War, to DMZ border disputes, all the way back to its countless feudal incursions with its neighbours. It is said that Korean people share a national spirit of grief called ‘Han’, borne from the pain, anger and suffering attributed to the nation’s long history of invasion, poverty and oppression. Therefore, When the Blue Moon Wakes is an attempt to both honour the global ‘Hallyu’ phenomenon, but also to pay homage to the country’s origins and to reconcile its unique national identity of survival and endurance.
In essence, When the Blue Moon Wakes is:
1) An ode to Korea’s founding stories
2) A love letter to my homeland
