Author Interview: Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong

Thank you so much for joining us for this Q&A! We’ll start off with one of our standard podcast opening questions–tell us something great that’s happened recently.

I recently sold my first novella! It’s a sequel to a short story coming out in an anthology this fall. The publisher asked if I had a longer work for them, and several readers of the story told me they wanted to see more of the character and world, so it all worked out. I’m excited to get writing on it.

What are you currently reading or what’s up next on your TBR? What made you pick up this book?

I’m currently reading The Dawn of Everything. It’s a nonfiction book challenging the traditional narratives of history and looks at the question, where does inequality come from? I also just read two novellas and a novel I was asked to blurb.

If you could collaborate with any one author, who would it be and why?

Oh wow! This is the first time I’ve been asked that. I think I’ll go with Jonathan Hickman. He’s a comics writer and I loved the strangeness and scifi feel he brought to the X-Men, my favorite superhero team(s).

What is one thing that you love about the current state of SFF and what is one thing that you wish you saw more of?

I love the range of different kinds of stories that are out there now, and it’s cool to see indie published books get picked up and find break out success. It shows there’s a hunger among readers for stories that tend to escape trad pub’s notice - until they do well. I wish publishers would invest in authors’ careers, and give some more marketing dollars/effort to the midlist.

What are your favorite types of stories? Of characters?

I honestly don’t have a favorite type of story, although there are some I actively dislike. I don’t want to yuck anybody’s yum so I’ll keep those to myself. To paraphrase what Emily Dickinson said about poetry, I love when a story “takes the top of my head off” and that can come from a space opera, or a contemporary fantasy about friendship, or revenge or whatever. As far as characters, I love characters who are fiercely loyal to their friends. And ruthless schemers. The BFF and the Mean Girl are two character archetypes I have a lot of fun with. And artists! I love reading about, watching, and writing creative people.

Can you give us an elevator pitch for Down in the Sea of Angels?

It is a time-hopping dystopian fantasy about psychic powers, liberation, and our interconnectedness through time.

Down in the Sea of Angels incorporates a lot of real world history of the San Francisco Bay Area. In the acknowledgment's page, you mention some of the resources you consulted while working on this book. What was your research process?

There were a number of different elements to research for this project. The biggest one was the historical period of 1906 San Francisco. In my previous day job, I had the opportunity to look at documents from the era - newspapers, photographs, legal documents related to the trafficked girls and who “adopted” them. These were things in the archives or exhibits of the Chinese American Historical Society and San Francisco Historical Society. A book called The White Devil’s Daughters by Julia Flynn Siler was invaluable for learning about Donaldina Cameron and Tye Leung - two real life historical figures that are characters in my book, as well as to get a feel for the girls’ day-to-day lives. I also researched the technology of the time - electric lights, for example, did exist but were not common in homes yet. It was all still gaslight and lanterns. It was details like that I needed to learn about, as much as the big capital H History.The 2006 storyline was drawn largely from lived experience, but I did have to research a couple of data points regarding the amount of child labor in the rare earth mines at the time, as well as how much was produced by each country. The percentage dropped for how much cobalt was produced by the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 is from a spreadsheet I found that was an appendix to a report about mining operations.For 2106 I found a document prepared for the City government of San Francisco that included a map of the city with boundaries drawn reflecting projected sea level rise.In all cases I started with Wikipedia or Google, then followed links to primary sources. Some of the historical records I looked at were in person, as I said, in archives or exhibits.

What was your favorite part of writing Down in the Sea of Angels?

Finishing it, LOL!! I’m kidding/not kidding with that. Planning out the connections between the characters and dropping little details (like Nathan and his mother talking about the birth of his brother’s baby, for example) were fun.

We're seeing an interesting mix of dystopian and utopian futures in sci fi right now. How did you approach your version of the future of humanity?

I wanted something that seemed utopian at first glance, in terms of how people treat each other, but is still fucked up. The environment had to be harsher than what we have now - there’s really no way for it to not be, even if we collectively turned on a dime tomorrow and stopped using fossil fuels and making everything disposable. I didn’t want to present a straight-up utopia or dystopia, just something different to what we have now. To make the point that society is all made up and if it’s not working for most people, we can make something else up.

What comes first to you when you’re writing, the world, the characters, or the storyline?

The concept of individuals in different historical eras but are somehow connected came first. Once I determined what the time periods would be, the characters came next. This was an idea I first had in the late 90s and set aside for a long time. Once I knew who the characters were, it was very clear to me what their story arcs would be.

We learn about Li Nuan and Nathan's lives through Maida's psychometry skills. Can you talk to us about developing their stories to intertwine with Maida's?The process was less developing their stories to intertwine with Maida’s, and more crafting Maida’s story to connect with theirs. Each storyline was developed more or less independently, then in the revision process I folded in details to connect them - like the silk the cup is wrapped in, and where it came from, for example - and the flashes Maida gets when she’s not touching the cup.

Whales play a huge part in Maida’s development in the post-Bloom society. Are there any other animals with powers in this world that didn’t make it onto the page?The implication is that all mammals had been affected by the Bloom. There is a subset of psions that specifically communicate with animals, but the story didn’t really call for that to be depicted, aside from the whales. Some monkey telepathy would have been fun to show, or cats. But the plot didn’t call for that.

How different is the final version of this book from the first draft?

The very first draft was all vibes, no plot, and with a completely different set of characters. The first draft of this version had the basic structure set, with the alternating perspectives. In the editing process Danny’s character got filled out more, there was some relationship drama with Nathan and Remy that was too distracting and off-topic and got cut, and I added in more of Li Nuan’s life after the quake and fire, into her old age. I also changed tenses. Maida’s chapters were originally in present tense, and Nathan and Li Nuan’s were in past tense, but then I thought it would be cool if those historic chapters were in present tense - because when Maida uses her ability she’s witnessing the past as if it’s happening now. And I made her chapters past tense - like she’s relaying to the reader what happened. Except for her final chapter which is in present tense - linking the future to the past in the now. So those were the major changes tackled in the editing process.

Do you have a favorite quote from your book that you can share with us? What about this quote in particular makes it your favorite?

My favorite quote comes from the end of the book: “For all the differences in our material vessels, we are the same spirit-stuff, the spark of life, the blaze of consciousness. We have a duty to it, don’t we? How much more can we heal this world? How much more beauty can we make? How much more gratitude can we pour out into the sea of our existence, the roiling in and out tidal cycles of our lives?” It pretty much sums up what I was trying to say with this story.

If you were a psion, what power would you have? Is that different from your favorite power?

Telekinesis! And it is different than my favorite power(s) which are phasing (making one’s body immaterial so that it can pass through solid objects or vice versa) and teleportation.

In your opinion, what kind of reader would like this book?

An adventurous reader who likes genre mash-ups and doesn’t demand complete adherence to established tropes. A reader who appreciates meaning arising from association rather than linear logic. Readers who appreciate “window” type stories rather than “mirror” type stories i.e., they like reading about lives/people different from themselves to learn something or gain insight into their own reality, as opposed to wanting to see/insert themselves as the main character.

What would you like readers to take away from this book?

That we have far more in common than we do differences, even if on a surface level we all lead different kinds of lives or are different kinds of people. That every person should have the right to self-determination and make for themselves the life that they want. That favorite quote above says it all, really.

Is there anything you can tell us about any current projects you’re working on?

I’m working on a secondary world fantasy right now, but I don’t want to say any details about it publicly just yet. After I finish the first draft of that one, I’ll be writing the novella I mentioned at the top of this interview.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! Do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to leave for our readers?

If you love a book, tell your friends and drop a rating or review or shout about it on social media! And if you don’t do those things, don’t be afraid to shoot an email or message via website contact form to authors whose books you enjoyed.

And finally, where can you be found on the internet if our readers want to hear more from you?

I’m @khanwongauthor on Instagram and threads, and @khanwong.bsky.social‬ on Bluesky and my website is khanwong.com

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About the book:

An intense and thoughtful time-hopping dystopian fantasy where three individuals, psychically linked through time, fight enslavement, exploitation, and environmental collapse. A great read for fans of Emily St. John Mandel.

In 2106, Maida Sun possesses the ability to see the entire history of any object she touches. When she starts a job with a cultural recovery project in San Francisco with other psions like her, she discovers a teacup that connects her with Li Nuan, a sex-traffificked girl in a 1906 Chinatown brothel, and with Nathan, a tech-designer and hedonist of 2006.

A chance encounter with a prominent political leader reveals to Maida his plan to contain everyone with psionic abilities, eliminate their personal autonomy, and use their skills for his own gain. Maida is left with no choice but to join a fight she doesn’t feel prepared for, with flashes of the past, glimpses of the future and a band of fellow psions as her only tools. She must find a way to stop this agenda before it takes hold and destroys life as she knows it. Can the past give Maida the key to saving her future?