Reflections on my Half-Blood Mage Cover + Diversity in YA fantasy Novels
My debut novel, Half-Blood Mage is finally out! To celebrate, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek into some of the decisions I made along the way... especially the decisions regarding Lia's race and my cover design. Should Lia be Asian? Honestly, I debated whether to make Lia Asian at all. Her "Asian-ess" (in this case, I imagined her to be half-Taiwanese, half-Caucasian) doesn't really have anything to do with her story. She doesn't speak another language. I don't really bring up her multiracial upbringing that often. And her mixed-background isn't super important to her story arc. Lia could honestly look like anyone. Or have any background. The only key feature she needed to have was heterochromia. But here's the reason why I made Lia Asian: I'm Asian. My parents are originally from Taiwan. And I married an Asian man. So I've experienced life through a very Asian American perspective. Su...
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