K. X. Song: On Writing a Sense of Place for People Who Feel Placeless

K. X. Song is a diaspora writer with roots in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Raised between cultures and languages, she enjoys telling stories that touch on collective memory, translation, and the shifting nature of memory and history. An Echo in the City is her debut young adult novel.

You can learn more at kxsong.com. Also, follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

In this post, K. X. Song shares how being raised between cultures and languages helped inform her writing, her sense of place, and what she hopes readers get out of her writing.

Name: K. X. Song
Literary agent: Peter Knapp, Park & Fine
Book title: An Echo in the City
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release date: June 20, 2023
Genre/category: YA contemporary
Elevator pitch for the book: An Echo in the City is about Phoenix, a student protester and photographer, and Kai, a police officer in training from mainland China. The two meet when Kai is assigned to spy on Phoenix due to her involvement in the protests, though nothing goes according to plan.

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In the case of An Echo in the City, the idea for this book came to me through setting. Hong Kong in the summer of 2019 was an electric, scalding place. Through story, I wanted to somehow capture that dynamic energy, and the vibrant, beating pulse of the city.

People often say change is hard, or even impossible, but that summer, it felt like change was not only possible, but already in motion all around us. It felt like we could do anything, everything. Of course, since then, much has changed, but for those who were there, I wanted us to remember, and for those who were not there, I wanted to write a bridge, a way for readers to feel like they were there too.

I know many western readers may not be familiar with what was going on in Hong Kong at the time, apart from a few media headlines, and so for those readers, I hoped for An Echo in the City to serve as an introduction point, rather than as a definitive conclusion on history.

I got the idea for the novel in the summer of 2019 in Hong Kong. My sister was involved in a nonprofit that was helping coordinate demonstrations, and while spending time with them and their friends, I started to see a different side of the city that I didn’t often see with my family.

After going to Shanghai that fall, and then to the States, it was jarring to see the differences between how the protests were talked about in both American media and in mainland Chinese media, versus how they were talked about in Hong Kong. I wanted to try to bridge that gap and write something that added nuance and depth to the ongoing international conversation.

The idea changed and didn’t change. Certain things like Phoenix’s childhood in America, I added to make her more relatable to American readers. Other aspects of the novel, such as Kai and Phoenix’s relationship dynamic, the ensemble cast of characters, and the ending remained largely the same.

Regarding timeline, I started writing the book in the fall of 2019, but didn’t get serious about drafting until the pandemic hit in 2020. We sold the book at the end of 2020, and I went through edits with my editors from 2021 to 2022. And now the book is finally coming out in 2023! So about three to four years, in entirety.

What surprised me was how many iterations you go through in the traditional publishing process. I revised the novel first on my own, then with my agent, then with my three different editors, and then at last with my copyeditors.

There was a moment in the winter of 2021 that I still remember with fondness. I had finished reading through my first round of pass pages, and I was driving home from a coffee shop admiring the Christmas lights on the trees and feeling a tad emotional. I kept thinking about my characters and how this would be the last time I would read through the book from beginning to end; it felt like a real goodbye.

Little did I know only one month later, I’d get a second round of pass pages! (Goodbye didn’t come until much later.)

The book is a dual point of view novel between Phoenix and Kai. I thought Phoenix would be easier to write; she is optimistic, stubborn, impulsive, but brave—a classic young adult protagonist. But actually, Kai was the point of view that came easier for me—melancholy, anxious, indecisive, and self-deprecating. His journey and growth as a character was one that I never needed to force; it came as naturally as water rolling downhill.

As a first-generation immigrant and someone who grew up traveling between cultures and countries, I often felt a guilty claiming certain places as “home.” In the West, I felt awkward calling myself American. In the East, I felt disingenuous calling myself Chinese. Ultimately, what helped bridge that loneliness were stories. Stories that embraced this intangible otherness, framing it not as a barrier but as a gift.

Since then, I’ve met many other diaspora kids who often experience a comparable sense of alienation growing up. I hope that readers who feel similarly stuck in liminal spaces can read Phoenix and Kai’s story and resonate with their struggles, whether it be through the question of where one belongs, or who one belongs with, or even of belonging itself—and how one can endeavor to make sense of their place and purpose in an ever-changing world.

I have a sticky note on my monitor that reads, “Trust the process. Trust the progress.”

When you’re stuck in the middle of a manuscript, remember that it’s a journey; there are many iterations; this draft is only one of many. I trust that even though I don’t know where I’m going right now, I will one day, and that day will come.

In other words, even though it may feel far, far away at the moment, someday you will have a finished book in your hands. Just keep writing!

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