I start with a theme, such as coming out, the theme of my first novel, and then I plan out the novel. I’m a big movie fan. I love the cinematography of a movie so I imagine how the book would look like it if it were filmed. The opening scene in my book we meet Austin, and his parents moving to Southern California from Hong Kong on a mundane summer day in the Valley. It’s hot but the intense sun is filtered through the pollution, casting a sheen on everything. I imagine the soundtrack to the book, in this case 90’s grunge music. And the setting, which in the book is my hometown, a suburb like where many of my readers might live. The familiar suburb setting grounded the story since there’s so much fantasy in the story.
After I come up with the draft I start writing. Usually, at night before I go to bed or at random times of the day, scenes will come to me—I’ll seem them like I’m watching a movie—and I write them down and add them to the outline of the book. Some of the best scenes in Magic, Monsters and Me, came to me out of the blue!
A lot of times, I have an idea of how the story will end, but I’m always surprised by the journey my characters take me on. The ending in Magic, Monsters and Me developed over the course of the book and was different from my outline and I think it came out really great.
Finally, after I write the whole thing, I go back and edit. A creative writing professor I had in college told me to write out the first draft without stopping then go back and edit. She was so right. If you’re too rigid when writing you can block your creatively and get stuck with the dreaded writers block. And if you write too much you go back and edit out stuff that doesn’t push the story along.
Do you have a writing schedule or do you just write when you can find the time? I’m all over the place when it comes to writing. Ill write during the day, late at night, in the morning or whenever a scene pops up in my mind and pulls me to sit down and tease it out
2.What does your family think of your writing? We’re a family of readers. My aunt was a screenwriter and one of the first female producers in Hollywood. My grandma wrote short stories growing up. My mom loved to write poetry as my brother does. My family is pretty happy for me to be published, especially since my Mom wanted to be published but was never successful. I plan to work on her novel and hopefully get it published on her behalf someday soon.
- Do you have any advice for all the aspiring writers out there? Keep writing, even if you give up and put it aside. Start again and keep pushing forward. Don’t listen to the naysayers, your story is inside you, help it flow through you and onto the page. And don’t think you have to go to school and get a degree in English to be a writer, or attend fancy writing courses or even make a career out of writing. If you have a great, unique and marketable story you can get published. It’s okay to write as a hobby.
4.If you could trade places with one of your characters, who would it be and why? I’d love to be Elijah Delomary for a day and live in the big, rambling mansion and be able to summon candy bars on command.
- If you had your own talk show, who would your first three author guests be and why? Kevin Kwan, his “Crazy Rich Asians” trilogy inspired me to start writing after a long break. Benjamin Alire Saenz, who’s book “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe compelled me to write my own LGBT YA book. L. Frank Baum, I was an avid reader of his Wizard of Oz books growing up which inspired my own magical world.
Sixteen-year-old Elijah Delomary loves the City of Angels. The sunshine, the palm trees, the ocean. He especially enjoys battling the monsters infesting the dark corners of the vast metropolis.
As he starts his junior year at Burbank High School he meets a new friend, Austin who also fights monsters to keep Angelenos safe. As their friendship develops and love blooms, Elijah’s arch nemesis Devlina reappears, threatening to use magic to destroy the world.
Elijah must now juggle pursuing his feelings for Austin, meeting the lofty expectations of his affluent and influential family, and fulfilling his destiny to combat the forces of evil and save his hometown.
Warnings: Bullying, racism, homophobia no HEA cliffhanger
Publisher | Amazon
Timoteo is giving away a $20 Amazon gift card with this tour:
Feng shui was important to Austin and his parents. They believed it helped center their family and keep them grounded and safe. Austin and his parents were descended from a long line of Magicals called Glimmerers who could tap into a glimmer of magic and twist, turn, and manipulate it as if it were hot ore being turned into a sword.
Coaugelus, as they were known in the Old Language, the mother tongue of the Magicals, were a class of warriors. They defended Magicals and Ordinaries, or humans without magic, from dark forces, creatures, and monsters that lived in the dark shadows of Earth—a place called the Gloom.
Coaugelus, Magicals, and Ordinaries lived in the light in our world, also known as the Shimmering. Everywhere that the sun touched was part of the Shimmering. Austin, his parents, even the people driving by in cars, walking their dogs, and watering their lawns shimmered and lived in the light.
Long ago, the Gloom and the Shimmering met face-to-face in a great war that killed and destroyed countless Ordinaries, Magicals, and monsters. The war raged on and reached a crescendo. A Pàcifimenta, a treaty among Ordinaries, Magicals, and the Gloom was signed. The war ended. Peace settled over the Shimmering and the Gloom.
Still, many in the Coven, the collective of monsters in the Gloom, did not agree with the Pàcifimenta. They didn’t like that they had to sacrifice feeding on Ordinaries or haunting, possessing, or simply terrorizing them. Others wanted power to control the Coven, and to defeat the peace created by the Pàcifimenta. Some creatures didn’t like peace as part of their nature. These monsters were fought by Coaugelus like Austin and his family.
Austin loved three things in life: playing soccer (known as football back home in Hong Kong), listening to grunge music like his dad, and fighting the Coven. For Austin, being a Coaugelo gave him a purpose in life and a place where he felt like he belonged. He particularly enjoyed kicking, punching, and using Xem Sen Ou, the ancient martial art from Minerva in Old Earth in the Seventh Dimension where all Magicals came from.
He also fancied his PlasmX, a purple plasma staff that folded into nondescript metal object akin to a lighter that he always carried with him. He had used it only last night while hunting down a group of rather angry werewolves, or Malloupus, that were attacking tourists at the night market in Kowloon. Austin enjoyed watching the pure purple plasma slice through the heads and arms of werewolves that were in the middle of reaping the souls of innocent Ordinaries.
Austin loved saving Ordinaries from monsters.
“What’s our assignment?” Austin asked his parents.
“Trouble is breaking out within the Coven here in Los Angeles,” said Austin Sr.
Austin and his family spoke with posh accents, a holdover from when Hong Kong was a colony of the UK. “We’re here to investigate and report back to XAQ2,” continued Austin Sr.
“Bleedin’ hell,” Austin complained. “XAQ2 are wankers. Full of rules. Can’t we simply report to the Anti-Coven League and be done with it?”
“Xutactiendo Allégansa Qu’elicallen Duzo have moved more operations of the League from the clandestine to the legal,” said Austin Sr.
“What does that mean?” Austin asked.
“The Alliance is strained and weakened. As leaders of the Alliance, the Còngréhassa are trying to placate their counterparts in the Coven and maintain the Pàcifimenta. Part of that entails relying more on formal procedures. The League works in secret, whereas XAQ2 works through formal channels as the official body of the Alliance.”
“Tossers,” Austin said. “XAQ2 can all go to hell as far as I’m concerned.”
Austin glanced at his parents, who were standing beside him holding hands. His parents were madly in love, even all these years later. He wanted to be in love. He was going to find it—here in Burbank where he’d have four passions: soccer, grunge, being a Coaugelo, and being in love with a cute, wonderful, and smart boy. That was Austin’s secret.
Coaugelos shouldn’t kiss other boys, or so some said—at least, the old-timers in the Alliance. He didn’t care what they thought, but he worried what his parents would think. They were his best friends.
Austin fought and traveled all over the world with his parents. He was worried that if he told them his secret, they wouldn’t understand or accept him anymore. Losing the closeness with, and love of, his parents would hurt more than the bite of a Qu’muqa, a monster with green scales and ten mouths on two heads.
His parents worked as agents for the Anti-Coven League. When they got a new assignment from the League, they took on new day jobs for cover.
“What jobs are you supposed to be doing?” asked Austin.
“This time around, I manage a highly profitable import-export business specializing in Chinese antiquities,” responded his mother.
“Jolly right you are,” Austin quipped. “How many bloomin’ vases do we have?”
Austin Sr. frowned. “Too many,” he observed.
“What about you, Dad?”
“I run a gas station somewhere called Van Nuys,” Austin Sr. said.
Austin glanced at his mom and dad. “Looks like you got the shit job this time, eh Dad?” he said.
They all laughed.
“I ran a nail salon in Bangkok last time for six months,” Austin’s mother said. “I hate salons.”
“Yeah,” his father said. “I had to collect garbage in Berlin for a year. Remember?”
“How could I forget the smell? I had to be a maid in Buenos Aires.”
Austin tuned them out. This was one of his parents’ games: try to top each other in who had the worst fake job while they were out in the field fighting monsters for the League.
Austin caught sight of his cousin Barnhard “Barn” Wong strutting up the street toward him and his family.
Barn was Austin’s best mate. His father was Austin’s uncle. Austin was an only child, as was Barn. When they were together, they acted like brothers.
Barn waved, jumping up and down. Barn was always full of life and energy. Austin loved being around him. Life was better around his cousin.
“Oi, Kangs!” Barn shouted in Cantonese.
Austin noticed a red-haired boy with brown eyes and a band of freckles on his nose walking next to Barn.
Austin’s heart melted. He was the most beautiful boy Austin had ever seen—from Mumbai to London to New York and Tokyo and Sydney. He felt the universe shift inside him. He could feel the boy pulling him in as if Austin were a satellite circling the Earth.
Austin liked that feeling. His parents orbited each other, and like them, he wanted to circle this boy—forever.
Barn and the red-haired boy parted ways. Austin watched the boy walk across the street under the canopy of jacaranda trees, disappearing into a four-story white stucco Spanish colonial mansion.
“What’s my assignment?” Austin asked as Barn arrived, pausing to hug his uncle, aunt, and Austin.
Barn was affectionate and loved hugs and kisses, or smooches, as he called them. “Reconnaissance with my mate here? Hunting down Àzmadus? Orgmas?” Austin continued.
Barn high-fived Austin. “Let’s destroy monsters!” Barn exclaimed.
Barn was a Coaugelo like Austin. Barn’s extended family owned the Wong Aero-Magicals Corporation that made the PlasmX in factories in Chicago, Tokyo, and Bangkok as well as other equipment used by the Alliance to fight the Coven.
“You’re just a high school junior,” Austin’s mother said. “You need a break from hunting and fighting. You need to have fun!”
“You need to be a boy,” his father echoed.
“Killing monsters is fun,” Austin responded.
“Really fun, Auntie!” Barn added. “Austin can train at the Dáu Xhà, the dojo with Dáumo Máurso, the sensei.”
“Who?” asked Austin.
“He’s an Immortal—Mars, the God of War. He runs the best Dáu Xhà in the world. You’ll learn the most powerful Xem Sen Ou with him,” explained Barn.
“Oi,” Austin said, “training with an Immortal. That’s amazing.”
“He’s amazing,” Barn said. “He’s nearly ten feet tall, a knot of muscle, and his voice makes the earth tremble.”
“Sounds a tad frightening,” Austin admitted.
“He’s the God of War, mate,” Barn explained, nudging Austin in the side with his elbow.
“Fair enough,” Austin replied.
“He likes cats—he has a dozen at his home. He also likes hot dogs—a lot—and slushies,” Barn said.
“Yuck,” Austin said, rolling his eyes. “I hate slushies.”
“Let’s go to the Dáu Xhà after you drop your stuff off,” Barn said, “So I can introduce you to Máurso.”
Austin glanced expectantly at the moving truck, the boxes on the sidewalk, and his parents.
“Go,” his mother said in Cantonese. “Have fun, boys! And no killing monsters!”
“Oi,” Barn said, already ignoring his aunt. “There’s a poltergeist at Dirk Delomary’s department store in the mall—third floor, women’s hosiery. We can destroy it after we get hot dogs and hang with Máurso,” he said. “And I know a cute girl at Chicken on a Stick who’s an Encantreina. She can turn satay into powerful silver daggers that will kill any monster.”
Austin grinned. He loved Burbank already.
Timoteo Tong grew up on a quiet street in Burbank, a suburb of Los Angeles located in the San Fernando Valley. He dreamed of one day living in a Victorian mansion with many rooms filled with antiques and artwork. He imagined himself fighting monsters.Timoteo grew up and began writing stories of a family of fighters battling monsters to save humanity.
Timoteo currently lives with his husband and a plethora of houseplants in San Francisco. He enjoys reading, writing, drawing, naps and binge watching TV. He loves cheese pizza, Pepsi and Vans.
Author Website: https://www.magicalsalliance.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/timoteo.tong
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