Interview with Mike Chen

I knew as soon as I finished Here and Now and Then that I had to interview Mike about this stunning book. It brought me back to everything I love about science fiction that invokes emotions. To the Doctor Who episodes that inspired me to ask questions and believe. Without further ado, let’s get into the heart of the interview.

Summary

Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in IT, trying to keep the spark in his marriage, struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142.

Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives—eighteen years too late.

Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where he’s only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.

Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk. It’ll take one final trip across time to save Miranda—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.

I’ve already compared reading Here and Now and Then to how it felt watching Doctor Who, but can you tell me about your experience with the series. Which is your favorite doctor? What was your first episode, and what is your favorite?

I’m old enough to remember Tom Baker episodes on PBS as a kid, so I knew of the show. As a kid who ate up sci-fi in many different forms, it piqued my curiosity but the inconsistent viewing slots and the poor production values turned me off. So like most Americans, I discovered it during the reboot period. I’d heard plenty about it through the sci-fi grapevine, but I didn’t dive in until after season 6. My wife had random episodes recorded on our DVR, and I think just through nerd osmosis, I knew about regeneration and different actors, so I saw several out of order — I distinctly remember Army of Ghosts/Doomsday (those 3D glasses), Let’s Kill Hitler, and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. We eventually decided, as all good geek couples do, that we’d start from the reboot’s first episode. We churned through it pretty quick, just in time for the premiere of season 7 (Asylum of the Daleks).

At the time, both Netflix and Amazon Prime had the classic series. I adore the minutia of rich franchise canons, so having that type of rich history to dive into was like geek candy to me. When my daughter was born, my wife and I took turns doing the midnight feedings, and one of my go-to picks for 3 AM bottle feeding was classic Who.

I like to say that I love all the Doctors equally because they’re all DIFFERENT. Which is totally true, but if I was in the Master’s murder contraption and had to pick just one, it’d be David Tennant.

True story: I was at a dinner at WorldCon with a bunch of geeky writers and we were having this exact discussion and we all said David Tennant at the same time.

My favorite modern episodes would have to be David Tennant’s Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Damned and Peter Capaldi’s Heaven Sent. For the Library episodes, I use those to break in new viewers and it has always hooked them. As for the Capaldi episode, I love the sheer perseverance of it. When I’m having a shitty day, I’ll sometimes just thinking about the Doctor punching through that wall, crack by crack over a billion years.

For classic Who episodes, my favorites would probably be The Mind Robber (Troughton) and Genesis Of The Daleks (Baker).

Can you talk to me about a time in science fiction pop culture where you felt seen or represented? I’ve been thinking a lot about when I was younger and whether I saw myself reflected in the SF books and pop culture recently.

It’s not a lot, honestly. It’s changing of course. And I wrote a piece for Lit Celebr-asian exploring my own struggles with this. https://litcelebrasian.wordpress.com/2018/12/09/defeating-self-defeat-in-asian-representation-a-guest-post-by-mike-chen/ Much of it was unconscious, like the lack of representation doubled down on my own internal shame. I remember at PAX 2013 when I cosplayed as Glenn from The Walking Dead. I was in the con’s cosplay contest and when they asked who I was, I joked “I’m the only badass Asian guy on TV.”

Oh boy. (Yes, that’s a Quantum Leap joke.) That is tough because if I’m going as myself, then the stigma of being a POC would follow me. Even if I went to the 60s or 70s, it’d still factor in. So let’s assume that race was not a factor in my destination. If that was the case, I’d probably base my decisions on all the musicians and shows I wanted to see in their prime. Joy Division in Manchester, David Bowie circa Diamond Dogs, U2 on the War tour.

I mentioned my second book, currently titled THE PAUSE. We’re kind of just starting to talk about it now but I don’t want to unroll anything publicly until my publisher says go. So the very top level comp I can say right now is that it was pitched as STATION ELEVEN meets ABOUT A BOY, and it’s about a wedding planner, former pop star, single dad, and his young daughter as they cross paths after an apocalyptic virus has wiped 3/4 of humanity.

Here and Now and Then!

You still have time to pre-order a copy of Here and Now and Then and to get in for some amazing goodies:

1) A cool bookmark and a signed bookplate for the first 50 people to submit.

2) Bonus 1: 3 random submissions will be selected for a Kindle copy of any book by the lovely authors that blurbed my book: Fran Wilde, Delilah S. Dawson, Kat Howard, Michael Moreci, or Cass Morris.

3) Bonus 2: 1 random submission will be selected to receive a signed and hand-annotated ARC of HERE AND NOW AND THEN. Yes, that lucky winner will find out all the secret Doctor Who Easter Eggs and much more, all in my messy handwriting (sorry).

I think this book is fabulous and you can check out my review.

Discussion

Are you a Doctor Who fan? You know what question is coming….

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