Southern Fried Asian is back! This time, Keith is joined by New York Times-bestselling YA science-fiction author Marie Lu. Her new novel, Rebel, the follow-up to her epic Legend series of books, will be available in bookstores October 1 -- as will the graphic novel adaptation of her DC Icons story, Batman: Nightwalker.

Marie recounts what it was like moving from China first to New Orleans, and then to Houston (1:45) including those traumatic "lunch box moments" of childhood (7:30. Then, she shares her long journey toward becoming a writer, which started off in middle school (10:30) and took a brief detour into the video game industry after college (24:00). Later, she reveals how she fell into writing YA science-fiction novels, the importance of featuring characters of color in her stories (32:00), and what it was like writing Batman and returning to the world of the Legend trilogy with her new book, Rebel (49:00). Finally, Marie shares her Southern Fried food memories of dumplings and cajun food (54:00).

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Our official theme music is the song "Top Down" by Chops, Timothy Flu, and Mic Barz. Podcast logo by Jef Castro.

Southern Fried Asian is produced by Keith Chow and Jes Vu.