In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are highlighting stories written by Asian and Pacific Islander authors. Today's interview is with AnnamitaMuscaria, whose story reached Round Two Qualifiers for ONC 2023.

About the Author: Anna is a survivor of many things and a devoted mother of two. She is also French at heart and Vietnamese by blood, and somehow she ended up writing online stories in English.

About 'Hell Is An Empty Heart': The Hymn of Demeter Retelling. Up in the sky, in a world between myths and lies, once lived a daughter caged on an island.She was Persephone. The beautiful Persephone, whom every Olympian god wanted to marry. They all wanted her beauty to conceal their darkest secrets, but only Hades managed to take her to his realm.He dwelled below the earth across the river Styx, between Tartarus and the Isle of Blest. No mortal could see his forbidden land until they passed away, just as one could only see their real self through his eyes.But when Persephone's grieving mother, Demeter, came close to killing all the mortals, Zeus, her father, was forced to get her back.What else could prevent Persephone from returning to Demeter for good?

About 'The Wattpad Game': Diallo is poor but gifted with the ability to tell great lies. After a bad afternoon with his friend Paul in which he nearly ends up in jail, the pair rely on fate to change their lives."Let's play it with a coin!" He says. "Flip a coin. Face: our stories are put on Wattpad; tail: you'll be in jail by the age of twenty-one. At the same age, I'll most likely die of an overdose." Paul then pulls his car over at a green light and looks me right in the eyes. "Do you dare?" 

About the Main Characters: Anna's two Asian protagonists don't appear in the blurb, but they play an essential part in the story; one of them is Emilie Do. She is the daughter of parents who escaped Vietnam, like many did because of the war, to find refuge in France. Her story is really based on Anna's own experience growing up in the Vietnamese community in France, where the first job you have as an Asian (which is kind of sad) is in a restaurant. Her parents desperately want her to become a doctor as a means for her to escape the lives they had. Then there's Tran; he dropped out of school and works at his dad's grocery store (again, another reference to Anna's upbringing, in which those shops play a central part in Anna's community). He is a smart hacker who burns with confidence and fears nothing. He is also always dressed in the latest fashion. Anna specifically wanted him like that because Asian male characters in mainstream are just often geeks or people whom the others have fun of which is so untrue because we also come in different shape and form.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I'm Anna. I'm a full-time mother of two who has created stories since childhood to survive emotional abuse. My first story idea was a manga fanfiction of Sailor Moon when I was 7 years old. Please don't judge; we all have to start somewhere. More than giving life to my imagination, I used to have my own comic on Instagram while working for a solid 8 years in the fashion industry, and I now use my knowledge to help others with their own book covers here on Wattpad. Apart from that, I love cycling, cooking, and making clothes for my children.

2. How do you identify within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and how has your heritage shaped the person you are today? 

That's a tough question, as I'm half French, not American, but it works the same way, I guess. Growing up in a western country with Asian parents was hard. It is only recently that there are Asian characters on TV, and before that, I felt ashamed of my Asian background, especially because my parents gave me an European name and I was never properly taught my own language. I can only speak it, not write it, but this is something I plan to do later on in my life with my own daughter. Other than that, there are lots of foods from my childhood that I tried to teach my kids to cook and to know, but I think what I am most proud of about being Asian is that it's true we never grow old, but most importantly, I think we are resilient people who never give up against the adversity, and you can see that so much during COVID with all the racisms going on and yet no one talks about it. It's a double-edged sword because no one shared their wounds. I had my parents looking down when I told them people ran away from me because I was coughing or that the far right had nearly arrived to take over France's government. This is not something I want to teach my kids; I want them to know and be proud of their roots. They are multicoloured, and so is the world of today, with no place to hate. I don't tolerate hate in any kind of forms, and neither should they.

3. Does your family have any traditions that are important to you? Feel free to share at least one experience here! 

In Vietnam, we have "cooker day." As bizarre as it sounds, on that day the cooker had encenses all around and we don't use it for a whole day. It's good because it shows that we are grateful for things. Of course, Chinese New Year, we have red envelops with money in but most importantly for me, it's the deluge of food and family gathering.

4. If you could introduce something from your culture to someone else, what would it be and why? It can be a tradition/custom, food, music, or anything else that comes to mind! 

It would be food; I just love Vietnamese food because it's all my childhood, and if I wasn't writing, I could be a food critic, as no restaurant can beat the homemade food. So here are a few of my favourite dishes: Nem cuốn or fried spring rolls; some called it summer rolls, but for me, it's Gỏi cuốn. You can recycle the Nem cuôn into Bò bún too for the next day, and then there is the famous Pho soup for winter and the Chao ga when you're sick.

5. What does AAPI Heritage Month mean to you? 

First, I'm embarrassed; I didn't know that such a thing existed, but I'm proud of it. I'm proud to be part of such a big community, and I hope that those who read this interview will share the same feelings as I do. I also hope to meet other half-Vietnamese writers on the platform. So far, I have only met one, winterlyheights. 

6. How do your experiences as an AAPI author shape your stories? Do you take inspiration from your culture to tell your story? You may talk about 1-2 stories here. 

Not in my WIP, which is a Greek myth retelling, but in my ONC (I hope to make it to the longlist at least, so please support me). My ONC protagonist met this online character who turned out to be a French Vietnamese girl, and the thing nowadays with the internet is that it's easy to hide yourself and be yourself at the same time. My character Emilie Do used the platform to share her own story via a book she wrote, and she also lives as she pleases there because she doesn't have the control of her parents on it. It's her secret garden. So through her, I told a lot of things that happened to me and others as how Asian parents want the best for their child to free themselves of what they are ashamed but also how western society see us. Secondly, the fetishing of Asian women—I won't give any spoilers but Emilie will pay a high price for saying no and that applied just not only to asian women and yet, we don't talk about it.

7. What is your favorite myth or legend? Why? 

Not Mulan, nor the myth of Persephone, but maybe the legends of Maui and the Hawaiian folklore that Disney brought back recently with Moana. As to why, it's just because it's a new breeze into my knowledge. I love myths and legends because people used their imagination there to answer questions they didn't have the answers to, so all in all, it's just beautiful that these stories survived for that long.

8. If you could have the same powers as a creature and/or deity from mythology or legends, what would it be? Why? 

I want to be Demeter from Greek mythology, just because it is so rewarding to be able to grow your own food to feed others, and there is no other goddess like Demeter. We're talking about a woman who single-handedly defeated Zeus, and to top it off, one of her equivalents is Amaterasu, another badass goddess.

9. What is your advice for other writers who want to use mythology in their story?

Do a lot of research and submerge yourself in it; study the many different subplots, subtleties, and interpretations; and don't put yourself down if someone tells you that you're not accurate. It's your own reimagined version; the second you write about it, never give up on those stories; they are timeless.

That's it for the month, it was fun getting to know about AnnamitaMuscaria. You can check her stories featured in our reading list as well as her other works. If you're interested in learning more about other AAPI authors, check out Myth & Legend's AAPIHM reading list here. 

Until next time!