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 Exequinne, whose story was an Open Novella Contest 2022 Longlister.

About the Author: Caeran is a twenty-something, Asian author who has nine cats---all of which don't exist. A builder of worlds and a crazy writer at heart, they have titled more series than they could ever write. Find completed and ongoing works on their Wattpad profile, Exequinne. 

About 'Piper: The Gods of Dansarun': When the walled city of the gods, Dansarun, opens its doors for trade, Xuijae's ruling clan sends its perfect representatives: the troublesome prince, Kai-Se, who wants nothing to do with palace life, and Nao-Zai, the stern soldier from the warrior clan assigned to protect him.With them stuck in a royal tour neither of them wants to be in and with Nao-Zai's near-perfect track record hanging in jeopardy, Nao-Zai and Kai-Se must settle their differences before their mission takes a difficult turn.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself! 

My name is Caeran and I use they/them pronouns.

I am the mastermind behind the expansive Chronicles of Fantasilia Universe, that is composed of the Main Series and followed by a horde of spin-offs.

Kolibrie, a post-apocalyptic story about a woman disguising herself as a bride to the demon prince in order to kill them and free her people, won Third Place in the Open Novella Contest in 2022, which is still a massive surprise to me until now.

I am also responsible for the creation of The Piper of Mirchaek Trilogy, whose third and final book is currently being uploaded one chapter daily on Wattpad. My other works include standalone fantasy works such as Scapegoat, Libelle, When Last Night Didn't End, and The White Thorns of Fire. Contemporary fiction stories from me include my favorite trauma baby, Manila Sunsets With You, Forever the Same, and Jaq of All Trades. There are more works incoming but these are the ones up in my profile as of this interview.

I also have a separate Wattpad account for my poetry, which you can find at @accidentallysof.

You can see from the things I spouted that I write—a lot. I have a 13-novella spin-off series with 350k words and I wrote all that in under four months in 2022. I have more works incoming than I'd like to admit, and my writing queue stretches on to infinity. My average, unimpeded word count for a day is averaging around 6-9k words. I'm secretly not human and been a bot the whole time.

Other facts about me that are now writing-related include: I'm a math major taking up a math and science teaching degree. My favorite animals are alpacas. I identify as agender, asexual, and aromantic. My favorite artists of all time include Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Ben&Ben, Moira Dela Torre, AURORA, Sleeping At Last, Anne-Marie, RADWIMPS, December Avenue, MAMAMOO, YOASOBI, Elina, Mimi Webb, Zedd, and Adele.

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

I'm not Asian American, but a pure-bred Asian from the Philippines. To answer the second part of the question, I'm going on a full lecture on the Filipino value system. First, we put emphasis on humor and positivity (to the point of it being toxic at times) and value adaptability and resourcefulness. That's why we are able to adjust to any situation/circumstance and how we're able to assimilate well with any culture. We are creative people and are able to find ways to survive and thrive despite several limitations in society or politics. Finally, we are known to place our value on hardwork, as well as hospitality.

Looking at the ones I enumerated (while totally not looking through a Wikipedia page explaining my own culture), I guess all of them are found in my primary ethos in life. I am resilient because I have been shaped to be able to find humor in absolutely anything and become resourceful to work around stuff. These also reflect in my attitude in writing, where I am able to "survive and thrive" in the midst of real-life responsibilities, volunteer work, and studying in university. I also inherently value hardwork so much that I became a workaholic and was able to write chonky amounts of words in so little time.

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

We do! If you are still not familiar with how Filipinos celebrate Christmas, I'm going to give you a brief preview. Christmas in the Philippines start at September, because it's the start of the "-ber" months. It will only stop at around November 1 to give way to the All Saints' Day (Todos los Santos or Undas), basically, the Day of the Dead. Then, after that, it's Christmas all the more because November is closer to December.

And come Christmas, it's a truly festive time for everyone, starting from December 1. Every family has a different Christmas tradition in their own homes/extended families, and there's really no fixed method of celebrating like how we cook adobo. My family celebrates Christmas by cooking together, spending the whole day/week together, and buying a once-a-year Netflix subscription and bingeing on everything we wanted to watch for the whole year. Movies have always been our bonding time as a family and it only gets intensified during Christmas since everyone's home.

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! 

The concept of using tabo. To other cultures in Asia and some parts in Africa, this may not seem like it's something new, but to the rest of the world, it is. Basically, a tabo is a tool used to scoop out water after either relieving oneself or during a bath. We don't usually take a "shower", and a "bath" for us means washing ourselves with water from the tabo taken from a larger receptacle (called timba or palanggana, depending on diameter and height). And...yeah. Most cultures find it weird that we don't use toilet paper all that much (we have so much here during the pandemic!) and honestly, I prefer water over TP because of obvious reasons. Haha. 

5. What does AAPI Heritage Month mean to you? 

It means that, as an Asian (but not necessarily American) creative, I have an avenue to speak, to be heard, and to share what I have created with the world.

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. 

I haven't really used Filipino culture in my stories yet. But, in The Chronicles of Fantasilia Universe (COFU), there are some worldbuilding details that are based on either the good parts of Filipino culture or some of the bad ones. One example of that is when I described the state of Cardina (the human territory) and the nigh-abandoned Disfavoreds region, it's actually a reflection of Philippine society where there is a huge, huge gap between the rich and the poor. Some political undertones of COFU also stems from my own commentary on the current (and past) political climates of the country.

The only thing that really touched Filipino culture is my favorite trauma baby, Manila Sunsets With You. It's nowhere near about myths, but hear me out. MSWY is a contemporary coming-of-age novel that tackles what it's like to live as a low middle-class citizen in the Philippines. Because most of the stories on Wattpad about the Philippines all talked about CEOs and billionaires or at least those that belong to the higher middle class towards the wealthy class, but the ones talking about the struggles of the lower middle class to the poor are somewhat nonexistent. In the novel, I also went through the cultural and historical climate of the Philippines, taking the reader through several historical events like occupations from 3 different countries and how the country has changed since then. Finally, since it is a novel about the Filipino experience, there are vast explanations and exposure to all things Filipino, like the concept of pasalubong and pagmamano.

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

It would be the myth of the Bakunawa and the Seven Moons. There are a ton of versions and it's probably one of the most famous Philippine Myths of all time, but the gist is that Bakunawa, a sea-serpent deity, grew envious of the Seven Moons' beauty. Now, the moons were the creation of Bathala (the Tagalog Supreme god, kinda like Zeus) and when Bakunawa wanted them for their beauty, it erupted into a battle between the two deities. In the end, Bakunawa was able to swallow six of the moons and before it could swallow the last, the Filipino people banged pots and pans, emitting loud noises that scared the serpent into regurgitating the moon back.

It's my favorite because there's so much intrigue into the myth and it can be open to interpretation as to why Bakunawa wanted to swallow the moons in the first place. There's literally one variant that says Bakunawa had a sister and the humans killed her out of fear (she's a giant sea turtle that brings in the tide), and because of that, Bakunawa swallowed the moons. And there's tons more and it tickles my mind, especially when it has a lot of series potential. I'm a fan of series, of the number 7, and of course, powerful and legendary beasts like the Bakunawa.

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

That would be Anagolay, the pre-Hispanic Tagalog goddess of lost things. She is said to exist in the very fabric of everything, thus making her able to find all that is lost. That's a pretty rad power since I'm known to misplace a lot of things if I'm not careful. Besides, being able to find any lost thing will be such a good fit for me since I'm very curious and had a dream to become an archaeologist during my ill-guided teenage years. And fun fact: an asteroid is named after her!

Outside of Philippine mythology, I would want to have Hades' power because I love all things dark and mysterious. Isis and Bishamonten take the next place, and I blame my addiction to Rick Riordan's books and the anime Noragami.

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

As someone who has never really tried it apart from mere imitation and inspiration from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese mythologies for The Piper of Mirchaek Trilogy, I would say this:

Research. Do tons of it. Get all of the books you think that would help. Read, read, read. Be sure to understand the culture the mythology belongs to as well, because belief systems, culture, and society go hand in hand.

Be sensitive in your representations and be careful of your own biases/preconceived notions about the mythology you are using. Talk to people who belong in that culture, if it doesn't align with your ethnicity, and ask for their opinion about stuff you want to feature. If you belong in the culture where the mythology is from, then you owe it to your people to do proper reflections of it.

Finally, have fun. World mythologies are something I'd give a lifetime to study because they're so damn interesting. When writing things about mythologies, the most important thing that will matter in the long run is how passionate you are about learning all its nooks and crannies, and in making them come out through your stories. I'm truly looking forward to the time when I would be able to write a series about Philippine myths.

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