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Books & Literature Editor Ruth Anderson had a chance to spend five minutes with Christian fiction author Camy Tang.  Check out how Camy came up with the Sushi Series as well as the inspiration behind the characters so involved in her stories. Who is Camy Tang? Camy has loved to write ever since Junior High.  In 2003, Camy felt God’s calling to write again, and she’s been loving every minute. She’s learned so much about writing technique from books and articles on the web, and from the writers’ websites and groups that she’s joined. As of right now, she is active in American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW, formerly American Christian Romance Writers) and the Faith, Hope and Love chapter of RWA (Romance Writers of America).  Her writing has been heavily influenced by her interests: reading and action/adventure movies and shows. She is addicted to the TV show “24,” and will watch anything with Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat and Jackie Chan. KEY: Ruth Camy Tell me about your latest release, Only Uni, and the concept of the Sushi Series. Here’s the backcover blurb: Will Trish Sakai be able to follow her three simple rules and hold out against two gorgeous guys?  Trish Sakai is ready for a change from her wild, flirtatious behavior. And her three cousins are anxious for her to change, too. Trish is always knocking something over, knocking herself out, and taking hard knocks in her perpetual confusion about men.  When Trish’s ex-boyfriend, Kazuo the artist, keeps popping up at all the wrong moments, Trish decides to be firm with herself. She creates three simple rules from First and Second Corinthians and plans to follow them to the letter. No more looking at men! No more dating non-Christians! She will persevere in hardship by relying on God.  Except now Kazuo is claiming Trish is his muse, and he can’t complete his major work of art without her. And a gorgeous coworker is reassigned, bringing him in daily contact with Trish. But her cousins are determined to hold her accountable to her plan. She thought three rules would be a cinch, but suddenly Trish’s simple rules don’t seem so simple after all. The Sushi Series grew out of reality—unfortunately! I took the stories my friends had told me about their various relatives who wouldn’t leave them alone about their singleness, and I rolled those traits up into Grandma Sakai.  The four cousins were harder to come up with. I actually started with Trish, and originally the Sushi Series was going to start with her story, called THE CORINTHIAN RULES. It was HORRIBLE. Zondervan liked the concept, however, and asked for another story to start the series. So Lex’s story was born. That’s the manuscript that went through publishing committee, but I had proposed an altered version of THE CORINTHIAN RULES as another book in the series—heavily reworked, of course.  The funny thing is that after editorial revisions to Lex’s story, Trish’s story changed a bit. ONLY UNI is quite, quite different from the original CORINTHIAN RULES manuscript. Your tagline is “Romance with a kick of wasabi.” How does that relate to you and your writing? Well, I’ll admit I love raw fish. Sushi and sashimi are foods I grew up with, being Japanese American living in Hawaii (hello, FRESH FISH!). Wasabi is traditionally served with sushi and sashimi, although I don’t like it quite as much as my dad (he piles on the stuff when we go out to eat—it’s almost embarrassing). When I was trying to come up with a “brand,” I liked writing romance, but with some ZING! to it—some humor and sass, a bit of an edge, not traditional or sweet. And I immediately thought of wasabi, which never fails to clear my sinuses. I always keep my tagline in mind when I write—there’s always romance, and there’s always humor and sass. In what ways, if any, are you similar to your heroine Trish? I’m as dingy as she is! It wasn’t hard to write that aspect of her! LOL I also was a biologist before I started writing full-time. Most of Trish’s procedures in the lab in the book are taken directly from things I actually did when working for biotech companies. If Trish had a theme song, what would it be? Actually, I had a theme song I played while writing Only Uni that I thought captured Trish’s passion in worship and passion for life: “From the Inside Out” by Joel Houston (Hillsong). What novels are you reading right now? DARING CHLOE by Laura Jensen Walker (this book has me in stitches so far!) PETTICOAT RANCH by Mary Connealy (also has me in stitches!) Thanks for visiting. Any parting comments? Thanks so much for having me here! I’d like to let people know that I have a website contest going on right now, where I’m giving away five boxes of Christian fiction books! You have to be a member of my newsletter YahooGroup to enter, so join today:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Camys_Loft/join Thanks Ruth! More information on Camy Tang and her Sushi Series novels can be found at http://www.camytang.com http://thebridgelive.net/index/475/

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