We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Egao Chan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Egao, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

Before coming to the US, I have already been writing novels and short stories ever since primary school. Writing stories has become a hobby of mine, and one I put on hold and picked up multiple times.

I re-embarked on my writing journey during the pandemic. At the time I was suffering from content drought, like many others. I was having a hard time finding anything I could enjoy on all fronts: movie theaters, streaming platforms, novels and stories I found on the internet (in English and Chinese). And it was at that time I decided to start writing seriously again. Because I want to entertain myself, and maybe share the wonderful (in my own mind) stories with others.

But due to the kind of stories and themes I like to write, I found it difficult to keep writing web serial novels on Chinese platforms like I did before. So I made a decision to write in both: one serial novel in Chinese, and one in English, posted on two platforms. The Chinese serial was posted on Qidian.com, and the English novel was posted on Royalroad.com.

This lasted for almost a year, I wrote everyday, usually during evenings. Five days a week I wrote in English, and two days a week I wrote in Chinese. This eventually burnt me out slightly, and I’ve decided to cut one of the project. After consideration, I put the Chinese novel on hold and to continue with the English project.

It was a challenge at first, for though I am quite confident in my English, I have never written long stories or novels in English before. But I’ve decided to stand up to the challenge. In the process I got to know some wonderful people in the writing community online. I’ve learned a lot from them, which gave me more confidence in my endeavor.

I don’t know if I’ll ever become a famous, successful writer or even just live off my writing. This is because I am fully aware how fierce the competition is and how saturated the market is. But I am confident I have what it takes to succeed. I can’t seem to stop having weird and interesting ideas, some epic, some funny, some weird and nonsensical. I named my Substack “Showers, Nightmares and Poop Breaks”, because these are the three occasions where I have most of my story ideas. Even today, while I am writing a web serial with a dark setting, I am also working on some other stories with other stories with interesting settings lined up.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an indie writer, I do two sets of businesses: web serials on free websites, and I am working on some indie novels and novellas I’ll self-publish on self publish platforms like Amazon KDP.

The main genre I write in is Xianxia and Wuxia, which are Chinese fantasy genres. Xianxia is a genre slightly similar to the fantasy genre with magic systems in the West, with their own Eastern themed magic systems and fantasy world settings. Wuxia is a genre surrounding martial arts, where the main characters are all practitioners of martial arts.

I also like to blend other elements, such as paranormal and horror in my stories. My horror styles are inspired mainly by Japanese and Korean ghost stories, older Hong Kong ghost/vampire movies by masters like Lam Ching Ying, and traditional Chinese paranormal stories like those chronicled in Liaozhai.

My first novel in English, Xianshi Inn, is a Xianxia novel, and the main characters are cultivators (you can imagine they’re Eastern battle wizards/magical warriors). And the web serial I am working on now, named Poison City, is a Wuxia story in modern setting.

I chose the online moniker “Egao Chan” because “Egao” means “parody, satire” in Chinese, and Chan is my family name spelled in Cantonese style, while also being the word used on cute and interesting things in Japanese.

Most of my stories are free to read on RoyalRoad and Scribblehub, and recently I self-published a YA Fantasy “Lime’s Fable”, an Eastern styled Isekai fantasy.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to create stories I would enjoy as the reader. I want to share my stories that people can find joy in. This has always been the driving force behind my writing. I love the stories that I create, and I hope others will enjoy them too.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

NFT as a technology itself is quite interesting. It provides a way for different information systems to verify the uniqueness of a digital asset, which will have some interesting use cases in the future. One thing I imagine it to be useful will be it serving as digital currency/item tracker for decentralized MMORPGs. The opportunist market fervor kind of ruined it. But I believe the technology will have its uses in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://egaochan.substack.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EgaoChanWrites
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Egao-Chan/author/B09VF3WS52 https://www.royalroad.com/profile/179412 https://www.scribblehub.com/profile/39664/egaochan/

Image Credits
Cover for Poison City: @theskyscribe on X Cover for Lime’s Fable: duzhiyu on Fiverr Character Drawing for Lena the dual gun wielding detective in upcoming novel: https://linktr.ee/SpoopySamuel