Did you have a chance to read Lilansui's A Rescued Life for our November CSR Featured story? We had a lot of time, so I hope readers enjoyed the 50k tale. If not, well maybe this interview and the reader comments below will help motivate you to check it out. Make sure you leave your comments and review for Lilansui, who promises to pop in throughout the day/night as possible.

Single people often have more time to write. Are you single?
Yes, I’m single. . It is a source of stress sometimes, but most days I enjoy it. On the more time to write, I think it depends on what is going on in my life. I have a full-time job that keeps me on the move. I often use the hours between office projects to write, or I write deep in the night while the world sleeps around me. If life events happen, the writing time suffers more than my job since I have to make a living…Moan…but otherwise that’s life as a single woman. When I’m shunning writing and responsibilities, you may find me procrastinating in pajamas, and lazing in bed having a really bad hair day listening to music.

Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point?
I do make my bed in the morning. It’s great coming home to a neat home, so I do my best to make my bed every morning. Unless I’m not going anywhere all day, then I stay in the bed all day, and in that case, I don’t make the bed. (These lazing around days are hard to come by lately; I selfishly guard them when they happen.)

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
When I’m not writing, I go out visiting friends and family, which can mean some extensive travel, as I am not always living close to them. When am home, I’ll bake, go swimming, or laze around the house doing absolutely nothing. There is peace in doing nothing too.

What brought you to GA?
I love reading as much as I write. So, some years back I was following Cia’s stories on another site, and when I had read through everything, and was reading Hypnotic she’d stopped updating for a long time. I wanted to know the ending and thought she might have posted elsewhere, so I searched online and found her work on GA. That is how I found the site. I was a non-participant at the start, reading without signing in, but I ended up registering. That is my ‘Found GA’ story, Cia’s stories brought me. I loved the community, and it gave me the courage to post my first story…it was harrowing making that choice to post, but I did it, and haven’t stopped posting since then.

What’s the best part of being an author for you?
I’ve always written. Coming up with characters in my head, and making them go through life…that’s always been second nature to me. However, as an individual who has known what it’s like to write alone, and what it’s like to share stories with people, I believe and feel the best part of being an author is getting a surprise email from a reader asking, “How are you doing? That story you’re writing, I love it, and when can you finish it?”. It doesn’t seem like much, but I find that simple connection is the best part of writing. Having someone, even if it is one person, read your work and encourage you to keep going, or even comment on what they find interesting or not. This kind of support is priceless and precious, so I am most grateful for my readers.

Do you have any writing rituals?
I have this corner in my house, right by the window in the living room. I have set up a desk there, and that’s where I write. I always get the best stuff written in that corner. Of course, good earphones, and music that inspires the muse are a must. I suppose that’s the ritual, listening to music and writing in that particular place.

Did you find it more or less challenging writing a story set in the US?
I will say it was both. It was more challenging because I had to research extensively…more than when my characters are people in cities I live in and know, going through cultures I know. I was nervous trying to portray a man living in the small town of Penn Yan, and was afraid readers would say ‘well, that’s not how we do things’. I rechecked facts, and freaked out when I had to write Jason’s scenes because of this fear. His scenes saw many rewrites. It was also less challenging in terms of writing Toshiro, the deposed gangster in New York; there were no rules, anything could happen. I could let Toshiro explode on paper and see what happened next. That was liberating.

Many stories contain a scene or character aspect influenced by a real life person or event in the author’s life. Can you share one or more from your story?
Hmm…on characters: there is Sakura. I have a friend who is tough like Sakura, not as unfeeling or cold, in fact, my friend is a very warm person, but she is also very tough because of her experiences. She can beat a guy up if he causes trouble for her…and I often admire her strength. . Of course, as I’ve said before, Mako, the final villain…was a mean girl in my school days.

As for scenes influenced by a real life person…when I was writing this story, I went shopping with someone very close to me. We were walking down the aisle and I noticed this person putting all these things in the cart I preferred, and that just made me pause, that this person would know that without me saying anything, I think it is a very special thing. Usually you have to tell someone, oh not that peanut butter, I prefer this one because….hehehe so, I included it in this story.

You give Toshiro a lot of challenges to overcome in his back story and in the story itself. How did you keep his character “real” to keep him from being too much of the turned-to-good hero facing his evil past cookie cutter type?
Toshiro’s story starts with him left for dead, which to me felt like he was a man who didn’t have anything left to lose in life. At that point, he was beyond low, beyond…he just had nothing. To keep him real, I used this template in my mind. From that point, Toshiro’s sense of loyalty, his sense of gratitude, and even his thoughts on life would be different from someone who has always had a secure and comfortable life. The challenge now lay in discovering how this perspective would look like. I relied a lot on Jason as my compass to draw Toshiro from the grey area. Toshiro’s salvation would always lie in his relationship with Jason because anyone in Toshiro’s life would lead him deeper into the grey area. It was a challenging enterprise…and many deleted scenes, but I think it came together without him seeming like a hero.

Do you have a favorite part of A Rescued Life? Why or why not?
There are many favorites in this novel but if I were to choose two, they would be:
The scene where Jason visits Toshiro in the hospital when he brings Toshiro newspapers. Jason takes off his silver chain to show Toshiro what he does, and Toshiro decides to keep the flawed silver chain because it is like him. The conversation they have there is my absolute favorite because it is the reason why Toshiro later comes back to Jason.

The scene where Yuriko tells Toshiro his real name. I thought that moment would be profound for any mother who had lost their child as she did. Meeting this stranger she loves so much and not knowing what to say but the truth in her heart…I cried writing it.

Runner-up would be the little getaway from the hospital coz it was fun to write.

What other projects are you focused on now?
I recently completed A Healing Heart which was the second project following A Rescued Life. Now I am focused on writing A Haunted Love, which is ongoing here on GA. I have also promised someone I consider my little brother …to post something new, so I have been writing a short story. I’m hoping it will go into the December GA ‘Blackout’ anthology. I hope I make the deadline, if not, I will post it on its own when it is ready. I am always writing, so if you come upon an unfinished story on my list, please know I will finish it. This year has been especially busy, so I’m struggling with the writing a lot, but I’m fighting through the logistics of real life and working to give the characters in my head time.

Thank you for this feature.

I actually didn't know I led Lilansui to find GA, but I'm glad I did! Okay readers, don't forget to leave your thoughts and comments below.