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#ItsPersonal III 84. Remy Lai on her new book, childhood and hobbies! image

#ItsPersonal III 84. Remy Lai on her new book, childhood and hobbies!

It's Personal Podcast
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9 Plays4 years ago
Remy Lai is an author/illustrator for kids! She lives in Brisbane, Australia, where you can often find her exploring the woods with her two dogs, Poop-Roller and Bossy Boots! On this podcast you can listen to Remy talk about her childhood growing up in Singapore (Born in Indonesia). She also shares some of the ups and downs of being on more untraditional career paths as her siblings and family members. Talking to Remy, you will find many things to love. One thing that stands out for me the most is her passion for kids lit and making each child that holds up her book smile. Website: https://remylai.com/index.html Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rrremylai/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Remy_Lai Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemyLaiBooks/
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Transcript

Introduction and Guest Introduction

00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of It's Personal. The last book I wrote is heavy. All right. Hey, Gary. This is DVD to boy. My name is Randy Riebein. My name is Jared Krizovska. I don't think I'm a person that curses a little heart and just comes out to educate me. I'm excited. Hi. Hi,

Ravi Lai's Published Works

00:00:21
Speaker
everyone. I am Ravi Lai, and I'm an author and illustrator.
00:00:28
Speaker
three books, two books out so far. So the first one is Find the Sky and the second one is Fly on the Wall. So both are pros and graphic novel hybrids. So it looks like it's got text, but it also has lots of pictures like that. And then my next book that is coming out in May is actually a full graphic novel and it's called Pocasso.
00:00:55
Speaker
And it's about a dog. It's super fun. The colors are done by Sam Bennett. The colors are really beautiful. And then it's actually inspired by my dog, which I might show you here. Hold on. So cute. So cute. So yeah, that's me.
00:01:24
Speaker
That is awesome. I'm so excited again just to talk to you because I have so many questions for you outside of the, I guess, world of writing and drawing books.

Caring for Aging Dogs

00:01:38
Speaker
What do you like to do for fun? Well, I walk my dogs a lot. I jog with my dogs. I've got two. You've met one of them.
00:01:52
Speaker
But they're getting on in years. They're kind of 10 and 11. So they're kind of slowing down. So I'm actually looking into getting a stroller for them. So then I can push them around and they can still go for walks.
00:02:07
Speaker
that's not really weird but I can't just leave them at home and not walk them and I've actually been trying to find so because I've been having like writing and drawing as a hobby for a really long time before I got published but now I'm doing writing and drawing full-time then I kind of needed to find like a new hobby which is actually really hard to do and then so recently

New Hobby: Playing Piano

00:02:32
Speaker
Recently I got, I picked up the piano. So I got a piano, like a digital piano and I'm very very slowly learning it. It's really hard because music is really not, I really I can't do music but that's why I kind of chose music because I like it but that I know that I'm so bad at it that I don't have the pressure to be good so I allow myself to do it at a really slow pace and I have no like
00:03:00
Speaker
huge ambitions for it like I have to stay for fun so that is amazing that is so cool good for you good for you and I think my other question for you is when we talked about it briefly before we pressed record like how are I always I'm always mindful of this question because I know that everyone's story is different but because of the times that we're in in regards to the pandemic

Pandemic Life and Family Challenges

00:03:25
Speaker
How are things going with family? Is this a situation in Australia? So, Australia, we have actually still been doing in-person school visits. We're actually still allowed to do that. And for my state and for most other states in Australia, life is pretty much almost normal.
00:03:49
Speaker
um except for travel um and then there are periods where we have to wear masks but usually not we don't have to and um but the thing is I my family lives in um in Indonesia so I I usually visit them once a year but I haven't been able to um so it's like last year I couldn't and then so I this year it looks like I I can't either um because it's really hard
00:04:18
Speaker
be allowed to go out and then because when I return it would be really hard for me to return to Australia because of the hotel quarantine and the limits on the number of incoming travelers so that part is really quite hard but aside from that we've been really lucky here yeah life is pretty much normal yeah yeah and I think it's one of those things where

Multicultural Upbringing

00:04:44
Speaker
I know I'm from Nova Scotia and again I mentioned this before but there's certain places that tend to have been able to jump on the idea of just like what it could look like for their countries and their provinces and they've been able to manage it well and some countries have been a little bit unlucky in regards to just the number of people that are there, the cases that come in, it's just a really
00:05:08
Speaker
hard time right now for everyone. So I'm just happy to again be here and talking with you and to learn more about you outside of the awesome work that you do on paper for children. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about just your background growing up? So maybe you can start as little Remy in the house growing up with maybe your family.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah, sure. So I was born in Indonesia. And then when I was about nine, I moved to Singapore. That's where I grew up before I came to Australia. So I learned English when I was nine years old. So every year, actually, I still go back to both Indonesia and Singapore to meet my family and my friends.
00:06:05
Speaker
It's really hard making friends as an adult. Most of my friends are friends that I made back in primary school or high school back in Singapore. I have four siblings, a huge family. I'm the middle child.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, what else would you like to talk about? I don't know if I told you, but I taught in Singapore for four years, both me and my wife. And we loved Singapore so much.
00:06:40
Speaker
The efficiency was just like mine like it just was so crazy to us like we love efficiency but like Singapore efficiency is just very different than anybody else's efficiency but we love just like the way they really drive innovation like in regards to the infrastructure and just the things they bring to
00:07:03
Speaker
the country in itself, like every day we would walk outside, we were down in different areas, we would see new things. And it was just a very cool place to spend four years and get to know. And the people, it was just really, really lovely. So I love that we have a connection there.

Singapore's Culinary Scene

00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I did not do like
00:07:27
Speaker
The food? Oh my god. I love the food. Yes, like I absolutely and one of the things I love about the food in itself is that there's so many different types of food that you can get and like you can get some of the best food from like just a hawker stall. Like it could be it will be the best food that you've had like in any place in the world and it comes from like a hawker stall where there's like a mom and a dad or a grandfather
00:07:55
Speaker
and like a grandson or whoever it is just like a family restaurant that has been there for years and they just they're just cooking right in front of you the most beautiful dish that you like you've ever had in your entire life and I just love I love it that you can do that in Singapore it's one of one of my favorite things to do is just go to a hawker stall and just have a meal there yeah I love the food
00:08:23
Speaker
It's so good. What do you what do you what in regards to let's I love talking about food. Sorry in regards to in regards to food In Australia, I'm trying to think like well, what does that look like for you? Like do you guys have places where you can get that same feeling like Singapore or even Indonesia?
00:08:44
Speaker
In Indonesia, you can. We have like roadside stalls. We don't actually have pockets, but maybe food courts. We have food courts like in Singapore. So the food in Indonesia and Singapore would be kind of similar. And then in Australia, you probably wouldn't, you can't find like the same kind of food, I guess. We have like
00:09:12
Speaker
maybe farmers market sometimes and they would have like food stalls and that. But they're generally pretty pricey. And yeah, like if I want to get, what did I say? In Singapore, maybe I would get like stingray. Have you had like two stingrays? No. Are you talking, is it like chili crab or is that different? Well, there's, there's chili crab also, but chili crab is like expensive everywhere.
00:09:43
Speaker
But stingray, stingray is like a lot cheaper. Yeah, like you can get stingray from like a hawker, a hawker's salt. It's so cool. It's funny. I took my mom to have chili crap, my mom and my dad, when they came from Nova Scotia. And it was just, it was so fun, so much fun. They had like the big kind of like, I don't want to call it a bit because it's not a bit, but it's kind of like the big thing.
00:10:14
Speaker
And I mistakenly ordered like, my mom does not like hot food like at all. So I mistakenly ordered like two like relatively hot chili crab instead of one with like tomato paste.
00:10:34
Speaker
Okay, imagine. Lots of food in Singapore is spicy. And that's why I love it. That's exactly why I love it so much because it's so spicy. Can you tell us about your schooling when you did your schooling in Singapore,

Learning Languages in Singapore

00:10:48
Speaker
you said? Yes, I did.
00:10:49
Speaker
What was it like in Singapore? So when I was in Indonesia, I was a really terrible student. But when I moved to Singapore, because when I moved, my parents sent me and my sisters there. So I kind of realised because of the exchange rate for the currency, I realised that my parents actually spent a lot of money to put me there.
00:11:16
Speaker
And so I realized maybe I should be more responsible. And I kind of started studying when I was in Singapore. So I got pretty good grades when I was in Singapore. And I also, so that was when I learned English for the first time. And then also I took Mandarin. Because you know how you have to do like a... I don't know if they still have to do it now, but you have to do like a second language. They do. They do. So my mom made me take Mandarin when I want to take Malay. Because Malay is very close to Indonesian. So like,
00:11:46
Speaker
I wouldn't have to learn much like I already knew it. But my mom made me take Mandarin and it was like the hardest thing in the world. I was so mad at her. But now that I'm fluent in Mandarin, I really thank her. Yeah, because I know I can really appreciate the language.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah and I also, so in Australia we also have uniforms and Singapore also have uniforms and I actually really like that so that I don't have to like think about what to wear to go to school every day so yeah.
00:12:18
Speaker
wow wow it is interesting because I was in well I taught at an American school so I know it's very different probably from your experience but one of the things I loved about the school that I was in I think maybe just international teaching in itself was just
00:12:35
Speaker
like the variety of people and I thought that's what I thought a lot of just in general in Singapore is just like a variety of people from lots of different places whether it was expats people that have been living there for their entire lives and then there's little pockets of places like
00:12:54
Speaker
Even though it feels, I won't say it feels segregated, but like even though there's spots in Singapore like Little India, Chinatown, etc. I actually really loved that opportunity was there for me. Like one of my favorite streets was like Haji Lane and you could just
00:13:11
Speaker
go there and you could eat and you could drink and you can see friends and it's just I don't know there's so many little pockets like that in Singapore that both me and my wife just love so much and we appreciated that because it seemed like they're really trying to bring lots of different people together and that was the sense that we got while we were there yeah it was it's such a cool place it's such a cool place yeah and so the schools that I went to were
00:13:42
Speaker
I don't know how you call it, not international schools. So they were like a local. So I kind of grew up as a local and like, I speak English. So nobody could tell that I wasn't, I was Indonesian. Like they just took me as Singaporean because
00:13:58
Speaker
I speak that way. Now, right now, you can't really tell because I'm in Australia, but whenever I speak to a Singaporean, it just takes me like a little bit of talking to them before I switch automatically back to English. And I just, I really need that language. I love it. I love that. I love that. And I guess my other question... Can you speak English? I can't. I wish to know.
00:14:20
Speaker
I wish I could. I really wish I could. And that's what I think one of the cool things about I think Singapore in itself or maybe just again international schools like you I taught I teach third grade but then I have kids in my class that teach her that speak like three four different languages
00:14:38
Speaker
And then on top of that, they're going to Mandarin or they're going to Chinese and they're learning another language on top of what they already know. It's just so, kids are just so impressive. And I wish that I would have paid closer attention in French class when I was in Canada.
00:14:56
Speaker
I know, like, zero French. My wife knows French, but yeah, I think another thing that I love about Singapore is just, like, the language. The language is there as well. And Slinglish is so cool. I think it's such a cool way of, like, giving a country in itself. Like, this really, like, it's only certain people know Slinglish and they are able to understand it as well. So I just love that. Yeah. Yeah. And I find, like, that certain words in Slinglish are
00:15:26
Speaker
that if this doesn't exist in English, I don't know, maybe I don't know, you know, shock. No. No, you have to go back to Singapore. Don't judge me, please don't judge me.
00:15:48
Speaker
So tell us what are what were some of your things that you'd like to do growing up in regards to activities? Like what would your family like to do? What would a family outing look like? So I actually still because I moved to Singapore I actually moved without my parents so it's only me and my sisters and then later my brothers but at first without I was without my parents so

Family Trips to Indonesia

00:16:11
Speaker
But whenever during school holidays, I get to go back to Indonesia and spend time with them and with my parents. And my dad works a lot. But on weekends, we get to drive out to the countryside, just to visit the countryside, I guess. I don't actually know what we do when we get there. But I remember long drives in the car. My dad driving long drives. And then we would stop along the way to buy
00:16:41
Speaker
the snack that I was sold at the roadside. Yeah, I don't actually know where we go. Where do we go? And yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. And then in school, I was really, I was pretty good at sports in school. I did netball, which is a Singapore thing, which is also an Australian thing, but doesn't exist in America.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, so I did netball and then later on I also did cross-country. Yeah, I think that's it. It's busy and you also had siblings, right? Yeah, I do. I have four siblings. Four siblings. So that must have been a busy house. Yeah, very busy lot.
00:17:31
Speaker
So, yeah, are you in the middle? Are you one of the oldest? Yeah, I'm in the middle. So, I'm like at the right age, like age gap with everyone, to fight with everybody. Because you know how like my oldest sister never fights with the youngest one because the age gap is too big. Remi, were there other authors or illustrators in your family? No. So, the funny thing is my sisters and I,
00:18:01
Speaker
when we were little, I think we all drew. So we like to do, my mom would give us chalk and then we would draw on our wooden door. That's like our blackboard, sort of. But then as we grow older, I was pretty much the only one who kept drawing. My sisters kind of dropped out of it, they lost interest. And then so I was the only one. Yeah, and right now I'm the only one who is in the art industry.
00:18:29
Speaker
So one of my sisters is a scientist, and then the other one, and then my other sister and my brothers, they're all in business.
00:18:38
Speaker
Wow. Wow. And do you feel like that's like a talk to other illustrators and authors? And to be honest, like the majority of the people that I like to talk to based on experiences are people that are from like the global majority. So they
00:18:59
Speaker
definitely they come from like the BIPOC community so they're people of color and the stories sound so similar like yours in regards to being one of the only ones in your family that have
00:19:15
Speaker
taken on like illustrating or being an author. And I wanna dig into that a little bit just because I think that is such an interesting topic and I wonder what that process was like for you in regards to just like support being a little bit different. I think also with illustrations and being an author, like it doesn't happen
00:19:44
Speaker
so quickly, like you don't necessarily just go to school, get your papers, get into a job right away. So take it. I personally believe that it is harder. So what was that process like for you? And what did the support like support look like for you? Yeah. Yeah.

Art Career Journey

00:20:05
Speaker
It was harder.
00:20:08
Speaker
I'm gonna be honest here. So because sometimes kids in school, when I go to school and then kids ask me like, are your parents okay with you being an author? And then I look at them and I want to say that they're okay, but they're not. And I kind of want to be honest with them just in case those kids parents are not okay with them, like wanting to pursue arts. So I didn't know that I wanted to be an author or illustrator until I was in college. It just didn't occur to me.
00:20:37
Speaker
I guess because it wouldn't occur to most Singaporeans, I wouldn't say. Just because it's not a career path that is stable. So most parents, I'm generalizing, but most parents wouldn't want their kids to be in ours because it's unstable. It doesn't pay very well, I guess.
00:21:02
Speaker
And like in school you're always kind of taught to like get good results become a doctor become a lawyer or something like that so it just didn't occur to me and then and because
00:21:15
Speaker
I got good grades, I'm bragging here, but I got really good grades. So yeah, so I did dentistry actually for a bit. I knew that I didn't want to be a doctor. But then I thought maybe dentistry is working with hands. Maybe it's something that I might enjoy. So my mom was really happy about that because, yeah, you're finally a doctor in the family. But I kind of, after a few years, I kind of realized that
00:21:45
Speaker
I was miserable and I didn't want to continue. And so I dropped out until my mom was really mad. And so my dad at this time wasn't in the picture because she passed away before that. So yeah, so it was also, I felt so much guilt for giving up.
00:22:10
Speaker
I guess the opportunity to be a doctor. Um, my parents worked so hard to send me to school overseas and everything. So it was a lot of guilt. Um, and then after that I, I studied fine art. Um, because I, by this time my mom had like given up on me. So I think she would be like, okay, do whatever you want. Um, but, um, so she was unhappy, but I know that, um, like,
00:22:39
Speaker
She wants the best. She wants me to be happy also. But I guess it took her a long time to see that I could possibly be happy doing that. I don't know how I want to say this. But obviously, it took me a long time to get my first book deal and everything else.
00:23:03
Speaker
I also worked as a dog groomer because when I started Fine Ads, I couldn't actually get a job with that. I worked as a dog groomer for years before I actually got my book deal. I think my mom is happier for me now, but she's still worried because this is still
00:23:28
Speaker
a pretty unstable, I want to say, compared to, like, others. Of course, of course, of course. I think everyone's journey is different, right? I think there's also
00:23:41
Speaker
joy and pleasure in the journey at times and there's obviously hard stuff right as you mentioned and sometimes the hard stuff unfortunately has to do with family right because family I think honestly they do it my personal opinion because they love you right they really want you to be successful and when
00:24:04
Speaker
things are a little bit unconventional. That's when they start to feel a little bit worried of anything, right? I think that's life. I think it does show a sense of care and a sense of love, though at times, obviously, for you, it's like pressure and stress and all those other things as well. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you.
00:24:28
Speaker
I have just a few more questions for you, OK? And I think one of them is just around, I guess, your process of how you got to where you are today. And I think you talked about how, for a while, you weren't doing the writing, or you're doing the writing, and you're working with dogs. I think it's important for people to hear about just
00:24:54
Speaker
that journey in itself because it doesn't just happen overnight. How did it happen for you? Like, what was the process for you? Was it submitting certain manuscripts? Was it sending in different illustrations? What was that process for you? So I set it out actually writing
00:25:22
Speaker
graphic novels and drawing them, of course. So I would submit.
00:25:27
Speaker
I tried Australian publishers because many of them still have certain days of the month where they're open to agent submissions. So that's what I did, but I never got any replies back. So I didn't even know whether they read my thing. And I just wanted someone to read it and tell me maybe what's wrong with it. So when I didn't get replies, I then looked
00:25:55
Speaker
to the US. So I didn't look for agents here because most agents here are closed to query. So the only way to get them is through referrals. So you need to know somebody and I don't know anybody. So I look to the US where you can code query agents. And that's what I did. And I got lots of suggestions.
00:26:22
Speaker
And I think that's important to know because like, again, like we said, it doesn't happen overnight. And you have to often trial and error. Like, I think artists in general just tend to work. They use trial and error as like a way of their processing and their way of finding what works for them in regards
00:26:42
Speaker
to the art that they create for the world. And it just takes longer, right? It just naturally takes longer to write something or to draw or paint or color. It's just how things are for the most part. I want to thank you so much for hanging out today.

Social Media and Upcoming Projects

00:27:00
Speaker
Where can people find you online? Well, I'm on Twitter and Instagram, but I'm really not on Twitter.
00:27:11
Speaker
Like I mostly on Instagram, but it's easiest to find me through my website, ramilai.com, which has links to my Instagram and my Twitter. Awesome. Awesome. And you mentioned it earlier, but I think I'll, I want you just to mention again, what can we look forward to with you coming in the future? Yeah. So, so my next one is,
00:27:38
Speaker
It's just coming out in May and it's about this dog which looks suspiciously like my dog. He carries a basket, a shopping basket and he goes grocery shopping and I'm actually, I can show you this, I'm actually so finding a bunch of special Picasso book plates that look like that.
00:28:02
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that's so awesome. Yeah, because we can't travel so everything is done through mail and stuff. That is so awesome. And I have a series of young reader graphic novels coming out next year also. Wow, so you're obviously very, very busy. Which is the way I like it.
00:28:28
Speaker
And I think, thank you. Yeah, thank you. And I guess for me, this is just a personal question. Like, how long does it take you roughly to do a graphic novel? Like, unless, I guess, yeah, I know this is like a very broad question, but how long does it take you roughly? So the writing process for Picasso was pretty quick. I think it only took me a few months, which is
00:28:55
Speaker
um unusually fast for me usually it takes longer and then the drawing I say takes six seven months um this is like a 220 page book um
00:29:10
Speaker
But I didn't do the colors. So if I had done the colors, it would have taken me so much longer. Yeah. Yeah. And I noticed that as well with a lot of illustrators that the first book or second book, like they'll do the colors and the drawings. And then the third book, it's like, yeah, I'm going to not do the colors for this one. Then because it takes so long and if you can delegate some stuff, then you can do other things. Of course. I 100% agree with you. Thank you so much.