Interview with Flights of Foundry Guest of Honor Wendy Xu
We’re hosting a virtual convention this weekend, May 16th and 17th, called Flights of Foundry, and we’re so excited because it’s almost time! We’ve got a ton of great content lined up that will be going almost 24 hours a day, including panels, interviews, seminars, workshops, and more. If you want to check out our schedule, go here. And when you decide you absolutely have to attend, you can register for the con using this link.
We have a whole heap of Guests of Honor that we’ve invited to attend the convention to give you insight into the world of professional writers, artists, translators, and editors in the speculative genres. Today one of our Guests of Honor, Wendy Xu, is here to do an interview in advance of her attendance.
Dream Foundry: You’re a professional illustrator and artist with a lot going on, how do you balance the business/promotional/administrative parts of an art career with the demands for actual creative work and professional development?
Wendy Xu: The creative work always has to come first, especially my books under contract. I’ve streamlined the business/admin parts so that they are as painless as possible (auto-payouts from gumroad and patreon, scheduling posts ahead of time, putting a tip jar link under whatever drawing I’ve put up that day etc). I honestly don’t care for constant self-promotion, it’s annoying for me to do. So I yeet things onto the internet when it’s self-pubbed and check back a few times, and try not to think too much about it. Because I already got paid to do a book that is under contract, and that has to come first.
I go to conventions first and foremost to work and maximize income, which allows me to live comfortably enough to continue doing what I do. So I tend to stick to local, New York based stuff for professional development, or conventions that other people have told me good things about.
DF: What kinds of choices, if any, did you make around controlling your brand and style to keep it consistent and how do you incorporate that with new interests and techniques?
WX: I don’t. Everything I’ve ever read or watch or experience in my life will factor into my work somehow. I like to be versatile. I don’t like being shoehorned into a single “brand”. I practice different techniques and try a lot of new things, all the time. I talk about birds a lot, I guess.
DF: While you’re working do you prefer silence or do you need a soundtrack? If you prefer silence, do you have any techniques for getting it under current circumstances? If soundtrack, what are some of your favorites to play while drawing?
WX: I like Studio Ghibli’s soundtracks and play that most frequently. Lately I’ve also been on a Decemberists kick.
DF: If you could invite anyone (alive or dead or fictional) to tea, who would it be? What kinds of conversations would you like to have with them? What sort of scones would you serve?
WX: My great-grandmother, who I know absolutely nothing about except that, apparently, she was a witch. I make pretty good scones actually– I use Deb Perlman’s dreamy cream scones recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
DF: What’s your favorite cute animal meme? How about your favorite animal to draw?
WX: “This Birb Make a Screm So Loud”. I like drawing cats and birds.
DF: Where can our readers find your work right now?
WX: Everything about me is on artofwendyxu.com. All my digital self-published comics are available on Gumroad, including my latest one, THE FOREST PRINCE. You can buy MOONCAKES wherever books are sold.
Wendy Xu is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and comics artist with three upcoming graphic novels from Harper Collins.
She is the co-creator of “Mooncakes”, a young adult fantasy graphic novel published in 2019 from Lion Forge Comics. Her work has been featured on Catapult, Barnes & Noble Sci-fi/Fantasy Blog, and Tor.com, among other places. You can find more art on her instagram: @artofwendyxu or on twitter: @angrygirLcomics
Coral Moore
Coral Alejandra Moore has always been the kind of girl who makes up stories. Fortunately, she never quite grew out of that. She writes because she loves to invent characters and the desire to find out what happens to her creations drives her tales. She is a 2013 alum of the Viable Paradise writer’s workshop and she has been published by Diabolical Plots, Zombies Need Brains, and Secrets of the Goat People. Currently she lives in the beautiful state of Washington with the love of her life and a dangerously smart Catahoula Leopard Dog where she rides motorcycles, raises chickens, and drinks all the coffee.