What was the hardest part about writing this book? Reliving the pain all over again, and not just remembering it but turning it over and over in my mind, scene by scene and word by word. I had never thought I would do that; I had never spoken about it to any of my family or even my ex-husband during the years we were together. We all lived through the same terror and did not want to show our mental scars.
How much of the book is realistic? All of it, from the first word to the last. It no doubt contains inaccuracies, but everything is how I remember it. What I can’t do is take the reader there and make them see and smell the Killing Fields, although I’m glad that I can’t. They would never forgive me and they would be right.
Do you have any advice for writers? Write first for yourself, and then see if anyone else is interested.
If you could leave your readers with one bit of wisdom, what would you want it to be? This is not a test. You didn’t exist for almost all of the past and you’ll be dead for almost all of the future. Do something, anything, with the time you have, and do it now.
What scares you the most? I think the thought that would give me nightmares the most, would be for my daughter to be subjected to the same sort of horror that I experienced during my childhood.
Either that or my annual dream, in which it is exam time and I haven’t studied.
What makes you happiest? Doing what I want, when I want, whether it is helping out at a local shelter for homeless people, traveling across the globe, hiking or snow skiing. The last is a very unusual hobby for my family, as I had never even seen ice until I was 13 or so.
Have you always enjoyed writing? No, and I still don’t! English does not come easily to me, and this book was hard work from beginning to end. Every line had to be read and re-read to ensure that it made sense. My native language does not even have tenses or plurals, which I think is why you often see Asian restaurant menus say things like ‘beef with cashew nut’. Just one nut? No, but it sounds that way.
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Genre – Memoir
Rating – PG13
More details about the author
Connect with Dana Hui Lim on Facebook & Twitter & Goodreads
Website http://odysseybooks.com.au/
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