Episode 93 with Steph Cha, Food Writer, Book Reviewer, and Author of the Award-Winning Juniper Song Series and Your House Will Pay

Episode 93 Notes and Links to Steph Cha’s Work 

 

 

    On Episode 93 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Steph Cha, as the two discuss her work as an “Elite Yelper,” book reviewer, mystery writer, and award-winning novelist. The two discuss, among other topics, her early relationship with words, her inspiration for food writing and Yelp-ing, as well as her mystery writing and its connections to escape and/or reality. The two finish by discussing the historical fiction/mystery/character-driven modern classic Your House Will Pay and its vivid characters and prose. 

     Steph Cha is the author of Your House Will Pay, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the California Book Award, and the Juniper Song crime trilogy. She’s a critic whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she served as noir editor, and is the current series editor of the Best American Mystery & Suspense anthology. A native of the San Fernando Valley, she lives in Los Angeles with her family.

 

Buy Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay

 

Buy Steph Cha's Follow Her Home

 

Buy Steph Cha's Dead Soon Enough: A Juniper Song Mystery

 

Buy Steph Cha's Beware Beware: A Juniper Song Mystery

 

Review: Kirkus Review for Beware Beware

 

Los Angeles Times Review of Books Review for Your House Will Pay

 

Your House Will Pay: A Conversation with Author Steph Cha on Race Relations-hosted by LA Public Library

 

The Rumpus Interview with Steph Cha from 2015 

 

Steph Cha’s Yelp Reviews

 

 

At about 1:40, Steph talks about growing up in the San Fernando Valley and her early love of reading, as well as interesting anecdotes about her mother’s role in encouraging her reading

 

At about 5:30, Steph discusses her relationship with bilingualism, growing up with Korean as her first language

 

At about 7:00, Steph outlines her early reading loves, including reading Jane Eyre at eight or nine and The Phantom Tollbooth, among others; she relates a funny early reading of Catch 22

and her voracious appetite for manga

 

At about 11:20, Steph is asked about representation in what she read as a adolescent, and she talks about what she was used to missing

 

At about 12:15, Steph talks about Maurene Goo and her standout work that makes Steph wish she had been able to read such work when she was a kid

 

At about 13:15, Pete asks Steph about inspiring writers and “ ‘Eureka’ moments in her writing career path, including examples of what to and what not to do

 

At about 16:50, Pete wonders how law school and her high-level Stanford and Ivy League education informed her later writing

 

At about 19:55, Steph talks about any connections between her and a protagonist of Your House Will Pay

 

At about 21:00, Steph talks about her prolific Yelp reviews and the Yelp-ing lifestyle 

 

At about 22:00, Steph recounts an incredible anecdote that coincides with the early days of the legendary Kogi food truck

 

At about 24:00, Steph talks about her early work with Yelp and how it connected to other work and life events

 

At about 26:30, Pete asks for a few LA taco recs-Steph mentions Tacos 1986, Guisado’s, and Mexicali, among so many others

 

At about 28:20, Steph talks about her days working with the legendary writer, the late Jonathan Gold 

 

At about 33:00, Steph and Pete discuss Jonathan Gold’s sense of generosity and how she was a scout with young standouts like Javier Cabral

 

At about 35:50, Pete asks Steph if there is ever a need or a benefit to “ripping” a book or restaurant in a review if the quality is low

 

At about 38:50, Steph discusses tropes and themes from her noir writing, as well as the seeds for her Juniper Song trilogy 

 

At about 42:40, Pete wonders about the balance between realism and “escape” in Steph’s writing, in her mysteries and in Your House Will Pay

 

At about 44:20, Pete and Steph discuss her masterful usage of Los Angeles as almost a character in its own right in her writing

 

At about 46:50, Pete recounts his visceral experience at reading the marvelous and profound Your House Will Pay

 

At about 47:30, Steph’s son joins the chat!

 

At about 47:45, Pete and Steph discuss two marvelous works that have informed their reading and knowledge of the events regarding the 1992 Rebellion and Latasha Harlins’ murder, Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles, and Brenda Stevenson’s The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins

 

At about 48:10, Steph discusses the seeds for Your House Will Pay

 

At about 49:50, Steph explains why and when she uses “Uprising”/ “Riot”/ “Rebellion” with regard to the events of 1992 after Rodney King’s police beating and in the book

 

At about 51:35, Pete inquires into the background on the book’s title and the use of “house”; she references a 1985 rap song that gave her the title-Toddy Tee’s “Batterram”

 

At about 52:30, Steph explains how Your House Will Pay, being her fourth book, plays with and avoids the “white gaze”

 

At about 54:30, Pete wonders about Steph’s writing process regarding the book’s flashbacks and nonlinear narrative

 

At about 57:00, Pete and Steph discuss the memorable main characters of the book and their significance, including LaTasha Harlins and the infamous Soon Ja Du

 

At about 59:45, Pete’s compliments about Steph’s book bring up a discussion of how topical the so-called “history” of the ‘92 Uprising and Lastasha Harlins are-”how cyclical violence is”

 

At about 1:01:40, Pete wonders about any evolution of the characters of the book, especially Grace and Shawn

 

At about 1:03:45, Pete and Steph discuss salient and profound themes from the book and Pete wonders about some positive feedback that stands out for Steph

At about 1:07:35, Steph discusses upcoming projects and works-in-progress, including some screenwriting (!)

 

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The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.

Please tune in for the next episode, a conversation with Sara Borjas. SARA BORJAS is a Xicanx pocha, is from the Americas before it was stolen and its people were colonized, and is a Fresno poet. Her debut collection of poetry, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff was published by Noemi Press in 2019 and won a 2020 American Book Award. Sara was named one of Poets & Writers 2019 Debut Poets, is a 2017 CantoMundo Fellow, and the recipient of the 2014 Blue Mesa Poetry Prize. She teaches innovative undergraduates at UC Riverside, believes that all Black lives matter and will resist white supremacy until Black liberation is realized, lives in Los Angeles, and stays rooted in Fresno. The episode with Sara Borjas will air on December 7.