Preorders are now open for THE FRAUD SQUAD, a debut novel by author Kyla Zhao. Read on for information about the book, a brief interview with the author, and a brand-new book trailer!
I am SO excited to be a part of the preorder launch for THE FRAUD SQUAD! I met Kyla through Twitter and think that this book sounds absolutely fantastic. Starting today, preorder the book here: tinyurl.com/thefraudsquad
*The text for this post was provided by Kyla Zhao.
About the Book
For fans of CRAZY RICH ASIANS, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, and INVENTING ANNA
A working-class woman who infiltrates Singapore’s high society to fulfill her dreams risks losing everything in the process—including herself—in this propulsive millennial women’s fiction novel by debut author Kyla Zhao.
Summary: "For as long as she can remember, Samantha Song has dreamed of writing for a high-society magazine—and she’d do anything to get there. But the constant struggle to help her mom make ends meet and her low social status make her dream feel like a distant fantasy.
Now, Sam finds herself working at a drab PR firm. The closest she’ll get to that life is living vicariously through her socialite coworker and friend, Anya Chen. Then she meets Timothy Kingston: the disillusioned son of one of Singapore’s elite families—and Sam’s one chance at infiltrating the high society world to which she desperately wants to belong.
To Sam’s surprise, Tim and Anya both agree to help her make a name for herself on Singapore’s socialite scene. The borrowed designer clothes and plus-ones to every glamorous event can only get her so far; the rest is on Sam, and she’s determined to make an impression on the editor-in-chief of Singapore’s poshest magazine. But with a mysterious gossip columnist on the prowl for dirt, the deeper Sam wades into this fraud, the more she fears being exposed—forcing her to reconcile her pretense with who she really is before she loses it all."
Meet the Author: Kyla Zhao
Kyla Zhao had her first women’s magazine byline at the age of sixteen, writing about weddings for Harper’s Bazaar Singapore before she even had her first kiss. Since then, she has also written for the Singapore editions of Vogue and Tatler. A native Singaporean, Kyla now works in Silicon Valley after graduating from Stanford University in 2021. She’s still trying to understand why Californians adore hiking and Patagonia fleeces so much.
I had the opportunity to ask Kyla a few questions about her book and her process. Here are her responses:
Q: Where did the inspiration for this book come from?
A: I've worked at several magazines since I was a teenager, including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Tatler in Singapore. And those experiences and the people I met through them helped shape the glamorous high society setting in this novel as well as my protagonist, Samantha Song. The main reason why she wants to infiltrate high society in the first place is to impress the editor of her favorite magazine (also Singapore's poshest and snobbiest magazine) so she can get her dream job working there.
Also, from the very beginning, I knew I wanted to set this novel in Singapore, featuring an entirely Southeast Asian cast of characters. I'm from Singapore but I was studying in California when Covid happened, and living alone with no friends or family (this was in June 2020 when everyone pretty much stayed at home) got pretty hard. I found myself very homesick and the rise of anti-Asian racism acts over America didn't help. As I always do when I feel troubled, I turned to books for comfort--light and breezy women's fiction in the vein of The Devil Wears Prada is my favorite genre. But most of them rarely featured characters of color, much less a protagonist of color. So I decided to write my own. :)
Q: What authors/books do you admire?
A: I find myself reading more books with Asian characters now than I did in my childhood. A few of my favorites are Mia P. Manansala's Arsenic and Adobo, Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, and I'm currently reading Grace Li's Portrait of a Thief. Kevin Kwan and Lauren Weisberger are also my favorite women's fiction authors.
Q: What does a day in the writing life look like for you?
A: I graduated from university last year and work in Silicon Valley now, so my day job means I can only write in the evenings. If I can get 800 words done, I call it a good day. On weekends, I can bang out maybe 2,500 words. I used to be a stickler for writing chronologically, but with my current book, I'm having a lot of fun drafting out of sequence and writing whichever scene strikes my fancy that day. My trick to churning out a first draft is to use Calibri font size 11, single-spacing; the less it resembles an "official" manuscript font, the less pressure I feel to get the book right on the first draft. Done is better than perfect in my opinion. :) There's this chair in my house I really like (and which offers good back support haha), so I park myself there and just type away. I draft in Microsoft Word so I always carry this niggling fear that my computer will break down some day and I'll lose all my work, but so far, so good.
Q: Without spoilers (of course), who's your favorite character in this book and why?
A: Definitely my main character, Samantha Song! She and I share a love for magazines, so I think we'll have lots to talk about. And while she is a "fraud" in a sense, I think she's someone many readers will be able to relate to—her flaws and all. She's ultimately a good person with a big heart, and her boldness and pluckiness as she navigates this unfamiliar high society environment will endear her to a lot of people.
Learn more about Kyla here:
Author website: https://www.kylazhao.com
Newsletter: https://www.kylazhao.com/newsletter
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kylazhao
Book Trailer
Without further ado, here's the book trailer for THE FRAUD SQUAD, out spring 2023! Preorder today at tinyurl.com/thefraudsquad.
*The trailer, summary, bio, and interview responses in this post were provided by Kyla Zhao.
Comments