What does a telegenic high-achieving author write after her debut novel set in alternate reality sparks a bidding war among publishers?
Felicia Yap grounds her second title Future Perfect in the real world, while sticking true to what made the first book an engrossing read.
In Yesterday, published four years ago, the plot is set in a science fiction world where people are classed and divided based on how long someone is able to retain memories before being erased.
In Future Perfect, the novel is essentially set in our current reality, with some slight caveats. It takes place in different time periods, with the fictionalised 2030 having artificial intelligence advanced enough to predict death.
“(The idea) came to me on a catwalk, around 2012,” said the former fashion model.
“Just before I stepped onto the runway, a backstage assistant handed me a really heavy bag.”
The thought struck her as she walked down the runway.
“What if someone had put a bomb in the bag and we’re all going to die? Would I have led my life a little bit differently today if I had known today would be my last day?”
Years later, around 2017, the author began writing Future Perfect from the perspective of a model based on the two questions.
She edited at least 14 drafts in the process.
“The novel is about a police commissioner who is told by his voice assistant Alexa that today may be his last day as there is a 99.74% chance he would die tomorrow,’’ she explained.
“So, he has to solve this (ongoing) murder on the catwalk case, and at the same time, he has to win back his fiancee who left him.”
“I really like stories with ticking clocks because that creates a sense of tension, suspense and urgency.”
Refining the story
The “ticking clock” element was also employed in Yesterday, and it ties into Yap’s love for multiple story threads that run either parallel to each other or individually.
They eventually culminate and tie back into each other.
For some readers, it might be too much to keep up with. But Yap sees it as both a challenge to herself and readers to keep track of the story.
“The challenges are what keeps me interested in what I do, partly the mental challenge of working out the final details. That was what kept me going from the start,” she said.
It is not an easy process, Yap added, but points out that it is definitely an interesting one.
She elaborates that it helped to get the first draft down, with the basic outline of the story where Yap could fill in the details as she went along with subsequent edits.
“The editing was really important, as that was where I managed to draw all the story threads together, and my writing process is editing heavy.
“For instance, Future Perfect manuscripts were sent out to various people in the tech industry, my writing group and even friends at the Metropolitan Police.”
Yap recounts an episode when a burglar broke into her apartment and stole her laptop while files from it were being transferred to a new laptop.
“I lost my manuscript, and had to rewrite it from scratch from memory, which is ironic because my first book was about a world where people can’t remember,” she laughed.
Meant to be
Born and bred in Malaysia, her father read to her a lot as child and took her to an MPH bookshop in Kuala Lumpur to read for free, as her family were not well off financially growing up in Cheras.
“He could only afford to buy me one book a week,” she said, adding that her father told her that she began to read at two years old.
“When you grow up with books, you dream about becoming a writer yourself”.
With her second book out of the way, Yap has already started on another.
“Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it, because I don’t want to jinx it. I want to keep it a secret for now and tell the world when I’m ready.”
