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