I haven’t been creating as much content for my Instagram lately, and it’s because I have been working on another exciting project instead!

If you love reading cozy mysteries, stories that involve many descriptions of food, or stories starring Asian-American women, I would love for you to check out the interactive story that I am writing on StoryLoom called Tea with Scream and Sugar.

Here’s the quick info on how to get to it:

1. Visit the StoryLoom website

2. Sign up with your Google account. They are currently in open beta so it is free to sign up, and you’ll get access to play and read interactive stories from a variety of genres!

3. Click on this link to go directly to my story, Tea with Scream and Sugar. OR click on “All Stories” and do a Ctrl+F or ⌘+F to search for the title, Tea with Scream and Sugar

4. Enjoy reading and playing through the story for FREE!

(Update for if you’re arriving to this blog post via Instagram: Sometimes Google does not like it if you are trying to view these links while still in the Instagram app. If you run into trouble logging in, please copy/paste this link into a browser app like Google Chrome instead: https://storyloom.com/stories/8ec26a08-cfd0-89a8-af3f-6d35141c1804 )

A little more about the platform:

StoryLoom is a platform for reading, creating, and sharing interactive fiction. Unlike reading a regular ol’ analogue novel, with interactive stories, you the reader can play as the main character, and you’ll be faced with choices along the way that will impact how the story unfolds. Do you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure book series? It’s a lot like that, but something you can play on your computer or phone.

StoryLoom is currently in open beta, so it is free to sign up (all you need to do is log in with your Google account) and free to play other creators’ stories (like mine!) or even create and publish your own. If you’ve been wanting to write your own fiction and have been seeking a place to share it with the world, this is an awesome platform to do so. (Plus, the people working on it are seriously super lovely!)

What is Tea with Scream and Sugar?:

The story I am working on is a cozy murder mystery starring an Asian-American woman named Iris (yes, a flower name), set in a small fictional town in the California’s Central Valley (which is, not coincidentally, where I grew up). As of the time of this blog post, there are 7 chapters available for you to play and I anticipate there will be 12 total chapters to complete the story. My goal is to finish it by the end of the year!

If you are unfamiliar with the cozy mystery genre, think of something like Murder, She Wrote or Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple character. It’s the opposite crime genre to a gritty hardboiled detective noir story. The main character is typically a woman who is smart and observant but not a professional detective. The setting is usually a small, quaint town where lots of people know each other. And often the main character’s identity revolves around some kind of cozy activity or interest, like writing, cooking, scrapbooking.

Here is the synopsis for Tea with Scream and Sugar:

Food writer Iris Hu returns to sleepy Appledale for the big opening weekend of her friend's quirky fusion cafe. She's looking forward to tasty treats and cozy cups of tea but she never expected a sinister mystery to be on the menu. When several cafe patrons end up ill—and in one case, dead!—it's up to Iris to save her friend, and herself, from the town's darkest skeletons.

True to my own form, you can expect lots of descriptions of yummy food, and I think the best compliments I have received so far on it are that reading my story has made people hungry!

But beyond that, I’ve really taken the saying “write what you know” to heart while working on this story, so there’s a chance you’ll get to know me more by reading it. Like myself in real life, the protagonist is a daughter of Chinese immigrants, who grew up among a predominantly conservative white population; the growth into someone who is prideful for their heritage after overcoming a childhood of struggling to fit in is very much a part of the story. It’s a topic I have covered a lot in the past through what I’ve shared on Instagram, and I am hoping the way I have depicted it in Tea with Scream and Sugar is genuine and relatable for other people who grew up in situations like mine. Furthermore, the story explores challenges that Asian immigrants face in the restaurant industry, how marginalized groups are treated in seemingly quaint Americana-vibey towns, and how (spoiler alert!) closed-mindedness is a villain that can live inside seemingly regular people.

If you’ve read this far, I am so grateful for your interest and support in my work, and I really hope you like the story! Here’s the info once again for how you can go play through it:

1. Visit the StoryLoom website

2. Sign up with your Google account. They are currently in open beta so it is free to sign up, and you’ll get access to play and read interactive stories from a variety of genres!

3. Click on this link to go directly to my story, Tea with Scream and Sugar. OR click on “All Stories” and do a Ctrl+F or ⌘+F to search for the title, Tea with Scream and Sugar

4. Enjoy reading and playing through the story for FREE!