Weina Dai Randel

Weina Dai Randel is the acclaimed author of five historical novels, including The Last Rose of Shanghai, a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and Night Angels, longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Awards. She is the winner of the RWA RITA® Award, a National Jewish Book Awards finalist and a two-time Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction nominee. Her novels have been translated into seventeen foreign languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew.

Her new novel, The Master Jeweler, is about a gifted Chinese orphan’s dangerous quest to become a master jeweler in charge of a legendary diamond.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Master Jeweler follows the journey of a jeweler who searches for fame, friendship, and family from her youth to middle age. It traces her growth, her ambition, her triumphs and mistakes, and ultimately, her realization of what truly matters in life. So I was pretty sure the title should be called The Jeweler, similar to Noah Gordon’s The Physician, which I adore. Simplistic and enduring, right? But as it often happens, I miscalculated. My publisher proposed to change it during the production stage, and my first reaction was, “Impossible! It has to be The Jeweler!” But then I realized they had a point, so we brainstormed and my editor came up with The Master Jeweler. I let it sit for a few days, and eventually, it grew on me and I really like it.

What's in a name?

I put careful thought into names, especially those of the main characters. It’s important to me that each name carries cultural resonance. In The Master Jeweler, the protagonist is called Anyu, which means “peaceful jade” in Chinese. It alludes to two aspects of the character: one is that she was a precious thing to her mother, even though she was nothing to her powerful father whom she never met, and the other is that jade has significant meaning in Chinese culture, as well as in her profession as a jeweler. Another character’s name is simply called Confucius, who’s a gangster in Shanghai. This might sound odd, and the ancient teacher must be rolling in his grave, but I thought adopting a philosopher from the classical Chinese literature added a twist of subversiveness and a tease of cultural meaning. And hey, he was a gangster with consciousness.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

The teenage me would be judging the master jeweler and crying for her but also deeply admiring her. She would probably think I am pretty cool too, for understanding the mindset of a teenager, without realizing she was the inspiration for the impulsiveness and stubbornness and the relentless drive to do whatever it takes, to her detriment.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings, beginnings, and beginnings. But. To write a beginning, I must first have the ending in mind, and a general arc of the story has to be planned out before I type the first word. As I write, I keep going back to tweak the sentences and heighten the intrigue factor.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I don’t always write myself in novels, because, you know, sometimes characters command their own universe and do whatever they want to do, but Anyu takes a piece of me – bluntness. Her speech pattern, her lack of social skills and her insensitiveness to people’s emotions were all intentional and connected to my personality. Her relationship with Esther started off on the wrong foot (pun intended!) because of her bluntness. I’m not as helpless now (hopefully), after years of stumbling and making gaffes, but I’m pretty sure, at her age, I was a terror to the people around me. The reason Anyu behaves this way? She grew up without a father, relatives, siblings, cousins, or friends. The only person in her life was her mother, so you kinda understand why she couldn’t read the room. Why do I behave this way? I have no clue, but there’s no excuse!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Paintings. I’m not an expert by any means, but when I look at Van Goh or Klimt, I pause to think about what is timeless, what art means in our life, and what is our legacy after we’re gone.

Visit Weina Dai Randel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue