Shanghai Immortal

Shanghai Immortal Cover About the Author Title Page Imprint Page Dedication Epigraph Contents One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen Twenty Twenty-One Twenty-Two Twenty-Three Twenty-Four Twenty-Five Twenty-Six Twenty-Seven Twenty-Eight Twenty-Nine Thirty Thirty-One Author’s Note Acknowledgements Credits Stay in touch... HodderScape BookDrop Alice is a Chinese Canadian author of fantasy. She's fascinated by the interplay between self-perceived versus imposed identity and how this intersects with belonging and enjoys exploring these spaces in her stories. A recovering lawyer and xiaolongbao enthusiast, she knits to soothe anxiety and has a deep abiding love for Hobonichi planners and kawaii planner stickers. She is grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Acknowledgements First and foremost, to you, dear Reader, this humble one offers manifold gratitude for your borrowed light. You are the magic that makes stories transcend the page and come to life. Thank you for picking up this book. Thank you for reading to the end! And if you took the time to write a positive review or tell a friend how much you enjoyed it, your efforts contribute directly to the success of this book. Thank you from the bottom of my xiao long bao loving heart. Abundant cornucopia of gratitude to my ever unflappable and most honourable agent Jamie Cowen, and to the exalted glory of my editor extraordinaire Molly Powell. I could not ask for more excellent, or kinder, champions. Bringing this book bb into the world wouldn’t have been half as much fun without the enthusiasm and creativity of the Hodderscape team: Molly, Sophie Judge, Kate Keehan, Callie Robertson, Laura Bartholomew, Natasha Qureshi, Fran Fabriczki, and Sasha Baker. I adored the Shanghai Immortal themed Vampire’s Kiss cocktails dreamt up by Kate; though I drank too many and felt terrible the next day, it was totally worth it. The cherry on top of my sundae of happy screams (and happy crying) is the beautiful cover designed by Natalie Chen and illustrated by Weitong Mai. You made my heart flutter. Ah, where would Lady Jing be if not for my amazing CPs and writing buds? I was meant to be writing something else, well, actually two other something elses, when Lady Jing parked herself in my brain and demanded to be heard. Venetia Constantine, Rhee Joseph, Christy Hovland, Chris Grissom, & Patty Hoffman read the first glimmers of Lady Jing, and their responses paved the way for Shanghai Immortal. When your trusted CPs respond with ‘Damn! Write fast, Alice!’ you don’t look back. Some days are bones days, some days are no bones days (RIP Noodle). Whatever the kind of day, my Forkfam ride or dies never fail to step up. They are the margarita to my salt rim, the tequila to my lime, the last caramel vodka shot of a randomly chaotic night, tossed back to a Rickroll. Shout out to Kate Dylan for saving me from myself and for paving the way as a fellow chaos gremlin, Gigi Griffis and Sarah Mughal for their thoughtful comments on early drafts of Shanghai Immortal, Emily Varga for the great meals, Chandra Fisher for your indefatigable Leo spirit, Angel di Zhang for being an ancient being of ancient wisdom, Lani Frank for your excellent eye, and the whole crew for the hugs, the talking ups, the talking downs, the chats and memes and laughs. Melissa Than, thank you for keeping me in Keanu during the revising and editing stages. My undying gratitude to Lia Ryerson, my Author Mentor Match mentor who helped me get Lady Jing scrubbed up and polished for querying. You made jumping back into the query trenches – dare I say it? – actually fun and not overly traumatic! Faber peeps: Venetia, Rhee, Vendela, Sylee, Steph, Linton, Tom, thank you for keeping me accountable and writing when crawling into bed and staying there forever was looking like a reasonable option. Emma, Sam, Jak, Susan, Angela, Alison, Georgie, Christie, Michelle, you are a force of nature and an inspiration. Our Thursday catch-ups gave those years of pandemic structure and got me out of pjs at least once a week. Both my husband and my postman thank you. Bubblies: this is gonna be a bit emo and gushy but seriously I am so happy to have found you. Maisie Chan you are the mama hen I never knew I needed. Mina, thank you for the gem that is Dick Fight Island. The gift that keeps giving. I am thrilled for more ESEA books to hit the shelves. Thrilled to be joining the growing number of diverse authors telling diverse stories. Thrilled to just hang out with y’all. May we eat often and prosper. Shout out to Jenni Howell and the MSMF happy space. One of my favourite places to scream and nerd out. From my earliest forays into writing contests, the Golden Heart cohort taught me so much about the industry, about taking myself seriously as a writer, about generosity and lifting each other up. Both the Rebelles and the Omegas were instrumental in helping me find my voice. Romance writers are the bomb, my friends. Special thanks to Xueting Ni for her insight on Chinese mythology, Hui Qing Ang for their incredible character art, and the late 金沙老師 for his beautiful calligraphy that adorns the title page. To my Kickstarter patrons – a huge thank you for believing in me, for going on this journey with me, and for being part of the release of this long anticipated book. We took a different train than expected, but I think we still arrived at the right destination. Y’all have my undying love! Agnes Chi-Lan Tung, Alan M, Aleisha Saer, Alice Chan, Alicja, Andrew Godecke, Andromeda Taylor-Wallace, Angela Lee, Arisa Belkheir, Arthur Lau, Barbara Penner, Beata Henderson, Becky Rawnsley, Caitlyn Hunt, Carole Ogram, Cavan Gilley, Charmaine, Chris, Christie Hampton, CJ Connor, Clare Weaver, Cookie A, Courtney Maguire, Ellen Goldberg, Emery Redman, Emily Sullivan, Emma Dorreen, Esther O.