Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than two dozen books for children, including The Year of the Rat (2007), the Newbery Honor book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (2009), and Mulan: Before the Sword (Disney Press, Feb. 11), the prequel novel to the forthcoming Disney live-action film Mulan. Lin also did the cover art and chapter heading illustrations. She answered some questions about the book.

How did Mulan: Before the Sword come to be?

Well, my agent called me up and said, “I have this opportunity. Disney wants to know if you’d like to write an original novel to go along with their movie.” I was quite behind on some other projects, and I said, “I don’t know; let me think about it.” And then I talked to some of my friends, who said, “Of course you have to do it!”

Were you constrained in writing by what happens later in Mulan’s life?

Yes and no. They gave me the script to the movie and basically said, write whatever you want—just don’t contradict what’s going to happen in the movie. I guess in some ways it was constraining because everyone knows Mulan as a warrior, but she doesn’t really learn any warrior skills until the movie. I said, OK, it’s going to be a little tough to make her a warrior in my prequel novel because she hasn’t learned those skills yet. At the same time, sometimes when you have more constraints, it’s actually more freeing. You’re much more focused. So that was fun. Also, because she wasn’t a warrior yet, I didn’t have to worry too much about learning about martial arts or battle plans or anything like that. When I’m going to write a novel, I usually know the journey to get to the end, so this was a similar process.

What did you most enjoy about writing this book?

I love delving into Chinese myths and putting it all together to make a whole new story. Mulan was perfect for me because she’s this mythological, folktale character, and this was giving a new fresh take to her story. And there’s a witch character in the movie—it was really fun to be given the freedom to give her a background. They basically let me do her whole backstory. I was really excited about that; there was so much freedom there.

What is your research process like?

My research process is not very organized. It’s the same for all of my novels. I spend anywhere from three weeks to six months reading everything I can on Chinese mythology and Chinese folktales. I never know what will trigger something, and I make notes on things I think are interesting. I tell people it’s like building a snowman. You gather up all this snow and then you start building something and see what happens. In my other books I kept more with Buddhist folktales. For this one, I went more to the Taoist folktales. For instance, Lu Ting-Pin is more a Taoist folk hero. I went more in that direction because they were talking a lot in the movie about Mulan’s chi, her spirit, and that’s a bit more Taoist than Buddhist.

Were there obstacles you encountered?

At the very end there is a scene where in my original version you see the body of the White Fox. It’s a chilling moment. Disney really did not want a corpse in the scene, so we talked about it, and I changed it. The White Fox becomes a pool of ick. And that’s fine; that actually is appropriate to a lot of folktales and Taoist themes. In some ways the obstacle made it better.

You got to read the screenplay?

Yes, I got to read the script ahead of time; it was really fun. And then they sent me a lot of the images of the costumes and little clips of things. I loved [the 1998 animated film] Mulan when I was younger—I was so excited to see any Asian character, you know, anywhere. I didn’t really think about whether it was authentic or not authentic. But reading the script, which is so much more authentic in this new version of Mulan—it’s so much closer to what Chinese culture actually is—was so heartening.

Is there anything else you would like people to know?

I’m hoping that this book will bring new readers to my other work and also that readers will know that if they loved my books before, they will love this one, too.

Happy Year of the Rat!

It’s the year of new beginnings—hopefully in a good way for all of us!

Kathie Meizner manages a public library in Maryland and reviews children’s books.