The New York Times bestselling author of The Gifted Clans series, Graci Kim, is back with a new wildly imaginative contemporary fantasy series where dragons and phoenixes roam the Seoul skies, meals magically appear based on one's mood, and dreams literally come to life. This series is the first to present a Korean-inspired view in the much-loved magic school genre, and Dreamslinger (Disney), the first book in the middle grade series, weaves in serious emotional themes of discrimination, segregation, and acceptance through a thrilling and magical story of adventure and friendship. Readers' dreams come true this April 29, when the book will magically appear on bookstore shelves.
Aria Loveridge is a layered and endearing character. How did she take shape, and in what ways did she surprise you as you were writing?
While it wasn’t intentional, I began dreaming up the character of Aria at the same time as my daughter was shedding her toddler skin and coming into her own as a strong-willed, deep-feeling preschooler. She had such big, expressive emotions, and I could see that she experienced the world and everything in it so very deeply. It made me wonder—what if there was a group of kids like her in the world, whose emotions were so strong they could unleash physical powers? How would society treat them if they weren’t able to control these exceptional abilities? What if they were seen as a threat to society?
That’s how Aria began her life as a skeleton of a character. But as I began writing, she soon showed me how formidable a person she was. Not only did she feel and care deeply, but also she was reflective and resilient. No matter what impossible situations I put her in—and it is a writer’s job to throw challenges in our protagonist’s way—she showed me that even in a crumbling world, she would choose courage, gumption, and grace and to get back up and face the world again. We could all be a bit more like Aria.
Dreams are a natural source of intrigue for kids—and for many writers. Does your own dream life inform your work?
I have always been fascinated by dreams, and I think it’s wild that scientists still don’t understand them. They don’t really know why we dream or what they mean, if anything. And that kind of open-ended, juicy mystery is basically a writer’s dream, pun intended.
When I was a kid, I had a recurring dream where this specter would fly through the glass wall of our house and reach out to grab something from inside my gut. It didn’t hurt, but in the dream my nana would sit in her rocking chair next to me, crying. It was a terrible nightmare, and I had it for months! The day the nightmare vanished was the day my nana was diagnosed with colon cancer and had to have part of her gut removed. To this day, I’m baffled by how my dreams may have foreseen her diagnosis. I really do think dreams are one of humanity’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
What can you share about the elements of Korean culture that you integrate throughout Dreamslinger?
I have always been curious about the Korean royal family and what place they’d hold in our global culture if they still existed today. And then I thought: what if in an alternate world, they did still exist and had their own sovereign nation nestled inside Seoul, just like the Vatican is housed within Rome?
Then I wondered, what if, over the years, this tiny kingdom had become home to dreamslingers from all over the globe who had left their own countries in search of refuge? Essentially, what if the Korean royal family had become synonymous with an exclusive, secret society whose members could wield powerful but dangerous magic?
Once that frame was set, everything inside it, as far as Korean culture was concerned, fell naturally into place. I knew the local culture would be a unique mix of its Korean roots and global influences, so everything from the architecture and the language to the forms of transport and the clothing became an embodiment of Korean-Western fusion. It was so fun to design, and I hope the wholly unique, yet familiar-feeling world is one in which readers can get immersed.
Dreamslinger touches on many hard-hitting themes like isolation and discrimination, trauma, and the suppression of emotions. Did these underlying themes arise organically?
As a kid, I remember jumping into my mom and dad’s fights. I felt it was my duty to get to the bottom of who was right and wrong because once I knew the truth, surely, I could fix the problem. To this day, I remain frustrated—and also comforted—by the fact that life is never that simple. Many things can be true at the same time.
Dreamslinger isn’t about my parents. But I did want to write a story about feeling stuck between different versions of reality and about the courage it takes to embrace complexity in a world of absolutes. And while all the other themes were organic, the one message I actively wanted to share with my readers was that at some point, we all need to forge our own truths.
Despite Aria being told by society that she was born an undesirable exception to the rule, I wanted her to learn that what made her truly exceptional was her ability to choose her own path.
The circumstances that unfold in Dreamslinger are otherworldly, but there are so many relatable aspects of the story. How did you strike this balance?
The fun thing about being a writer is that you can create the wildest, most unbelievable, most ridiculous of worlds, but as long as you can make your characters act from a place of humanity, your readers will still come with you for the ride.
To me, that means recognizing that no matter how different we humans are, we all covet the same things. We want to belong. We want to be loved. We want to matter. So, using those very universal human emotions, I tried to create characters who, despite their otherworldly environments, are striving for the same things as you and me.
Dreamslinger is filled with amazing world-building. Can you talk about some of your inspirations?
There are so many threads of inspiration that came together to create the world of Dreamslinger, including X-Men, Pokémon, secret societies, magic schools, and so many more things I adore. But in terms of specific world-building, I can narrow my core inspirations down to two separate seeds.
One is the Korean philosophy of the Ohaeng. It speaks to the five pillars, or five states of being, that are said to govern all things in life. The philosophy includes concepts like the five directions (east, west, south, north, central), the five seasons (spring, autumn, summer, winter, change-in-seasons), the five representative creatures (blue dragon, white tiger, red phoenix, black tortoise, yellow dragon), and the five virtues (benevolence, righteousness, ceremony, wisdom, faith). In Dreamslinger, readers will recognize much of the Ohaeng in the kingdom’s palace names, their locations, their virtues, and even their dreampanions. It was such a rich philosophy to draw from, albeit with my own unique spin put on its elements.
The second seed came from my fascination with the dreamscape. I wondered how this Korean philosophy of Ohaeng would work if overlaid on a world in which a subsection of the human population was born with a genetic mutation—the dreamslinger gene—that allowed them to physically travel into their dreams. I went through many, many iterations of this world and how it was governed, and I hope readers will enjoy the entirely new, fantastical world created in the book.
Do you find it's natural for you to tap into the voices of teen characters?
Haha, yes! Perhaps because I never quite grew out of that stage? After all, there is still a kid in each one of us, no matter how many years we tally on the clock. Also, life can get pretty heavy sometimes. I think it’s important for us to remember the awe and wonder we experienced so easily at that age.
Readers will love the many "beasts" that populate the book. What sparked their creation? Are there any plushy versions of them in the works?
I mentioned Ohaeng above, and while these “beasts” originate in that branch of Korean philosophy, the idea of these dreampanions being the missing third of one’s soul was uniquely mine, as inspired by my daughter.
There was something about bringing a child into this world that felt strangely like a part of my soul I didn’t even know I was missing had manifested as its own separate, living entity. Welcoming her to this timeline and feeling the outpouring of love, not to mention the immense responsibility of keeping her alive and healthy, must have really done a number on me, because the idea of unfurling and caring for one’s own dreampanion became a core part of this book. It just goes to show that inspiration really does come from everywhere!
As for plushies, there are none in the works yet. But readers can sign up for the Dreamslinger League on my website (www.gracikim.com) to get free collector cards of the four different dreampanions, as well as a sampler of the first six chapters of the book, a palace-dreampanion guide, a signed bookplate, and lots of other goodies!
Can you offer readers a sneak peek into what happens next in the series?
I can’t say too much yet because things are still in development. But I can say that Aria and her friends may start pushing against the rigid rules of the Royal League of Dreamslingers and uncover some of its darkest, most well-hidden secrets. Armed with them, Aria will strive to understand what she’s capable of and what kind of dreamslinger she truly aspires to be. This may even involve a trip to Jeju Island in South Korea! Readers are very welcome to join the Dreamslinger League at my website to stay up-to-date with Slinger series news or follow me on Instagram @gracikimwrites.
