Interview with Hanna Alkaf, author of Queen of the Tiles

Malaysian writer Hanna Alkaf’s Queen of the Tiles combines two irresistible components: wordplay and homicide. It’s the story of Najwa, a Scrabble whiz whose greatest pal, Trina, collapsed mid-game through the Phrase Warrior Weekend match a 12 months in the past. As Najwa continues to take care of her grief, she competes in her first match since Trina’s dying, the place she discovers that her pal might have been murdered—and the killer might be sitting on the opposite aspect of the Scrabble board. 

What initially sparked your curiosity in writing about Scrabble and the aggressive Scrabble group?

I really like Scrabble. Malaysia has a thriving, lively Scrabble group, and as a teen, my older brother had been a part of it. I keep in mind many weekends spent ferrying him backwards and forwards from our home to the Parkroyal Lodge in downtown Kuala Lumpur, the place meets had been normally held. Naturally, I ended up representing my faculty at a couple of competitions once I was in my teenagers as effectively. The methods employed by high Scrabble gamers have at all times fascinated me, and whenever you mix that with my love of wordplay, Agatha Christie mysteries and teenage angst, effectively, that’s how Queen of the Tiles was born.

The Scrabble competitors in Queen of the Tiles is suspenseful and extremely detailed. How did you analysis that side of the guide? What did you be taught that stunned you?

I watched many hours of Scrabble competitions, documentaries and interviews, learn as a lot and as extensively as I may on technique and gameplay, and mapped out strikes on a Scrabble board that I saved by my desk all through all the course of. 

I’m now a repository of completely fascinating and totally ineffective Scrabble trivia. For example, the best scoring Scrabble phrase ever was performed by Karl Khoshnaw in 1982: caziques, for 392 factors. However Dan Inventory from Ohio labored out that, in principle, the best scoring Scrabble phrase potential is oxyphenbutazone, which, if the celebs one way or the other align and all situations on the board are simply as they must be, can get you a ridiculous 1,778 factors. Sure, I’m very enjoyable at events.

Originally of every chapter, you function a phrase with its definition and Scrabble level worth. Did you have already got phrases in thoughts for this whenever you started writing?

I saved a Google Doc referred to as WORD LIST, and each time I got here throughout a phrase and definition that I believed I may work into the plot—whether or not for the phrases initially of every chapter, match scenes or Najwa’s personal inside monologues—I’d be aware it down. 

Typically I wanted one thing particular, like, “Oh, for this chapter, I would like an obscure phrase meaning ‘enemy.’” I’d open Thesaurus.com, plug the phrase in and discover essentially the most obscure however nonetheless related synonym. Then I’d cross-check it with a web based Scrabble phrase checker to ensure it was legitimate and skim what the official definition and level worth could be. 

Najwa’s inside dialogue was tougher to work by means of. She floats from phrase to phrase relying on the definition or how that phrase is tied to her reminiscences or her evaluation of different individuals. It’s a tough factor to drag off, and each time I did it felt like a tiny miracle.

One in all my favourite such moments occurs early on within the guide. Najwa’s thought course of takes her from the phrase arenite (a sedimentary clastic rock) to clastic (composed of fragments) to fragment (to interrupt into items), and that’s how she feels proper in that second: like she’s falling aside. 

The match side of the novel is thrilling by itself, however Queen of the Tiles additionally incorporates a homicide thriller! Do you get pleasure from studying mysteries? What was difficult about plotting one your self?

I grew up raiding my older sister’s assortment of Agatha Christie novels and nonetheless return to them as consolation reads—notably the Poirot books. Sure, you learn that proper: I learn homicide mysteries for consolation. 

Essentially the most difficult a part of all of it was laying down the breadcrumbs. It’s straightforward to say this large reveal must occur on this chapter, or this plot twist goes right here, however if you happen to don’t present a logical path to get there, then you definately’re probably not incomes it. Mysteries work greatest when readers can play alongside; they’re most enjoyable when you may return and notice the clues had been there ready for you, and also you simply didn’t notice on the time that they had been clues in any respect. 

Najwa has developed an obsession with Trina’s Instagram account, and social media performs a significant position within the story. Why was it vital to you to incorporate this within the guide? 

Trina was a social media star; she had a big following and we catch glimpses of how obsessed she was with sustaining a sure picture for her public. However the extra we get to know Trina, the extra we see how way more depth and darkness lie behind the facade. 

And it isn’t simply Trina. In all cases the place we see social media use in Queen of the Tiles—and we see it lots—there’s at all times the underlying query of what we current to the world versus who we actually are. How a lot is being proven, and the way a lot is being hidden? How do you consider what’s actual whenever you don’t know the way a lot is being shared and the way a lot has been withheld?

In her grief after Trina’s dying, Najwa experiences reminiscence points, intrusive ideas and extra. Your portrait of Najwa is so actual and uncooked. What was it like so that you can craft this transferring depiction of loss and therapeutic?

I did some analysis on remedy and coping mechanisms for loss, grief and PTSD, however to be trustworthy, writing Najwa was troublesome not as a result of I couldn’t perceive what she was feeling, however as a result of I understood it too effectively. I mined my very own reminiscences and feelings and buried shards of my very own remembered grief in Najwa; if she feels actual to readers, then I’m grateful, as a result of the feelings had been all too actual to me.

I liked how typically Najwa refers to her therapist when she talks about what she’s been going by means of. Why was it vital to you to incorporate remedy as a part of Najwa’s experiences and to depict her brazenly counting on its classes?

In Malaysia, we’re nonetheless engaged on destigmatizing psychological sickness and remedy. I actually needed to point out a Malay Muslim teen struggling together with her psychological well being and the methods during which she reaches out, will get assist, develops coping mechanisms and places these instruments in apply—all issues that I believe we have to work on normalizing.

You lately tweeted, “I can’t inform you what it means to me to see a hijabi on the duvet of a guide that has completely nothing to do with Muslim ache or oppression. A guide the place she simply will get to play Scrabble and clear up a thriller and be a teenage woman.” That’s such a strong assertion. What do you hope Najwa and her story would possibly imply for teen readers?

All too typically, Muslims and hijabis should carry out our ache to ensure that our tales to be taken critically. And people tales are vital and needed. However they’re not all we’re. The Muslim expertise is diverse and colourful; we comprise multitudes. We should always have tales that showcase all of that! Our ache and our pleasure and our fears and our loves and our friendships—the sum of our lives and never only one side of it.

What do you suppose attracts us to phrase video games like Scrabble, crossword puzzles or, lately, Wordle and makes us wish to play them repeatedly?

I can solely actually converse for myself, however in my case, I’m endlessly fascinated by language and the way in which that the smallest adjustments in letters, phrase selection, tone, inflection or emphasis can solely change the message we’re attempting to get throughout. My dedication on this guide reads merely, “This one’s for the phrase nerds.” I’d as effectively have stated, “This one is for me.”

Writer picture of Hanna Alkaf courtesy of Azalia Suhaimi.