All the Right Notes with Dominic Lim, Author, Singer, and Storyteller

0:00 I think before I wrote All the Right notes success to me, Matt something kind of different now, like, oh, I failed because I didn't get on Broadway, or I failed because I didn't get a lead role in an opera company or something like that. But success really is, are you able to allow that part of your life to bring you Joy? What fuels, a multi passionate life? I'm Jessica one. And in this podcast, I interview people who straddle two, completely different worlds, I call them ampersands and we are collectively designing. The Ampersand Manifesto, I am so excited to have Dominic limb back with us today.

0:47 Dom is an author singer and Storyteller. His debut novel, all the right notes was named by Entertainment Weekly as one of the best new books of the summer. Dom is a member of Writers Grotto and a co-host of the Babylon, Salon Reading and performance Series. In San Francisco. He studied psychology at Oberlin and got his master's from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music as a proud member of The Actors Equity Association. He's performed Off-Broadway and in Regional Productions throughout the u.s. Dom. Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for having me back, Jessica, we're recording this a few weeks in advance but this podcast Sewed will launch the day your book launches. What has the past six months looks like, for you leading up to the book, launch starting from, you know, December and January, February things were, as they've been sort of chugging along.

1:47 I've been, you know, working on edits working with my editor and then, at around, I would say three months ago, that's when things really started to just accelerate because that's when The publicity and marketing team, sort of take over and they'd been doing stuff before. But that's really when it's sort of shifts into high gear and you start of start doing these other things for the book, like, preparing for a podcasts like this or, you know, doing print interviews or you start to see reviews of your book online from books to grammars and advanced reviewers and from trade review Publications.

2:29 So It really starts to ramp up and then this past, I would say, two months has been even crazier because I don't know what I was thinking before when you landed this to book contract and I didn't quite realize that my second manuscript was going to be turned in the same day that my first book came out. Like, I don't know why that didn't occur to me. I been working on I second manuscript but it's kind of like having two children. I've never had children, but if you can imagine having kids, you want to focus. All your attention on your firstborn child and then this other one kind of comes along. And it's like, okay now what do I do? And it's very it was very hard for me to sort of put aside, you know, the first book to take time to do the second one. And so now I'm having to play catch-up and I'm basically getting up at 6:00 writing for an hour. A half, you know, doing publicity stuff during work, sorry to my employer.

3:37 And I had also like after I clock out at work, then having to work on my second manuscript again. So it's been non-stop you're definitely juggling a lot and even as a writer I think having two books in different stages, it's two different jobs, right? Yeah, it is. It is You different jobs because when you get to the point with the first book that I'm at, now, it's really no longer any of the substantive, writing stuff for editing. It's all, it's really all business and it's still creative. You still have to, you know, think about how you're going to present things online or what you're going to say during interviews and how you're going to sort of present and sell your book to the public who, you know, this is Our first time hearing about it but it's a it really is a different part of your brain when you're trying to come up with a new story and a new way of delivering things.

4:38 And it's been difficult for me to keep shifting because I've always been that kind of person who really wants to focus on one thing at a time. At least one artistic Endeavor in my Ampersand life. The last time we met, I didn't talk about my day job and I do have a day job at a biotech company working at in the legal department as a paralegal. And I've done that for many. Is and this is actually this year I switched jobs and I'm doing a role that I've never done before. So on top of everything else, I'm learning a completely different set of skills at work and so that's been challenging. And luckily, the people there have been very kind to me and they're very supportive of my writing so it's like we're going to help you.

5:21 We're going to train you on this new job and it's fine if you don't understand things but you know, it's just another thing during this already very busy time. I definitely want to dive into the book because I think when this episode comes out, there will be quite a few listeners who may be like me devour your book in about 24 hours, and are just dying to ask all of these questions. So let's dive in. So I want to read a little bit of booklist starred review. So here's an excerpt limbs Soul nourishing debut. Not only Perfectly captures the hope and heartbreak of two people falling in love but also musics power to transform lives. What has writing this book shown you? Or reminded you about the power of music? I wish I was so thrilled when I got that review from booklist not just because it was a starter view, but exactly for exactly that phrase that you read, because that reviewer really got what I was trying to say. With the book when I was writing the book I had, I had reached a point in my life where I really wasn't sure about My own creative process or my own creative life, rather because I had spent so many years in music and in theater and a musical theater and I wasn't sure what I

6:51 was doing anymore. I mean, I was still having fun but I didn't know what my plan was. And so as I was writing this book, I knew it had to be sort of a love letter to music to theater to musical theater. But what it showed me was that It's not about success, and I think many of your interviewees have expressed as it's not. There's varying levels of success, right? And I think before I wrote All the Right notes success to me meant something kind of different, you know, like, oh, I failed because I didn't get on the Broadway, or I failed because I didn't get a lead role in an opera company or something like that. But success really is, are you able to allow that part of your life?

7:38 To bring you Joy, you know, can you let making music bring you Joy? Every time that you make it regardless of who hears it? Regardless of who, you know, critiques, it appraises it. So that's sort of what I learned writing this book in a weird way because I wrote it because I wanted to bring joy to myself. I wasn't writing it because I was like I'm going to get this published so it's going to be a romance book or whatever I wrote it because I wanted to write this Story to my younger self and if anyone no one else read it, to be honest with you, I was going to be fine with that. Just me and my writing group, cool. And the best advice I ever got about writing was from my best friend, who is not a writer and she said, don't write, don't write if you, if you want to make money out of it.

8:26 If you want to be famous, do it because you love it because it brings you Joy. Here's Dominic limb singing, an excerpt of the song apart, I play the music and lyrics are written by Akito Cruise, the protagonist in all the right notes, and in real life music and keyboard is by Martin begin and lyrics and vocals by Dominic, limb. But one time just once, I'd like to.

9:08 Let go and be the person I want to be be the person I'm Longing To Be. They tell me to shove us go. So I'll try to be strong but the person they'll see won't really be. Sonia, pop music is, of course a huge part of the book, but I can sense the joy for all of the five senses you have colorful visuals.

9:51 You have the aroma and the mouth-watering descriptions of Filipino food and even the feelings of cold fingers at the piano or the electricity between the two main characters. What experiences have shaped you to write in this way? That captures all these senses? When I first started writing one of my very first writing teachers, gents Kim. He was an amazing teacher, and I've taken other writing classes, where a lot of it is just learning by doing learning by reading, right? But his approach was very similar to the approach that that you.

10:32 And I got in our Voice lessons in our music classes, right? Where there is a very specific pedagogy, you know? So he sort of taught us that method of, you know, when you're writing you have to engage all the senses and I'm going to let your listeners in on a secret that he taught us as writers. It's a really cool. I don't want to say trick because it's something that I use and it's very helpful. That when you describe an event that's happening to someone say someone, you know, touched you on the shoulder or someone looked at you who you have a crush on or whatever, don't just say that person liked it or it was happy or got thrilled.

11:24 The first thing you should do is just explain exactly what's happening to that person's body and that's where the senses come in the you know, like did you smell Hagen the and smoke did the thrill of electricity run up and down your body. Because that's how you engage a person who's reading, because they start to feel that feeling. And it's more than just oh they felt happy. They feel excited. They feel it to something. I really love about your book is that the characters are imperfect, relatable, and utterly lovable. It's really hard to choose my favorite character, but today, I want to talk a little bit about About kito's Dad, mr. Cruz, who is a Filipino immigrant and a high school choir.

12:11 Conductor we don't see a lot of Asian dad's in literature or media and often when we do, it's not a very fleshed-out character. What do you hope the character of mr. Cruz adds to the growing list of Asian dad's that we know and love. It's a really insightful comment and I say that because I didn't even really realize that when I wrote the character It wasn't until after you talk to me about it. That I was like, this is true, it's really true. I really had to re-examine my own experience with the with that character in literature, and, and I'm not sure why that is, you know, is it? Because we as Asian Americans tend to be closer with our mothers.

12:57 I don't know, but in terms of why I did it, I mean so just go, I'm going. To be perfectly honest with you, I didn't always have the best relationship with my own father and I think that I didn't want to portray that in the book, I wanted to be aspirational about it. And I wanted to say, you know, there are fathers out there, there are Asian father's out there who were supportive of their sons and their kids, and their Artistic Endeavors and the way that they choose to live their life and love the people that they love. Oven. That's us to say that my dad wasn't because he was supportive of certain parts of my life. But, you know, it's kind of why I wrote a romance because it's it has a happy ever after.

13:46 And I wanted people to live in a world where these wonderful supportive diverse, loving, characters, lived, and existed, including an, especially mr. Cruz, and I have been hearing from other readers saying similar things, Is that this character in particular really touched them? Well, thank you so much for sharing that and I think, in many ways mr. Cruz ends up kind of being a through line for a lot of the story and kind of a backbone or heartbeat of the story which is, is really touching. So, all the right notes is a rom-com. And there's one Central big love story, but I also found that there were other love stories. For example, the beautiful friendship between Kita, And ujima also called G rom-coms like movies that we think of they don't typically Focus so much on friends. Why was it important to you to develop this particular friendship?

14:49 Well I sort of based ujima no I didn't sort of I really faced ujima on two, very specific people in my life one of whom I worked with very briefly, her name is Brianna Sinclair and she's a transgender Soprano. And I think she's the first transgender soprano to sing like the national anthem at the at a Giants game. Like she's she's done so much and I worked with her briefly, but it's really mostly based on someone that I knew in New York, that I worked with and I am not going to name his name because he's not trans, but he was a contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race and he no longer does drag, he's focused much more on his acting career, and he is a very successful actor. Now on Broadway, but I base it on him because a lot of the book takes place in New York in that sort of theater world, right? And he was sort of one of the first people I met that made a huge impression on me because he was this larger-than-life, just amazingly funny person who was just so good at everything and then had this Persona, this drag Persona who was just incredible and then underneath all of that.

16:04 That was just this super, super sweet. Wonderful person. And a lot of times in rom-coms, you'll have that sort of, you know, the comedic best friend or whatever. And I think that helps with, you know, with the jokes and whatever that really wasn't my intention at all. I really wanted to bring in this character who helped support Quito in New York and you know, throughout the rest of this. Story and and and in fact ujima as you know is there till the very end. They don't just serve a plot Point, plot function in the leaf. I'm really glad that you enjoyed them because they're probably my favorite character in the book.

16:49 I need a new Jima in my life. Oh yes, we all do we all do. Let's pause here to reflect on this question, who is ending Jima in your life? A best friend who's been with you through the tough times outside of Hosting this podcast. I partner with leaders in the workplace as they rise up. Perhaps you've gotten a promotion landed, a new role or taken on a lot more responsibility. And you need a trusted sounding board to support you. You, as you support your team, I coach individuals and Leadership teams to rise to the challenge with my a and blend of analytical and creative. If any of this intrigues, you reach out to me at Jessica one.com.

17:42 Now, back to the show, a lot of your novel deals with the experiences of young people we see Quito and Emmett as high schoolers in the 90s. We also see the high schoolers now, Mr. Cruz teaches. What do you hope? Young people will take away from your book. You know, it was important for me to show diverse characters and diverse love and to show it in a way that was just incredibly normalized. And I don't even like to use the word normal because it sort of assumes that, you know, other people say it's not normal but just that these people are here, they exist. And we don't have to apologize for anything. Thing and we can have stories that are not about trauma or trying to protect ourselves, but just that we're here to seek our own happy ever.

18:35 After is just like everybody else. I want them to know that that that is a possibility for them just like everyone else you mentioned in our last interview that you've always imagined your book as a musical, your book launch event will take place in a high school auditorium with a choir two choirs actually putting us right into the Fireman where much of the book takes place. What does this launch event mean to you? It means so much to me, it's funny because I don't I don't think launch events are really that big of a deal for most authors. It is something that they're expected to do either by their publisher or their peers and most people do do them but they're pretty low key event.

19:22 You know, it's in many cases it's kind of anticlimactic because you've done I'm so much before and you're going to do so much after it, but I want it to be totally extra and I've been planning this for months. It was, I think over a year ago, when I first approached my brother, I do the choir teacher pendo Valley high school. And I say, Hey Joe, what if I for my book launch, I know there's like, super far in advance. But what if I did a whole thing, right? It did it at your school and your kids sang because, you know, the choir is such a big thing in all the right notes, and You know, the choir director is Filipino and, you know, keep their Crews, The Pianist Filipino, my brother's is both the piano teacher and the choir director, and let's bring you in and let me sing and we'll do other stuff. And then later down the line, I brought you in, by the way, I'm so excited that you're going to meet em sing for me, me too, because it's gonna be amazing.

20:19 And then, on top of that, Joe's kids are going to sing. We're gonna sing you as part of Of the the group that I had put together many years ago called Nova antiqua, which basically, now it's just a bunch of friends who are very excited to get together and sing together. And I'm getting Filipino food and drinks and it's gonna be it's gonna be a whole thing. So I'm very excited about it and I hope we do have already a lot of people coming and I hope even more people come because it's a big theater. I can't think of a more fitting way to celebrate. This book. Yeah, I think just being in that environment will be absolutely incredible. So you mentioned earlier that the manuscript for your second book is also due in June.

21:10 How is that going? And can you share anything with us about two months ago when I had a basically, a nervous breakdown realizing that it was due for a night? I was like, well, what have you been doing for the past couple months? I mean, I had written a first draft. I just I needed to revise it and revision for me, takes the longest. I'm pretty good about spitting stuff out, but revising, I once heard that writing a book is kind of like making a sand castle and in order to make the castle, you need to fill your sandbox with sand and that's all the first draft really is, is putting all that sand in there. And let me tell you, when I put my sand in my sandbox it looks like a pile of poop guess it's just out, it's just out. I just get it out, right?

21:59 So therefore the revision process is where I start to put the walls on, you know, a little pails of towers and stuff and and that's where you start etching in the windows. And every every draft that you do is making it better and cleaner and more beautiful. And that's what takes so long anyway. To get back to your question. It's almost done. It's almost there and it's I I'm handing off a draft to my agent for First actually on Thursday, that's the due date that I gave myself and to her, so that she could look at it. Give me her comments and then I will revise it because I trust my agent.

22:39 So implicitly, she has, she's just incredible. And then once I've done that, then I'll hand it off to my editor. And then she will, she will then start the editorial process with me. So it's there and I don't know, did you ask what it's about? I would love to share more of what it's about. Definitely are staring at this point. Okay. Well, I can tell you because we've already settled on the name, the title of the book is karaoke Queen, its kind of pitched as Kinky Boots meets Tootsie. It is about a Filipino drag queen or used to do drag runs into an old flame from college. Who now works at a bar that is not doing very well.

23:20 So the main character decides, I'm going to put on a karaoke show to drum up business for the bar, so that my flavors. Flame gets impressed and then we can get together with him. But then figures out the only way, really to do a really successful one is to resurrect his drag Persona, and to host it as a drag queen, which works. But then he doesn't want the old flame to know that he's a drag queen. So it's this kind of Comedy of Errors, right? Where he's living, two personas, he's this guy who's trying to get with the guy but also he's the drag queen, making the bar better place and trying to be in two places at once and And there is a third act that I'm not going to be all right now.

24:02 But it does involve a doppelganger. He has to teach someone to basically be his double and okay, maybe I am revealing it, the double ends up showing him how beautiful it is to be a drag queen and to embrace his femininity, because he was afraid to show his old flame that he was drag queen, because he didn't want him to think that he was fam or feminine, but he is Is and this doppelganger kind of shows him. You know, it's beautiful about your Femme and that you're feminine and that I love that about you and see how beautiful you are. Look, I look like you. And so the guy basically has to decide who it's a love triangle to.

24:43 So who does he, you know, really love and who does he end up with at the end who I can't wait. And is there any crossover of characters in book, 1 and book to or no, are they in different? Of our says there is a very significant character from book one that shows up towards the end of book 2 and you can probably guess who it is just from the title of the second book. I love it. I love it. Yeah, what words do you have to share with aspiring writers musicians or really anybody who has a story to share? First of all, be kind to yourself. That's that's the thing.

25:28 That I'm going through right now, to be honest because and I think we talked about this in our previous interview is that we are both very driven people and we really want to succeed in the things that we do, and that is okay. But we also need to be kind with ourselves and to say, you know, if you don't, if you aren't able to get to all those emails today, if you aren't able to You know, meet that deadline. If you aren't able to, you know, finish what you set out to do, it's okay. Like, don't beat yourself up.

26:08 I think that we naturally already ask of ourselves a lot. So, if we're even only attaining fifty, sixty five percent of what we set out to do. That's already a lot more than a lot of other people have accomplished or are going to accomplish. So, I would say, Be kind with yourself. Be patient with yourself and enjoy every single Milestone that comes along because the other part of being an ampersand is that we tend to keep looking towards the future. You know, what's next, I'm going to be happy when I am going to be happy if you know and it isn't, it isn't that you're going to be happy when you attain the goal, or if the certain Milestone happens, it happens. Daily, you know, it happens when someone says, Hey, I just read your book and I loved it.

27:03 Enjoy that, you know, or someone reaches out to you just to say hi and how are you going? And how is everything doing with the book? I'm so proud of you enjoy that, you know, because if we put all of expectation on, being happy, at the end of the Finish Line, well, when you think about it, finish line is a very thin line, right? Once you cross, that's it. If that's where all your happiness is going to be, that's a very short time to be happy when you could be happy daily, as long as you allow yourself to be. I love that. And I think you're so spot-on in this tendency to look forward.

27:44 But, you know, even looking back at at what you've accomplished in the last year, in the last few months. It's it's actually, it's astounding, and inspiring and, and wonderful. Thank you so much. Dom. It's been such a pleasure talking with you today. And again, folks, you can check out, Dominic, at Dominic limb.com and all the right notes is now available wherever you get your books. If you liked this, show hit, like, subscribe and share with your friends and fellow ampersands. And if you are listening on the Apple podcasts app, consider leaving a review, it really helps new listeners, discover our show. I had a chance to reflect on my conversation with dom and I wanted to share a few key.

28:35 Takeaways one, this analogy of writing being like building a sandcastle has really stuck with me. And I I think it applies to other creative Endeavors to. I remember back in my undergrad days, studying product design. We had a similar strategy in the brainstorming phase of the project. How could you get all the ideas out? And like Don said, fill the box with sand you might get weird ideas unrealistic ideas and it could get messy. There was only one rule in that phase. There's no saying no because an off-the-wall idea. Spark something unexpected leading to something great. It's all part of the process too. It's been such an honor to get an inside glimpse of Dom's Journey as a writer and musician. And the role that this book has played in the process. Dom mentioned that, when he wrote the book, he himself felt at a bit of a Crossroads creatively and that the process of writing has helped him, find a newfound understanding of making art for the love of it.

29:44 I see a similar path for me. And this podcast, essentially as a singer, I'm a creative entrepreneur carving out my own path and at times the direction is unclear, but talking to other a Sands has been a balm for me and a way to process my own Story. 3, how can we take care of ourselves and enjoy every day for high, Achievers, ampersands and people who are always thinking? About what's next? This is the question. We tend to place the lot of weight on achievements. Deadlines and Milestones, well, perhaps forgetting about all the daily reminders.

30:26 We get about how we're involved and how our work makes a difference. But we can focus in more on these daily Delights. So, I'll post to you what's a kind thought that you can bring back into your focus today? Don't let anyone else Define who you are. That power has to come from you and that is one of the most powerful things you can do to Define who you are in this world you know. And that can be your pronouns that can be your name that can be your career but the point is don't let anyone else ever. Tell you who you are especially right now. What's happening with the anti drag? Legislation the anti-trans, you know, initiatives, all these things where people are being persecuted for trying to justify themselves and be given the right to say, I want to be the person that I feel inside.

31:31 Not the person that's written on my birth certificate by some person that I don't know, or whatever.