Clancy is a heartwarming children’s Christmas story about an anxious camel who learns to face his insecurities, embrace his uniqueness, and discover the courage to take part in something special. What draws you to write children’s literature?
When I was young, my grandmother often read Dr. Seuss’ books aloud, and I found myself mesmerized by the melody of the words and the way they bounced off the page. I knew that if I ever wrote a children’s book, I would write in poetic meter and use words that were a little bit of a challenge for the intended age range. This approach naturally invites conversation between the reader and the child, just like Dr. Seuss’ books did for my grandmother and me. When I began writing Clancy, that famous anapestic tetrameter started to flow through me. (One of my favorite examples of this style is Dr. Seuss’ I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew). Advancing a story in twenty-four-syllable stanzas while sustaining the rhyme scheme brings me irrational levels of joy. If I hit a roadblock, I maneuver the words and count out the beats like solving some sort of musical jigsaw puzzle. Clancy and the cast of Cameltown’s characters wouldn’t be the same any other way.
Clancy worries about his crooked hump, awkward knees, unruly hair, and troublesome tooth. Why did you choose these specific insecurities to shape his character?
I wanted Clancy to struggle with characteristics that were common to all camels. If you look at a group of camels, you’ll notice they all have imperfect humps, knobby knees, wild tufts of hair on their heads, and not a single one of them has straight teeth. Yet Clancy was convinced that he was alone in his imperfections. In reality, we’re all a little bit like Clancy. None of us is perfect, but we tend to put our own flaws under the magnifying glass. Sadly, children begin to internalize their insecurities as early as age five. When focusing on their own perceived shortcomings, children tend to develop feelings of unworthiness, which can cause them to pull away and create a deeply ingrained negative self-image.
This is why the role of a trusted adult confidant is so important in a child’s life. This caring adult doesn’t “fix” the problem; they guide the child through it. In Clancy’s case, this adult confidant was Mayor Camello. The mayor gave Clancy his undivided attention, shared his vulnerability by disclosing his own past struggles, and encouraged Clancy to pray.
Christian faith plays a central role in the book. How did your own beliefs influence the story’s messages about worry, trust, and belonging?
As a Christian, when I feel overwhelmed, I’m reminded to cast my anxieties on God, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
Clancy was so fixated on his own insecurities that anxiety took hold of him. He forgot that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9) and if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8). God loves us so dearly that He delights in using us, flaws and all, for things greater than we could ever imagine (1 Corinthians 2:9).
If readers take away one lasting message from Clancy’s Christmas journey, what would you most want it to be?
Christmas has become such a commercialized holiday that we often lose sight of why we’re even celebrating. The same reminder Clancy receives is the very one we all need: the true Gift of Christmas is Jesus. He was born, died, and, as evidenced by the hundreds of documented witnesses (1 Corinthians 15:6), was resurrected to life as an eternal sacrifice for our sins. All He asks is that we believe.
Clancy is a clumsy young camel whose mountain of insecurities leads him to believe he is not good enough. When his name is picked from the hat to star in The Gift of Christmas show, poor Clancy is terrified. On the advice of a friend, Clancy reluctantly prays about his fears. As he pours out his heart in a trembling, emotional prayer, the train gears up to leave for the show. Will Clancy’s mustard seed faith be enough to see that God gives courage when we are afraid?
Written in playful, bouncing rhymes, Clancy is a timelessly whimsical, read-aloud storybook. Through the heart of a timid camel, we discover that when we cast our burdens on the Lord, He helps us to overcome our fears and insecurities with confidence. With vibrant characters wrapped up in an engaging gospel message, Clancy captivates children ages 1-100.
Murder Amour follows two private investigators in Los Angeles on their first case as an official investigative team as they try to find a serial killer targeting women from an elite LA escort agency. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
All my stories deal with one or more social issues. The Art of Murder was suicide and addiction. In Murder Amour, I wanted to explore the ramifications of prostitution and changing norms on things like escorting. In the third of this series, homelessness is the topic.
How have John and Kayla evolved since readers first met them in The Art of Murder, and why was it important to explore the challenges of maintaining a romantic relationship while working together professionally?
They began as antagonists, became friends, and then lovers. Kayla represented John’s letting go of his grief in The Art of Murder. In Murder Amour, their relationship solidifies. They use their partnership as a reason or excuse to remain in an open relationship, but the truth is neither has fully committed to the other.
How does the novel explore the difference between physical attraction, emotional intimacy, and genuine commitment?
Escorting is physical attraction and sex without emotional intimacy. Getting thrown into that world affected the emotional intimacy between John and Kayla in a negative way, pushing their willingness to fully commit to one another further away. This is more strongly felt by Kayla than John. We get the feeling that she’s drifting away from him. And she is.
What directions would you like to explore as John and Kayla continue developing their professional and romantic partnership?
The next story in the series also takes place in LA. John and Kayla are drifting apart. To nail the killer, John becomes a homeless victim. In a way, it symbolizes how he feels about Kayla—bereft and impoverished. They remain partners but not romantically after that point.
In a world of bought affection and dangerous illusions, trust is the one thing you can’t buy.
To solve their first case as Mathews & Saint Private Investigators, John and Kayla must immerse themselves in the decadent extravagance and deadly deceit of one of the world’s most prestigious escort agencies. The Stellar Agency promises its escorts safety, reward, and empowerment—a huge improvement over the brutal realities of the streets. But beneath the veneer of stunning beauty and seeming innocence lies a dark secret.
A serial killer has been hunting the agency’s elite escorts for years, using its exclusive website to select and stalk his victims. To catch the monster, John and Kayla join the agency’s inner circle, only to discover that its motto, “Beauty You Can Trust,” couldn’t be further from the truth.
Tempted at every turn by the lure of obscene money and ready sex, the trust John and Kayla share begins to fracture, and as the killer closes in on his next victim, they’re faced with a choice—either succumb to the tempting seduction at the cost of their friendship, or channel the strength and respect they share to survive this madness and put an end to the killing once and for all.
This gripping second installment of the Mathews & Saint detective series tackles, with a sharp noir edge, the hidden dangers of a modern escort agency. Perfect for fans of complex, socially relevant crime thrillers.
In The STEWARD Blueprint, author Andy C. Tseng offers a thoughtful, faith-centered approach to living with greater intention, balance, and purpose. Drawing from his experiences as a physical and occupational therapist, his Christian faith, and his personal journey from Taiwan to the United States, Tseng explores what it means to take good care of everything we’ve been given. His central message is that stewardship extends far beyond managing money or possessions. It involves caring for our bodies, nurturing relationships, developing our abilities, and using our resources to make a difference in other people’s lives. The book’s foundation is distinctly Christian, with Scripture guiding its ideas about personal responsibility, generosity, and fulfillment. Tseng writes with sincerity and a genuine desire to help readers recognize the value of their everyday choices.
The book is organized around seven interconnected pillars: Spirituality, Training, Eating, Wealth, Attitude, Relationships, and Development. Each chapter examines an area of life that deserves intentional attention, explaining how improvement in one area can positively influence the others. Tseng’s professional background is particularly evident in his discussions of exercise, nutrition, and physical well-being. He introduces practical concepts for incorporating movement, rest, and healthier eating habits into daily routines. His financial guidance addresses budgeting, saving, investing, and generosity, while his chapters on attitude and relationships explore gratitude, resilience, hospitality, and meaningful connections. Throughout the book, biblical teachings are paired with practical suggestions, personal experiences, and references to health and wellness research. Each chapter also concludes with reflection questions that encourage readers to consider their own habits and identify opportunities for growth.
I appreciated Tseng’s willingness to share his experiences with vulnerability and humility. He discusses professional frustrations, personal challenges, and lessons learned through difficult seasons, giving his advice a relatable, human quality. His stories about working with patients, participating in church communities, and discovering new ways to serve others make the larger principles feel tangible. Particularly engaging is his perspective that caring for ourselves strengthens our ability to care for others. This idea connects the book’s diverse subjects and gives the STEWARD framework a consistent purpose. Tseng’s writing is encouraging and accessible, often addressing readers directly through questions and invitations to reflect. His enthusiasm occasionally leads to repeated reminders about the importance of intentional living, but that repetition reinforces the habits he hopes readers will develop. The combination of personal testimony, biblical interpretation, and actionable guidance makes the book well suited to thoughtful, unhurried reading.
The STEWARD Blueprint will especially appeal to Christian readers who want to connect their faith with practical decisions about health, finances, relationships, and personal growth. It’s also a valuable choice for people navigating life transitions, reconsidering their priorities, or looking for ways to contribute more meaningfully to their communities. Readers involved in healthcare, ministry, mentoring, or volunteer work may particularly appreciate Tseng’s emphasis on service and his understanding of wellness as something that involves the whole person. Although the book’s perspective is firmly rooted in Christianity, its discussions of gratitude, discipline, connection, and lifelong learning offer ideas that readers from other backgrounds can consider. I’d recommend it most to anyone who enjoys reflective personal-development books with clear spiritual guidance and practical exercises. Tseng leaves readers with an inviting challenge: to recognize the gifts already present in their lives, care for them intentionally, and discover how those gifts can benefit the people around them.
Michele Greene’s Welcome to the World’s Worst Club is a brief and illustrated collection of personal stories about grief, family, and the unpredictable ways people respond to loss. Its organizing image is a club whose membership arrives without anyone’s consent, a premise Greene develops with dry humor and emotional candor. Drawing on her experiences as a daughter, mother, granddaughter, and friend, she examines how bereavement enters ordinary life and changes familiar relationships. Her observation that “Grief is one of the most human experiences we have, and somehow we are terrible at talking about it” establishes the book’s central concern. She gives that difficulty a recognizable voice, attentive to the awkward conversations, practical distractions, and conflicting feelings that accompany mourning.
Short sentences, generous spacing, and frequent direct addresses create the rhythm of someone telling a story across a kitchen table. She has an ear for the absurdity of social expectations, especially the pressure to remain composed while managing the logistics and interactions surrounding a death. Her humor often grows from the distance between what she intends to do and what she actually does. She’s willing to examine her own impatience, need for control, and questionable decisions, which gives the narration much of its credibility. The language is earthy and sometimes profane, and the comedy can be pointed. Through it, Greene conveys how laughter and sorrow can occupy the same moment, each expressing something the other can’t quite hold.
Greene remembers people through their habits, private jokes, forceful personalities, and everyday gestures of affection. These details give her recollections texture and preserve the individuality of the people she loves. She also considers the strain grief places on families, the assumptions parents make about their children’s feelings, and the care involved in supporting a grieving friend. Her inclusion of beloved animals extends that attention to losses whose significance others may overlook. One of her clearest statements, “Sometimes love is knowing when to be quiet,” captures the value she places on patient companionship. The quieter passages are especially effective because they let an action, an object, or a remembered exchange carry the feeling.
The compact chapters make Welcome to the World’s Worst Club accessible for readers whose concentration or emotional energy may be limited. Its illustrations and recurring club imagery reinforce the sense of an intimate, deliberately informal book. Greene’s repeated sentence patterns and closing reflections occasionally make the storytelling feel predictable, though they also establish a consistent speaking voice. The writing is most persuasive when its specific observations supply their own meaning, and there are enough of those moments to give the collection lasting substance. Readers who appreciate candid memoir and irreverent humor will find a thoughtful account of grief’s uneven course. Greene offers company through her willingness to remember honestly, acknowledge her own mistakes, and make room for feelings that can be difficult to express. The result is a personal and compassionate book whose warmth rests on the particularity of the lives and relationships it describes.
Jason C.W. Baugh’s Birth of the Vampire Pimp brings Oakland street fiction into an adult dark fantasy adventure filled with vampires, witches, and dangerous ambitions. At its center is JB, a wealthy pimp whose encounter with Queen Sasha carries him into the strange world of Vol’kare. His street instincts become survival tools in a place governed by blood, magic, and competing interests. It’s a bold combination, and the book gets much of its personality from letting JB bring his language, attitude, and appetite for control into unfamiliar territory. The appeal starts with that collision between an Oakland hustler and a supernatural kingdom.
Vol’kare gives this vampire horror novel plenty to explore. Its three moons make nightfall and sunrise feel like practical concerns, while its forests, settlements, and imposing castle create a landscape that’s beautiful and threatening at the same time. Baugh fills it with distinctive creatures and unusual customs, giving JB’s travels a steady supply of surprises. The ravens are an especially effective recurring presence, adding an eerie sense of being watched. The fantasy world also has recognizable social divisions: wealth opens doors, authority invites abuse, and ordinary people struggle with the consequences. Those details give the setting concerns that extend beyond its monsters.
JB is charismatic, calculating, brutally violent, and capable of moments of generosity that complicate your response to him. His treatment of women can be troubling, and the narration often admires the same control that makes him disturbing. That tension is part of the reading experience. His encounters with people such as Summerly, a young artist, also make room for encouragement, vulnerability, and questions about personal freedom. For readers drawn to morally complicated protagonists in vampire fiction, there’s plenty to consider in the gap between JB’s view of himself and the behavior he displays.
The writing has a direct and talkative style, with slang, blunt humor, and long stretches of dialogue shaping its rhythm. JB’s voice stays rooted in Oakland even as the surroundings grow stranger, which helps hold the genre blend together. The action is frequent and graphic, and the sexual material is explicit, giving this supernatural adventure a distinctly adult tone. Its structure is episodic, with encounters building up the world as JB moves through it.
What stayed with me about Birth of the Vampire Pimp was the confidence of its central idea and the amount of imagination poured into Vol’kare. Baugh connects supernatural power with the kinds of influence JB already understands: persuasion, intimidation, loyalty, and money. That connection gives the story a recognizable thread through its many creatures and conflicts. Readers who enjoy adult dark fantasy, vampire horror, and the swagger of urban fiction will find a distinctive combination here. The book’s strongest qualities are its outspoken voice, its unsettling central character, and a world that keeps giving him new reasons to question who holds the power.
Demystifying the Doctorate is a practical guide that helps doctoral students navigate every stage of their academic journey, from choosing a program to completing a dissertation and planning their next steps. What inspired you to write this guide?
My doctoral defense event was excruciating, but after I graduated, I spent a month writing up everything I learned about earning my doctorate at the University of North Texas. Writing about my entire experience from start to finish, including the insider knowledge I gained and knew many of my peers lacked, was therapeutic. Writing up the experience allowed me to overcome the trauma of the defense event and see my 3.5-year experience as transformative.
By the time I had coached about 50 dissertants to success, my clients began pushing me to write a book. They seemed to know that whatever I wrote would be “great,” their word. For years, I ruminated over what content I would put in a book. I struggled to approach the content in a way that mirrored my relationships with my clients. I found David Sternberg’s 1981 book How to Complete And Survive a Doctoral Dissertation, in which he noted the same issues I’ve seen year after year in faculty acting more as gatekeepers than mentors who could teach all doctoral students about the Community of Scholars, or “Club of Doctors,” as I like to call their culture. After reading this book, I spent another few years fuming over “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Honestly, dissertation students chronically and mythologically believe their major professors are mentors who spend ample time with them to teach them how to do their chosen study well.
In 2019, I revisited that end-of-my-experience guide I wrote for reflective therapy and shared it with dissertants in my department in the next several years after I finished. What I had written nearly 15 years earlier felt like the version of me my clients experience in every meeting. I demystify the major-professor-as-mentor idea by stating reality: The major professor is a critic and gatekeeper. At this point, I knew I could write as an honest mentor who wants dissertants to join me in the Club of Doctors. Granted, what you see in the book is only a fraction of what my clients experience when they ask me questions, need a pep talk, or answer my questions about their material.
I mentioned in the book the importance of staying passionate during this arduous process. I truly hope I have torn down the curtain and displayed the keys to completing a dissertation. The dissertation process has operated under cloak and veil since the first doctorates were awarded. I hope the book inspires and empowers dissertants, particularly when the challenges of the dissertation process seem insurmountable, for decades to come.
What are the most common misconceptions students have about pursuing a doctorate?
All their years of undergraduate and graduate study prepared them for handling the dissertation or doctoral capstone process.
Their major professors mentor them and are readily available to answer questions and guide them.
The papers they wrote in their courses prepared them to write the type of literature review professors expect in a dissertation or doctoral capstone.
They have been taught proper academic writing and socialized to meet their major professors’ expectations while in their doctoral coursework.
Their research methods courses prepared them for managing institutional research boards and other dissertation oversight committees.
They learned to do the statistics they need to perform for their dissertation in their required quantitative methods courses.
Your book includes timelines, outlines, and presentation checklists. Which planning tools tend to make the biggest difference in helping students stay on track?
I want to say all the above. However, the reality is that concrete examples of what a proposal or a final five-chapter dissertation written for the same major professor as chair by another student, as well as an example proposal or final defense slide deck designed, again, for the same major professor by another student, tend to have the greatest influence on a dissertant’s confidence in completing the process. Unfortunately, I could not include those examples in the book. I encourage readers to look up dissertations advised by their major professors using the advanced advisors search in the dissertation database to find a model dissertation to analyze and emulate.
Most dissertants do not design a timeline-to-goal list of tasks and deadlines. Instead, they rely on their institutions’ published deadlines or their major professors’ preferences for when to submit what chapter. Also, they tend to assume they are getting the necessary information for completing tasks without asking about the definitions and details of the chapters they need to submit, how many rounds of revisions each element might require, or the average time to completion for the dissertants directed by their major professors. I hope doctoral students see my suggestions as planning tools and use the ones that best support their time to completion.
What do you wish you had understood about doctoral study before beginning your own journey, and how has that lesson influenced your work as a coach?
As a vicarious learner, I would have benefited from another student telling me what to expect after coursework ended and how life could get in the way of managing the dissertation process. I was fortunate to work on campus during the fall and spring of each year, which kept me connected to professors and my department. That access helped me stay comfortable with visiting professors in their offices and handling the proposal-writing process without feeling lost or alone.
However, I came to understand how difficult managing the dissertation could be during the summer after I finished classes and the comprehensive examination, when my mother’s family faced several crises, and I found myself prioritizing their issues over writing my dissertation proposal. My mother believed I had time for her and the family’s problems, even though I was the mother of two early elementary-aged boys and needed to write my proposal. Wasting that one semester of tuition without making progress toward my doctoral goal made it clear that I either needed to get my extended family on board with my goal or ignore them until I defended my dissertation. When my in-laws had multiple medical crises during my semester of collecting data and writing the last chapters, I helped them but also did my work in front of them to make sure they saw what I was working on and how I made sacrifices for them. All my family obligations pushed my final defense a semester past my original timeline-to-goal plan.
These lessons influence my encouragement to keep family informed and ask for help. Dissertants need support when classes end because their doctoral work is not done. Additionally, I constantly encourage my clients to adopt the attitude I wrote in my book: “Nothing is going to get in my way” when it comes to reaching the dissertation defense. One client noted in their acknowledgments that “life is going to life,” and keeping her “eye on the prize” sustained their dissertation momentum during fundamentally life-changing events that tend to stop the average dissertant from progressing for quite some time.
Do you feel untethered from the university’s academic lifeline—set adrift just when the stakes are highest? Does navigating doctoral studies or writing a dissertation proposal leave you feeling as though you are sinking fast, surrounded by expectations, deadlines, committee feedback, and unseen academic hazards?
Demystifying the Doctorate challenges the myth that earning a doctorate is a solo, independent endeavor. Dr. Cody Arvidson offers realistic, experience-based guidance for accessing and using campus resources, understanding what dissertation advisors and major professors expect, and sharing the doctoral journey with family, friends, classmates, and support networks.
Practical, direct, and encouraging, this book helps clear the fog around the doctoral process, offering strategies to avoid feeling bogged down, stuck, or alone. With the right skills, support, and determination, dissertants can move forward with the attitude: “I’m not letting anything get in the way of finishing my doctoral degree.”
Jump follows two people struggling to keep their relationship together as they try to prevent their world from catastrophic collapse, while others are more interested in power and control than saving humanity. How did your vision for the series evolve as you moved from Hive into Jump?
I started with a simple idea: two people who screwed up their relationship get a second chance, courtesy of a time machine and the impending extinction of humanity. What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a lot, apparently.
By the time I finished Hive, I’d managed to destroy civilization, weaponize honeybees, and leave half my characters in situations that would require a miracle—or another book—to escape.
So I wrote Jump. Which was supposed to straighten things out.
Instead, I ended up with multiple universes, several versions of the same man, a time machine with a disturbing tendency to kill its passengers, and an artificial intelligence who thinks he can fix everything.
At this point, I’m beginning to suspect the problem isn’t with my characters.
How have Isabel and Diego changed since readers first encountered them in Hive, and what makes their relationship such an important emotional foundation for the series?
Isabel and Diego have loved each other for decades. Unfortunately, they’ve also spent a good portion of those decades making spectacularly bad decisions.
When we first meet them, they’ve been apart for fifteen years. Isabel has just divorced a billionaire who stole her research and treated her like an expensive appliance. Diego has been nursing a broken heart while trying to keep his perpetually cash-strapped NGO afloat. Clearly, these are two people with excellent judgment.
Then the world ends, and suddenly their relationship problems seem a little less important.
Except they aren’t.
Diego can repair almost anything, but he can’t fix Isabel’s grief. Isabel can program a swarm of microscopic robots, but she can’t make Diego stop trying to protect her. They’re stubborn, imperfect, occasionally infuriating people who keep choosing each other, even when the universe makes that choice almost impossible.
How does Isabel’s technology reflect the ethical challenges surrounding inventions that can be used for both beneficial and destructive purposes?
Imagine spending years inventing artificial bees to help feed the world. You finally get the technology working, and your billionaire ex-husband decides what it really needs is the ability to murder people.
That’s pretty much Isabel’s career trajectory.
The scary part is that nobody starts out announcing they’re going to build an army of killerbots. They begin with perfectly reasonable ideas. Better crop yields. Automated pollination. Protecting food supplies. Then someone suggests using the bees to defend the biodomes. And someone else decides the best defense is to eliminate anyone who might become a threat.
Before long, the tiny drones you designed to save the planet are exterminating its inhabitants.
I wish I could say this was wildly unrealistic, but humans have a remarkable talent for taking useful inventions and finding spectacularly awful things to do with them.
Isabel’s dilemma is that she can’t simply blame everyone else. At some point, she has to ask herself whether she’s willing to use those same weapons to protect the people she loves.
It’s a much harder question when the person standing in your way has a shotgun.
What larger themes or character journeys do you hope to continue exploring as the Madders of Time series progresses?
I always planned five books—and I know exactly how the last one ends. Getting there is the problem.
Three books in, the timelines are multiplying, my characters are scattered across several dying worlds, and a sixteen-year-old boy is trying to keep the entire multiverse from falling apart. I’m starting to feel a little sorry for him. I’m also beginning to think I need a better filing system.
One thing I love about writing parallel universes is that I get to take the same basic people and give them completely different lives. What if Isabel and Diego never broke up? What if the man who helped destroy the world had made one different choice? What if the person you love is still alive somewhere—but has never met you?
I also want to keep poking at our rather embarrassing human tendency to confuse wealth and power with wisdom. In my books, the billionaires build enormous luxury biodomes to ride out the apocalypse. Naturally, they hire the people who know how to keep everything running—and then ignore them.
But underneath the time travel, killerbots, and occasional naked physicist, I’m still writing about love, hope, and what we owe each other.
I’d like to believe we can save the world without sacrificing our humanity.
The multiverse is collapsing. The time machine is broken. And humanity’s last hope? Might already be dead. Seven months after the EMPs brought the world to its knees, a handful of scientists are racing against extinction—and each other. Somewhere in a flooded skyscraper lies a wormhole generator that might be able to undo the apocalypse. If they can find it. If it still works. If it doesn’t kill them first. Meanwhile, Diego Nadales wakes in a cell, his face bloodied and his memories fractured. He’s being accused of terrorism, treason, and time travel. The last one, at least, is true. Isabel is trapped inside a biodome ruled by the man she once trusted. But her bees—microscopic drones designed to save the planet—have been hijacked and weaponized. If she doesn’t find a way out soon, her creation will wipe out the last threads of life on Earth. Old friends return. New enemies rise. And somewhere in the chaos, one small spark of hope just might be enough to ignite a revolution. The clock isn’t ticking. It’s blowing up.
The Girl with Free Feet is a moving multigenerational narrative that celebrates the women whose courage, sacrifices, and difficult choices helped create new possibilities for their families. What was most important to you about preserving these experiences for future generations?
I was born during the Great Chinese Famine and grew up during the Cultural Revolution. I witnessed how quickly political upheaval could destroy families, separate loved ones, and take away freedoms we often take for granted.
But my mother’s life began in a very different China. She grew up in a privileged Shanghai family, surrounded by traditions that shaped women’s lives for generations. Her mother had bound feet, while my mother was fortunate enough to grow up with free feet. To me, that difference symbolizes much more than a physical change. It represents the beginning of a journey toward independence.
I wanted to preserve not only the suffering and sacrifices of these women, but also their love, courage, humor, and determination. History books record political events, but family stories reveal how ordinary people lived through them.
Most importantly, I wanted my grandchildren and future generations to understand where they came from and how much courage it took for their ancestors to give them the opportunities they enjoy today.
What did you discover about the relationship between mothers and daughters while exploring these generations?
I came to understand that mothers and daughters are connected by both love and expectations, and that love is not always expressed in ways we recognize at the time.
Each generation of women in my family wanted something better for the next. My grandmother lived within the restrictions of traditional Chinese society. My mother sought education, love, and greater independence. I eventually found opportunities in America that neither of them could have imagined.
As a daughter, I did not always understand my mother’s decisions. Writing her story helped me see her not simply as my mother, but as a young woman with dreams, disappointments, and difficult choices of her own.
I discovered that understanding our mothers requires looking beyond the roles they played in our lives and recognizing the women they were before we were born.
What parallels do you see between the struggles for independence experienced by the women in your story and the challenges women face today?
The circumstances have changed dramatically, but the desire for independence remains the same.
My grandmother’s generation struggled against traditions that literally bound women’s feet. My mother’s generation fought for education, the freedom to love, and the right to make personal choices amid political turmoil.
Today, women have far greater opportunities, yet many still struggle to balance family expectations, careers, relationships, and their own ambitions.
Freedom is not simply the absence of restrictions. It is the ability to make meaningful choices about one’s own life.
One lesson from my family’s history is that progress is never guaranteed. The freedoms women enjoy today were made possible by the sacrifices of earlier generations, and they must continue to be valued and protected.
What do you hope younger generations, particularly daughters and granddaughters, learn from Rita’s life and the experiences of the women in your family?
I hope they learn to be courageous, independent, and compassionate.
Rita’s life reminds us that we cannot always control history or circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them. She experienced love, heartbreak, political persecution, and extraordinary changes, yet she never lost her independent spirit.
I especially hope my granddaughter Zoey understands that the freedom she enjoys today is a precious inheritance. Her great-grandmother had free feet, but she still faced many invisible restrictions. My generation crossed oceans to find greater opportunities. Zoey’s generation can walk even further.
That is the meaning behind my book’s title. Free feet are only the beginning. True freedom is having the courage to choose your own path.
From bound feet to free feet, four generations of women carry one family through love, upheaval, survival, and freedom. Born into a changing Shanghai, Rita grows up in a world suspended between old traditions and a new China. Her mother, Rong, walks on feet bound in childhood—a painful inheritance from a culture in which obedience was expected and freedom, especially for women, was limited. Rita is different. She wants an education. She wants independence. And she wants the freedom to choose whom she loves and what her life will become. But history has other plans. As political upheaval transforms China, Rita’s family is swept into forces far beyond their control. Love is separated by distance. Family security disappears. The Cultural Revolution brings fear, persecution, and loss. Yet through marriage, motherhood, heartbreak, and extraordinary change, Rita refuses to surrender the independent spirit that has always defined her. Eventually, that journey carries the family across an ocean to America—and toward freedoms earlier generations could scarcely have imagined. Inspired by family history and personal memory, The Girl with Free Feet is an intimate multigenerational story of women, family, resilience, sacrifice, and the complicated choices people make in order to survive. Above all, it is a story about what one generation endures so the next can walk more freely.
