Child of Secrets From Afar follows a couple looking to grow their family. They adopt two Vietnamese girls, one of whom has an enigmatic past and goes missing. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I remember hearing that some of the Vietnamese orphans rescued during Operation Babylift in 1975 weren’t really orphans at all. Some of the older children had intact families back in Vietnam and wanted to return home. That always intrigued me. I wondered if their parents had deliberately sent them away from the war zone for safety reasons, or if they’d been accidentally swept up, which is what happened to some children I’d seen profiled on a documentary, or what. There’s an element of the unknown in an adoption, where the new parents just don’t know everything about the former life of their adopted child. I figured that might make a good basis for a mystery, especially one involving a child from the days when South Vietnam was falling and the place was in utter chaos.

When writing a new novel, what comes first for you — the plot or the characters — and why?

The plot. Definitely the plot! I get an idea for a story, choose the time and place, and I start building on that. The characters just start to pop into my head once I’ve settled on the story premise. I can easily visualize them as I start to write about them.

Are there any books or authors that inspired you to become a writer?

I always loved books as a child, especially mysteries. Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, The Happy Hollisters – I loved them all. Mysteries are still my favorite genre. I must have literally hundreds of books on my Kindle. Besides, I wholeheartedly enjoy putting a story together. It’s not like work for me. It’s fun!

Can you share any upcoming projects or plans for future books?

I work on several at a time, believe it or not. I came up with an idea for one recently, a mystery set right here in New York City, where I live, and have been working on it. I also think a few of my previous books, like BACKSTABBED ON BROADWAY and A CHARM WITHOUT A CHAIN, could be turned into series. Both of those have characters that it would be fun to put into new situations with new mysteries to solve.

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