Diamonds in Auschwitz follows a Jewish woman struggling to survive the brutal realities of Auschwitz who finds a hidden diamond engagement ring in the mud, it brings her a glimmer of hope and a reason to survive. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The idea for this story came to me while reading Wendy Holden’s Born Survivors. In this nonfiction book, she briefly mentions that a woman was able to hold onto her engagement ring during the Nazi occupation and living in the Jewish ghetto. As she entered Auschwitz, she refused to let the Nazis get her ring, so she dropped it outside the gates of the concentration camp. I loved the idea of someone finding the ring while a prisoner there. How could something so beautiful change her life, even though it had no value while living in Auschwitz? The story developed from that image. 

It seemed like you took your time in building the characters and the story to great emotional effect. How did you manage the pacing of the story while keeping readers engaged?

I actually wrote all of Samual and Hanna’s story in full first. Then I went back and wrote the second timeline — Rachael and Chaya’s story. I made sure to line up their plotline with Samual and Hanna’s – like having climatic events happen next to each other. It took a little bit of shuffling and organizing!

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I really wanted to dig into the idea of living after death — not necessarily in a spiritual-afterlife kind of way, but as a legacy. My characters are all very concerned with this question: If no one knows I lived, did I even exist? I wanted to show how leaving a part of you behind after death — whether a ring, memories, artwork — can give your life purpose. I also wanted to explore the idea of hope. At first, it’s seen as a poison to Rachael. She believes that hope kills faster than the Germans can. But as she finds a reason to live, even after losing everything, she sees that hope survives through even the worst of times. The ring is the physical embodiment of that hope for her and Hanna. 

What is the next book that you are writing and when will that be published?

I’m in the editing stages of my second book. It’s set in Charleston after the Revolutionary War. It’s part a retelling of a Shakespeare tragedy, part murder mystery, and part origin story of a real Charleston haunted legend. 

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