In Twin Spirits, a young girl is tricked into touching a dead body and later meets a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the deceased. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?

As a child growing up in the heart of Cabrini-Green on Chicago’s North Side, I often felt imprisoned by my surroundings. Economic hardship shaped our lives. Although we lived only two miles from downtown Chicago, it felt like another world. Yet the one place where I always felt free was in my imagination. As the youngest in a large family, my stories and imagination became my safe haven—a place where no circumstance could limit where I could go or who I could become.

One place that especially fascinated me was the neighborhood funeral home. Almost everyone has, at some point, walked through the doors of a funeral home. It is a place filled with grief, memories, unanswered questions, and unexpected encounters. I began to wonder, What stories could emerge from such a place?

That simple question became the spark that gave birth to Twin Spirits.

Leona and Lillian’s history carries deep trauma, but also humor, music, and resilience. How did you approach balancing the darker elements of their past with their vitality and spirit?

For me, it was important that my characters were never defined by the painful things that happened to them. Trauma can shape a person, but it doesn’t have to become their entire identity. I wanted my characters to laugh, dream, make mistakes, love, and find moments of joy despite the hardships they endured.

Growing up in Cabrini-Green, I witnessed people who faced extraordinary challenges, yet they still found reasons to smile, celebrate, and care for one another. That resilience influenced how I wrote Twin Spirits. The darker elements of the story provide the emotional weight, but the vitality and spirit of the characters remind us that hope and healing are always possible.

I believe the human spirit is remarkably resilient. Even in our darkest moments, there is the capacity for compassion, forgiveness, and transformation. That balance between pain and hope is at the heart of Twin Spirits.

The story moves from what could feel like a ghost story into something more grounded and human. How did you decide where to draw that line between the supernatural and emotional reality?

I have always loved mysteries, and one of the things I appreciate most about them is that not every mystery has to be solved. Some questions are meant to linger, inviting readers to wrestle with their own interpretations long after the final page.

I chose to begin Twin Spirits as a ghost story because it provided a gentle way to ease readers into the far more complicated lives of the twins. But this novel is about much more than one set of twins. It is also about “twin spirits”—people who experience similar circumstances yet make entirely different choices. Their lives echo one another, but their paths ultimately diverge.

As a writer, there comes a point when you no longer worry about whether you’ve clearly drawn every line between mystery and reality. Instead, you trust the story to breathe. You allow the characters, the unanswered questions, and the emotional truths to exist together, giving readers the freedom to discover their own meaning within the mystery.

What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?

My next fictional work is the second book in the Adventures with the Shortiez series, titled The House. As a writer, I am always working on something new, whether it is fiction or nonfiction. It is my home that the “The house”, will be available in December. 

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