The Left Turn follows an author and her partner who are desperate for inner peace and find a split-second decision propelling them into different versions of their lives. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

I lived that moment, in a sense. I was on a bike ride with my husband in San Francisco and he was riding way ahead, and I’d also been experiencing that sense of drowning in our relationship. And that “what if” thought popped into my head. But unlike so many “what if” thoughts that raced around in my thoughts at that time, this one stayed with me and formed itself into a scene. So I wrote it down. Somehow the end also arrived with the beginning, which was cool and already lent a mystery to what that might all mean. Then over weeks and months, more scenes would show up in my mind. At a certain point I had enough related scenes that I knew I had to figure out how they fit together. That’s when writing this novel because a real thing for me, an endeavor I was committed to.

Hannah is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

So many of us live like life is a struggle, it feels hard, and it feels like it is happening to us, like it’s out there and we have to navigate it somehow. I certainly used to feel that way, and sometimes still do. But I’ve grown personally in ways I never expected and initially did not pursue. Once the door started to open, mostly out of my intense desire for a better life, I started to see how I was creating my own experience and that I could change what I was creating to something better. It’s that moment of the cracking of the shell, the opening of the door to new possibilities that is so fascinating to me. That’s where Hannah and James are—in that first opening.

The ideals, you might say, are around willingness or openness to see things from a different perspective, to consider the possibilities that maybe things aren’t the way we thought. Or maybe we knew that, but forgot while getting through each day. I believe we all have more creative power and agency that we think we do, and that we can heal ourselves, each other, and the world as we accept and live into that power. It’s challenging to move beyond the ways we’ve been trained to think and feel and behave, but we’re the richer for it when we make the effort.

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

Synchronicity is one. We tend to write off coincidences like they don’t mean anything, they’re just funny. But I think they are clues, reminders that the Universe is constantly shifting and adjusting to manifest what we choose to pay attention to. They are a kind of magical sticky note.

Which brings me another theme: intention and focus. “Energy flows where attention goes.” I think Tony Robbins is right about that and we can easily test it out and experience it. Most of us these days are so constantly distracted by everything from advertising to our own to-do lists, that we tend not to notice or our energy is just a chaotic mess. Really holding an intention with focus consistently can produce some mind-blowing results.

And one more I’d like to mention: perspective. Changing our perspective is a powerful exercise. As an actor, it was part of my training to put myself in a character’s shoes and think their thoughts and speak their words. It helps us both understand others more, but also helps us stay flexible in our own thinking. For every way one might see something, there is another way to see it. I don’t believe there is an objective reality. How could any of us ever perceive it, since we are all seeing from our own perspectives and cannot do otherwise? Understanding that can help us heal from divisiveness (from political to familial) and to recognize how we are one.

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

Book 2 in the series doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s in the works. My plan is to launch it September 2023. For this next book we’ll explore the other side of the parallel universe split that happened in Book 1. And we’ll be exploring some different themes in more depth, including how we personally grow while in relationship, and what death might be from a different perspective. In Book 1 Hannah split off from James. So in Book 2, they will have started apart, and now will be together.

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