Discovering Mom follows an adopted teenage boy who, while struggling with a sense of identity, sets out on a search for his birth mom only to discover more than he anticipated. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Like my main protagonist, Daniel, I too was adopted at birth—though I’m part Italian instead of Native American—and I wanted to write about what it’s like to grow up being different than your brothers and sisters and all your schoolmates, feeling like you don’t belong, constantly wondering who and where your real parents are. I never managed to find my birth parents, but I thought it’d be fun and interesting for Daniel to find at least one of his. Thus, Karen Moss was created along with a huge obstacle for her and Daniel to overcome. The entire project was like a wish-fulfillment fantasy in a way, and I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

This book has many complex characters that are undergoing a lot of personal changes. What were the driving ideals behind the characters’ development throughout the story?

Daniel and several other characters are motivated by a need for love and acceptance. But additionally, he’s searching for truth, identity, and a sense of purpose. He feels trapped and miserable in his given role as the compliant, dutiful son because it’s all a lie, and he must break free so he can find his true identity. He’s a truth-seeker, and so is his adoptive mother, Mary, who also feels trapped in her role as a devoted housewife. She’s tired of being taken for granted and being suspicious of her husband, Phillip, every single night. So, she too makes a daring escape and discovers a new side to herself that she never knew existed. That’s what the whole story is about, basically, breaking social norms or stepping out of your comfort zone to find out who you truly are—plus, to be happy. Many of my characters are struggling to find happiness while stuck in impossible situations. My deuteragonist, Jasmine, is so shy and introverted that it prevents her from befriending Daniel—and vice versa. Her father, Roger, wants to be a surrogate father to Daniel, but he already has too much on his plate. Mary and Phillip must do the unthinkable act of splitting up in order to grow and ultimately shine. And Daniel’s birth mother, Karen, needs to free herself from a dangerous cult if she ever expects to have a real family.

Coming-of-age stories deal with a lot of different topics, especially during the critical development period of teens. What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

There’s the themes that were already mentioned; searching for your roots and identity to find your purpose in life, the struggle for truth, happiness, love, and acceptance, breaking away from social norms and traps, and stepping out of your comfort zone. But the book is also about tolerance and accepting others for who they are. There are many instances where Daniel encounters people who are different than him, such as the lesbian couple who move in across the street from him and his family. He doesn’t demonize the couple, but he finds them strange and unbecoming and isn’t shy about treating them differently. Yet he grows so much throughout his journey that by the end of it he comes to accept everyone, which is directly linked to another important theme in the book: Developing from a self-centered thinking to a more worldly, other-focused thought. Plus, there’s the loss of innocence, learning where one fits in the larger world, and perhaps above all, coming to grips with the reality of cruelty in the world—death, racism, sexual abuse, etc.

Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?

There might be a follow-up later on, but Daniel and Jasmine will be all grown up since that’s how I left them in the final pages of this book. The story I’m working on now is about a 49-year-old auto mechanic who’s forced back into the dating scene after his wife leaves him. At the moment, it’s called “Rupert’s Last Stand,” and I hope to be done with it within a year.

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