White Jasmines follows a woman facing a profound personal crisis who engages in direct conversations with God, sending her on a deeply introspective journey confronting love, faith, and identity. What was the inspiration for your story?

The inspiration for White Jasmines came from a period in my life when the inner world felt louder than the outer one. I was watching how people, including myself, search for meaning when they feel lost—how we try to speak to something larger than ourselves when the usual language of life stops making sense.

I became fascinated with that private space where doubt, faith, love, and identity collide. The idea of a woman in crisis having a direct conversation with God allowed me to explore those questions with honesty and vulnerability. It wasn’t sparked by a single event, but by a long stretch of introspection, memories that resurfaced unexpectedly, and the desire to understand how we rebuild ourselves after being broken open.

The story grew from that silence, that questioning, and the need to give shape to emotions that often go unnamed. It became a novel before I realized it—almost like the dialogue had been waiting for someone to write it down.

Are there any emotions or memories from your own life that you put into your character’s life?

Yes, there are emotions and memories from my own life woven into the character’s journey, though never in a literal or autobiographical way. I drew from moments when I felt untethered, when life asked questions I wasn’t ready to answer. Those private experiences—grief, uncertainty, the search for meaning, the ache of longing—helped me understand her inner landscape more honestly.

Some memories, even small ones, left echoes that shaped how she thinks and feels. The way she notices silence, the way she questions love, the way she rebuilds her faith—those elements grew from my own reflections during challenging periods.

While the character is not me, the emotional truth behind her struggles and transformations is deeply personal. I used those memories as a compass, guiding me toward a story that felt authentic rather than imagined from a distance.

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

Several themes guided the heart of White Jasmines. I was drawn to the tension between faith and doubt—how both can coexist inside one person, and how questioning can sometimes be its own form of belief. The book also explores the fragility of identity, especially when life forces us to confront the parts of ourselves we try to avoid.

Love, in all its complicated forms, was another essential theme. Not just romantic love, but the quieter forms: self-love, forgiveness, and love that persists even after disappointment.

And finally, I wanted to explore transformation—the slow, often painful process of breaking and rebuilding. The 40-day dialogue with God became a way to examine how someone can return to themselves with new clarity after facing the hardest truths.

Those themes together naturally, creating a story that sits at the intersection of introspection, spirituality, and emotional honesty.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from White Jasmines?

If readers take one thing from White Jasmines, I hope it’s the understanding that their inner struggles are not a sign of failure but a passageway to gaining deeper self-awareness. The book invites readers to sit with their doubts, heartbreaks, and questions without rushing to hide or fix them.

I want readers to feel that even in moments of loneliness or confusion, there is meaning to be found—sometimes quietly, sometimes unexpectedly. If the story gives someone a little more compassion for their own journey or reminds them that transformation often starts in the most uncertain places, then it has achieved what I hoped for.

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