The Dragon Garden follows an 11-year-old girl who loses her status as a demon queller and, because of this, loses her independence as a woman. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Even though my height falls into the “normal” range (I’m just a quarter inch under 5′ 2″), it’s very common for adults to speak to me as if I’m a child. I think most of them don’t realize what they’re doing. I suspect in the back of their minds, they’re equating my size with that of a child and on some level, they think of me as a child. And, honestly, I’m smaller than a lot of kids in middle school. That said, I identify very strongly with my main character, Pingzi Po, because of my size and the way I’ve been treated throughout my life. Also, at this point in time, I’m concerned about the survival of democracy in the U.S., and I’m especially concerned about the rights and freedom of women. Combine the way I identify with an 11-year-old girl with today’s landscape, and the result is The Dragon Garden.
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There was a lot of time spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?

My characters are more real to me than most people I will ever meet, mostly because I spend so much time with my characters. I’ve known the two main characters for several years — I’ve written about them in other series at different stages in their lives. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t think in terms of getting the characters right any more than you would think about getting a family member or a friend right when you tell someone else about them. If you ask me a question about any of my characters, I can probably answer without thinking about it, because I understand all my characters and what makes them tick. I know a lot about their lives.

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

Literary Titan’s review touches upon the themes of social issues, which are really important to me. To dig a little deeper, my main theme is this: I believe you must do whatever is necessary to protect yourself from dangerous people in order to prevent them from damaging or even destroying your life and the lives of those you love. My degrees are in education and sociology. I believe most people are good. However, there’s a significant percentage of the population who aren’t, whether due to life experience and/or genetics. I’m talking about people have no empathy for others, and that makes them potentially dangerous, especially because they know how to blend in and tend to be people you’d never imagine could be dangerous. I think this is the most important thing Pingzi learns in this book, and I spell out the real warning signs, which she comes to learn and understand.

I also wanted Pingzi to experience the worst possible thing that could happen to her and figure out what to do about it. I want to remind adults and young adults alike that they have the power to be resourceful and figure out how to navigate through life.

What is the next book in the Pingzi and Benzel Mystery series about, and when will it be available?

I don’t know yet. All I have right now is an idea. I never, ever discuss my work until after it’s written. If I talk about it before I write it, then it seems like I’ve already done the work and there’s no reason to put it on paper. But there are three other Pingzi & Benzel books available right now: The Yellow Dragon, The Dragon Bells, and The Dragon’s Omen, which features a young male character who identifies as a girl. That’s one of my favorite characters to date, because this comes as such a surprise to Pingzi and she has to figure out how she feels.

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