Please tell us a little about yourself and The Dreamer. 

I grew up on U.S. military bases across Asia with my single father, who worked in intelligence, so my sense of home was always shifting. That definitely shaped the kinds of stories I tell. 

I’m now based in the Bay Area with my husband, daughter, and our dogs, and I write character-driven science fiction and fantasy about identity, belonging, and found family. My debut novel, The Dreamer, is the first book in The Black Stone Cycle. It follows a grieving teen who discovers her dreams are real when they connect her to a blue alien boy and a mysterious stone that could save the future—or change it forever.  

Why did you choose to write science fiction and fantasy?  

I grew up watching Star Trek, David Lynch’s Dune, Blade Runner, Conan the Barbarian, and other SFF. I’ve always been drawn to the future and the idea of escaping the real world. As a teen, I read [Frank Herbert’s] Dune and [Isaac Asimov’s] Foundation and wished there were more stories with younger characters I could relate to without losing the depth and complexity of adult sci-fi. I was also a proud theater kid who became slightly obsessed with learning Klingon, so turning to sci-fi writing felt pretty inevitable. 

How did you construct the world within your novel? 

I’m heavy on worldbuilding. I’ve created multiple alien races, languages, histories, and cultures, but I also wanted the story to feel easy to read and accessible to a broad audience. Sci-fi can sometimes get so heady or science-focused that it loses the emotional core, and that’s the part I care about most. At its heart, this is a story about teens who happen to be in space…messy, emotional, figuring things out. I wanted to center a group of misfits, normalize the marginalized, and let them carry something as big as the fate of the galaxy while still worrying about first kisses, jealousy, and getting on each other’s nerves. There’s a lot of background to the universe that only I know, but it shapes everything on the page.  

How did you create/acquire the cover art?  

I had been following [artist] Mario Robert on Facebook for years. A close friend I went to high school with in Seoul, South Korea, had told me to check out his art, and it always stuck with me. I’m an artist and graphic designer, so I initially set out to design my own book. The designs were fine, but I wanted to feel thrilled. One day, while looking at one of Mario’s posts, it clicked! He was the perfect person to design my cover. It worked out wonderfully, and he’s now creating character art, book scenes, and the cover for Book 2, The Divide, which is due out later this year. 

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.