At nine years old, I emigrated from Hong Kong to England with barely any English. Then I met Mrs. Fearon, a teacher who didn't just teach me to read—she taught me that language could sing. She gave me poetry when I could barely speak, and dared me to write when I had no words. She's the reason I became a writer.

Years later, I wrote about Mrs. Fearon for National Geographic's Good People: Stories From the Best of Humanity. You can read the full story here on Instagram. I've also contributed to the essay collection Defying Definitions and collaborated on horror poetry—including Blood Ginger, a dark reimagining of Little Red Riding Hood where the girl becomes the wolf.

Now I write urban fantasy detective noir featuring Detective Lynx Wu, a British Chinese cop with rare restoration magic navigating a morally complex future London. Lynx is the first British Chinese character I've written, and perhaps that's why writing him feels so natural---because in a very real way, I relate to him more personally than I've ever related to any other character for having the same roots. For the fact that I can draw from my own experiences, truly, and write it in, like having a foundation I didn't have to make up. There's an intangible, yet visceral core that resonates with me that I can't explain.

Noir has always been in me, long before I knew the term. Always drawn to the dark, the morally grey, and the beautiful. Give me a dash of the eerie and I'm there.

I studied Waterhouse's Pre-Raphaelite paintings for my A-Level project: La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Hylas and the Nymphs, Circe Offering the Cup—men frozen at the moment before the fall, lured by dangerous women. The tragic beauty of being enraptured, utterly unsuspecting, right before the fall. That fascination never left.

My teenage drawings were all blood and wings and predatory creatures. Years later, I'd write Sutyu Lam—a thief who wears masks and seduces Detective Lynx Wu into the same kind of dangerous obsession. Turns out I needed words, not paint, to capture that particular darkness.

In another life, I was an English teacher. These days, I write morally complex mysteries where magic meets murder and justice always comes at a price. When the Mask Slips hit #1 on both US and UK Amazon. Book 2, When the Gold Weeps, asks: who gets to decide what justice is?

I'm a mum to two bilingual children, currently living in Prague with my Czech husband. When I'm not writing, I'm doing origami, analyzing films, or making my own book covers because commissions are expensive.

P.S. Below are examples of my fantasy art from when I was younger, right around the time when I was choosing between art and writing. Writing won the call, but there's a part of me that will always love art.