Multi-genre author, Lyn Liao Butler joins the blog today to chat about her latest thriller, What Is Mine

Author Name: Lyn Liao Butler

Book Title: What Is Mine

Book Genre: Thriller

Release Date: February 6, 2023

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

 Welcome, Lyn! What sparked the idea for this book?

We fostered dogs during the pandemic and our young son cried every time a dog went to their forever home. But he wanted to keep fostering and one couple was so touched by him that they offered to give him the dog back. They owned an RV and said the dog would get to travel around the country with them and their current dog. They were so taken with him that they sent him a box of dog toys to give out to his future foster dogs. They were so nice, but then my thriller brain went, what if they weren’t? And I concocted a story of how a boy disappeared from his driveway with his dog without a trace (yeah, I know. My brain is makes up terrifying stories).

You write in multiple genres, which is so impressive! What drew you to writing thriller in particular? 

I actually accidentally wrote a thriller. My first two books are considered upmarket fiction, and when I started writing my third book, it was supposed to be in the same genre. But I was writing it during the pandemic while pandemic home schooling a seven-year-old (one of the worst things that ever happened to us) and I started getting stabby. So I started killing characters, added a stalker, accidental murder, intentional murder…and my agent said, Lyn, this is not feel-good family drama. I think you wrote a thriller. And she sold it in two weeks as thriller.

What’s your favorite part about writing/being an author? What do you find challenging?

I love concocting stories in my head. I’ll hear something interesting and my brain immediately goes, what if this happened instead? And my brain just comes up with stories based on things I hear in the news, in my life, etc. There’s nothing better to me then delving into a story, getting to make up characters, give them traits, and using my imagination. The process of writing is the best part of being an author. The part I find challenging is the whole publishing process. It’s not linear, meaning, you can’t just work hard and expect to have it pay off. It takes timing, luck, and what’s going on in the world to get a book published and it’s often out of the authors hands. So I try to celebrate every book I write, even if it ends up dying on sub while out to publishers.

Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it.

As you know, I currently write in three genres and I’m currently working on an upmarket fiction one about a woman in Taiwan whose fourth daughter was stolen from her when the daughter was a baby and given away to another family and she never saw her again. Sixty-three years later, she thinks she sees her lost daughter and asks her granddaughter to come to Taiwan to help her find the missing daughter. I’m also working on a new rom-com, which is in the same world as my first rom-com, Crazy Bao You.

Where can readers find you?

I made it really easy for people to find me. I’m @lynliaobutler on all social media platforms, and my website is www.lynliaobutler.com.

Thank you, Lyn! What Is Mine is out TODAY.

What Is Mine

The search for a missing boy entwines the lives of two desperate women. One seeks redemption for her sister; the other will do anything for the love of her life.

Hope Chen and her husband are raising her nine-year-old nephew, Luca, in the wake of his troubled mother’s death. Luca finally has a safe home in a neighborhood where kids play in the streets and nobody locks their doors. Then one day, Luca and his dog disappear without a trace. Guilt-ridden, fearing the worst but praying for the best, Hope finds her imagination running wild.

Meanwhile, a woman with dangerous secrets to keep buried will do anything to protect her marriage. In one fleeting instant, it’s all within her reach. She can finally give her husband the one thing that will make him love her again.

Hope will do anything to get Luca back. The other woman will do anything to stop Hope. As Hope’s search grows more desperate and the other woman’s plans more twisted, their lives collide in an explosive battle of wits. With a boy caught in the middle, nothing on this deadly path of love and revenge is what it seems.