My original inspiration for Plum Blossoms in Paris sprang from two rich sources: Henry James’ Daisy Miller and a life-long love affair with Paris. I wanted to breathe new life into the fish-out-of-water archetype, for a twenty-first century American woman.

It’s a story about a young lady, Daisy Lockhart, who seeks out Paris as a refuge for her wounded heart, but finds instead a tenuous freedom to love and live in a City of Lights that, for all its beauty, also harbors many shadows. Especially for an American tourist in 2004, with an Iraq War sharply dividing two continents.

For me, the romance between Daisy and Mathieu—while poignant and immensely gratifying to write—is almost secondary to the growth that Daisy achieves during her Paris stay. I wanted her to discover a slumbering sense of idealism, with all of the passion and outrage that entails, while also navigating the thorny reality of trying to love a man and establish an identity in a country where she is an outsider. In the end, which is more important: to love well or to be authentically ourselves? Daisy must make that choice—in the most romantic city in the world.