Lily Wong sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we, the readers, can get to know her better. Are you ready?  Lily, take it away!

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What is your full name?
My full name is Lily Yong Shing Wong, and it has quite a story behind it. My sister, Rose, and I were named for my mother’s favorite flowers and to match Violet, the English name Ma prefers to use. Yong Shing means Courageous Victory. Since Ma’s Chinese name has a subservient translation, she insisted that mine should be strong. Gung-Gung and Po-Po (my maternal grandparents) think Courageous Victory is too forceful a name for a girl and call me Lei Lei instead. My last name is particularly significant because my North Dakota Norwegian father (Vern Knudsen) gave me my mother’s surname instead of his to preserve my Chinese heritage and to placate my grandfather for having stolen his daughter. I call my father Baba and he calls me Dumpling because my baby cheeks were fat and I hid “delicious secrets” inside. I could go on and on about the layered meanings of my name, but this is already a long and complicated answer for what is normally a very simple question.

How old are you?
I’m twenty-five.

What is your profession?
I am a protector of women and children and a modern-day ninja sleuth.

Do you have a significant other?
It’s complicated. My mother and grandparents set me up with Daniel Kwok, a perfect Chinese son who was born in Los Angeles and raised partially in Hong Kong. We had a rocky start at a family ambush dinner, but the next two dates went pretty well. I’ll see him soon when I escort Ma to Hong Kong for her emergency board meeting. I’ll let you know how it goes. Right now, I’m a churning mess of excitement and terror.

What is their name and profession?
Daniel is a financial advisor and real estate broker for Mandarin Group Realtors in Los Angeles. Good catch, right? But can someone this normal really be right for me?

Do you have any children?
Oh, good lord. You’re as bad as Gung-Gung and Po-Po!

Do you have any siblings?
This is hard to talk about, so I’ll keep it short. My younger sister, Rose, died when she was only fifteen. Instead of looking out for her as a big sister should, I deserted her to live on campus at UCLA. I lost my virginity to my first love the night she was so brutally raped and murdered. I’ve been making up for it ever since.

Are your parents nearby?
Nearby? More like downstairs! I live in a super cool apartment on the second floor of Baba’s Hong Kong cuisine restaurant in Culver City, California. I visit Baba and Ma in Arcadia—my hometown in L.A. County—several times a month. And I’m traveling with Ma to Hong Kong where we’ll be staying with Gung-Gung and Po-Po in their fabulous hill top condo on The Peak. I’m a twenty-five-year-old Asian American woman. My parents are always nearby.

Who is your best friend?
Sigh. You don’t let up, do you? The truth is, I had amazing friends before my sister died. Then I pushed them all away. I dropped out of UCLA and focused my grief and guilt into grim purpose. So, in many ways, my best friend is my ninjutsu teacher, Sensei. He’s the only person who knows all my secrets. He guides me through the darkness with his wisdom and skill in the hopes that, one day, I might become tatsujin, a fully actualized human being.

Do you have any pets?
No. I can barely take care of myself.

What town do you live in?
Culver City, next to Sony Pictures Studio.

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
I live in sprawling Los Angeles and cover most of it on my racing bike, mass transit, ride share, or occasionally borrowing Baba’s delivery car.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
Neither. I live rent free in the afore-mentioned super cool apartment above my father’s restaurant. He built it for me to keep me close when I was coping with Rose’s death. In exchange, I help out in the dining room, clean the billboard sign, and handle all the Wong’s Hong Kong Inn’s website, blog, and social media needs.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
My home dojo. It occupies the center of my apartment, which means I have to cross over the slightly raised platform of interlocking squares in order to travel from my bedroom to my living area and balcony. The squares had been painted to resemble tatami mats, giving the twenty-by-twelve-foot space the appearance of a Japanese room in an otherwise Chinese-American home.

Favorite meal and dessert?
So many delicious foods to eat and only one me! But if I have to narrow it down, I’ll go with my favorite comfort food from Baba of zòngzi sticky rice with lap cheong sausage, yuen yeung (a mix of half coffee, half black tea and condensed milk), and red bean mochi for dessert. I doubled down on the rice, but mochi is so good. I also adore Aleisha’s barbecue pork tamales, with a shout out to the carne asada from Paco’s Tacos and the gruyère potato beignets from République.

Do you have any hobbies?
When I’m not training in Ninjutsu, Wushu, or boxing, I train in Parkour free running and mountain climbing. I’m also an avid cyclist and long-distance runner. Aside from that, I eat.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Right now, I’m super excited about visiting Hong Kong.

What music do you listen to?
Since I don’t own a car and I’m rarely at home, I tend to listen to whatever music is around me. I’m partial to the R&B I hear at Aleisha’s Refuge, the women’s shelter I work for in Culver City, the indie rock my rideshare driver friend Kansas plays in her SUV, and the soothing hōgaku traditional Japanese music Sensei plays in his home.

Do you have a favorite book?
Secrets of the Ninja Grandmaster by Stephen K. Hayes and Masaaki Hatsumi

What is your idea of a really fun time?
Live sword training with Sensei then biking into Chinatown for dim sum brunch.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Kicking Ass and Living Up to My Name: The Excruciatingly Complicated Life of a Biracial Modern-Day Ninja.

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I’m a skilled professional who splits my sleuthing adventures between paid gigs for Aleisha’s Refuge and pro-bono rescue-protection work for women and children in need. This is my mission in life, and I take it very seriously.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I wake up in my bed, wrapped in my Norwegian grandmother’s handmade quilt and search for new discoveries in my antique Chinese screen. I meditate in my home dojo, offering blessings to ancestors and dedicating myself to my Tendai Buddhist path of enlightenment, followed by rigorous ninjutsu or Wushu martial arts training. I grab a quick breakfast in Baba’s kitchen—usually char siu bao or other dumplings from the steamer—then head to Aleisha’s Refuge updates on women and children in need. This is generally followed by steadfast sleuthing, ninja ingenuity, and kick-ass adventure. If all is quiet, I might have lunch with Ma or Daniel (!), go hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains, or some other outdoor activity. If I’m burnt out, I veg on my couch, binge on action movies (or cheesy rom coms), and eat.

What is a typical day when you are on a case?
I wake up early with barely enough sleep and hunt down the next clue, which inevitably leads to me in danger and kicking ass. In between, I cope with family drama and emergencies like Gung-Gung and Po-Po coming to Los Angeles to ruin Ma’s fiftieth birthday, Baba falling unconscious in his kitchen while Ma and I are in Hong Kong (!), or supposedly dear family friend-board members trying to sabotage Ma’s career. As if that weren’t enough, a sexy, psychotic assassin and my too-good-for-me boyfriend confuse my emotions and make demands on my time. Although J Tran seems to have left, Daniel Kwok might be here to stay. Provided love (or triads) don’t put an end to me first.

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The Ninja Betrayed, A Lily Wong Mystery #3
Genre: Traditional
Release: September 2021
Purchase Link

Things get personal for Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja Lily Wong in Hong Kong when she dives into the dangerous world of triads, romance, and corporate disaster during the height of the pro-democracy protests.

Lily’s mother has been summoned by her grandfather, Gung-Gung to attend an emergency board meeting, and Lily is happy to take her father’s place for exotic travel, family reunions, and romantic dates with her new boyfriend, Daniel Kwok, who’s there for business. Lily and her mother stay at her grandparents’ hillside home on Hong Kong Island, but tension between Gung-Gung and Ma makes it hard to enjoy the beautiful surroundings, especially with the city in turmoil. Gung-Gung won’t say anything about the meeting and Ma is worried that her career is in jeopardy. Meanwhile, the teenage daughter of Gung-Gung’s driver is pulled into the dangerous riots.

As Lily and Ma discover shaky finances, questionable loans, and plans for the future involving them both, Lily’s escalating romance with Daniel puts her heart at risk. Will her ninja skills allow her to protect her mother, the family business, and the renegade teen while navigating love, corporate intrigue, and murderous triads?

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About the author
Tori Eldridge is the Anthony, Lefty, and Macavity Awards-nominated author of the Lily Wong mystery thriller series—The Ninja Daughter, The Ninja’s Blade, The Ninja Betrayed—and the upcoming dark Brazilian fantasy, Dance Among the Flames (out May 2022). Her shorter works appear in horror, dystopian, and other literary anthologies, including the inaugural reboot of Weird Tales magazine. Her screenplay The Gift was a Nicholl Fellowship semi-finalist. Tori holds a fifth-degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninja martial arts and has performed as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television, and film.

Sign up for Tori’s muse-letter when you visit her website at torieldridge.com, and read her thriller short story Tough as Stone for free. Find Tori on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and BookBub.

All comments are welcomed.