Exclusive Behind the Scenes of Enhanced

Our story begins with cramming all my world possessions into these four bags and boarding a flight back to China.

Yes, back to China.

You see, despite holding a US passport, I grew up in China. Let’s rewind a bit.

That’s me! On a camel. In . . . you guessed it! China.

Looks can be deceiving my friends. (More on this fake Egypt photo later).

Let me explain.

At the age of four, my family moved from Ohio to China. I spent most of my childhood growing up as the token foreign kid in my Chinese school, neighborhood, and sports teams.

Living in overseas certainly had its perks. For instance, getting to hold panda bears, learning to appreciate true Chinese food (no offense Pei Wei), learning a complex language and culture, and getting to explore.

One adventure led my family to the World Park where each part of the park had a different country theme to it. The park came complete with fake landmarks, real animals, and costumes (supposedly) from that region.

And now we come back to the camel photo with fake pyramids.

It was at the World Park the inklings of the idea for Enhanced sparked.

One of the park sections had this absolutely huge building in it. I wandered the marbled floors feeling tiny. It was there that I first asked the question, “What if there were a giant, super human race?”

Fast forward eight years to Austin, Texas.

I’ve moved back to the US for college and grad. school. I botch most American sayings and mispronounce words, but I can pass as a normal American to people meeting me for the first time.

I’m on a road trip trying to jam out to music but my CD player breaks and all I get is an NPR special on CRISPR and genome editing technologies.

I listen, stunned. A single question loops in my head . . .

What if CRISPR gene editing takes off?

I envision a world where humans can choose the genes they get. A world sharply divided by those with genetic enhancements and those born naturally.

The rest of the road trip, I connected this questions back to my trip to the World Park. What if the reason that person standing in that building was so small was because everyone around her is genetically enhanced–super human?

The story began to slowly evolve and my excitement grow.

I knew this was the story I wanted to tell.

But at the time, I was already working on a different novel. I was also drowning at my new job in Austin. Not to mention, most of my free time was taken up by Krav Maga, Spartan races, rock climbing, pick up games of basketball, and exploring the world. I don’t have much time to write this story bursting out of me.