How to Defy Genres: Lyn Liao Butler Knows her Voice from Thrillers to Sweet Rom Coms -106

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Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:01

Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know your new favorite author in a new light. I'm Shawna Rodriguez, one of your hosts, a fellow author, host of The Grit Show and Authenticity Amplified Podcast, and the founder of Authentic Connections Podcast Network, which makes this podcast possible. Let me tell you a little about today's guest. Lyn Liao Butler is a Taiwanese American author of thrillers, upmarket fiction, and rom coms because, yes, she likes to keep it interesting. Her most recent thriller, Someone Else's Life, was an Amazon bestseller, and her second book, Red Thread of Fate, was a finalist in the WFWA Star Awards for 2023. And today, we get to talk a little bit about her rom com.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:01

We're gonna cover it all. She has her family divide their time between New York and Kauai, so she knows a little bit about both sides. Welcome today. I'm so glad, Lynn, that we finally got you on here, and we get to chat with you about your books.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:01:14

Me too. Thank you so much for having me.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:16

Yes. This is so exciting because I love to follow your adventures and the variety even writing and you being in multiple places. So there's quite a lot to you, a lot of depth.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:01:27

Yes. And a lot of things.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:30

I like that. I like that. So our first question is always, tell us the most interesting thing about where you are from. So where are you gonna take us with that one?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:01:39

I'm from New York. And just this year, we are also from Kauai, and we now divide our time between the two places. And I think it's the best balance of both worlds because you get all the things that you need in New York, like the medical stuff, the doctors, the schooling, and whatever. But then in Kauai, you get to relax, and it's so inspiring there. I do most of my writing there. Like, there's just something about the air. It's magical. Like, the minute you set flip there, you're like, this is Kauai.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:02:07

And it felt like home. So 2010, my husband and I have been wanting to buy a place there, and he's an FDNY firefighter who just retired. And because of that, we were given some, you know, money. It's and we decided to invest it and make our dreams come true. So I think that's the most unique thing about us.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:24

Yeah. Well, that is fabulous. I absolutely love that you guys have finally been able to do that and actually make the time to be there some too. Because even being able to buy and then actually make the time to be there is pretty impressive.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:02:36

Right. And I work for the Kauai writers conference, so I have a legitimate reason to go there sometimes.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:42

Bonus. That's bonus. It's so nice that they work that out. That's so wonderful. Did you grow up in New York then?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:02:48

No. I was born in Taiwan and then moved to California when I was seven, and then we moved all over the entire United States until we settled in New York. I think it was 6th grade for me. And then after that.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:00

Wonderful. Well, my question was gonna be, what is your earliest memory? So I'm gonna be excited to see where that memory lands.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:03:06

Well, I think the earliest memory was in Taiwan. Like, I just remember, you know, my mom and dad going to school and, like, kindergarten. But I also my earliest memory of being in the States was in 2nd grade. I didn't speak a word of English. This girl, I guess it was her birthday or something, and they handed me a cupcake. And I wanted to save it to share with my little sister, but they thought I didn't want it, so they tried to take it away from me. I just remember looking up at all these adults, like, waving their arms around and, like, trying to take my cupcake. I'm like, no.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:03:35

My cupcake.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:37

And that was sweet that you wanted to share it with your sister. That is so thoughtful.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:03:41

Yeah. And, like, bring my aunt to, like, translate, and they're like, oh, we're sorry, and then they gave me, like, 5 more cupcakes.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:03:49

That is so surreal. Complete misunderstanding. No. You don't need to take this from me. I want to take it and share. That is absolutely perfect. So tell us about your rom com is your most recent book. You have 2 more coming out next year.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:00

But your romcom, can you describe it in a sentence or 2 for us?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:04:04

My romcom is actually my 4th book, and I also have a thriller, What is Mine, that just came out in February. So it's actually my 4th book.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:11

Oh my goodness. Yes.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:04:13

Two thrillers with a rom com in between. So it was my palate cleanser. After all the killing I did in that first thriller, I said I need a fun happily ever after story. And it's about a firefighter, a New York City firefighter, which for my husband, and an Etsy shop owner. And fun fact, I run an Etsy shop, But it's not our story. I just stole our, like, occupations because I know how to write about them. And it's just about the 2 of them and they meet online. He doesn't know what she looks like, but they fall in love and she has to reveal to him who she really is because she's not who he thinks she is.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:46

Oh, that is so sweet. You have so many books. And I read the first two with the tiger was Tiger Mom's Tale your first book?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:04:53

Yep. That's my first one.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:04:54

Yes. That's the one that I read. And then red threat of fate, was that your second one? Yep. See, so I'm so I'm so far behind. And then you had 2 more coming out. And so but What is Mine is the thriller. Right.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:05:05

And that's the most recent one that just came out this year.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:05:08

And that's the most recent one that's come out. Okay. So tell us about the What is Mine that's a thriller that's come out then.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:05:13

Yeah. What is Mine is about the search for a 9 year old boy and his dog. They disappear, and it brings the lives of 2 women into a collision course, and they're both, like, trying to get the boy for different reasons. It's I know you say that about a missing child, but don't worry. Nothing happens to him. But it's kind of a fun, kind of wacky domestic thriller, I think they call it, domestic suspense. It came about because my family and I foster dogs, and we foster 32 dogs and 3 kittens since the pandemic. And one of them loved my son so much.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:05:44

They were like, oh my god. He's like the Buddha. He's so amazing. And they bought him, like, a bag a box of, like, dog toys for his future foster. And I'm like, oh, they're so sweet. But then I was like, what if they come back one day and say, the dog we adopted from you is injured. Can you come help us? And then they kidnapped him, and that's where the book came from.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:04

I love that. I love the mind of an author. I love this. And I love to part of, like, because you've traveled and lived so many places and, like, been so many places, I feel like that just adds to the mind of an author too that you have so many things, like, stored away that you can bring out in the books. Yeah.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:06:18

I have so many stories inside me, and it all comes from things I see and, you know, hear about in my life.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:06:23

And the way that you're able to put them together. I love it. So that cover, doesn't that have, like is it the bird of paradise flowers in the cover of that? Is that what's

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:06:32

on the cover? That one is someone else's life. That one takes place on Kauai, and that's a accidental thriller I wrote during the pandemic because I was pandemic homeschooling an 8 year old and got stabby because but every day by 9:30, I'm like, I need a drink. He's crying. I'm yelling. I mean, it was horrible. And so I just I worked out my eggs by killing people in the book and having accident of murder. And then my agent's like, this isn't feel good family story. And she's like, I think you wrote a thriller.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:06:58

So we call it my accidental thriller. It takes place on Kauai. It was supposed to be about a woman who finds a second chance in life, whatever, but then it ended up getting all twisted and you know? I was like Alright. There was a stalker. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all sorts of things happened, and then I felt better.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:07:15

That is that is fabulous. I love that. I love that you can, like, work things out with the writing as well. There's so many levels to it. Right?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:07:21

We have a theory that thriller writers are some of the nicest people you'll meet because we get out our angst and anger in books by killing off people that we're mad at, and then we feel better.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:07:32

That's fabulous. That is so wonderful. I had an author that I interviewed before. She told me why she'd written the book she had that surprised people. It's like she's like, I had a guy I need to kill off, and so that's how I ended up writing that book too. She was historical fiction, and then she was killing people, and that she's like, this is why. I was like, okay. That works. That's why we have writing.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:07:49

If it makes you feel better, someone always dies in every single one of my books even if it's not a thriller.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:07:56

And this is why you are such a happy individual. So I think it works out perfectly. Right?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:08:00

Yeah. And my agent always says if I my agent's name is Rachel. She's like, if there's a Rachel that ever gets killed in your books, I'll know you're mad at me.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:08

There you go. There you go. That sounds perfect. That sounds perfectly. And so your most recent book, where was it set at?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:08:15

It was set in New York on the lakes that we live in live on, I should say. So it has characters that came from the Hawaii thriller, but it's not related at all. It's just you'll if you read the first book and then read this one, you'll see a little Easter egg in there, but it takes place in New York on the lake.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:31

Oh, that's crazy. Do that with your books where you have little pieces that connect them a little bit?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:08:36

Sometimes I do. I don't usually because all my books are stand alones. But for this one, I brought in a character from the thriller, and somebody was like, wait. That's a book from someone else? I mean, that's a woman from someone else's like. I'm like, yes.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:08:49

Oh, that is so fun. So you had to pay attention to find the Easter eggs, but they might be there if you look hard enough. So you have 2 that are coming out in 2025. Right?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:08:58

Yes. So I have an upmarket book. It's a dual timeline historical fiction between present day and the martial law era of Taiwan. So it's a it's a little heavier subject.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:08

Yes.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:09:08

Yeah. So that's coming out. It's called The 4th Daughter, and it comes out August of 2025. And then I wrote a thriller called The Deadly Book Club, which is about 5 book influencers who are on a virtual book club. And then all of a sudden their videos cut out, but they can hear each other, and they hear one of them be attacked and killed. And then they have to figure out who was it and why do they die. And that one comes out in October of 2025.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:09:30

This is amazing. So I love the diversity for all of your books. This is incredible.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:09:37

Yeah. So you have, like, a serious you know, what happened in Taiwan during the martial law era and how a woman's baby was stolen, and she had she finds her 63 years later. And then you have me killing off people because I was invited to a virtual book club. And when I logged on, one of the women was, like, mouthing off about how she hated every book she's ever read recently and that why can't authors write a good book and they're so boring, and she had to put them down. I'm like, hello. Your author you invited is here. And then she realized what and she shuts off her video, and I had to spend 45 minutes discussing my book. Meanwhile, I'm going, she hated it.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:10:13

And then I was like, can you imagine if this video just cuts out and she just dies? And then I felt better. And then I felt better, and I decided I was like, hey. That's a great premise for a book. Oh. And I pitched it to my. She's like, that's brilliant. And then I named all the characters after an editor who has ever passed on my book,

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:35

I love I love all these, like, hidden gems inside these voice. Like, there's a reason. There's a these things you don't think, there's a reason behind. The names, there's a reason. There's names in there.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:10:44

And people ask me why I'm so happy and so good natured. It's because I get out all my angst in my books, and then I feel better, and I don't have to do anything in real life.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:10:51

There you go. I love it. I love it. So how long have you been writing for? Like, how long have you been writing? Because you had a whole career before this. Right?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:10:59

Yeah. I mean, just my debut came out in February 2021. So it's only been what? 3 years? Yes. But I write very fast. My agent has says I write faster than traditional publishing. Yes. Which is a curse because, you know, publishing takes so long. And this is also why I think I branched out into different genres, which you used to be told stay in your lane.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:11:21

But because publishing is getting harder and harder, like, they're buying less and less books these days, So people have to either pivot or give up, basically. So I've been lucky that my agent has been like, you write whatever you want, and I will try to sell it. I've had friends whose agents like, no. I cannot sell that for you. You have to stay newly. So it's been amazing.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:11:43

No. It's very exciting. And I love it because I feel like it takes me a while to discover authors, and I found you, and I loved and then it was like, I feel like I'm behind because because it takes me long enough to read to catch up with books. And I was like, wait a minute. I'm already 2 books behind. Like, I love the first two, and I gotta I gotta catch up. And then we have 2 more coming out. And I love that there's, like, this diversity in your books.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:12:03

Do you feel like so somebody dies in all of them. Is there anything else you feel is consistent with your books that the characters are or the setting, or what is consistent for you in your writing, you think?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:12:17

Well, the other consistency there the main characters you is always Taiwanese American or part Taiwanese in some way. Because I'm from Taiwan, most people don't know anything about Taiwan. I didn't even know because my parents because of the political climate there, my parents try to keep us away from it. They never talked about it, and it wasn't until I edited a book or ghostwrote a book about it from a very important political Taiwanese person that I realized what happened, like the terror. You know, they it was called the white terror where they lived under, like, martial law for a year, like decades, and everybody's afraid for their life. It was really traumatizing, so I want people to know more about it. I'm starting to add more of that background into all my books, and they all have a lot of Taiwanese food, which makes people hungry, I've been told.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:05

She's like, is that right? Books make you hungry, and people occasionally die. Yeah.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:13:10

There you go. Food and death.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:11

There you go. That's the common theme, and you can have and it's great because if people are into rom coms more, they want something less serious, or they prefer to have that like, everyone can find something with you.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:13:22

Well, I read across genres. Like, I read anything and everything. I'm not in one state. So I was like, why can't I write across genres? Because there must be people out there who also read. And if you don't like romcoms, then don't read my romcom. You can read my other books. Right?

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:13:35

Yes. That's perfect. I love it. That is wonderful. And so what is the best place for people to find you and to connect with you and keep up with all the books coming out?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:13:45

I made it easy to find myself. Everywhere, I'm just lynliaobutler.com or @lynliaobutler. So I made it very easy across I'm on TikTok, Instagram, threads, Facebook author page. I'm no longer active on x or whatever it's called. And I do have a Blue Sky account, but I haven't posted to it yet. Yes. I make stupid videos on TikTok, mostly about my animals and bloopers, and I keep it real about the realities of publishing. Which is, yeah, which is very refreshing.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:13

Very refreshing. And then the last question we always ask is, what is a book or story that you find inspiring?

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:14:22

So I actually got inspired to write because of Liane Moriarty. I'd read every single one of her books, but my favorite was Her Husband's Secret. Oh. And I was going through a very tough time when I read the books. And I just remember thinking, this book is based in Australia, but she has touched me and made me feel less alone in this world by bringing about things that are I'm suffering through. And I was like, I wanna do that for other people, but give it a Taiwanese American spin. So that's what I did. So she really inspired me.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:14:48

Like, I was a professional ballet dancer. I was a personal trainer. I had a gym. And I was like, you know what? I wanna write books and touch people like she did. So so that's what I did.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:57

I and you have done it so well. That is so amazing. Thank you so much for talking to us about your books, and I'm excited for us to have all the links so everyone can go find, like, what they resonate with and then keep going from there because there's so many options.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:15:10

Well, thank you. Thank you for having me today.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:12

This has been wonderful. Thank you. And, also, again, it's the holidays, so if people wanna go shopping, there is a book for everyone on your list right below. So just go shopping. Go. If you have somebody who likes romance, you got rom com. If you like somebody who likes the thrill, you got yeah. So everyone on your list, you can just shop right here.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:27

I think that's perfect. That was brilliant of us.

Lyn Liao Butler [: 00:15:29

Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:30

This is a good timing. Good for us. Thank you. So much. Thank you for joining us. I hope you take a second to give us stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform. It really makes a difference in folks being able to find us.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:15:48

We'll be here again next Wednesday. Follow us on Instagram at author express podcast to see who's coming up next. And don't forget, keep it express, but keep it interesting.