An Interview with Lya Badgley

Lya Badgley writes suspenseful international fiction featuring characters overcoming life-changing odds. Global conflict zones and insurgencies offer a vivid backdrop to her stories. She draws deeply from personal experience living in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Her life is worthy of a movie—dabbling in the music industry, opening a restaurant in Myanmar, interviewing insurgents for Human Rights Watch, and microfilming documents for the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Cambodia.

Her first novel set in Cambodia, The Foreigner’s Confession, was released in February 2022. Her second novel, The Worth of a Ruby, is set in Myanmar and was released in November 2023. She currently lives in Snohomish, Washington, and is busy writing her third novel.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

For many years, the working title of my book was The Heart Stone. With time, the title shifted to The Worth of a Ruby because with successive revision I realized the ‘intention’ or ‘moral’ of the story had shifted.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

The first time seeing one’s book cover can be like a first kiss—dizzying and terrifying. Holding the artifact of one’s creativity as a solid object is immensely satisfying.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I’ve always been a storyteller and entranced by the beauty of language. Many, many artists/writers have inspired me but perhaps the most meaningful was Anthony Bourdain. His unique blend of sardonic wit, geopolitics, and delicious food/cultures fascinates me to this day.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve had an interesting life! I worked for Cornell University as director of the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide archive project in Cambodia. We microfilmed all the extant documents from the former Khmer Rouge prison for posterity and use in the crimes against humanity trials of KR leaders. I also opened a restaurant in Rangoon Burma (Myanmar), the first foreign-owned project of its kind since British rule. I drew deeply from those experiences in my two novels.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

My intention as a writer is to shine a light on parts of the world that remain unknown to many Americans. Anthony Bourdain is my hero. He says: “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”

I hope, after reading my books, readers will feel like they know a little more, have a little more experience of a new culture.

What new writing projects are you currently working on? Or, other projects that are not writing?

I’m currently working on my third novel. The story is dual-timeline set in Bosnia of 1992 and 2022 and includes elements of suspense and magic realism. My hero is an art conservation specialist who traveled to Bosnia in 1992 to research the Sarajevo Haggadah, a rare Jewish artifact. While there, she finds herself in the midst of war and mysterious happenings related to the book. In the 2022 timeline, Kat is called back to Bosnia because a new page has appeared in the famous book and Kat must revisit old mysteries with profound implications for the future of humanity.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.