Meet Halle Li

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Halle Li. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Halle below.

Hi Halle, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I get my resilience from my mother. She is the strongest person I know, and everything I’ve learned about perseverance, grace under pressure, and unwavering love comes from watching her live her life. I’ve seen her face unimaginable challenges with a quiet strength that never asked for recognition, only results. She didn’t just tell me to be strong — she showed me, every single day, what strength truly looks like.

Whether she was holding our family together through hard times, putting her dreams on hold so we could chase ours, or simply showing up when it mattered most — she taught me that resilience isn’t just about getting back up after life knocks you down. It’s about how you rise. It’s about rising with kindness, with courage, and with your heart still open.

So whenever I feel overwhelmed or unsure, I think of her — her voice, her hands, her laughter — and I remember I come from someone powerful. That’s where my resilience is rooted. In her love. In her example. In her legacy.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m a romance author and lifelong storyteller at heart. Ever since I was a kid, I was a full-on bookworm — always carrying a novel around, staying up late devouring stories, and scribbling my own little worlds into notebooks. I was the kid who wrote entire short stories just for fun, daydreamed dialogue, and made characters out of thin air. That love for storytelling only grew with me.

Eventually, it led me to pursue a B.A. in Film Production, where I explored visual storytelling and learned how to bring stories to life on screen. But no matter how many scripts or storyboards I created, I always felt the pull back to books — to the intimacy and imagination of the written word. That pull is what led me to write my debut romantic comedy novel, Love, Ink, & Numbers.

This book is especially close to my heart because it’s inspired by my own love story with my husband, Qin Peng. It’s a celebration of opposites attracting, of finding love in unexpected places, and of the beauty in bridging different worlds. Writing it was not just a creative journey, but a deeply personal one.

What excites me most about what I do is getting to create characters who feel real, flawed, funny, and deeply human — people readers can root for and fall in love with. Romance, to me, is about hope. And if I can give readers even a spark of joy or recognition in my stories, then I’ve done what I set out to do.

Right now, I’m so thrilled to share that Love, Ink, & Numbers is officially available in both eBook and paperback form on Amazon, Apple Books, and BarnesandNoble.com. It’s a huge milestone, and I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who’s supported me on this path. Readers can also leave reviews on Goodreads and Amazon — I read every single one and they truly mean the world.

This is just the beginning, and I can’t wait to keep telling more love stories — the kind that feel like a warm hug and a good laugh all at once.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Looking back, three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey are curiosity, resilience, and storytelling.

Curiosity was the spark that lit everything. As a kid, I was always reading — always wondering what if? That love for books made me fall in love with stories, and that led me to start writing my own. I truly believe that staying curious — about people, about experiences, about different ways of seeing the world — is what keeps creativity alive. My advice? Never lose your sense of wonder. Read widely, ask questions, and don’t be afraid to let your imagination wander.

Resilience has been essential, especially in the creative world where rejection, self-doubt, and imposter syndrome can sneak in often. I’ve learned that resilience doesn’t mean pretending everything’s fine — it means showing up anyway, even when it’s hard. I get my resilience from my mother, who taught me to face challenges with strength, faith, and love. For anyone starting out: be kind to yourself. Keep going. The journey won’t be perfect, but your persistence will carry you.

Storytelling, both as a skill and a lens for life, has shaped everything I do. From earning my B.A. in Film Production to writing my debut novel Love, Ink, & Numbers, storytelling has been my way of connecting with others and making sense of the world. If you’re early in your journey, hone your voice. Write what moves you. Don’t worry about being perfect — focus on being honest. That’s where the magic lives.

Whether you’re writing your first chapter or just figuring out your next step, trust that you have something meaningful to say. And give yourself the time and space to grow — your story is still unfolding.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

One book that’s played a significant role in my development is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I first read it when I was younger, and it’s one of those stories that’s only deepened in meaning as I’ve grown. The way Tan explores the relationships between mothers and daughters, culture and identity, love and legacy — it left such a lasting imprint on me, both as a person and a storyteller.

What impacted me most was how the book honors the complexity of generational stories — how love can be expressed in silence, sacrifice, or misunderstood intentions. It taught me that behind every person is a history, and behind every choice, a story. That perspective has stayed with me, especially when writing characters and thinking about the layers people carry with them.

Another beautiful truth from the book is the idea that you can belong to more than one world — that identity doesn’t have to be either/or. That meant a lot to me as someone who’s married cross-culturally and is always navigating love, family, and traditions from more than one lens.

The Joy Luck Club reminded me that writing about our roots — even the messy, painful, or complicated parts — is not only powerful, it’s necessary. Our stories matter. And the more we tell them, the more we see how connected we all are, even in our differences.

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Image Credits

photo credits by: Sydni Joy Photography, Adrienne Marlin, & Caleb Ericksen

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