Author Q & A with John Ling

Hi John. Welcome to Between the Pages and Beyond! It's an honor to have you join our humble book community.

To kick off our Q&A, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Thank you so much for hosting me, Sue!

I was born and raised in Malaysia, but I’ve spent all my adult life in New Zealand. My background can only be described as exotic, and I’ve always been fascinated by the collision between East and West.

This inspires me enormously as an author. So I write mysteries and thrillers that dig deep into the dichotomy between Eastern and Western cultures. I seek to provoke almost as much as I seek to entertain.

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

I actually went to university in Dunedin, which is considered New Zealand’s answer to Edinburgh. The city was established by Scottish migrants in the 1840s, and to this day, it wears its heritage proudly. Think manors, tartan and bagpipes!

Dunedin also happens to be the birthplace of the late Janet Frame, who is arguably New Zealand’s most iconic author. Just walking through the fog-dappled streets, breathing in the same frosty air she would have breathed, left an indelible impression on my young mind.

It’s incredibly profound to be that close to the literary greatness. It nourishes my own creative aspirations as well.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

It energizes me! There’s nothing better than to leap into the mind of a character, peel back the layers, and try to understand what motivates them.

Ralph Nichols once said this, ‘The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood.’

I couldn’t agree more with that assessment. By seeking to unravel the hopes and fears of my characters, by extension, I understand my own motivations better.

And that’s what writing is all about — an energetic process of shuffling the puzzle pieces around and sliding them into place. And, believe me, there’s no better feeling in the world than the feeling you get when everything does finally click into place!

Have you ever gotten reader’s block?

It happens to me all the time! It’s when I write myself into a corner, and I go, ‘Jeez, how does my character get out of this mess now?’

The solution, as always, is to put down my laptop, then engage in a good round of cardio and weight training. Physical activity always helps to unravel that tangled knot in my mind.

And, yes, I find the answer to my character’s dilemma eventually. The answer is often the most obvious one, but something that isn’t apparent until I step away from my writing desk!

What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?

One of my best friends is Deborah Shlian, who’s a Florida-based author who writes medical thrillers. Her books are timely, provocative and uncompromising.

She’s an inspiration to me because of her amazing attention to detail and her knack for writing well-rounded characters.

Did I mention that Deborah’s a qualified doctor as well? Yes, a doctor who writes! The perfect mix of science and creativity.

Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

I am a big fan of serial fiction, and I absolutely love stories that go the extra mile to build a world with a shared history and shared characters.

So I try to do the same with my Raines & Shaw series as well. The titular characters — Maya Raines and Kendra Shaw — occupy the same universe, but they don’t actually meet until the fourth book. 

How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

It taught me the value of conflict and how important it is to the story.

Put simply, your character has to face the thing she fears the most in order to gain the thing she wants the most.

It sounds simple in theory, but believe it or not, it took me until the end of my first book to actually fully understand the nuances of conflict.

For example, conflict doesn’t necessarily have to showy or forceful at all. Conflict can be as simple as a woman stumbling through the desert, parched, delirious and thirsting for a glass of water. The most effective narratives are often the most primal!

Any advice for the aspiring writers?

Get a text-to-voice app that reads your work out loud to you. Trust me, it’s the single greatest tool you will ever use in your writing career. It will allow you to pinpoint bad sentences with ease and accuracy!

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

I usually take about a year to research and write each book. I always aim to present a fair and balanced look at the War on Terror, which means I spend a lot of time trying to get to grips with the cultural nuances involved.

That means reading up exhaustively on the subject matter I’m addressing, as well as watching lots and lots of documentaries. Also, if I can’t visit a particular location that I write about, at the very least, I should be able to get a firsthand account from someone who’s actually been there.

After all, there’s no substitute for passion and authenticity!

What is your favorite childhood book?

The Call of The Wild by Jack London. There’s something intensely gripping and haunting about the story.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s written from the point-of-view of a dog, and it pulls no punches in its unflinching portrayal of survival and savagery.

It’s a story that still sticks to me to this day.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

The hardest part for me is creating a good villain who’s psychologically complex. It’s easier said than done!

In the thriller genre, we tend to take for granted that most villains are driven by greed. That burning need to conquer and dominate.

What’s less common is a villain who’s are driven by fear. Now, that’s trickier to pull off. But, ultimately, it does pay dividends in the end. It’s much more satisfying, from an artistic standpoint. And it makes for a much more worthy opponent for the hero as well.  

I would like to personally thank John for taking the time to join us here on Between the Pages & Beyond. I appreciate his kindness and sincerity, and he is welcome back anytime.   :)
If you would like to reach out to John, you can do so by going to http://www.johnling.net.