An Interview with Ho Lin

Ho Lin is a Pushcart Prize-nominated author, musician, and filmmaker, and the co-editor of the literary journal Caveat Lector. His books include China Girl and Other Stories and Bond Movies: A Retrospective. His publishing credits include work in Pulp magazine, The Adirondack Review, Your Impossible Voice, The New York Journal of Books, and Foreword Reviews. Visit holinauthor.com to learn more.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

As someone with Asian roots, Asia has always played a large role in my stories. My previous short story collection, China Girl, featured stories that took place in present-day Asia as well as an imagined Asia, and the narratives were often mysterious or elliptical. For this new short story collection, I wanted to write a series of interconnected stories that also commented on Asia, but from a more gritty, grounded perspective (while still allowing for some fantastical happenings).

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

I knew the focal story in the collection would take place in Hong Kong during its democracy protests a few years ago, mixing political currents with a more personal story of reunion and loss. Having lived in Taiwan and experienced a few typhoons, I knew a title including the word “typhoon” would express the unsettled, stormy nature of the story, and as Hong Kong has a system for categorizing typhoons, the rest came easy. Curiously, there’s no such thing as a “Typhoon No. 9” (there’s a Typhoon No. 8 and a Typhoon No. 10 but nothing in between), but I think that’s appropriate—why not use a new term to describe a unique time in Hong Kong’s history?

Describe your dream book cover.

Allow me to rant for a moment: what happened to the art of book covers? It’s amazing how they all look the same these days. I’ve always been partial to more abstract, ambiguous designs, like the cover of Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths, or The Great Gatsby, but I also like simple but effective designs, like Ben Marcus’s The Flame Alphabet. My ideal cover would contain imagery that ties in with the content of the book, but presented in an evocative rather than literal fashion.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

This one’s easy to answer, as several stories in the collection are tied in with music. A Girl Called Eddy’s debut album, specifically the songs “Tears All Over Town” and “People Used to Dream,” plays a prominent role in a story set amongst the expat community in Beijing, and the music of the Replacements (i.e., the songs “Alex Chilton” and “Talent Show”) is a major influence on the protagonist in my story “My Dominics,” which is about a forgotten rock band. Sadly, the Dominics don’t actually exist, but since I’m a musician, maybe I should write a few Dominics songs for the soundtrack!

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

I’m reading Rebel City, which is an excellent compendium/timeline of the Hong Kong protests by the South China Morning Post news team, as research for my story Typhoon No. 9. I’m also reading The First Emperor: Selections from the Historical Records, which is all about the first emperor of China and his terracotta warriors. The first emperor’s reign is the backbone of another story in the collection which also involves some time travel…

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

I wouldn’t call it a “profession”—it’s more fun than that—but I’m a bass player and a member of the band Camberwell Carrot. You can find our album “Down Route 5” on most music streaming platforms.

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

My first inspiration was the children’s book Goodnight Moon—my brain registered the unreality of the narrative, as we move from day to night in just a few pages, but I was inspired by its creativity. I thought, “I want to create something like this.” As a kid, I also enjoyed E.W. Hildick’s McGurk mysteries, which impelled me to pale rip-offs of Hildick’s work, with dynamic titles such as “The Case of the Dead Dog”—nothing special, but it started me on my path. Years later, at a fiction workshop at college, our first exercise was to create a vignette around the discovery of a dead dog in the woods! Just goes to show you that it all comes around.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I’m lucky enough to live in a house that’s in a quiet part of town, with a giant black oak outside my study window. As long as I’m there, my mood is good and I have some music playing on the stereo while I write, I’m good.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I try to write early in the mornings, when the mind is refreshed and not too bogged down by the day’s events. If I’m not writing, I try to make time throughout the day to think about writing, and jot notes for stories, characters, and situations.

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

First and foremost, I hope you’ll be entertained by the stories and the characters—it’s meant to be fun reading. All the stories are about possibilities and regrets, and if you come away with something that makes you reflect on those themes, I would be gratified.

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