Ed Lin

The first thing Ed noticed during his first visit to Portland is that it's full of polite people. He and his wife Cindy live in New York City. (I know NYC is supposed to be famous for its rude people, but I've always found it pretty friendly. Maybe it's the clown nose I always wear when I'm there.)

Although Cindy is the actor in the family, Ed was no slouch in that department. He read from his book, Snakes Can't Run, in high dramatic form. His tough New Yawk accent for one of his characters was especially grand.

His writing influences include Charles Willeford and Chester Himes, authors with a definitely serious bent, but Ed's works have a broad streak of humor alternating with some very serious subject matters. Ed uses humor to distract the reader – before he pounces with a between-the-eyes story shot.

Ed thought a while before he chose the 1970s NYC and a Chinese-American police detective for his series. In 1976, China was at a political tipping point and Manhattan's Chinatown was changing, too, with its various political factions and tribal communities.

Finally, we wanted to know why his website is called www.edlinforpresident.com. Was he running for president? And, if so, president of what? His answer was more prosaic: edlin.com was already taken. Perhaps his choice of website name then reflects his very creative approach to problem solving.