INTERVIEW
A Man and His Dog How Bestselling Author J.C. Ryan Found a Loyal Audience
Originally, J.C. Ryan (his pen name) was a military officer turned lawyer who then became an I.T. manager before becoming a bestselling author of spellbinding archaeological mysteries and actionadventure thriller novels. Born and raised in Namibia, with Afrikaans as his first language, J.C. Ryan served in the military before being sidelined from a crippling back injury. Returning to university, he studied law, had a private legal practice for over 15 years, moved to the Gold Coast of Australia in 2008, to work as an IT project manager. It was the commute from the Gold Coast to Brisbane for ten years that exhausted him, and on the trip he would keep his 36
mind occupied developing stories. enjoy a comfortable income from He doubted himself, wondering royalties produced by the books, whether he could tell a good and he appreciates the fan base for story, so started writing non- each of the series, and he is always fiction, self-improvement encouraging to new authors. books, but found that J.C. Ryan was asked about the unappealing. Rex Dalton thriller series, which After watching features a main character, a documentary on Rex Dalton, and Digger, the pyramids in a Dutch Shepherd he Egypt he realized inherits that works with he had a good him helping people © WikimediaCommons/Hollandse_herder_korthaar.jpg story after all. throughout the world. He published his first novel in May 2014 How did you decide to come up using the Kindle Direct Publishing with Rex and Digger and what service of Amazon. He was quickly were the changes from the concept surprised by the response and to the second novel? immediately a fan-base started to grow. My inspiration comes from In October 2019, at the age reading the modern-day action of 63, JC left his day job heroes such as Lee Child’s Jack and turned to writing Reacher, Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath, full-time. Mark Greaney’s Gray Man, Greg He now has over Hurwitz’s Orphan X, Robert 30 books under his Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and others. belt, and counting. He Those heroes have a large and only publishes through loyal fanbase and that made me KDP, although print wonder if they might like one more copies are also available through hero, actually two heroes, a special Amazon. operator with a special dog. His success has allowed him to I discussed my idea with a good
Books ‘N Pieces Magazine — April 2022 — www.BooksNPieces.com
