Surf, sand and sun are in the blood of almost every boy and girl raised on Sydney’s northern beaches. Ray Johnston is no exception and one of his treasured memories goes to prove it. One sunny day on assignment in northeastern China he found himself cracking waves at Qingdao Beach: the only person in the water - with hundreds of fully-clad, well-shod tourists watching from the sand. Nowadays Ray lives with his family in Canberra, over a hundred kilometers from the sea; but be assured, when he’s not drafting a novel or travelling overseas, he’s planning a trip to the beach. Ray’s first novel, White Ghosts Black Shadows was published in 2010. Before that he published technical works in linguistics and texts for EFL students, having cut his teeth as an author and publisher producing books in indigenous languages in Papua New Guinea. Ray holds master's degrees in educational psychology and organisational psychology and a PhD in linguistics. He is an honorary lecturer in the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University an honorary English teacher at the ANU college, an associate of the Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language at ANU, an associate member of SIL-PNG and a consultant quality assurance lexicographer on the Oxford University Press Tok Pisin-English Dictionary project Read Ray’s Smashwords Interview at https://www.smashwords.com/interview/Rayjohnston
