Behind the Books

Mei Ling has done everything right: the husband, the children, the spotless life. Revealing Joy asks what happens when "right" stops being enough, and whether wanting more makes her selfish, or finally honest. It's a story about something many married women feel but rarely say out loud: that a woman can love her husband and still want someone else.

No, and that's deliberate. An affair turns a story into one about lying: hiding, covering tracks, the fear of being caught. It also makes the story predictable. An open marriage takes the lie away. Mei Ling and Meng have to say what they want out loud and face whatever was already broken between them. The question isn't "will she get caught?" It's "what happens when a couple stops pretending?"

She was inspired by a woman I know. By every measure, she had it all: a successful husband, children, a comfortable life. But her husband was always working, and she carried the mental load of the family alone. She felt invisible in her own marriage. She and her husband found their way back to each other, and they're in a much better place now. But her story stayed with me, and it made me wonder what it would take for a couple to be truly open with each other.

Singapore is a successful, close-knit city where everyone seems to be doing well, and where "face" and family reputation raise the stakes on every choice. I wanted to show that even people who look like they have it all struggle in their relationships. The same questions could be asked in Hong Kong, Shanghai or Sydney. The mental load, and a woman rediscovering who she is, belong to couples anywhere.

Four. Each book looks at relationships through a different character and a different pressure:

• Revealing Joy: a wife rediscovering who she is, and what she wants.
• Borrowing Kindness (out November 20): trust between two couples.
• Arranged Joy (January 2027): what happens when money and intimacy become a transaction.
• Reclaiming Joy: the series finale, which I'm finishing now.

Across the series I'm exploring how money, power and sex shape modern relationships, especially in big cities. Most couples today both work, so the balance of power is more even. But when the husband is the sole breadwinner and the wife runs the home, do her needs quietly become less important? That's where Mei Ling starts.

I plan the questions, not the answers. I know where each story ends. How the characters get there, they usually decide.

On the shelf, it's open-door contemporary romance. At heart, it's adult social commentary with morally grey characters. Open marriages, swinging, sugar dating, patronage: I use the parts of modern intimacy people only whisper about to explore our attitudes towards power, influence, money and sex.

Very. The door stays open, and the books are written for adult readers (18+).

Because sex is where people are most exposed. It's an act of trust, which is why betrayal cuts so deep. When a relationship is struggling, sex is rarely the real problem; it's the symptom. So I don't write those scenes for their own sake. I use them to show what's happening underneath: jealousy, longing, guilt, relief, pain. And once a couple opens that door, they're forced to have the conversations they've been avoiding.

They're human. I love writing people who aren't simply good or bad, because none of us are. Every decision comes with a trade-off. I don't think we're defined by our morals, but by what we actually do.

There's weight. There's one scene in the series I cried while writing. I won't give away the plot, but it's about the impact adults' choices have on their children. They felt so real to me that their pain became mine. That's when I knew the scene was honest enough to keep.

I write about the things married couples rarely say out loud. I started because I was tired of stories where the "good wife" is expected to put everyone else first and never ask for anything herself.

In spurts. Once an idea takes hold, it stays with me until I get it out, and I can write until the whole story is on the page. Then I step away for a few days and edit slowly, with fresh eyes. The first draft is obsession. The edit is where I find out what I actually meant.

From watching people. The couple at the next table who haven't looked at each other all dinner. The friend who laughs a little too quickly when her husband's name comes up. I wonder what brought them there and where they're going next. My writing isn't modelled on the authors I read. It's modelled on the people I've come across.

Mostly non-fiction; I read to learn. My favourite novel is Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, a crash course in philosophy wrapped in a story. It started the questions I still ask in my books: Who are we, really? Why do we make the choices we make? What does it mean to live a good life when every decision comes with a trade-off?

I have a dream cast, but I'm keeping it to myself. Half the pleasure of reading is finding your own Mei Ling, Meng, Marcus and Sandra. So once you've met them, tell me: who would you cast? Especially for Marcus. Message me on Instagram @ginawongmartin.

• Instagram: @ginawongmartin
• Amazon author page