Yes. There is more truth than fiction in The Net thriller series. For example, my husband and I did teach China's Judges in the World Trade Organization's Judicial Training Program, and a mysterious woman did come to our apartment who was an editor for a news magazine who believed there was a terrorist organization in southern China, and she did want us to contact the White House. (This is in book 1.) In book 2, we did spend time in Yalong Bay, there was a military camp on the beach, we did visit the primitive island village (and yes there was a computer in a plastic tent), there are caves there, and the mid-air collision on April 1st really happened. And when our friends visited there, a man dressed in black did drop down out of the trees.
When I was younger and wrote journals or wrote about my life or my feelings and then went back and read them, I would tear out those pages and throw them away because they seemed so personal. I thought I wouldn't want anyone to read them. Now, I would tell my younger self: Don't be afraid to write from the heart. It's when you bare your soul that you connect with people.
My idea of good writing: A well thought out idea, supported by evidence presented in a logical sequence, that leads to a surprising conclusion, written in a margin format with good sentence structuring, good spelling, good punctuation, dialogue that I know who's speaking, vivid descriptions that heighten the senses without resorting to graphic sex, violence or the use of offensive language, with fast-paced action adventure that keeps me turning pages and wanting more. Now that's a good book.
