I've been doing some interviews lately, and the questions have been really interesting.

One of them relates to why I write such dark and gritty books, why I focus on girls -- young women -- in trouble, who are somehow surviving amidst disaster and conditions and treatment that boggles the mind, and that greatly disturbs us.

And that's the key. It should disturb us. Because it's happening, right here and now, to children. Even if we don't want to know it, see it or think about it, it's happening. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. On the contrary, it just allows it to continue unchallenged.

Ignoring it leaves those children, those young women, alone in the dark.

So I shine a light into dark places. I have to. I can't stand the thought of skipping blithely on my way everyday, thinking of nothing but celebrity gossip and new shoes and whether or not to cut my hair, when in other houses or apartments or trailers, young women are caught by hands that mean them harm. Writing about darkly real issues may not solve or save anyone but...it might. 

At the very least, it might start a conversation somewhere.

After reading my books, someone asked if people really live this way, and the question really surprised me.

Yes, they do. This way, and better. This way, and worse. Look at every house around you. Every family lives differently than you do. You have no idea what happens behind closed doors.

Sometimes wonderful, loving things.
 
Sometimes things like this. You can't make this stuff up. You wouldn't want to. I can't even get my mind around this. Not even close.  http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/23/maine.sex.crime.sentence/index.html

I just can't.