Prince Charles has always been a supporter of the environment. As I am running off to my meditation retreat I have less time to write this week. But I can leave you with this Newsweek article the Prince’s efforts to spare the rainforest.

Om!

This column by Maureen Dowd about the disparity between nuns and priests in the Catholic Church is just one illustration of how much further women have to go for equality—and this is the United States. It’s hard for us with all of our privileges, options, and freedoms to imagine the oppression most of the women in the world endure.

Karma has not even been published but so far I’ve heard basically the same comments about it, it’s disturbing, and it’s making people think. I’m not happy about giving people nightmares, but I am glad that people are thinking more about the woman and children who are victims today.

Way back when I first started the first draft there was virtually nothing written on the subject but now there are many organizations and numerous experts who have written non-fiction books on what’s happening to 2.5 million women and children across the globe. I would like nothing more than to be helpful to the cause, if nothing more than bringing awareness to this issue.

I had to make a lot of decisions during the writing of Karma. The first thing I decided early on was to make the protagonist American because even though Americans have firm convictions and heartfelt desires to help others in the world, for many reasons–which I’m getting into on my blog–trafficked women and children have fallen through the cracks and are virtually ignored. Making my protagonist American allows readers to ponder what it would be like to have something like that happen to themselves or to someone they know or care about.