Tokyo Vice: The Author's POV

After yesterday's post, I received quite a bit of deep comments from you all. Thank you so much for all the feedback; everyone knows we bloggers thrive on comments. The general rule of thumb, I found most fellow writer's going by, was don't write something you'd be ashamed of, but be true to your characters or your information. I'd have to say it's descent advice and I can agree with it, but what about guys like Jake Adelstein? He dropped by here yeseterday and posted a comment about my article (Moral & Ethical Writing) stating that in his circumstances, being an investigative journalist, he was faced with difficult decisions on what he'd be able to share in his book without burning his sources or worse, himself. It's a completely different scene, writing non-fiction vs. fiction. As I mentioned back to him, I realize that in my own case, if I expose a character, there won't be much retaliation simply because they aren't real. In his case, the people he wrote about were/are very real and could potentially make a mess of his life or family/friends' lives. Nevertheless, he followed through and shared the facts and enlightened those of us who decided to read his book Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.

I'm about halfway finished with it at the moment, but it won't take long for me to finish it. I am loving it. Yes, it has some dark themes and yes, it takes some of us readers to places we'd never want to see or know about, but it is part of the real world that many of us are blind to. I don't have to finish this to recommend you all check it out, but only with this warning. There are some explicit sexual and violent elements in this book. It is provocative, informative, entertaining and full of witty humor. I can only hope that when my own works get published (yes I said when, not if) that they bring my readers on a journey equally as impressive as Tokyo Vice.

I'll be sure to follow up and let you all know when I'm finished.