Dear Ms. Liane Moriarty,

Reading your interview article with Ms. Belinda Luscombe of TIME Nov. 26/ Dec. 3, 2018, I’m prompted to take the liberty of writing this unsolicited open letter to you.

Please kindly understand my sincere intent to commiserate with all the poor souls including myself (early in my life), still imprisoned in the arbitrary dungeon of the Dark Age of the most inhuman and unnatural self-righteous religious dogma, full of falsehood and hypocrisy.

Asked In 10 Questions:

The main character in your new novel, Nine Perfect Strangers, is a genre fiction writer who gets little respect. Is she a mouthpiece for you?

You answered:

A little bit. But I didn’t want the book becoming a soapbox or preachy. But of course because this character was close to my heart, she has feelings that would be similar to mine.

Further asked:

In some ways Nine Perfect Strangers reminded me of the Stanford Prison Experiment, where “inmates” did what they were told even when it seemed inhuman. Why do we do what we’re told?

You answered:

For this book, I read about Jonestown, so I did want to give that feeling of being in a cult. We’re all basically obedient. I think that desire to be someone new is so strong that it’s easy to believe the most ridiculous things.

Asked again:

This novel explores what people think about when they’re facing death. Do you think that reflects your Catholic ㅡ’uncatholic’ㅡschool education?

You answered:

I don’t like to analyze how much of myself goes into my books. The fact that little parts of myself might find their way into these storiesㅡ it’s mortifying, to be honest. But I definitely have that Catholic feeling of guilt; I feel guilty about my success.  In the early days I used to think, “You’re going to pay for this; something terrible will happen next.” Nothing has yet. But if it does, I’ll think, “Well there you go; you deserve it.”

Unlike, or rather in stark contrast to, the Nine Perfect Strangers, the Nine Ladies of my forthcoming book ‘Cosmian’ to be published in 2019, I trust, will enlighten, inspire and uplift us all, originally blessed cosmically as ‘Cosmians Arainbow.’

Tae-Sang Lee,
Founder of CosmianNews
http://www.cosmiannews.com