Research for "Rubbed Out" – Compelling and Shocking

Today I got the chance to sit down and really dig in to the research for Rubbed Out, the sequel to Flesh Wound.  My first task was to review a series of articles on human sex trafficking published in the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago.  The articles focused on the true story journey of one woman from her home in South Korea to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and how she was forced into working in Korean-owned massage parlors and escort services.

This is fascinating research for a lot of reasons.  First, there are some very distinct cultural similarities and differences between South Korea and the United States that are highlighted by this woman's experience.  Essentially, she was motivated to seek a high paying "hostess" job in the United States to pay off credit card debt she had run up while at college in Busan, South Korea.  She answered an ad in a newspaper, met with a few contacts, and agreed to their proposal – pay $7,000 to be flown to Tijuana from Incheon, then smuggled through the San Ysidro checkpoint into the United States.  Like so many in this country, the lure of easy credit at an age when the consequences of using that credit are not fully understood got her into a deep hole.  Unlike this country, the options to earn enough money for a woman in her early 20s are so strictly limited that unless she can rely on funds from her family or some other benefactor, she is never going to repay that debt.  And declaring bankruptcy in South Korea carries much more dire consequences than in the US.

Having refinanced her credit card debt with local moneylenders (aka local loan sharks), she owed a total of $40,000.  The $7,000 travel costs to the US would be added to that total.  Feeling her options for finding work in South Korea that would pay enough to eliminate her debt just weren't available, she agreed to the trip to the United States.  She was assured at the time that her job would consist of serving drinks to men in a nightclub, and no sex would be involved.

The series of articles went on to detail what happened once she got to Tijuana, and finally to Koreatown in Los Angeles.  It is fascinating, and there is a compelling story in it.

While reading the articles, the formulation of a plot took shape in my head.  I am going to run parallel plot lines.  One main protagonist will be a Korean girl who travels a similar journey to the woman in this series of articles.  Having lived in Los Angeles and visited San Francisco a lot myself, I know what these locations look like well enough to write about them.  This character will be a cousin of a minor character in Flesh Wound, whose name is Ethan.  Ethan is going to come to Max to ask him to find his cousin, whom he has learned left South Korea for a job in the US.  Ethan strongly suspects this job will be as a sex worker, but that she doesn't know what she's getting into.  He is concerned for her safety so he hires Max.

I'm going to make Chapter 1 the story of her border crossing.  Chapter 2 will be Ethan's visit to Max' new P.I. office, opened after returning from the California vacation he took with Faye and Nikki at the end of Flesh Wound.  Chapter 3 will be the Korean woman's trip from the US border to Koreatown in L.A.  I will then alternate between what is happening to her and Max' journey to find her.

I will complicate the plot some more as I go, because I want Faye involved as well.  If you've read Flesh Wound you know that one of the themes involved is that some people seek meaningful emotional experiences through acting out unusual sexual fantasies with Faye, according to strictly observed guidelines.  All of the activity, although unusual and not condoned by the laws of society, is consensual.  Faye is paid a great deal and everyone is better for the experience.  That is the basis of determining right and wrong.  In Rubbed Out, the main character is going to be providing meaningful emotional experiences to her customers, but the activity is NOT consensual on her part.  She too is paid to do this, and in reality makes a somewhat shocking amount of money.  But the lack of consent, her inability to fight back against those who have forced her into a job she did not want, and the brutal working conditions she faces are critical differences and the reason that Max' task will be not only to find her, but when he does, to liberate her from those circumstances and do his best to bring those who have forced her into them to justice.

I have the contact info for the reporter who wrote the series of articles for the Chronicle, and I'm going to email her this week.  I hope she is still at the paper.  I want to talk to her about the idea of my novel and ask a few questions that came up as I read the articles.

Then, more research about South Korea and the cultural customs that would lead a woman in her young 20s to pursue a job that takes her halfway around the world, away from her family, and become an unwitting victim of human sex trafficking.

It was a refreshing change to put down the research and go pick up my own daughter from school.  I hugged her even tighter and thanked God that she is not in the same situation that the subject of my research found herself in.  I can't protect my daughter from everything that is bad in life, but I can appreciate every moment I have with her and her good health and thus far, good fortune.

Call someone you love today and tell them that you love them.  In whatever way that works for you.  But make sure they realize it.  It will make both of you feel like a million dollars.  Talk to you later in the week with another update on the research.  -Jon