Why I Chose to Write About Human Trafficking
When I started writing the Kayla Falk series, I always wanted it to be relevant to current issues. While the primary goal of fiction is to provide an engaging story, I also hope to educate readers by touching on real-world topics. After going all the way to Syria in The Azrael Initiative, I wanted something a bit closer to home.
After reading some news stories about how the interstate in my home state is a major corridor for human trafficking, I decided that this was a topic that I needed to explore. Human trafficking isn’t just something out of the movie Taken, where it happens in other countries on the other side of the world. It’s a major problem right here at home in the United States. While slavery is illegal, it has by no means disappeared. Instead, it has just gone underground.
The Global Slavery Index estimates that there are nearly 60,000 people currently living as slaves within the United States. Due to the nature of human trafficking, it is difficult to get exact statistics, but it is estimated that hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of people fall into slavery each year. Traffickers prey on those who are most vulnerable, such as children or poor immigrants desperate for work. As I read stories of survivors and victims, I wanted to create a story that would capture what that experience would be like and how it would affect a person. That story became Morgan is Missing.
While it is ultimately still a thriller novel at the core, I hope that you will learn something from Morgan is Missing and that it will inspire you to expand your knowledge even further.
Here are some excellent organizations who help human trafficking victims and survivors. They are also great resources for more information: