Dirty John: Fact is Stranger Than Fiction

This has nothing to do with my writing or my books (thank goodness! A break from regularly scheduled programming!) but last Sunday, I saw that Los Angeles Times was featuring a 6-part serial called Dirty John and after reading the blurb, I had to check it out.

As I listened to the first part and then the second and third, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I know the conclusion since it was in the news last year and promptly disappeared, the identity of the woman involved kept from the media, and as much as I wanted to post a comment about what I thought about the woman who fell in love with “Dirty John,” I had to stop myself numerous times.

It’s amazing what love can do to a person and what things we’re all willing to ignore despite all the glaring signs. Sometimes we even turn away from the people we’ve trusted all our lives just because we’d rather believe someone who makes our heart turn to mush. I’ve been there with the heart-turn-to-mush part where I’ve refused to see reason from anyone so I realized that it wasn’t my place to judge.

It also made me realize just how fact can be so much stranger than fiction it’s unbelievable. I mean, I could NOT write this story at all, not even as a fictional story especially if I’d end up subjecting the heroine to a lot of ridicule and judgment from readers until she snaps out of it. But it happens all the time in real life and this story proves it. The heart wants what it wants until one day if she’s lucky, it gets overruled by common sense – and save her life.

If you haven’t listened to the podcast or read it, I highly recommend it. The reporting and production are excellent.

It also concludes tomorrow, so like me, if you catch up on the first five episodes, we’ll be waiting with bated breath… together!