Tim asked David Wong:

A common theme running through JDatE, Spiders, and FVaFS seems to be protagonists triumphing through an earnest effort to do the right thing, complete with sacrifices, sticking to principles and strongly ethical behaviour--perhaps most so in FVaFS. Is it your intent to right decent, hopeful books, or is that a side-effect of the journey of your characters and necessity in moving the particular narrative forward?

David Wong I'm not trying to write morality tales, I don't think, but I like stories in which the characters' desire to do the right thing clashes against their own limitations ... including their own inability to figure out what the right thing is.

The running theme in JDATE is that the main character never completely know what's going on, and it's not clear what the right thing to do even is. I think people identify with that because the real world is so similar - even a decision as simple as, "I only want to buy meat that was raised ethically and without cruelty to the animals" becomes something that can consume your life, if you really devote yourself to tracking down every supplier etc. Ignorance, and the fact that bad people use ignorance to their advantage, is always a part of the equation.

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