Donna Wetzel
Donna Wetzel asked Lisa See:

Your books seem so believable. I feel transported to China years ago. How did you do your research to make them so realistic, and are any of the characters based on any of your relatives or people you know?

Lisa See My books take two or three years to research and write. In every book there's a character based on a single person in my family. It's always some form of my grandmother: Mrs. Hu in Shanghai Girls, the grandmother in Peony in Love, Madame Wang in Snow Flower, the Neighborhood Committee Director in the Red Princess Mysteries.

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