Monday, February 4, 2019

The Jungle Reds Talk Diversity

JENN McKINLAY: So, a couple of books back, I introduced a new character to my long running library lover's series. Her name was Paula and she had purple hair, a tattoo of books going up one arm, and she was a lesbian. I didn't think anything of it since my characters pretty much announce themselves in my head fully formed.

Well, one of the very first criticisms the book got was a vitriolic review from a reader, saying how dare I introduce a lesbian, why did I buckle to the pressure to be politically correct, and, she was never going to read a book by me again. I did not consider this a loss.


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Here's the thing, my world is incredibly diverse. Mostly, I'm sure it's because I worked downtown in a city for twenty years, a real melting pot, but also being a creative sort married to another creative sort, a musician, we tend to mix and mingle with other creative sorts and our world just gets more and more and more diverse. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Like I said, I don't consciously choose to have such diverse casts in my books but there is no question that my books have people of every ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and religion. I can't help it. It's a reflection of my world which is my creative stepping off place but I have come to understand that this isn't true for everyone.

Several years ago an author asked me to co-write an idea with her. When I suggested one of the lead support characters had to be Hispanic as it was set in Phoenix, she blinked. She didn't know how to write a character with a different ethnicity than her own and it completely stymied her. Needless to say, the project was abandoned because we just didn't see the world the same way.

So, Reds, do you write with diversity in mind? 

RHYS BOWEN: Jenn, I got the same response when I created Molly Murphy's lesbian neighbors. Hate letters demanding why I had dared to introduce a lesbian couple. My answer was two fold. One, that I was trying to portray Greenwich Village as it was at the time with Bohemian society, and two that they were the couple I'd want as my neighbors!

I have limited my characters to those I feel I can truly identify with. I don't think I could do justice to an African American or Asian heroine simply because I have not grown up with that community experience and thus wouldn't be authentic. There are so many small nuances of thought and sensibility that I would overlook or get wrong.

JENN: I agree, Rhys. I wouldn't want to misrepresent anyone's culture so I will likely never have a lead that I can't write accurately. Plus, I believe that authors of color and members of the LGBTQ population are the most qualified to write their own experiences.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'm the first to admit my books are pretty white, because the area I'm writing about is like a white-rice-and-mayonnaise convention. That being said, I consciously try to add racial diversity when I can - the local ADA is Vietnamese, I've mentioned Cambodians living nearby, and several characters visiting from away have been African American. I try to keep in mind that my mental default is "white", and it's a good thing, as a human being and as an artist, to push against that. 

I've included gay and lesbian characters right from the beginning, because that reflects life as I know it. My second book specifically dealt with homophobia and violence, but in all my other novels, I've been careful to make characters' sexual identity be just an everyday part of who they are, not A Big Deal (or worse, A Fatal Flaw.) 

 I despise the term "political correctness." It's so often used as a way to attack people for including the experiences or viewpoints of someone who is - gasp!- different than the attacker. If you can't handle reading fiction, for God's sake, that raises the idea of people who aren't Just Like You, then hop in the freezer, sweetheart, because you're a special snowflake.

JENN: "special snowflake" -- coffee just came out my nose.

HALLIE EPHRON: My first published book had a male protagonist, a lesbian nurse and an Indian psychiatrist as supporting characters. In today’s prickly world I’m not sure I’d attempt anything like that for fear of being outed as trying to write someone else's story. I think what’s even more important than writing a diverse cast of characters is READING diverse voices. And to be read, they have to be published. That’s where I hope I’m doing my part when I’m at writing conferences and workshops, coaching writers and encouraging them to step up to the plate.


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DEBORAH CROMBIE: My books have had gay and lesbian characters from the very beginning. I wasn't deliberately trying to be diverse. They popped, as Jenn says, fully formed into my head. That's who they were.  And as two of my primary characters are male, I've never worried too much about writing the other gender. As the series has progressed we've had many characters who are black or Asian--London is so diverse that it would be hard to write a legitimate story WITHOUT diverse characters. Also, Gemma's and Duncan's foster daughter, Charlotte, is mixed race--her father was Pakistani, her mother white. I think one of the points of writing, and reading, fiction, is to put ourselves in the in the minds and shoes of people whose experiences may differ from ours, but are, as are we all, human.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I think about this every writing day. How can I make sure my book is "real" and like the real world is?  So I'm very conscious to default to "real" and not white middle class.  Happily my books have juries and court officers and elected officials and judges and cops and reporters so there's a big pool of possibilities.  But I don't want the book to "feel" like I'm just heavy-handedly making them diverse --I want them to be seamlessly diverse. And that sometimes means simply giving someone an ethnic name, and  letting the reader imagine the person for themselves.  But even that may be unfair.  
(I have to balance men and women too--in an early version of my upcoming book, my editor said: "Oh, I love this--all the supporting characters are women. Cool! And I thought-oh, no, I didn't mean to do that. So I changed that.)  Readers, do you notice?

LUCY BURDETTE: In Key West, all kinds of characters abound--and that is reflected in my series. But I would say the diversity has more to do with sexual orientation and economic situation than race, because that's how things are on this island. (Although Cuban-Americans were big in DEATH ON THE MENU. ) That aside, my WIP includes an African American and a Korean woman, Antimony and Linda. They are not main characters, and I've been thinking of them more as people than standard-bearers for diversity. But interesting comment you had Rhys, about making sure you write from the perspective of characters you can identify with. I'm not sure I could do justice to Antimony or Linda in a leading role...

Okay, Readers, chime in. Do you feel authors have a responsibility to portray a wide variety of characters in their work? Is a diverse cast appealing to you? Do you look for it in your fiction or no? 

69 comments:

  1. I think I expect, as an honest reflection of the real world, that a book will portray diversity and what I notice is how the individual characters come together to tell the story.
    I think authors have a responsibility to be true to themselves, to tell their stories in a way that makes sense to them so that they become real for the reader . . . .

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  2. To be honest, I don't think I've never worried about gender, race, sexual preference or what might be politically correct in the book I'm reading, as long as the story is good, I satisfied. I like what Joan said about being true to yourselves when you write. If you create a character because it is expected are you being honest or true to yourself, your story or your audience?

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    1. Exactly. Also if you don’t allow certain characters to be because of an internal bias, you need to examine why that is.

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  3. As several of you authors have noted, setting largely determines how much diversity should be expected in a story. Debs, I think you've handled London beautifully, with its different races and cultures and sexual orientations. And, as you pointed out, Julia, your setting isn't near as diverse as London, so I certainly wouldn't expect your books to be as diverse as Debs'. I love Sid and Gus in the Molly Murphy series, Rhys, and it is a perfect addition to the Greenwich Village setting. And, Lucy, I agree that sexual orientation is probably the major diversity factor in Key West. I'll never forget what fun my family had when we were on our way to the beach in Key West for my daughter's wedding (driving, one of the few times we drove in Key West), and we had to stop and wait for the Gay Pride Parade to cross the street down by the Truman Complex. We got out of our cars and danced along with the music from the parade. Of course, having said that setting makes a big difference in diversity, I think that it's always a good idea to research an area, as one might discover that there are refugees from Myanmar (formerly Burma) living in the area. This applies to where I live. I think readers can absolutely tell if a character is added just for the sake of diversity, which would definitely affect the quality of a story.

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    1. You’re so right, Kathy, setting is important and you do have to be true to that but also looking a little deeper does offer surprises no matter where you set a book! Love it!

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  4. Yes, yes, yes to all of this. Diversity is a fact of life. If it seems awkward in a fictional setting, then that's not because it's a bad idea, but the writer didn't do it well. (Walking that line between diversity and appropriation can be tricky) Sisters in Crime had a pre-Bouchercon workshop on this a few years ago, keynoted by Walter Mosley. I jumped on it, as I live in and write about Brooklyn, where just doing common errands is an exercise in multi-culturalism! I wanted to sharpen up my skills. later I wrote two short essays about it, published here and there. (Happy to share with anyone who is interested. Don't want to hijack Reds blog) Some of my interest goes all the way back to working as a children's librarian and the '70's.Believe me - you would be shocked to read some of what was commonly promoted to children as "classic" in those days.Times change. We learn more and become better people/writers - more sensitive, more aware, more interesting.

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    1. Triss, former children’s librarian here! Great club to be in and, yes, the literature has come a long way. Feel free to hijack the blog - I am very interested in diversity in fiction - where can we read you essays?

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  5. Absolutely. And like the rest of you, I do my best to simply make diverse characters part of the landscape.

    Jenn, in one of my country store mysteries, a chef friend of my protag comes ito the restaurant with her girlfriend and they are so excited that they can finally get married in Indiana. It's just one scene. A Goodreads reviewer gave the book one star and wrote, "If I'd known you were going to push the homosexual agenda, I never would have picked up this book." Or something to that effect. Yeah, there's a reader I'm not going to miss.

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    1. LOL! Edith, I adore you! The haters do seem to forget that it’s a two way relationship. As in maybe I don’t want you reading my books. Argh!

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  6. Having a diverse set of characters, whether it involve race, gender or orientation, is fine when it is a natural part of the storytelling. If it feels like an author is simply checking off a box on a list in order to be able to say "Hey Look, I've got all these diverse characters", then it is time for a lesson in vocabulary. Tokenism isn't the same thing as diversity and there is a lot of confusion between those two terms these days.

    I never choose to read a book, see a movie, watch a TV show or listen to music based on the makeup of the people making the product. I read a lot of female authors, but not because they are women. I read the books because they are telling a story I want to read. I've read books by authors of different racial backgrounds and different sexual orientations than my own. Why? Again, it's the story.

    And I read plenty of books by authors who also happen to look like myself. The difference is I don't think about it that way. I've never walked into a bookstore and thought, "Okay, I need to by a book by a straight white guy today."

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    1. Jay - you make such a great point! Tokenism is checking a box and it does nothing for the story. In a perfect world we could write in such a way that there would be no descriptors and readers could envision the charater however they choose. I have noticed that I do less physical description these days to allow the reader to fill in the blanks as they go.

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  7. I have never even given a thought to any of these when reading a book. The world is made up of all types of people! Could you imagine how boring it would be if every single person was the same? Each person has their opinion, yet I do not like it when they try to force it, or their values, on someone else. My opinion is, and always has been, if you do not like a book, do not read it! It was the choice of the author to write it that way! Good grief!
    Hop in the freezer, sweetheart, because you're a special snowflake!! What a hoot!

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    1. I think that’s the best indicator of a writer’s ability to be diverse - when the reader doesn’t notice or think about it.

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    2. SO agree! And tat's what I mean by seamless..

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    3. Yes, and that is always my response to the complaints--if you don't like it, read something else!! It's not like there is a shortage of books!

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  8. I don't pay attention to diversity--not of gender, color, sexual orientation, or culture when I'm reading--unless it smacks me upside the head: "Look! A female Asian bisexual character! Look! A black male! etc." But whenever that occurs, the book has probably already lost my interest and I toss it, because the writing is crap. And Rhys, I remember when I first 'met' Molly's neighbors. It seemed perfectly fitting for the times, the place, and a discerning reader might notice that Daniel has a harder time accepting them than Molly does.

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  9. When Catriona MacPherson was president of Sisters in Crime, there was an in-depth study of diversity in both crime fiction and authors of that area of fiction. The results were not very surprising, considering the general population of attendees at book and writing events. However, since then, there seems to be a shift in attitude. The now-defunct Midnight Ink, as steered by Terri Bischoff, for instance, was doing a fine job of promoting more authors of color, as well as LGBTQ voices. I'm hoping her new publisher provides that same open attitude.

    And honestly, why ever not? The world is full of diversity, if we only open our eyes. I read to both entertain myself and to learn more about the world, especially the parts of it I will perhaps never personally experience. Fiction is about imagination, anyway. I'm pretty sure I'll never murder anyone, or need to solve a crime. But I will still read every murder mystery I can get my hands on.

    British TV, by the way, seems to handle diversity very well. Vera and Midsomer Murders always seem to have people of color, and women in high positions of authority, far more often than American shows do.

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    1. SO true--and it's just how it is, right?

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    2. It is. I don't understand why it's so surprising to some.

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    3. Yes, one of the many reasons I tend to enjoy British TV more than American TV. And it never feels forced. We've just finished watching the TV adaptation of A Discovery of Witches and several of the characters who are white in the books, if I remember, are black in the show. And it's just fine.

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    4. Yup. Which is why Acorn is one of my fave channels!

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  10. Tokenism, no. Bad writing, never. A good story well told, populated with authentic characters, always. But that said, I do love it when I find a lesbian or gay character in a book – because it means that I’m finding myself in the story and, unless you know from experience how rare that is, I’m not sure you can appreciate how wonderful and important it is. We cannot be what we do not see, so that reflection of ourselves in published works is crucial. Hats off to each of you for your take on this. (Just a thought: How about a regular guest post from Crime Writers of Color as a way of sharing the immense reach you’ve created through the Jungle Red Writers blog?)

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    1. Amanda, I've been thinking about this a lot! One of the reasons I dragged Naomi Hirahara onto the site last December was because I was feeling that we were lacking in representing multi-cultural authors. Plus, I love her series! I made a promise to myself last year that I would reach out more and offer up more diverse voices on JRW. Thank you for seconding my own thoughts!

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  11. I write about Ohio, which includes diverse characters. Most of my secondary characters are women. I'm particularly fond of outspoken women of a certain age who see it all and, when asked, tell it all.

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    1. Me, too! I feel like women are so used to be told to just "smile more" that we forget we have teeth for other reasons. I like your style, Margaret!

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  12. It's been years since I selected a book because of the sexual orientation of the characters. (The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren.) However I know many people who do this.

    Diversity has been around since we were painting pictures on cave walls. It's just getting more press these days. And there's certainly a downside to being different in a predominately straight white bread society. Trust me.

    I live in a neighborhood with black families, gay families, older families, retired families, two newlywed families, both of whom are pregnant, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, artists, teachers, lawyers, and one professional hockey player. And most interesting of all, families who walk to shul on Saturdays. It's one of my favorite sights.

    But we didn't pick the house because of or in spite of the diversity. We just liked it and could afford it. I feel the same way with books.

    And I can't wait for Kristopher to chime in on this subject!

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    1. Your neighborhood sounds like mine. We live just beyond the ASU campus, so it's absolutely multicultural. I could do without the man buns (the mullet of the age) however.

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  13. Like Triss I was a Children's Librarian in the 70's. Yes, Diversity was one of the criteria for book evaluation...Did you know Frog and Toad are actually more than just Friends?
    My problem with a less skilled writer than our dear Red's is the one who does no research into his add on character and relies on stereotypes instead of research and cultural understanding.

    I too get a little buzz when a lesbian is part of the storyline.. Only 1.5% (according to a 2014 survey) on sexual orientation identify as Lesbian. Such a small group is most likely not thought of as often,

    ps. Lucy? Key West as you mentioned is very GBLTQ friendly. What isn't known as much is that it was considered one of the early safe havens for lesbians. I hope someday you will include this part of the scene in one of Haley's adventures.

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  14. Like Jen, my characters pop into my head fully formed. My setting is very "white," but I've been able to bring in a little diversity through secondary characters - other cops, court officials, a few citizens of Uniontown, etc. In my planned third book, I have a black lesbian secondary character. I couldn't write the entire story from her POV, but since I'm working with how my main characters interact with her, I can do that.

    As a reader, I don't seek out books with diversity, but I don't shun them either. Everybody's stories need to be told.

    Liz

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    1. I don't seek them out but I have noticed if a book has no diversity - usually because it's boring.

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    2. Yes, that is true. Especially if the book is supposed to take place in anything even close to an urban center.

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  16. Auto correct made a complete hash up of my comment so I'll try again!
    I can always tell when a writer has introduced a character simply to be PC. Oh, let's make the emergency room doctor be African American!
    What I loved about Harry Potter is that all races had wizarding skills and race simply wasn't a factor. Nobody mentions it once!

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    1. Of course, I’d agree that Harry Potter was all about racism. It was just disguised as the prejudice from the pure-bloods against the muggles or those who developed magic from the muggle population.

      Not that I minded. It was a great metophore and a powerful, fun story.

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    2. When it came out that Dumbledore was gay, I was thrilled. For every kid who suffered in school, trying to hide their true self, to have the greatest wizard of all time be gay? Fantastic. Plus, the whole series is really about racism, which is a spectacularly brilliant way to teach tolerance and compassion.

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  17. The world I work in--classical music--is still very white. The world I volunteer in--big city public art magnet school--is wildly, wonderfully diverse. I feel a bit more comfortable writing about younger characters of color because I know people like that, and can call them if I have questions. I'm more comfortable writing about LGBQ characters because I've known and worked with them most of my life. I've even been in work situations where "the Black guy," "the Hispanic guy," and I were the token hires and knew it, talked about it, and laughed. I think, when your circle of friends is diverse, it's easier to write about diversity.

    These days, I'm more apt to notice if a book doesn't have a diverse cast of characters. Unless the setting calls for it, there's no reason to leave people of color and LGBQ folks out of the cast.

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  18. Here's my two cents: aren't we supposed to be color/gender/orientation/etc. blind at this point because it doesn't matter? Making a point of it is perpetuating that we're NOT above it -- and most people are. My response to "they're ____ color" or "they're gay" or "they're vegan" is so what? When are we going to get past this? In real life, are they a good person? In the story, do they serve the story line? A good writer doesn't fill in all the blanks for the reader, I'm told. A character doesn't have to be described, i.e., Law & Order. Cast the character the way the character needs to be in your mind and write the damn story.

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    1. You would think that would be so, but clearly we aren't there yet. Until everyone can embrace their fellow people as human beings first and foremost, we have a ways to go. In the meantime, it's important to appreciate our differences just as much as our sameness and to keep chipping away at the blindness of the haters.

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  19. From Elmore Lenard's 10 rules of writing,

    "8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters:
    In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight."

    Great advise.

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  20. I have been thinking about this and I'm not sure exactly how to say it. I don't want to be told exactly what a character is. For instance if she is lesbian or a vegan or highly religious, let me find out organically as the story unfolds. Some things we may not need to know but I think the author should have a good idea about her characters and as we slowly get to know them certain things are revealed, or may not be revealed. In a book I read recently quite some time after the character was introduced there was a line about the tall brown man strode up to the cash register. Ah ha! A clue. That was all I needed to see him in my mind.

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    1. In the workshop I attended, Walter Mosley said, in answer to a question about it sounding phony (asked by me)" Make it personal" In other words, don't describe the Asian mail carrier walking down the street, have the character say, "Hello Mr. Chang."

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    2. I like that, Triss! Thanks for sharing Mosley's wise words.

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    3. Yes! That's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.

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  21. (I hate that my phone won’t let me log in here. Don’t know why.)

    The comment about tokenism vs. diversity really hit home for me. I can feel it when an author has added a character just to be diverse, mainly because the character sticks out. If I am enjoying the book, the characters diversity is the last thing on my mind.

    Here’s the thing - at this point in my life, I read to be entertained. I pick up books because they sound appealing or I like the author. Yes, even with my blog. I don’t pick them up to because they check off some box for diversity. Every so often, I’ve seen a call for readers to read diverse voices or authors. Sorry, but I’m not in school any more. I get to choose what I read and why.

    One area where I do feel authors fail is diversity of thought. Quite often, when an author chooses to include a character with an obvious conservative point of view, they are extremely stereotypical. Of course, it is rare they pop up period, so it hardly an issue.

    Which brings me to another issue I have. I recently finished a book (not by a red) where I had the entire story figured out by the 50 page point. How? The plot was nothing but cliches created by an anti-Christian bias. This ain’t the first time I’ve run across this in a mystery either. If your own biases are causing you to not think up twists to the cliche, then you aren’t challenging yourself as a writer. Period. (And this was not the first book I’ve read by this author and not the first time they had such an obvious anti-Christian bias in their predictable mystery.)

    I’ve singled this one author out, but I’ve found this with other authors as well. Cliches of any kind kill. Especially in a mystery or a mystery plot b

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    1. Thank you, Mark. Well said on all points.

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    2. Excellent points, Mark. Cliches are killers. Snap! That could be a title. Full disclosure: I tend to kill off snotty rich people. I blame growing up in CT with a lot of privileged country club types. It just makes the murder so much more satisfying for me. That's bad, right?

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    3. I killed off a realtor in my first book, which will never see the light of day again.

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  22. So interesting today, and I just have to say how much we appreciate our readers!

    I keep thinking about the books by Ben Aaronovitch, if anyone else is a fan. Aaronovitch is white and (I'm assuming) Jewish. His protagonist is a young mixed race police constable who identifies as black. The character is very influenced by his African mother's culture but it's a very natural part of the stories. But Peter (the protagonist) almost always describes white characters as "white", and it's made me very aware of the fact that I tend NOT to identify white people but do tend to use descriptors for people of color. I think I need to go more Hemingway!

    Although in the upcoming book, I have a character who is of Moroccan descent and is somewhere described only as "olive-skinned", I think. And there is a character who might be lesbian but we only know that she has a "partner," because it's not important to the story.

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    1. I also think of Alexander McCall Smith who writes a black woman in Botswana. Talk about stepping out of your own world! And, yes, I've noticed I don't describe my white characters as white, which is weird, right? I also read a post by an author of color, who said to stop comparing skin color to food - black people are not lattes! And just guess what I had just done? *face palm* Now I just say brown, black, etc. Maybe we should just stick to hair and eye color or height - because you really couldn't describe me if you didn't start with "and she's freakishly tall". LOL!

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  23. I don't think you have a duty to be diverse, more a duty to tell your tales truthfully and not knuckle under to the bigots. Invite in the characters that work, and your real audience will appreciate the fresh perspectives and lessons.
    If I become aware of punishment reviews, I counter by writing one of my own and by clicking helpful on a few other good ones. Not going to let the bullies win. We faced similar issues with parents wanting certain books taken out of our school and countered with official complaint forms and procedures that they never quite followed up on. ;-)

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  24. Ah, yes, when I was a children's librarian we did battle over the book Heather Has Two Mommies. Some parents wanted it gone, but we refused -- and won. Ultimately, this is why I believe diversity matters in literature. Reading other people's stories gives us compassion and empathy without which we are lost.

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  25. Jenn, that presumes people actually read the stories that would give them compassion and empathy.

    I know that I read what interests me. If it isn't something that interests me to begin with there is no chance I'll pick it up.

    This reminds me of the head of a women's studies department at a college near where I live. She wrote an opinion piece in the newspaper that offered a list of movies made by women that she said everyone should see. Mind you, it wasn't because that they were good movies. Her entire premise was that you should simply go see them because they were made by women. Seriously.

    Well that's just not how I pick my movies. I looked over the list and half the movies were documentaries. Which is an automatic "no" in my book. The rest of the movies featured two films that I'd seen, one or two that I might see and the rest that might as well have been documentaries because there wasn't a chance in hell of me going to see them.

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    1. Agreed! I don't like to be bludgeoned with what other people tell me I "should" read. I'll pick my own books/movies thank you very much.

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  26. I'm just looking for a good story. I don't care what ethnicity/gender/race the characters are as long as they fit into the story like they belong.

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    1. Which is exactly as it should be.

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    2. Yes, of course. I think one of the current issues is that the assumption of "what fits in" could be often be broader. And the books have potential to become more interesting when that happens.

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  27. I like descriptions of the characters whether white, black, or green. I think it adds to the story. While I read for pleasure, I still like to learn things about people and places. If the author can write the story well then I'll read whatever characters they use.

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  28. Another (school) librarian chiming in here! I'm curious (and a little late, so I won't be offended if no one replies) but do any of the authors here use sensitivity readers? In children and young adult literature, some authors have their manuscripts reviewed by someone who can catch unintended biases or flat out wrong information.

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