Yellowface and the Writing Life

Every month, I like to do a diversity read, a book by someone from a different background than me. I consider it a way to support diversity and grow as a human being by experiencing other existences vicariously. Ironically, R. F. Kuang, the author of Yellowface, doesn't want people reading her work just because it was written by an Asian author. Her book, which is about a white woman author who steals a manuscript from her dead friend, Athena (a superstar Asian author), is also a send-up of the publishing industry. It shows how the system of elevating a few carefully chosen authors as tokens of diversity hurts writers of all backgrounds. However, for me, the book also illustrates the perils of being too much of a "career author."

June Hayward, the narrator of Yellowface and the author who steals her friend's first draft, is one of the most self-centered characters I've ever read. She has no responsibilities, no genuine relationships, and no interests other than chasing writing success. She's addicted to reading about herself on social media, whether it's good or bad. Even some of the ways in which she tries to give back, like establishing a scholarship in her friend's name and mentoring other young writers, are done to enhance her image. June not only fails to grow as a person during the events of the book but becomes even more racist and self-obsessed, able to write about nothing but herself yet expecting the whole world to be waiting for her words.

As I said before, this book is a satire, and June is meant to be an extreme. However, she does show the importance of maintaining a healthy balance in one's writing life and in life in general. Given that her interactions with the real world are minimal, it's not surprising that she suffers writer's block partway through the book. Even Athena mines other people's experiences and uses them nearly unchanged in her own work. It's important to have experiences of your own to inspire you and real-life knowledge of things and interests you can combine to create a unique story. It's also not healthy to seek out all of your self-validation online or base it on winning other people's attention. While I do find useful things and even a community on Facebook, I'd rather spend more time reading and less time doom-scrolling. After all, there's more to life than being an author.

Despite my comments on Yellowface, I'm still interested in reading one of Kuang's other books, Babel: An Arcane History. Part of that is yes, I still want to read diverse authors, but also because I'm interested in the premise and have heard good things about it. Hopefully the characters in that book will be more well-rounded.

LGBTQIA in the Season Avatars Universe

In honor of Pride Month, I thought I'd discuss how my understanding of sexuality and gender has evolved since I first came up with the Season Avatars and the country of Challen. This in turn has affected Challen's culture and the characters I portray in that setting.

When I was inspired to create the Season Avatars back in the mid-nineties, I thought it was diverse enough to give each of the Avatars a different personality and different class background. (Ysabel is also part of an ethnic minority group.) However, as I became more aware of LGBTQIA issues, my characters started to develop more diversity. Although I originally envisioned my Season Avatars quartet as all straight, two of them (Gwen and Jenna) developed a history of being married to each other in their previous lives--and they still retained that attraction. I consider both of them bisexual, though they have some issues they need to work through (including their marriages to other people) before they reunite.

By the time I was ready to indie-publish this series, I decided the culture needed roles for people who choose not to get married and have families. I came up with the roles of Summersmen and Fallswomen, lay people who dedicate themselves to serving the God of Summer and Goddess of Fall. (It just occurred to me that it may seem unbalanced not to have lay people serving the Goddess of Spring and the God of Winter. However, They are considered to be linked to married people (especially mothers) and older people, while Summer and Fall are considered more interested in single people.) Summersmen and Fallswomen might look after local temples, protect nature preserves dedicated to the Four Gods and Goddesses, and act as healers and teachers for their communities. They may also hold jobs not typically linked to their gender. For example, in the upcoming  short story collection The Season Between, we'll meet William, Gwen's secretary. William chose to become a Summersman because he's aro ace. He boards with his sister in Midpoint (close enough to ride to the One Oak every day to meet with Gwen), and excels at taking notes in shorthand and helping Gwen sort through all the demands on her healing magic.

Challens believe in reincarnation, often saying that they visit the God of Winter between lives. They believe they switch roles from life to life, changing gender, social class, and other traits. Originally, I thought only the Season Avatars would remember their past lives in any detail. However, other Challens might subconsciously remember details such as if they were male or female before and who they had relationships with. It's occurred to me recently that reincarnation may affect the non-binary and transgender people of Challen. Transgender people might remember being a different gender in their past lives and feel more comfortable in their original bodies than their current ones. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to handle this in my world. Gwen's healing magic would allow her to give people hormone therapy if necessary, but it's not strong enough to completely change their bodies from one gender to another. I can see at least one of the Avatars believing people should accept their current bodies while other Avatars wanting to make transgender and non-binary people as comfortable in their own skins as possible. Once a soul develops a preference for a particular gender, should the Four honor that preference? The Goddess of Fall doesn't like men and doesn't let Her Avatars reincarnate as men; is She doing them a disservice? These are questions I'm still trying to answer.

Do you consider diversity in your worldbuilding? If you write science fiction or fantasy, do you handle sexuality or gender differently in your world than we do? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

LBGTQIA Characters in My Writing

As an author, I believe a diverse group of characters, if written with empathy and knowledge, can enrich a story. Diverse characters bring different perspectives, goals, and values to the story, leading to conflict and/or collaboration. That said, it's important when writing someone who's different from you to treat them as a three-dimensional human being, not a stereotype or a trope to serve the main characters. Writing the Other is a lifelong project. I've learned a lot about creating characters with a different gender or sexual orientation than mine.

In both of my main series (Catalyst Chronicles and The Season Avatars) there are secondary characters whom I originally envisioned as straight (even giving them partners) but later revealed to me that they have crushes on the same-sex main character. (I don't want to name them in case of spoilers, but one character has lesbian moms and the other a gay son. Refer to Twinned Universes and Chaos Season.) I have a couple of different ways to give the bisexual characters a Happily Ever After; I just have to get the stories written.

The religion of Challen in The Season Avatars gives me plenty of opportunities to explore gender. The people of Challen reincarnate after each life, and they often switch genders between lives. (The exception is the Fall Avatar, who is always female.) Most Challens don't remember their past lives, but they have a slightly higher chance of not being heterosexual or cisgender than people from other countries in their world. Fortunately, the Four Gods and Goddesses of Challen provide a socially acceptable alternative to traditional marriage. People who don't want to marry someone of the opposite sex and raise a family can pledge themselves to either the God of Summer or the Goddess of Fall. (My short story "Rob's Choice" is about a pledging.) These people are commonly known as Summersmen or Fallswomen. Some of them may devote themselves to a business or creative calling, but many of them become layservants for the Four. They may be healers, archivists, assistants to the Season Avatars, or other types of respectable roles. I expect to include more of these characters in the still-unnamed spinoff series.

I have future stories planned that include genderfluid and transgender characters. These types of characters require more research on my part to portray them accurately and compassionately, even though they're not in our world.

I plan to finish off Pride Month by highlighting some LBGTQIA authors I know. Come back next week for some good recommendations!

#WeNeedDiverseBooks Because....

I've shifted my blogging schedule slightly this week from Wednesday to Thursday to participate in the #WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign.If you haven't heard of it, it's a social media movement calling for more diversity in children's literature, both in characters and in authors. You can find out more information here. The traditional publishing industry does not have the best track record when it comes to promoting diversity. Bookcon recently put together a panel of "the world's biggest children's authors" that was all white men. Despite protest, it's unclear if Bookcon will add any women or minority authors to this panel. Some books have been turned down for featuring characters that aren't "marketable" enough, and even when books with protagonists of color get traditionally published, sometimes the covers get whitewashed. (Here's one well-known example from a few years ago.)

The sad thing about these attempts to exclude diverse characters from children's fiction is that the youngest generation will not see itself reflected in these stories. According to the Publisher's Weekly article I linked to earlier, fifty percent of all U.S. children under the age of five are non-white. The fiction they grow up with needs to reflect, even celebrate, their reality.

In addition to needing a diverse group of characters and stories, we need diverse authors with firsthand experience of different cultures and backgrounds to tell these stories. I include characters of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in my work, but it's not always easy to do so accurately. For example, the next story in my SF Catalyst Chronicles series will feature Julia Kee, a minor character from Twinned Universes. I originally created the character as white, but when I changed her background, she became part Navajo. (Her father is pure Navajo, and her mother is also Hispanic and Scottish.) While I'm doing my best to research Navajo culture, I know I won't be able to use a lot of telling, authentic details because I'm outside of this culture. That said, I don't want to change Julia back, as she feels more vivid to me now, and I don't believe in writing an all-white future either. Still, there's obviously a need for authors who can write about other cultures from personal experience.

As an indie author, I think self-publishing provides opportunities for people from all walks of life to become authors and reach the audiences traditional publishing may overlook, either out of ignorance or because niche audiences aren't profitable enough for them. I hope as more writers and readers gain comfort with self-published work, diversity will be easier to find. But in the meantime, Stan the T-Rex and Oscar the (small) Orca, along with some of their friends, explain why we need diverse books: