There are some big updates about my self-publishing project! One: TITLE REVEAL! Drumroll please…
The Mistletoe Connection
On Christmas Eve, a mix of strangers at the Denver airport are trying to make it home in time for Christmas when a snowstorm sweeps through, grounding all flights. Stuck in the airport together, they’ll help each other discover the magic of in-between places.
Six intertwined stories explore what happens in the airport as the clock ticks closer to midnight: Landry runs into her ex-girlfriend Resa, and the two women hit it off like nothing ever happened—until things start to get serious. Unaccompanied minor June convinces Adrian to pretend to be her boyfriend for social media that evening, but what happens if she wants to stop pretending? Charles is struggling during the first holiday season since his wife’s death, and the resulting tension with his daughter only makes the night more difficult. Wes and Keely had hoped to sweep their fight about Keely’s career under the rug during the holidays, but being stranded at the airport will bring emotions to a boiling point. Airport employees Trevor and Margo have been best friends since middle school, but can Trevor work up the courage to tell Margo he wants to be more than that? Through it all, heartbroken Mariel is determined to end the worst year of her life on a good note, and ropes everyone into her scheme to make it happen.
I’m also looking for beta readers! If you’re interested in providing big picture feedback, fill out this form.
Now, for the meat of this post: how anti-racism affects my writing decisions.
The Black Lives Matter protests have not only occurred on the streets. Almost every industry is reckoning with its racist systems in some way, and publishing and writing are no different. On June 21, a writer tweeted that it was a good rule of thumb for white writers to not write from the point of view of a character who is a person of color (POC). This ignited backlash and fierce controversy, and caused me to think deeply about the story I was telling in The Mistletoe Connection.
The Mistletoe Connection (or TMC) is an ensemble cast—there are about ten characters that the point of view moves between. When I was first planning the book, I had several characters who are people of color, because I wanted to accurately represent a diverse world. But after reading a *lot* of thoughts from people on Twitter, doing research about white authors writing from POC points of view, and some thinking on my own, I decided to make some big changes to my book.
It will still have a diverse cast. But I’ll be changing some points of view so that most of them are from white characters. There will still be scenes focused on POC, and a couple of those will be from their perspective. After reading from and talking to a few writers of color, it seemed like a good balance between not having an all-white cast, and also not trying to tell stories that I’m not fit to tell.
I know this is controversial, and it’s okay if you disagree with me. But let me lay out the reasons I made this decision.
Listening to people of color
I know Twitter is a skewed sample of readers and writers. And that it tends to blow up with drama that quickly goes away. But I read and heard from so many POC that when white authors write from the perspective of people of color, it’s not just laughable wrong; it’s actively harmful. These ill-written characters often perpetuate stereotypes, don’t accurately portray what it’s like to live as a person of color in a fundamentally racist society, and in traditional publishing, they often fill the unofficial “quota” publishers have for books about POC. They take away opportunities for authors of color because the predominantly white publishing industry finds stories about people of color written by white people to be more palatable.
All that to say, I didn’t want my book to be hurtful to any readers of color. And yes, there were also POC saying they didn’t mind, that they were happy to have any diversity in books no matter who was writing. And that’s great! But if I’m going to cherry-pick one example to focus on to justify writing from a person of color’s perspective, why should I ignore one example of another person of color saying it’s harmful?
And yes, there are some solid arguments against this idea that white people shouldn’t write from the perspective of POC. But honestly? I’m not here to poke holes in the arguments of POC when they are blatantly telling me that it’s offensive and hurtful. If I’m truly trying to be anti-racist, that starts with actually listening when POC take the time, emotional energy, and risk to voice a concern.
It boiled down to, “Could the book that I’m writing potentially hurt a reader?” And in its current form, the answer was yes. I knew that needed to change.
I probably wouldn’t get it right
Writing a story about someone drastically different than you is very difficult. I don’t think I had fully examined this when I decided to write characters who were people of color. After doing a lot of research, I decided that while maybe it could be done well, I was not at a point in my writing journey to do it. Writing from a totally new perspective is like any other writing skill—it takes time and practice. Maybe one day I’ll feel comfortable doing it, but the book I want to publish this year is not the place to practice.
Evaluating how I can support people of color
As someone working to be anti-racist, I want to examine all areas of my life to see how I can better support people of color. In December in my writing life, I thought that meant writing stories from the point of view of POC. But I didn’t do the research at that time, and now, I’m learning. That’s all part of being an anti-racist! You learn new information (hopefully from POC) and look at your life to see how you can apply it. I now realize that trying to write POC’s stories or use their voices in my own book is not helpful to them. The better way to support POC is by still showing an authentic diverse world in my work, and uplifting OwnVoices stories by and about POC.
The question, really, is not “Can I write stories about POC?” It’s “Should I write stories about POC?” Or is my platform and voice better used to support the people who have actually lived these experiences and are often denied the opportunity to share their stories?
In conclusion…
Again, I know lots of people would disagree or not understand this decision. But it’s what I’m sticking to. I reevaluated some characters and storylines, and have done some heavy editing. I now feel like it’s a story I’d be proud to share with white readers and readers of color—one that represents the world I live in, while also respecting POC. And that’s the book that I want my name on.
