The question came from my very perceptive wife after her first read of Left Unsaid, her finger always on the pulse of recent social trends, the buzz. She’s also a master of subtle sarcasm.
“You’ve got a Native American, a mentally disabled kid, a couple of flunkies, a gay person, a convict, a fugitive, and a fundamentalist preacher to top it off.”
She was right, but I hadn’t consciously put it together that way. My thoughts in writing the novel were not on creating a DEI cast, but that’s how it came out.
I’ve never really understood the uproar from certain segments about DEI—”diversity, equity, inclusion.” To me, it’s increasingly a simple fact of the world we live in. North America is a multi-everything society, we believe everyone should be treated equally (at least in word), and we’re all included in creating the whole of our culture. Duh? Isn’t it obvious?
While writing Left Unsaid, I’d been thinking about contrasts. When I began writing stories, my characters tended to be very similar in ethnic, intellectual, and religious or moral background. Which makes for really boring stories. Now I instinctively use contrasting characters, even trying to make sure their names are distinct from one another so I don’t confuse the reader. It’s said you can’t know what’s special about a thing or someone unless you know what’s totally different.
Contrasting characters not only brings out color but also allows for conflict, and if you don’t have conflict in a story, you don’t have much.
DEI? Sure, I’ll take that. A good rule of thumb.
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