Writing a Character from Another Culture #writing

I tend to have main characters in my stories that are from a culture other than my own. 

I don't know why, but growing up I always was sensitive to other cultures and interested in how they lived. I think it came from living in a white community and only seeing the different cultures on television and in books that I read that piqued my curiosity.

Now as a writer, I can explore the different lives and cultures and then add that newly discovered information into my books.

In Miner in Petticoats, Ethan falls for a Scottish widow. Reading about the Scots and how she would have ended up in America in the 1800's was a fun walk into the Scot and Irish history. I listened to Scots people talking to get a flavor of the language and read a couple of Scottish tales to get a feel for their culture and how they interact. While writing this book I listened to Celtic music.

Tamkaliks Powwow

My spirit books allowed me to research and become more knowledgeable about the Nez Perce, specifically the band that wintered and summered in the county where I grew up. I was lucky enough to connect with a couple of Nez Perce members who guided me through my questions where I told the of the scene I wished to write and was it true to their heritage and not offensive. I've said several times that the spirit books are the books of my heart. I tend to have strong feelings about justice and most of books have that theme. I took that interest in the Nez Perce and made my amateur sleuth in the Shandra Higheagle Mysteries half Nez Perce. My guided tour of the Colville reservation in Washington opened my eyes to even more about the culture and how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them. This information will be helpful in the next mystery book I'm formulating. As a sensory person I listen to Native American music as I write books about that culture.

  

Tino

And then there is Tino Constantine from my Isabella Mumphrey action adventure series. He is a hot Venezuelan DEA agent. When I started the Isabella books I wanted a hero who was a complete opposite of my heroine. I’d been visiting with a woman who had married a Venezuelan and had lived there for several years. Hearing about her life as an outsider and the way the men of Venezuela treated a woman, I thought giving my hero that background would make for an interesting contrast to my genius, privately schooled heroine.

What I didn’t realize that while building Tino’s background I would throw in government turmoil(in Venezuela) his family fleeing that country and his teen and adult years being spent in the United States. With this as his background, I could give him the macho attitudes of the Latin men but also have him more tolerant of the heroine’s independence because he had lived in the states. His Latin machismo comes out when he is fighting his attraction to the skinny, brainy woman he wouldn't usually look twice at. While writing these books I listened to the music of the books' settings- Mayan, Aztec, and Native American.

The book I am currently writing is again one where I have to learn about another culture. Claiming a Heart the third book in the Halsey Homecoming trilogy begins in an underground Chinese community. I've been reading books written about the Chinese in America at that time and their underground and above ground communities. To write this book I downloaded traditional Chinese music.

By having the music of a specific culture playing in the background, I stay grounded in that culture while writing.

Do you like books that teach you about other cultures? Do you like to listen to music from other cultures?

Chinese in American History

The third book in the Halsey Homecoming trilogy is coming along nicely. The story is working out much as I'd anticipated thinking about the plot the last couple of months before actually writing it.

The best part about any book for me is the research on the history of an area and, at times, people.  This books is set in the underground tunnels of Pendleton, Oregon in 1900. The research I've done on the Chinese at that time in Pendleton gives a different number of how may Chinese were actually living there. Some say around 100 others say more. In my book, I don't give any numbers, I'm mostly showing how they were treated, how they survived, and how they were resilient.

From Wikipedia

Most of the Chinese who came to the U.S. in the 1800's came to find a better life for their families or to make money to send back home to the families they left behind. They were hard workers and yet were paid less than the white workers. But they didn't complain. They were frugal, lived communally, and sent most of the money back to their families so they could live a good life.

Few women came from China. Fro the most part Chinese merchants brought their wives and families. The other men who came over left their wives behind to take care of the children and in-laws with the money the husband sent home. The men who came to the U.S. to find gold and work on the transcontinental railroad were not allowed to marry white European partners and could not become U.S. citizens.

From Wikipedia

They were treated far worse than any other ethnic group in the U.S. They were mostly from rural areas of China. They didn't speak the language and didn't understand the western customs.

The Exclusion Act of 1882 signed by President Chester A. Author prohibited any Chinese laborer from entering the U.S. Only a person who wasn't a laborer could enter the country and then they were scrutinized before being allowed in.

Because the government had feared them taking over jobs and the western people didn't understand their culture, the Chinese took to moving about cities in underground tunnels and sleeping in dorms under the Josh Houses in the towns. They feared for their lives to be seen on streets in the daylight. But people were still willing to have them do the menial tasks of cooking, laundry, and running bath houses.

More on how they lived in the tunnels along with the Josh houses and opium dens to come in later posts.