Character Diversity and What it Means to Me

I’m working on a new series that, while fun to write and action-packed, deals with some tough issues on what it means to be a person or be human.

It all sprang from a request from one of my daughters to make my books more inclusive of diverse characters, and to make the stories, not about that diversity, but to just write stories with a variety of character genders, orientations, and orientations more representative of society as a whole.

Initially, I was perplexed and a little embarrassed.

As an author, I like to write what I know. As a middle-aged white guy, it’s easy to write a story about a white, male hero. It’s easy to write a story about a white young adult female hero, too. After all, I was Mr. Mom raising two daughters to adulthood with my wife for almost 20 years.

I worried that if I wrote about main characters from other ethnic or demographically diverse groups, it would come off as disingenuous or fake. Was I right?

Maybe that initial worry was nothing but a cop-out. Maybe I was trying to make an excuse instead of finding a way to get it done.

Writing Stories with Character Diversity

I decided to dig in and write a story about two characters who happened to be gay, without making sexual orientation significant to the macro-plot. The overall story would, instead, challenge some basic assumptions we all deal with every day. The story’s actions would focus on the larger issues facing the main characters beyond their relationship with each other.

Enter the Sapiens Run trilogy, a story about two female college students dealing with extremism in society and confronting their own preconceived notions about right and wrong in the futuristic world around them. I just finished Book 1 – “Cyber’s Change” and I’m super happy with how it turned out.

I ran it past my daughter and her fiancé. They both thought the relationship between the two main characters rang true (and they liked the rest of the story, too).

Now it’s up to the readers at large to tell me whether the plot is as good. Cyber’s Change comes out in every ebook and audiobook store on April 5th. (It’s out for pre-order now in most places if you want to lock in the 99¢ price. I’ll share the link next week once the pre-order’s up on all the stores.)

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Want some books to read in the meantime? You’re in luck!

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When gods, riots, and romance are involved, there’s no such thing as an easy delivery…

Baltimore, 2055. Smuggler mage Kurt Carter can transport anything anywhere with no questions asked. So when he accepts an easy delivery to a lover’s resort, he hopes to complete the mission early. After all, he wouldn’t mind a little R&R with his enticing sidekick Marci.

But when they arrive in paradise to deliver a quiver of arrows to Cupid himself, they find out the god of love is MIA. And without the matrimonial marksman on hand, Kurt watches this lovers’ lane descend into a battle royale.

Can Kurt and Marci find the god and seal their delivery with a kiss, or will passion’s shrapnel tear away their happy ending?

Signed, Sealed, Delivered is the fifth standalone book in The Delivery Mage series of urban fantasy novels with a touch of space travel. If you like witty heroes, unlimited universes, and clever twists on mythology, then you’ll love Jamie Davis’s edge-of-your-seat adventure.

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