Back in 2010, I decided to write a deaf private investigator ~ in
the 1700s. I called him a “Discreet Gentleman of Discovery” and he turned into
a five-book series published by Desert Breeze Publishing whose Editor-in-Chief
had a severe hearing loss. DBP closed their doors last year, so when the rights
reverted to me I re-edited and republished the series. And I decided to write a
sixth book.
That book takes place twenty years later and is the story of the
deaf foster son who takes over the discovery business along with his hearing
brother. His heroine in the story is legally (not totally) blind. In the 1700s.
For the record, I have excellent hearing. I am quite nearsighted,
but not to an extreme. I am writing “what I am not.”
Most discussions about diversity center on race, so my deaf
characters flew under the radar until 2016 when I had the audacity to apply to
speak at the Romance Writers of America national conference about writing
differently-abled characters.
A month before the conference, when the speakers and their topics
were published, I was publically and viciously attacked in a Twitter storm
which had me pulled from the program within 12 hours. Loooong story shortened,
after I did get to co-present alongside a very kind author with a hearing loss,
she said to me:
“The real question here is why aren’t we talking about this?
Why were you the one to stand up?”
Excellent question.
The world of “othered” people is clamoring for more books which
represent them. I want to continue to write books that represent them. But many
don’t think I should. Some call it “stealing our voice.” Others call it
“appropriating my culture.”
What they do not take into consideration are:
1. Right now, the demand far outstrips the supply. Better get
writing, and write fast, as the void is growing.
2. With all of us working together, then the “other” becomes
mainstream. Someone might read my “discreet gentleman” because they love the
rest of the Hansen series, and be so intrigued that they seek out other books
with deaf characters. Win-win.
3. Will everyone get it “right”? No. And that is true across the entire
spectrum of books about everything. But when we who are writing “what
we are not” are silenced, then those of us who 1) research heavily, and 2) utilize
those who know to proof our
manuscripts, are made the enemy. Lose-lose.
So I forge on. My next book after the deaf/blind characters has a
heroine with a trauma-induced stutter who passes herself off as a man ~ in the
mid 1800s. Not sure what will come after that. What I do know is that I will
continue to make my characters diverse.
In 2016 at the RWA conference, several people recognized my name
when they saw my nametag. Most were very sorry that they were not able to hear what
I had to say. One woman however, broke my heart when she said, “My nephew has
cerebral palsy, I wanted to write a character with CP but now I’m afraid to.”
I hugged her and whispered, “Write the damn book.”
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| KRIS TUALLA |
Kris Tualla, a dynamic award-winning and internationally published author of historical romance and suspense, has created a dynasty with The Hansen Series. A member of Romance Writers of America, the Historical Novel Society, and Sisters in Crime, she was a guest instructor at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. Two of her WWII novels have been optioned for a limited series.
