CHARACTERS FROM OTHER CULTURES

Love’s Dream Song has a cover. I’m so excited that I can share that with you today.

Designed by Debora of arenapublishing.org

Sandra here to welcome you to another fun day in Seekerville. I have my favorite Chocolate Velvet coffee for the coffee drinkers. Because it is fall, I have apple cider which you can have chilled (for us desert rats) or heated with cinnamon and spice.


It is too hot here in the desert to bake, so I dashed to the bakery and bought pumpkin bread. I also have an assortment of fresh fruits to choose from and a lunchmeat and cheese tray.  So help yourselves and let’s talk writing.

Have any of you writers written characters from a culture other than your own? Love’s Dream Song is set on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona and has many characters that are Native American.

Sharable made by Amber Stokes

One of the first rules I learned when I finally hooked up with RWA and took writer workshops, was that one should not venture into using characters from other cultures if you, the author, were not from that culture. This is very sage advice because in spite of the fact we state, in this country anyway, that we are all created equal—we simply aren’t all the same. Different cultures have different sets of values and traditions and behaviors from each other. This is what sets them apart.  If any of you have traveled to other countries, you will know this.

Now basically, I do believe we have many similarities that are common to each and every one of us. We are all human beings. We all have families. We all have the knowledge of God written in our hearts. We all have emotions and feelings and do react to them.  Often our different cultures define how we configure and act upon these basic similarities. And often they are remarkably similar.

Sharable made by Amber Stokes

So with that being said, how do we write characters from other cultures? Personally I love reading about different cultures, different places and different ways of doing things. In college, I studied many different cultures. My major in college was sociology with a minor in anthropology. My master’s degree was in bilingual/multicultural education. Growing up in the Southwest, I was surrounded by many different cultures and found them all fascinating.

Even though I’m Anglo, I feel comfortable writing Hispanic characters. I’ve been so immersed in Hispanic culture. My husband is half Hispanic and we have relatives in Mexico. We have traveled extensively in Latin America. I also taught in the bilingual program for over 25 years and that was predominately with Hispanic children. Working with them and their parents gave me tremendous knowledge and a good sense of their culture.

I have traveled extensively, but haven’t even been to a fourth of the countries that there are on this planet. So guess what? I love to read about them. Some of my favorite books are those that are set in different countries and show us different cultures.

Am I seeing any raised hands here?

Sharable made by Amber Stokes

The experts in craft always say “write what you know.”  But have any of you ventured out there and written characters from other cultures and/or countries? I know Walt has. Ruthy has. Julie has. It’s a safe bet to say most historical writers have because even if they are writing characters in the same country as they are, the times have changed and many cultural customs as well.

So how do we do this without digging ourselves into problems from critical readers?

I will share with you what I did specifically for Love’s Dream Song. I wanted my heroine to be Navajo and my hero Apache.  I have worked with people from both tribes, but do not really have expert cultural knowledge. So here is what I did:

• Made my heroine, Autumn O’Neill, half Navajo. She was given up for adoption and raised by Anglo parents.
• Made my hero, Jess Barron, half Apache. His forefathers developed the ranch he lives on and his father married an Apache woman.
• When the culture uses another language, put foreign words in sparingly to give the reader the knowledge that they are using the other language, without frustrating the reader with too many words that are often impossible to pronounce, let alone read.  We don’t want to slow down the reader. smile
• Did tons of research
• Visited the locations and devoured all resources available on site.
• Worked on the reservation and found beta readers who helped me with cultural discrepancies I had written into the story.



This last point was really a blessing I didn’t plan on. I “happened” to be assigned to work on the reservation through ASU right after writing this novel and met these wonderful women who were just as interested for me to get it right as I was. Some of the discrepancies they found were quite humorous.  I wrote about these in my post entitled  Coincidence or Miracle. 

Sharable made by Amber Stokes

My favorite example was a scene I wrote where Autumn, who is trying to discover her Navajo roots, is helping a professor with his anthropological project on Navajo land. She hikes and stops at a canyon rim where she is looking out at ancient Anasazi ruins and is picturing in her mind how a young maiden would sit there waiting for her lover to return from the hunt. So in my mind I described her sitting there with long hair flowing in the breeze. Sounds romantic, right? Well the ladies all laughed and said, “Sandra, the only time maidens let their hair flow free like that is when they are in mourning.”   Ooops.   I was certainly glad they had found that passage.  Smile


So have any of you used characters from other cultures?

If so, please share some tips that helped you.

Are you planning to use characters from other cultures and have questions?  I certainly am not an expert, but if I don’t know the answer, I bet we can get answers to questions from our readers.

Readers, let us know if there are some things that bug you about use of characters from other cultures.

If you comment, your name will be put in the cat dish to win a copy of your choice of an ebook or print copy of Love’s Dream Song.

And I have a lovely handcrafted tote for a kindle or tablet made by my friend Diane.

The release date for Love’s Dream Song  is October 17th. It is already available for pre-order on Amazon.



On Tuesday, October 6th,  Sherida Stewart will be posting a review of Love’s Dream Song on her blog Tuesday Tea.

Sandra Leesmith  writes sweet romances to warm the heart. Sandra loves to play pickleball, hike, read, bicycle and write. She lives in Arizona with her husband and during the hot summers she and her husband travel throughout the United States in their motorhome where she enjoys the outdoors and finds wonderful ideas for her next writing project. You can find Sandra's books here. Three of Sandra's most popular books are also audio books at Audible. You can read more posts by Sandra here.

Sandra is also excited to announce that she has a novella coming out in the Seeker anthology A Heart Full of Christmas. This is also available for pre-order.