April is Celebrate Diversity Month and in my first post of the month, I'd like to focus on ethnic diversity, in particular the international element in our stories. Most of our fanfics are for the White Collar fandom, where Neal Caffrey is a man of the world. Conversant in several languages, he traveled the world until his wings were clipped by Special Agent Peter Burke. Fortunately, in Caffrey Conversation, he never suffered the humiliation of going to prison, and the world is his oyster once more.
In Caffrey Conversation, Neal has had overseas adventures in England, France, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. There have also been scenes in Argentina, Japan, and Albania. The cast has expanded to include many international members. A partial list of the countries represented includes Russia (Ivan Sherkov), China (Billy and Maggie Feng), Mexico (Eric Vasquez), India (Radha Prasad), Germany (Klaus and Rolf Mansfeld), Japan (Keiko Nakahara) and England (John Hobhouse). The global slant will likely intensify in the future. Neal and Peter's work for the Interpol art crimes task force provides a natural opening.
My crossover series have similarly taken an ethnically diverse slant. In the case of Arkham Files, the horizons are intergalactic in nature, with several extraterrestrials featured as regular characters. The Arkham characters have so far traveled to Morocco, Egypt, and two planets. The TV series Supernatural is not known for international settings, a comfort factor for Dean who has a phobia about plane travel. But that didn't spare him from having to go to Venice in one of my Crossed Lines stories, and there may be other global opportunities in the future. As for ethnically diverse characters, does the inclusion of vampires, witches, demons, and ancient Greek gods count? Crowley assures me it does, and who am I to argue with a demon?
Next week I'll start posting a new fanfic, Silent Planet. My first Caffrey Conversation story to be set in 2006 continues the trend. One of the characters is from Vietnam. The story also features another aspect of diversity as it includes my first trans character.
I've made diversity a key element in the novel I'm working on, and I've been assembling an international cast. So far, nationalities include Egyptian, Welsh, Colombian, Russian, American, Chinese, Kenyan, Japanese, Norwegian, and Indian. For me, exploring the richness of other cultures is one of the most attractive aspects of writing. I may have hit the jackpot with this work.
Related post:
Not another story about straight white men - Part 1
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