When I wrote my first novel, The Summers We Lost, my intention was to create a book that told a happily-ever-after story for a lesbian couple. I wanted a little angst and a little drama but overall the happiness is what I wanted. I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of lesbians in fiction is minimum, but I do know that in television and movies they often end up in situations where someone is cheating or one of them ends up dead. I really wanted this to have feel-good vibes to it.
Battle Scars, my first novella, was rather dark but given the subject matter I think it was expected but again I wanted to tell a story from a perspective other than mine, an anglo heterosexual.
For me it's important that my characters are diverse. The age old adage is that you should write what you know, but I don't think that's much of a challenge. To put myself in someone else's shoes, and try to think and feel from their life experiences is much more difficult than to just write what I've been through or how I feel. For me, that is the ultimate challenge as a writer and I love putting other types of characters in the spotlight where they deserve to be.
Helen