In several posts (link in bio), I’m going to try to answer the question, “What will I get from reading your book?” This is my first response to this question:
I like to think that this is a “cool” sort of beat novel. The characters are people you might be, may know, or have seen in life. They are service people, homeless people, overly-enthusiastic people, oddballs, coffee shop patrons, and their baristas, bar patrons, and bartenders. They are the “un-cool” cool, the losers, the liver of the city. This story creates humor around some of these more abstract and too-often-judged personalities.
A strong example of this character narrative is with Chick, who, in our story, is a non-binary bartender. Rather than focusing on this specific trait, we simply include them as a supporting role and write them using they/them pronouns instead of he/she. This allows us to recognize the character as non-binary while not making it the focus of their narrative. In the book, we find them lovable, funny, romantic and, ultimately… cool. This person has their own flaws and struggles like anyone else in the book. This is the focus; this is, to me, the right way to portray the character. It is simply human.
