Writing across cultures

It’s always a bit of a risk writing about race, ethnicity, creed and culture different than one’s own.

I tell myself that my decades as a journalist, when more often than not I was reporting in such situations, honed my sensitivity – but there’s always that fear that you’ll slip from the high wire that divides patronizing from romanticizing.

So it was especially gratifying last night when Mariam and her daughter Noor showed up at my reading and book signing at the Boulder Book Store in Colorado and assured me that Silent Hearts got it right.

The fact that one of the characters in the book is named Mariam made it even better!

And I’ve already marked as “must attend” a panel at this weekend’s Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold conference called “Writing characters from cultures not your own.” Because you can never pay too much attention to those details.