Tracing an (Un)common Thread by Martha Reed

One of the side benefits of reaching my ‘advanced age’ is the hindsight perspective that naturally developed.

When I started my writing life, I set my John and Sarah Jarad Nantucket Mysteries series in the world I knew mostly because I was a newbie author learning how to construct an 85,000 word novel and the idea of also creating an entirely brave new world setting was simply too daunting. I distinctly remember thinking that relying on the constraints of an island setting would be helpful since my characters couldn’t wander off.

With the Nantucket series I explored the superficial themes I already knew: revealing deep dark family secrets; overcoming class prejudices and distinctions, and searching for a place to call home. I plucked my characters wholesale from the WASPy New England setting. I trimmed out the slang and the cussing. Everything about writing these Nantucket Mysteries felt as comfortable as slipping into my favorite pair of slippers.

But once I had the craft mechanics of writing a novel under my belt, I got restless. I felt the need to push myself in a new direction, to explore more meaningful and topical themes and subjects. I mentioned this new restlessness to a sympathetic friend at the 2014 Long Beach Bouchercon convention. She took one look at my Wonder Bread cookie cutter characters and suggested that I explore adding some diversity, and she was right.

Next came an intriguing new consideration: Who were my new diverse characters going to be?

And so my disgraced ex-detective Jane Byrne blew into New Orleans on her Ducati motorcycle. First thing she does is run smack dab into Gigi Pascoe, my true force of nature transgender sleuth.

At the time I thought I was being very creative and original inventing Gigi Pascoe, as if I’d made Gee up out of whole cloth all on my own. Then a recent Facebook pop-up ad reminded me of the Julie Andrews and James Garner movie Victor/Victoria which I know I saw with some college friends in 1982. Rewatching the classic movie on Netflix reminded me of how much I’d loved it. Spoiler: Julie Andrews plays a woman disguised as man disguised as a woman to survive. Here’s a fun clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6bAIylJx4s

Talk about gender fluidity! After the rewatch I wondered: Had that movie planted an early and forgotten seed in my subconscious mind? Once posed, that question dropped me down a deeper rabbit hole to a Science Fiction class I took at the University of Missouri in 1977. From that syllabus I remember reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s stunningly brilliant novel The Left Hand of Darkness. In that story an alien human emissary is assigned to Winter, a world where the inhabitants can change genders.

This book was so impactful that although it’s been almost five decades and probably a dozen cross-country storage moves, and the binding glue has dried out and the pages are loose, I’ve kept my paperback student copy in my personal library.

Holy heck. How far back did this gender fluid character suggestion go?

How about you? Are there any character traits or settings that you consitently look for or use?