In light of recent events, I just wanted to make a post to make a few things crystal clear about myself, my characters, and my relationship to this community.
The first is that, as a white author, I want to make a public commitment to not only listen to readers of colour, but to decisively take action in addressing any issues that are raised.
I know that I have spoken before on this blog about my issues with ~hate mail~ etc, but I just want to make it absolutely clear that I do not consider valid criticism of my work to fall into this category, and I will always welcome and appreciate readers coming forward with any concerns about the way that I portray my characters or conduct myself on this blog. While I hope that I won’t get things wrong too often, please feel free to call me on it if/when I do, and I’ll do what I can to fix it!
I also want to say that I absolutely don’t vibe with discrimination or hate speech of any kind, and I won’t stand for it on my blog, in my mentions or in Discord. This should be something that goes without saying, but to avoid any ambiguity, I think it’s best that I spell it out!
It also seems timely to provide some more information about the Body Count cast. My lovely pal @whoreromancer has put together some skin tone references for me and I hope that they will be useful going forward to anyone who is interested in drawing or making edits for the cast!
I am so appreciative and frankly still totally blown away that anyone would ever want to draw the little people that exist in my brain and I realise that I probably should have shared something like this sooner, but I didn’t really anticipate the need for it! If anyone who has drawn fanart of the characters and their skin tones are lighter than the ones referenced, then I would be beyond grateful if you get the time to update ❤
This also seems like a good time to restate the characters’ ethnicities, which I know I’ve answered before, but perhaps a little more vaguely than I should have. It’s worth noting that all characters except Charlie were born in the UK and would identify as British, but have a range of ethnic backgrounds.
Arthur, Atticus, Avery, Florrie, Griff, Imogen & Syd are all white. Florrie is Polish and Atticus is Irish-Spanish.
Ellis is mixed race; their mother was mixed Colombian, and their father was Welsh.
Rowan is mixed race; her father was Mongolian, and her mother is Scottish.
Charlie is mixed race; his father is Māori, and his mother was mixed race (white British and Zulu South African).
I hope that this will be a useful resource, but I’m happy to take any questions that anyone, particularly readers of colour, might have xoxoxo