{"id":173,"date":"2009-04-05T09:35:49","date_gmt":"2009-04-05T14:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.wordpress.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2009-04-05T09:35:49","modified_gmt":"2009-04-05T14:35:49","slug":"pc-or-not-pc-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/05\/pc-or-not-pc-that-is-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"P.C. Or Not P.C., That Is The Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

I'm currently editing A Golden Forever<\/em>,\u00a0the sequel to Faerie.\u00a0 Like all good sequels, it also stands alone as a book the reader could enjoy without reading any of the other books in the series.\u00a0 And yes, when I say I'm editing, what I mean is, I'm re-editing.\u00a0 Or perhaps, re, re, re editing.\u00a0 Does any writer ever feel finished with the work?\u00a0 Anyway, in the course of editing this time with the\u00a0intent to e-publish, part of the story causes me a little concern.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golden<\/em>\u00a0 tells Viv's story of going to California's gold rush to fund a future independent of any man.\u00a0 Of course, the Earl who sends her to California has his own agenda.\u00a0 The Earl is using Viv as bait to reel back\u00a0his son, Colton.\u00a0 The son is a bastard half-breed who was abandoned once by the father as a child, and betrayed as an adult.\u00a0 The P.C. issue arises with the son.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Troubled heros can be trouble for writers too.\u00a0 Colt was the result of his father's affair with an Indian maiden during the father's tour of the American west.\u00a0 Colt's mother marries a tribe warrior who doesn't much like the half-breed who reminds him and his wife daily of the English noble the wife gave herself to and still loves.\u00a0 Colt pays for that as a child and after his mother dies\u00a0has to sell his body to\u00a0widowed squaws for food and shelter.\u00a0 Later, in England, he sells his body to ladies who want to\u00a0sleep with the savage in order to get invited to their social affiars and to gain\u00a0acceptance to the ton<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The stories about the tribe are rooted entirely in my own imagination.\u00a0 I selected a real tribe, the Crow,\u00a0as the one to which Colt's band belongs.\u00a0 Why the Crow?\u00a0 It made sense geographically in the story.\u00a0 I also researched the tribe and found they were much more open about sex and sexual issues than many other bands.\u00a0 I consider that philosophy very positive.\u00a0 I also consider it important to the story because it had to be a tribe where the women would have\u00a0had enough power and self-esteem to take charge of their sexual needs -\u00a0even if they did it in a way that hurt Colt. \u00a0\u00a0Let's face it, they also helped Colt because he survived. Survival isn't always free and it isn't always easy.<\/p>\n

That's where my fears about the P.C. police come in.\u00a0 I proudly have Cherokee blood in my lineage.\u00a0 My eldest son has golden skin year-round thanks to that part of our heritage.\u00a0 We've taken the kids to the Reservation museum and the Indian Village in Cherokee, North Carolina.\u00a0 The children have been taught to respect all of their heritage.\u00a0 But some folks of Indian heritage object to things like names of sporting teams.\u00a0 It's not an attitude we really understand\u00a0in the South and none of that P.C. mania has ever taken hold here.<\/p>\n

Many symbols of history and heritage hold mixed messages.\u00a0 In my state, South Carolina, we honor those symbols for the heritage and leave the meaning to the\u00a0beholder.\u00a0 I worry that some of the groups may take aim at Golden<\/em>\u00a0 and see only part of the message.\u00a0 Even so, I decided to leave the Crow tribe as the Crow tribe.\u00a0 I thought of making up a name - perhaps the Eagle Tribe - but in its own way, that seemed more disrespectful.\u00a0 I admire the open acceptance embodied in\u00a0Crow principals.\u00a0I wish the South had more of a grasp of accepting rather than judging, of opening doors rather than closing them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I'll put a disclaimer at the beginning of my book,\u00a0advising the reader of my creative license, and urging them to visit the Reservations, study the tribe and hopefully come to respect its many accomplishments and achievements as well as its history of acceptance.\u00a0 The P.C.\u00a0police may come for me when I post the book, but I hope they won't.\u00a0 I hope\u00a0they will understand that the dangers of fighting creativity and literary vision far outweigh any benefits.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

A Golden Forever<\/em>\u00a0 should be posted -- or published -- soon at e-tailers around the web.\u00a0 Check it out and let me know what you think. I suspect that how\u00a0readers see the story may be as varied as how readers see some of those monuments and symbols.<\/p>\n

History is as individual as the people who made it.\u00a0 One size doesn't fit all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I'm currently editing A Golden Forever,\u00a0the sequel to Faerie.\u00a0 Like all good sequels, it also stands alone as a book the reader could enjoy without reading any of the other books in the series.\u00a0 And yes, when I say I'm editing, what I mean is, I'm re-editing.\u00a0 Or perhaps, re, re, re editing.\u00a0 Does any ...continue reading \"P.C. Or Not P.C., That Is The Question\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}