Hope you’ll all welcome fellow Midnight Ink author Julia Buckley to Mystery Writing is Murder today! Julia’s Madeline Mann, which Kirkus called “a bright debut” is now available on Kindle.
My writer’s group has gone through many incarnations and has been winnowed down to five dedicated, hard-working women. Once, more than a decade ago, it had more members who had varying levels of commitment to their writing. It was this group that did a reading of my first draft of Madeline Mann, which came out on Kindle a couple of weeks ago.
While the group discussed my book, a young woman pursed her lips over the names of Madeline’s brothers, Fritz and Gerhard. “Must they be so ETHNIC?” she asked, sounding almost disgusted.
This shocked me for a variety of reasons. First, because we live in a country that isn’t very old; therefore everyone, either immediately or distantly, is from somewhere else. Second, I felt the question revealed more about the woman posing it than it did about my characters, and what it revealed wasn’t flattering. Third, I thought that the German ethnicity of the Mann family, informed as it was by my own childhood with European parents, would be one of the things they liked best about the book.
Ethnicity, in fact, is simply one of many things that makes fiction either authentic or not so. Because I had a German mother and a Hungarian father, I felt that I could create a fun and authentic picture of what Madeline’s German-American family would be like. Had I chosen to write a character who was French, or Mexican, or Russian, I could certainly have tried to make her life authentic by researching and talking to people who came from those particular cultures, but I wouldn’t be able to write with the same authority that my own background gave me.
I’m not sure what would make a reader shy away from “ethnic” fiction, and in fact Madeline’s German family is really mostly similar to the stereotypical American family. What seemed to offend the reader the most, then, were the characters’ names. She seemed to think they were somehow an exaggeration because they were so different from names she was used to.
One of the joys of fiction, to me, is that we can enter worlds where things are different and names are different and behaviors are different–and then we learn things from all of those differences. Gerhard and Fritz were names I heard on a daily basis, because not only did my mother have family members with very German names, but she had many German-American friends whose children had names just like these.
Ironically, my parents married in the late 1950s and their cultural world suggested that the best way to raise “American” children was to speak only English in the house. Since neither of my parents could claim English as a native tongue, they felt obliged to make us feel comfortable in our environment. They spoke only English at home, and they gave us distinctly non-European names: William, Christopher, Claudia, Linda, Julia. This, despite the fact that my mother’s friends and relatives had beautiful German names like Loli and Lizabeth and Nanne and MariTereze, and her brothers had the lovely names of Ferdi and Hermann-Josef.
In Madeline Mann, I was able to pay tribute to my mother’s German ethnicity while writing a very American murder mystery.
A day or two after the book appeared on Kindle, I got an e-mail from my uncle, Hermann-Josef (nicknamed Ebbo) in Germany. I have not seen Ebbo in person since I was one week old; he came to America to be with my mother during her final pregnancy, and he was there when I was born. He held me in his lap and they took photos to commemorate the occasion, but that is the only physical bond between us.
In his older years, though, Onkel Ebbo has discovered e-mail and the Internet, and his world will never be the same. He sends me e-mails all the time, either in German (which I can only partly translate) or in an English that he has translated online, and which is ultimately garbled. But the gist of his e-mail was “Congratulations on your book! I love the German names Fritz and Gerhard!”
And that was a wonderful antidote to my earlier experience, in which my wonderful German-American brothers were viewed with such disdain.
When Robert Fate was kind enough to read my book and blurb it, the brothers were what he loved best: He wrote “I love Buckley’s flawless style; her small town American settings are perfect, and her characters are so real it wouldn’t surprise me to discover one of the brothers rummaging in my refrigerator.”
Vindication! And a reminder that ethnicity is as integral to a story as is plot or setting.
Julia Buckley, the proud daughter of a German mother and a Hungarian father, lives in the Chicago area. Her first mystery, THE DARK BACKWARD, was published in 2006. Visit her website at juliabuckley.com or her blog, Mysterious Musings. She also posts at Inkspot and Poe’s Deadly Daughters.
Buckley is a member of Sisters in Crime, MWA and RWA. She recently earned her Master of Arts in Literature, and is at work on a young adult suspense novel and on a new mystery series. Kirkus Reviews called Madeline Mann “a bright debut,” and The Library Journal called Buckley “a writer to watch.”
What better way to learn about ethnicities than to read about them. Great post, Julia.
Thanks Elizabeth for hosting.
Elizabeth – Thanks for hosting Julia.
Julia – The diversity of characters is part of what makes fiction so fascinating! It’s also part of what makes fiction realistic and authentic. I like the idea of names reflecting all kinds of different heritages. Not only does that add interest to stories, but it is real.
When I’m writing, I try very hard to mix up the ethnic backgrounds of my characters. I had the most fun with a still unpublished mystery featuring the kinds of relatives I grew up with–the grandmother who’s greeting if you showed up at her door was, “Have you eaten? Come in.” In that order.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Elizabeth, thanks for hosting Julia and introducing me to this interesting author and her book.
Julia, I’m so glad you stood your ground and left Gerhard and Fritz in the book. From a reader’s point of view, that’s would make the story more realistic. Ethnicity is one of the parts that makes for a wonderful read. Best of luck.
It makes me wonder what the young woman writes and if her names fit her characters.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
If we didn’t have ethnicity in fiction, everyone would look and sound and behave so alike it would be downright boring. Thank God for ethnicity.
Karen
Thanks so much for posting today, Julia!
I think that readers gain whenever authors pass on their expertise–whether that’s in conveying some of their heritage, culture, and/or ethnicity. I’m glad you stuck with your guns and that today we can read about Fritz and Gerhard!
Interesting thoughts on ethnicity.
Great post–thanks for posting it!
Thanks to all of you. I agree that ethnicity is very real and makes fiction ring true.
Terry–I think we have the same grandmother! :)
Mason, I’ve lost touch with that particular writer, but she never submitted much to the group.
Yes, Karen–my feelings exactly. :)
Interesting post, I can definitely relate in both my MS and real life. In my MS my main character Rocky’s boyfriend is Mexican American, his name is Alex Torres. Short for Alejandro. She’s got first generation immigrant parents as well, from Russia and Ireland.
In real life, my boyfriend is black and you would not believe the nerve some people have when it comes to commenting on my future family. Sadly, more than once I’ve been cautioned against naming my kids anything too “creative” because god forbid people think they’re from the “ghetto”. (Do they think names like Ashley or James will make my kids look any less mixed??) It’s sad, annoying, and down right rude. But it happens. Oh, and those people? They were young too. : /
I think the link between ethnicity of ancestors and names comes quite naturally, just like you did it. It would be weird with a German-Hungarian family named O’Neill or MacDonald, that wouldn’t fit.
I come from a small (European) country, where we’re used to ethnic names in movies and books, we wouldn’t react to this at all … and the family name Mann gives good associations in a literary context >:)
Cold As Heaven
I really enjoyed reading your post. I love incorporating ethnicity into writing, especially those of Hispanic descent. I would like to try other ethnic groups and see how this would affect the character interactions and facilitate story dynamics.
Great post Julia!
Glad you stuck with those names – sounds like your uncle was tickled.
Erica, it doesn’t surprise me, but it does sadden me. Such a shame that even in our “enlightened” present you must suffer the narrow opinions of others.
Cold, you are so right–plus I just like the name. :)
And thanks so much, Chary and Alex!
What a great post. I agree, our character’s name can be a huge part of who they are and to follow an ethnic background is like the perfect spice. I too had someone tell me my heroines name was childish. However, I did so deliberately and since it is a nickname she will come into her true name in the course of the book. It is just another way to demonstrate how she changes.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author
Nancy–it just goes to show that not all critics are worth listening to. :)
What a fine guest post!
Of course German characters should have German names! When I write, it is extremely important for me to choose the perfect name for each and every character. A name should suit the person, including background, age and personality (unless you give someone the wrong name for fun like my current character Darwin who is an effeminate wimp). So when parents or writers give people a wrong name, it really annoys me.
Of course you’d give your characters names that fit their ethnic background and personality. Curious about that reader’s reaction. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into a writer’s dilemma and triumph! How fun to connect to an older relative through years and distance via the world wide web.
Thanks, Dorte and Mary! It was an odd reaction, which I guess is why I’ve always remembered it. As I recall, my whole group responded with a rather stunned silence.