With 9 days to go until Honor’s Lark is officially released via Amazon, I’m getting excited and sentimental.  I feel like a parent about to release her baby into the real world.  So, before I do that, I want to let the world know how I view my baby and it’s main characters.

There was a hashtag trending on twitter last week: #WeNeedDiverseBooks.  I thought it was wonderful that people were calling attention to the fact that so many books (the good, the bad, and the in-between) are lacking in the diversity department.  When I started writing Honor’s Lark last September (when it was still called simply Lark), I thought a lot about the world I was creating and how I wanted it to be as inclusive as possible.  I am never much of a descriptive writer, though I usually give my characters a few physical traits.  Not in HL.  I wanted readers to be able to envision themselves in the characters, regardless of what they looked like, so I barely described the characters at all.

Having said that, I do have pictures in my head of what I think the characters look like.  I imagine in this world that, due to the larks, people have traveled all over and if races did exist, they’ve been combined over time so that they aren’t really identifiable anymore.  Basically, everyone has some color to their skin.

So, here’s what my main characters look like in my head.  They may not look like this in your head when you read the book.  In fact, I kinda hope they don’t!  Picture them however you want and then let me know what you see 🙂

 

 

Honor Sandoval

Sedric Eckland

Diversity isn’t just about race, though.  I also thought a lot about sexuality when creating these characters.  The initial concept – that everyone is destined for another person – gave me the perfect opportunity to showcase that love is love, no matter a person’s gender.  The terms heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual don’t exist in the world of the larks.  I know it’s not a perfect representation of all members of society, but hopefully readers will appreciate the effort.

 

Bonnie

Caron

9 days to go.  NINE DAYS!!!