a little more juju

Risks in Paradiso

This is yet another ambiguously worded prompt, but hey, that gives me a lot of freedom to talk about Paradiso in ways that aren’t just about risks the characters take in the story (because I really don’t wanna give that away just yet!).

For me, all art is a risk. We put ourselves out there, like I did with my previous Saturday Snippet (I literally was sweating when I clicked “publish”), with the hopes that what we’re doing will matter to someone, even if it is only a handful of people. Of course, some of us want to become the next Stephen King or Ursula Le Guin or Gail Simone, but for the most part, many of us are just happy to create and live our lives.

As for Paradiso, I’m taking a huge risk by going with a story that forces me out of my comfort zone: going completely and publicly political. For anyone that knows me IRL, it’s not like my political leanings are any major secret; even people at work are like, “yeah, Jenn’s as far left-leaning as I’ve met,” and I don’t argue with them. But most of what I’ve written in my 41 years of life was very removed from that because, let’s face it, I’m in the privileged class (for the most part) and I never had to think of that until it essentially slapped me in the face. So I’m leaning into this with Paradiso; it’s not a satire (I don’t think I’m nearly clever enough to accomplish that), but it’s pretty clear what it’s critiquing … at least, I hope it will be.

Also one of my main characters is trans, so I’ve been doing a lot of research, both academic and conversational, to make sure that I am able to positively represent her without making her a token. I’m trying to make it obvious that she is trans without it playing any large role in her story – I want it to be treated as if I’m telling you her favorite ice cream flavor (which happens to be pistachio, by the way) – because I refuse to be like JK Rowling when she retconned that Dumbledore in her mind was gay, even though there was no indication in the books that he was. Well, no obvious indication, anyway.

Finally, just putting my work out there in any way is so terrifying to me. I know it’s definitely not unique to me, and I am positive that even professional authors have the same feeling any time they send their manuscript to their editor. Not everyone is going to like or even care about what I put out in the world, but I need to just grow a backbone and transfer what’s in my brain and into the universe.