Writing outside a reader's comfort zone

In the last few months, I've been asked a few times to write about my experiences as a Canadian author (who writes Canadian-themed fiction) who sells primarily an American audience. The following post has been, in different forms, on several sites including Maria Zannini's blog.

Since there is a good mixture of different countries of origin represented here on Paranormalists, I thought that I'd share the original version of "The Six Month Winter".

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It doesn’t take long before folks figure out that I’m Canadian. I try to inject as much Canadiana into my work as possible, even when it is fantasy and science fiction. Canadians have difficult cultural ticks, different unspoken rules, and different laws than the US. I want my work to reflect that differentness. Easier said than done.

When I first ran “Harvest Moon” by my American beta readers, many pointed out my “typo.” See if you can catch it:

Six moons would pass before the spring thaw, relieving her of seeing her masculine features.

Spot it yet? It was the “six moons” (six months) phrase. I had a lot of feedback saying that winters are never six months in the US Midwest. I asked why did they think it was even set in the US. The response? They didn’t realize it could be set anywhere else. I laughed it off and developed a scene where Dancing Cat actually mentions the geography of the area. The beta readers put the story in the Northwest Territories. A little too far north, but at least closer. A few more twinks and most people figured out that I was writing about Northern Alberta, Canada.

(Americans, don’t feel picked on. My content editor is British and was quite shocked by the length of winter!)

Injecting other cultures and changing up the setting in fiction really helps challenge both the reader and, I believe, the author. It would have been easy for me to have placed Harvest Moon in Idaho or Montana. However, it would have changed the small, subtle differences: what people ate, what people wore. It was those differences, those tiny layers of texture, that I felt changed the tone of the story.

As an author, I feel that it’s important to include different peoples, different cultures, and even different sexual orientations. It’s even more fun when you take those differences and toss them into the mix of a stereotype or cliché. It makes for a rather interesting salad.

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Krista D. Ball is a Canadian author who, through no fault of her own, has 1.5 dogs, 2.3 kids, and 7 cats. Her novella, Harvest Moon, is available for Kindle, iPad, iPhone, and in many other formats. Check out the MuseItUp Publishing bookstore to purchase.