straight to these hips—and set it back down again. I set the ball next to the food and give it a little pat. "A toy. A ball. For you, Pak."
I look around, just in case someone's come out to greet me, but the beach is just as empty as ever.
I sigh in frustration. "I'm not sure why I'm talking. You guys can't understand me anyhow." I wave at nothing, a reluctant smile on my face. "All right, see you guys tomorrow then." I turn and walk away, leaving the offering behind.
I take a few steps and then pause, glancing up at the skies. It's a little cloudy, and I wonder if I should bring something to cover the food. If they're not around, it might get ruined. I glance back behind me—
The colorful, ugly ball is gone.
Somehow, that makes my day brighter. I smile to myself as I head back to camp.
Author’s Note
Hello there!
Where to begin? Imagine me cracking my knuckles. Sit down. Let’s talk. Lol. You’re wondering why I wrote a character that’s a sex worker. This is the part where I tell you what I was thinking!
This book started out with the concept of secrets. I’m always daydreaming about my characters in all kinds of strange scenarios, and one day I started playing with the idea that one of the characters on the beach is a big fat liar. That they’re absolutely not who they say they are. Who better to be a liar than a weird hippie blonde who goes by the name Raven? When you think of ‘Raven’ you think dark hair and goth (at least, I do). You don’t think of someone with a bright personality and sweet disposition.
So to me, once the idea of someone having a secret came about, I absolutely knew it was Raven. Then, I brainstormed what kind of secret would someone keep when the past on Earth doesn’t matter? If everyone’s starting over, and you’re still keeping secrets, it has to be something with gravitas. I toyed with the idea of making Raven married, or giving someone a family back home but…I really hate that sort of scenario. I don’t want someone leaving happiness behind and trading for a new happiness. I want stories about people that FIND their happiness. So that was out.
So what other sorts of things would people hide? Criminal things, of course! Or things they think the rest of the new society won’t understand. You’re probably thinking, okay, stripping isn’t a big deal. Going to prison for stealing an ex-boyfriend’s car isn’t so bad, either. There’s a LOT worse out there.
This is true. But if you look at it from Raven’s perspective, she is a square peg that has been dropped into a situation full of round holes. She’s the only dog person on cat person island. She’s the only democrat in a land full of republicans…you get the idea. In a new society, one of the biggest things is fitting in. Raven knows this. And when everyone else confesses their benign jobs and backgrounds (College! Nursing! Cashier!) she decides to create a new, benign persona that no one will dislike. As she mentions in the book, her only other friends were strippers, and her job tended to ruin most other relationships. From her perspective, everyone will hate her when they find out she’s a sex worker.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter all that much, and a lot of the worry is all in Raven’s head. I loved writing her, because she has a lot of fascinating personality aspects. Raven’s very sex-positive and absolutely unapologetic about stripping and showing her body. At the same time, she’s ashamed of her lack of schooling and hides who she is because she thinks others won’t like it. She’s a loner with trust issues thanks to her upbringing, but when U’dron comes back for her (the first time anyone’s ever come back for her) she realizes that it’s time to open up and share who she really is so she can be herself. She’s tired of pretending to be someone else.
As for her criminal record and going to prison, I tried to put myself in Raven’s shoes. Too young, too left on her own to make bad decisions, no father and an absent druggie mother, and I probably would have made the exact same choices she did. Who didn’t make dumbass decisions at eighteen that they didn’t regret or cringe over years later?
Anyhow, I found all of