Grumpy about a character

[valarltd]

So...
We were noodling last night and I had a brainwave: Why not an Urban Fantasy story?

It has to be het, so we decided to do something different with an Urban Fantasy (is it still UF if it takes place in the woods? we spend a lot of time in the city too). Why not make our heroine black? There is a dearth of Characters of Color, or so I hear. 8/

Why not indeed?
Except that she has no features that are definingly black. And adding them would turn her from a vague notion to a stereotype.

So what I have:
Single female, age mid 20s, pretty. Lives in a tiny apartment, works in a sisyphian office.
Bored and lonely, she goes on a camping vacation and things get wacky

There is nothing in there except her physical description that makes her black.
All I hear in my head is Harlan Ellison deriding the TV show "Julia" (about a black nurse) as "Julie Andrews in Mantan."

The thing is, we are all basically alike, if we're past a certain age: we work, shop, eat, pay bills, do housework. We amuse ourselves, sleep and get up to do it all over again.

Any help here would be hot.
Maybe she should be a member of the National African American RV Association? Or her parents were, hence why she likes camping?

Comments

[hlglne.livejournal.com]

Her hair is going to frizz. The straightener is going to wear off and the roots are gonna get all full of twigs znd junk and mat together along her scalp. I know this from cultivating dreads. Her smooth office chignon will be ruined.

How's that? mwuahaha.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

We considered making her just a little bit radical and letting her wear a natural or braids (no weave).

My bigger worry on the hair is that if she gets too absorbed in her new lover, she might forget to oil it. Then it will get brittle and unmanageable.