In Hello Universe, the character, Valencia is deaf, and I am a hearing person and I don’t have a lot of experience with hard of hearing or deaf communities, so knowing that it was very important to me to depict her authentically, respectfully and three-dimensionally, especially right now as more marginalized voices are coming forward.
I was very aware to almost the point of panic that I was writing outside of my community. So I knew I needed to do, and I wanted to do a significant amount of research. And so I reached out to the American Society for Deaf Children and through Beth Benedict there I was introduced to a woman named Gina Oliva. And Gina is a deaf advocate. She is an author herself.
And she wrote a book about going to school in the mainstream as a deaf student. So I read the book of course and then I actually met her. And she was so welcoming, inviting and encouraged me to ask any question I had, even if it was embarrassing or maybe looked foolish. And I knew that I would have to ask them, even if I did look foolish, because she had to be depicted authentically.
I also took sign language classes at the Deaf Hearing Communication Center in Swarthmore, PA. And, you know, although Valencia doesn’t use sign language everything that when you’re researching, all of it informs, right? So I was able to interact with the instructor and ask her questions. So research was a key part of specifically Valencia. It’s a key part of any book.
But any time you’re writing about something that you’re not familiar with, obviously you have to do a significant amount of research. And it’s a great process, not just because it adds richness and authenticity to the book, but I’m just a curious person by nature so there’s hardly any topic that you could ask me to research that I won’t find interesting.
So just the value of researching, even if I don’t use all the information, is energizing and I love it. So I love to learn new things and, you know, I hope it informed the story well.