Today I'm posting two short stories featuring an Albuquerque private detective named Kim Il-chae ("Juchae" and "Munchkin's Money"). These stories - as with all my stuff - occur in my Carpenter universe, but unlike the Carpenters she isn't a Christian, and unlike my other stories these aren't romances. My initial idea was that eventually Kim (she goes by her family name, since most Americans are utterly incompetent when it comes to anything foreign) would become a Christian through her relationship with Darvin Carpenter(she helps him out in a couple of the Carpenter stories), but so far all I've done with her is these two shorts, and a novel which I'll post later
on.
Writing entirely from within a woman's head proved both easier and more difficult than I thought. In some respects I did it without any effort (two or three women have looked at my Kim stuff, and they tell me that overall I got it right). But I think I tried too hard, and so there were things in all three Kim stories that weren't right, and it's only after I recently went through all three again that I'm confident that I've eliminated what wasn't right. And at that I may still not have done a completely complete job of fixing the problems. :)
But I do love Kim Il-chae. I love her sense of humor, her toughness, and her way of expressing exasperation with unusual phrases (I wish she wouldn't cuss when she's downright mad, but as I said, she's not a Christian, and I don't allow the actual vulgarities into the record). I love the fact that she's half Korean (both my daughters are, which isn't surprising since my wife is Korean). I love the way she can be utterly professional when it's necessary, and utterly hedonistic when there's time to relax. I've never cared for bubble bath, but I've got my equivalents. :)