Fun!
All from
No Man's Land:
-
The Fitzgerald family, which includes Jackie Flores (who legally changed his surname from Fitzgerald to Flores when he was eighteen) is distinctly Irish, though most of its members live in the United States and Canada now. Jackie's paternal grandfather was an Irish immigrant who married an American woman. Gaelic is still a language that the Fitzgeralds pride themselves in speaking, though it fades out more and more with every new American generation. Jackie is still proud of his heritage, regardless, despite him not being able to speak that language well. Several family members still live in Ireland, though they're rather detached from those who live overseas.
-
Contessa Grier was born Contessa-Mikhaila Nikitichna Ovchinnikov in Moscow, Russia. Her family, at the insistence of her father, left when she was a young teenager and moved to New York, in the United States. She married a man named Kiril Sobolev when she was nineteen, and he was in his forties, therefore becoming Contessa-Mikhaila Nikitichna Sobolev for a small while. Unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack and died a few years later, in June of 2000. She married again in 2002. Her second husband, Vladimir Grier, is third-generation American. Contessa usually only goes by the simplistic name of "Contessa Grier" now, though legally her name is Contessa-Mikhaila Nikitichna Grier. She has a condition known as
sound ? color synesthesia, which she actually is rather fond of, because, "When I am onstage, and I am playing, I look around and - color! Better than acid trip." Her husband is the tour manager for the band she plays in, The Headless Choir.
I've always had a fascination with all things Russian, honestly. The people, the politics, the accents, simply everything. It was inevitable that, eventually, a Russian character or two would pop up in my writing.
-
Lamont “Lucky” Ostheim is half Puerto-Rican; his mother was Puerto-Rican, his father a white American. He was born in New York, New York, and considers himself mostly just American, but regrets that he's so detached from his Puerto-Rican roots. His mother died when he was young, and his father remarried a Caucasian woman a few years later. His father never discouraged that Lucky learn more about his heritage, but he never went out of his way to make sure that it happened, either.
Lucky is based on a real-life friend of mine in this regard. (Though said real-life friend's father is Puerto-Rican, and his mother is white and American.)
-
Taffy White and his paternal family draw their lineage back to Africa in the sixteenth century. They were brought to America via slave trade, and have records that show what plantations they were forced to work for. Taffy isn't sure what the "old family" name was, though his father has let on that their surname was probably some sort of joke taken on by an ancestor - "I think your great, great, great, and so-on grandfather had a fucked-up sense of humor, personally." Taffy's mother's side draws their roots back to Barbados.
Honestly, I was just tired of always seeing just white characters in stories. Though admittedly, I came up with the names of the three other No Man's Land bandmates before I attached actual characterization and ethnicity to them. I think I remember that Evan was going to have Taffy's name, and Taffy was going to have Evan's name, but the surname "Wise" was just so...more Evan-like, so I switched them.
-
Sibley Scott is very much British. He's from Manchester, England, and left only after completing his studies as a young man so he could travel more and still pursue his goal of making a living off of his photography. He was successful at it, and is widely regarded as a talented and sought-after photographer, especially by bands and other musicians. He calls Chicago, Illinois, home. He renews his Visa whenever he needs to, instead of trying to obtain permanent citizenship, however. "No real reason," he explains. "I love living here, but somehow I still feel like I'm cheating on dear old England, sometimes."
Although I began writing his character a while ago, I found new inspiration in him from a photographer I met at a Rise Against show. Said photographer was not British, but he had a distinctly Sibley-like vibe. My only excuse for the character being British is my fascination with the people in general.
-
Abella Delauney is originally from Reims, France, though now finds semi-permanent residence in Chicago, Illinois. Her accent is slight, having moved with her mother and brother to Canada when she was a young girl, and then to the United States when she was a little older. She is Sibley Scott's assistant. Sibley has taken a shine to her, which is fairly astonishing when considering he hardly admits to even grudging friendships with anyone, but would never actually tell her that.
There are probably more, but for main and secondary characters, I think that's about it.