If you can't put yourself in your point-of-view character's place, feel what they're feeling and know why they're feeling it, then don't do it. If your young, straight Asian university student is thinking and feeling like an older, gay, Caucasian, part-time bookstore clerk, part-time writer, then you're doing it wrong. I was living in Toronto's Chinatown when I wrote this and there were some nasty gang wars going on at the time. Not that gang wars are ever anything but nasty. A body was found in the park across from our apartment and a wounded young man who spoke no English – at least to us – collapsed in our stairwell but staggered off before the police arrived. The shooting outside the restaurant was, unfortunately, not stopped by two teenagers and a dragon.Shing Li-ung"Donna. Your grandmother has asked to see you."Incipient panic thrust Donna Chen up out of the chair and nearly pushed her voice over the edge to shrill. "Me?" She waved an agitated arm towards the backyard where her three cousins were playing a subdued game of croquet.
