A Whitewater Decision

When I wrote Whitewater, it was the summer of 2020 and there was strong anti-Iranian sentiment in the West. Not just anti-Iranian government (which deserves to be strongly criticised) but anti-Iranian. I recall the Lindsay Graham quote, "we're going to make it a bad time to be Iranian", referring to US sanctions. I was like, hey! The Iranians suffer too! It was their government oppressing them, as well as meddling in other nations around the world (most noticeably Israel and Syria).

I decided to make Kitty Iranian because I wanted to see a positive depiction of someone from Iran. Not the Iranian government which, once again, deserves to be strongly criticised. But a positive depiction of someone Iranian.

Turning an Iranian girl into a great white shark might not be so positive. I understand that now. In my original intentions, she would become a superhero. An Iranian girl superhero. Yet, by suggesting Iranian girls are great white sharks, it might not have been the best result. "This body is dangerous," read one quote from the novel I've since excised. I'm planning to go back over the book and turn Kitty's surname into something more basic and boring to avoid controversy.