How does your background/culture shape your work?

Growing up in a mixed-race household I don't think I experienced much of either culture??? Most of the exposure i've had is through food and even then it's mostly asian foods in general. I guess as a result a lot of my OCs that can cook or are foodies like asian food in one way or another (ex: Jade can cook a lot of noodle-based foods like ramen & vermicelli)

Childhood/background does influence a my story settings & characters a lot though. I live in Massachusetts + I visit Lowel MA and Boston a lot, so when I write cities they're usually based off either of them. I also have 2 characters who live in areas based off places I went to a lot in the past/go to a lot now; Cypress lives in the mountains similar to New Hampshire's white mountains & Valerie lives by the beach (used to go camping a lot in NH + Beaches are a fav. place of mine to go in general). 

A lot of my OCs are also in friend groups of some-sort because tbh I actually feel a lot more connected with friends than family (whether or not it's a bad thing I guess it's up to personal views but that's a whole other topic). long story short, the friendships I've made in the past 4 years made a large positive impact on my life so it shows a lot through my characters with most of them either being part of at least one friend circle

          I don't particularly have any OCs' plot regarding Thailand. Mainly because the topic I find interesting to create OCs based on (i.e. a certain way of life like people who have a domesticated elephant in their household or minority ethnic groups within Thailand such as Mani and various hill tribes people) I have very little information on them to ascertain that I'll portray them accurately. And I don't find typical modern setting taking place in Thailand interesting enough, as there are many topics I prefer not to venture close to.

          Meanwhile, I have a feeling my experience growing as the 'chill af' Thai influenced how I make my OCs interact with each other? Though I do try to learn about the country my plot sets in (Russia, ex-Yugo), there's still some obvious inaccuracy that probably make the natives shake their head. I know various countries consider what subject/question is appropriate to ask at different level of relationship (just met / colleague / acquaintance / friend) differently, and sometime I do wonder if I project the 'chill af' Thai attitude onto how my supposedly Russian OCs interact? If you ask me, while I do know that Russians often seem indifferent and distant toward strangers, they're all warm and easy to smile with friends, my OCs' interactions may be even too laid-back for that.

          Other than that, I guess the fact that in my Russian warfare androids plot mostly focuses on the Pacific Fleet (the sole fleet located in Asian part of Russia thus regularly interact with Asian nations), I tend to use to the advantage of being a native of Asia-Pacific region to add various tiny tidbits into the OCs' experience? Like Pantelyev addicted to several Japanese snacks well-known to anyone growing up/living in this area or how some androids even leave a hint of their 'terror' of experiencing some local SE Asian foods (admit it, we have quite a number of them that easily scare people from other parts of the world for life :'D both for the taste/smell and icky ingredient).

I’m used to working in male dominated environments, being ‘one of the lads’ and I have a strong male identity myself so I guess that’s heavily influenced my male dominated cast of OC’s. It’s normalised to me. I never had a father figure in my life (I know when I was a kid younger I had serious issues with trying to find a replacement father figure) and I have a sneaking suspicion that factors into why I beeline to guys.

I grew up in LGBT friend groups and was lucky to have accepting relatives and friends so I don’t think twice about making those kinds of characters. I’ve been dealing with a lot of biphobia irl lately and because I’ve had to go back into the closet for reasons I don’t feel like getting into, where I made LGBT OC’s because I’m used to being in LGBT friendly environments, it’s become more important to me to have a sort of safe space where all gender/sexual identities are accepted/normalised even if I don’t nesscarily work with all of them.

I have noticed my OC’s are a British majority since I’m British myself and I tend to work with British military history plots. Since I started learning German I’ve found I’ve been making more German OC’s. I was going to join the Navy (ended up merchant Navy instead), spent a good 10 years in Sea Cadets and spent time on Navy and Army bases that I’m fairly sure that’s heavily influenced my interests (Age of Sail, WW1 and WW2). It’s probably why I tend to have a loose military theme even in my sci-fi plot. The star ship’s command structure is based on what I’m already familiar with in the merchant navy.

My family is small and spread out so I don’t really see a lot of them and I’m not in contact with them therefore I don’t think much about them. I litterally only think about my mum, aunt and uncle and that’s it. I’m real close to those 3 relatives but otherwise I’m not very family orientated at all. That def reflects in how I handle it with my OC’s for instance I tend to aknoweledge an OC’s living relatives exist ie I might have someone might talk about how they have a strong bond with their father and let them get emotional over how they miss their father and worry about their wellbeing because of that bond but family is not something that has a huge role in my plots. But having said that, I am very aware of how family can affect how someone (idk if this is the right phrasing) turns out so I def think about that when I develop my characters.

That’s all I can think of for now, if anything else comes to mind I’ll edit to add!

I actually try and seperate my art from what's expected of my cultures.
I'm bi-national (? is that a thing) but I really don't like to talk about it much because people are generally annoying or rude about it. 

my characters and stories are almost exclusively fantasy so the real world doesn't affect them that much.

I don't really have a culture of my own to be inspired by; never knew much about my ancestry, and my family is generally apathetic about it. German/French-Canadian, that's all I really know. Despite knowing almost nothing about it, I feel some kinship to my French-Canadian side (see below for why); I feel no kinship/closeness to my German side, simply because it's completely alien to me.

I live near Mackinac Island, though, and learning about it and the native myths surrounding the place, and the entire region (Great Lakes/Northeast/New France), has influenced a good portion of my work, for better or worse. (Some people have enjoyed it for this reason, some have been offended by it for this reason. So it's kind of a touchy subject, and is a big reason I'm shy about discussing that particular storyline too indepth despite how much I love it and how much work I've put into it.)

I don't really have a story set on Mexico since most of my stuff doesn't happen on our Earth, but i love adding some references to Mexico here and there im my stories, and have some characters (that i haven't uploaded yet) who are Alebrijes! (Alebrijes are a sort of creature made by a mix of many different animals that guards you on the underworld, and they're really colorful!)

I don't have a story set in el salvador since i write fictional worlds, but i absolutely have so many at LEAST latino-coded characters because i am latino myself whoops! my culture and family is all very community and family based and i have a vast range of good and bad experiences with the fact that everything is so tightly knit and that everyone knows everyone, which may include things that they shouldn't know about or snoop in, chisme and all that. that being said my characters, a vast majority have a very deep or personal connection or relationship with their families or circles, whether thats in a good way or a bad way, many are very affected by their parents and peers in different ways, and i really explore that a lot when I can! whether its family or community, i kind of have a tendency to push that like tightly knit community/family stuff with my non latino ocs too. 

Another thing is that I struggled a lot when I was younger to connect with my culture! It was difficult because I was raised by one parent who wanted to teach me about culture but the louder parent wanted to teach me american values for the advantages^^ So I sometimes try to write about characters who struggle with identifying with their culture in different kinds of ways for different reasons, since that is something I have tried to deal with and still do to an extent, even if I feel much happier and certain about my identity nowadays^^ its comforting getting to look into and write about these sorts of experiences when you dont often see them yourself, yknow?

I only have 1 character that is inspired by one of the cultures that I grew up with (Nordic). Otherwise, most of the characters are of course slightly affected by me as a person, but one way or another. My interest leans mostly towards fantasy or slice of life, although historical characters are also of interest. However, my whole folder "Pet Life", is inspired by my own pets and animals that I often see outside in my garden. For example, Pippo is inspired by the aggressive bouncer of a pigeon that sits in my bird bath every day. Vito, is the frog who I feel is always near Pippo and therefore given the title of boss. Nala the dancer, is my own dog, same with Koda he is my german shepherd. Chi, who looks like a chicken, is actually a kitten that my neighbor has. My neighbor has a couple of cats, so got inspiration there. Anastasia is a deer who comes to visit often. Let’s just say my garden is a spark of motivation, and my neighbours to as most of them is farms and forests. I have a greater interest or inspiration to write about nature and animals that are connected to me or my life than people I am close to. It probably stems from the fact that I feel closely connected to nature, and the first thing I see every day when I open the window. Is a herd of deers on one side, cows on the other. If I wait a bit, there's a fox or hedgehog, and lots and lots and lots of birds. The hedgehog btw is a stalker, he patrols around my house and I sometimes calls him my son. xD He also seem to have a habit of waiting for me, not trying to tame him, just think since the fox lives above the fence that he has chosen me as his protector.