What or Who is Lum? Why is Lum the title of your book?
Lum is the name of the main character, short for Columbia. She tried to get rid of her childhood nickname and have people call her Columbia, but it didn’t stick. She is a thirty-three-year-old intersex woman living in Depression era Virginia. I tried to come up with other titles, but Lum sounded right.
Intersex? Is that like Trans?
No, “intersex” is an umbrella term for many conditions where a person’s genitals are not consistent with what is considered normal for males or females.
So she’s a hermaphrodite?
Intersex is the preferred term. Hermaphrodite indicates that someone has all the parts of both genders, which just isn’t the case. I picked a syndrome that Lum has, congenital andrenal hyperplasia (CAH), and then used the manifestations of that condition in her story.