Copy Cat?

Last night, as I was trying to get to bed I was, instead, thinking of my Nano project, getting those nerves jumping. Can I really take this story idea to 50k? So I began to think about my characters, my heroine in particular. First of all, I'm planning on writing a sequel to a story that is going to be published by WCP. The hero is a nice guy, my heroine's (in Finally Home) best friend. I don't think I'm going to have a tough time with him.

But the heroine. Who is she? Where is she from? She's not from the little town that my story is set in, she's not from their "world". I know what she did before she came to the town, she'd been a competitive trail rider (its another horse story, folks). I'm also considering having her being a Sioux from South Dakota originally.

Then I thought, maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. First of all, I have another story set in SD, (though this one is set only in NH and none of my characters in the other story were Native American) and I have a writing friend who is writing a story who's characters are Lakota. Would that be copying? The stories aren't going to be one bit alike, just to set that straight. I want my heroine to be different from the women I usually write about.

I just don't want to be called a copy cat.

Well, I'll think on it some more.. I still have about 28 days to go.....