There may be no two groups of people in this world who are more different than self-identified nerds and members of prison gangs. But I found myself writing a scene today between a nerdy white female character and her older, Hispanic captor who had spent the majority of his career working as a prison guard. My character used the term "LARP" only to have her captor stare at her blankly. I came up with a brilliant way to compare the different types of nerds (and the perception of hierarchy therein) to prison gangs. But then I remembered that these characters exist in an alternate future where California is still a part of Mexico. Well, dang it. So while I can't include this wonderful bit of analogy in my book, I can share it here. Bear in mind that there is a great deal of cross-pollination in nerd land. The Babylon 5 enthusiast may also be a writer of Anime fan fiction. The Physicist may also get super excited about Star Wars. With prison gangs, there is no cross-pollina…
