On a number of romance book review sites, there has been a quiet storm brewing for the last several years about the inclusion of multicultural characters or interracial couples in romance books of all genres. Specifically about agency (who the writers are who are telling the stories). About who is making the larger amounts of money. About who is being offered the contracts (usually a non-POC writer with a track record who'll write a whitewashed POC character or who'll write a caricature of a POC character that feels "real" to "mainstream" readers. I write historical and SFR /PNR romance and have been informed more than once that "readers won't be able to put themselves in my non "mainstream" heroine's place." I usually respond with "but the readers can relate to screwing a lizard, a wolf or a lion? They'll suspend disbelief for that but not for a Black heroine? O-O-kay." Anyway, I was invited by Heather Massey, the owner of THE GALAXY EXPRESS blog which caters to Sci-fi/paranormal romance, to comment on penning SFR/PNR with a multicultural cast. She diligently is adding Sci-fi/Paranormal romances/works by POC writers to her database and updates it regularly. Read the post where I weigh in on this topic. Here's the link;
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