Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

No theories here, however, one of my favorite vampire series (and I’m a big fan) is L.A. Banks’ Vampire Huntress Legends series.

http://www.gravityintegrated.com/leslie.html

Anyone looking for a new slant on a sometimes tired theme, L.A. Banks is your wo-man!

One of my favorite SF writers is Octavia Butler—I’ll blog about her books at some point, because I have a strange, love/hate relationship with her book DAWN that I’d love to get others opinions on.

I’ve just discovered Nalo Hopkinson in SF as well. (Actually, I guess she’s more fantasy hybrid than anything).

As for why? I don’t have a good answer: poor marketing? a lack of interest in middle-white America who don’t want to identify with black middle America? In my case, before Monica’s blog is was having only a vague awareness of AA romances, and then not seeing them when I went to the bookstore, so they weren’t in my line of sight. I had to actively seek them to find them.

My theory: it’s not about identification; it’s about fantasy. White people don’t generally fantasize about being black (or any other color), butthey DO fantasize about being rich and having servants and stuff.

Hello Ladies.  Just wanted to mention that I am, unfortunately, the only Chinese romance author I know that writes CHINESE characters.  (Both Marjorie Liu and Genita Low write white characters).

Jade Lee is my name and I write historical romance set in Shanghai, 1898.  I’ve got a Tigress series, but the only book that is out so far is White Tigress (Jan 2005) and hallellujah, people are loving it.

And guess what, lots of people are talking about “wow, where are all the Asian characters?  Ru Shan (my hero) was really sexy.”  In fact, I actually got interviewed by Audrey magazine (think Vogue for Asian Americans) on this very topic.

So the answer?  1) PUBLISHERS don’t think Asian characters will sell.  (Guess I’m proving them wrong—thank you Leisure Books)  And 2) “Asian” covers a lot of ground.  Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, even Hawaiian.  And if you think the above includes a unified culture, you’re wrong.

At least with African American (AA)romance, there is a huge network of AA readers who want to support their sisters.  Same with Latino romance.  But the Chinese, for example, often won’t buy Japanese and the reverse (lots of bad blood between the two countries).  Speaking of which, there’s a Japanese woman who writes for St. Martins and is doing mysteries set in feudal Japan.  What was her name?  I don’t know because my mother would beat me with her cane if she found out I was buying Japanese.  (I borrowed from a friend).  And yes, that’s made getting electronic components difficult.

Anyway, I’m just popping in to say…great blog, and I write Chinese romances.  Have to have a white hero or heroine (east meets west, my editor kept saying), but at least one of them gets to be Chinese.  And the setting is VERY Chinese.

Jade

BTW, if one of you would like to review White Tigress, let me know.  I’ll send you a copy and then wait with breath held for the answer.  Can you identify with a Chinese hero?

Jade

I think the Japanese author you are talking about may be Laura Joh Rowland. She has written a whole series of mystery novels around her central character called Sano Ichiro, and they are set in 1600s Japan.

That’s the one!  Laura Rowland.  Thank you!

jade

Jade, I’m Interlibrary loaning White Tigress right now. Can’t wait to get my little mitts on it!

uh oh. Jade, you don’t mind if I get it from the ‘brary, do you? I promise I will spread the word to my non-library-using (gasp! gasp gasp!) romance buff friends.

Gennita Low has some great characters.  Doesn’t Mia Zachary, a Blaze author, write black characters in her books?  I’ve enjoyed her books and characters. 

Jade Lee…your book looks quite interesting.

I’ve read one of LA Banks’ stories in an anthology and didn’t really like it, so I didn’t pick up her series. 

Hmm…interesting post.  Makes me want to expand my reading tastes even more.

Of course I don’t mind if you get it from the library.  Please do!  That way the library will buy more of my books too!

Jade

I am always curious as to why so many people think they cannot or should not read a book because they are not the main character or author’s background. People should take look at that as a great way to learn about something new via a familiar medium, romance. Black women (as well as other ethnic groups) have been reading romance novels for years, despite the fact that the majority of the romance novel writers and characters are white. If non-white women can find something to identify with in romance novels with white characters, surely it works both ways. There is more ways to identity with a character than what they look like.  I am a biracial woman and have been reading romance since I was 12.  I have found that love, sex, friendship, etc is a pretty universal.

Oh goodie. I’ll have to put in a request that we buy it for our collection, as well. Oh, the power the Librarian has!

I was waving my hand in the air about to shout out Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinton, but someone beat me to it. I love Butler (my biracial cousin wrote her senior thesis on one of her books, which I recommended to her). I would love to read more multicultural books, I liked a couple of Bebe Moore Campbell’s books, and disliked one intensely. I know Barbara Gale has had a few category romances featuring a black hero, and Alison Kent has had non-white characters. I like the ‘romance is a fantasy’ theory Beth (?) cited above. Since I read primarily historical romance, finding non-white characters is a challenge. In genre, Walter Mosley is awesome, I cannot think of another mystery author…maybe Chester Hinds, although I didn’t care for his writing all that much. George Pelecanos, although Greek-American, writes black characters who take equal time in the action as the white characters do. I’m psyched to get some recommendations from others, too.

Let me second Octavia Butler.  She’s one of the few authors I reread.  Wild Seed (fantasy) is amazing and her Xenogenesis trilogy (sf) is also very good, especially the second one. 

Meljean, I’d love to see you blog about Butler.

What I find depressing is no one has ever asked me how I could write from the point of view of a murderer (hero of the ebook) but at least three people have questioned why I think I could identify with a Black woman. (The heroine of my second book is mixed race.)

I couldn’t tell if the three times I’ve been asked were actually guff or honest questions. Or both.

whoops, nothing to do with the question you were asking.

Wow, 25+ comments!  My theory on why white folks don’t read black romance basically goes along with the fantasy thing.  Not may whites can/want to fantasize with being a black women or having hot sex with a black guy (now that’s a loaded topic), while historical, native Americans and even cold dead vampires are fairly safe.

How I would like to see black romance treated like any other romance.  Instead of looking solely at the race of the characters, look at the story and plot, look at the author style and reputation. 

If you like vampires, check out LA Banks.  If you like paranormal and a few demons, scary moments and magic turn you on, try out my book (and my next) for chrissakes.  For romantic comedy try Reon Delaudat—romantic suspense Lynn Emery—at least give us the 15 page test!

Freaking white review sites and readers try a black book or two.  Be fair and unbiased, and at least keep reviewing them until you find something you like! 

There is an unfair perception that black romance is substandard and I think that contributes to the problem a great deal. 
This sort of goes along with some Americans conviction that black stuff across-the-board is substandard, period. 

When I browse white readers blogs or sites, it’s as if the large amounts of black romances released every month simply don’t exist.

They’re mysteries, not romance—though there is a touch of romance in them—but Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January books are amazing. She can do atmosphere like no one else (1800s New Orleans is a whole character in her books). Plus January is a hero to die for.

Barbara Hambly’s period mysteries are fantastic, as is Octavia Butler, Walter Mosley (mystery), Tananarive Due (horror). 

This brings me to another observation—do you notice how some black authors, even though few, have risen in other genres, but it’s NOT the case in romance?  I think it’s the fantasy/identification thing again.  People can enjoy Jame Patterson’s black detective, but that smae detective in a steamy love scene bonin’ some heroine that you identify with as yourself—oooh, that’s a whole new variety of worm bait.

Isn’t Tess Gerritsen, thriller and former romance author, of Asian descent?

Not true about the black authors.  Brenda Jackson has hit the NYT list.  As has Sandra Hill and ...darn, can’t think of the name.  But there are a few NYT AA authors.

Jade

I’m going to thread another worm on the hook and ask about Asians in genre. 

Feel free to cuss me out, put me in my place, etc., if you feel I deserve it.

From what I see, Asians aren’t perceived as being as substandard as blacks, especially at places such as AAR.  Asian authors speak up without fear!

Asian authors write white characters more comfortably, review sites never scramble to find Asian reviewers for Asian authored books—and there are less special expections of the romance simply because it was written by an Asian person.  In short, Asians act and are treated more like whites.

I think racism exists for Asians, of course, but nothing like the denigration blacks suffer in the romance genre. 

Okay (squinting) c’mon and get me, I’m ready.

Brenda RECENTLY did, the extended list.  She does have a huge following among black romance readers (I liken her to Lori Foster).

I’m not sure about Sandra Kitt ever hitting a list.

Kayla hit some major list when they put her in that anthology with those white authors. 

But there’s no across the board accepted and respected top NYT bestselling Rita award winning black author in romance the equivalent of Walter Mosley, Octavia Butler, etc.

Another way to look at this issue: Why have some of Hollywood’s great romantic comedies of recent years, which starred African-Americans, not drawn large Anglo audiences?  Answer: I think the tension and polarization inherent to race relations in the US have been internalized by the populace, usually quite subconsciously.  So Anglo readers who see African-American characters on a movie poster or the cover of a romance novel simply pass over the movie/book without conscious thought, while subconsciously, the message flickering through their heads is: “Oh, African-American characters—that must be targeted at African-Americans, it’s not be meant for me, I’m not the target audience.”  Fear of not being able to relate—fear of not being welcome—fear of a false “other”—people subconsciously step back from crossing a line that historically was constructed through racist discourse, but which now exists, subtly inscribed into the unconscious, even in the minds of those who would be horrified and offended at the idea that their actions might reflect a heritage of racist ideology.

I would bet cold, hard cash that if an excellent romance novel featuring an African-American couple were published and prominently displayed *without the characters being depicted on the cover*—meaning, the casual reader who picked it up could not tell from the cover that the main characters were African-American—then it would sell far better.

This is depressing, obviously.  But I do think an experiment would prove my hypothesis correct—and perhaps illuminate the specific ways in which race relations and racial tensions in the States are actualized in the unconscious decisions we make every day as consumers of popular culture.

oops, the last line in the penultimate paragraph should read:

“then it would sell far better than an equally excellent book featuring African-American characters that WERE depicted on the cover.”

In retrospect, I wonder if this point is too obvious?  Dunno…

I know that I and other black romance authors have BEGGED for covers without prominent black characters (flowers, silhouettes, anything!) and have been refused.  I don’t know the reasoning.  It’s as if there’s a rule—black line, black romance=prominent blacks on the covers.

I KNOW it cuts into my bottom line of sales.  I’m wondering how Natalie Dunbar’s October Bombshell did?  She’s black and write black characters, but they didn’t picture blacks on the covers (a small silhouette instead). 

I wonder if whites who bought and read that book felt upset or cheated when they discovered the characters were black?

I want to clarify something here - my initial and wrong impressions regarding hesitation to read black romance did not come out of a perception that black romance is substandard.

It’s the opposite. I had such a hard time feeling like I wasn’t the biggest underprepared fool to walk the earth when attempting to engage in black feminist literary criticism within the context of literary works that the experience left me wary of trying to read more. So if anything - I equated black romance with what my feminist lit prof called black literature.

It’s not substandard - it’s too good for little old me to get! Ha. I am so wrong sometimes. To quote Candy, hello petard!

If you’re coming from an academic standpoint, I’m feeling you Sarah.  I think I’m as bright as (almost) anyone else, but Toni Morrison’s later books give me a freakin’ headache. 

Ponderous, depressing and deep reads bore the bejesus outta me—and unfortunately IMO young folks get too heavy a dose of that as black lit in English class.

Too bad he didn’t have you read some Frank Yerby.

Lord, no Yerby. Morrison, Morrison, and more Morrison, and oh yeah, ponderous headache coming out of that.

Best black lit book I had to read came out of a “History of Homosexuality” class when I had to read Audre Lorde. Ooooh man. Loved me some Audre Lorde.

“How I would like to see black romance treated like any other romance. Instead of looking solely at the race of the characters, look at the story and plot, look at the author style and reputation.”

I agree, but there’s a thing, your comments [I’m just using you as an example] don’t allow that to happen. Your comments have a strong streak of humour yet there is a tendency to enforce the “us and them” mentality through comments. White folks this, white folks that.

That makes me aware of the “us and them” mentality, which *does* push me a bit away from trying black romances because 1) by pointing out that black romances suffer, your comments giving me an impression that black romances ARE about race issues, and 2) I’m feeling forced into the ‘PC reader’ mould, this sense of obligation that I HAVE to read black romances because it’s a Right Thing to Do. I mean—

I have browsed through Amazon.co.uk pages of black romances, wondering which to read on the basis of back blurbs, etc. I bought only three. All because of these thoughts when I browsed: “Am I being sickeningly PC if I tried one? Am I being patronising for trying one to show that I’m truly an open-minded reader?”

I don’t like those thoughts at all. Give me recommendations and I’ll try them. It’s as simple as that. I don’t want to buy romances - white, black, or whatever - out of obligation. What I want are reviews, good exposure and recommendations. I have read that Mrs. Giggles recommended, and I need more of that. 

Does this mean black romance authors aren’t doing enough promotion? Reviewers are not doing enough reviews? I have no f. idea. I just know that we have to start somewhere. Starting with giving me a list of *book* recommendations, rather than authors’ names.

I love Anne Stuart, but her recent books are wallbangers, which shows that, for me, good stories come first. They are more important than authors’ personal lives, skin colours, nationalities, religious beliefs, and blah blah.

Sorry about the length of this response. And any typos with it.

“I know that I and other black romance authors have BEGGED for covers without prominent black characters (flowers, silhouettes, anything!) and have been refused.”

That’s terrible. Is there an official explanation why their requests were rejected?

Maili,

Blac romance AREN’T about racial issues.  Racial issues aren’t romantic at all.

But black romance IS a racial issue.  Discussing a racial issues is unpopular and abrasive by definition.  Humor does help.  Chris Rocks gets away with it pretty good.  :-D

The fact is that black romance is segregated.  It’s been in existence for over ten years and STILL is segregated and unread.  Nobody can say they haven’t been exposed.  Shoot, Mrs. Giggles has been reviewing black romance fair and roughshod for years. 

So YES, the only way white folks are going to try out black romance, the only way the white reviewers are going to review black romance is Because. It’s. The. Right. Thing. To. Do. 

It’s sorta like the colored forcing themselves to the front of the bus.  Once you get used to us there, we’re not so bad after all. 

Kayla has wonderful presentation and promotional style, is popular with authors and readers and doesn’t press the racial issues at all. Shirley got herself elected to RWA Prez. and also is lighthanded with racial issues (unlike myself ;-).

Black romance is still not read by the bulk of white romance readers.  I didn’t see a review on AAR on Kayla or Shirley’s latest and nope, The Romance Reader didn’t review ‘em either. 

I’ve heard no buzz at all about either. 

So that approach is having limited effectiveness.

MLK’s worked better.  Do the right thing, y’all.

Yes, you may hate my book or another first one you try.  So try another.  Give it a chance.

I think most people truly want to.

I’m typing really fast, rushing to get back to my manuscript.  Forgive the typos.

Okay, here I am again, like 40ish comments later…

I just wanted to clarify that when I think of Romance, I almost exclusively think of historicals. I don’t read contemporaries and I don’t really want to. Except - and, man, I don’t KNOW why - I think I’d really LIKE to read a contemporary AA Romance. No, seriously. I dunno why. I will now question myself until my brain explodes, I’m sure.

Maybe because I think it’d different and not the same ho-hum? Like getting sick of Regency England and turning to French Enlightenment or something. Huh.

I also wanted to say that I don’t know about ALL white women readers, Monica, but I for one really am digging on the fantasy of an African-American studmuffin. That’s not what’s standing in the way of my fantasy-enjoyment. In fact, [delete way too personal info] um - let’s just say it might enhance the fantasy element. I think I don’t consider black culture in America as an “escape” and that’s what stands in the way of the fantasy for me. And so I think - well, say there’s a Romance about a white woman living in a trailer park in Terre Haute, IN, and working part-time at the Wal-Mart (my personal vision of Hell) who meets Mr. Wonderful. Would I give THAT a fair chance? And I would, because I realize: I’d get into fantasy-mode and be like “Oh, big deal, rough life - nice set-up, now get to the nookie.” But I’d probly feel some massive white guilt if I let myself think that way while reading an AA Romance.

And as long as I’ve blathered on this long, I just want to thank Candy and Sarah for bringing up this topic (and everyone else for not flinching too much in discussing it), because it’s just amazed me to find how many assinine pre-concieved notions I have, and how easily I’ve become what the world has made me, color-coding the world like this.

I will offer a probably unpopular opinion.  I think some white people don’t read black romances because they feel that many black people don’t really like white people, and that might come out in the writing.  Racial tensions are not nearly as tense between Asians and whites; they are fairly harmonious.  So the same worry would not be there with an Asian author.

I’ve been in places where the racial tension between blacks and whites was so thick you could cut it with a knife (Detroit) and places where, on the surface at least, it was fairly nominal (Charleston, Atlanta).  I’ve never noticed any kind of real tension between groups of whites and Asians anywhere in America.  Ever.

Part of the problem of even dialoging about the segregation of black romance is the fact that you can’t talk about race in America.  No one wants to be called a racist, and no one wants to feel guilty for crimes committed by people generations ago.  I think the sublimated anger and defensiveness about the guilt issue is a big factor.

My 2 cents,

C.

Black romance is still not read by the bulk of white romance readers.  I didn’t see a review on AAR on Kayla or Shirley’s latest and nope, The Romance Reader didn’t review ‘em either.

To be fair here, I haven’t seen the online sites do a lot of inspirational romance reviews either, and inspirational romance is one of the fastest growing markets in the genre.  I certainly wouldn’t accuse AAR or TRR of being anti-Christian, although I’ve noticed that online sites and blogs aren’t very friendly to Christianity generally.  People seem to feel very free to make grouping or stereotyping comments about Christians that they would hesitate to make about any other group.

C.

I have to admit that I really haven’t read much African-American fiction.  I’ve read some sci-fi and fantasy because they are shelved right with the other sci-fi no matter the color of the writer.  I’m a big fan of Mosley, Butler, and Banks.  But that isn’t true for romance (for the most part) so it’s something I’m going to have to work on.

I know you guys mentioned a few others, but I’ll also add Samuel Delaney, Steven Barnes, Virginia Hamilton, Brandon Massey, and John Ridley to the list of AA science fiction writers.  Those Who Walk in Darkness by John Ridley was an excellent post-superhero story.

Monica, I’m reading the anthology Dark Thirst right now.  I read your story first and loved it.

Actually, I pretty much agree with Claudette about racial tension.  But generally race is not a factor in a romance. I can’t imagine a “hate whitey” romance.

I don’t understand how inspirational romance can be likened to romance where the only difference in the content is the race of the characters—but the culture, socio-economic background and nationality is the same, along with similar storylines and plots. That’s the same as excluding romances with Irish or southern characters. 

Romance in Color, an online review site, came into being because of this romance exclusion, like Ebony and Jet magazine, and the Miss Black America pageant.  These things weren’t to exclude whites, like they did us, it’s because if black people wanted to see themselves presented in those venues, they had to create their own. 

Frankly, after I get to know someone, I find it hard to tell the difference, white, black, Japanese, whatever, as long as we are both American, of similar age, social class and background.  I’ve found far more of a cultural variance between myself and a foreign person.

Interesting point, Claudette, though I’d argue that the situations aren’t really equivalent. For one thing, Christianity is a choice, race isn’t.

I think of Inspies as a whole separate category because there is a very particular goal in addition to the romance—inspiring the reader (I’ve read enough of them to see that as a constant).

And the argument seems to be that AA books SHOULDN’T be a whole separate category. 

I don’t see any more mockery or loathing of Christians than of any other group. After all the jokes always go “a priest, a shaman and a rabbi got into a bar..” Perhaps you’re more tuned into it?

About genre writers Other Than Anglo: the great Alexandre Dumas! Sorry, I know it’s an old example, but I’ve never read a more entertaining book than “The Count of Monte Cristo.”

Poop, poop, poop. Wrote a great long comment and then lost it because I mistyped the security word-thingy.

Romance to me is about the people, and I’m interested in all types so I don’t care what colour they are. I’d read more African American romance, but unfortunately we don’t see much on my side of the world.

Re Kate’s comments about people querying how she could write a mixed-race heroine when she isn’t - I blogged on something similar yesterday. Australia’s different from the US, though, and while there are some similarities between the experiences of minority cultures, there are also a lot of differences. I said that I couldn’t write an Aboriginal hero or heroine, and that’s because I don’t believe I could do the character justice. Aboriginal culture, family, kin, clan and land relationships are very complex, and made more complex by the aftermath of terrible injustices that have devasted social structures and communities. My experience as a white, middle-class majority culture woman is a world away from the experiences of most Aboriginal people. I know enough to know how little I know. So, while I’d love to read more Aboriginal heroes and heroines, for *me* to write one doesn’t feel right at this point. (Although Melissa James - who I gather has Koori connections - had a great Koori hero in ‘Her Galahad’ a couple of years ago. Highly recommended.)

I blathered on again. I’ll shut up now.

Actually, I pretty much agree with Claudette about racial tension.  But generally race is not a factor in a romance. I can’t imagine a “hate whitey” romance.

But content isn’t really the issue.  It’s preconceived notions about content.  Or, probably more likely, the negative vibe from racial tension (even if not very strong) is stronger than the urge to go to a different section of the store or try something new.  It really takes a lot to get some people to try something new.  And, unfortunately, it’s not like there isn’t enough new “white romance” to select from every month.  The market is already glutted, IMO.  I wish editors would concentrate more on what is actually good as opposed to what someone will buy.  But that’s another conversation.

C.

Excellent post and equally good comments. 

From my own observations, I think the way black romance is marketed on the shelves in some stores may actually hurt their sales.  On my weekly runs to Walmart for groceries, I stop off in the book section to browse.  One thing I noticed was that black romance was gathered all in to one section.  Granted, young teen romance seems to be displayed in the same way, but my impression of it was the marketing concept behind it was to have it appeal to a black reader audience and no one else.  I wonder, if inventory managers incorporated a different concept by mixing the romance together, would the sales rise?  Just a thought, and I’m no marketing guru.

Personally, I haven’t read any current black romance, but that really has more to do with my preference for reading historicals over contemporaries.  If anyone can recommend a good black historical romance, I’d love to read it. 

Jade:  I would LOVE to read your book!  I was recently complaining to a fellow romance fan that I haven’t seen a good historical romance where an Asian character is one of the two main protagonists in a VERY long time.  Are your books shelved at B&N?

White Raven—Yup, I’m at B&N.  You might have to ask for it because it was a January release, but I know the publisher still has copies available, so that means everyone else should too.  It’s White Tigress by Jade Lee ISBN: 0-8439-5393-4

Jade

Da-yum. A girl goes off to have dinner with some friends, comes home late and crashes in bed dog-tired and wakes up to 30+ new comments to read. Woo! So many different little things I want to respond to. Loins are girded, so here I go:

Monica: Not may whites can/want to fantasize with being a black women or having hot sex with a black guy (now that’s a loaded topic), while historical, native Americans and even cold dead vampires are fairly safe.

This is somewhat true. I don’t know how big a factor the “fantasizing about a black man” thing is when it comes to being barrier; probably it’s a deterrent in certain types of communities and *maybe* certain age-groups. Personally, most of the women my age whom I’ve met don’t base their dating decisions solely on skin color, but I’ve never lived in any kind of setting other than a large metropolitan area.

And you have a point about Native Americans, but if you’ve read some of the NA romances, the Indians are fetishized, idealized and sanitized to the point caricature. It’s why I don’t bother to read Native American romances unles they’re by authors I know and trust already; they’re otherwise just PAINFUL for me to read about.

Claudette: To be fair here, I haven’t seen the online sites do a lot of inspirational romance reviews either, and inspirational romance is one of the fastest growing markets in the genre.  I certainly wouldn’t accuse AAR or TRR of being anti-Christian, although I’ve noticed that online sites and blogs aren’t very friendly to Christianity generally.  People seem to feel very free to make grouping or stereotyping comments about Christians that they would hesitate to make about any other group.

I am still determined to give Inspirationals a chance. When I have time, once I’ve crawled out under the landslide of Emma Holly and AA romance and SF novels I’ve put on hold at the library. Part of my hesitation to read Inspies is based on a fear that they’ll stoop to using devices that would drive me bonkers, like make the villains gay or atheist, feature plots in which gay secondary characters are “converted” to heterosexuality, make pointed remarks about how feminism, the pro-choice movement and evolutionary theory have ruined the world, etc. This impression certainly wasn’t formed in a vacuum; high-profile conservative Christians and some Christians I’ve met in real life embody these beliefs, and I’m thinking that Inspies are generally written for (and mostly consumed by) these types of Christians.

But this is all pure speculation on my part, because I haven’t read a single one yet, and it’s pretty asinine of me to make all these assumptions and be afraid that I MIGHT find these elements in a novel.

Bron: I said that I couldn’t write an Aboriginal hero or heroine, and that’s because I don’t believe I could do the character justice. (...) My experience as a white, middle-class majority culture woman is a world away from the experiences of most Aboriginal people. I know enough to know how little I know. So, while I’d love to read more Aboriginal heroes and heroines, for *me* to write one doesn’t feel right at this point.

Excellent point, Bron, and your caution is certainly understandable. I ripped apart The China Bride by Mary Jo Putney because I felt she got all sorts of nitpicky details wrong, and because Troth (the Chinese heroine) didn’t feel RIGHT to me. I think it’s awesome that she made the effort; I just wish the book and the character had worked better for me.

But, Candy, you didn’t rip a stitch off Putney for “daring to write a Chinese character, ‘cause why’d she think she’d get it right” - you were just annoyed that she took the challenge and then stopped two feet short of reaching reality. It was more a lack of research and what seemed like easy fact checking than the idea that she wrote a Chinese character. And she was the heroine - major props to Putney there. At least she wasn’t a stereotypical sidekick- or worse, an enigmatic villainess!

Shoot.  My demon fightin’ team Unquita May Jones (black and definitely street) with the CHINESE CHARACTER, Oh Ah Sitt—Candy would rip her to bits?

Ah Sitt would so kick her ass.

Not sure if someone answered this yet (a ton of comments here!) but yes, Tess Gerritsen is Chinese.  In fact, her mother immigrated from China.

And a really good AA author (albeit in mystery) is Chassie West.  I wasn’t entirely in love with her most recent book (it’s still very good though!) - but the first three Leigh Ann Warren mysteries are really great.  Start with SUNRISE ;-)

You know what my problem is with this whole subject? I don’t have a problem reading about non-white people. I’ve done it. But I have to admit that ahem, certain books upon reading really seemed to be Not Meant For Whitey To Be Reading This. I especially remember getting this feeling reading How Stella Got Her Groove Back. So when I see something branded as “non-white-race here”, I do tend to think it’s “not meant for you to read, go away, we don’t want you.”

I don’t like this feeling, mind you, but it can be there with certain books.

Jennifer’s points seems to be a common thread—the whites perception that romances with black casts by blacks are “black only.”

I think a lot of questions and perceptions about black would be answered if you’d just flip it around.

Do white romances write romances with white readers in mind?

Should only white people read white romances?

I read a white romance where the characters acted the same as black people would act in the same situation!  Shocking.

White people should act like white people.  Otherwise it’s unrealistic and the writer did a poor job at characterization. 

When I read a white romance, I should be informed and enlightened about white culture since white people are so different, and I really want to learn how they do things.

See what I mean?

I wish I could edit.  Sigh.  That first sentence is “White romance authors,” not white romances.

Heh. Good points, Monica. I think it partly stems from the mindset that the minority culture is “exotic” and people are oftentimes disappointed to find that Chinese/black/Indian/Native American/Vietnamese/Japanese characters are urban professionals facing a lot of the same bullshit as anyone else, with only minor variations from the dominant culture. I know some of my friends are convinced I’m lying when I say I’ve only been living in American since December 1996, and that my personality really hasn’t changed all that much in that time. I watched the same TV programs (albeit 5-10 years behind) and read the same books in Malaysia, and my parents weren’t particularly traditional about many things other than religious observances, so I do have some good anecdotes about going to the temple and burning jossticks and holy paper to the God of Education to give me all As in my exams, but really, my upbringing was remarkable only in that I have a LOT more in common with the average American person my age than the ever expect me to.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Jennifer said, about how she sometimes felt kinda like “Whitey Need Not Apply” when she read a book. It resonated with me in a strong way, but I’ve never personally felt that way while reading fiction (or watching movies or listening to music). Then I realized where I’d picked up that feeling before: in academic criticism. Specifically, I remembered reading something by a black academic who strongly felt that all uses of the n-word should be struck from books, especially popular classics like Huckleberry Finn. I truly felt this person had the wrong end of the stick, and read arguments that articulated exactly why I felt removing those words was counterproductive and wrong, but the guy’s main rebuttals basically boiled down to “You aren’t black, you can’t know what we’ve gone through, so quit tying to question my reasoning, stooopid whitey.”

(Also, I think it’s odd that I’m willing to cuss up a storm and have no problems saying fuck, cock, shit, etc. and even words like fag or Chinky, but can’t bring myself to say the n-word. Heh.)

Huh, I guess that was apropos of nothing. Maybe I’ll figure out the point I was trying to make later.

Candy, that’s exactly my problem. I wasn’t ignorant of the fact that black fiction existed, but after being introduced to black authors within the context of academia, which definitely has clear lines of “us vs. them vs. them vs. them” for all different groups of people, even as festivals like Diversity Week and all manner of individual cultural explorations abound. Academia might be about learning but it is also about competition and publication of each individual’s research, so the proprietary nature of whose field of study belongs to whom can easily be based on racial divide.

So based on that experience, I can understand why I might not be the only one who got a “oh, not for me” feeling when encountering black romance.

I really want to respond to this conversation, but my ideas and thoughts on the subject are so unformed and vague that I can’t even attempt it.

I do want to ask Monica a question, though. In your drive to get more readers to pick up an AA romance, do you want them to read it, fully aware that it’s an AA romance or to read it as they would any other romance? In other words, some books have only an ephemeral description of hero/heroine as the author prefers to let the reader fill in the blanks. And some readers prefer this. Is your goal to get readers to enjoy an AA romance because it’s by an AA author or because it has AA hero/heroine or both? You mentioned changing the cover art (which I agree with BTW)and that leads me to think that you are driving for more recognition as an AA author, but then the comments took a turn towards ethnic characters and I wondered what your main goal was, or is it both? I’m sure I did a piss poor job of asking my question so I’ll apologize now!

I do want to ask Monica a question, though. In your drive to get more readers to pick up an AA romance, do you want them to read it, fully aware that it’s an AA romance or to read it as they would any other romance?

I can only really speak for myself.  I’d like people to read my books like they read any other books, because I write them with people, humans, characters in mind.  I’m not concentrating on race any more than white characters concentrate on race when they write. 

Is your goal to get readers to enjoy an AA romance because it’s by an AA author or because it has AA hero/heroine or both?

I think it was Maili that mentioned that she wants specific book recommendations.  She wants to hear which specific books are good or not.  That’s buzz.  I want my books (and by extension other AA books) to have the opp for that buzz, like white books get.  I want the opportunity to be read!  I’d like for the buzz for a good book to be possible IN SPITE of the race of the heroine.  Right now, it simply isn’t the case.

You mentioned changing the cover art (which I agree with BTW)and that leads me to think that you are driving for more recognition as an AA author, but then the comments took a turn towards ethnic characters and I wondered what your main goal was, or is it both?

The situation in romance pisses me off—probably in the same way some of the romantica and erotica writers were pissed when they were dissed en masse by a few other authors.  So it’s the sense of injustice and outrage, yes—that’s why I speak out. 

For the last ten or so years that black romance has been allowed to exist (only a handful of books existed before the mid nineties).  But it’s segregated, denigrated and doesn’t get the bulk of romance readers, whites.  And that’s where for me, eight books after 1997, it gets personal. 

How black romance is treated has certainly affected my personal success.  I wonder where I’d be if I were white and wrote the same stories with the same voice? 

In the long run it has soured me on the genre.  I’m speaking my piece about it now. . . I’ve sppoke it for years on my site—but no one noticed. 

I’ve come to the conclusion, along with more than a few other black romance authors—if I want to make a living writing, I’ll have to do so outside the disinclusive romance genre. 

We don’t have the opportunites that white romance authors do, because we don’t share the same readers,  Most white readers won’t read our books, and some blacks won’t either (they think black romance will be substandard too—it’s slave mentality in action). 

I’m sure the situation will change eventually—it’s not likely to do so soon.

Hey Monica, I just wanted to let you know that I read your comment and appreciate your response. I didn’t have any specific reason for asking, I was more curious than anything. And next time I’m in the bookstore, I’ll be picking up one of your books because of the passion which clearly shines through in your posts.

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