A Question

Let’s talk.

But first, let’s breathe.

It’s been a . . . week. A month. A life.

On the outside, it’s the exhaustion from having to relive and reexperience the desecration of black bodies in America. The United States has spent nearly her entire existence with a full face, only exposing herself to the rest of the globe once her blemishes have been safely tucked under concealer and highlight. However, more and more, the cameras have been infiltrating her bedroom before she has had a chance to get dolled up.

nj.com/opinion

As you guys are probably aware, I’m not big on social media activism. It is, however, a good avenue to facilitate solidarity as the first face of change. I prefer to have intimate conversations about gender, sexuality, and race. Our computer firewalls can be somewhat representative of people’s need to wall themselves off, stew in the filth of their own ignorance. Face to face, people are more inclined to challenge their convictions and perceptions. I also prefer to hold spaces in different communities, especially with children, because it’s a chance to help them love themselves in a world that won’t always love them back.

[image error]

However, there is an unknown variable I’m curious about—how do you feel reading books about interracial/mixed race couples in this increasingly aggressive social climate?

I stumbled into IR by writing The Game of Love without knowing it was a genre. I was simply watching a football game and, based on the social response to a character in one of the Hunger Games films, started wondering how the general populace would feel if a beloved sports player was dating a black woman. Like if Tom Brady and Giselle suddenly divorced, and he rolled up with a brown girl and had the nerve to look happy.

My next book will be the second installment of the Myths, Legends, and Monsters anthology series—Elias The Wicked. It’s 60% done, and our main male character is Latino. I plan to have stories centering on an African king, a female detective in a bwwm paranormal, and for Sommer’s brother to be the main character in the last Game of Love series novel.

In The Shadow, Mike’s Chinese.

So, tell me . . . can you still find escapism in multicultural literature?







[image error]