Whew! These past few weeks in the romance world – or #Romancelandia as we call it on Twitter – have been a doozy. Let’s recap.

With the Santino Hassell issue, the m/m community nearly caved in on itself.

After Cole McCade revealed Sarah Lyons’ comments about not putting black people on covers our community exploded with disbelief at the blatant racism.

The third issue is the fact that there hasn’t been a single Black winner of the RWA Rita awards in the entire existence of the organization. The RWA put out a statement on this, and it spawned lots of conversation on the difficulties authors of color face in publishing.

For this third issue, there hasn’t been much discussion in the m/m community. I’ll admit that I’m not on Facebook much – Twitter is more my jam. But when I logged on I expected to see a lot of discussion on the topic, just as I did with SH and Lyons. Instead, I’ve only seen a few posts from authors like Harper Miller, LaQuette, and Sharita Lira scattered about.

This concerns me. I wonder, does the m/m community think this issue doesn’t affect it, and that’s why there has been near silence on the topic? As we can see from the Sara Lyons emails it absolutely is a thing. Still not sure what that thing is? Let me state it plainly. Authors of Color (AOC) and especially authors of color writing characters of color are at a disadvantage in publishing.

1) We don’t win (often) awards.
2) We’re not heavily promoted. (A prime example is the way black people went bat shit over Black Panther. We don’t often get the chance to be the next Big Thing like Twilight, Fifty Shades and Game of Thrones)
3) We’re not squeeed over by readers and review blogs as much as white authors/characters.
4) Big Five publishers (and smaller pubs as well) don’t often publish us. The Ripped Bodice’s Diversity Report has the numbers on that.
5) We suffer from There Can Only Be One mentality. With this, readers think I already read a black historical I don’t need to read another because it will be the same. Or, all the visibility goes to a few authors of color, elevating them to great popularity while the majority of the rest are ignored.
 
How does this happen? Well, statements like the ones below are reasons why our genre is struggling with diversity.

“I can’t relate to those characters.”
This comment has been said so often that I’m just going to parrot back the same response that’s always given. If you can relate to vampires, meerkat shifters, omega men with slick butts, or hell even a SWAT team full of gay D/s dudes *cough-cough*, you can relate to people with skin that’s different from yours. I assure you, we’re not aliens. And even aliens are accepted by readers in sci-fi romance.

“I don’t want to read about race problems.”
Not every book featuring people of color (POC) is about race. Some are. But please don’t make that assumption just because there’s brown skin on the cover. And even if racism is mentioned what’s the big deal? We read about other unpleasant topics like domestic violence and gay youth being kicked out of the home, and (hopefully) learn from them. Why can’t racial issues receive that same consideration?

“It should be about the quality of the book. Not the race of the author or characters.”
This comment is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Or actually a big fat dog whistle. Because what it’s really saying is that diverse authors can’t bring the quality and therefore shouldn’t be put up for awards, promoted, etc. Otherwise, why mention quality whenever we discuss including books by authors of color?

The majority of us in the m/m community are women. I’m not saying it’s a good thing or a bad thing or ignoring the many transgender men and women and nonbinary people – it’s just a thing. So that means most of us are already reading and writing outside of ourselves. If we can all put ourselves in the headspace to read about two men falling in love, I don’t see why white readers can’t read about people of color – and why non-black people of color can’t read about black characters and so on. Because I, and pretty much every other person of color, have been reading white characters since we first picked up books.

I wrote in a previous blog post about how I didn’t see a black character in a romance novel until I was in high school. Not once have I ever said – I just can’t read this because I can’t relate to this blonde heroine and her blue-eyed lover. We’re expected to read outside of ourselves. All we’re asking is for everyone else to return the favor. How can you return that favor? I’ve got some action items!

Don’t say, “I don’t see color. I just want the story.” I know on the surface this seems like an open-minded way of thinking. But not seeing color erases us. We want to be seen and have our differences acknowledged, accepted and embraced!

And not seeing color often means that we just aren’t seen. Which means you’re going to have to look for us. Don't believe me? Go to Amazon and check out the Top 100 for Gay romance. In that entire bunch, there's one book with a black character on it. You get the same result just typing in gay romance or m/m romance into the search bar. If we’re not sought out, it’s easy to end up with a homogenous book shelf – even when you are open to reading diversely. So take a tiny step. When you type into the search bar on Amazon, add a word to your search. Instead of typing gay contemporary romance try multicultural gay contemporary romance.

Do rec us to your friends and bloggers and ask for us in libraries and bookstores.

Don’t go into our stories expecting to be taught about culture. A Chinese American author writing about a Chinese American hero doesn’t necessarily want to tell the story of their culture. They just might want to write about a Chinese American guy who is at the library, has a meet cute with a quiet, yet well-built branch manager and falls in love. And that’s okay. Our romance novels don’t have to be culture guides. There’s uh… culture guides for that.

Do use context or even hit up Google if there are mentions of things you’re not familiar with. For example, I used to read the heck out of Highland romances. But I had no clue what haggis was and I had to look it up. The word Sassenach drove me crazy because before Google, I couldn’t figure out exactly what it meant. I knew who it referred to, but I thought there might be more meaning behind it since it was always used as an insult.

I’m sure many of you had to look up facts about garderobes for historicals or pick up on the basics of game play for hockey romances. If we can do that for predominantly white stories, we can extend the same courtesy to diverse romance. For example, in my upcoming release In His Corner (hell yeah I’m self-promoting) I write about Brandon’s curly, easily tangled 4B hair. When you get to that scene, just roll with it. Don’t toss it aside because it’s different from your experience.

Don’t assume that there just aren’t any authors of color out there writing m/m romance. Me, my brown face, and the brown faces of many authors I’ve connected with assure you that this isn’t true.

Do use sources like Queer in Color and Women of Color in Romance to find new books to try.

Do ask for recs. The next time you’re in the MM Book Rec group looking for a hurt/comfort romance, ask if there are any featuring characters of color. Or maybe even say Hey, I really like Susan Author. Are there any Authors of Color who have books with tropes and settings like hers? The first couple of times you might get crickets for your response. But as we expand our reading horizons we’ll start having more recs to share.

Don’t refuse to pick up a book because the character’s name is unfamiliar to you, like D’Marcus or Takashi (sorry, my Voltron is showing). A lot of us learned to pronounce Daenerys Targaryen. We can give Rhashan a chance too.

Do show a little variety in the covers/models you promote. For example, if you’re a blogger and you’ve got a sweet header with multiple covers and/or couples but all of them are white? It makes me hesitate to submit a book with multicultural characters to you. Putting up a hot dude with brown skin is like rolling out the welcome mat to authors like me. It lets us know that our books will be welcome and won’t be discounted out of hand or unfairly judged because of the color of the characters’ skin.

In addition to that, if you have one of those shout out days going on like Sexy Saturday or Hot Guy Wednesday, mix it up and put some brown folks in there. If week after week, each of your hot guys is white, that tells me that you don’t find men of color attractive, deserving of love, or worthy of being your hero’s muse. That might not actually be true, but all I can go by is what you demonstrate to me.

Need some help finding Hot Guys of Color? Poke Atom Yang and ask if you can join his Atom’s Asian Hotties Facebook group. Cuz good lord there are some beautiful men posted in there. Or, go to Pinterest and type in sexy black men. You’ll get a plethora of gorgeous results. (Just uh… maybe try not to refer to them as chocolate or other foods. It’s kind of gross.) 

Listen. I know this is hard. None of us wants to be the bad guy in our own story. And realizing that as either an author or a reader/reviewer/blogger you’ve had thoughts or actions or even inaction that have left authors and characters of color out in the cold can make you feel shitty – like you’re the bad guy. And no one likes that feeling. But we’ve got to suck it up and face what makes us uncomfortable.

For example, when I was younger, I was ignorant and held the belief that I wasn’t attracted to Asian men. Now that I’m older I know that was racist, and what I actually wasn’t attracted to was the media portrayal of Asian men: nerdy, sexless caricatures with over the top accents. Now that I’ve broadened my worldview, I’m looking at these guys and… *sweats* My old racist belief has definitely been kicked to the curb.

Hell, I’m a black woman and even I had thoughts that books by/about black people weren’t of good quality. Because that’s what I was taught – mostly indirectly by publishing. I had to unlearn that. It was mentally unpleasant to do, because I felt bad for the way I’d erroneously judged many authors.

Now this last step is expert level. I’m talking black belt in Being a Diversity Ally. If you’ve said hold my purse! and gone to bat to defend m/m romance from evil heterosexual bigots, or you’ve taken off your earrings and fought against literature snobs who dissed romance as a low brow genre, this final step is for you. Put some tape on your wrists, Vaseline on your face and (metaphorically) square up for us.

When you see someone spouting ignorance like black women don’t read/write romance, or all black romances are ghetto/poor quality, or whatever nonsense is being spewed – Say Something. Let them know their beliefs are baseless and ignorant. Authors of color fight for other causes all the time, do us a solid and help us with ours. We need the whole squad ready in order to embrace diversity in the m/m community.

TLDR: Buy, Promote, Read Books by Authors of Color Featuring Characters of Color. =)

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Christa

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Hello and Happy Sunday! I am in a super-duper good mood because my next book releases in just over two weeks. If you missed it earlier this week, allow me to present to you the cover and blurb for A Sniper’s Devotion.

Officer Hector Castillo, a sniper on Houston’s elite SWAT team, is content living alone as a perpetual bachelor. But when he opens up his small apartment to a friend in need, their close quarters awaken long suppressed desires Hector can’t help but acknowledge.

Miguel Delgado’s unfortunate detour down a road he never intended to travel ends in a big wake up call, but he vows to get himself back on track. Though he’s always looked up to Hector, Miguel isn’t a kid with hero-worship anymore, and his schoolyard protector has matured into a strong and caring man – who happens to look damn sexy in his SWAT uniform.

Though their physical attraction to each other is undeniable, Hector and Miguel try hard to resist and protect their friendship. Until one night changes everything…  

A Sniper’s Devotion is a loving and sexy, friends to lovers erotic romance. Hector and Miguel’s story is part of the Cuffs, Collars and Love series, but it is a stand-alone novel.
 
Ah, happiness. Hector and Miguel’s story was a joy to write. It made me sad at times, but I really do love the characters. It was also bittersweet, because A Sniper’s Devotion is the last in the Cuffs, Collars and Love series. I’m saying goodbye to my SWAT boys and moving on. Thank you so much to everyone who loved these guys and supported the series.

But I have more to share! The first chapter of A Sniper’s Devotion is now up for you to get your eyeballs on. You can scroll to the bottom of this post and read it here. It’s also available on the A Sniper’s Devotion page on my website, where there’s goodies like excerpts and my writing play list. You can also check out the first chapter on my Facebook Page.

And that’s not all! (I really missed my calling as an infomercial sales woman) If you’re interested in getting your hands on an e-copy of A Sniper’s Devotion, there are two ways to win. First, you can enter HERE on my website. The only thing you’ll need is your first name, email and book format preference. You can also enter on Library Thing. But it does require you to have an account with them.  Both contests begin today October 22nd and end October 29th. Don't forget! Scroll to the bottom to read Chapter 1.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Christa

Visit my website: www.ChristaTomlinson.com
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Chapter 1

Hector sighed with exhaustion as he drove up to his apartment building. The long, solitary drive back from his friend's wedding in the Texas Hill Country had tired him out, and the late hour had him ready for bed. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be going to sleep anytime soon. Drama waited for him inside his apartment. He sighed again. It was a sad day when a man dreaded going into his own home. Hector sucked it up and turned off the ignition. He was here now, so he might as well get in there and find out what the hell was going on.

When he walked inside, he immediately noticed the young man sitting on his couch. Though uninvited, he was a friend from long ago, so Hector gave him a relaxed greeting. "Hey, Miguel. How are you?"

The dark-haired young man shrugged, a lopsided smile on his handsome face. "Been better."

Hector tossed his keys down on the end table. Miguel's mouth was puffy and split, a purplish bruise blooming on his cheek. The sight of the injury put Hector on immediate alert, ready to find out who’d hurt his friend. Before he could ask him about it, the door to his bedroom opened and Hector's mother came out. He didn't bother asking why she was in there with the door closed. From Miguel's face, he knew something had gone down.

It’s time for one of my favorite parts of the publishing process: Cover Reveal! The cover for A Sniper’s Devotion officially debuted yesterday on the Two Chicks Obsessed with Books & Eye Candy Blog. But today I’m sharing it for the first time on my own blog.

Available November 7th
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Officer Hector Castillo, a sniper on Houston’s elite SWAT team, is content living alone as a perpetual bachelor. But when he opens up his small apartment to a friend in need, their close quarters awaken long suppressed desires Hector can’t help but acknowledge.
Miguel Delgado’s unfortunate detour down a road he never intended to travel ends in a big wake up call, but he vows to get himself back on track. Though he’s always looked up to Hector, Miguel isn’t a kid with hero-worship anymore, and his schoolyard protector has matured into a strong and caring man – who happens to look damn sexy in his SWAT uniform.
Though their physical attraction to each other is undeniable, Hector and Miguel try hard to resist and protect their friendship. Until one night changes everything…  

A Sniper’s Devotion is a loving and sexy, friends to lovers erotic romance. Hector and Miguel’s story is part of the Cuffs, Collars and Love series, but it is a stand-alone novel.

Isn’t he gorgeous? This is of course Hector Castillo, the cocky sniper from my SWAT team in the Cuffs, Collars & Love world. When it came time to choose a cover model, I narrowed it down to three guys. Then I was stuck! So, I took to all of my social media accounts and put up a poll to help me choose our Hector. By the end of the day, Mr. Smoochy – that’s what we nicknamed him – had run away with it.

And I have to say, now that he’s on the cover, I think he’s perfect. I’m happy. But I’m also sad. This is the last book in the CC&L series! No more SWAT for the foreseeable future. I’m getting all teary-eyed and nostalgic when I think back to that first email I sent to Melody Simmons with the details for a cover for The Sergeant. I love what she came up with. Simple, dark and sexy.

I originally didn’t have any plans to write a book for Hector, and when I first created the character, I thought he was straight. But as the series went on, he jumped off the page, becoming more and more developed in my mind every time he was in a scene. I loved the back and forth banter he had with Clay and his connection with Ryan. This scene from The Detective's Pleasure is the very moment where I accepted the fact that Hector needed his own book and a boyfriend.

You see in my head, Hector had a bit of a secret crush on Ryan. It wouldn’t go anywhere of course, Hector respects Ryan’s relationship with the detective. And Ryan wasn’t the man that would get Hector to acknowledge his attraction to men. Miguel on the other hand… Miguel Delgado is my cutie-patootie. I just love him and want to give him cuddles. Hector thinks he’s adorable too. And that’s why he can’t resist him.

Ah! I’m so excited for you to read this book. A Sniper’s Devotion is a little softer and sweeter than both Logan and Clay’s and Ryan and Sam’s stories. But as I’ve already learned, each couple has their own story to tell and I can’t force them to fit into a mold.

A Sniper’s Devotion releases November 7th and is now available for pre-order. Between now and then, I’ll have lots of giveaways and readings and book release related giddiness, so be sure to check my site often and follow me on all my various social media.

Oh, what’s that? You want a giveaway for this post? Fiiiine. ;-) Comment below with one thing you like about the CC&L series. One lucky and randomly drawn winner will receive a bit of A Sniper’s Devotion cover art swag. Sadly, I can’t show it to you because it’s not here yet. But trust me, it’s cool.  

Okay, I’m leaving you now with an excerpt, a Goodreads link so you can add Hector & Miguel to your TBR and pre-order links. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

EXCERPT FROM A SNIPER'S DEVOTION
Miguel looked up again as Hector came back out of his bedroom wearing a pair of gray sweats and nothing else. He pressed a little harder with the iron than he needed to when he saw that bare torso. It just wasn't fair how much he loved Hector's chest. Miguel wanted to lie across that broad expanse while Hector played in his hair like he had their one night of shared intimacy.

He could just imagine it. They'd both be sated from sex, Hector's golden skin gleaming with sweat from his exertions. And Hector would be gentle and teasing as Miguel came down from his orgasmic high.

His fantasy was on the verge of spiraling out of control when Hector sat on the couch, legs slightly spread. Miguel almost burned himself with the iron. He was ninety-nine point nine percent sure Hector wasn't wearing any underwear. Or if he was, they had to be a very loose pair of boxers. Because Miguel could see…everything. The round outline of his balls and the length of his shaft that Miguel knew would be even longer if he were aroused were plainly visible.

The sight was as enticing as the devil holding a bucketful of the sweetest candy. As a dental assistant, Miguel knew candy was bad for him. Just like staring at Hector's dick was bad for him. Miguel felt like he'd dodged a bullet as he determinedly looked down at the scrubs he was ironing. After seeing Hector lounging in sweats sans underwear, he was more thankful than ever that he'd made the decision to leave his best friend's bed.

(You bet your ass I wrote a forced to share a bed trope scene)

Love,
Christa

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As you may have seen, I currently have a .99 sale going on for my 2014 novel Bad Boys Need Love Too. Thanks to the sale, I’ve been thinking a lot about the story. I went back and browsed through some of the Amazon reviews for Gage and Joseph, and I burst into tears when I saw this:

***Thank you Christa for incorporating wonderful, three dimensional characters of *people-of-color*, into this exceptionally well written series. I have enjoyed all three books. Joseph, Max and Kevin were characters that made this *sista* proud, happy and thankful to spend time with. These interracial romances were handled magnificently and lacked NOTHING.***

You may have read my previous post, where I talked about the hurt and annoyance that the romance genre is so slow to get out of the homogenous state it has long been in. And also how I was worried about putting out a series with multicultural characters. So seeing that comment made me feel really good inside. I’m so pleased that I made another woman of color reader happy with my multicultural cast.

Another review I saw made me laugh with happiness. There is A LOT of sex in Bad Boys Need Love Too. And one reader really understood why. There were lots of readers/reviews who understood as well, this one just made me chuckle:
There is A LOT of sex in this book - graphic, HOT sex - but it didn't seem too much because, Hello - one of them is a Sex Addict!

The reviewer is right. Gage is a sex addict. It’s how he handles his issues – anger in particular. Gage and Joseph have sex for lots of reasons throughout Bad Boys Need Love Too, and it’s not always just about feeling good. That is their arc. We’re having sex, but why? What are we trying to say to each other while we’re tangled up in these sheets/rolling around on the floor? How do we get from banging our brains out to having an emotionally mature relationship?

It’s a rough ride for them (puns intended) as they figure it out. And every time I see a reviewer who understands that it makes me smile. I feel as though I’m looking at them through the screen like, you get me!

When a reviewer feels where I'm coming from.

So I had a lovely little trip down memory lane for Gage and Joseph. If you haven’t read their story you should totally check it out. If you have read it, comment with a picture of the cover on your e-reader and I’ll send you a Bad Boys Need Love Too cover art key chain. 

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Christa
Visit my website: www.ChristaTomlinson.com
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Bad Boys Need Love Too on sale for .99 at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Apple
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yajq9x3s
Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/y9yws66d
Amazon CA: http://tinyurl.com/y8kaaz3q
B&N: http://tinyurl.com/yafemrfo
Kobo: http://tinyurl.com/y7v4rkoe
Apple: http://tinyurl.com/y7y8oa3a
Amazon French Translation: http://tinyurl.com/y8cvk4kw
 
Don’t miss Bad Boys Need Love Too: Nate and Bad Boys Need Love Too: Max, novellas in the complete Bad Boys Need Love Too series. Visit their pages for blurbs and excerpts.

“You’re black. Why do you write about white people?” I’ve been asked this question in one form or another by several people, both white and black. I can answer that question in photographic form.

Let me break down my photographic evidence. When you go into Barnes and Noble and head to the romance section, the vast majority of the books feature Caucasian characters. But wait, who’s that down there in the bottom of the last picture?

Oh hi, Ms. Beverly Jenkins! I’m so glad she’s there. And a few spaces over is Brenda Jackson. Both wonderful authors who are responsible for giving me hope for myself and my characters. But yikes, out of all those rows of books only two authors of color featuring main characters of color. Apparently, that’s B&N’s quota. That pretty much answers the “why do you write about white people?” question. But keep reading, because change is a comin’.

Romance has always been my favorite genre. I’d go to the library, thrift shops, and later when I had my own money, to the bookstore, always looking for new romance titles to read. And those titles nearly always featured Caucasian characters. As an adolescent reading romance, I just assumed those were the only characters that were published.

I remember the first time I came across a romance with a black hero and heroine. I was in high school, and it was one of those contemporary Harlequin type books, maybe Kimani or Arabesque. I immediately checked it out and was excited to read. But boy was I disappointed when I got to the end. The main characters both ended up scarred and paralyzed because of a horrible car accident.

I didn’t get it. All the romances I’d read up to that point ended with the scrappy village girl married to the duke and she gave him adorable babies and became a well-loved chatelaine of the manor or whatever. Not once did any of them have something so harsh happen to them. At that young age, I thought the book was saying that black heroines didn’t get the perfect happy ending. It hurt, and it turned me off from reading any more from that line for a long time.

That’s not to say there weren’t any books by black authors and featuring black characters. There are. But in book stores, books featuring African American characters are usually African American lit, which isn’t romance. And even if they aren’t AA lit, they are all lumped together in the African American section by themselves away from romance.

That’s not what I wanted. I wanted to read romance. When I started writing, I wanted to write romance. And I wanted my books to be grouped with all the rest of the romance novels. So when I wrote my first little novella, I wrote white characters. Based off what I’d seen of publishing so far, I assumed that’s what I had to do in order to be published where I wanted to be published.

When I wrote my second book, I was still in that mind-set even though I was self-publishing. Why? Swing by Amazon’s best seller page for romance and check it out. Or I can just tell you. The majority of the books feature white cover models. You have to specifically type in African American romance in order to get black characters. Am I wrong for just wanting to be in the freaking general romance category?

I got away from that mind-set a little bit when I wrote the Bad Boys series. Each of those books features a POC hero. Joseph is Persian, Kevin is biracial (with black and white parents) and Max is black. Each of those books features the “bad boy” of the pairing on the cover. Of the three bad boys, Max is the only one of color. And let me tell you, there was some fear that Max wouldn’t sell as well because there was a black man on the front of the book.

Why did I have that fear? Well, let’s just say I have seen on more than one occasion, a reader saying something along the lines of “I can’t relate to a black character.” Also, whether consciously or not, readers sometimes pass over books that feature a non-white character on the cover. And again, I’ll refer you back to the Barnes & Noble shelves and Amazon Best Seller pages.

Thankfully, my fear was unfounded. Readers loved Max. And he made it to the Best Seller page for his category on his release day. Yay! That proved to me that many readers are happy to read a story that interests them, regardless of the race of the character. Double yay!

Now that I’ve been doing this for a couple of years, I’ve gotten over those fears. And to be honest I don’t care anymore. I’m not going to erase my own ethnicity and ignore others because people might not buy my books. If someone chooses not to read a story because of the race of the character, that’s their issue. Not mine. And I know that regardless of what the Barnes and Noble shelves show, there IS a market for romance novels featuring every kind of race or ethnicity. But that was something that I had to learn and accept on my own.

Going forward, I have two Mexican American heroes, Hector and Miguel, in my next book. And the majority of the books that I have planned after that feature at least one main character who is a person of color. My characters will be black, Latino, white, Pacific Islander and more. And they’ll be chosen based on the story that needs to be told, not on an out of date system set up by the Big Five Publishers.

Publishing needs to change. It’s starting now, with authors and readers alike pushing for more diversity. And in m/m there are some great books featuring POC characters that readers are happily devouring. It’s wonderful that it’s begun, but the change won’t happen overnight. We all – and yes, I include myself in this – need to realize why it’s important to have a multitude of races and ethnicities in our books. Think of pre-teen me, a scrawny little dark-skin girl loving to read romance, but assuming that she could never be the girl who got the HEA because she never saw herself represented.

So maybe next time you’re scrolling through Amazon looking for a new read, type multicultural romance or African American romance into the search bar and try out whatever catches your eye. Your sale just might be the one that helps an author get her multicultural book pushed into a slot where more readers can see it.

Need help finding multicultural romance? Try these great resources!
Women of Color In Romance
Romance Novels in Color
Multicultural M/M Romance List

Want to read more on this topic? Check out this beautifully written post and excellent discussion thread from 2013: An Open Letter to Harlequin.
 
You can also read my post on Writing POC Characters without using stereotypes.
Thanks for reading!

Love,
Christa

Visit my website: www.ChristaTomlinson.com
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Today I want to talk about People of Color characters. Why? Because there was a big to-do this week about a YA book that appears to paint POC characters in an unflattering light. (I say appears because I haven’t read the book. But going by the blurb, I can understand why people aren’t loving the story’s premise.) I’m not going to talk about the specifics of that book or the arguments taking place around it. It’s not in the genre I write and there are already multiple posts and tweet threads on the topic. What I do want to talk about is writing POC characters in general. 

There are two issues here. Some writers don’t want / are afraid to write a POC character because they aren’t sure they will do it right. And then there are writers who write POC characters without considering that their portrayal might be offensive or hurtful to a member of that race or ethnicity. This post is to help with both of those issues. I don’t want anyone to avoid writing an amazing story featuring a gorgeous POC MC. I want to see those men!  

First and foremost, please don’t use stereotypes, especially those that are harmful. For example, if you’re writing Black or Hispanic MCs, think long and hard before you make him a prisoner or a gangster. If you’re writing a Black woman, she doesn’t have to be loud and sassy, or worse, angry. If you’re writing an Asian man, he doesn’t have to be a submissive bottom who is really good at math. Your readers don’t want to open your book and see the most negative thing about their cultural group when they just read ten other books that also mentioned that exact same negative thing. It hurts. It makes us tired. And it makes us decide not to give you any more of our book budget. Think outside those stereotypical boxes. How do you do this? WRITE POC CHARACTERS LIKE ANY OTHER CHARACTER. 

I read and enjoyed Morticia Knight’s Building Bonds. She mentions that he’s an attractive Black man who is a Dom. She doesn’t really get too much into any other details. And that’s a-ok. Seriously. Just think of it as describing what hair or eye color a non-POC character would have. He doesn’t need to have a dozen other identifiers to drive the point home that he’s Black or Southeast Asian or Hispanic.

When I’m writing a book and my characters are white I don’t think of stereotypes like he must like country music, watch NASCAR and eat green bean casserole. I think of what makes that character who he is. Do the same thing when writing someone who is Asian or Middle Eastern or Canadian First Nations. Now, if you do want to write a story that delves into the culture of a specific group DO YOUR RESEARCH. 

If you were writing a story where Greek gods found themselves living as pioneers on the old Western frontier, what would you do? You’d research the Greek pantheon of gods, look up what it was like to live in the old West, and then you’d write your story. Do the same thing when writing a story featuring minority characters. And just like you wouldn’t throw every fact you read about Greek gods and the old West in your story without determining why you’re using that fact, do the same thing when writing cultures besides your own. For example, yes it’s true, many Black women don’t like when people touch our hair. But unless there’s a reason for making that point that is integral to the story, leave it out. Don’t write POC characters who are cardboard cutout representatives. Cardboard characters are always boring. 

And oh god, the dialogue in stories featuring minorities, especially urban minorities. Two things come to mind here. There was a book that made a brew-ha-ha last year because the author had the characters speaking in some hilariously strange and overly complicated version of Ebonics. No. Just no. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to read an accent throughout an entire book.

If I were to read a Highland romance where everything the MC said was written in dialect I would toss that sucker in the trash. That’s too much for the brain to decipher without losing the flow of the story. Just give me a couple of lasses, drop the occasional ‘G’ at the end of a word and move on. If you’re writing an urban MC, mention that he has an accent. Maybe even toss in a slang word or two. That’s all that’s necessary to get the point across. 

You might also consider if your POC character even needs to use slang. If you’re writing an older Hispanic man who is a school teacher, he may not have slang words in his vocabulary. Again, think about what makes that character who he is, instead of going for that cookie cutter stereotype.  

But if you’re going to use slang, for the love of mocking reviews, please make sure you’re getting the spelling and usage correct. Last week, a journalist wrote coat-switching instead of code-switching* and I laughed so hard at the tweets about his goof that I had tears in my eyes. So ask. Start with Google. Hell, you can even try Urban Dictionary. Ask a friend. If they say no, they don’t want to help you, don’t get mad. Maybe they don’t know a lot of slang (I admit that I don’t) or they just don’t want to be “the ethnic girl that always has to explain ethnic culture to everyone” and that’s okay. Ask someone else. Post in the MM Romance Writers Group for help. I’m sure someone there will be able to answer your questions, or point you to someone who can. You can even reach out to me for African American culture information if you’d like. 

And then when you’ve got that beautiful book with your beautiful POC MCs ready to go, pass it off to a beta reader or two who is a member of whatever group you wrote about. Ask them for honest feedback and LISTEN to that feedback. If they tell you a plot point or description made them uncomfortable, really consider if it’s something you might want to delete or rewrite. Don’t just perch on that “it’s my story and I have to tell the story within me” high horse. Is it worth alienating a group of readers for writing a Black man who has kids he doesn’t support? If you want to die on that stereotype hill and get dragged on Twitter, go ahead. But if you want to write a story featuring characters that multiple groups can love and make their book boyfriends, take that feedback into consideration. 

The goal of this post isn’t to make anyone feel bad for anything they may have already written or deter a writer from creating a POC character. Far from it. Some people may think non-POC can’t write POC characters, but I’m not one of them. I think we need to have more minority characters. And yes, I do believe they can be written by authors who aren’t minorities. Because let’s be honest, the majority of m/m romance authors are women. So that means we had to do research to write about gay men and make sure we’re presenting their stories with compassionate consideration, yeah? That’s all us ethnic/POC/minority readers are asking for, a little bit of consideration.

If you're looking for m/m stories with POC characters, check out my
Bad Boys Need Love Too Series!

*My own non-dictionary approved definition of code-switching: When a speaker switches back and forth between language dialects. In this instance, switching between what we think of as proper American English and African American Vernacular English.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Christa

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