But I’ll try to do better.
My last blog entry was in March of this year, almost a full half-year ago. I’m sure we’ve all had plenty to distract us, but realizing that was…distressing, nonetheless.
And in truth, it might be a while before I post another, because I’m dealing with a bit of a health crisis.
BUT!
It’s not all bad news. I’ve also been working on a project that I’m excited to be able to share with you!
I started working on Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happy Ever Afters about two and a half years ago. I had been thinking about the relevance of romance to Black readers and consumers, especially after reading Well Read Black Girl (a GREAT book!) and not seeing myself in those readers. When I finally conceptualized it as an anthology of thought by all kinds of romance folks, I reached out to an agent I knew. She thought it was a great idea and gave me resources for a nonfiction proposal, and I started reaching out to potential contributors. Not everyone I asked was available, but I landed a pretty amazing stable of readers and writers who had things to say about the appearance of Black love in their lives, whether from a romance novel perspective or elsewhere in media. We did some shopping around and finally landed with Berkley, who was excited to be able to publish a nonfiction book on a needed topic that was so closely related to their own publishing. And thus, Black Love Matters was truly born.
And the cover was revealed on my own beloved Book Riot, which was such an honor and joy. They also included an excerpt from one of the essays, giving a taste of what the book would look like. I’m excited. Is it February yet?
In the meantime, I have been able to do some reading, even if I’ve been terrible at keeping up with Goodreads. I’m currently reading Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee, and while there have apparently been differing opinions on this book about being a messy teenager, I’m looking forward to the rest of it! I’m also reading Seven Days In June by Tia Williams, which is heavy on the trauma and physical and emotional baggage, but so well done so far. (And I might have read the end just to make sure it was a romance, because it’s a hardcover and sometimes the publishers like to mess with your emotions.
The last book I absolutely adored was The Tenant by Katrina Jackson. When Noel, broke and having just lost his job in Atlanta, discovers that he’s inherited some family property in Louisiana, he immediately packs up his belongings into a U-Haul trailer and sets on the road. The house he discovers when he arrives isn’t in particularly good shape, but it’s okay to live in while he enacts his great-aunt’s dying wish of him restoring the home to it’s greater glory. But what he doesn’t realize is that the house already has a resident—one basically everyone already living in Alexandria knows about. Her name is Ruby, and she has “lived” there for a hundred years. The daughter of her Black grandfather’s former enslaver, she managed to get the house free and clear after some maneuvering to get the man who raped her mother to sign her birth certificate. But she went missing a few years later, never to be seen again—until Noel, that is.
And well…you know what happens next.
I adore ghost stories (for some reason) and I was thrilled to find the true ghost romance of my heart. Not one where the ghost wasn’t really a ghost or where the ghost disappears at the end (making it not really a romance at all). Placing all my faith in the writing of Katrina Jackson (who is actually one of the contributors to my book!), I knew that somehow I would get a happy ending, even if it was…unconventional. And just so you know—there are some serious sexytimes. Be prepared.
And if you’re interested in content notes, here are some:
financial distress; mention of bad roommates; discussion of enslavers and enslaved people; sex work; on page murder (flashback); mention of rape; sex on the page; gentrification; race-related violence; gun violence (not protagonist)
There might be more I don’t remember, but those are the big ones.
I also ran my library’s LGBTQ+ book club a few weeks ago. We read a nonfiction book, which I was excited for because while I love it, I don’t read much of it. This book wasn’t what I was expecting, but I really got a lot out of it.
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
This book has been on my radar since its release (if not before) but I finally picked it up for my library’s LGBTQ+ themed book club, which I usually facilitate. Thanks to the need to be able to talk about it from a place of authority, I paid much closer attention to all of the little bits than I might usually—and there were quite a few bits. Chen uses a combination of empirical and anecdotal data to really build out the concepts she wants to present in a nicely investigated presentation, and I took hella notes. She talks to people from all across the gender spectrum and who might have different romantic preferences, but all present some element of the ace spectrum that she wants to delve into. And I’ll ruin the hook for you: Ace liberation will benefit us all. Cool huh?
What else I’ve been up to:
- Last month I chatted with a new friend on her awesome podcast, Young, Gifted and Abroad, in which she interviews people of color who have traveled outside of the US
- I pulled together a list of bookstore romances for Book Riot
- I got a little excited in our last episode of When In Romance. Whoops.
- Y’all. I love vampires. This is how it started.
- Me last month:
And I decided at the very last minute that I was going to join in on #ReadWhatYouGot, a three-week challenge to read your own damn books (A challenge I participated in long ago) and the books you’ve borrowed. Books, audiobooks, kindle, whatever. I’ve got plenty to do and can’t always do it long-term. But I figured three weeks wasn’t going to be bad. Join in!
