Ute Carbone
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Coffee with Friends

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Inside the Writer's Garret

Mariana Gabrielle and her #NewRelease The Black Goddess

6/2/2015

12 Comments

 
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Marianna Gabrielle's new book, The Black Goddess, is an interesting mix of regency and multicultural romance. I'm pleased to welcome her to Coffee with Friends today as she blogs about why regency romance doesn't always have to be about upper class white  characters.
Be sure to leave a comment and enter the rafflecopter for a chance to win an e-copy of the book



We Need Diverse Romance

La Déesse Noire: The Black Goddess was such a great book to write, because I love the characters and the twisty plot, and I really love Regency England, but it was scary, too. The main character is an [East] Indian courtesan living in London. Her mentor is Indian, her best friend is a gay man, and all of them are treated much as one might expect in that time and place—badly—subject to racism and contempt and oppression from all sides, most especially from the dominant culture. 

But here’s the scary part: I am white.

The topic of diversity in romance is a raging discussion these days, and rightly (finally!) so. White people are not the only ones who ever have (or deserve) happy endings; we aren’t the only ones who fall in love; we aren’t the only ones deserving of shelf space. But if you look at the mainstream selections in the genre (most other genres, too), you would think you were looking at a polar bear eating vanilla ice cream with his straight, albino girlfriend in a snow storm. Further, when you look at historical romance titles in general, there are acres of dukes and virginal debutantes, and relatively few poor people, LGBT characters, sex workers, people with disabilities… In short, we read about rich, pretty, straight, law-abiding white people and occasionally, their white servants.

I’ve written characters from marginalized groups in all of my books—slaves and free blacks, immigrants, people with mental illness or no education, poor people and criminals. I make a point of writing at least one LGBT character into every book, though sometimes I am the only one who knows. (While these groups may not consider themselves marginalized now, I write historical fiction. You can bet your bottom dollar they were marginalized in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.)

Every time I write a character from the non-dominant culture, I have to research the situations people with these characteristics might have found themselves in, the laws lined up against them, the way they spoke and dressed, the mores of the subcultures they occupied. And every time, I shake in my shoes hoping I didn’t get anything wrong. Hoping I won’t offend. Hoping it won’t appear I am appropriating someone else’s history for the sake of my own storytelling.

And yet, I do it anyway.

Not because diversity is a hot topic or because I am trying to prove a point (though I have been accused of both), but because our world is diverse. It always has been. Without me, these particular characters would have no voice. I might not get everything right. I might unintentionally offend. I might tell a story someone with similar experiences could tell better.

But even though I have not shared my characters’ experiences, history, or encounters with oppression, those experiences can be shared through me.

It doesn’t have to be mine, but next time you are shopping for books, make a point to buy one that centers on a person of color or a character with a disability or one in love with a same-sex partner. Give a hand to an author who is trying to change the paradigm, and in so doing, change it a little bit yourself.

#WeNeedDiverseRomance

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Support the #WeNeedDiverseRomance movement by buying a t-shirt, only available for a limited time. http://buy.teespring.com/weneeddiverseromance-tee?

About the book
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Sired by a British peer, born of a paramour to Indian royalty, Kali Matai has been destined from birth to enthrall England’s most powerful noblemen—though she hadn’t counted on becoming their pawn. Finding herself under the control of ruthless men, who will not be moved by her legendary allure, she has no choice but to use her beauty toward their malicious and clandestine ends.
When those she holds most dear are placed in peril by backroom political dealings, she enlists some of the most formidable lords in England to thwart her enemies. But even with the help of the prominent gentlemen she has captivated, securing Kali’s freedom, her family, and the man she loves, will require her protectors stop at nothing to fulfill her desires.




Amazon: http://amzn.to/19cKUjY
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Fc31m3
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1K1vMGq
iTunes: http://apple.co/1E4ajHF
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1Bx1OCV
All Romance eBooks: http://bit.ly/1DeYx8O
Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1wmBxTE
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22885020




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Mariana Gabrielle is a pseudonym of Mari Christie, a professional writer, editor, and designer with almost twenty-five years’ experience. Published in dozens of nonfiction and poetry periodicals since 1989, she began writing mainstream historical fiction in 2009 and Regency romance in 2013. In all genres, she creates deeply scarred characters in uncommon circumstances who overcome self-imposed barriers to reach their full potential. She is a member of the Bluestocking Belles, the Writing Wenches, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Her first Regency romance, Royal Regard, was released in November 2014.
Find Mariana Here
Facebook Launch Party, June 10, noon - 8 pm EDT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1423746821261258/
Website and Blog: www.MarianaGabrielle.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariChristieAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mchristieauthor
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/marichristie/
Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/author/marianagabrielle
Goodreads Author page: https://www.goodreads.com


Enter for a chance to Win

a Rafflecopter giveaway
12 Comments
Mariana Gabrielle link
6/2/2015 05:55:54 pm

Thank you so much for hosting me! :-)

Reply
Ute Carbone
6/4/2015 01:46:20 am

Wonderful to have you here, Mariana. :)

Reply
Crystal Cox
6/2/2015 06:22:09 pm

I think the diversity of this book is one of the biggest reasons why I loved it so much! It was a fresh and new story unlike any historical romance I had read before. I mean don't get me wrong, I still like me some Dukes and gentlemen. But I also think it's very important to see the differences as well as the similarities that we all as human beings share :)

Reply
Mariana Gabrielle link
6/4/2015 05:20:44 am

Thanks, Crystal. I am so glad you understand what I was trying to do. :-)

Reply
Jennifer Senhaji link
6/2/2015 06:23:03 pm

Well said. Growing up in a melting pot, this is exactly what I want to read. Real people and their stories. Great post.

Reply
Mariana Gabrielle link
6/4/2015 05:19:34 am

Thanks! The world has always been diverse. That said, it has also always been hard to see what lies hidden behind the dominant culture. I am so glad that is changing.

Reply
Jude Knight link
6/3/2015 02:43:03 pm

I agree. As the sister, mother, aunt, and grandmother of people with disabilities, and having myself suffered chronic illness, I just don't believe in perfect little worlds with perfectly healthy people living their healthy upper-class white lives.

Reply
Mariana Gabrielle link
6/4/2015 05:18:08 am

Exactly.

Reply
Beverly Ross
6/4/2015 01:58:24 am

I think we do need diversity. I don't care about anything except if its a good story!

Reply
Mariana Gabrielle link
6/4/2015 05:17:33 am

I agree. I also encourage readers to seek out and consider buying books with diverse characters. There are some great writers in HistRom right now that get shunted to the side into the "Multicultural" category, and are never seen on the primary lists. Vanessa Riley, Piper Hughley, Alyssa Cole are are winning awards all over the place, but you might not have heard of them. And that is just African-American romance. Plenty of other communities are represented, but hard to find.

Reply
Gail Eastwood link
6/5/2015 05:01:55 am

Mariana, congratulations on publishing this book! I look forward to reading it. I agree with you about expanding the Regency Romance genre beyond the classic tropes and introducing more diversity. And I understand your anxiety! I wrote a Regency (An Unlikely Hero) where the heroine's sister has epilepsy, and worried about all those same issues. I am working on a series with a gay character in the recurring cast -not too far into it yet but I'm looking forward to all the challenges in doing that. Revealing himself to -anyone- in that time period was a such a huge risk. I had some Indian characters in one of mine (The Magnificent Marquess), but they are servants. Still, I tried hard to make each of them unique. Good luck to you and keep up the good work!

Mariana Gabrielle link
6/5/2015 02:38:41 pm

Thank you, Gail. I had far fewer nerves about the gay sidekick in this one than the Indian heroine... ;-) It is great to hear about other authors that are going out on limbs. Thanks for replying. Feels less alone now.




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