Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Confessions of a Romance Author: Loving in 2013

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AND THE WINNER IS....

Laurie!

Thank you everyone who commented!


It's been too long since I last confessed...

I'm going to be honest. It never really crossed my mind to write MC or IR romances. Let me rephrase, I never really thought of my books as IR/MC romance until it came time to market them. It has a lot to do with I grew up mainly in CA. For the most part it's one big ol' melting pot of folks of differences, backgrounds and lifestyles. I wrote what I saw. The things that shaped me, the things that shaped my family members. I took from the books I loved and read and tried to write the same kind of stories. That lasted until I found my own voice through humor.

So, for the most part, none of these things had anything to do with race. It was a non-issue unless we were smacked in the face with the differences. I'd always walk away from those situations knowing it was an injustice and the other person was pretty much clueless Jim Crow and such laws had happened eons ago.

Mind you, I was nineteen when I first started to write and I can attest it's a completely different generation. And then I spent two years of my life studying the law. I fell in love with employment law. Surprise, surprise majority of the cases revolved around discrimination in some form or fashion. Very little involved an employer just not following their own procedures.

So...why, when I'm keenly aware race and racism do I choose to make it a non-issue in my romances? My answer is simple: I write contemporary romances. My characters are of many shades of color. The prevailing problem is that they've made mistakes in their life that they need to recover from. Who hasn't? People of color don't love differently. Interracial couples don't love differently. Their family, friends, and mistakes they've made are what I'm interested in. I choose to write romance first and last. If someone makes a different chose I don't begrudge them. That in and of itself is the freedom we've fought for. To be who we want to be with. Do what we want to do. It's an honor and privilege to be able to write a romance where the hero is white and the heroine is black, or vice versa, and race is a non-issue.

Plus, I'd rather have my heroine too distracted with his humor and rock hard abs to dwell on much else. Folks, really, it's the little things that make me happy.

To find out more about me and the books I write you can check out this blog or my website and Facebook page:


Hey, wait! Don't click out yet. There's also a giveaway. I'm leaving the choice up to you. You can win my latest release, Bad Boy Next Door (Bad Boy Shorts series), or one of the books in my Modern Fairy Tale series, Double Dare or Twice Smitten. Leave a comment with your email addy to win.

Check out the next blog hop author KoboBrown for another chance to win.

Blurb for Bad Boy Next Door:

After a lifetime of dating too many Mr. Nice Guys, Penelope Copeland is ready to shed her good girl persona. She's looking for a little adventure, with a sprinkle of fun and whole lot of naughty. Unfortunately, most bad boys won’t give her the time of day. They only see her as a sweet kindergarten teacher. Now, all she has to do is convince Ryan Pollard, her self-proclaimed bad-boy neighbor, that she's not as sweet as she looks.

Ryan Pollard is not one to follow conventional rules. His job as a crime reporter doesn't leave him with much use for them. Yet, he's managed to keep his relationship with Penelope platonic with just a hint of flirtation—until tonight. She says she wants an adventure, a walk on the dark side, and he's more than eager to give her one.

When their adventure takes a turn from playful to serious, Ryan and Penelope must choose between pretending the night never happened or embarking on the greatest adventure of all—love.

Buy Links:



27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love to read IR novels. I actually love to read all romance novels as long as they are romance novels.

stephaniebartley1 said...

I actually started reading IR novels in 2010, and since then, I have read plenty. I love all romance novels as long as they are romance novels.

Unknown said...

Your books sound awesome. Call me naïve, but I never really even knew there was a division of books known as IR or MC until just now! I suppose I never really pay much attention, or give much attention, to race or other such things as being a "thing" per say when reading and love when authors make race a non-issue throughout the story and just write the characters as people regardless :D That always makes me happy because for me, the characters rather they are purple, orange, blue, green, white, tan, black, or pink polka dotted, they are the people and characters I'm going to be spending hours or days with and I love them regardless :D

I'm looking forward to checking out the books mentioned within this blog!! I've written the names down on my handy dandy notebook so that I don't forget to pick them up for myself!

Thank you for the chance to enter the giveaway and to learn something new today!

Have a wonderful day one and all!

Shelly H.
booski24@hotmail.com

Belinda G said...

My first IR was Alpha Male Incorporated: Under His Protection by Marie Rochelle. I loved the characters, storyline and suspense. Sahara and Jax were perfect for each other. I loved it so much I read it in one sitting

I became hooked on IR because of the diversity of the heroines and heroes.

Thanks for letting me share.

Belinda G
belgre AT Comcast DOT net

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed post; what the Lovings' endured made way for other to love freely.

Stacy
nitasae (at) hotmail dom com

Anonymous said...

I am looking forward to reading BAD BOY NEXT DOOR.

llbrowne41@yahoo.com
Louise

kaisquared said...

Thanks for the great Loving blog hop stop! I would love to win any, especially the Fairy Tales.

emmasmom AT wi DOT rr DOT com

Melissa Blue said...

@Stephaniebartley1

"I actually started reading IR novels in 2010, and since then, I have read plenty. I love all romance novels as long as they are romance novels."

I'm pretty much the same way. I fell in love with romance novels in 2002. I read Nora Roberts, Jayne Ann Krentz, Sandra Brown and a butt load of BET Arabesque books. Fallen Angel by Francis Ray is still one of my top faves.

Melissa Blue said...

@ Shelly Hammond

" I suppose I never really pay much attention, or give much attention, to race or other such things as being a "thing" per say when reading and love when authors make race a non-issue throughout the story and just write the characters as people regardless :D That always makes me happy because for me, the characters rather they are purple, orange, blue, green, white, tan, black, or pink polka dotted, they are the people and characters I'm going to be spending hours or days with and I love them regardless :D"

Yeah. It wasn't until I feel deeply into publishing that I noticed there were pitfalls to writing IR/MC romances. My only requirement has always been give me a good romance.

"Thank you for the chance to enter the giveaway and to learn something new today!"

You're welcome!

Melissa Blue said...

@ Belinda G

"I became hooked on IR because of the diversity of the heroines and heroes."

There's definitely some where it feels like, I'm reading about my family. lol I love that.

Melissa Blue said...

@Stacy

"Enjoyed post; what the Lovings' endured made way for other to love freely."

Yes. I read up on the case before I wrote this post and it still boggles my mind.

Melissa Blue said...

@ Louise

"I am looking forward to reading BAD BOY NEXT DOOR."

Thank you!

Melissa Blue said...

@kaisquared

"Thanks for the great Loving blog hop stop!"

You're welcome and thank you for dropping by.

laurie said...

Thanks for the great Loving blog hop stop! I would love to win any, especially the Fairy Tales.

parisfan_ca@yahoo.com

Meghan said...

This is such a great idea for a giveaway hop! IR couples are beautiful and I honestly think they create the most beautiful babies!!
Thanks for the giveaway! I'm gonna keep hopping along!

mestith at gmail dot com

Shadow said...

I love the sound of your books! Im not sure which i want more! I love the bad boys but fairy tales are high up there too! :) Thank you for sharing and for the awesome giveaway!
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

Ebonywahine said...

I discovered the MC IR genres of books at the same time I discovered erotic romance books...who knew? Great hop commemorating a very brave couple who challenged long held beliefs that had been sustained by the law!
Thanks for the give away too...awesome!
Peace!

Melissa Blue said...

@Laurie

"Thanks for the great Loving blog hop stop!"

Thank you so much for dropping by.

Melissa Blue said...

@Meghan

"This is such a great idea for a giveaway hop!"

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Melissa Blue said...

@Shadow
"I love the sound of your books! Im not sure which i want more! I love the bad boys but fairy tales are high up there too! :) Thank you for sharing and for the awesome giveaway!"

Thank you! And thankfully I've written a lot so I was a hard choice for me too. BBND is the newest release, but the Fairy Tales series is quite popular. :)

Melissa Blue said...

@Ebony

"I discovered the MC IR genres of books at the same time I discovered erotic romance books...who knew?"

lol Kismet. Two great genres, often put together with wonderful results.

Chynarey said...

Love your "confession"...
Like your confession, my reading of romance was just that... If the leads happened to be different colors, oh well...


caiidynsmommie(at)gmail(dot)com

Kay said...

I love the fact that your focus is not on race but the love story and of course, the hotness between the couples! I wish I had kept those stories I'd written when I was 19. Kudos to you for making it happen. Thank you for sharing!

Karen

kmoaton@Hotmail.com

LaShaunda said...

Hi Melissa,

The first romance I wrote at 16, the hero was white. I was in love with Bo Brady from Days of Our Lives, so of course the first man I would write about would be his clone.

I chose the name of Shades Of Romance because I believe books came in all shades. I still do.

Melissa Blue said...

@Chynarey

"Like your confession, my reading of romance was just that... If the leads happened to be different colors, oh well..."

lol I still pick books this way. I'm in the mood for a marriage of convenience trope and I search far and wide for it.

Melissa Blue said...

@Karen

" I wish I had kept those stories I'd written when I was 19. Kudos to you for making it happen. "

Oh, no. Those stories will never see the light of day. lol How horribly bad they were. lol Thankfully, I've gotten better.

Melissa Blue said...

@LaShonda

"The first romance I wrote at 16, the hero was white. I was in love with Bo Brady from Days of Our Lives, so of course the first man I would write about would be his clone."

lolol This is too funny. My first crush was LL Cool J. I never had the mind to write a story about him though. lol

"I chose the name of Shades Of Romance because I believe books came in all shades. I still do."

And they do and should be. Variety is the spice of life.