It’s Interracial Day with Decadent Publishing!
June 19, 2011 by admin
Filed under Featured Author, Featured Blog, Featured This Week
ENTER TO WIN!!!
(remember, if you’ve entered for the week, you are already part of the many drawings for the week. The winners will be announced Wednesday, June 22nd)
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Decadent Publishing Interracial/Multicultural Authors Day
Authors Mahalia Levey, a.c. Mason, KT Grant and Ann Mayburn talk about their Decadent Publishing IR/MC books and what pushes them to more colorful frontiers in romance.
Where do you draw inspiration from to write in the IR or MC niche?
Mahalia Levey: Reality. There are so many areas to explore when writing IR and MC it comes natural for me. Sometimes off of a personal experience or an issue that’s been in the news or a misunderstood perception to other cultures and ethnicity groups.
a.c. Mason: This might sounds strange but I didn’t realize there was a category for interracial and multicultural books until I got an email from a fan asking me if all my books were interracial. The answer was yes, all my books have a couple mixed either the man or the woman is either of another race or different culture. I wanted to write books that represented the world I grew up in. I wanted the prince…the billionaire…the police chief, the doctor etc… I couldn’t be the only one!
KT Grant: I enjoy writing all different types of romance with diverse characters and settings,
much like the world we live in.
Ann Mayburn: I grew up in a very vibrant and multi-cultural neighborhood outside of Detroit where I had friends of every race/creed/color. As we were growing up, we would nab our Mom’s bodice ripper romance novels and giggle over them, but it was always noted that there was a lack of leading ladies that were anything but white.
Our tastes have grown beyond the bodice rippers, and we all devour paranormal romances and urban fantasies now. Still the same problem— a lack of anything besides super skinny chicks in leather pants that look like they stepped off a runway.
When I decided to follow my lifelong dream of writing, I wanted to make my leading ladies and heroes represent my friends; men and women who are proud of who they are and embrace what makes them unique, both inside and out. My books are mix of just about every race there is, and I believe my characters are stronger, sexier, and definitely a better reflection of our world off because of it.
Stephanie Williams: I draw it from my own life. I’ve been dating interracially since I was 18 and I married a Sicilian. My mother married my stepfather who is German. So I was surrounded by these types of beautiful relationships.
Were you raised in an IR or MC family? Do you draw some of your ideas from cultural ideals or urban lifestyle living?
Mahalia Levey: I am biracial myself but was raised in an alternative lifestyle home with Caucasian parents. Some ideas or plots come from experiencing both sides of my heritage.
Where do you get the settings for your story?
Mahalia Levey: I choose anywhere and make it about the characters not the actual setting.
KT Grant: I usually make up the cities or towns and base them on places I’ve been to in the past. I usually like to write about the Northeast since I live there.
If you’re not from an IR family or MC family how do you research to make your story believable?
Mahalia Levey: To me if I wasn’t IR or raised in a melting pot of cultures writing would be difficult and I’m part of the
community myself.
KT Grant: My research is my daily interaction with co-workers, friends and neighbors. I watch the world around me and pay attention to my surroundings.
Stephanie Williams: Hmmm. Well, since I write kinky erotica, I plead the 5th LOL! However with some of my tamer story lines, some is based on life experience, not necessarily mine but couples in general. I like to make my stories about two people coming together and making sense of this crazy world.
What dynamic factors do you portray in your works in progress? Is there a life lesson you wish to share as the baseline for your plot?
Mahalia Levey: There are characteristics of both being white and black that annoy me so I turn a negative into a positive and make it educational to others. Life lessons are important; change can’t happen if light is never shed on any topic of importance, no matter how big or small.
Stephanie Williams: I think I want to let people know that just because you are of two different races or cultures, you can love, hate, fear and have a loving relationship like everyone else.
Who is your favorite IR/MC couples?
a.c. Mason: I loved Tom Cruise and Koyuki (I) in The Last Samurai. Epic. Wil Smith and Charlize Theron in Hancock were powerful. Both were complex and messy…Okay I like them to have just as much junk if not more.
Question for Readers: Who is YOUR favorite interracial/MC couple and why?
2 entrants will each with one Decadent Publishing IR/MC ebook of their choice!
Mahalia Levey
Burn Me if You Can
Decadent Publishing Buy Link
Website
Blog-
IRMC Books Hotspot Tuesday
a.c. Mason
Surrendering to the Right Man 
buy links on DP
KT Grant
The Claiming of Suzy
DP Buy Like
Stephanie Williams
For Research Purposed Only
DP buy Link
House Arrest
It’s a Jungle Out There
DP Buy Link
Graphic Artist AJ Ramirez: Custom Book Cover Design
Mine. If I can’t choose my own, then probably Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters couple Sam and Alyssa. Although they’re of different races and had plenty of issues to work through to be together, the racial issue was never one that mattered. J.D. Robb’s Leonardo and Mavis are sweet too – albeit futuristic – and Daisy Dexter Dobbs has an erotic novel called “Wednesday Nights with Jamie” that’s quite nice if you like that kind of thing.
Lola Cruz and Jack Callaghan from the Lola Cruz mystery series, por supuesto
This is a fantastic interview, the books look absolutely amazing, the covers really draw the eye. I’ve only read a couple of interracial romances and I’ve loved them.
Sam
What a wonderfully diverse reading list! Now where should I begin!
They all look great.
CAN’T THINK OF ANY I READ LATELY
I read so many, that its hard to pick just one!! But one that comes to mind was in a recent historical romance I read! This one had the main romance plus two other romances and one was of A LADY OF PERSUASION by Tessa Dare and within was Joss and Hetta Story(and another couple, so 3 stories in one but it worked beautifully) I thought Joss and Hetta’s story were so much more emotional since Joss had gone through a lost and wife previously and her love brought him out of that shell. I love reading historical romances and love all the couples I read and love when I come upon an IR couple like this one that was so moving!