Multiculturalism in YA,Fantasy, Sci FI,Paranormal and fun books ;p discussion

C'mon we're giving you a chance to talk about yourself, your work and even your dog if you want to! We just want to know what great ideas you're sitting on. This post is for self-promotion purposes but why not have a little fun with it!

Hmm, talk about myself? I tend to be a shy person. Although when I tell people that, they don't seem to believe me. But trust me, I'm shy. Although I live in the suburbs, I spend half my time in Toronto, I might as well move back there. I haven't travelled much but it's one of my dreams. I don't have a dog but I wish I did. I had a rabbit...does that count? :)

I love reading and writing! I guess here comes the self-promotion part: my novella Fallen Tears will be free this weekend for Kindle/Kindle app to celebrate the release of my next book, Rowan. Here's the link: https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/....

That's all I have for now. I apologise in advance if I rambled, lol.

Christina

Hello All, my name is Diamond Drake and I'm the author of Imagined Love, For the Love of Jade (sequel), and Love's Fool (2012 Editor's Choice). It's funny, but until someone labeled my books as "interracial-read", I never even thought of them that way. They ARE, but I never viewed them that way because my characters are just people, you know what I mean? They have their struggles, issues, and drama just like the rest of us. Anyway, hopefully you'll check them out.

So, just as some weird facts about me . . . I always start at the end of my book and write my way to the beginning. And, more embarrassing, I'm absolutely terrified of opening a can of biscuits!!! HA,HA,HA If my husband or 13 year old isn't available to open it, we don't eat biscuits!!!

Hi, this is Audrey, one of the showrunners over at richincolor.com. Rich in Color is a blog dedicated to promoting YA books by and/or about people of color (and if we can hit other aspects of diversity in there along the way, great!). One of our site's highlights in the release calendar where we provide a summary for all the qualifying YA novels we can find. We're a pretty new blog, but we're having a lot of fun. I was excited to find this group (I'm pretty new to Goodreads), and I look forward to hanging out with all of you!

Christina wrote: "Hmm, talk about myself? I tend to be a shy person. Although when I tell people that, they don't seem to believe me. But trust me, I'm shy. Although I live in the suburbs, I spend half my time in To..."

Welcome Christina.We appreciate you telling us about yourself.Interested in learning more about you and your works XD

Diamond wrote: "Hello All, my name is Diamond Drake and I'm the author of Imagined Love, For the Love of Jade (sequel), and Love's Fool (2012 Editor's Choice). It's funny, but until someone labeled my books as "in..."

Awesome Diamond. We here loooove interracial reads :)Hope we can get acquainted with your work!

Rich in Color wrote: "Hi, this is Audrey, one of the showrunners over at richincolor.com. Rich in Color is a blog dedicated to promoting YA books by and/or about people of color (and if we can hit other aspects of diver..."

Greetings Audrey!Thanks for joining the group,we love your blog!My sister and I have a similar blog taking on similar topics, Multiculturalism in books.I hope we can all suggest to each other really good reads as searching for books featuring POC is a bit of a challenge!

Hi everyone! Nice to meet everyone (*waving*). Our site is called Romance Novels in Color, and our goal is to advance the awareness and appreciation of diversity in romance novels. The hero or heroine of all romance novels on our site contains a protagonist of color.

We offer advertising for authors. For readers to discover new books, we have reviews, author interviews, and giveaways.

http://romancenovelsincolor.com

Just visited your blog @ Rich in Color XD

We need to definitely talk books! You found so many to put on your lists that I didnt know about and i'd looked everywhere XD

I've been looking for Steampunk books with multiculturalism forever, and even more so more fantasy/paranormal and sci fi depicting East and South Asians, since there are so few out there that are mainstream.

Romance Novels in Color wrote: "Hi everyone! Nice to meet everyone (*waving*). Our site is called Romance Novels in Color, and our goal is to advance the awareness and appreciation of diversity in romance novels. The hero or hero..."

Awesome Romance novels in color!I'm sure this would interest many of our members(some of them authors as well), including myself.Just checked out your site and saw a book with a BW/AM, ugh i could die right now XD

Bless you Romance Novels in Color! You've fleshed out my "to be read" list very nicely. Dark Genesis has made it to the top of my list. whOOp!

Hi

I’m an author and my novel Dark Genesis is free to download from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Apple. It is an interracial vampire romance which has had some fantastic reviews, one of which was on the Romance Novels In Colour website.

Synopsis
Life for a female slave is one of hardship and unspeakable sorrow, something Luna knows only too well. But not even she could have foreseen the terror that would befall her one sultry Mississippi evening in the summer of 1807.

On her way back from a visit to see the African woman, a witch who has the herbs Luna needs to rid her of her abusive master’s child, she attracts the attention of a deadly being that lusts for blood. Forcibly removed from everything she knows by this tormented otherworldly creature, she is sure she will be dead by sunrise.

Dark Genesis is a love story set against the savage world of slavery in which a young woman who has been dehumanised by its horrors finds the courage to love, and in doing so, reclaims her humanity.

I hope you enjoy the novel Thisgurl :-).

ADK x

A.D. wrote: "Hi

I’m an author and my novel Dark Genesis is free to download from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Apple. It is an interracial vampire romance which has had some fantastic reviews, one of..."

Welcome A.D!I'm glad to see that someone who's interested in your book is able to connect with you in our group!

Libertad wrote: "A.D. wrote: "Hi

I’m an author and my novel Dark Genesis is free to download from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and Apple. It is an interracial vampire romance which has had some fantastic re..."

Hi Libertad

Thank you. I love getting feedback on my novels (good and bad.) I also love Goodreads and have found out about so many good books on this site. I just found out about this group and I'm looking forward to joining the discussions.

ADK x

Libertad wrote: "C'mon we're giving you a chance to talk about yourself, your work and even your dog if you want to! We just want to know what great ideas you're sitting on. This post is for self-promotion purposes..."

My blog about New (to me) Authors was started on 4th April 2013 and is growing fast (over 200 followers and almost 3100 hits to date)
It promotes new Indie authors and their books, plus it has a few other interesting features for those who like to explore ...

Check it out and if you like it enough, join my followers and get daily (almost) updates to your email accounts.

http://www.thestoryreadingapeblog.com

How to see you there :)

Chris wrote: "Libertad wrote: "C'mon we're giving you a chance to talk about yourself, your work and even your dog if you want to! We just want to know what great ideas you're sitting on. This post is for self-p..."

Awesome Chris!I'm already following you but i hope many others part of this group will take my lead and follow you too =D

Thanks for the endorsement Libertad :)

Good afternoon, I am lady science-fiction author Laurel A. Rockefeller writing to you from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I am author of the Peers of Beinan political science fiction series which I think you should check out if you LOVE great world building in the tradition of JRR Tolkien, Frank Herbert ("Dune" is one of my influences), JMS' "Babylon 5", and Marion Zimmer Bradley.


The Peers of Beinan is that perfect blend of data-grounded science fiction, historical fiction (book one is based on the actual experiences of Queen Catherine de Valois and her descendant, Queen Elizabeth I), medieval feudalism, murder, mystery, and intrigue -- while addressing social issues. The problem that spurns book one, The Great Succession Crisis, is the refusal by the Great Council (think CONGRESS) to overturn an ancient law limiting women's access to political power. Great Succession Crisis looks at gender politics and asks questions that would be difficult to explore in a true historical fiction novel.

The politicizing of religion is also explored in my series. My villains often use religion as their excuse for doing terrible things -- like bombing healing centers -- in reflection of what we see in our world today.

But of course, the overwhelming majority of Beinarians do not mix politics or religion, practicing their respective faiths peacefully and accepting people who believe differently.

That is a powerful message I hope can be appreciated here.

Last, as a visually disabled person, I want to alert you to my exploration of sight loss in my books. I get a lot of folks being very nasty to me for having 20/80 vision. In my books, there is something called "brown eye syndrome" in which radioactive argene (thorium 232; if you do not know, thorium is used here for nuclear power) destroys two of the cones in Beinarian eyes, partially blinding them.

It's a facet of Beinarian life that I hope will teach people about sight loss, especially as one of the lead characters in book two loses much of his sight after working undercover in one of the mines.


So if you are interested in multi-culturalism, please check out The Peers of Beinan series.

I have a digital book giveaway in progress right now on facebook. Like http://tinyurl.com/fbBeinan before May 31st to get your free book. A $2.99 value.

Hey All,

I'm not sure if this falls within the YA/Fantasy/SciFI/Paranormal genres, but I do believe my novel, Raised by Hand, Lifted by the Tides, is a fun and thought provoking read. I'm still looking to receive honest and objective reviews, so if your schedule permits, I can send you a mobi file or epub or pdf.

Also, FYI - Raised by Hand has just been added to AWESOMEIndies.net under Historical Fiction. Yay!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009KEXEQO


All the best,
Willett Thomas

Laurel wrote: "

Good afternoon, I am lady science-fiction author Laurel A. Rockefeller writing to you from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I am author of the Peers of Beinan politica..."

Welcome Laurel!I hope that you can bring a different POV in our group!Lots of interesting people coming around =D

Willett wrote: "Hey All,

I'm not sure if this falls within the YA/Fantasy/SciFI/Paranormal genres, but I do believe my novel, Raised by Hand, Lifted by the Tides, is a fun and thought provoking read. I'm still lo..."

Awesome Willett , I hope that you can meet many future readers in this group =D If you have time hop over in one of our discussions or create your own,Would love to hear your input!

Happy to see you here E.C. Cant say that I've met any Maltese natives =D

Would love if you could start a topic bringing up the European perspective of foreigners, or how other European countries see each other. XD

E.C. wrote: "Hi everyone. 100 members - YAY!!!!!

Anyway, I wrote a book in which vampires are a social minority fighting for more legal and social rights. (Sounds crazy when I say it like that... but that's wh..."

Thanks for introducing yourself E.C., I already knew a little about you, but i didn't know you were from Europe. AWESOME!So already i'm learning more and more about the members in this group. I hope that you can meet with readers who may be interested in your book. Really glad that you joined and I hope you stop by and comment or bring up some interesting topics =D

E.C. wrote: "Guinevere wrote: "Happy to see you here E.C. Cant say that I've met any Maltese natives =D

Would love if you could start a topic bringing up the European perspective of foreigners, or how other Eu..."

It is a possibility you may be the only mainland European in the group.There may be s few english but i'm not sure.

E.C. wrote: "Guinevere wrote: "Happy to see you here E.C. Cant say that I've met any Maltese natives =D

Would love if you could start a topic bringing up the European perspective of foreigners, or how other Eu..."

Merhba!E.C =D

E.C. wrote: "Guinevere wrote: "Happy to see you here E.C. Cant say that I've met any Maltese natives =D

Would love if you could start a topic bringing up the European perspective of foreigners, or how other Eu..."
Hi

I'm European. I live in London. My novel Peace is based in London but my other novel Dark Genesis is set in Mississippi in 1807 during slavery although one of the main characters is from England.

A.D. wrote: "E.C. wrote: "Guinevere wrote: "Happy to see you here E.C. Cant say that I've met any Maltese natives =D

Would love if you could start a topic bringing up the European perspective of foreigners, or..."

Awesome!Another European!Where are you from?You mentioned living in London but i wasn't sure if you were English or not. Lots of different people live in London :P I only assume you're English, so correct me if i'm wrong...

E.C. Many people are not familiar with Malta, I'm sure everyone would live if you could tell us more about it :)

Libertad wrote: "A.D. wrote: "E.C. wrote: "Guinevere wrote: "Happy to see you here E.C. Cant say that I've met any Maltese natives =D

Would love if you could start a topic bringing up the European perspective of f..."

Hi Libertad

I'm English. My parents are from Ghana, West Africa, but I grew up in London. But I'm hoping to emigrate to the states within the next few years.

Hey everyone! I have a blog-- Clare's Blog 2: The Haven. It is dedicated to all genres of romance with a special love and nod to Scifi and Fantasy.

I love having guest bloggers--especially really cool/fun posts that could be about anything as long as your book or blurb or whatever you mention at the end is related to this genre.

Stop by and visit...http://www.claresblog2thehaven.blogsp...

Also if you love multicultural scifi. Try my new romance book . The sequel is coming out soon. It is available at all e-book retailers... or at least most of them as far as I can tell!

Hi, everyone! I recently started a book blog, http://www.theyalitchick.blogspot.com mostly for reviewing.

I currently have a giveaway going on, and that is fun. I also want to start having guest bloggers, and definitely support independent authors.

Wow, lots of interesting people on this thread. Malta sounds interesting. Thanks for checking out our site, Libertad and Thisgurl.

E.C. wrote: "Hi everyone. 100 members - YAY!!!!!

Anyway, I wrote a book in which vampires are a social minority fighting for more legal and social rights. (Sounds crazy when I say it like that... but that's wh..."

E.C., your book sounds very interesting! It is a brain-teaser to think how civil rights would be expanded/amended if vampires walked among us...

I have a free e-book available this weekend, June 15-16th, about an American girl who struggles to adjust to life in Seoul, South Korea, and ends up entangled in a secret war waged between vampyres and shape-shifting Weres for control of a beautiful and dangerous spirit world:

YEAR OF THE TIGER (Book II)
http://www.amazon.com/Year-Tiger-Chan...

Awesome heather!!! I bought the book already but I hope others take advantage of your deal. :)

I have a question, more of a comment really. When I think of multiculturalism, I really don't think of vampires, werewolves, angels or other mythological beings as being a part of that. For one thing, it muddies the waters and two, allows some readers off the hook for not diversifying their reading. When I think multicultural, I see it in terms of about/for POC, LGBTQ, differently abled, etc, and to be honest that's what I want to read. A black, latino, asian or gay vampire is perfectly fine. I think there should be some serious guidelines as to what books fit the criterion. Oh and is it too much to hope for lead characters of color or LGBTQ as well?

I agree penfountaindiva. I consider multiculturalism when a book features a poc, differently abled or lgbtq characters as well. My sister and I are fans if fantasy and paranormal as well as adventure and sometimes that means a story with vamps, werewolves and other various mythical creatures. I understand what you are getting at, adding a character that is a mythical creature doesn't count and for now I'm only co-signing on books that do because this is what this group was made for. The book listed in the comment above(heather's book) does both. It features a girl who can change into a werewolf but happens to be an American of Latina descent, which I think is awesome. That's a great example of the books my sister and I try to she's light on. There's a member of our group who wrote a steam punk novel that features love between two women. I haven't checked it out yet but plan to :)

But I will update the guidelines so there's no confusion :) It's not about not liking books that feature all white characters, it's about embracing books that go out of the norm to feature the diverse world we live in, and that means writing about characters beyond the Caucasian, able bodied man... Or women.

@Libertad: You just said something very important that I think some people mistake about multiculturalism, books or media in particular. It's not nor has it ever been about "hating" on caucasians. Hell, most of my all-time favorite books feature caucasian characters. But even as a geeky little black girl, I wanted to read books that featured characters who looked like me and my rainbow league of friends. I wanted books where we saved the world or went into some magic realm or had exciting adventures. That desire continues to this day. I'm tired of all the issue-oriented books about PoC's, LGBTQ's and other marginalized groups. The demographics are changing and it's way past time the publishing industry changed with it. I'm done with whitewashed covers and/or oblique references to a characters' ethnicity. I'll be happy only when I'm able to go into a bookstore and see diverse faces on the covers of books. I'd love to read a multicultural version of Game of Thrones someday. In short, I'm tired of the erasure and by promoting multicultural books in other genres like SF, Fantasy, YA, etc., the change can slowly happen.

My Book is FREE RIGHT NOW, but only for 5 days. Download it on your E-book My book is FREE RIGHT NOW for your E-reader, on amazon. If you have a nook you can get a kindle app for free onto your nook. Young Adult/ Romance/ fantasy.

Here is what people are saying about it: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

Download it here: http://www.amazon.com/Her-Name-is-Gra...

Just added it to my collection. The idea of guardian angels sounds really awesome and the fact it's multicultural is a huge bonus! We need more of that!

Thanks Shidorr, I've also added it to my collection :)

Thank you, I hope you enjoy it

Hi, I'm Shawn Stewart Ruff, author the novels Toss and Whirl and Pass and Finlater, 2008 winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Debut Fiction.

For your consideration, I've posted on Amazon my latest. A novella, Tenths will be a free download 6/27 through 7/1.

http://www.amazon.com/Tenths-ebook/dp...

Thanks, and happy summer!

Shawn

TheFountainPenDiva wrote: "@Libertad: You just said something very important that I think some people mistake about multiculturalism, books or media in particular. It's not nor has it ever been about "hating" on caucasians. ..."

Thanks, Libertad! And @ TheFountainPenDiva, yes, I should clarify: the book features mainly Mexican-Americans (the two main identify as Chicana) and Koreans & Korean mythology, and it comments more on what foreigners face going abroad, attempting to live in a new culture, the difficulties of learning the language, ect. All of the Alvarez siblings react differently. I like exploring these situations through the fantasy genre because since it is "imaginary," more people are open to reading about it (consider it to be less politicized).

I think it's very interesting you brought up a multicultural Game of Thrones. Especially when it comes to writing medieval/historical fantasy books, there were a lot of ugly realities when it came to regarding people of other cultures that are difficult to get away from. I guess one thing George R.R. Martin does well is when introducing the "alien other" across the sea, the Dothraki, he fully explores their culture and shows how it is different, but just as strong as Westeros. Haha, maybe this should be its own discussion--I'm getting away from the point of this thread! Just my musings :)

Hello everyone! I'm MoxieGirl and I am the editor for Parker Publishing, Inc. We've been publishing multicultural fiction for over seven years and have had some of the biggest names in multicultural fiction writing for us, including Seressia Glass, Brenda Jenkins and the late L.A. Banks (of The Vampire Huntress Legends series).

Our bread and butter is romance, but we've also branched out to include YA, New Adult as well as Science-Fiction/Fantasy. If you're looking for books with PoC's as strong main characters, as well as interracial romances, we're here:

http://jmjeffries.com/parkerpublishing/

Hey Everyone! I'm the liaison for CBC Diversity and that's how I know about this dynamic group but, in a completely unrelated capacity, I wanted to let all of you fantastic YA readers know that I recently opened a literary agency focused on bringing more representative kid lit to the market and wants thoughtful readers like you to help decide what gets published next!

The way publishing goes is that authors submit their book idea to agents, agents decide if it's good or not and then they submit the book to publishing houses, and then the houses publish the book and hope the readers like it. Quill Shift Literary Agency wants to include the readers in the process long before the book is out on the bookshelves. The readers (you and all of your YA loving friends) will actually get to read large parts of the manuscripts submitted and decide whether Quill Shift Literary Agency should send the book to a publishing house.

Unlike some of the other writing communities like Wattpad and Jottify and Figment, writers are actually submitting to an agency when they send their work to Quill Shift and if they have enough support, their work WILL go on to an editor at a publishing house. Those other platforms are just allowing writers' works to get seen by readers, Quill Shift's goal is to get writers a publishing deal because readers love their work and want it to succeed.

For more info, a snazzy video, and swag, check out Quill Shift's Indiegogo campaign and donate to the company that wants to hear from you about what you want to read next. What's important about the campaign is not the money produced. Quill Shift will happen whether or not the goal is met. That being said, the number of funders and people spreading the word will say that there are readers out there that want change in the types of books published and are behind an initiative that is actively trying to create those books.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Shanna, this is amazing! I will definitely pass this along!

Thanks! The more people who know, the better! I'm looking for writers of diverse stories and I'm looking for people to read them! Both types should look at the Indiegogo campaign and donate if they can and then go on www.quillshift.com and submit or sign up to be a reader!

@ayanna wow that seems like an innovative idea. If you're interested in talking more about it in a guest post or something I'd love to feature you and your project on both of our blogs :)

That would be fantastic. I'm always happy to explain more about what Quill Shift is about and hear from others concerning what they think could be improved in the children's lit world and how I might be able to help with that.