When the AA imprints were created, then was the time, to say, no, we don’t want our own separate AA imprint, we want to be marketed, shelved and sold, with all the other non AA writers. Now the AA writers are calling the same practice, of which they embraced years, as racist. If it is wrong now, it was wrong back then. If you going to stand on principle, stand on it, ALL the time.

NO. This is PROGRESS. It is not hypocrisy at all to allow for changes in ideas and practices over time. Take women’s education - at first, women were very happy to get a higher education at all, so what if they couldn’t go to the same colleges and universities as boys and were segregated into women’s only colleges. But then PROGRESS happened (gross oversimplification) and women were no longer content with this situation, but wanted to be able to attend Yale, Columbia, etc. This is the exact same situation.

When you first have an opportunity, you take it - but then your dreams get bigger and you know better what is at stake and you fight for those visions instead. And this is how changes come about.

I am an African American Romance Writer who probably spends more time reading than anything else. I don’t choose my reading material based on the characters ethnicity, but by the author’s ability to transport me to another world and experience.

I was raised on a small island and can remember days spent fleeing Russia, courtesy of Danielle Steel and Zoya and dancing the jive with Malcolm Little before he became Malcolm X. You see, my parents read everything, and I do as well.

These days, when I am not chained to my laptop, I find myself transported to incredible places created by James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Dyanne Davis, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gwynne Forrester and Jodi Picoult. And believe me, those are just a few on my list.

Now I know that my two cents may not mean much to a whole lot of people, but I’m willing to bet that there are probably more individuals out there just like me who wish that they hadn’t left ‘Nineteen Minutes’ in a hotel room last month two chapters before finishing it.

I hope that one day someone will buy my book because they have heard that I too offer a reprieve from a hectic day or from a life they want to escape. And I hope that they find the book among all the other authors that I admire.

Wondering if it’s a demographics thing. I’m thinking the Walmart closest to where I live, about 10 miles away, give or take, has a separate section for AA books. The area around the store is pretty diverse, Hispanic, black, white.
Now, to paraphrase Gennita, another local Walmart, right smack dab in the middle of white surburbia, their books are all mixed.
Does it have to do with the area’s demographics? Interesting to see how it is at other locations.

I probably live in the weirdest city in California, demographics wise. It’s a good size city split into separate areas, Downtown, East Village, Los Alamitos, Belmont Heights, Belmont Shore, Bixby Hills, Bixby Knolls, Naples, The Wrigley, The Northside, Signal Hill, Lakewood outskirts, and on and on.

Downtown is…Well they are trying to clean up downtown. They’re building million dollar condos and slowly but surely trying to encourage the huge population of transients to relocate. There are three Wal-marts in the city. One on the outskirts of Lakewood, one off of the 605 at the Carson Town Center and the one downtown.

The weird thing is all of the areas have a significant AA population but the Wal-marts that aren’t downtown are in areas that would be considered upper middle, middle class while the downtown Wal-mart is closer to the neighborhoods that could be considered less than desirable.

Yet the Downtown Wal-mart is not only adjacent to the beach, it’s also adjacent to Ocean St. and 2nd which both lead into Belmont Shore and Los Alamitos which are trendy upper middle and upper upper middle class neighborhoods. So I’m confused by it all. I do think that more AA’s from the “less than desirable” neighborhoods frequent the downtown Wal-mart and that’s who they may cater too.

And no I am NOT saying that only AA’s from bad neighbors read AA. To me the books the Wal-mart store downtown stocks are NOT AA. They are what I will politely call urban lit. There aren’t any normal AA books in the section. Last night I only found one normal AA book, a historical by Beverly Jenkins, and it was on the bestseller aisle away from the urban lit.

Rofmao! That is too cute! It’s like the time my friend’s baby tried to lift up my shirt when she was weaning him. In front of the cashier. And my friend told the cashier I was her wet nurse and I was available because I had enough for her baby and 8 others.

I weaned my oldest when she was 6 months old and decided to try and take a bite out of me.

The younger two, a little longer. My cut off point? They never bit me, but when they decided to start trying to undress mama in public, they were weaned. My son started that little trick when he was 9 months. The baby, though, she didn’t start until she was a year. :| Become a mama, and dignity goes out the window.

When I visit the Wal-mart near my sister’s house there is no AA section. All the books are happily integrated. So you have to wonder why? I’ve asked the store GM at the downtown Wal-mart in my city and he promised to call me with an answer after he spoke with corporate. I’m still waiting for the call. *shrugs*

Wondering if it’s a demographics thing. I’m thinking the Walmart closest to where I live, about 10 miles away, give or take, has a separate section for AA books. The area around the store is pretty diverse, Hispanic, black, white.

Now, to paraphrase Gennita, another local Walmart, right smack dab in the middle of white surburbia, their books are all mixed.

Does it have to do with the area’s demographics? Interesting to see how it is at other locations.

Report: I went to two Walmarts today. I found it very interesting that one Walmart, in white surburbia, has its AA books mixed with the regular romance books while the other Walmart, which was close to the black college and community in town, had its own AA section. In my forty-five minutes or so shopping in the latter Walmart, quite a number of AA readers went by to browse.

You know this is interesting. I went to Wal-mart downtown tonight (the same Wal-mart where the cashier warned a friend and I not to come to into the store on the 1st and 15th because that was when a lot of the customers received their government assistant checks.) and noticed the same thing. There was a huge section of AA and literally 10 non AA books.
When I visit the Wal-mart near my sister’s house there is no AA section. All the books are happily integrated. So you have to wonder why? I’ve asked the store GM at the downtown Wal-mart in my city and he promised to call me with an answer after he spoke with corporate. I’m still waiting for the call. *shrugs*

*G* okay, totally unrelated to racism in publishing, to big spankable asses, to opinion v fact, to publishing, reviewing… it’s just plain cute.
At least it is now with about five and half years distance. When my oldest was about 3, and my son was about six months, we were walking around the mall. My daughter, the 3 year old, walks up to two nice looking guys, about my age, and flips up her shirt.
What does she say, you ask?
My mama has really big boobies. I don’t.
This is what happens I guess when you breastfeed and try to be honest to young children about just what you are doing…. it’s funny now. But then, man, I was so emabarassed….

Rofmao! That is too cute! It’s like the time my friend’s baby tried to lift up my shirt when she was weaning him. In front of the cashier. And my friend told the cashier I was her wet nurse and I was available because I had enough for her baby and 8 others.

Gwynne has a master’s in sociology and worked for the UN and has been widely published as a demographer.

I would be interested in knowing if someone pick it up just for the cover then stopped reading when they discovered the heroine was black.

I’m reading it right now, Seressia (it’s the book I’m not finishing while I’m participating in this discussion — review to follow, eventually). And I have to tell you, the cover fascinates me because a) the stomach seems androgynous to me (a bit fleshy) despite the obvious briefs, b) the race seems ambiguous to me because the guy’s stomach looks more brown to me than white (even though I know the hero is white), and c) the kiss cracks me up. I thought it was intentionally ambiguous, which I liked. Although I didn’t buy it because of the cover. I’m very glad it’s selling well, though.

To BlkLitRdr: My first novel was an interracial romance, published in 2000. I sold it to the first company that said yes, who happened to be black-owned. I assumed (there’s that word again) that the book would be shelved with all the other romances because hey–it WAS a romance and that was the section of the store I went to for books.

The first cover for the trade edition had a BW and WM on the cover with a pink flowery tree background, and its back cover copy starts like this: “White hot chocolate meets vanilla shake, sparks fly…” or something like that. It was reissued this year with just a white man’s torso with a kiss imprint on his skin. It’s been selling like hotcakes, but I don’t know if that’s from the cover, the mass market size, or the fact that it’s in Wal-Mart. I would be interested in knowing if someone pick it up just for the cover then stopped reading when they discovered the heroine was black.

I’ve dealt with race in my IR books, but the h/h don’t get all hung up over it (they have other issues, lol) I’ve had diverse casts, multiracial characters. I’ve written to Queen Latifah about AA romances, but not Oprah. Again, I’ve talked to Sue Grimshaw and Sean Bentley with Borders. But I still think discussion has had the most promise.

Shilo, I think kids do it on purpose. It’s like the time my other godbaby pulled down my shirt and yelled, Your sou sou (breasts) is showing

*G* okay, totally unrelated to racism in publishing, to big spankable asses, to opinion v fact, to publishing, reviewing… it’s just plain cute.

At least it is now with about five and half years distance. When my oldest was about 3, and my son was about six months, we were walking around the mall. My daughter, the 3 year old, walks up to two nice looking guys, about my age, and flips up her shirt.

What does she say, you ask?

My mama has really big boobies. I don’t.

This is what happens I guess when you breastfeed and try to be honest to young children about just what you are doing…. it’s funny now. But then, man, I was so emabarassed….