Sunday, February 18, 2007

Let's Talk

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday Ebony Angel made it to number 3 on Amazon for Mulitcultural Romances. YEAH!!!! That was cool. Thanks for the support everyone. The highest Beauty and the Beast made it was number 8 which I'm also very proud of. Again THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT EVERYONE.

At the back of my books, I try to include discussion questions for bookclubs. Wellllll a few people have emailed me wanting to discuss the questions with me. I think this is great, and of course, we discuss the questions. But wouldn't it be more fun if we acutally discussed them as a group like in a chat session?

I've been dinged many times for my romances being mainstream-ish because of the strong non-romance elements I incorporate in my novels. In Beauty and the Beast the hero has Bi-polar disorder and the heroine is severly scarred--including her face. In the Black community, talking about mental illness is a taboo, and in a romance to challenge the reader and industry on what true beauty is--Unheard of.

Let's move on to Ebony Angel. We have a serious drug problem in our community. Many of us know people who use and/or sell illegal drugs. They are our brothers, sons, fathers, sisters, aunts... Do we just disown these people? In Ebony Angel, the heroine maintains contact with the father of her child who is a drug dealer--again, unheard of in romance. Also the hero, Richard, has race issues within his family that aren't ususally tackled in romances (I can't say, don't want to give away the secret).

We can even go back as far as Caught Up. Whew! There are tons of issues in that novel to discuss. I don't have discussion questions at the end of the novel, but I do have them. Email me if you'd like a copy deatri@deewrites.com.

Anywhoooooo, I say all of this because I'm ready to talk. Let's dicuss these books. Shoot me an email and let me know if you are interested, and I'll set up a chat session. Make sure to let me know which book.

Much Joy Peace and Love
Deatri

4 comments:

Gwyneth Bolton said...

That's a great idea, Deatri. I hope you'll post the time and place once you set up the chats. I've read Caught Up and Beauty and the Beast. And I'd love to discuss them with you and others. I'll be reading Ebony Angel soon. I think it's wonderful that you bring real issues into romance. It's what makes your novels so dang good.

Gwyneth

ªWriter's N๏cturne said...

Congratulations! I must order a copy today from Amazon.

Follow My Ink said...

Hey, congratulations!!! Can't wait to read your books.

Deatri said...

Thanks everyone. I've been getting a few emails to discuss. Soooo, I'll give folks another month or so to read my two latest books, then I'll start trying to set up a chat.

Peace
Deatri