Interracial Romance

As a huge fan of romance I've developed a liking for Interracial Romances. Now I know it's not huge in the publishing world but as an avid reader/writer of African American romance, are there any others who are interesting in interracial romances. Even if the couple aren't interracial just diversity in stories in general?

I'd have no problems with it. One of my favourite book series as a kid was Animorphs, which included not only interracial romance, but interspecies as well. (....with aliens. That's probably an important detail to include)

So yeah, I'm all for it, and would certainly read it!

I always write with an ensemble of main characters of different nationalities and races. My current novel has an AMBW couple as the main characters. It'd be interesting to see who else is writing this couple specifically.

@JezBibi I know it seems it's becoming popular in the ebook industry and maybe small print houses but not the big dogs in New York. I think it's getting to the point where interracial romances it's becoming exclusively for me to write as well although I occasionally write African American romances. And no I haven't gone to that Book Club but I'll definitely be checking it out :)

@Nichelle, you know what they say if you're unsatisfied write your own novel. Have you read stories on ValentChamber and The Sweetest Taboo I have a few stories up over there and the authors are pretty good. There's nothing wrong with a supernatural theme, I like them.

@Tesla oh yeah I written a couple of stories with that pairing and it seems to be scarce in the stores.

@Riona I love the animorphs. That's my inspiration for a series of books I plan to write hopefully in the near future.

Now that I think of it, I think every story I've ever written that had a romance in it, is was interracial, intercultural and/or interspecies. Not for any particular reason, and not even on purpose, but I guess it's just more interesting - in real life as well ;)

You also don't see much Asian romance, in general. "Diverse" typically just means "African American." And yeah, I know, Asians are a tiny minority, but I'm married to one so I guess I notice the lack more?

Until a similar thread on the old boards, I didn't even think about it, but I have quite a few interracial relationships in one book. Not really a romance genre writer myself, but I do peek in here now and again for romance subplots.

But yeah, I don't think about it one way or another. Love is love, ya know?

@skatepixie, you're right you don't see much Asian romance, Middle Eastern Romance, or Latino Romance (although they're the largest minority group in the united States) When I was younger the majority of the books I read in school were about Caucasian characters and it's kind of gotten to the point where some of my friends assume the characters are Caucasian unless stated otherwise.

@vampyre_smiles you're so right. Love has no boundaries, accepts all, and sees no color but sadly many people even today have a problem with interracial couples.

@Aklo, yeah I know. It's just something about interracial or even interspecies that's more interesting than the status quo

I can't say specifically that I write interracial romance, but I love and always write characters coming together from very different backgrounds. Sometimes it's across continents, sometimes across races, but the important thing is that I love seeing two people learn so many new things together, each sharing the other's customs, or having to translate behaviors, and also speaking other languages. I love that, I think it's too dull to imagine a couple with backgrounds that are too similar (now maybe that would be a test of writing for me to try just once...)

Yeah...I've noticed the lack of Asians, too (being Asian-American myself) in English language romances (though they've become more common in fantasy novels). So everyone in my NaNo is Asian with interracial romances between people of different Asian/fantasy/demonic origins. One character has a half-Indian/half-Shambhalan parent, for no particular plot reason, it's just that that was where her grandmother was from. Hrmph!

My FMC had a failed interracial marriage. The racial difference did play a part in their problems, including difficulties with the expectations of the in-laws. Even though these were fantasy/magical issues in this case, it happens even in real life (happened to me before), so I feel it's not realistic to just ignore the potential conflicts. Even when people don't worry about skin color, they still have ideas about "correct behavior" that vary from culture to culture, and can get pretty negative when someone doesn't conform to that ideal.

Hm.... You know, thinking on it... More than ones, when coming up with characters, I've had some Japanese characters spring to mind as possible love interests or even as main characters. But then I always think "God, I look like an anime fangirl sticking all these Japanese characters in here!", and ended up removing most of them. (Though not all)

So... Can we blame anime on this one? lol. Obviously, that shouldn't stop me from including Korean, Chinese, or Indonesian characters, but I know less about those cultures, so it would be trickier to write.

That being said, the Japanese characters who HAVE made it in are usually in interracial romances, so there's that.

I'm all for more diversity in fiction, particularly in genre fiction. My story is set in a medieval fantasy world, but all the characters are essentially either Native North American or East Asian, and my main couple are essentially Okanagan and Japanese respectively.

I'm finding there's some interesting culture clashes to play with in terms of my main couple. For instance, they have very different ideas about what, if anything, being in a same-sex relationship has to do with gender. Also, one character comes from a very high-context culture and is certain that his subtle slips have broadcast to the world that he's in love, while the other comes from a very low-context culture and is completely oblivious, because to him, if there hasn't been a declaration, it must not exist.

Interracial romances are becoming more mainstream in real life, and I believe it will eventually reflect in the large publishing houses.

One thing I don't like are the "diverse" romances where you can't forget for even one chapter that the main characters are a specific race/nationality. I'm talking, "You hate me because I'm _____. Well, I will overcome!" And I'm talking....EVERY....CHAPTER.

We get it already. Move on.

It also seems that their families and/or friends always object. I'm sure that happens sometimes, but personally I've not experienced it, and I'm sure there's many other mixed race couples for whom it's never been much of an issue.

TECHNICALLY I'm writing interracial romance as the FMC is biracial (her father is black South African, her mother is white) and the MMC is Irish descent--meaning white. That never occurred to me as a problem, though. They're both Canadians, went my thinking, so I can write them both, right? (Being from Canada though I live in the States.) I was actually worried that her being biracial would be unacceptable in a market sort of way. I figure though, if it's not a standard already, maybe it's our job to make it one.

I'm working on what I hope will be a six book series for my publisher. I roughly outlined the characters and then realized ...... they were all so white. Granted, I didn't make every book interracial, but I did want to do specific non-white types. I think those are the books in the series I'm most excited to write about.

I have a sci fi zombie hunter book with a aa/hero and a w/heroine. As a white woman though, I felt awkward trying to write an aa/heroine though when I tried. I think that books need to reflect the different skin tones, and I get excited about bookd featuring different races.

I love interracial romances. Excluding fan fiction and a few short stories, I think that's all I've written. While some of the published ones aren't that good, some of the ones on The Sweetest Taboo and ValentChamber are really, really good. I like those a lot. I don't really know how I got so interested in IR romance. I mean I guess because I 1) wanted to write about more black female character and b) wanted to write about guys similar to what I am/was interested in. I typically wrote BW/WM, but for Nano this year I'm writing BW/AM(Asian Man).

And as far writers who are published, there are some good ones out there. For example, Billy London, Sienna Mynx, and Violette Dubrinsky are all really good writers of Multicultural/Interracial romances. A lot of people like Marilyn Lee, Marie Rochelle, and Koko Brown(I think that's her name) too. I'm sure all of them have website, or at the very least, Facebook pages.

My story for Nano has an interracial aspect. I will probably come in here looking for advice sometimes!

umm. Ever since I read "Kindred" by Octavia Butler(This book is soooosad!) , I now have a liking to interracial romance in books. ( I am not gonna lie, those books used to scare me away).
but I been thinking about doing something like this for nano..

Glad to see I'm not the only one writing an interracial story for Nano this year. I've known Dallas Laine from The Sweetest Taboo and she's a good writer as well :) Go for it sweetie I love Am/Bw stories. This Nano I wanted to do something different, being biracial myself my FMC is half African (probably Congolese) and half Asian (most likely Japanese woohoo go Anime :D lol) Anyway my MMC well I was thinking of making him half African American and half Latino. Either way it's still interracial Octavia Butler such a powerful writer. I would definitely recommend Valent Chamber (that's an open forum) and The Sweetest Taboo (not an open forum) for anyone interested in good Interracial stories for free. Those authors are very talented and I have a few works up over there myself.