Columnists

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The Story of the Dueling Muses

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Muse

Muse:  A person or personified force who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist. Hello Readers! I usually blog on the 7th of each month, or thereabouts, but I decided to wait because of my – *BLMorticia clears her throat* Oh, I’m sorry BLMorticia’s new release Where There’s Smoke. For those who know Sharita well, she writes under several pennames and she chooses the penname for the story based on the characters, subgenres, and or tones, of the story. At times, this complicated process hasn’t exactly worked. For the N’awlins Exotica series, it was a mix of all three at that time. Me, starting out, then BL, doing … Read more

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XENIA’S RANT: Thoughts on Gifts

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book gift - pixabay

Hello, it’s me again. Originally, I had planned to write about romance writers this time and how they’re ‘real’ writers, and not just mass producers of cheap stories. (Yes, there’s people out there who accuse us of that). I was so ready to do a long rant about it and then send us all off into the final weeks of the holiday season with a friendly pat on the shoulder and a cookie in hand. Maybe two. But then something happened. Something that has me writing about an entirely different topic and I would very much love to hear your thoughts about it. I know a midwife who looks after … Read more

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Queer in Color

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Queer in Color

“We need more diverse books!” Books with queer characters have become more popular these days. People are fascinated with the stories about queer people’s lives because, perhaps they finally realized the world isn’t completely hetero. More importantly, they wanted something different than the hero and the heroine or the assumed “straight” characters that dominate fiction. They wanted different, which means more diversity. However, diversity doesn’t just cover queer versus hetero, it also means race, age, culture differences, religion, and able-bodied. That cry should mean we want more stories that represent all kinds of people, not just the majority. As an author of color, I also wanted to see that change. … Read more

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The First Time I Witnessed True Romantic Love

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Sarah Hadley Brook blog

Love is amazing. It’s powerful and all-encompassing. As a child, your understanding of love is formed by the relationships of those around you. Your parents, your siblings, your grandparents. You learn there are different types of love—familial, romantic, universal. I never once doubted my mom’s unconditional love for my brother or me. My father? I’ll skip on by him. As for romantic love? I will never forget the first time I witnessed it—in all its beauty, and then again, even among the ugliness life can bring. My mom’s older brother was the coolest uncle on the planet. I adored him. He was always interested in what was going on in … Read more

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Writing Outside My Spectrum

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Anasa's Awakening - Michael Mandrake - Immortals

I apologize for being late with this month’s post. *sighs* I was ill earlier in the week, and then Nano and day job and… *sighs* Well, here it is! I’ve wanted to write this blog for a while, and I finally decided why not? You see, other than my Facebook personality, along with the muses, I’m really a shy person. I hide behind the computer screen and most of the time my social media profiles don’t feature a personal picture. It’s not because I don’t think I’m beautiful. *smiles and twists black locks of hair around my fingers* it’s because my writing shows so many different sides of myself. I … Read more

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Women and Gay Fiction

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Note: the views in this post are those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of the QRI site or its owners. We strive to provide a safe place where various opinions can be expressed, and ask that all posts and comments be kept civil and on-point. As of late the discussion about heterosexual women writing gay fiction has gathered some heat – again – and even though I tried to avoid the topic until now, I feel like I should throw in my two pennies… One of the main – if not THE main – objection some people have is that a heterosexual woman is not … Read more

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To The Journey: Hiding Ourselves

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Sarah Hadley Brook blog

Welcome to my first blog post. I titled my blog To The Journey because I believe we all walk our life’s path and learn from every experience—good and bad. And I am also a huge Star Trek Voyager fan and in the finale episode these words are used in a toast. I’ll be posting about writing, life, books, experiences…really anything. I plan on posting a couple of times each month. Please feel free to comment or ask questions because, as I state below, my life is an open book. So, on with the blog! Today, I like to say my life is an open book: nothing to hide, but I … Read more

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All Covers Matter

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This is a repost. To see the original with the beautiful covers of other authors represented, please click here.  Also please read the message about Queer in Color, coming November 5th! When you think about book covers, it should represent what happens in the book. If it’s a mystery, it might be dark with big letters or some kind of complex scene. Fantasy, perhaps illuminations, bright lights that appear to be magic. In romance, most of the time you have people. Whether it be one or multiple torsos, that usually implies romance. Now, that isn’t always the case. Many romances have no people on them, which is fine too. Regardless … Read more

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Embracing Diversity in Fiction

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Diversity image - Sharita Lira

Good afternoon. With so much chatter going about the need for diversity in books, I had to speak on it again. First let’s start off with a question for authors. Since I’m an author too, I figured I’d begin here. You’re an author and you have an idea for a story which features a character of a race other than your own. Say it’s a black male and you as a white female or male aren’t sure what to write. Do you scrap this idea, even though it could be one of your best books or do you try doing it yourself and using what you’ve seen on TV as … Read more

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Xenia’s Rant – Holiday Rant

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Hello you all! Before I’m off to a much needed holiday, I thought I’d do another rant… And, boy, is there a lot to rant about! As you may know, I’m German, so I have kind of an outsider’s insider view on Charlottesville. The sad truth is, White Supremacists, Nazis, the KKK, Alt-Right, they are everywhere. They come in different disguises and different flavors, but ultimately, they’re always the same and we see them, because they scream the loudest and do the unthinkable – hurting other people. I also want to clarify that, in my opinion, the ultra-left is not one bit better (as evidenced in Hamburg, G20). Actually, I … Read more