Sigils and Spells: A Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection
Why representation matters
When I was a kid, I didn’t care about diversity. Just playing. If you were a kid and nice, then you were my friend. Only a person’s name and their character was what was important to me, not their race. Other kids called me names, because of my friends, and threw rocks at me and them. But a true person reveals their heart by their actions and words, not the color of their skin.
As an adult, I watched TV shows like The Cosby Show, Living Single, It’s a Different World, Fresh Prince, Martin, and many, many more. I loved them because they were funny and had good plots and dialogue. Now I watch Luke Cage, Queen Sugar, Shots Fired, and others.
I wept when I read the book, The Help and The Invention of Wings and The Secret Life of Bees.
In my own writing, I try to write diverse characters. But even then, I feel like I fell short of reality and painting my worlds in the vast array of wonder. I beta read for other authors and came across an interesting historical western romance. But as I read, something occurred to me: there were only white people in the story. This was in the Nineteenth century. When I mentioned this to the author, she didn’t respond. However, I can assume she realized it was true because her second book after that one she sent me to critique had two diverse main characters. Sometimes, I don’t think we realize that we, as authors, are showing the reality of our diverse world.
I had an idea for a new Urban Fantasy series with a sidekick who was not white. Then I thought, why stop there? Why not have the ‘sidekick’ have her own story, her own adventures?
So I wrote Book 2, Thorns & Blood series, featuring a dhampir (half-vampire/ half-human) woman who hunts rogue vampires for a living. She’s has both African American and Native American heritage.
Being diverse, to me, means a more wonderful world full of amazing people who are like everyone else. Wanting and needing love and acceptance. I have friends of all nationalities and genealogy so why can’t fiction and movies and shows reflect that?
Not everyone feels this way.
“”Star Trek: Discovery,” the latest entry in the “Star Trek” universe, features two women of color – Michelle Yeoh as the starship captain and Sonequa Martin-Green as her first officer.” 1 However, fans were in an uproar that the two main characters were: 1) not white and 2) not male.
What??? Star Trek is based on aliens and space and the future. Is the future going to remain white men rule everything? Maybe a woman captain would be a good thing. In Alien: Covenant, having Janet “Danny” Daniels as their leader might have saved all their lives if she’d been in charge from the beginning.
What about you? Does diversity and representation matter to you?
#diversitymatters #representationmatters
Today, help support diversity and representation, and grab your copy of this great set of full-length stories before it’s gone!
1 – http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-star-trek-discovery-diversity-20170623-story.html
Cheri Winters got hooked on Urban Fantasy through Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, and Laurel K. Hamilton. Now Cheri writes her stories with kick-ass heroines battling their way through adventure and mayhem.
When not writing, Cheri practices Muay Thai and Karate or catches up reading her favorite authors.
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