I am delighted toĀ have Zoe discussing The Importance of Diversity in Commercial Fiction ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.
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Genre: Romcom
Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Publisher: HQ Digital (Berkley in US)
Standalone Second Book in a series
Author Content Warning: Heroine has an emotionally abuse father who abandoned the family when she was 16.
I grew up in a mixed-race family in Yorkshire in the eighties and nineties. My father is Pakistani and my mother is Welsh. During my formative years being mixed race was seen as being unusual and something that people would comment on, particularly as my siblings and I are white-passing. And often those comments were not positive but rather forms of microaggression. I cannot remember seeing anybody like me and my siblings being depicted on the TV shows, movies or books that we consumed.
It was only as I got older that I realised that the contemporary fictional world did not reflect the true nature of society. I remember the first UK Asian comedy show being broadcast on the BBC (Goodness Gracious Me) and how much my family adored it, but also what a novelty it was to have a show with that representation on the television. The first representation of a mixed background family similar to mine that I can remember was in the movie East is East, and by that time I was twenty years old. None of my white friends had had to wait until their third decade of life to see a family with a heritage similar to their own in the movies.
As an adult I am drawn to shows which have brown girls as the main character, it was cathartic for me to watch Ms Marvel on Disney + where the protagonist is Kamala Khanāa first generation Pakistani-American high schooler who becomes a superhero. How I would have adored to have a character such as Kamala on screen when I was a teen. I also recently watched Never Have I Ever on Netflix, a show featuring a teenage first generation Indian-American protagonistā Devi Vishwakumar. Iām a forty-five-year-old married mother of two so Iām unsure if part of the reason I was drawn to watching a coming-of-age type show was because there was nothing like it when I was the MCās ageāat the time all those kinds of shows only featured white girls as the protagonists, which I still enjoyed, but itās only with hindsight that I see there was something missing.
Iām delighted with the recent push to feature more diverse protagonists in commercial fiction, both written and otherwise. And this includes all manner of diversityānot just in terms of race. I love that we have Heartstopper, a series of graphic novels turned into a Netflix show featuring the story of a male/male romance between a gay teen and a bisexual teen. The show features a supporting cast of diversity including multiple ethnicities, a trans girl, and an asexual teen. And it is an utter joy to behold.
I think mixed race backgrounds are still under represented in commercial fiction and particularly romance. Clearly there are infinite possibilities in terms of the make-up of a mixed heritage and this is why all stories are important to tell and all authors voices are valid to hear.
This is part of the reason I felt it important that my romance books feature mixed race main characters. The majority of my female MCs have a similar background to me though in my
latest book, The Wedding Engagement, The FMC, Liv, is white Scottish and the MMC Arran is mixed race (half Scottish and half Nigerian). Romance is for everyone and everyone deserves to see themselves represented in the pages of these books and more widely throughout commercial media.
Commercial fiction is widely consumed ergo the population indulging in it will naturally be diverse in nature. Representation in mainstream media is vital not only in achieving validation for the represented groups but in validating their place in society for the non-diverse populus thereby increasing empathy and reducing prejudice. Reading about characters from a different background to your own enriches life experience and helps foster understanding and connection in the real world. The diverse characteristic does not have to be a source of conflict in the story, it can and should exist in its own right. And if it is a source of conflict, particularly for the main character, then those stories are usually best written by someone from the diverse population in question.
Commercial fiction should represent the reality of society with a cast as diverse as the real-life members around us. This benefits not only the diverse groups in question, but all of us as a functional and happy society.
Book blurb:
It’s not supposed to be her love storyā¦
Planning a wedding with the man youāre secretly in love withā¦ what could go wrong?
Liv Holland has a secret: sheās been crushing on Arran Adebayo, her brotherās best friend, for years. Theyāre ājust friendsā but she canāt help the butterflies in her stomach whenever sheās around him.
When theyāre asked to help plan festivities for Liv’s brother’s wedding, Liv and Arran can no longer deny the sparks between them. But with both having their own chequered romantic history, risking everything for love could mean losing each other foreverā¦
As the wedding bells ring, will Liv and Arran finally find their own happy ever after?
Purchase Link – https://amzn.to/4cXNbiQ
Author Bio ā
Zoe Allison lives in Scotland with her husband and two children, having been brought up in a mixed-race family in Yorkshire.
Growing up, Zoe enjoyed stories about falling in love. But rather than daydreaming of being rescued by a knight in shining armour, she imagined herself fighting dragons alongside him, battling supervillains as heroic allies, or teaming up to dive into perilous waters and save the day.
As an adult, Zoe became a doctor. However as time passed, she craved a creative outlet to counter the soul-sapping burnout that her career inflicted upon her, and also to achieve the happy endings that were so often lacking in the real world. She wanted to create heroines who represent her and her values, as well as heroes who truly love womenāmen who find their true loves inspiring, want to connect with them as soulmates, and fully open themselves to their partners on an emotional level. And so, Zoe began to write romance.
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