Category: Diversity in books

If you've been following my series of weekly #ownvoices author interviews (which will have a dedicated page soon, I promise; I've been redoing all kinds of things around here and my brain is exhausted) you may be starting to think diverse books only exist in science fiction. While it's true that science fiction has the highest number of diverse books, there are diverse books in other genres, and Shaila Patel is here to prove it! Her debut novel, Soulmated(all Amazon links are affiliate links), is a paranormal romance featuring all kinds of exciting concepts I'll let you discover for yourself. The Blurb Two souls. One Fate. Eighteen-year-old Liam Whelan, an Irish royal empath, has been searching for his elusive soulmate. The rare union will cement his family's standing in empath…

Over the past year I've spent a lot of time thinking about inclusion -- I choose the term "inclusion" because I think it's more honest than "diversity". Specifically I've been thinking about the duty I have as a writer to be inclusive in my work. One thing I've come to believe very passionately is that while including diverse characters and relationships in my books is great, the best thing I can do is support diverse authors, most of whom are already writing diverse books. These authors have often been snubbed by traditional publishing and turned to self publishing or small presses, which makes it even more important to support their work. So this year my interviews are going to focus almost exclusively on #ownvoices authors, starting with today's guest, Lynn E.…