One day in Romancelandia lasts approximately 1.3 Earth years. Now imagine a week. To help you keep up, we’ve gone through the tweets about last week’s highs (and lows) of representation in romance to bring you our Weekly Romance Update.
These are tweets from or about BIPOC, LGBTQIAP+, and/or otherwise underrepresented writers, reviewers, and list curators. If you don’t already, please follow these accounts and be sure to always retweet the original post.
Sue (or in this case Suzan) is the new Karen. While Jack Publishing quickly parted ways with Sue Grimshaw, Suzane Tisdale’s imprint still employs her as an acquisition editor. Suzan DMed Rhonda asking for proof of Sue’s racism…
…and Rhonda provided detailed receipts.
Suzan posted a video response in defense of Sue, Diamond and Silk, and fiscal conservatism; bravely denouncing hate groups; and generally ignoring all proof provided. There are too many response threads to list, and we recommend taking a deep dive.
Suzan recorded the video so people could “see my face and hear my tone of voice,” because tweets can be misconstrued. However, there is no misconstruing her face and tone. If you rather not hear or look at her, a kind soul has created a transcript of the video at http://bit.ly/SuzanTinsdaleRant.
There is a lot to unpack in that video. Jayce took on one of the more egregious (reminder: the bar is low) statements.
Okay. That’s enough energy spent on Sues. Let’s keep it moving.
It seems the only thing Romancelandia can agree on about illustrated covers is that we all have strong opinions about them. Here are a few different perspectives.
Lynn E. O’Connacht live tweeted their reading of Untamed Billionaire’s Innocent Bride as an aroacespec reader and critic and breaks down how harmful the romance trope of “repressed allosexuals discovering sexual desire” can be to asexual readers.
Olivia Waite rebukes the title trailblazer and reminds us there were many queer histroms published before THE LADY’S GUIDE TO CELESTIAL MECHANICS. (You should still read Celestial Mechanics.)
Another important reminder:
The Ripped Bodice is seeking queer adaptations of Jane Austen. What’s your favorite?
You’ve all seen #BuwanNgMgaAkdangPinoy and #RomanceClass in your timelines this week. Buwan NgMgaAkdangPinoy is a celebration of works by Filipino authors writing in any language, and #RomanceClass is hosting a series of virtual panels.
Felicia Grossman joined the hosts of Kiddush Book Club for their #TooHotForShul episode on romance novels to discuss Dalliances and Devotion (out next week!).
Jazmen of Literally Black celebrated #BlackRomanceMatters Week with a series of blog posts and recommendations. Click the hashtag for more!
August 21 was #BLKIndieAuthorsDay, and Jodie posted a thread of Black indie romance authors who have inspired her.
Girl, Have You Read has new releases for you.
We’re looking for additional new releases lists to boost, so if you have one of know of one, please comment with a link!
Join us this Thursday, August 29 at 8:00 p.m. EDT for a chat with Shira Glassman, the author of KNIT ONE, GIRL TWO. Let us know what questions you have for her! #RSJKnitOneGirlTwo
On a final note, we have started building our Representation in Romance Directory. We are only publishing publicly stated or author-supplied information, which can be submitted at http://bit.ly/RSJDirectorySubmissionForm. We will keep you posted about when the directory will be available.
We hope you have a week filled with books and joy and all the good things! And if we have missed anything important, please let us know. Our DMs are open. You can also submit anonymous feedback at http://bit.ly/RSJfeedback.
If you appreciate the work we do, please consider buying us a ko-fi to help fund our giveaways of romances by underrepresented authors.