When you read a book, you want to identify with the woman.  When you read an Interracial Romance (bw/wm), you expect to identify.  All of us can’t be supermodels, millionaires or even a size 2 (I like being curvaceous), but we can all see the strength of a character or be motivated by that strength in a book.

My readers have taught me through their feedback over the years that they demand strength.  When I first wrote Ivy’s Twisted Vine, a part of exploring what it was like to be an impressionable young woman was writing about Ivy’s weaknesses, but The World in Reverse was clearly about her strengths.

I’m committed to showing African-American women in a strong positive light through my books.  Strong heroines are not just wanted, in this day and age, they are needed.  Even in our entertainment and imagination, we must visualize ourselves as pillars of strength.  Now, does that mean that you can’t be loving, caring, warm and even have moments of weakness?  No, that would you inhuman.

However, I will say that if we are to project an image of strength into the media, we have to start in books.  We have to damage/destroy the negative stereotypes of African-American women by re-writing ourselves.

To Infinity & Beyond,

Latrivia Welch