Latest review of On the Edge, this one from TikToker and ARC reader Bianca:
https://www.tiktok.com/@bianca_coffeeandbooks/video/7355613517749292296
https://www.tiktok.com/@bianca_coffeeandbooks/video/7355613517749292296
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Book Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CV86LQF4
Diversity. Multiculturalism. We see examples of
them everywhere (maybe not enough for some of us, but we’re getting there). It’s
on billboards, in our commercials and movies and our favorite TV shows (i.e., Blackish, Modern Family, and the entire Star Trek franchise that’s been doing its
diversity, multicultural thing since the sixties, thank you very much!). It’s a
Black and white couple with their multicultural kids enjoying a vacation, or a
same-sex couple grocery shopping or out to dinner, or a transgender individual
having a beer. Gone are the days of needle-across-a-record double-takes when we
see famous or not-so-famous interracial couples out and about. For the most
part, it doesn’t garner much of a stir, especially not in Hollywood. Of course,
this phenomenon might just be in the “blue states” for all I know.
What got me wondering about this multiculturalism
“trend”, was a comment in a recent review of one of my books.
I’ve seen the following observation or similar
at least a couple of times in reviews for On
the Edge, which was published in early 2019. It’s from a 5-star review on
Amazon, so I guess I shouldn’t be completely offended: “…although fairly stereotyped to the point of
being clichรฉd to fit in with today’s
trendy emphasis on multi-culturalism and inter-racial relationships…”
“…to fit in with
today’s trendy emphasis on multi-culturalism and inter-racial relationships”? Excuse me?! I took offense (also following a world-wide
”trend” I might add J). Especially since I never set out or intentionally
made/make my characters interracial to fit into any “trend”, multiculturalism or otherwise. I didn’t
suddenly discover and jump on a multiculturalism bandwagon. My characters, like
myself and my friends and family, are multicultural or come from multicultural
backgrounds and interracially procreate and mingle and have done so since
before I was born. So naturally I write what I know as well as what I see and
research. I happen to love reading about interracial couples in my romance too
and have for a long time, long before the current “trend”, probably since I was
seven and the hero and heroine in my first action/adventure/romance were Asian teens.
I like reading about interracial relationships because I see myself and my
loved-ones in the characters; the characters are relatable. And isn’t this why
most people read certain books and/or tune into most TV shows and movies? To see
themselves reflected back at them?
As a kid with little choices about what I could
watch on TV, the lack of diversity didn’t occur to me. What’s the saying? You
can’t miss something you never had? Don’t get me wrong. I loved the “white”
shows I grew up watching, especially those like The Flying Nun, The Addams Family, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched
and The Twilight Zone, all of
which fostered my life-long interest and appreciation of being other and the
supernatural. Then came Good Times, What’s Happening, The Jeffersons, Sanford and
Son, That’s My Mama, Amen, Benson, The Jackson 5ive, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and even Chico and the Man. They weren’t perfect
(and all would probably be considered problematic in today’s TV landscape of
diversity and multiculturalism; what wouldn’t be?). But they all featured Black
and brown faces and were signs of progress with images I could look at to see myself,
“my people”. Of course I can’t forget the afore-mentioned Star Trek (Trekkie here from way back) that represented all cultures
and skin tones, even green, long before most of these shows.
Today’s kids and teens have so many choices. They can see themselves reflected back at them from so many book and magazine covers and on the big and small screens. I’m glad for them. I’m glad for us. Maybe soon being interracial or multicultural won’t be considered a “trend” but just the norm. Just the way things are and should be. And no reviewer will have a reason to point out that a writer is “being trendy” because their book features interracial or multicultural characters.
https://litpick.com/review/edge-review-weeksti
https://www.amazon.com/Edge-Play-Siren-Publishing-Sensations-ebook/dp/B07NYPR869
For the most part, Millz’s stuff seems to have been
written in a humorous vein and is satirical (i.e, This H*e Got Roaches in her Crib) and I applaud the brother for
finding a niche and milking it.
Anyway, interesting and enlightening article on Mr.
Millz here:
And if anyone wants to check out the video that spawned the “This is like those Quan Millz books” comment, click the link: https://www.tiktok.com/@graciecmckeever/video/7336800537846762795
So how do you like your urban or street lit? With just a little salacious on the side or squirted all over like a little kid putting ketchup on fries?
I was thinking about trigger warnings this morning and my view and understanding of them is morphing daily. When someone tells me to keep the tissue handy for a book or a movie, that’s technically a trigger warning. It means (for me anyway) that something’s going to make me cry. But it doesn’t have to be something sad or involve a death like in the classic Brian’s Song or Love Story, or Marley and Me (the latter of which I have yet to see because
*SPOILER ALERT*
I heard the dog dies and I just wasn’t in the mood to cry. This and I’m not that big an Aniston or Owen Wilson fan). But I digress. A tearjerker book or movie could just be a romantic movie or something sweet that makes you go awwww. When I think of trigger warnings I don’t think of cathartic or cleansing or enjoyment (like I get at watching a sad movie). I think of something traumatic that triggers one’s anxiety or another drastic emotional response. I guess I just wasn’t thinking of crying in response to something sad, or bittersweet or romantic as a drastic emotional response. And again, it’s all about choice. If I choose to watch (or in the case of Brian’s Song, re-watch) a tearjerker after being warned it’s a tearjerker then that’s on me.
There may be a Part Trois as I keep getting the
hang of this.
Individuals already affected by trigger warnings or other empathetic allies who want to stay informed are
probably well aware of this site, but just in case you’re not: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/
That is not a question. There is no choice. In
today’s climate and culture, an author must
include trigger warnings for their books and stories or risk alienating
their readers or worse.
The questions is:
When is a trigger warning too much?
Recently one of my
book promo posts through a collaborator garnered several comments about
‘interracial relationships’ being listed under my Author’s Note as a trigger warming. The
remarks ranged from ‘Interracial relationships? I don’t see it’, to ‘Interracial relationships as a trigger
warning seems wrong’, to ‘Why would interracial relationships be a trigger warning?’ Needless
to say, I asked the promoter to remove ‘interracial relationships’ from my Author’s Note, but
I did respond to the critics in the Comment section: “I see numerous mentions regarding interracial relationships as a trigger warning. In trying to include all the possible scenarios that could trigger an individual, I suppose I overreached with that one. Maybe. Just trying to cover all the bases as some individuals may be "uncomfortable" seeing and/or reading about interracial relationships."
I never specifically said interracial relationships was a trigger, only included it as a note of what to expect in the book; it just happened to be listed with other elements that are typical trigger warnings.
I still think my including interracial relationships in my Author’s Note was valid, especially nowadays when almost anything can be considered a trigger to someone, somewhere. Maybe not to you or me, but to someone. It’s impossible to list all the possible triggers and you can’t please everyone. The minute you try, someone else finds fault with what you’ve said or posted or written. Damned if you, damned if you don’t. I’m learning about Trigger Warnings by trial and error—I know, I’m late to the party again—and recently learned that (thirty-two published books in) my own writing is considered “dark romance” because of its triggering content. News to me.
There are lit mags
that request you list any possible trigger warnings for your submission so that
they are better able to make a decision about which of their editors or first readers to assign
the story. Fair enough. But then I have to comb through my memory bank, short
of re-reading an entire story I’d written a while ago and been widely
submitting, to figure out if there
are any triggers. Again, what’s not a trigger to me, may be a trigger to
someone else. So some or all of the triggers may get by me and I submit the
work without noting any trigger warnings.
In my day (yeah, I
said it, and I’m dating myself, LMAO) the only content warning we had for a
book was the cover and the back-cover blurb. If you were like me and a dear
friend of mine, we used to skim through the insides of books for any hot, spicy
dialogue or scenes and when we found them, that was a reason to purchase the book (I believe this is how
we chose Chances by Jackie Collins
and how she became an auto-buy for a long while after). If this skimming method
and the cover and back-cover blurb were not enough to “warn” us about the book’s
content then oh well.
You would think there would be no such thing as wall-bangers with the amount of triggers and forewarnings and “spoilers” that go into promoting a book today. There’s no room left for surprises, which I find one of the best things about reading a book, the opportunity to be amazed by unexpected twists and turns and discover and learn about new ways of life not like mine. Some of those ways of life might be about drug dealing or the mafia or war. I don’t remember The Kite Runner having any trigger warnings, and there were quite a lot of events that could be construed as triggering in that book. But had I not taken the risk to read it, something so far outside of my normal read, I would have been deprived of one of the best books I have ever read. Same goes for a book like The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Domestic Violence among the triggers) or Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso about a young girl’s being groomed by a pedophile, or The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, a book about a Black teen who is killed by a cop (a theme that probably comes as close to a trigger for me as anything ever will). To my knowledge, none of these books had trigger warnings. If they were published today, they probably would though.
There are books, TV shows and movies (besides those featuring Black teens shot by cops) that I do tend to stay away from because I don’t like the subject matter. I won’t go as far as saying it “triggers” me. I’d just rather refrain from certain unpleasantries and I think that’s the distinction that some of the publishing world may not be making: stuff that actually triggers or stuff that’s just unpleasant (obviously, my interracial relationships inclusion in my Author's Note was guilty of not making this distinction).
The unpleasant
subject matter for me is the antebellum south and/or slavery. By its very
nature, I know what I will be in for when I read or watch this content. I don’t
need a trigger warning. I know there will be physical and sexual abuse of Black
people. I know that Black people will suffer unimaginable grief and pain—emotional
and physical.
I have not seen 12 Years a Slave to this day and I
daresay I’m depriving myself of an evocative and stimulating watch. Gone with the Wind, same thing. I just
don’t want to put myself through the vileness. Yes, I saw the original Roots and Roots: The Next Generation. I read Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred and her Parable books, all with their triggering content. I enjoyed these books and TV shows. I survived to
read and ‘enjoy’ others. There were no trigger warnings back then, but because
of the subject matter, I knew that there were going to be distasteful content
in the books and I made the choices to partake accordingly.
I think the
content warnings that are on TV shows—mature content, adult language, strong
sexual content, smoking, drug use—and the motion picture content rating system
are enough warning for me to make an informed decision about whether to read or
watch something. But that’s just me. Usually these warnings are what attract me
to a book, show or movie, rather than
warn me away, but I understand why these warnings may drive others away and/or may not be specific enough. This is why trigger warnings are
getting much more detailed (i.e., my interracial relationships inclusion) and prevalent.
Things like
suicide, domestic abuse/domestic violence (all of which are pervasive
in my Play On erotic romance series and others of my books and what makes them
“dark” romances) are major triggers nowadays and not something I considered
triggering when I sat down to pen my books. I just considered these issues par
for the course and part of what made my characters who and what they were and
what made my stories real.
Being a survivor
of domestic violence and growing up in an environment where it occurred, I
suppose I should be triggered by depictions
of DA/DV in books, TV shows and movies but, unless I’m in denial, I’m not
triggered. Again, that’s just me. Maybe there’s a trigger out there for me and I just haven’t encountered it
yet. I hope I never do.
In the end, it’s better
to err on the side of caution and add trigger warnings, exercising empathy for
those for which they apply and can help. Thus my overreaching with interracial relationships in my Author’s Note.
So what’s your
verdict? What type of trigger warnings, if
any, do you want or need to see in your books, TV shows or movies? Or do
you even want them at all?
HAPPY RELEASE DAY TO ME!
Now Available!
Artistic Freedom: Brielle & Rand (Muses 1) – New Adult Erotic Romance
It takes a strong woman to bring a man to heel…
After a years’-long dry-spell comprising desultory, vanilla sex, divorcee and artist’s model Brielle Rice rediscovers the joys of domination and power exchange when she meets cheeky wannabe sub, Rand Cabot. Despite Rand’s lack of experience with the Life, Brielle finds the younger man’s advances irresistible and agrees to a “private” sitting for the aspiring artist. Before the mismatched pair can get down to the business of painting, however, Brielle puts Rand through his paces in the bedroom, testing his resolve to take orders from a woman.
It takes a strong man to submit to a woman…
Over-privileged college student and painter Rand has never met a woman as alluring and assertive as Brielle. He believes his attraction to her is more than her age and experience and is determined to get past the racial and class barriers between them to the woman he knows can fulfill his passion far beyond paint and canvas.
Includes: FemDom, BDSM, CNC