As a Bollywood dancing, reggae-loving, Mexican American reader and author - I totally dig this! I love contemporary women's fiction, and add some diversity in there and I love it even more! We live in a rich melting pot of cultures and traditions, and it's exciting to "live" in those worlds via smart, intriguing, comical, sincere characters. It's a way to see that we are all more alike than different!
Here are the details, per Lisa:
Good Reads Colorful Chick-Lit Challenge: This group's goal is to read chick lit that features women of color.
"I have to confess that before I started listening to audio books, I didn't think much of chick lit. However, I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to, and reading, it. So much so that I started wondering why there isn't more chick lit featuring women of color. Oh sure, occasionally authors will throw in a sidekick with a tinge of color, but mostly the stars of these adventures and their counterparts are lily white.
Then I thought, well maybe no one writes about women of color in this genre because they think there's not an audience for it. The response from readers when I review chick lit on my blog brings people out of the woodwork. So we're reading it and it doesn't necessarily have to be about us for us to enjoy it. That led me to research chick lit outside of the mainstream. And guess what? There's books aplenty! I've not read all of it yet, but I've found chick lit with Indian, Latina, Asian and African-American women. And they're not the sidekick. They're the star"
Lisa - you rock!The challenge will run from January 1 - December 31, 2011.
Paper, e-books and audio books are all acceptable.
What qualifies as colorful chick lit
- Written by women of color about women of color
- Humorous, snarky or laugh out loud
- A tinge of romance, but not so much that it resembles a Harlequin
- A happy ending
- It's rom/com on paper!
Participants should try to read books from all four categories: Indian, Latina, Asian & African-American
Levels of participation
- Novice: 4 to 7 books
- Amateur: 8 to 11 books
- Queen of Chick Lit: 12 or more books
Felicidades,
Kathy :-)
Hi Kathy,
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law Laura Kluvo (Blogging Project Runway and RickRackRuby) just turned me on to you. I can't wait for your book to come out in March. I plan to get my signed copy when you come to Tucson's Festival of Books.
Thanks for being a timely spark of inspiration. I have two novels in progress (thank you Nano 2009 and 2010) and feel overwhelmed at the prospect of publishing them. Your blog is just the encouragement I needed.
Sincerely,
Heather Stanton