I have just submitted the first chapter in the NEXT book of Trouble Texas Style. Yes, if having two WIPs (Works In Progress for you non-writers) is not bad enough, now there are FOUR interwoven stories posting simultaneously. It’s okay if you feel confused. I am. So much so that this pantser (a writer who flies by the seat of her pants) took a whole day off of writing to plot, goddess forbid!
If you have not been following the comments at Literotica, there is a whole big discussion of how my chapters should be longer. As I explained, this series is like a television show or George R R Martin’s Fire & Ice (Game of Thrones). A whole bunch of stories interwoven, happening at the same, and feeding off of and into one another. A soap opera.
And today I introduced two new characters into that mix.
Meet Will and Mercy.
Remember how Gerald McBride bribed those federal agents to let him, Cassie, and Callie getaway?
Will was one of them. But before you get all up in his grill about it…
Growing up a black man in America, Will has learned that doing the right thing and abiding by the law are not always the same things.
As for Mercy, well, her Mama and big sister Laura don’t need to worry about her. Because little sister don’t miss when she aims her gun.
Except this time she did. She only winged the ‘good’ sheriff.
But no more spoilers…hopefully, the first chapter will post on Literotica in a couple of days.
This blog is one of those behind the scenes clips that come on DVDs.
Ready to Run as this story is titled is my first submission in the Interracial Love category for almost six years. That is a bit strange for the woman who began writing at Lit as wife2hotblk. Almost all of those crappy and amateur stories were either interracial or impregnation or both.
But my experience with interracial relationships is not just through writing. After being raised in the deep South in a racist household, I spent over a decade working out that trauma by fucking only black men. I married a black man and have a mixed-race child. I could frankly write a non-fiction book on the subject.
But I prefer fiction. It is not that I have not dealt with the issue of interracial relationships. My Sergeant Mike’s Miracle Tour series deals with the issue of racism and prejudice in both Labor’s End And Shared Burdens. Mike and Esther are an interracial couple themselves.
The difference is that race, skin color, is not WHY Mike loves Esther. He falls for this woman initially out of respect for how she raised her son. That deepens as he sees her incredible intelligence, strength, and compassion. Esther could be purple or plaid and Mike would love her anyway. That is how things should be.
That is not to say that race and prejudice do not affect relationships. They do. Most definitely in the US, and even here in the UK where I have lived for fourteen years.
ALL people are prejudiced.
It is how the human brain thinks. It tries to categorize things into neat piles and stacks. It might be futile to try to stop that.
But there are a few problems with our prejudices that we can, should, and must address:
- We need to recognize it. Few people take the time to self-reflect and identify their biases. Instead, they deny them. I wake up next to mine every morning. I might have gotten over those racist ideas my family tried to plant in my head, but conquering my aversion to ‘rich’ people is another matter. It is humbling to realize that if I had googled Alan or seen the number of zeros on his bank account I would not have gone on that first disastrous date with him. Yes, I still have other prejudices…and no, I have not managed to reconcile my love for him with my biases. I’m working on it.
- Prejudices are thoughts. Racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, and all the others are actions. And we do have the capacity to stop those thoughts from becoming actions. We actually have the obligation to do just that.
- None of them are worse than the others. This is a huge lie/myth that we see playing out everywhere right now. Black Lives Matters and top athletes making anti-semitic comments. Famous writers defending their right to trans-phobic views. Feminists denying men a voice in the #MeToo movement. The bottom line is all of those are just as bad as any of the others.
And as that dark-skinned, Jewish philosopher said…
Let he (or she) who is without sin cast the first stone.
So here’s the bad news, folks. I’m about to piss all of you off one way or another. The feminists. BLM. The LGBT+++. I’m stepping on everyone’s toes with these stories.
Because I have an angry black man who would die to save a rich, little white girl – goes it’s the right thing. I have a bi-sexual military hero who was raped in boot camp. I have smart-mouthed, strong women who aren’t afraid to lean on their men – when they need to. Cause, after all, they know that he’ll lean right back sometimes. I have Marines washing dishes. And I have some incredibly human villains.
Because the biggest truth of all is…
We are all just shades of brown.
Whether that is our skin, which after all is nothing more than the amount of melanin in our cells.
Or our souls, because no one, not even presidents, prime ministers, or rich white men are totally bad. And no one not even saints or dahlia lamas or that Jewish philosopher have the moral authority to cast that first stone. (Yes, even Jesus got angry and kicked some butt…in the temple no less. Matthew 12 or John 2, look up yourself.)
And if ya’ll don’t like what I write, there’s the knob. Let the door hit’ya where the good goddess split’ya on the way out.
For the rest of you, all two of you, I hope that these stories move your heart, challenge your mind, and encourage you to be the difference.
From one brown-skinned and brown souled human being to another goddess bless,
Tara
Tara Cox - Literary Erotica 