feel I know just a little bit about being multicultural. When I began writing four
years ago, genre wasn't my issue. I love romance novels, have read them ever ...
KEYNOTES
LOVE COMES IN MANY SHADES
SEPTEMBER 2013
SPOTLIGHT BLURRED CONT‘DLINES: IS NOT JUST A SONG, IT‘S A MULTICULTURAL ROMANCE NOVEL By Falguni Kothari I write what I know. It‘s as simple as that. As a Belgian of Indian decent residing in New York, I feel I know just a little bit about being multicultural. When I began writing four years ago, genre wasn‘t my issue. I love romance novels, have read them ever since Mr. Darcy stole my heart during a 4th grade English class. I‘ve realized since that I prefer happy endings to tragedies, so there was never a question in my mind about what genre I was going to write. The demon I had to slay was sub genre, as I found out when I decided to join the publication jamboree. Multicultural romance has a niche market with African-American writers and readers, with Hispanic and Asian romances slowly gaining a foothold as English speaking and reading ethnic groups grow steadily. It struck me, as I began to learn more and more about publishing, that writing the story was only the tip of the iceberg, and to get my story ―out on the racks‖ I‘d have to smash through this mega unseen mass of identifying my story‘s market, finding an agent who‘ll, hopefully, find me a publisher. Getting one‘s stories published is not easy even when one writes popular commercial fiction standing on a mile -high platform. When you‘re a debut author with no platform, trying to get a multicultural romance set in India published in a predominantly white reading market seemed like a hike up Mt. Everest. I was sure about going the traditional publishing route. Self-publishing seems like an even more daunting process to me, and I wanted—needed—the validation of a professional in the field to like my story enough to invest in it. I got lucky in that I travel quite regularly to Mumbai and it struck me while visiting a bookshop there why I wasn‘t approaching Indian publishing houses. Love, in movies and books, is as sellable in India as anywhere else in the world, after all. In less than a year, Rupa Publications India released my debut novel, IT‘S YOUR MOVE, WORDFREAK! The book was well received. Well enough that I found an agent, Mita Kapur of Siyahi, India, through whom I‘ve just signed with Mills & Boon India for my second romance, which will be launched globally in digital format. The world has never been more connected than it is right now. The lines between countries, cultures, ideas, beliefs are blurring or dissolving, certainly are in flux around the globe—with the exception of a rigid few. This sharing of culture, merging of knowledge and integration of diversity is the premise of a multicultural novel and love its universal language. What I‘d love to see is more authors treading the multicultural waters in these exciting times. ♥ Born and bred in Mumbai, Falguni Kothari currently lives in New York with her family and an utterly spoiled dog. She’s the author of IT’S YOUR MOVE, WORDFREAK! and SCRABBULOUS IMPRESSIONS, a short story. Her second novel, THE BOOTIE AND THE BEAST is forthcoming via Harlequin. Visit her at: www.falgunikothari.com and www.falgunikothari.blogspot.com. Follow her on: www.facebook.com/falgunikothari.author and www.twitter.com/F2tweet
Excerpt from September 2013 issue of RT Book Reviews: I’m a black woman: Does that mean that the people I meet in the wider world find it hard to connect with moi? I hope not. And why should things be different in the world of romance? Why should the color of a character’s skin construct a wall that is impossible for readers to overcome? —Alyssa Cole, ―The Color Blind: Why is ‗Traditional‘ Romance Such a Pale Landscape?‖ RWA/NYC Chapter #6
www.rwanyc.com
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