I blogged about Love Inspired having African-American characters on their book covers back in 2012. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw this recently:

The heroine is AA. The hero is Hispanic.

What an awesome cover! So pretty! I highly encourage you to purchase The Texan’s Secret Daughter. If you read it and you like it, then please let the publisher, Harlequin Love Inspired, and the author, Jolene Navarro, know that you enjoyed it!

Can this rancher make up for his past?

Turning his life around was the hardest thing Elijah De La Rosa ever had to do—until his ex-wife, Jazmine Daniels, returns with their young daughter he didn’t know existed. Now this successful rancher will do anything to be a good father. But can he forgive himself for the past…and turn their second chance into a family for always?

Folks within the romance novel community have been talking about the RWA (Romance Writers of America) Rita Awards. A Black person has never won this prestigious romance award. A friend of mine shared this article with me. It’s a very informative article that gives a rundown of the history of African-Americans within the romance genre. I do recall some of the events in this article. Some of these events occurred before I joined the writing community.

One reason why I use silhouettes on the covers of all of my indie-pubbed romance titles is because I want ALL RACES to read my romance stories. I believe that most romance readers can relate to the stories that I’ve created.

I’ve blogged about similar topics here (see links at the end of this post):

Yes, I realize it’s a LONG LIST, but, I’ve been blogging (sporadically) for over thirteen years! The subject of race often comes up in the fiction publishing world, and it’s a subject which needs to be discussed!

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2013/08/african-american-novels-by-white-authors.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2013/02/posts.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2010/01/bloomsbury-publishing.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2009/12/should-publishers-get-rid-of-african.html

This was a post to which I referred in one of my blog posts – its’ hilarious!

http://crimesistahs.blogspot.com/2008/12/welcome-to-black-book-section-enjoy.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2008/11/should-black-books-be-segregated.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2007/02/shelving-black-books.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2007/02/black-authors.html

http://ceceliadowdy.com/blog/2012/03/love-inspired-novels-with-african.html