Welcome to DIVERSE VIEWS!
Here, at DIVERSE VIEWS, you will find how history, romance and people from varied backgrounds and worlds interact. Romance is for everyone and in romance writing I try to include all peoples. Stories with African-American main characters are very central to me. Oddly though, my first romance novel had 16th century Renaissance France as its setting. "Faithful" spins the love story of Blaise, a Protestant nobleman and Isabella, a Catholic noblewoman. Their love is quite the no-no. This book incorporates everything I ever studied in school. I was proud to be able to blend history with romance to produce the characters and story. Published by iUniverse, it earned their Editor's Choice designation.I used my real name to publish this book. Find it under Anita-Louise Johnson. Check out the following summary.
"FAITHFUL"
Set in Middle Renaissance France (1571-1572), Faithful opens during a tenuous peace between two habitually warring factions, French Catholics and French Protestants (Huguenots). As an act of acceptance and to protect his political interests, Catholic monarch Charles IX negotiates his sister's marriage to a Huguenot sovereign. Certain that these marriages can solve all of France's problems, he arranges another between two aristocratic families.
The only thing the wastrel Blaise detests more than marriage is Catholics.
What a match!
Thrust together against their wills, Blaise and Isabella clash every step of the way, but cannot deny their growing attraction. Will they overcome their prejudices? Will they fall in love?
Unbeknownst to them, they are in a race against time as malevolent forces dissatisfied with peace hatch a monstrous plot. A plot which will pit Catholic against Huguenot, cast France into another war of religion and alter the lives of all involved.
My second book, "KINDRED" is near and dear to my heart. It is the one in which I place African-Americans and Native Americans in major roles. I spun this story off something my maternal grandmother related to me about our family possibly having Native American roots. I took the thread and ran with it. I am proud of this book also as it really came out better than I had imagined. It has all kinds and types of cultures and peoples. The grandmother in the story speaks in the Gullah dialect and lives the Gullah culture in Upstate NY. I am familiar with Gullah culture and the Gullah language. It is the dialect my father's side of the family spoke. He was born on one of the islands just off the Carolinas. I love the area known as the Low Country and I love the Hudson River Valley and Mohawk River Valley areas too. All settings for my book. All parts of me. I wrote this story under my pen name P. J. Dean. New Concepts Publishing picked it up for its line. Think "Last of the Mohicans" with a little flava. Check out the premise for "KINDRED" below. Also check out the link to an abbreviated Gullah dictionary. It should help those who find Gullah difficult to read.
"KINDRED"
An herbalist and free woman of color, Kindred Twain and Lelaheo/Cassian Harkness, an Oneida Indian, had been inseparable since childhood, so it was no surprise to anyone when their childhood bond blossomed into love as they grew into adulthood. Neither suspected when they agreed to wait to wed until Lelaheo had completed his medical studies in Europe that they were poised on the eve of war. Neither suspected that the Revolutionary War and/or a young British miss named Adeline would threaten to tear them apart forever.
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"THE FELIG CHRONICLES"(working title) will be my third romance. It is an interracial/erotic/paranormal. Again it has a blend of African-American characters with non-African-American ones. Just like real life. My heroine is Black; the hero is White. They band together to fight aliens in a post-apocalyptic USA. In the meantime, they fall hard for each other. It has been picked up by eXtasy Books and will be out next years, maybe later this year. I wrote it under my pen name. Check out the summary below.
"THE FELIG CHRONICLES"
It is set in a post-apocalyptic America. My interracial couple Faustina Cain and Nate Lowe fall for each other while fighting a group of aliens, the life-force draining Felig, who have invaded Earth. For Tina, it's personal; they took her mom. Neither Tina or Nate were looking for love. Just raw sex to take the edge off possibly being killed at any moment. Joining forces makes them ponder why they are even alive. Meanwhile, Nate has a humdinger of a secret. This is another bumpy, worthwhile ride for readers. Pay a visit to extasy Books and read something else until this one comes out.
