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Cherry Pickin’ Blog

The Official Playlist for The Bull by His Horns

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So, I wrote a western. The Bull by His Horns, as much as it a sci-fi/paranormal/weird story, has elements of westerns. It features cowboys, Texan drawls, men riding horses (and bulls), and even a plot about a man wrongly accused and in danger of mob violence. Some of the elements that are present are also part of the history of America’s west too—like the background genocide. (Oh, what, you...

Rewriting History: How the Cowboy Came to Be White

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One of the reasons I wanted to make Ferr a Black-presenting character in The Bull by His Horns was to address the cultural myth that all cowboys were white. Over time, the history of people of color working as cowboys in America’s Wild West has been lost, erased. It was replaced with the myth of a white cowboy. Why and how did this happen? At the root, we know exactly why it occurred: racism...

Race, Racism, and Representation in SFF

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For my upcoming book, The Bull by His Horns, I knew I wanted to feature cowboys. And specifically, I wanted to pay homage to the often glossed-over fact that most in the American Wild West weren’t white. Many were Black; some were Latinx and yet others were Indigenous people. (Nishant Aneja /Pexels.com) So, it seemed only natural to make the love interest a Black cowboy. Of course, said love...

Copyright Exists to Protect Creators

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All right, before we dive in here: I’m not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. Don’t take it that way. Don’t take anything I say here as gospel, because law is one of those things that thrives on “gray area” and interpretation. (I mean, why do you think lawyers can argue totally different things?) What’s this? A banhammer? (Sora Shimazaki/Pexels.com) That said, I’ve worked in rights...

Yes, Fanfic Is Real Writing

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Every once in a while someone comes along and decides to shit all over fanfiction. Usually, fanfic gets knocked as being poor quality writing, somehow of little to no literary value. It’s incredibly interesting to me, as someone who cut her teeth on fanfic, who did a degree in English lit and read lots and lots of litfic and “the canon,” and as someone who writes romance novels now. There are a...

How Romantic Love Becomes a Tool of Patriarchy

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Recently, a friend was ranting to me about a favorite TV show. They were upset with the direction the writers went with a couple of the characters. A female character had to choose between leaving her family, friends, and career so she could move across country with the man she loved. As it turned out, one of the male leads at her work—her partner—finally confessed to her about his romantic...

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