My Confession - My Blasian Affair

I confess that I am a culture-holic.

There....I said it.

When I attended University, I was away from home, family and old friends. Still I made the best of a bad situation and met new people and started my downward slide into the wonderful world of Asian Dramas and Music. From my love affair with Garo, Liar Game and X Family, I gravitated toward the music starting with BigBang, Rain and Se7en (Pronounced SEVEN).

Shinwha

It started out innocently enough - I was in my dorm room and heard this song playing. While it wasn`t in English I could hear the sadness in the singer`s voice and darted down the stairs to see where that haunting song was coming from. Up until this point I hadn`t really spoken to my housemates. They were mostly foreign students and I was terrified. Turns out the song was coming from the dining room so I asked the girl sitting there what song that was and who sang it. I knew it was in Korean--that much I was good with.She explained it was a band called BigBang and that the song was Haru Haru. That late evening we spent the next five hours down the Youtube black hole watching video after video - we went from BigBang, to Shinwha to Rain to 2NE1 and Jang Woo Hyuk and I was hooked.

At first I was addicted to their voices. Then their histories, then their dance moves and one day I sat back and thought - Oh wow, he`s beautiful! I was referring to M from Shinwha. After that, it was all downhill from there. I dug more into these bands on my own, studying their voices - I hate to say it but the members in these bands look eerily similar to each other so knowing their faces sometimes is not possible for me. So I learn the sounds of their voices, the way they move, the way they dress, and that`s how I usually tell them apart. Shinwha I`ve been a fan of for so long I know all their members as well as BigBang (who incidentally I recently saw in concert in Toronto as a part of their MADE tour and OMG I am in love more!lol).

More recently I've become addicted to Lunafly, HISTORY (Kungl, BTS, SHINee, N'UEST, Zhoumi, EXO (M and K) and the list goes on and on.

BTS

So how does this tie in with my writing?

A few years ago I got this bright idea to write a story about a Japanese American Marine who lives in the united states, served his country and comes home to nothing. His fiancee took everything and vanished like a fart in the wind. Because I wrote only interracial stories at the time, and because I was a bit of a shit starter (still am by the way) I decided to pair him with a black character. I never saw it as a big deal - I mean I'd just gotten out of a relationship with a man who was born in Tibet but was raised in India who was half Chinese/Half Japanese so to me, this pairing was a no brainer. I wrote the tale, edited and began shopping it around to different publisher. The first house I sent it to sent me back an email asking me if there was any chance I could change the Japanese Marine to a Native American man. At first I was baffled. I didn't know why that was. So I emailed back to ask why. The reply was "no one wanted to read a story about a Japanese man." I was shocked but life goes on, right? The second house I sent it to, asked me to take the black guy out and make him white.

Again, I sent a reply back asking why. I was quickly told that Japanese people did not "like blacks" and that the Japanese thought "blacks were dirty because of the colour of their skin."

Now, for those of you who know me personally, can see the flames shooting out of my ears just retyping that garbage. I was so pissed off I didn't even reply to that email. For a while I was

BigBang

absolutely gutted. I loved this guy so much how dare they speak for a whole culture? For the longest time I had the story sitting around on my computer. The debate was whether to change the black guy or the Japanese guy.  In the end I decided I wouldn't change either. I re-edited for spelling and grammar then subbed it to another house. I was determined this story would be published if not by a publishing house, then self published. I have this stubborn streak in me that can sometimes be a bad thing but it hasn't failed me yet. It was a good story. I enjoyed writing it and if you're not going to take it give me a reason like "we don't like it" or "it doesn't fit our style" or something. But racism? Oh hell to the now!

 Luckily, the third house said yes and CAGED hit the world.  Then after things went downhill with another story, I had to gut and change a bunch of things so I changed the second hottie to a Korean American NYPD officer name Leo. That story is LOVE LIES BLEEDING now at Wilde City Press.

Later, I got this bright idea for a species of Demi-god-esque characters called SHIVERS and the second book in that series include a sexy Samurai turned SHIVER and his African American real estate mogul human lover! OSAKI was accepted by Pride Books.

Daniel Dae Kim

Lately, readers have been emailing to ask for more Blasian (Black and Asian) stories from me. One reader said I had this way of infusing culture and language into my story and they want to see more of that. One reader who I am friends with on facebook has asked me repeatedly to write a Yaoi for her - for those who have no idea what that is click here. I started it but other ideas keeps flooding my brain and life just keeps getting in the way. But I digress.

Yes, I love writing Asian men - Recently I wrote a story with a Korean man that I can't wait for readers to get their hands on. It's a little sexier than most of my other stuff but hey, we live and we grow, right?

Writing these stories make me so happy - It pushes me to dig through food, language, fashion, all these beautiful little things that make up a people!

Over the past few years I began looking into cultures deeply. I've learned that just as how they have their own ways of doing things, they have things that make them sexy.  To write Interracial romance/erotica, you have to delve into these new worlds, learn what makes the women/men go gaga over each other and see if it is something you can get behind.

So I guess that's my way of saying, yes

With me, I've immersed myself into the music and I think I can honestly say, blasian tales will always be a part of my book list.  While CAGED is no longer for sale (The contract was up and it needs a good gutting since my writing has developed since then) and then I will re-submit it again.

Love,
Remmy Duchene