Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twenty-Six : Interview with @rebekahwsm + month long #giveaway

We're on our last day for our annual Diversity Month event! 

We had fun, did you?

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twenty-Five : Interview with @Lyderary + month long #giveaway

We're literally two days away from the New Year, and we just have two interviews left!

Today's guest highlights something totally different than most our guests this month.

Comics!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twenty-Four : Interview with @KevinWayneW + month long #giveaway

Anyone looking for a zombie book fix? 

Or rather a different take on what kinds of characters make it through to a zombie apocalypse?

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twenty-Three : Interview with @charmedcastor + month long #giveaway

So through the power of Twitter is where we met our next guest! 

If Twitter is good for anything, it's connecting with some aweomse people(especially fellow Kingdom Hearts fans ;p)

Her debut novel releases 2016, so we're getting here before she's famous =D

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twenty-One : Interview with @LAH_Author + month long #giveaway

Happy Holidays all you awesome folk!

We took a few days off, because, who would really hop on our blog to read an interview during the holidays XD

But now that we're entering the last few days of our month long event of interviews, we're delighted to introduce who's next up!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twenty : Interview with @Loribeth215 + month long #giveaway

Can't believe it's literally two days from Christmas. We know everyone probably has Xmas plans, but we haven't listened to a single Xmas song this year XD 

That's so not like us =D 

Anywho, we're just one week away from ending our giveaway. Have you entered yet! We still have many awesomesauce interviews including today's lovely we also got to see a little more of during Mya Lairis' Colors in Darkness event!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Nineteen: Interview with @VampyreQueen14 + month long #giveaway

We're coming down to our last week of interviews, and we're about to introduce one we connected with with former interviewee May Lairis!

All these new Speculative Fiction authors we're new to. You're welcome ;p

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Eighteen: Interview with @80booksblog @tqwanabrown @hahanella + month long #giveaway

It's the end of the week and we're ending it big with bloggers!

Our next guests are co-bloggers, and totally awesome! As avid followers of their blog, if you need a new blog to get diveres book recommendations, look no further!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Seventeen: Interview with @the1bookdreamer + month long #giveaway

So we're onto our next blogger spotlight. Can't you tell how much we love bloggers! I think what I love about our next interview, is she makes me question my North American bias/privilege.

I try to make myself aware that being from the United States, there are a ton of things we don't always get right about representation, and we don't always consider what it's like outside the US especially in blogger communities.

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Sixteen: Interview with @musingsirj + month long book #giveaway

So we've had an awesome opportunity to connect with all these awesome bloggers and authors over the past few weeks, and this one in particular provided an awesome opportunity to interview our only editor this year!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Fifteen: Interview with @ShiraGlassman + month long #giveaway

So we met this author through a small request via Twitter last year! Ask Twitter a question, and you shall receive!

We were looking for more books featuring trans characters in YA and SFF, and this author's publisher directed us to her fabulous book series =D

We've gotten to have a few exchanges with her as well, and we're learning that while the state of inclusion is getting better, there's still a lot of ways we fail, and need room for improvement(There was an interesting debate about the state of Jewish main characters or bodies of works by Jewish authors, that if you don't know, you should really check out here!)

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Fourteen: Interview with Anisha & Jess @Bookmark_Place + month long #giveaway

So we’re very pleased with this week’s line up. Most are some really cool super-homies coming up, and today isn’t any different.

We highlight a ton of authors this month, because, duh! We love reading books! But what we get the most out of this month is our feedback from other bloggers. When we were as unknown as you could be(even though I wouldn’t say we’re very well known. But people find it hard to forget the word Twinja XD) we were invited into the book blogosphere from so many friendly faces that helped us build the type of themes we highlight to this day. We couldn’t have done it without the community of bloggers we’ve become apart of, and I for one love seeing blogs like today’s guests, because it feels like the community seeking and wanting more for the conversation about inclusion is only getting bigger.

And we’re not getting just one, but two voices, all in one interview =D

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Thirteen: Interview with @astralcolt + our month long #giveaway

So we met our next guest at Kidlitcon this year, as she was one of the awesome panelists we got to speak with about diversity. 

 (we look totally cheesy, we know XD )

What we really liked about her(outside of the bias we now have, having spoken on a panel with her XD )was how honest she was about the privileges she had, despite being a woman of color in the publishing industry, and life for that matter. 

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Twelve: Interview with @findmereading of @thegayYA + month long #giveaway

Our next guest we so desperately tried to book last year, but based on time restraints, she wasn't able to =) She's one of the bloggers who make sure the awesome YA blog GayYA is constantly pressing content for it's readers to learn, connect and have their voices heard for people who identify as LGBTQIAP or Quiltbag.

Outside of Disability in Kidlit, it's one of our favorite blogs that talk about inclusion in books, especially in the YA community, where the voices are especially needed.

Plus she's a super homie. Let's not forget that =D

 Twinja Book Reviews Annual Diversity Month Event Day Twelve:

 Vee of The GayYa

We’re so happy to have you included in our event. We’re really big fans of Gay YA but for those that aren’t familiar, why don’t you tell us the team behind GayYa and how GayYA came to be…

I’m so so thrilled to be included! I just adore your website, and your diversity month.

So, GayYA started back in 2011 after Jessica Verday was asked to change her m/m story in the Wicked, Pretty Things anthology to a m/f pairing. The reaction from the YA community was incredible and made it clear to my sister and I that there were tons of fans who loved LGBTQIA+ YA and they needed a place to talk about it and be heard.

Now, GayYA is made of six awesome volunteers who are all fantastic and make everything we do on the site happen. 

What inspired you to make GayYA a diversity in books resource?

Well, fun story, back when my sister and I decided to start up this site, I had NO IDEA I was queer or trans. I thought I was a Helpful Straight coming to help The Gays. (Do I get a pass since I was 12?)

Eventually, when I was around fifteen I started realizing that I was queer and trans. I became depressed and suicidal. (It’s amazing how you can be totally fine with other people being something, but hate yourself when you find out you’re that same something.) I felt worthless, freakish, and unlovable.

Then, I found books about trans kids and queer girls. Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff, Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block, and Far From You by Tess Sharpe changed my life. More than that, they probably saved my life. The first two include trans characters in romantic relationships, fully accepted as who they are. Far From You portrayed a bisexual girl who was rock solid in her identity, and unashamed of liking girls. These books validated my identity, and for the first time I saw a possible future for myself, one beyond the misery I was in, one where someone might love me as me… one that might be worth living for.

I knew there were thousands of teens living in a similar misery. I knew that they didn’t know that books like these existed. (There’s a very prevalent myth that all queer YA is either nonexistent, badly written, or so contrived that it’s not relatable.) I knew that a lot of librarians and teachers who’d be happy to share these books didn’t know about them. Books saved my life; I knew they could save others as well. So I rebooted GayYA, and we’ve been going steady ever since.

What are some of your recommendations of the last few good books you’ve featured/read?

I just read Gena/Finn by Hannah Moskowitz & Kat Helgeson, and am in the process of reading We Are the Ants by Shaun Hutchinson. They were both amazing, intense, nuanced, and deeply relatable books. I also really loved My Year Zero by Rachel Gold. (Full disclosure, I’m Rachel’s marketing intern. But I swear that I’m not saying this because of that!) My Year Zero is new and fresh and interesting and geeky and sexy and I loved it.

Watch for these books in the first few months of 2016! They’re fantastic reads and really important contributions to LGBTQIA+ YA.

Any wishlists of themes or genres you’d like to see more with stories featuring Queer YA?

This is the BEST question! I actually have a running word document of my things-I-want-to-see-in-Queer-YA Wishlist. But I’ll try to narrow it down to just a few for this question. ;)

To start, there are so few people of color, disabled, and neuroatypical characters in queer YA. The lack is unacceptable. So I really want to see more intersectional diversity in queer YA especially that is written by people who have the same intersections.

I want to see coming out stories for bisexual teens. Coming out as bisexual is different than coming out as gay or lesbian, and bisexual teens need to see that represented.

I desperately want a trans romance. And I mean straight up, butterflies-in-your-stomach romance, not a contemporary book with a romantic side plot.

I want to see books with characters that don’t come out at the end. People always look at me like I’ve exceedingly questionable taste when I say this, but hear me out. I’m not out to my parents. I’m not hiding—they know I run GayYA, I’m very outspoken about queer rights, my aesthetic is very queer. I just don’t want to share this bit about myself with them. And whenever I do eventually definitively come out to them, it won’t be a euphoric moment, like I always see in coming out stories. I’ve no doubt it is a euphoric moment for so many teens to come out to their parents. But I don’t think it is for all. And I’d like to see that reflected.

 Are there any areas GayYA would love to explore more for 2016?

Yes! We’ve got a lot of exciting plans for 2016 that I’m really looking forward to.

We’re going to start offering monthly book recommendations in 2016. We’ve got an amazing review team that will be writing reviews for GayYA’s book recommendations. Our recommendations will be of books that we thought had great representation, great writing, and/or brought something really new to the table of LGBTQIA+ YA lit. Our reviews will of course discuss any problematic elements of the books, but will primarily look at why we thought the book was amazing and what, specifically, made it amazing. Did it subvert a trope? Represent an identity that hasn’t been represented yet? Include something we haven’t seen in queer YA before? I’m really excited for it, since it means we’ll be able to share the books that we loved, while still critically discussing representation! (Side note: if you’re an author or publicist interested in having your book considered for recommendation, please check out our page here: http://www.gayya.org/?page_id=961)

I’m also hoping to introduce some new columns. I’d really love to have a slot every month for teenage contributors, and another for interviews with queer YA authors that talk about everything other than the diversity in their books. We’re also looking at doing a series that covers LGBTQIA+ YA before the 2000s.

Lastly, we’re hoping to restructure our LGBTQIA+ YA masterlist to make it a better resource, and do a full site redesign!! So, we’re really looking forward to 2016. ☺

Where can people go to find out more about GayYA and how others can make a contribution to GayYA?

You can find out more on our website, or follow our Twitter @thegayYA or Tumblr!

As for making a contribution… we’re always looking for new community members, and community involvement. We love to hear your feedback on our posts, we love it when you signal boost our posts and spread them around the blogosphere, we love hearing suggestions of new features, we love to have people involved in our Twitter book club.  We’re also always looking for guest blog pitches!

Lastly, we always really, really appreciate financial contributions. [link: Click here to donate!]

Thanks so much for having me, Twinjas! <3 

Vee S. lives in Minnesnowta. When she’s not weeping frozen tears over how cold it is, she spends her time writing, reading, keeping up with school, and snuggling her cats. Vee is the admin and co-founder of GayYA.Org. She have a lot of thoughts on LGBTQIA+ representation in YA.

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Week Three of our 3rd Annual Diversity Month event!

Welcome Back all diversies!

It's the third week of our 3rd Annual Diversity Month event. Have you joined us on weekends too?

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Eleven: Interview with @MiaMitns + month long #giveaway

Hey awesome people!

We're about to enter the third week of our diversity month, and we couldn't end it without another interview!

Our next author we also saw a lot of during past guest Mya Lairis' Colors in Darkness event a few weeks back. We're hoping if people haven't already heard of her, they find a brand new Speculative Fiction author to indulge in =D

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Ten: Interview with @constanceburris +month long #giveaway

Happy Saturday awesome people. Totally confused about the weather East Coast bound. It's December and CT don't know what month it wants to be. I'll keep the warm weather, but don't come at me with snow next week!

So we mentioned the weekends were fair game, and I almost waited until the last minute, but our next interview is up!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Nine: Interview with @Arkwen452 + month long #giveaway

Just to let you guys know, we’re working double duty to make sure we fit everyone in, so expect two new interviews this weekend(possibly more after a few extra confirmations!). As far as our diversity month goes, thanks so much for folks who are coming and supporting all these great inclusive voices!

Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Eight: Interview with @KaiLeakes + monthling #giveaway

We're almost to the end of the week, but the response for the event has become overwhelming, to accommodate everyone we will post on a few weekends too =)

 

Our next guest we've seen on Twitter here and there, but it wasn't until yesterday's guest hosted her Colors in Darkness event that we got the chance to know her work more.

For those looking to diversify you Paranormal Romance, look no further =D

Twinja Book Reviews Annual Diversity Month Event Day Eight:

Author Kai Leakes

Thank you for stopping by the blog! Why don't you introduce yourself to readers!

Greetings and Hello everyone! 

I'm happy to introduce myself as Kai Leakes. I am the baddest *kidding*, sappy, blerd around and I happen to also be a writer of Speculative Fiction and romance. Namely, fantasy, romance, and paranormal works. I am the author of Sin Eaters Devotion Book Series, it’s behind the book short follow-up Rebel Guardians: Sin Eaters Chronicles Book One, current short stories - Love, Lies, and Pleasure: A Brothers of Kemet Story (Romance) and Free Your Mind (a cyberpunk short). 

​I am from the Midwest, namely St. Louis, Missouri. I gained an addiction to books at an early age. 

What can you tell us about your journey being an author?

My journey as a author was nothing but luck I feel. Due to the fact that, books were my love, writing out my imaginative stories didn't start until late in life due to my desire to see myself reflected in the pages of books I read. Sharing impromptu vibrant romance story tales with my cousins as a teen, writing books didn't seem like something I would pursue until one day in college. 

My first story was a historical romance that I lost. I later, years later after graduating, ended up writing a epic fantasy, in a alternative world where magic was born to save the world. I really wrote it to test myself and see if I could create a story and I happily did. However, that gem is so raw that I'm keeping to myself to tweak it for later. Eventually from there, I ended up creating Sin Eaters and I've been procrastinating and writing ever since. 

Outside of writing small stories for myself, I honestly can say that the real fire put in my belly with it, didn't happen until I started writing fan fiction with a friend I met on our favorite author, L.A. Banks website. If the site was still up, you guys could have seen some of the work we did, but so far its gone from the web. 

It felt natural to me to create those stories funny enough. I loved it and always looked forward to what I could include to the thread. 

What can you tell us about your experience growing up?

Growing up, I gravitated to all things fantasy. The only books that I recall in those genres that had clear diversity was, Babysitter Club. I could not find anything in the genres I like that reflected me and I used to look for it. Which was disappointing and had me mentally changing characters to reflect my world.​

I loved mermaids (the little mermaid was fresh and the bees knees when I was growing up), X-men, and vampires. That was my go between. If I could find stories that had those magical elements then I was all for it. It just sucked because not a lot of them, if any represented me or my family.

How can we make the conversation about diversity where it needs to be?

I think the conversation about diversity is going exactly where it needs to go. It's growing and becoming louder and I am here for it. I crave to see diversity become the default instead of what it is now because frankly, it's annoying and not reflective of the real world. Especially in the US. I crave to see more faces of color on book covers in fantasy and romance. I also crave to see those faces in on screen. I need to see our lives shown and shown how we love and that we don't ALWAYS seek the approval or love of the default as media always tries to make it appear. Especially when using POC's as tokens. 

I mean hello! POC are abundantly living in the cities, these speculative fiction/fantasy/comic books that are on TV and movies and being read based. Yet, we are never shown, but in a wink of the eye.

Above all of that, I crave to see more writers of color (who write speculative fiction/fantasy and romance) in the forefront being celebrated, best-sellers and giving major publishing and movie deals! 

What has been your favorite character to create and why?

This is a hard one, I have two. 

Khamun and The Medusa. Two polar opposites in the battle of good and evil are my favorite characters to have created. Khamun started out as nothing but a voice to me, the Attacker. That's all I knew him as when I created his intro chapter. If you've read Sin Eaters multiple times, I know that my readers can tell that the intro chapter is my favorite. It was so descriptive that you could feel your self in his world, in his mind and seeing what makes him tick. 

Khamun is my body boy hero. Not classically sexy, but handsome and alluring. His temper and duty to protecting us while being an outcast, makes me care for him so much. I also enjoy connecting with his prowess and crafting his fighting scenes. 

Now, another one who fires me up in the same with with fighting is The Medusa. This woman is a powerhouse who happens to be the object of a incredible evil force and has no qualms about it as far as the reader knows. I love jumping in her mind and discovering many different things about who she is and her complexities. But above all of that, I enjoy watching her toy with her targets and toy with those she hates, which is the Light. 

Why do you write the types of books you write, and do you plan diversifying genres in the future?

I love writing paranormal romance because that's what I grew up reading in a sense. I gravitated to Bram Stoker, RL Stine's Fear Street, Anne Rice, then in the mix was Babysitters Club and whatever tawdry historical romances I could get my hands on. 

It all shaped me into who I am today. As a young child then, I imagine myself as the characters. Changing their color, their shape, hair etc. It got to the point where I couldn't do that anymore. It was that, which lead me to creating y own stories and why I purposely chose to shape my stories around who I wanted and needed to see in stories. So the plan to diversifying genres was always there and I have. I've stepped into contemporary romance and Cyberfunk for the first time. I'm also, stepping into the world of Steampunk for the first time.

Who is your favorite Book Bae?

My sexy Jag-were in L.A. Banks Vampire Series. I can't give you the name because I forgot it. Sad, I know. But, he was fineeeeeeeeeeeeee! and a good guy. Oh and a shape-shifting jaguar. I mean, hello! 

If you can have any superpower or supernatural ability, what would it be and why?

If I could have any superpower, I'd have a combo of Storm and The Phoenix's power. I want to protect my mind from mind readers. Move things with my mind. Have a tiny bit of strength. Fly or teleport and use fire or lightning if I wanted. 

Can you see that I'm a little super power greedy? LOL. 

What is the book that have the biggest impact on you and why?

L.A. Banks Vampire Huntress Series. The impact was that not only did she have a book of vampires and bad-taz fighters, but, they were all of color! The lead was a sista with dreadlocks, dark skin and not model vixen typed. Then above all of that, the man who loved/needed her was a fine darker toned Latino brotha! I absolutely loved it.

She crushed the stereotypes in the black/Latino and more communities. I miss her deeply. L.A. Banks allowed me to see myself in her world with no problem. I craved that and it impacted me greatly. So, go grab her books and if you have a young adult, introduce them to her Shadow Walker book, then as they get older to young adult, hand them Minion, book one of her series.

What type of advice can you give to those starting out?

My journey as an emerging writer and stepping into the role of author has been rewarding but difficult. Learning how to take the steps to tighten my writing and create a plan in marketing myself continues to be a struggle. But with having a foundation under you and a support network around you, becoming a writer can be a great adventure. So my advice is write and trust in yourself! 

Finally, where can folks go for updates, and to learn more about your projects going on?

You can find me here: 

Official Website

Check out my Book Trailer!

Facebook Page

Follow me on Twitter!

My Blog!

Tumblr

 

Thank you and remember, “The Light Always Prevails.” 

Born in Iowa, but later relocating and raised in Alton, IL and St. Louis, MO, Kai Leakes was an imaginative Midwestern child, who gained an addiction to books at an early age. The art of imagination was the very start of Kai’s path of writing which lead her to creating the Sin Eaters: Devotion Books Series. 

Since a young child, her love for creating, vibrant romance and fantasy driven mystical tales, continues to be a major part of her very DNA. With the goal of sharing tales that entertain and add color to a gray literary world, Kai Leakes hopes to continue to reach out to those who love the same fantasy, paranormal, romantic, sci/fi, and soon, steampunk driven worlds that shaped her unique multi-faceted and diverse vision.

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Twinja Book Reviews 3rd Annual Diversity Month Day Seven: Interview with @MyaBlackkoda

It brings us great pride to present our next guest.

Some Romance friends may know her, but if you're just finding out, even more awesome!

She started an event/initiative highlighting inclusion in Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Horror called "Colors in Darnkess." It was so fun, we joined for the fun, and look forward to it next year. You can even get updates on the Facebook Group, with all the lovelies looking and promoting their dark Speculative Fiction!