Monday, December 24, 2012

Guest blog with Chris T Kat



Jim Sanders & Andrew Wright—an interracial couple

In A Purrfect Match the two main characters are Jim Sanders, an Afro-American man, and Andrew Wright, who is white. They are seen as an interracial couple. Does it sound stupid if I tell you that I didn't give this fact much thought when I started writing the story? I just knew Jim was a tall, black guy. I couldn't picture him as a white man. On the other hand, I couldn't picture Andrew as a black guy. The characters dictated their story to me, and they obviously had very strong opinions about who they were.

Only when I was a few pages into the story it occurred to me they could have to deal with prejudices. Yep, you may call me naive... The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted to highlight their status as an interracial couple. Well, Jim and Andrew wanted to have it this way, and I couldn't deny them. ;-)

I know interracial couples are still frowned upon. I wonder why people are opposed to interracial couples. What do they fear? Isn't love supposed to be blind? If you get to know someone and are lucky enough to fall in love with that someone, why should it matter if the skin color differs?

It comes all down to prejudices. For whatever reason some people still believe races shouldn't mix. Even if other people wouldn't go that far, they still feel uncomfortable around interracial couples without really being able to explain why they feel this way. Is it the fear of the unknown?

Jim and Andrew are not only an interracial couple but they are gay too. It's a double whammy, so to speak, for some people. There is especially one of their co-workers who can't wrap his mind around the fact they're a gay, interracial couple. Jim and Andrew have to deal with openly prejudiced people, they are hurt by some statements, but they are not left alone. They have allies, open-minded co-workers, friends and families, who stay at their side and support them. It makes all the difference to them.


A Purrfect Match
Chris T. Kat

Genre: m/m romance, paranormal (shape-shifter)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

ISBN: 9781623802356
Number of pages: 236
Word Count: 66,000

Cover Artist: Shobana Appavu

Book Description:

When a bad day at work culminates in losing out on a promotion, Jim Sanders shifts into his animal form to let off steam. Then his bad day turns into a bad night—while prowling his Atlantic City neighborhood as a large gray house cat, he’s caught in a torrential downpour. What little luck he has washes down the gutter when his new boss, Andrew Wright, catches him taking shelter on his porch, brings him inside, and starts calling him Mr. Frosty.

As a feline, Jim becomes the inadvertent confessor for his boss’s lonely son, Tony, a victim of schoolyard bullying. As a human, he feels drawn to Andrew, a man he wanted to resent. Finding love was never part of Jim’s plan for the future—not with his bizarre secret—yet suddenly he finds himself navigating that minefield anyway. But not everything is easy, especially for an interracial gay couple dealing with prejudice in the workplace, at Tony’s school, and even within their own families.

Author Bio:

Chris T. Kat lives in the middle of Europe, where she shares a house with her husband of almost 15 years and their two children. She stumbled upon the M/M genre by luck and was swiftly drawn into it. She divides her time between work, her family—which includes chasing after escaping horses and lugging around huge instruments such as a harp—and writing. She enjoys a variety of genres, such as mystery/suspense, paranormal, and romance. If there's any spare time, she happily reads for hours, listens to audiobooks, or crafts.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for hosting me on your blog.

Merry Christmas!

~ Chris