Georgian Historical Romance – With or Without a Robot 🤖

I am a big fan of historical romance novels. I have an endless collection of Mills & Boon Historicals. There are also indie-published books on my shelf. On their covers, sumptuously dressed women swoon in the arms of barely there men. That is to say, this didn't all start this week.

Something did happen this week though. A group of racists on Facebook lashed back at the idea of non-white characters in historical romance. They saw it as off-putting, unrealistic, a fairy tale and a desecration of European history. Obviously, I immediately swore to myself to write a racially diverse historical romance.

My historical romance will be set in Georgian England in the 1780s and star Black and mixed race leads. There may also be a robot. How will the robot fit in? Not sure yet. I haven't quite decided on that.

The plan is to write a well-researched, high quality work of fiction, with complex main characters. In all senses it will be a historical romance novel, there will be nothing for the racists to complain about except their own racism.

I've already started researching. I'm listening to the audiobook of Black England by Gretchen Gerzina. I've read the book before and enjoyed it, this time I am looking out for clues of how to insert Black characters into the romance space. Maybe there will be an African prince in London? Or a writer like Ignatius Sancho. There are so many options.

There's plenty more reading to do. In my collection is A Marriage of Equals by Elizabeth Rolls. It's a Mills & Boon Historical. I've started it before, but now I'm really going to get into it. The lead character is a mixed race Black woman who finds love in the early nineteenth century. Reading it should show me what's been done before and inspire me to put my own stamp on things.

I love being at the beginning of a project like this, with all the decisions waiting to be made. I'm imagining ideas even now that are so different from the world of my notes. It all starts here. I just need to stick with it.