Romance novels have taken on a different shade, and tonight Baltimoreans can meet some of the publishers and writers of uniquely African-American heart-stoppers.
"Romance is romance, but there are different cultural aspects that readers of different ethnic groups can relate to, such as music or food," said Letitia Peoples, whose Odyssey Press in Silver Spring publishes black romance novels.
Ms. Peoples will be a guest at an Enoch Pratt Free Library reception called "Shades of Love: A Valentine's Day Celebration of Black Romance Fiction," along with black romance novelists Monica Harris and Sandra Kitt.
Such novels have broadened the depiction of blacks, Ms. Kitt says. "Most of the black books out there were about down-and-out characters, drug addicts, unwed mothers trying to survive. That is not a true reflection of the black culture."
Today, Ms. Peoples says, the heroine in a white romance novel might "live like Princess Di or be some corporate magnate. That is not something black readers would relate to. . . . In the realm of a black woman's frame of reference, the heroine would be more believable as a musical or sports superstar."
The reception will be at the central library, 400 Cathedral St., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. For information, call 396-5494.