I wrote Ti Marie, a historical romance, because that genre is popular. I like to think that my work appeals directly if not exclusively to the masses of people. From the start I intended that this novel would be as close as possible to others in this genre and still remain faithful to progressive ideas and reflect black consciousness. The logic of the novel will be understood intuitively by most readers. Here I will briefly describe my thoughts and intentions when I wrote it, which were not meant to distract or dissuade the reader from the pure entertainment of the novel. (325)
Having decided to make her heroine Black and her hero white, Belgrave also decided that
I would make him respond to the valid concerns of black people, and this would also assist in bringing these concerns to center stage.
Having made this decision, I faced the next question: how was I to find such a hero during slavery? It is difficult to conceive of such a person. I realized that I was not going to reconstruct a typical version of the past. In fact, as I stated in the preface to my book, I was going to write a fairy tale, a story that, though not attempting to change historical reality, would be an "as it might have been" or "as you like it story. And why not? (326)
Here's the first paragraph:
Having decided to make her heroine Black and her hero white, Belgrave also decided that