Maria Lewis

for writing these stories become more diverse as well.

And I think that's really important.

Obviously, you know, the white hero, the white heroine was also something that was very prevalent in the early days of the genre.

But it's something that is, again, largely being tossed out the window as things start to get more diverse behind the scenes.

It's not just that we're getting diverse characters now, we're getting diverse representation in

boardrooms in publishing houses in editing worlds and marketing worlds granted there needs to be a lot more of it but

that is starting to happen.

And because of that, we're starting to see things shift, things that might have been stereotypical once in a while.

You know, a love triangle, for instance, is a very popular sort of trope between usually a straight white woman and two straight white men.

That is something that we're not necessarily seeing in the same way anymore.

We're starting to see really interesting spins on things, really interesting

enduring themes, themes that are reflecting where we are right now as opposed to where we are

20 years ago or 30 years ago when somebody like Tamora Pierce really had to punch through an industry that was largely dominated by men.

Or someone like Patricia Briggs, for example.

Her Mercy Thompson series has been really groundbreaking for a lot of people.

It's a character who's a biracial Native American woman.

And that series has been ongoing now for nearly 13, 12 or 13 books, I believe.

And when she came through around the same time as, you know, Charlene Harris, Michelle Mead, Kerry Arthur, Kelly Armstrong, there were women working in the space, but they didn't necessarily get the same shelf attention and shelf love that male authors who would write these types of genres would necessarily get.

And I think that's,

changing in a big way, not because their content is good, their content has always been good, but because people are actively working to try and shine a light on authors and creators who don't necessarily fit the stereotype of, you know, your J.R.