Black Love & Travel Through Wanderlust Romance featuring Cher Terais

This episode features our conversation with Cher Terais, which was live-streamed on December 21, 2025.  

Cher Terais is a bestselling Wanderlust Romance author, cultural storyteller, and the creative force behind As Written by Cher Terais. Known for crafting love stories that travel the world while centering bold, accomplished Black women, Cher’s work blends romance, culture, and emotional depth with destinations that feel as stunning as they are intimate.

Her novels—including Bali Blue, Mess on the Mara, Tempest in Tulum, and Steel Horses, Leather Roads—invite readers into stories where Black love is expansive, grown, and unapologetically global. Each book is a passport, reminding women that desire, adventure, and softness are not luxuries—they’re birthrights.

Beyond the page, Cher is the founder of The Booked Club, a curated travel and lifestyle community for women who love books, beautiful experiences, and getting out into the world with intention. Through retreats, memberships, and immersive storytelling, she helps women reconnect with joy, creativity, and themselves.

A former Army veteran, world traveler, and mentor, Cher speaks candidly about reinvention, womanhood after 40, creative courage, and what it means to choose a life that feels as good as it looks. When she’s not writing or building community, she’s likely planning her next escape, sipping wine, and reminding women everywhere to get booked—on the page and in real life. 

During this episode, we chatted about Steel Horses, Leather Roads (July 2025). A second-chance romance, Steel Horses, Leather Roads is perfect for readers who crave Black Southern romance, Cowboy Carter energy, emotionally layered storytelling, and love stories that understand: the past doesn’t stay buried—it rides alongside you.

Find Cher Terais online at: cherterais.com

Find Cher Terais on Instagram: @cher_terais_author

Find Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread

Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

Support Black Writers Read on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/blackwritersread

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Within black romance and the genre itself, um, there are a lot of stories out there, amazing stories, but I feel like a good majority of them center women who are 30 or younger. And so I am a 48-year-old woman. I'm about to be 49 very soon. Yes, indeed. I'm I'm knocking 50 on the door, and guess what? I still experience love, I still experience desire. I still like to get dressed up and go out and shake a leg every now and again. Um, and and I also meet men who are my age too, who are looking for, you know, the same thing, are still living life, a joy of life. And so I said, first of all, I want to fill a gap that I feel like we have in the romance genre where we don't talk about older love enough. And then, second chance, we are in that second area of life. You know, we've experienced the 20s, we've experienced the 30s. Many of us have already had children that are now grown and out of the house, and a lot of us are experiencing a reimagining of our own lives. And so, why not connect that to a story about women and men who are very relatable to a very relatable group of people? We all got mamas, we all got daddies, and you know, all of us at some point, God willing, are gonna hit 50, you know? And if we still live in, if we're still, you know, we still got that joy of life, why not be able to tell a story that mimics that and again is relatable.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Hello, and welcome to Black Writers Read. My name is Nicole Young Martin, and I'm the founder, producer, and host of this podcast. Thank you for tuning in for episode 13 of season six of the series. Launched on Juneteenth, 2020, Black Writers Read was created as a platform to showcase, celebrate, and honor the words, work, and traditions of Black writers from across the country, across genres, across experiences, and across the Afghan diaspora. Black Writers Read is a behind-the-scenes conversation into the crowd and what it means to create as a black author in today's society. Since starting the series during the summer of 2020, we've hosted almost 100 authors representing 15 plus genres from six countries and 26 states. This episode features our conversation with Cher Therese, which was live streamed on December 21st, 2025. Cher Theresa is a best-selling Wanderlust romance author, cultural storyteller, and the creative force behind, as written by Cher Theresa. Known for crafting love stories that travel the world while censoring bold, accomplished black women, Cher's work blends romance, culture, and emotional depth with destinations that feel as stunning as they are intimate. Her novels include Bolly Blue, Mess on the Mara, Tempest in Tulloon, and Steel Horses Leather Roads, invite readers into stories where black love is expansive, grown, and unapologetically global. Each book is a passport, reminding women that desire, adventure, and softness are not luxuries, they're birth rates. Beyond the page, Cher is the founder of The Book Club, a curated travel and lifestyle community for women who love books, beautiful experiences, and getting out into the world with intention. Through retreats, memberships, and immersive storytelling, she helps women reconnect with joy, creativity, and themselves. A former Army veteran, world traveler, and mentor, Cher speaks candidly about reinvention, womanhood after 40, creative courage, and what it means to choose a life that feels as good as it looks. When she's not writing or building community, she's likely planning her next escape, sipping wine, and reminding women everywhere to get booked, on the page and in real life. During this episode, we chatted about Steel Horses Leather Roads, which was released in July of 2025. Kara Mackie left Lily, Georgia in her rearview mirror decades ago, chasing design dreams and outrunning the heartbreak that nearly wrecked her. Now, an accomplished interior designer living in Paris, the last thing she expects is a summons back home for the reading of a will or the man waiting there. Korian Dimitri has spent his life shouldering responsibility, his family's ranch, his daughter, and the weight of a love he let slip away. When fate pulls Kara back into his orbit to restore an old cottage-gen turned community legacy project, buried secrets resurface, and so does the fire that once burned between them. Set against the rich backdrop of modern cowboy culture, Steel Horses Leather Roads is a soulful, slow burn, second-chance romance that explores what it means to heal, forgive, and find your way back on your own terms. From Paris interiors to Georgia back roads, they've lived whole lives apart. Now Destiny is asking if love, real love, can still ride. Perfect for fans of cowboy Carter vibes, black Southern romance, and grown folks who know a thing or two about unfinished business. To learn more about Cher and her work, please visit her website at www.share terrace.com. That is www.cher T-E-R A I S dot com. I would like to give a very special wholehearted thank you to the romance authors who have been on Black Writers Read, including today's guest, Cher Teresa. What I absolutely love and appreciate about your work is that y'all have written about folks who tend to be forgotten about in romance. Whether if it's people who are considered older and in Cher Teresa's work, she covers folks who are over 40. And for me, 40 is not old, but also I'm in my 40s so I'm a little biased. Um, folks um who are within the neurodiversity range. Thank you to Reese Ryan and to Naomi Rivers. Writing romance within reality because life lives. For me, while I do need the escape, I do need the examples of how to live my best life amongst the life that I have, and all of your work does that. So thank you. And I also hope that all of you who are listening to today's episode and then go out and buy these books, I hope that you experience that joy and magic as well. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode, and I hope that you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Hello. Hello, I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Oh my gosh. I like I've read and researched your work, but reading the description aloud, I'm just like, this is why your work is so important.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Oh, thank you for that. As I was listening to you, I was like, wow, I'm super excited all over again. You just got me hyped up about a story that came out in July all over again. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So I'm gonna turn it over to you to read.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Happy reading, and I'll be back to chat. All right. Well, I'm gonna say this is from chapter 22 of Steel Horses Leather Roads. It is a dual POV written story. So this is from Kara, the main female character's point of view. All right. I'd come here to clear my head. Instead, I found Corian walking through the doorway like a storm. I wasn't ready to weather. The humidity clung to everything: my skin, my clothes, my thoughts. The cotton gin smelled like mold, stale, forgotten with the faint sweetness of decay. I'd spent the last hour taking photos of warped beams, scribbling notes in the margins of my sketchbook, half-cursing Mr. Eklunds for putting me in this position. The rain hadn't started yet, but the sky had turned the color of bad news. Corrigan stepped inside and shook off the mist like he owned the place. His eyes landed on the blueprints. I'd flattened out across the rickety table and then slid to me. He didn't say anything right away, just looked. That same quiet, assessing stare that used to undo me when we were teenagers. Not today, though. What are you doing here? I asked sharper than I meant. Saving these before the storm ruins them, he said, nodding toward the plants. You're welcome. I think I'm pretty capable of handling these blueprints, Dimitri. He raised an eyebrow. Yeah? That's why they're sitting under a cracked window. I opened my mouth, then closed it again, not even interested in entertaining Corey in fast. He smirked like he knew he'd scored a point, and that was all it took to light the fuse. This building is a damn hazard, I snapped. You realize that, right? The roof leaks, the floors rotted in at least two places. There's no insulation, no wiring, no foundation to build on. It needs to come down. We need to start fresh. Corian crossed the room in three slow steps, then stopped on the opposite side of the table like we were opponents in some old Western standoff. You want to tear down everything just because it looks rough on the outside, not wrapped up in the pretty bow just how you like it? I stared at him, jaw clenched. Don't do that. Do what? Make this about me. If the boot fits. I shoved the small table, holding the blueprints aside. This isn't about some emotional attachment to a pile of bricks. It's about function, safety, progress. Corian leaned in, voice low, but firm. And what about legacy? What about respecting what came before us? I scoffed. You mean like the rotting cotton gin that we're standing in? A building that once processed the same crop. Our ancestors damn near died harvested. That's what you want to preserve? His eyes darkened. You think Mr. Eklunds didn't know that? You think he picked this place by accident? This building means something. It tells a story. Then let's tell a better one, I said, my voice rising. One that doesn't reek of trauma and rust. One that doesn't fall apart every time it rains. Thunder rolled in in the distance, low and threatening. We stood there, breathing heavy. The space between us was charged. It always had been, even when we were kids. Too close, too much, too soon. We were fire and pressure and a whole lot of unspoken feelings. I'm not here to relieve the to relive the past, I said finally, quieter now. I'm here to build something that lasts. Corian's gaze dropped to my hands. I hadn't realized I was gripping them into fists so tight. And I'm here, he said, to make sure we don't erase the soul of this place just because it makes you uncomfortable. I stepped back like he'd slapped me. And just then lightning ripped through the sky, sharp and merciless, followed by a thunder thunderclap so loud it rattled the walls and sent dust raining down from the rafters. A second later, the clouds cracked open and the rain came hard and unrelenting, beating against the old tin roof like it was trying to wash us both away. We stared at each other like enemies caught in the same foxhole. You always gotta make it personal, I said, my voice shaking. Always got your chest puffed out like your way is the only way. He didn't flinch. Better that than running from every damn thing that don't fit your picture perfect clans. You ran from here, from me, from everything. You got another girl pregnant while telling me you love me. That was 30 years ago, Kara. And you think that makes it hurt less? I snapped. You're so busy building a legacy, I bit out, my voice shaking with fury. I just pray your daughter doesn't end up thinking love has to come second to pride. His eyes narrowed, jaw tight. Careful, Cara. Why? I spat. Because I spoke the truth. You're so full of your own damn self-righteousness, righteousness, you can't even see the wreckage you leave behind. I'm not your daddy, Kara. He wrecked you, not me. His words cut straight through me. For a second, I stopped breathing. He said it's so cold, like it was nothing. Like all the years I spent trying to outrun the kind of love that abandoned, broke, or left without warning, meant nothing. Different men, different mistakes. But standing here, caught between memory and heat, the ache they'd both left behind, pulsed in my in the same place in my heart. My daddy, charming, reckless, full of promise, he never kept. And Corian, who once looked at me like I was his whole damn future, then handed that future to someone else without a second thought. The men weren't the same, but the way they broke me, identical, ugly twins. And the fire it sparked in me felt damn near nuclear. I moved before I could tame my feelings. My arm swung high, hand flying, aiming to slap the taste out of his mouth. But he caught me. His fingers closed around my wrist like steel, stopping me mid-air. Don't, he growled. I trembled in his grip, shocked by the force, the closeness. Rain pounded against the roof above us. Thunder rolled again, loud and low, like a warning. But I couldn't move, couldn't breathe. My body was still humming from the things he'd said, from the things I couldn't say back. All the years I buried this fire inside me. It cracked wide open. And then he pulled me into him, rough. His mouth crashed into mine. My whole body lit up like it remembered him. Like I like it never forgot. I pushed against his chest to try to shove him away, but my hands were traitors. They grabbed instead, clung to the fabric of his shirt like I'd drown if I let go. I hated him. I wanted him. I hated that I still wanted him.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

That's my passage. Okay, see, so Professor Young Martin's about to take the stage. See, this is why your work is so awesome. So this is, yeah, this is a question I didn't think to ask, but the dual narrators, that's hard to do. Yes. Why did you choose dual narrators for this particular story?

SPEAKER_02 15:50

You know, and for all of my stories, to be honest with you, I think it's so important, especially when we're talking about black love, to tell both points of view. And I think it needs to be a first person, very intimate point of view. Um, you said you started this podcast around 2020, right? Yep. Right around COVID beginning and a lot of discourse around black love on social media. And I always felt like when I would fall into the trap of listening to one side versus the other, it was just that, a one-sided view. And so I think it's very important to tell a story, especially love story, from both persons' points of view, the male and the female. I just happened to write uh male, female.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yes. See, this is another reason. This is a question I have later. Like, why you have such a diverse audience? And I see this is why. Yeah. So I want to start with the first question, because I have some, I hope, rich questions for today's conversation. So I want to start off by asking when did you discover your gift as a writer? And why is black romance the genre in which you share this gift with the world?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Do you have an hour for this question for me to know?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

I mean, we can make an hour, however, I don't know how people are they they they better sit there for it.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

I love it. Well, I'll make a long story short. I knew I was gonna be a writer in the second grade, not because I just knew I was gonna be a writer, but I had a teacher who pointed it out, a second grade teacher. Um, I was born in a time where we were talking about the space shuttle challenger. And I happened to live in Orlando, Florida, and we were outside as we always did. Whenever a spaceship went up, all schools in the area, we took time out, we watched the space shuttles, and I also in the second grade saw that space shuttle blow up. And we cried. I remember crying in the second grade, and I remember it being such a big deal, but being so young, I really didn't grasp what it meant. However, we had this contest, um, and it was for all of us to write a poem describing how we felt about that experience. And my poem won first place in this contest, and it went, you know what, I don't even know what it won first place for, but basically that teacher, um, she nurtured, she was the one who said, You're gonna be a journalist. You're going to be able to capture the spirit of what's going on in the world. And so all those years growing up, going through high school, I was in the journalism club in high school. I knew I was gonna be a journalist, and I wanted to be like uh a wartime journalist where I was in the fray, in the middle of war zones and doing combat roles and all kinds of weird stuff. That didn't happen. I did join the army though, and I think that was the real catalyst for my love of love, but also love explored around the world.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah. You got because we have, and I'm just assuming we're in the same generation. I'm in my late 40s. Me too. Okay. What we are unfortunately of this generation where, because for me, Challenger, I think I heard about it after the fact. 9-11, I heard about ironically after the fact I was on the bus. I had to day out from work, and somebody had this was at like maybe 11 o'clock. So the newest edition of the newspaper came out. I remember she opened it. I didn't hear about it yet, and the picture of the towers coming down was on the front. And I was like, wait, what? So I was capturing things secondhand, whereas you challenge you saw it in real time.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Saw it in real time, and and also was in uniform during 9-11 at my unit, um, having to do extra duty because I had did something I wasn't supposed to do. So they had me in like the um, they we call it the operations uh office, and they had me doing these operational things for my unit. Um and as we were watching the TV, we watched in real time these planes flying into the World Trade Center. And have you ever heard of like the infamous red phone? Like if when when we go to like ThreatCon Delta, the world, and there's the infamous red phone rings. And I happened to be at my unit, and the red phone rang, and they were like, Y'all are on lockdown. Take the tags because we all had like these military tags on the backs of our cars. Take off your uniforms, take off the tags from your cars, do not show anything that looks like you are. We don't know what's happening. It's a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. We are acting like it was open up the arms room. It was like Armageddon had happened that day. It was wild, yeah. Yeah, that was a wild experience. You served during wow, yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

That's a whole other podcast.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

I'm like, wow, yeah. I also lived in Iraq for three years during the war in Iraq, yeah, and Afghanistan. Yeah. Now I had gotten out of the military, but I still felt compelled to serve in such a way. So I went as a consultant contractor and worked with U.S. Forces Iraq. And um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

So I think this segues nicely, ironically, into the next question. Now I kind of understand. Not projecting a story onto you, but I kind of understand now a little bit why you write romance given the lives that you've lived. So my question, my next question, woo. Why is romance? Black romance is your genre.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Oh my gosh. Okay, so it started before I started writing Black Romance, but I used to be an avid romance reader. You know what? Everyone, every woman I knew who was in the army at the same time I was, we we all read Zane. We all read Eric Jerome Dickey. I mean, we would go on deployments, go anywhere. Everybody had a stack of books. And so it was just a part of our culture. If you understand the military lifestyle, you understand that there's a lot of downtime until it's not downtime, until it's go time, right? And so reading was just a part of the culture. But even before that, I was an avid romance reader. Um, Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon, um, oh gosh, uh Jackie Collins, all the books when I was 12 and 13 that I was way too young to be reading. But I fell in love with the fact that these women are being loved on like this. And and and, oh, by the way, they were being loved on all around the world. Like you could have a little country young white lady from wherever US, and she gets transported by this very rich billionaire to Paris, and he is treating her very nicely. And I could not imagine myself in that. And so, fast forward to when I started writing romance, I said, I'm not just gonna write romance, I'm gonna write black love centered around the world because our love is and deserves to be on the world stage. And oh, by the way, the media is trying to erase it. So why not write about it and center it? And it doesn't have to be in Atlanta, DC, uh uh California. It can be anywhere I choose to put it.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

And thank you so much for calling out because that was the next thing. Like, so which I think it's awesome, but so many black romances are set, and and I get why. Why they're set in these black meccas, sure, where black culture and black life is the majority and is celebrated in such a beautiful way. So I kind of get it.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Yeah, it makes sense, and and don't all of my stories either start or come back to Georgia. It that's just a part of who I am. Georgia is a part of who I am. Um, so it will always start or end here, but why not? We have the busiest passenger airport in the world right here. Well, in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm in Vegas right now. Yes, in Atlanta, why not utilize it and let it be a character in my stories, right? It is a transportation mechanism. So stories transport, I'm gonna transport you at some point. You probably gonna step into Hartsville Jackson.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yes, which I forgot to mention um before we went on air. Though I haven't been to Georgia, I've been to Atlantis airport several times. And every time I've gone, we're like, where are we going? Because there always was like a connecting flight. And I'm like, where are we going?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

So confusing for so many people. I love it though. I get lost in that airport, just like getting lost in a story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

So what is Wonderless romance? And what makes it, which by the way, for folks, one of the things that I didn't realize about romance until I had on Reese Ryan last season was the multiple genre subgenres within I was like, there's a big black romance conference, writers' conference that happens, and I counted, there's like maybe 30 or 40 subgenres within black romance. Yep. And I was like, that's kind of cool because it gives people many different entryways. It does. So, what is wanderlust romance and what makes it unique out of all the romance subgenres?

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Absolutely. So you're right. We have so many different subgenres, I can't even keep up. And I had never heard of Wanderlust Romance before. One day I said, you know what? I'm writing Wanderlust Romance, and where did it come from? I'll tell you my tagline, but I'll tell you where it really came from. I was in Iraq circa 2009, 2010, maybe, and I was reading Eric Jerome Dickey's book, Pleasure. And I'm sitting in Iraq, and this book is all about Atlanta, Stone Mountain, all of Cascade Road. He described it so well. I sat in Iraq longing for home. I was longing for Atlanta. I could smell it, I could feel it. And I looked up what that what I was like, what is this feeling? And it was like, oh, it's like you're experiencing wanderlust. And so I was like, wanderlust, huh? And I held on to that. And I was like, if Eric Jerome Dickey can have me longing for Atlanta to be back home, why can't I create a work that makes people long for Bali or long for Kenya or Tulum or Paris, wherever, right? And so that's where Wanderlust romance came from. And so I like to say it's about stories that center perfectly imperfect black women and the men bold enough to chase them around the world. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Which your branding is so brilliant. Which folks we were talking about before we got on air. I was talking about her photo, which I used at the beginning of. And I was talking about the leg. The leg and how moisturized and beautifully glistening that leg. I was like, I was like, I need to not crop out the leg.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

I love it. I love it. As I shared with you, I was extra glisteny, dewy, and I did not realize that at Bath and Body Works, they sell moisturizer that makes you look glowy. Yep. And so uh yeah, I did a professional photo shoot and they brought out all the stuff. And I was like, look at that leg. I gotta show that leg.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Which one of the other things I noticed too on social media and your photos, and this I think goes into your branding, and I have a question about that later too. Sure. You're barefoot a lot in your photos. Oh, yeah. Which just shows like just it, it's a it's a core value of mine in terms of comfort and luxury. So I just, yeah, there was a little, there's so much I love about your question. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

And and I think being comfortable wherever you are is a superpower. You know, we find ourselves in so many spaces where we are either forcing uh a look or forcing a vibe. We're very rarely comfortable in spaces. I remember dating this guy once, and I came to I went to his house for the first time, and the first thing I did was take off my shoes. I thought it was the right thing to do. And he kind of looked at me like, you're comfortable? Yes. Yeah. Very first of all, I don't want to track my outside dust into your home, but yeah, I'm comfortable. I'm gonna be comfortable wherever I am. Trust me.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah, yeah. Which I've always wondered if that was a southern thing, because my maternal grandmother was like that, where we could not wear outside shoes in the house. Like there was a particular entrance that we always came in. We dropped our shoes on a particular mat. Yeah. Yes, indeed. Or you better be a super guest. A super guest. The super guests never were invited into her house, they just went on the porch. Like, love that. Love it. And I want to get into today's reading. So because I have questions too. Like I have so many questions, and I because I was trying to fit in all of share in this interview.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

All the layers, all the many shares, the versions. All the versions.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

And and I appreciate second chance romance, which this is the first time I've had an author on that writes in this particular trope. And the reason why I appreciate it, because I married older. I married, like I got married in my early 40s. So of course, it's kind of like a second chance because I was engaged before and all these other things. And I it is something about second chance and being grown. Oh, yeah. And like people always pump in, you need to get married young and all these things, and like this whole fascination with youth. But I'm also like, if I, because I was first engaged in my 20s, I was like, if I got married in my 20s, I would have been divorced in my 20s. Me too.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

So I'm so glad that this particular trope exists. So with Steel Horses Leather Roads, it's a second chance romance. Yes, why is it important to you within this trope to center black love and black southern culture? And then what do you hope for your readers to gain from reading second chance romances?

SPEAKER_02 31:24

So you hit a couple of nails on the head already that, you know, even within black romance and the genre itself, um, there are a lot of stories out there, amazing stories, but I feel like a good majority of them center women who are 30 or younger. And so I am a 48-year-old woman. I'm about to be 49 very soon. Yes, indeed. I'm I'm knocking 50 on the door, and guess what? I still experience love. I still experience desire. I still like to get dressed up and go out and shake a leg every now and again. Um, and and I also meet men who are my age too, who are looking for, you know, the same thing, are still living life, a joy of life. And so I said, first of all, I want to fill a gap that I feel like we have in the romance genre where we don't talk about older love enough. And then, second chance, we are in that second area of life. You know, we've experienced the 20s, we've experienced the 30s. Many of us have already had children that are now grown and out of the house. And a lot of us are experiencing a re-imagining of our own lives. And so, why not connect that to a story about women and men who are very relatable to a very relatable group of people? We all got mamas, we all got daddies, and you know, all of us at some point, God willing, are gonna hit 50, you know, and if we still live in it, we're still, you know, we still got that joy of life, why not be able to tell a story that mimics that and again is relatable?

SPEAKER_01 33:06

And then also, too, and thank you, it's something about after 40 that the world and consumerism forgets. And I'm like, y'all, especially us, like by 40s, we know what we want in life, so we're the perfect consumer, so why not create things for us?

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yeah, and you know what? Here's another thing, too. And I hope I don't say anything offensive to anyone, it's not intended. But a 40-year-old woman today is not the same image of a 40-year-old woman 30 years ago. 50-year-old women, 60-year-old women are some of the most beautiful, connected, just there's an I have an aspiration to hit 65, right? And and still be fabulous, like many of these women I see at that age right now. I mean, these women are fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Which speaking of that, so the I can't believe the 30th anniversary of Waiting to Excel is this year. Did you see them on the morning show? Yes, I did on the Today Show. I was just about to mention that moment, and it was sad that Whitney Houston couldn't be because now an ancestor, but oh my god, the women, they look amazing, and they're in their 60s and their 70s. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

And I'm like, I'm aspiring that, that, that level of I got my stuff together and I'm still gorgeous with it. Oh yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Yes, and and then also too, the love that they've each found, either in their personal lives or with their careers. Like one of the things I love, especially about Loretta Devine, she found her lane in acting and is just such a brilliant. Oh my gosh, she's such a brilliant actor. And it's like all the roles connect in some way. She plays a very like, spicy is not the right word, but like a very like respected yet sultry black mother. Yes, and she does it so well. I'm like, oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

And the holiday season is upon us. Her role in this Christmas, her and Delroy Lindo together. Look, that's the kind of romance that I want to write about.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for bringing attention to that movie. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Yeah, that that's a that's a good love. I would love to see the continuation.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Yes. Where's this segue so nicely into the next question? And this is a shout out to our associate producer, Candace, because she really wanted me to pose this question. Love it. What is it about love stories? And I and I want to shout out to her because she is an avid traveler. Like every time I'll be like, Candice, where are you? Candace, where are you now? She travels a lot, and so and she's also an avid reader and amazing writer. So I think there's a little bit of her in this question, too. I love it. So, what is it about love stories and travel that goes so well together? And what does it mean to be unapologetically global?

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Ooh, great question, by the way. Um, let me try to take it in pieces. Okay, so love and travel. I feel like any if we fall in love many times throughout our lives, let me just say that. I don't think it's a one and done situation. And if it is a one and done situation, that's a not that's a magic love right there. Well, I feel like falling in love is automatically a way of reinventing yourself. You can't be in love the same way with every person that you fall in love with. I'm talking about romantic love in this in this particular uh moment, but you you reinvent yourself every time you fall in love. And I feel like the same thing happens every time you go on a transformational trip. Um, I was I did not come home the same person the first time I went to Bali as the person who went there. It was a journey, it was an amazing journey getting there, planning the trip. And I went solo. That was my first international solo trip outside of the army. Um and it was a it was a transformational journey. I came back and was like, I'm not even seeing my home. It doesn't even look the same as when I left. Again, every time I fall in love, every time I go somewhere new, it's a it's an opportunity for me to reinvent myself. But pair it together, that's explosive.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Wow, because I can't remember what friend of mine, because there's a friend of mine that did a Bali trip, but she did it with a bunch of friends, and I think she did it when she turned, was it when she turned 40? And it became like a spiritual journey and all these things. So Bali, I hear, is a very special place for many people.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

It is Kenya, same thing for me. That Kenya was the I actually went to Kenya to research my second novel, Mess on the Mara, and it was my first time going to Africa. Yeah, so that again, transformational. It felt like I was leaving home and went home to Kenya.

unknown 38:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 38:42

Yeah, yeah, I didn't expect that. That was that was totally unexpected. I had an amazing time. Can't wait to go back. And am even thinking about moving to Kenya. Yeah. Do you have ancestry in Kenya? I do not.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

I do not.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

When I was sitting back one day thinking, okay, where would I want to, if it was outside of the U.S., where would I want to live? And a few places came to mind: Belize, Kenya, and Colombia. Um, why? Because we have a huge expat community. Black people from the U.S., the diaspora, are moving to these places. And the reason why is because of the connection again to home, but also because they are places where we can exist and thrive.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

Yeah. Oh, I may have to tell my white husband and be like, so um, we need to move someplace where black people can thrive. We're gonna be okay, but we're gonna be all right.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

That's right. Yes, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

Which I forgot to mention because we were talking about places that we've been in the South, which one of the reasons why I've been to Virginia a lot is because he does Civil War reenactments, and of course, most of them because of the battles. Yes, and I've gone with him to a couple, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

Well, tell him you all must come to Georgia, right outside of Atlanta, a place called Jonesboro. It is where they have it's actually where uh Gone with the Wind was filmed, and Tara Plantation is there, and they do a Civil War reenactment every year, every spring at that mansion.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

Yeah. And it's good that they still call it a plantation because I there were a couple we were researching to go to, and I was like, wait, y'all calling us a prosperous agricultural, what was it? A prosperous agricultural venture. And I was like, Y'all, I know things are politically correct now, but I'm gonna need y'all gonna need y'all, I'm gonna need this to be a plantation because we don't know the history. Yeah, yeah, come on now. I was like, what do you mean a prosperous agricultur? Yeah, you know when we try to re rewrite revisions, yeah, and I'm 92% black, and both sides of my family have been in this country for the longest time and were enslaved, and most of them came in through North Carolina. I was like, I know my history, so I'ma hope that the rest uh all y'all acknowledge right, right.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Like, we cannot just take the word plantation out of the name of this and think that it's gonna have a better feeling.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Come on, yes. Like, how are you gonna prosper as agricultural center? How are you going to explain the labor and how the work that's done? Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

That part, that part. Y'all, like for real. That part, you know what? That takes me back to Steel Horses Leather Roads, though. Uh, we're talking about plantations, and I'm talking about this cotton gin legacy project, and I thought that was so important. As a matter of fact, um, the book is set in South Georgia, Paris and South Georgia, in a real place called Lily, Georgia. And there is this cotton gin in the area that has been kind of this eyesore. And I thought many times that I was gonna go buy up this um, there was this old house that was kind of falling into ruins, and I wanted to buy it and turn it into a bed and breakfast, and quickly realized, yeah, girl, you don't have time to do that. It's a good thought. But then I was like, okay, there is this cotton gin too, and there's something I want to do with that, not physically, but I wanted to tell a story. Like, what would that cotton gin, which has so many negative memories for some people, how can we turn it into something beautiful? And that's kind of where the story came from: Still Horses, Leather Roads. Yeah, which what was the idea behind the title? Still Horses, Leather Roads. Well, we have Kara and Corian. Korian is the main male character, and his family is third, he's third generation horse rancher, horse trader. Yeah um and is very good at doing it. So horses, that's where that came from. Kara, on the other hand, was kind of like this orphan. Corian was well-to-do when they were growing up, she not so much. And her biggest memories of youth, what she tried not to forget, um, was her dad's uh 69 Chevy Chevelle. Steel Horses, Leather Road. That's kind of where it came from.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

See, you're brilliant. Just in the fact that you were able to bring those two worlds together, I'm like.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yeah. The horsepower of that's almost how they bonded over horsepower and the horses. Like horse, horse flesh, him, and then horsepower, her desire to, I don't know, hold on to the memory of her dad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Wow. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

And so the series, again, it'll be a three-book series. This is the first of three. It's called the Leather and Steel series. So nice. Are we going to see them again? We will see them again. Um and we're gonna see the Dimitri brothers. Uh is three of them. So each one of the stories will feature one of the Dimitri brothers, Corey and Dimitri, first one, um, Darren Dimitri in this second one, and then Jackson or Jack's Dimitri in the third one.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Nice. I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

And we're going to Turkey in the second book. Cappadocia Turkey. So have you been to Turkey before? I have. And we're going back in May of 2026.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

I went, as a matter of fact, a year ago, well, November uh 2024, went there, researched, did my first round of research. Plus, it was a group trip that we went. Um, and so we're going back. I'm gonna finish the story, but I'm also taking a group of avid travelers readers to Cappadocia, Turkey and May.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Nice. I love it. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

So fun.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

So fun being here. What a time. I love it. Thank you so much for your time. I have maybe like four or about four or five more questions for you. So prior to having our guests on Black Writers Read, we asked each of them why they write. Here's an excerpt of what you offered. Being an author in this moment means more than publishing books. It means standing still in a loud, distracted world and saying, pause, feel this. It means choosing depth over speed and tension over virality and humanity over algorithms. In a time when so much content is disposable, being an actor, being an author is an act of care, a resistance, of love, which this is a core value I've seen across all of your social media, including your YouTube channel, um, Instagram, and all of that. So, can you offer us insight into both your writing process and into the world of as written by Cher Teresa? How does one inform the other? And how do you ensure your love and care for yourself as you transition from author to businesswoman when working in the publishing industry?

SPEAKER_02 46:47

Let me just say, catch is by Cher Teresa, Lord have mercy. It started out with one book called Bolly Blue. And when I was trying to think of something catchy for the name of my website, because I didn't want it just be Share Teresa, I wanted it to tell a story. That's what we do, write and tell stories, right? And so when I thought about who Cher Teresa was, and I thought about where I wanted my writing journey to go, I didn't think about it as just, okay, I'm gonna write these books and I'm gonna promote my own books. I knew as an ecosystem, as written by Cher Therese, had to embody the love stories that also embodied a location, that embodied a spirit. And I also was thinking about well, who is the target audience for, as written by Cher Teresa in my books? It's not just romance readers, is romance readers, is enthusiasts of black love, but it's also travel enthusiasts. And I said, I need to create a brand that speaks to everybody. And oh, by the way, I get so many questions about what is wanderlust romance? And the ultimate question, do you travel to the places I write about? I refuse to write a story that I don't go to to experience. I'm big on culture, big on um being authentic and telling the authentic truth. And so I feel like if I'm gonna write a story centered in Bali about a black woman's experience there, first of all, I have to be a black woman to write that story. But secondly, I have to go to Bali to experience it. And so that brought on the second leg of As Written by Cher Teresa, my The Book Club um platform, which allows readers but also travel enthusiasts to go on these journeys that I've taken the characters and the stories on, but they get to go on these journeys with me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Which I love that you do that. Yeah. And I'm curious, like, what comes first for you? Is it the characters or the place that you'll take your characters to?

SPEAKER_02 48:57

It always for me starts with the wanderlust feeling. Like I said, I I read Eric Jerome Dickey's Pleasure and it and evoked such this passion to be in Atlanta. Um, and I was like, you know, that for me kind of is my catalyst for a story, right? I had never been to Bali before, but I had read so much about it, and I was like, Yeah, I need to write a story there, but I need to feel it. I really need to smell what that food smells like. So I went there with the intention of researching Bali enough to let it tell a story. But then I realized the characters don't always have to come with the location. Sometimes the location tells me who the characters should be. Yeah. So I don't know if that's a formula or just chaos, but wow. But if it's chaos, it works so well, though. Thank you. Thank you very much. Same thing about Paris. I knew Paris had to be my interior designer's story. You know, I can't think about Paris without thinking about great food and also great architecture. But then I think about what's beyond the walls of those stones, those old ancient buildings. Who created it? What's the story there? And so that's where Kara's trope, uh, well, maybe not her trope, but her journey of being an interior designer, a well, a world-renowned interior designer from South Georgia. How did how did that happen? That's where that story came from.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Yeah. So something else brilliant about your work, and we talked about this off camera too. Your work draws such a diverse audience. Like, I do a lot of research on my guest, and on your social media, there were pictures with white people. When I posted about your interview on Instagram, a lot of men were commenting, saying, I'm gonna watch, I'm gonna watch. And I'm like, Yeah, how why do you think which is brilliant? I think it's great that your work has been able to cross this line because it's black love. And yes, we want to write for our people, we want others to experience our love. So why do you think there's such a wide appeal for your work?

SPEAKER_02 51:20

I write unconventional love stories. I think that may have something to do with it. Um, I'll go to my third book, Tempest and Tulum, where the main female character is an MMA fighter. Um, the intentionality behind me building that character was that I've never seen a black woman MMA fighter represented in a book, uh, let alone a love story. And so I did this interview before the before the book came out, and it was to this podcast audience that was, I want to say mostly men. And so they asked the question, well, what would make, would I as a man want to read this? And then I sat, I had literally on air had to think about it like, you know what? I think the target audience for this book might be men, because it's not just an MMA fighter woman. The main male character is my version of a black James Bond. And so I was like, hmm, I think I think you are the target audience for this book. And you get the spicy love story with it. But yes, she's they are beating each other up. Their their meat cute was a choke slam. Yes, oh my god. Yeah, I think that caught a lot of men's attention. Um, and then just the travel aspect of it all, I think it's gaining it's getting the attention of a lot of people who, again, the wanderlust aspect of it, um, a lot of us want to go. A lot of us want to experience the world. And honestly, if you cannot get on the plane, the best way you can do it is to pick up a book and read about it. And it's all authentic and it's very truthful. And again, I refuse to write a story about a place that I have not been.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

So yeah, and I love that you do that research, which there was a post on Instagram earlier calling out this is something completely different, but kind of related, calling out people who are not of the experience, writing about the experience without doing their research. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

And I I do want to say this loud and proud. I don't think there's a gatekeeper on who has an experience, right? Um, I don't think it's totally inappropriate for a white woman to write a black main female character. I don't think it's inappropriate unless she didn't do any research. Correct. Unless she didn't get um uh beta readers and um, you know, uh people who do have the experience to provide insight into that story so that she can at the very least get it right from a perspective that is not her own. So, yeah, I'm I believe that's important for all of us to do that.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

Yeah, and thank you for bringing that up because, too, and I really hate to say this, but it's like the market is heavily saturated with right writers, and they have an interesting like marketplace for their audience. And so I'm like, if they're if they have the majority of the audience and we want stories about marginalized communities going out there, why can't they write about our experiences? Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

And and the other thing, too, is you can't want it both ways. You got to kind of pick a struggle. We're saying that there's not enough representation out there. Well, we we experience white people just like they experience black people and other people of other cultures, we do the same thing. We shouldn't box ourselves in either. Again, it's all about doing the authentic research and not trying to take the story rather than tell the story, you know?

SPEAKER_01 55:13

Yeah, that's a really big difference. So, speaking of telling the story, from all of your books, who's your favorite character to write and why?

SPEAKER_02 55:24

Probably Okeo Bomdi, um Black James Bond. I talk about him all the time, even when I don't want to. This man has taken up space in my brain, and I think he's just such a unique character. And just to break him down a little bit, King and Born, um raised in Britain. So when I think of him, I automatically think of Idris Elba, of course. Um, not to say that Idris Elba is King, but I'm not trying to put this on you, Idris. What I'm saying is you just kind of um he embodies the spirit of this character in so many of his roles that he plays. But O'Keeh Obamdi, uh, just to go into his backstory, which which doesn't get written in all of my stories, but I I came up with this backstory for him. Um abandoned during um his very early youth, adopted by this British family that took him from Kenya to um London. Um, he didn't feel loved. So he invented himself in quiet. And so he became an MI6 operative, if you will. So, how better to explore silence than being anything or anybody you need to turn yourself to be to do your job, right? And so that's his backstory, and then he meets Delia, um, who is hiding something, and he's he's trained in exposing secrets, and so he sees her, but also falls in love with her and didn't mean to. But, anyways, his character is just so dynamic. Um, he didn't show up in Tempest and Tulloon for the first time, he showed up in my second book as head of security, um, as he called it uh transportation liaison. And when asked what that means, he says, I liaise. And that's enough, that's all you need to know. So that spirit of that character just kind of yeah, I I want to see exactly what he's gonna end up being in a future story, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Okay, this is this is gonna be possibly an unanswerable question, but how are you so brilliant? Like, just oh my god, like your stories are so multi-layered, you write men so well, and just how complex your stories.

SPEAKER_02 57:55

I'm just like, how are you so brilliant? I'm just like, I just don't know. You know what? I think that comes from the fact that I don't just I write romance, but I don't only read romance. My favorite stories to read are deep state um CIA espionage type uh stories. And again, I find myself going down these rabbit holes trying to find the black female heroines in these stories like that. And for whatever reason, I feel like I need to create them in a love story. Yeah, go figure.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

Oh my god, because it's just like your your books, which I hope, which I know you won't be able to disclose, but I hope some of them are option for film or television because they are just so rich. And I'm but also this is the playwright in me speaking, they're just so rich. Like I see, like I understand not every book lives off the page, but your stories can live off the page and transcribe in these beautiful ways to where it can be embraced by another type of audience and another type of medium, and and for no other reason than the scenery and just the backdrops of the stories, because again, location becomes character.

SPEAKER_02 59:17

And I would love, I would love to see a black love story set in Bali against the beautiful scenery there. I need to see it, I need to see it on the screen, whether it be TV, a play, or uh on the movie screen. We need to see it.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

We need to see that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:38

Now I want to go to Bali. But the first, I gotta work on because I haven't flown in a long time. I gotta work on my fear of flying because I love traveling, but I don't like flying. And I want to go to Bali.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Don't go there first. Oh my god, that 24-hour flight. Oh, yeah, it takes you 24 hours to get to Bali from Atlanta at least. Um, yeah, that's a long, that's a that's a OG traveler.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

Okay, good to know. Be like, do not go to Bali first. I'm gonna need you first to like travel to Mexico.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:11

Go to Mexico down to the Caribbean, you know, um, build up that stamina because whoa.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

The last question I have for you, Cher before we wrap up, I is it I hate that our time is almost always amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Same. I am having a ball with you. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

What is next for you, and how can a black writers read community support you on this journey? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

When I saw that question, I was like, that is probably the best question I've ever been asked in an interview. And let me just say, I could easily say, oh, go find my books and you know, buy a book. That's not, that's yes, it is. That is the kind of support I would love, but that's that's not the one that I really think would move the needle. I want to connect with more authors and readers who are interested in cultural journeys and exploring again Black love around the world. If there's questions that you have, you can reach out to me on social media. I would love to have those conversations. Like, where do you see a gap in black love? Where does it need to be represented? Whether it be a city, whether it be another place, where are those gaps and where do you want to write your next story and how can I help? And so, yeah, reach out, reach out to me on Instagram. As a matter of fact, share to share underscore terace underscore author on Instagram. Thank you for posting that. TikTok, share to race. As a matter of fact, if you just look for share terace, it's gonna pop up. I'm the only one.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:53

Yeah, and one I forgot who because I talked to so many people, there was someone I asked, like, what and it was a play, I believe. And it was like, because that's the world I live in the most, because I'm in theater. And it was like, what is your ideal plot? And she was like, I just want to see black people in love. I don't want to see, I don't want to see somebody die and they connect. I she was like, I just want to see them existing in love, and that's it. Like, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:35

Just that's it. That's no problems, no, yeah. And the journey for them to get there, I want to see that too. Because it's so unique. There's endless stories of how we fall in love, and it doesn't have to be the typical, and it doesn't have to be um uh meet cute picket fence, you know, wedding bells, and they it doesn't have to be that either. Yeah, just tell me the story of how two black people fall in love. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

Which by the way, you just made it's a weirdo, it's a weird aside, but the one story, so um what was the name of that series that just recently, thank goodness got canceled. Um, and just like that, the spinoff to Sex in the City. Uh, the one storyline I'm gonna miss the most was Charlotte's because it felt like Charlotte's storyline, I feel like, can live within its own series because it was what like to expect when you turn in your 50s. And I loved her storyline so much. One, well, what's sex in the city? How her and Harry met, very not meet cute. Um, then and and just like that, the story with her children and how that relationship evolves, and then Charlotte's relationship with her friends, and then with her husband, and him getting it felt, I was like, and just like that should have just been Charlotte's journey. And now we're not gonna have that anymore because the show got canceled. But that is a storyline I I want to see more storylines like that about women existing in their 50s. Well, one, I'm selfish because that's where I'm headed, but it's a storyline that a lot of us don't get to really explore. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:26

What's the beyond? I think that's a question that we can start answering. What's beyond? And just let it breathe, you know? Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:38

So, Cher Therese, this was oh my gosh, such a brilliant afternoon. I gotta get you like over to the Las Vegas strip so you can eat. Oh, it's time.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

Look, I got a 32-year-old and a 26-year-old daughter. It's time to go through there and get some food.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:01

I cannot believe you have children that age.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

I'm like, seems like nobody can believe it, but it's all good. I like that feeling. Yeah. And their friends are the biggest non-believers, and of course, that causes a lot of conversation. Let's just put it that way. Yeah, so let me shout out to them before we leave. Kari and Mia love y'all. Wish y'all could be here in Vegas with me, but not. Um, uh, I'll be home just in time for Christmas. That is so sweet. They they called me this morning and were like, okay, so Christmas Day, are we going out to eat? I'm like, yes, somebody's Cooking. He's just getting off a plane. Right.

unknown 1:06:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:06

Yeah. I'm looking forward to that too. Going out with them.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

Oh, I love that you have such a special relationship with your daughters. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, they're fun. Oh. So, Cheryl, thank you so much for giving the time difference. Starting your afternoon with us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:25

This was amazing. I tell you, we've been looking forward to sitting down with you for a while. We, me and my team of one assistant, Shauna Gordon, uh, she she has kept me totally tapped in. She was like, I know you're gonna be traveling, but you need to be prepared. Do you have your book? Do you know what you're reading? I'm like, okay, girl, I got this. Yes, thank you though. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

Wish thank you for shouting out, Shauna Gordon. I remember when she first reached out to me about you being on. It's hard to believe she is a team of one. She is because she operates a lot. Yeah, she does a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

She does. I I very much appreciate her. I hope I tell her enough. Um, we just went through our 2026 strategy week, and she has amazing ideas. So you said that branding, a lot of that is her imagination. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:23

Yeah. Because your branding is just brilliant like just across all social media, and your books is just brilliant. And who who does your cover design for your books?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:36

You know what? Um, I went through this company. I don't rem ooh, I'm oh, I feel bad. I don't remember the name of it, but I went through this company this last time and I have them redesign my first three book covers, and they are doing series book covers for Steel Horses Leather Roads. So they're very good at taking my input and what I want it to be. And yeah, yeah. I'm gonna have to shout them out better. I feel bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

We'll insert it. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Black Riders Read. Black Riders Read is available on all platforms. Please be sure to subscribe to Black Riders Review, listen to your podcasts to receive each new episode once they are released. And after you've listened to this episode and subscribed to the podcast, I would appreciate so very much if you could also leave a review as your feedback helps me to curate the series and it helps others to find us. I hope that you are so moved and encouraged to take your support of Black Riders Re one step further and join us on Patreon. Thank you for championing this work and helping to sustain this award winning independently produced virtual platform. For more, please visit BlackRiders Rie.com. Thanks again for your support and ensuring that Black Writers continue to matter.