The American romantic novelists behind Stacey Abrams, a Democratic politician, voting rights activist, and author of romance, raised nearly $ 400,000 in the election of two Democratic Democratic senators in Georgia.
Now Abrams himself has joined the fundraising for “Romancing the Runoff” and has donated the first copies of eight of his published romantic novels – one signed under his real name and pen name, Selena Montgomery.
“I’m privileged to be one of you,” Abrams wrote on Twitter, praising the “amazing” fundraising efforts of the romantic authors.
Abrams ’work to combat the repression of black voters and the organization of electoral registration efforts is widely acknowledged as Joe Biden’s first Democratic presidential candidate to win over Georgia in more than a quarter of a century. Democrats said his work was “pivotal” in reversing Wisconsin and other battlefield states.
Thanks @RomancingRunoff for your amazing efforts. I am privileged to be one of you. To that end, I want to throw out my first novel, The Rules of Engagement, in the rare hardcover version. Both Selena and Stacey sign. ?https: //t.co/32aiezmJmW
– Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) November 25, 2020
Since election day, Abrams has not stopped fighting: the January turnout between two pairs of Democrat and Republican candidate pairs will determine whether Republicans retain control of the U.S. Senate – and whether they have votes to prevent Democrats and incoming Biden. government to take any significant action on a new political agenda.
In the week after the election, Abrams raised $ 3.6 million in just two days to help the Georgian Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock campaign in repeated matches in the current election against Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Meanwhile, other American romantic novelists, many of whom have active social media platforms, have begun auctioning items related to romantic novels to support Democratic candidates through donations to the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter, and Fair Fight, a group of voting rights. It was founded by Abrams.
“Democracy will only flourish if all votes can be cast and counted, and we are fighting to help eradicate the legacy of voter oppression in Georgia,” the auction’s four best-selling authors said in a statement.
Political activism is not a recent development in the American Romantic Writers community, which has been fighting fierce battles in the publishing industry for years, as well as racism in its own industry commercial group, the American Romantic Writers.
But Georgia’s fundraising effort is also proof of the pride of romantic novelists for Abrams, who continued to work as an author of Romantic Tension, even as a star of national democratic politics and a bestselling author of political fiction, including his memoir Lead from the Outside.
When writers who have started publishing their romantic novels switch to more upscale genres, “sometimes they step back from romance, as if it were this dirty secret in the past:“ Oh, I don’t write books of this type anymore. ”Author Courtney Milan, auction one of its organizers said, “Stacey Abrams has never done that to us.
“He’s not playing the game of trying to move his place by despising where he’s been,” Milan said. “It’s very clear that he doesn’t need an apology, which he doesn’t.”
“I’m glad I was part of a genre that millions and millions of women read, in part because it respects who they are,” Abrams told Entertainment Weekly in an 2018 interview when he campaigned to be a Georgian governor.
Asked by the Washington Post how he would react to people who made fun of the romantic genre, Abrams wrote, “It’s hard to tell a well-crafted story. Point. Regardless of genre, good writing is good writing ”. He added that “it is an honor for me to be in the company of extraordinary writers”.
The “Romancing the Runoff” auction has already exceeded its initial goal of raising $ 20,000, Milan said as a wide range of authors and fan fans donated thousands of items, including the first editions of romantic novels, including the first Harlequin novel, by the Spring Rites of a Black Author, Sandra Kitt; one-on-one counseling, Dame Barbara Cartland for making chicken recipes and crafts, such as a “blue wave” crochet scarf for a hand-embroidered sampler “F * ck the GOP”.
The fantasy and science-fiction novelist Neil Gaiman also joined the effort, donating a signed collection of his novel, which sold for $ 4,590.
A Fair Fight spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for further comments on the Romancing the Runoff fundraiser beyond Abrams ’tweet.
Milan said he “had no idea” of how much money Abrams could raise for a copy of his own signed romantic novel for the Georgian election, but expected it to “easily be in four digits.”
Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent on political advertising in Georgia in the weeks leading up to the January 5 election, NBC News reported this week, and at least $ 46 million has been spent since election day.
