Monica Jackson has been gone from us for three years. More specifically, three years and three days. A surgery gone bad, and an iconic author is no longer with us, leaving a daughter without a mother.

Monica wrote romance. She wrote good, compelling stories, but she felt marginalized. And she probably was. See, Monica got categorized before she even got published, because she was a black author writing about black people’s romance. In my eyes, she was an author writing romance stories. I think her books suffered from less than stellar editorial or copy editorial work. I’m not sure at what stage the problems I noted as I read the printed word are supposed to be weeded out, but I don’t think the author bears complete responsibility — I think the publishers were mostly responsible for the deficiencies I sometimes noted in the finished product. Was that because she was black or some other factor?

One topic of discussion was complaining about being singled out, but the customer base demanding an African American section in the book store so they could find their books more easily Also contributes to the problem. It’s difficult to be known as an author when you have to segment your work in such a way. On the other hand, why not use the grocery store methid and shelve books both in Romance and African American?

Monica was instrumental in raising awareness for Racism in Romance. She is widely described as fearless. She had a cause she was passionate about, and she fought for it.

Like many, I never met Monica in person, but we conversed in private chats and email conversations for a period of time about a decade ago. She advised me on the beginnings of one of my works in progress. I was stunned and saddened by her unexpected death three years ago. She has an extensive backlist still in publication, and I encourage you to see if there’s something of interest to you in her repertoire.