Breakthrough (and yet more notes on my reading and writing evolution)

I spent so many hours reading while I was a student. I had to stay on top of the required

academic books and any free minute was spent inhaling romance novels. By the time I was ready for grad school in the late 1990s, the ultra-white, foreign-to-my-experience Harlequins wouldn’t do. I remember finding books published by presses like Genesis/Indigo and Avon and Kensington/Arabesque that featured black couples in worlds that were more familiar. Even the historical romances I read were more recognizable to me—as a burgeoning African American historian, I especially loved Beverly Jenkins. So, I read and imagined, building my own worlds in fragments and phrases of hurriedly written prose.

Writing was my escape as much as reading was. When I went back to grad school in the

early 2000s, I balanced the stress and pressure of writing 30-page academic papers with the joy of writing romantic fiction. Suddenly, my works were longer, more detailed scenes, carefully linked together. I joined my first online writing groups—scholarly and for my fiction writing (waves to Britt, Cait, and Zee). I finished an early book, a story about misunderstandings and poor communication and of course, a secret baby. I lost it back in those days of frequent crashes and floppy disks. But I wrote another. It was a second chance romance, full of things that I consider my trademarks—educated, career-oriented black women; strong, possessive black men, and big, meddling families. I named it High Maintenance because the heroine definitely was. Many years later, that book became my contemporary romance story, What an Heiress Wants.

So, that, my loves, is how I became a romance author. I’m still learning and growing and

evolving. But I’m happy for that little girl with the Trapper Keeper full of story bits and the head full of dreams.

You can check out What an Heiress Wants here. Currently, it’s my only available

contemporary romance, but I definitely plan more…