August 2023

The widow known as Missouri “Mets” Jones happily lives life as a part-time hermit. With little interest in others outside of her immediate circle, Mets moves from day-to-day unbothered until one night she comes into contact with the very information that may have gotten her husband killed. Aware that the situation is bigger than anything she could handle, Mets is reluctant to get involved until she is challenged by a most unlikely person. Allying with local lawyer, Ellis Alexander Dabney-Sinclair, Mets begins to untangle the threads of hidden secrets that lay within the heart of Thibeaux County, threatening to shake the very foundations of the town she has come to love.

*******

*Spoiler Alert* – As always, I like to provide a bit of insight to those who view this website into my writing process. If you haven’t read any of my previous novels, particularly, All the Day Long, I recommend that you read no further.

I was extraordinarily hesitant to write this novel because it features an interracial romance. There are a ton of books with white male heroes and very few with black male heroes. I want to be an author who is very firm in writing black romance novels with black characters and so I wrestled with this story. But, these characters spoke to me, very loudly. In the first draft of All the Day Long, Henry’s parents took up a ridiculous amount of space–to the point where they were drowning him out. I ended up cutting out huge chunks of that book (yes, believe it or not, it was longer) to make sure that Henry was the star, and I promised myself that one day I might write a prequel knowing good and well that that probably wasn’t going to happen.

And then I started plotting the Thibeaux series. I knew Thibeaux County was going to take place in the South after Reconstruction. I did not know where or when until I remembered Ellis and Missouri. And then I knew the exact time frame, the exact location, and I knew their story had to anchor the series. But I still went back and forth with how I wanted to write this romance. When I was seventeen, I began writing the first draft of what became Eyes of the Heart, which features an interracial couple. But I wrote that novel through starry eyes and excitement. I’m in my thirties now, and far more aware of just how complex such a relationship would have been in the time of Jim Crow. It is from that thought that I began to approach this story.

Anyways, I’m still in the thick of writing, hashing out Mets’s story and being a bit surprised where each chapter takes me. This book feels different to me than the rest of the series but perhaps it’s because it’s the last of the series and I’m going to miss these characters. This time, I’m really saying good-bye to Ellis and Missouri and it’s hard letting your favorites go.

I’ve already started thinking about my next series but with two books coming out soon (this one and Code Name Butterfly) you may not hear from me for a while. Have a good rest of your summer and a wonderful rest of your year!