Artemisia “Aria” Crawford has worked diligently all of her life, but has little to show for it. When a family property unexpectedly falls into her lap, Aria finds herself willing to do anything to keep it—including traveling from Chicago to return to her home state of Virginia with an unexpected husband in tow. What should be an easy trip turns into something far more complicated as she finds herself embroiled in family secrets, murder, and mayhem that leads her to the realization that it’s one thing to receive an inheritance. It’s another thing to keep it.  

I would like to introduce you to the beginning of a new series! As the first book in the Arbor Springs series, it is very long…nearly the size of two books! It’s been a fun journey writing this novel and meeting these characters, and I hope you enjoy. Times are interesting these days, so may this book be not only entertaining and a blessing, but also a reprieve from the world we live in.

When Addie Triplett’s identical twin sister—a maid for the Pullman Company—is murdered, there’s nothing else for Addie to do except to take her sister’s place and find out who killed her.

Comfortably settled in a new life, Mordecai Thorpe has made peace with his past and is looking toward the future—until he learns of a secret his father left behind.

Pulled into the life of her sister, Addie begins to learn that her twin was not all she presented herself to be.

Pulled back into the life of a Pullman porter, Mordecai wrestles with the buried wounds of his past.

Neither of them are on a trip either one of them wants to take, but as they ride the rails together, Addie and Mordecai must come to face the road the before them.

****

Happy New Year! And what a new year it has been already. A lot has been happening in general, but in specificity, The Road Before Me will be releasing this upcoming weekend! This novel took me a few places I didn’t expect to go, and I hope you enjoy! I also hope you like the cover. I think it’s stunning.

Disclaimer: The Road Before Me did turn out to be something of a sequel to The Past Behind Me. You do not need to read The Past Behind Me to enjoy this book. In fact, I wrote it as a complete stand alone. However, if you were waffling between the two books, I would recommend reading them in order.

What’s Next? That’s a good question. I have several new characters rattling around in my brain, and I’m eager to get them on paper. In a previous post, I did mention a rom-com. I can confirm that this is the next project I’ll be working on. Of course, it’s not a book by me if there isn’t also some historical component. I’ll be in touch with more information soon and thank you so much for your patience!

In the past few weeks, I’ve been blessed to release two new books! Both of which are very different from each other. If you’ve gotten a chance to read both, let me know which style you prefer. I’m curious.

What’s Next?

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was considering doing a series on the Pullman porters and possibly releasing the first book around October. I can now provide some further clarity to that statement. I am going to write a novel about the Pullman porters but I do not see a series in the works. That’s not to say that I won’t meet some interesting characters along the way who might demand their own book. But as of right now, there will be one novel about the Pullman porters and if you’ve read The Past Behind Me, I think you can guess who one of the main characters will be.

This Pullman porter book (which I’ve started but right now has no title) may come out this year. But definitely not in October. Keep an eye on this page. Once I know for sure, I will provide an update.

After my Pullman porter novel, there is another standalone book that’s on my heart to write. If I do it correctly, it will be a romantic comedy taking place around the late 1940s. Again, as of right now, there is no series planned but when I wrote The Rolling Thunder, I had no idea it would lead to the Lost Boys. So, I’m excited to see where my book will take me.

In conclusion, I have two new books out that are available. If you read both, hopefully you won’t get too tired of my writing style back-to-back. I have two more books planned for self-publishing purposes. I currently have none planned with a publisher…but we’ll see if that changes. Have a lovely rest of your weekend and as always, I hope you will be both blessed and entertained!

Hello All! I hope you’ve been well these past few months! I thought it was time that I return and provide you with a few updates.

Firstly, let me start by thanking you so much for your love for Code Name Butterfly. I could not be more proud of my first traditionally released novel. It was a bit different than what I usually write and is honestly, something of a love letter to the historical fiction genre. Naturally, this begs the question of whether there will be another traditionally published novel. And the answer is….yes! But I’ll get to that in a second.

When I last left you, I had just finished A Cloud by Day. I had been writing nonstop for many months, so I decided to take a break. While I did take a break from writing, I also tried to spend that time researching my next project which I will tell you is supposed to be about the railroad, quite possibly about the Pullman Porters. I began to look into them but rather than getting excited about the research, I started feeling overwhelmed. The books I gathered from the library were being constantly renewed and are still sitting in my makeshift office waiting to be read. I quickly realized that my next project would not be what I thought, and I spent weeks twiddling my thumbs, asking people what historical events interested them, and praying. For the first time ever, I did not have a project that I wanted to dive right into.

Then, and I kid you not, an idea comes to me one evening, suddenly, just before I go to bed. I know this is God and I know I’m writing this book because the characters become so real in my mind. I wake up the next morning to an email from my editor asking if I would be interested in working with her on another project. It’s very interesting how things work this way. But I did agree to write a book with Avon and that book is another novel that highlights a real person who accomplished much–Althea Gibson. I don’t know about you, but I knew very little about this woman several months ago. If you also don’t know much, stay tuned for my novel–The Gamechanger–which will be released in the UK and electronically in the US, on or around August 2024!

But, just because I was writing The Gamechanger, doesn’t mean that I had forgotten the book that was placed on my heart–titled The Past Behind Me. Working on The Gamechanger allowed me time to figure out some of the trajectory of this new book. Even still, The Past Behind Me has managed to surprise me. It is a standalone. There will be no sequel (as of right now). All characters are new with the exception of one person from the Thibeaux County series (you do not have to read that series to read this book). I honest to goodness had no plans to write about this person. My mom had asked me if they were going to get their own book and I had emphatically said no. And now here they are, on my mind, every day. I will tell you more about The Past Behind Me in May but I’m having so much fun bringing to life these characters. There’s so much I don’t want to say because I think the book works better if you go in somewhat blind, but it takes place in 1923 and is a tribute to some of my favorite Westerns.

With all of that said, my 2024 writing schedule looks like this:

May/June 2024-The Past Behind Me

August 2024-The Gamechanger. What I can tell you about this book is that the main character is one of my favorite main characters ever and I’ve been told that the romance is swoon-worthy. I will take that description and marinate in it.

October/November 2024-Untitled Railroad Book

These dates are subject to change, but they shouldn’t change by much! Happy Easter everyone!

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!

Inspired by the incredible true story of Josephine Baker in the French Resistance, this is a heart-wrenching, unforgettable tale of the strength of the human spirit in the darkest days of World War II.

In the City of Light, one woman will stand against darkness.

Paris, 1941. With Nazi occupation imminent, journalist Elodie Mitchell plans to return home to Chicago. But an unexpected invitation to a Josephine Baker show changes everything.

Mistaken for the star, Elodie is whisked backstage, where she uncovers an underground resistance movement hidden beneath the glitz and glamour.

Drawn into a whisper network of spies, Elodie accepts a perilous mission: to go undercover as Josephine’s cousin and gather vital intelligence.

In a world on the edge of darkness, Elodie must summon unwavering courage to protect her beloved adopted city and its people – and getting caught is not an option.

******

I would like to present my very first traditionally published novel: Code Name Butterfly! This is the secret project that I was working on last year with HarperCollinsUK and their Avon division. Let me just say, these WW2 novels are no joke. They have well and truly tested me as a writer and an amateur historian. But I desperately wanted to write this book because of the challenges it presented. This novel is a bit different than anything I’ve written before. With the exception of the first novel I self-published, I almost always make it a point to not write books that include people who actually lived and breathed. I might talk about them, but I typically avoid giving them a voice. But in this novel, Josephine Baker takes stage. And she’s in France. And she’s a spy. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster, but if you decide to get on, I hope you enjoy the ride!

The kindle version of the novel will be released on Amazon (and anywhere you can purchase books) on November 9, 2023 and the paperback will be released in January.

For those concerned about Ellis and Mets, I’m still shooting for an August release date and should have more information to you about the book by the end of this week/early next week. Talk to you soon!

Reluctantly residing in Thibeaux County, Eulalia “Lee” Fleming lives a steady, uninteresting life teaching math to mostly indifferent students, taking care of her sullen parent, and raising her gregarious son—whose responsibility she must now share with his ex-con father. The last thing she expects is to uncover a trail that keeps leading deeper and deeper into the past, revealing secrets long since tucked away and hidden. With each step forward that Lee takes comes the realization that sometimes the only way out of the forest is to burn it all down.

^~

Hello everyone! *waves*. It’s been a while but I’m glad to be back and updating you. Surprisingly enough, I have gotten the question on more than one occasion as to whether I had quit writing or was taking a break…No. There is a long reason and a short reason as to why this book has been delayed. The long answer I will address at another time, but the short answer is that I wrote another book! It is a complete standalone and should be out in 2024! For now, I can’t say much more than that, but I will, eventually.

Thus, to give myself time to write this mystery project, I pushed the Thibeaux County series out timewise. But jumping back into Thibeaux County was easier than I thought, and Lee’s story will make its debut at the end of March. If you don’t won’t any spoilers whatsoever (even though I don’t think there will be any) don’t read any further! For those who don’t mind, I thought I’d share a bit about how this novel came to be.

Background: I love romance novels. I am a particular fan of specific tropes, as I imagine most people are. My least favorite trope is second-chance romance. If the relationship didn’t work the first time, why should I believe that it will work the second time? Nevertheless, I’m a big believer in challenging myself as a writer and I wrote book one of Thibeaux County throwing down the gauntlet (to myself) even as continued to debate internally whether I wanted to take up this challenge. I started chapter one still not certain which direction I would go in…and you’ll have to read the book to see what I decided.

I am having so much fun writing this novel. Each chapter has been a revelation to me. I initially thought I’d be hurrying through it so that I could write Mets’s book, but if anything, I’m hurrying through it so I can find out the ending as well. I love these characters; I love this town. May you be blessed in the reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Isabella Reid returns to Thibeaux County not only because Sawyer Webb is dead and life is about to get a whole lot stickier but also because if she ever wants to make her dreams come true, now is the time to do it.

She counts on her family’s doubts, she counts on her town’s disdain, she counts on the Webbs throwing down a gauntlet that only the good Lord can pick up.

What she doesn’t count on is the town matriarch—lost in the deep recesses of her own mind—admitting to a crime no one even suspected had been committed. A crime that somehow involves Isabella’s deceased father…

With the clock ticking, Isabella must balance her own future while figuring out what happened that dark, dark night.

~

Releasing next month is the very first book of my brand-new series, Thibeaux County. Why this series? The previous series, the Lost Boys, was a huge challenge for me because of the amount of research and the sort of choreographed story I had to create. While I very much enjoyed writing those books and meeting those characters, I started craving my first love: small towns mixed with cozy mysteries…and a good romance. I think it’s inevitable that no matter how much I branch out as an author, I’ll always fall back to this genre of books at some point.

Historically, I have chosen to start the series in the year 1916. When asking friends and family, what era they thought I should research next, the era of Reconstruction kept coming up. I’ll admit that I’m not quite ready to tackle that time period just yet. But I did decide to view Reconstruction through the lens of the next generation. But don’t worry, one day…

Thus far, my beta readers have enjoyed this novel more than I had hoped. Let me just say that writing is a very interesting profession. You never know if you’re doing it right until someone else gets a look at it. A bit nerve-wrecking and yet I cannot imagine not telling the stories that circle in my mind. I hope you enjoy this new cast of characters I’ve created. FYI, I could not quite let the Lost Boys go when I started this series and so if you’ve read that series, and you pay attention, you may come across a familiar face or two. As always, I hope that this novel both blesses and entertains you and may you have a happy August and a good rest of your summer!

~

Discharged from the military after being wounded, Monroe Price has only one objective now that he’s back on United States soil and that is to figure out who has been blackmailing him and his friends. He’s not interested in getting involved in anything else or helping anyone out. Not even his wife.

No one was more surprised than Azalea Moray Price when she was left a fortune upon her stepfather’s death. But she is not in the least bit surprised that someone is trying to kill her for it.

With the end of the war on the horizon, and life getting no less complicated, Monroe and Azalea realize that just as they had when they were younger, they must join forces again if they ever want to live in peace.

****

The last book of The Lost Boys will be out at the end of March. I was hoping to release it in February. I really was. If it’s worth anything, Beneath the Cleansing Flood is nearly 50,000 words longer than the previous two books. That means this book is approximately the size of two novels.

Also, with the exception of the Prologue, there are no flashbacks. From the get-go, when I had first outlined this series, I waffled back and forth as to whether I should have any flashbacks in Monroe’s story. But then my youngest sister told me that while she enjoyed A Privilege to Carry, she had skipped all of the flashbacks. That solidified it for me. There are no flashbacks. It’s all Monroe and Azalea in their present time.

I truly hope you enjoy this last book as we say goodbye to Henry, Sebastian, Beverly, and Monroe. The series has been a joy to write and thank you so much for going on this journey with me!