And here we are again. Another What To Expect post for another book of mine, and I love it here! This is one of my favorite blog posts to create before the release of my books because I am forced to organize my thoughts and revisit my process pre-release.
Honestly, my author notes usually borrow from what I print here, but this time, I had so much to share that the author note in this next book release will be like a continuation of what I discuss here. And we’re talking about none other than ENVY.
My Process
ENVY serves as a kind of mid-point in the Love is Cure series. Only three books remain in LIC and all of them, including this one, bring the focus inward. I started working on ENVY in the summer of 2021. I completed the outline in 2020, but I didn’t start typing the story until July 2021. I did the prologue the first week I started on the draft, but after that the words weren’t flowing whenever I sat at my computer. So I tried something different. During my vacay in Hawaii August 2021, I uploaded chapters to my Dropbox and wrote the story (98% of the story) on my phone.
I wrote most of this book on my phone, y’all.
I’m still blown away by what I could create. Maybe it was the island of Honolulu. Maybe it was because I met my word count literally lying on my back. Whatever it was, it worked because I completed ENVY soon after my return to the states.
I loved Hawaii so much; I changed up one location of the book to Honolulu all so I could revisit the magic of Hawaii in my memories.
… through views of palm trees and flowering bushes, I’m chauffeured through the streets of Honolulu with my eyes and hands to the shuttle’s glass window like an excited child. Street signs that read like tropical cocktails, boxy apartment houses that remind me of dingbats in Southern California, barefoot pedestrians who walk with surfboards clutched beneath their arms. I am most definitely not in New York City anymore…
Mykal Jones (ENVY)
*sighs*
Truth be told, I owe a lot to Hawaii. That island helped refocus me, relax me, and helped me fall even more in love with creating. What’s better than writing a story in paradise? Actually being in paradise 😌.
The Characters
Mykal Jones
We met Mykal briefly in LUST. She was the journalist smitten with Pryce Williams and who Pryce runs into at Chateau Luxure. She’s also the cousin of one of my beloved characters, Amir Jones (Girl Code/Mr. & Mrs. Jones).
Mykal is ambitious, driven, abrasive, and stubborn. What seems to be negative flaws helps her in her advancement as a journalist. It also leads her down a path of envying others whom she would like to emulate. I have a love/hate relationship with this character, and trust me, you will too. Sorry.
Desmond Ellis III
I like this guy, a lot. I’ve been very vocal about how, as a book bae 🥰, he’s one I favor because there’s many layers to his character. He is like an onion. The more that is revealed about his character, the more reasons you find to fall in love with him.
Desmond thinks for the better good of himself and others, and his character doesn’t shift because of how others act. His vibe is determined by the kindness in his heart, not the chaos in his environment, and you’ll see exactly what I mean within the first few chapters.
He’s in a league of his own. And that’s all I can really say about that without giving away his story.
What to Expect?
In short, Envy is for the grown. As I completed the first read-through, I realized this story is very adult lol. And not adult in terms of sexual content because yes, that’s of course there. But the topics, the theme, the lessons, the growth. This here is some grown folks’ shit happening between these pages.
This story is also very layered. And by layered, I do not mean all over the place because everything gets weaved in like a seamless garment. I mean, there’s so much to unpack, so much to discuss by the time you reach the end. There are gems, there are moments of reflection, there’s heat, there’s intimacy. This joint is meaty. So meaty, I’m genuinely curious about how readers will receive ENVY because there’s so much to pick apart with this one.
It’s certainly a black romance novel, but it’s heavy on contemporary women’s fiction and you will know what I mean when you read it.
I genuinely love where this book has brought me creatively. I’m at a place in my writing where I feel this is where I’m supposed to be. And this series is headed in a direction I’ve always planned for it to go.
Are you ready for ENVY?