I’m about a handful of chapters away from typing “the end” on the fifth book in my Love is Cure, Vol. 1–Vices & Virtues series, Gluttony, and it’s really got me thinking. While this book has been a real labor of love (I’ll write about that experience once I’m done), I’ve had many other stories challenge me so much I almost didn’t finish them.
One of those stories was Last Comes Love (LCL).
When I combined two separate stories and made them one (Rylee’s story was a solo story and so was Lennox’s), I did so after many months of thinking. A bittersweet love story was uncommon, especially in romance, a genre I predominantly write in. This is one reason I listed LCL under Women’s Fiction instead of Romance on Amazon where it was published.
As someone who empathizes deeply, whether I experience things first-hand or vicariously, the initial idea of bringing this story to life was a decision far from easy to make.
But I did it, boldly, and with foreknowledge that it might anger some readers and possibly land me on some do not read lists. Most romance readers read love stories in search of the coveted HEA. I also enjoy reading love stories for the coveted HEA. However, my soul’s urge was to tell this story for two reasons – representation matters and because I just really wanted to tell this story.
And here’s why.
My Reason
My goal as a black contemporary romance author has always been to tell stories that capture ALL facets of black love and intimacy. Books I would want to read myself. The ones that are unconventional and a little off the wall. Stories that somewhat challenge preconceived beliefs. Storylines that can sometimes color outside of the lines. Scenarios that can be highly emotional to the point of making readers feel what characters are feeling. And characters who fall in love in unpredictable ways, sometimes forbidden, often with the people who they’ve known their whole lives or even people they might have once hated.
Yeah 🥰…
That’s my jam right there. That’s my signature.
Themes that include one or all of the above excite me and give me reason to write and create. Those kinds of stories help me see the worth of sitting stationary for hours on end typing in solitude.
The motivation behind Last Comes Love was two-fold. I wanted to tell a friends-to-lovers story that was unpredictable, and I wanted to tell a story about love lost.
The stories in my catalog all have a slice of life woven into them, and I pride myself on that.
I know all the rules in writing a love story worth reading twice. To break them, I would have to know them.
A part of my creative focus is on creating characters whose lives are so real they can walk off the page if the chance existed. And in my book world, love and falling in love don’t purposely follow a formula, although without trying, my stories do, but from a different angle.
In all my stories, I want my readers to relate to my characters. They don’t have to agree with the character’s choices; they don’t even have to like the character (I’ll have a post on why this is not a priority for me) but they can see why the character would do whatever it is they do based on their past decisions in the story and the situations that help shape their experiences and their personalities.
With Last Comes Love, I wanted to depict that even though one loses love (in terms of someone transcending suddenly); it does not mean that lost love mattered any less than one that lasts a lifetime. Before love is lost, it’s believed it will last forever. The feelings of it lasting forever don’t suddenly vanish or become unreal when the only flaw of that love (if a flaw at all) is that the person transitions from life… in fiction and in the real world.
Perhaps it’s wishful thinking. But to me, again, to me – that kind of love deserves acknowledgment, it deserves its time in the light in this space. It’s not any less of a love story than one that ends in a HEA.
Again, to me.
I know the storyline in Last Comes Love isn’t one everyone will agree with. And given the gravity of the storyline, I’ll admit, I shy away from promoting it. LCL is one of those books you must seek and read and if it’s recommended, it’s recommended with set expectations and the understanding that this book is bittersweet… and the bittersweet is not a buzzword or something a reader should take lightly.
So, with all that in mind…
I will never write another Last Comes Love again.
Why?
Short answer: there’s no need to.
What’s Done Is Done
LCL was a story I wanted to tell. I felt move to capture an experience unique to my characters and that I knew readers would enjoy and take something valuable from Rylee and Lennox’s story. I write with purpose. Every word, every paragraph, every chapter has its reason. I have studied, practiced, sacrificed and spent many MANY hours honing my skills for exactly that reason, to make every word count and to ensure I know how to do it properly. When my manuscript leaves my computer and I upload it for publishing, I am assured I have given my best. If I didn’t love it, readers would never even hear about it. How readers receive it (positively or negatively) after it leaves my hands doesn’t affect or change my assuredness in the least.
With that said, another LCL isn’t happening.
I won’t write a story like LCL, not because I’m afraid of negative reception. I no longer hold on to that fear as a creative, and it’s taken some time in my journey to arrive here to this place of being fearless of negative reception. And that’s after remembering my why for choosing to publish as an indie author…
… to write what I want to write.
I write what I want to write and would have no one tell me otherwise regardless of whatever respectable title they hold, degrees they have framed, or their opinion they believe is more valuable than my own. I won’t write another story like LCL because what’s done has been done. I don’t feel moved to write another bittersweet love story. The journey gave what it needed to and I’m a better writer because of it.
Although much may not agree with my choice to end the story how I did, one thing they can’t say is it wasn’t good.
And honestly?
Like For Real, For Real?
That’s all that matters to me because I’m loyal to the story more than anything else.
I’m so very grateful to have found my tribe of readers. They’re incredible. They review honestly and objectively, are extremely supportive, and most of all, they get the vision and trust my pen, even when the journey through those pages is like, “Girl, what the entire fuck is happening right now?” lol. They rarely agree with my characters and their choices. Some of them don’t even like them. But you know what? They get the story. And that’s what’s paramount to me.
But yeah, I’m not doing anything like Last Comes Love again, because the story has been told and I see no need to make another like it.
I’m looking forward to continuing Rylee’s journey, though. I’ve learned so much from her character and I’m sure the lessons will only get better.
But you know what they say… never say never.
I’m good though.
The journey continues with the A Paralleled Love series. Book one is available now. Click here to start reading Ready or Not.
