Inspiration for A Lowcountry Bride

I recently joined in on the #MyRomanceBook2021 chat. Authors answered questions about their 2021 romance novel releases. One of the questions asked was: What is the inspiration behind your 2021 release?

I tweeted that I wanted to write about the lives and loves of Black and Brown people in the Lowcountry. I haven’t seen many romances and women’s fiction with Black and Brown main characters set in the Lowcountry, even though they make up a good size of the actual population.

When I went to grad school at the College of Charleston, I made lifelong friends who I now call family. I attended an African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sundays, and I developed close ties with my church family there too.

But I didn’t see many own voices stories written about this vibrant community. So, like Toni Morrison said, I wrote one.

The writing process was pretty tough. A Lowcountry Bride is the first novel I ever completed, and so I learned as I went along. However, I believed in these stories and in these people, and so I was persistent.

Now, this story will be out in the world in six months!