Behind the Book is a series in which I give you a behind the scenes look at one of the latest installments of The Diamond Collection. For this round, I will be focusing on Diamonds N’ Roses: Part Five of The Diamond Collection.

Diamonds N’ Roses was released on December 25, 2016 and is available at the following online retailers: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books-A-Million.

Other Available Titles in The Diamond Collection: Diamonds in the Rough, Diamonds are Forever, The Ace of Diamonds, Black Diamonds, The Diamond Tiara (Part Six) and Dirty Red Diamonds (Part Seven).

CHAPTER TWELVE: ANACONDA

I am so excited to talk about this chapter because it involves one of my favorite characters, Cesar. Cesar was introduced in Book Three: The Ace of Diamonds, and in each book, his role seems to get bigger. Hopefully, in his scenes, you can see how loyal Cesar is to Jay and the Santiago family as a whole.

In this chapter, Cesar has returned from Africa where he was doing some digging on Jay’s business partner. Now, this chapter is very important because this is the seasoning for the meat, you’re going to get in Book 6: The Diamond Tiara. I titled this chapter Anaconda because that’s what Jay’s business partner. He’s a snake, figuratively, of course, and he’s one of the biggest ones.

Also, I never wanted Jay to be a character who showed fear. He’s supposed to be able to take down anything and anybody. However, I did feel it was time to show some vulnerability. The vulnerability does come, then it disappears when Jay remembers a conversation he had with his mother. Over time, it comes back, specifically, in his conversation with Grendel. What also comes back? The one thing that should be his first priority: his wedding. Yes, there’s a lot going on, but I’m always going to circle back to the wedding.