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.

CHAPTER TWO: ALL THINGS GO

In this chapter, readers learn that Chapter One was a nightmare. Well, parts of it was. Some of it did actually happen.

In Chapter Two, readers are introduced to the two main plot points of the book. The first is Story A, which is the planning of Carmen and Jay’s wedding. The second is Story B, which is Jay being introduced to the issue of conflict diamonds (or blood diamonds).

Story B conflicts with Story A because it distracts Jay from the main task at hand – the planning of his wedding. This chapter shows the start of the breakdown in some of Jay’s relationships. First, with his fiancée, Carmen, as he misses their first planning session. Then, with his business partner in Africa and his best friend/ right-hand, Malik Washington.

Of course, it wouldn’t be The Diamond Collection if there wasn’t a sea of other conflicts occurring at the same time (i.e. Coco’s pregnancy, Kristian’s disappearance). I planted this stuff on purpose as I wanted readers to question if the wedding between Carmen and Jay was even going to happen with all the drama surrounding them. Hence why the chapter is named, “All Things Go.” The title of the chapter as well as many more in the book come from the tracklisting of Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint album. This album stayed on repeat while I was writing the book, which is why I named the chapters after most of the songs.

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 ONE: THE LION’S DEN

To kick it off, let’s start with Chapter One, which is entitled “The Lion’s Den.” The chapter’s title was partly inspired by the show, Empire, and by the primary setting of the scene – Jay’s office at his club, Sapphire. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Jay Santiago is the main male character of the series. At the time of this chapter, he is engaged to the book’s main female character, Carmen Davenport.

This chapter is a mix of reality and fantasy. I wanted to pick up where Book Four, Black Diamonds, left off, which was at the re-opening of Jay and Carmen’s soul food restaurant, Blue Magic. I also wanted the book to open with a bang. This chapter is an intimate scene between Carmen and Jay, which begins with the two sharing a couple of drinks. One in particular, was VSOP, which I chose on purpose as an ode to one of my favorite singers, K. Michelle (she has a song called VSOP).

Their intimate moment is “interrupted,” by Carmen’s soon-to-be ex-husband Kane. This was to show that the love triangle between these three is still on-going despite Carmen and Kane being in relationships with other people. The end of the chapter is where the fantasy comes into play (I won’t share this spoiler) and is a foretelling of what is to come later in the book.