1. “It has Jay’s stamp on it. Isn’t that the best news to come back to?” – The stamp idea in regards to Jay’s drugs came from the movie American Gangster. In the movie, Frank Lucas, Denzel Washington’s character stamped his bags of heroin with the word Blue Magic.
2. I paid thirty dollars to some crackhead for that information. – This line was inspired from a scene in The Wire in which one of the Baltimore detectives paid an addict money to get information. Of course, the detective knew the addict would use the money for drugs.
3. “You’re Carmen, right? Carmen Davenport,” he questioned. “You got quite a company here. You’re pulling in some major cake. My name is Shawn,” he said, extending his hand, “Shawn Blumington. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” – Once again, I wanted to show how close Blu could get. This time, he shows up at Flame and even makes it to Carmen’s floor.
4. He opened it and pulled out a pink Cobra pistol. – I saw the rapper Diamond in a picture holding a pink pistol and I figured if Carmen was going to get a gun, it might as well be pink, too.
Tag Archives: behind the book
Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Chapter Twenty-Two
1. Clad in a strapless black mini-dress, she made him forget all about Blu or King’s question. The dress fitted her to the T, but it was a number that Jay wished was for his eyes only. – Anytime Carmen has to wear something slightly skimpy, I always tend to browse Frederick’s of Hollywood for ideas. That is the place to go for skimpiness!
2. The dress was made entirely of black lace and had a bustier top. – Once again, here’s another description of the dress.
3. She turned around only to find Blu standing behind her. – I intentionally put Blu in this scene to show how easily he could get close to the Kane/ Santiago family. Despite being threatened by Jay, Blu still makes an appearance at Sapphire. Since he does, I wanted readers to see that Blu isn’t scared of Jay.
4. For the first time in his life, King was starting to realize that he wasn’t a killer. – Jay’s father, Hector Santiago, was a killer as was Jay so one would think that King would follow in their footsteps. In this book, it appears that King will not.
5. He also gave me a little something to help with the bills. You know I had a baby last year. – This line is spoken by Ms. Rosetta who is Rico’s mother. She says this to King when he comes to her house looking for Rico. While this will be something that most readers will probably not remember, the baby she is speaking of will become a main character in Book Eight of the series.
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Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Part III: Set It Off and Chapter Twenty-One
Part III- Set It Off- The title of this section is named Set It Off to let readers know that the drama is about to turn up a notch. There will be a little more violence and bloodshed.
Chapter Twenty-One
1. She looked in the direction in which she was pointing, and automatically clutched at her heart as she saw King emerge from the car. He was clad in a tan seersucker suit and looked more like a young businessman than a twenty year-old male who had been released from the county jail. – In this scene, King originally gets out the car and proposes to Coco. I changed my mind before I sent the book to the editor for him not to propose at this specific time. I felt it was cliche to propose at a graduation. To me, proposing on holidays, birthdays and graduations are so expected nowadays.
2. He knew Jay had come close when he saw the slash that had been made in his dress shirt. – If I’m remembering correctly, this idea came from a scene in the Princess Bride, lol. I want to say it is when Westley is dressed as the man in black and is fighting Inigo. I think one of ‘em got their shirt slashed.
3. Blu stepped into the doorway as a .22 was pointed in his direction. “Like father, like son, eh?” – I chose this gun on purpose as a reference to my sorority, which was founded in 1922. The “Like Father, like son,” line is also a subliminal reference to The Game’s song, “Like Father, Like Son.” Game is one of my favorite rappers, right behind DMX.
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Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Chapter Twenty
1. If you want to fuck, get someone else. I’m not doing this shit anymore. I’m forty-seven now. I have three kids and I deserve more than a one night stand.”- This line is spoken by Jay and is a reference to Book Two, Diamonds are Forever. In this book, Carmen gets mad at Kane, and seeks revenge by sleeping with Jay. Now, in The Ace of Diamonds, she is mad at Kane again so Jay assumes she wants to do the same thing.
2. “You’re wearing a twelve million dollar necklace around your neck. It was part of a private collection in Switzerland. My friend in Africa sent it to me.” – I know the necklace described here is a real diamond necklace I found, but unfortunately I can’t locate the name of it.
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Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
1. Kristian and Akaila had headed to Club Monaco, which was about four stores down from where Carmen was. – I was looking up different clothing stores for this scene since Carmen, Kristian and Akaila were going to be at the mall and found this store. The clothes appeared to be something I felt I would find in Seventeen so I included the store in this scene.
2. Once I find out who it is, I’m putting twenty thousand on his head. – This line is spoken by Blu and was inspired by a YouTube video I saw where T.I. was performing. If I’m remembering correctly, someone was throwing things on stage and T.I. responds with placing a $50000 bounty on the person’s head if they continued.
Update: Peep the video of T.I. below:
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Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
1. “I’ve gotten like a hundred Google Alerts already. – I will be honest and say that I didn’t know anything about Google Alerts until I was watching an episode of one of Lala’s Full Court Life. Or maybe it was Lala’s Full Court Wedding. Hmm…well, in the episode, something was going on, which was attracting a lot of media attention thus causing Lala to get Google Alerts on her phone. Due to Carmen being a celebrity, I figured with something like a paternity trial going on, she should have hundreds of Google Alerts as well. In this scene though, Kane is the one who brings up the Google Alerts.
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Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
1. “You won’t have anywhere to hide.” – Jay says this to Malik as a warning that if he was to get taken down again, Malik wouldn’t be able to get away again. I also put this line in here to let readers know why Malik wasn’t arrested along with Jay and Carmen. Apparently, he was hiding in Jay’s warehouse when the raid occurred or so he says.
2. You were always the one ready for war. – This is another comment which references a part of Diamonds in the Rough. In Part One of the Diamond Collection, readers are introduced to fraternal twin brothers, Malik and Rakim Washington. Malik runs with Jay all day while Rakim is a student at Brookstone University. Malik was considered to be the trigger happy hustler while Rakim was the brainiac of the two.
3. “Thank you and you’re welcome,” Malik shot back. – I got this phrase from the title of Kanye West’s book, Thank You and You’re Welcome, which was written with J. Sakiya Sandifer.
4. His relationship with Carmen had always been platonic, but that didn’t mean he never had feelings or thoughts. – One of my readers asked me why men were always attracted to Carmen. While she is attractive, it isn’t because of her looks. Carmen has a multi-million dollar empire, which gives her power and attracts men to her. She didn’t have this initially when she met Jay so he was attracted to her because of her innocence. Kane, was attracted to her because of her ambition (which eventually led to her downfall and imprisonment) while Malik looks at her as a dollar sign. As for Carlos, Jay’s best friend in Diamonds in the Rough, he wasn’t attracted to Carmen, he just wanted the pleasure of saying he bedded his girlfriend.
5. You know how to play a dirty game, Bonnie. – Although Jay is angry with Carmen, he uses the term Bonnie still as a term of endearment. Carmen is, in fact, the Bonnie to his Clyde.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Fifteen and Chapter Sixteen)
Chapter Fifteen
I didn’t want to skip this chapter, but after reading it, there wasn’t anything in it to really dissect. Therefore moving along to Chapter Sixteen…
Chapter Sixteen
1. Jay fired a shot, intending to miss. However, he got what he wanted, a flash of fear appeared in Blu’s eyes. He even turned around to stare at the bullet hole in the center of the wall. – Even to this day, I wonder if Jay made a mistake by not killing Blu in this scene. Then, I think to myself, if he had of killed him, there wouldn’t have been nearly as great of a plot as there is in Black Diamonds. The only person left to try and go after Jay would’ve been Jerome.
2. He left shortly after, going to the county jail where King was serving out his sentence. – This scene was written on purpose. Although King is incarcerated at the start of the novel, he still needed to have a presence so I came up with the idea to have Malik visit him in jail.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Fourteen)
Chapter Fourteen
1. “I know, Princess, I know,” he told her, pulling off her skirt and onesie. – For some reason, I feel like all fathers are supposed to have a nickname for their daughters. My father’s nickname for me was Hard Rock, Carmen’s nickname is Peaches so it seemed only natural for Jay to call Nyla, Princess, since his eldest son is already nicknamed King.
2. Jay let out a deep growl, realizing that he had never slipped like he was.- Here we are again, another hint at this Leo thing (refer to Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds: Chapter Eleven). In this scene, Jay is growling because he has learned that Blu is trying to take over his cartel and Kane is gathering way too much evidence against him.
3. “We have a snake in the grass,” he finally responded. – I inserted this line, spoken by Malik, on purpose. One of my favorite songs by Waka Flocka Flame is “Snakes in the Grass,” and it seemed to fit perfectly into this scene. Malik says this during a cartel meeting (which ended in a bloodbath) to explain how the Brookstone PD were able to plant cameras in the basement of Continental where Jay was housing his drugs.
4. “You broke my heart.” – I don’t think I’ve watched a single Godfather movie, but for some reason, I knew this line. This line was originally spoken by Michael Corleone, a fictional character portrayed by Al Pacino in The Godfather II. Since Jay has been betrayed by Costa by allowing Blu to control the cartel, he expresses his hurt by saying this famous quote.
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Behind the Book (The Ace of Diamonds): Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
1. They were standing around on the ramp like they had been waiting for her and Akaila to arrive. – Although Kristian, Akaila, Coco, and Dijuan are all in high school, I actually visualize my middle school as the setting for Brookstone High. Well, let me clarify, I envision the campus I remember as Beck Academy (Greenville, SC) as the setting. There were many ramps on campus, but this one in particular that my characters are at is the ramp just past the cafeteria that heads into the main academic building.
2. Blu paused as a red Cadillac pulled up in front of Kristian’s car.- I put Nicholas in this scene intentionally just so readers would know that he wasn’t going anywhere. Nicholas will be in the books for a while.
3. How they found something that had the size and look of a quarter, he didn’t know. – This line comes from the scene where Kane, Lieutenant Harris and Sanders are questioning Jarrod Luis. During the interrogation, an officer interrupts them and announces that the cameras that were planted in Continental have been destroyed. The look of the camera as described as being similar to a quarter is a reference to the movie, Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith. If you remember, the cameras in that movie looked just like a quarter.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Twelve)
Chapter Twelve
- “Did you really come all the way here to bring Nyla?” – Jay asks Carmen this question after she brings Nyla to Puerto Rico for a visit. One of my readers told me she wanted Carmen to sleep with Jay in this scene, which I did think about; however, I felt like Carmen had done enough dirt. It was time for her to finally say no and not be vulnerable whenever Jay pressured her into being frisky, lol.
- Kane believed that their time was wasted until Jarrod pulled up driving an exterminator’s van. – So I was trying to find a clever way for Jay to sell his drugs aside from the stereotypical stuff (selling on corners, etc.). A guy friend suggested that Jay have a taxi cab service, which was a great idea, but I settled on an extermination business (Jay doesn’t really have this, it’s just a front).
- “First thing first, Seventeen wants to do a feature on Kristian. They faxed over this letter to our publicist.” – I had a subscription to Seventeen growing up so if Kristian was going to be on the cover of any teen magazine, Seventeen was going to be it.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Eleven)
Chapter Eleven
- With the meeting coming to a close, Malik grabbed the steak knife that was on the table. – So in this scene, Malik has come to Blue Magic for a meeting regarding the Santiago cartel only to see Blu leading the discussion. Malik isn’t really a violent person, but I wanted to show that he could do a little damage if need be. He grabs the steak knife, but of course, he doesn’t end up using it.
- When the phone rang a sixth time, Jay mumbled a few curse words under his breath. He gave Nyla another quick glance before picking up his phone. There were six missed phone calls and all of them were from Malik. – The number six is symbolical. Any time it’s in my books, it’s there on purpose. Six is my 2nd favorite number, right behind seven.
- Her right index finger was right on top of his heart where he had the face of a lion tattooed.- Judging from a scene in Diamonds in the Rough, Jay’s birthday is supposed to be in June, I think. If I was really paying attention to the timeframe of that book, I would’ve moved it to August so could be a Leo. The lion tattoo on his chest is supposed to be there because he is a Leo, but according to what I previously wrote, he isn’t. IY YI YI!
- If anything, he probably only brought in two thousand a week in hustles. – This is one of Kane’s thoughts regarding Jarrod Luis, the teenager who eventually becomes an informant for the Brookstone PD. This line came from a memory I had when a male friend of mine was trying to get with a mutual female friend. To prove to her he could take care of her, he told her he could make two thousand a week in the streets. I remembered that conversation and threw it in the book.
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Behind the Book: Chapter Ten and Part Two: Flashing Lights
Chapter Ten
- “Can we all sit down?” she asked looking back and forth between the two men. – Carmen is at the hospital about to give birth when Kane is served papers for paternity fraud. Jay is on one side of the bed while Kane is on the other. Of course, this arrangement was done on purpose so Carmen would be in the middle to represent that good ole fashion love triangle.
- “Do you want to do the honor? I’ll lead you through it. No worries, you can’t go wrong.”- Since Jay has missed two of his children’s births (King’s and Rakim’s), I figured it would not only be fair, but also special, if he got to witness Nyla’s birth. I took it a step further by also allowing him to deliver her. In this scene, Carmen’s doctor is giving him the opportunity to deliver his own child.
Part Two: Flashing Lights (Behind the Title): Of course, it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t throw a little ode to Kanye West in the book, right? This is just a hint to the reader that the book is about to become even spicier.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Nine)
Chapter Nine
1. So far, she had spent the past hour or so flipping through several fashion magazines to find inspiration. – Have you ever watched a TV show centered on fashion (or even Life in the Fab Lane) and seen the number of designers who have cutouts from magazines around their office? I’ve seen it so much I figured Carmen should have the same. Everyone takes inspiration from some place.
2. She grabbed a letter opener off of her desk to use as a makeshift weapon. – Carmen is working at her office when she hears loud footsteps. Well aware the office is closed and security isn’t on duty, Carmen grabs the letter opener to protect herself. This idea came from a very old episode of Days of Our Lives. One of the female characters was in a home office, suspected she wasn’t alone and grabbed the letter opener off a desk to protect herself. I believe the character was Greta, but I’m not for sure.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Eight)
Chapter Eight
1. Carmen opened up one of the cabinets, taking out a casserole dish. She sprayed it down with canola oil before ripping the edges off of six slices of bread. – Before I was writing this scene, I was browsing recipes for a breakfast casserole. Since this scene starts in the morning and Carmen is fixing breakfast, I located a recipe and simply inserted the steps into the chapter. I can’t remember exactly what Carmen was fixing, but it is a real recipe.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Seven)
Chapter Seven
- Softly crying, she did the only thing she knew how; she prayed to God for guidance and strength. – This line comes from the scene when Kane leaves the house in the middle of the night. He’s bothered by the fact that Carmen is pregnant again by Jay since he is unable to give her a child. Just like I mentioned in Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Five) with Jay, I try to put references to God in my book so readers will know that despite my characters’ shortcomings they do have a relationship with God.
- “No, Jay, I have diabetes. I’ve known for years. Patricia and I didn’t publicize it. – Lotus breaks into Jay’s apartment to have a conversation with him regarding the diamonds he received and Carmen. He also discloses that he has diabetes. This was always planned even during the creation of the first book, Diamonds in the Rough. There is a scene near the end of that book where Patricia, Lotus’ wife, chastises him for some having too much sugar. I knew my readers wouldn’t remember that small detail, but I still planned on expounding on it later in the series.
- “No, Jay.” Lotus chuckled, “I’m talking about when you were six. I had brought Carmen to the house one day so Hector could see her. You were playing and you came into the parlor where we were. You asked to hold her. I let you and it was like pulling teeth to get her back. – I always thought that if Hector and Lotus were as good friends as I described them to be, there had to be some point in time when Jay and Carmen’s path crossed. I mean, if your best friend has a baby, you are going to come into contact with the child at some point in time, right? I figured this was the best time to insert a conversation where Lotus shares this information with Jay. I even shared how intrigued Jay was with Carmen even when he was six years old.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Six)
Chapter Six
- “It’s almost that time,” she heard him whisper. Carmen nodded her head, but didn’t respond verbally. His comment was sincere although she knew deep down that he was hurt. They might have renewed their vows, but she still was about to give birth to Jay’s baby. “Are you happy?” he asked. – It was always my plan to have Carmen pregnant with a baby by Jay while still trying to maintain her relationship with Kane. The child symbolizes the everlasting connection they (Carmen and Jay) will have. While it may appear that Jay is somewhat acting as a surrogate for them that was never my intention. It’s just the way the cards fell. In this scene, Kane is bothered by Carmen’s pregnancy. He asks her if she’s happy although he knows she is and he isn’t. His wife’s pregnancy is only a reminder that he is sterile.
- Before responding, Kane stuck both of his feet into his Timberland boots without bothering to lace them up. – I figured since the setting was New York, it was only right to have Kane putting on Timberland boots versus a different kind of shoe.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Five)
Chapter Five
- Blu wasn’t necessarily ugly, but he had distinctive features. He was extremely tall, approximately six-seven, and had a butterscotch complexion. His large nose was crooked and had been offset by deep, sunken, brown eyes. – This description of the book’s villain and even the storyline between Blu and Kristian was inspired by the Phantom in the Phantom of the Opera. While Jay describes Blu as not being necessarily ugly, I think if someone describes someone as being a “skinny ogre,” (which Jay does in this scene) you get the picture that the person is somewhat grotesque.
- “We haven’t blessed the food.” – Jay said this when Blu tried to eat a piece of his fruit without praying for his food. This is during their initial meeting. I tried to put little things like this in all my books with Jay so you know he does believe in God even if he isn’t a practicing Christian.
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justfab.com
Carmen rolled her eyes at Kane’s timing. She had been waiting on his phone call for several hours, and then he called right when her team was about to start pressuring her into doing a shoe line. – This part of the storyline was thrown in after Kimora Lee Simmons landed the job as President and Creative Director of JustFab, Inc. I figured since Carmen’s fashion career is highly inspired by Kimora, I could throw in some stuff about shoes, too.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Four)
Both envelopes were the same size, telling her that she and Akaila both had the same fate. – This line is from the scene when Kristian and Akaila received their acceptance letters from the fictional Copperfield University. It’s reminiscent of the time I got my acceptance letter from Winthrop University. I knew I got in because the package was the same as my best friend who also got accepted. She received hers first so I was able to see what it looked like.
- A minute or so later, he returned with Malik who was holding a Kamikaze in his hand. – To give Malik the heads up on the investigation involving Jay, Kane visits Sapphire. Malik comes out the club with a cocktail, a Kamikaze, which is an equal mix of vodka, triple sec, and lime juice. I chose this drink after listening to, “Overnight Celebrity,” from Twista’s Kamikaze Curious to know what Kamikaze meant, I Googled it and discovered it was an alcoholic beverage. I needed a drink for the scene so inside the book it went.
- “You steer those Girl Scouts away.” – Malik is referring to the police when he says this to Kane. Girl Scouts was a phrase my father used once when he felt like men were being cowards. It stuck with me so you’ll always see someone in the book refer to a man, specifically the police, as a Girl Scout.
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Behind the Book: The Ace of Diamonds (Chapter Three)
- Carmen looked back inside of the box, spotting a black velvet bag in the upper right-hand corner. – This line is from the scene when Cathy, Carmen’s receptionist, comes in her office with a package. Inside that package is a floor plan of Flame and a black velvet bag filled with diamonds, which were sent from Jay. The whole velvet bag thing came from watching the movie Cradle 2 the Grave with DMX and Gabrielle Union. In the movie, DMX plays Anthony Fait who is stealing diamonds for a Frenchman. When he and his crew go to The Diamond Exchange to steal the diamonds, they find black diamonds in a bag. I don’t know for sure if the bag is velvet, but it looks like it. I figured; if Jay is going to give out diamonds, he might as well put ‘em in a black velvet bag like in the movie.
- He grabbed her arm, turned her around so that she was facing him, and then gave her stomach a slight caress. – This gesture is made to Carmen by Jay when we’re at the park. Although they aren’t together and Carmen is very much legally married to Kane, she still has this strong connection to Kane. In the book, I tried to have scenes where Jay and Carmen touch each other in some kind of way so the readers can see that there is still an attraction there.
Simply Vogue 